Marketing is an umbrella term that encompasses various activities that aim to increase sales and build brand awareness. Today it often involves leveraging traditional marketing channels and digital platforms.
This guide defines traditional and digital marketing, explores the differences between them, and highlights the importance of integration.
What is Traditional Marketing?
Traditional marketing refers to the various promotional methods that reach consumers without using the internet. It can be helpful to think of these offline marketing methods as existing in the physical world. Three primary categories of traditional marketing are print media, broadcast media, and outdoor advertising.
Here’s an overview of some popular traditional marketing methods:
- Newspaper and magazine advertisements
- Flyers
- Billboards
- Ads on public transport
- Event sponsorships
- Direct mail
- Telemarketing
- In-store marketing
- Branded merchandise
2 Iconic Traditional Marketing Campaigns
These iconic traditional marketing campaigns garnered huge audience engagement and had a cultural impact that continues to influence marketing strategies today.
Diet Coke Break
The Diet Coke Break campaign created one of the most memorable TV commercials of all time. Premiering in 1994, the first Diet Coke Break ad was an immediate success that left a lasting cultural impression.
The combination of visuals, a catchy soundtrack, and simple tagline made the Diet Coke Break commercial instantly recognizable. It reached such a wide audience and became so well-known that TV shows referenced it and other advertisers parodied it.
The Diet Coke Break campaign strengthened the Diet Coke brand and contributed to the drink’s market success, particularly among its target demographic of young women.
iPod Silhouette Campaign
Apple’s iPod silhouette campaign began in 2003 with outdoor advertising in LA. The visuals were uncomplicated: black silhouettes holding white iPods, dancing in front of bright backgrounds. The ads aimed to show the fun associated with owning an iPod and the joy of listening to music on the go.
Apple then expanded the campaign with accompanying TV commercials and print campaigns, creating a cohesive brand presence across multiple channels.
The silhouette campaign was a huge success both commercially and creatively. As well as helping Apple surpass forecasts and achieve the highest quarterly revenue & net income in their history (at the time), the Silhouette campaign received critical acclaim and won awards.
What is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing refers to marketing methods that use digital channels to reach a target audience. It encompasses a wide range of strategies that use the internet to connect with potential customers, build brand awareness, and promote products or services.
Key digital marketing channels include:
- Social media marketing
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising
- Email marketing
- Affiliate marketing
- Content marketing
- Influencer marketing
Notable Digital Marketing Campaigns
With a near infinite number of digital marketing campaigns vying for attention, you might think standing out is impossible. But here are two examples of companies that leveraged online marketing and got outstanding results.
Sephora
Make-up giant Sephora is a master at promoting its brand and products via online marketing. Understanding that its target market is heavily impacted by beauty tutorials and reviews, from 2016 to 2017 it ramped up its video production from 250 videos to more than 600.
Sephora also excels in influencer marketing and has benefited from enlisting both mega- and micro-influencers in their campaigns. Leaning into consumer trends and adopting influencer marketing has enabled Sephora to stay ahead of competitors and increase its market share year after year.
Fyre Festival
Despite the eventual product being an infamous flop, Fyre Festival’s marketing strategy is a lesson in the power of influencer marketing.
In December 2016, some of Instagram’s biggest influencers started posting orange squares with nothing but hashtag #FyreFestival alongside them. When followers visited the influencers’ pages, their curiosity was further piqued by photos of the Insta-stars frolicking on a Bahamian beach.
The internet went wild and the strategy worked. One glamorous ‘Announcing Fyre Festival’ promo video later and everyone wanted a $500+ ticket.
Key Differences Between Marketing and Digital Marketing
Although traditional marketing and digital marketing share the same aims, there are significant differences between them. Even if your business favors one over the other, it’s crucial for modern business leaders to understand these differences.
Reach and accessibility
As much of traditional marketing is via physical media, its reach is often limited to a local or regional area. (Although exceptions are TV and radio commercials that can be broadcast nationwide.) In contrast, the global nature of the internet means that digital marketing can reach a much wider audience that isn’t limited by borders. The fact that over half of the global population owns a smartphone makes people more accessible to digital marketers than ever before.
Targeting and personalization
While traditional marketing can have great results in specific geographical areas, digital targeting offers far more precision. The data that people generate through their online activities enables the creation of campaigns that can target individuals based on detailed demographics, interests, and online behaviors. This makes digital marketing a powerful tool.
Measurement and analytics
A key benefit of digital marketing over traditional methods is the ability to get near-instantaneous analytics from your campaigns. For example, running a TV commercial means you have to wait for indirect measures like sales figures, whereas with a digital video ad you can access real-time data throughout the campaign’s duration.
Cost and ROI
In general, digital marketing is cheaper than traditional marketing. This is primarily due to lower initial investments such as production and distribution costs. Although not all campaigns will focus on sales, digital marketing can yield a better ROI due to its ability to precisely target audiences, track performance metrics in real-time, and tweak live campaigns.
Integrated Marketing Campaigns
An integrated marketing campaign is often the best approach. Put simply, this is a strategy that uses traditional and digital methods. Adopting a synergistic strategy allows businesses to leverage the strengths of both methods and maximize the effectiveness of their campaigns. A recent example of the old and new methods working together is Apple’s ‘Shot On iPhone’ campaign.
Apple Shot On iPhone
Apple’s Shot On iPhone campaign aimed to drive sales of the new iPhone 6s by showcasing its improved camera. But instead of handing the phone to a photographer, Apple invited users to share the photos they take on social media with the hashtags #ShotOniPhone.
This would have been a strong campaign if left there, but Apple took it into the real world by using some of the strongest user-generated photos in print and billboard ads. The integration continued with a TV commercial montage of Shot On iPhone images. The campaign sparked incredible engagement on social media and contributed to record sales worldwide.