Marketnology and Floundering Fish

Whether you’ve actually been fishing or seen it on video, we all know what floundering fish look like. Flip-flop, flip-flop they go just hoping that they can get back into the water. It’s natural for them to try. I mean there they were going about their day when they go take a bite and next thing you know, they’re headed to someone’s plate. It reminds me a bit of what’s happening with marketing.

Large brick-and-mortar companies are really trying to use the Internet to engage consumers. Prudential’s Retirement Red Zone is a good example of this. They’re appealing to people who are within the “red zone”, five years before or five years after, of retirement. It’s a nice effort, but it seems geared to frighten people and get them to call an advisor — not to help them. Rather than scare consumers with a 50-second narrated flash animation, why not educate with a 30-second video. Instead of just having content that gets old, why not create a blog where financial advisers offer advice to targets. In an age where traffic numbers are less important than repeat visits and time engaged on site, shouldn’t companies offer tools, calculators and resources that keep people coming back? Yes, they should. Instead, they’re floundering — like a fish out of water.

Prudential isn’t alone. Actuan specializes in Marketnology, the science of aligning marketing and technology to engage consumers, because as easy as it may seem, truly engaging consumers on the web is not easy at all. It’s not about putting up a web site. It’s about creating interactive properties, whether on the web or other channels, that resonate with your audience and keep them interested in what you’re saying. Sites that fail to interact most likely end up in that half of advertising that is wasted. It is time for marketers to truly begin looking at how digital media can improve their ability to engage. It’s time for marketers to stop floundering and just get back in the water. Naturally, Actuan can help…