Professor of Marketing at Melbourne Business School Mark Ritson has told an industry audience to ‘get rid of dreary digital marketers’ in favour of embracing traditional marketing channels such as print and television.
Speaking at an Australian Association of National Marketers lecture in Sydney, Ritson dismisses the notion that the industry has entered what he calls ‘the new age of Digital Marketing’.
Ritson points to statistics collected by Brand Finance on top Australian brands and argues social media presence does not translate into brand engagement.
Australia’s top brand Telstra commands 16 million customers across the country, however only two per cent are engaged with the company on Facebook and one per cent are engaged through Twitter.
Ritson argues digital marketing has been incorrectly labelled as far-reaching, versatile and immediate while traditional channels are wrongfully labelled as limiting, non-versatile and delayed.
He says the industry media is also to blame for digital’s over-blown status.
Ritson’s analysis of Australia’s top three marketing titles: Ad News, Mumbrella and B&T has found coverage of digital versus traditional marketing is almost an even 50/50 split.
However, he says there is a bias towards digital coverage considering brands spend just eight per cent of their budget on digital.
He also notes that an overwhelming amount of digital coverage has a positive slant, adding, “but the coverage about traditional media mostly talked about how dead print is.”
Ritson continues, “I do not think the journos are being paid to do this, do not get me wrong. I think they are just deluded, it is almost a propaganda, a way of seeing the world.”
Executive director of print and paper advocacy group Two Sides Australia, Kellie Northwood says marketers should take note of Ritson’s research.
“Each media channel whether it is print, digital, radio, television has strengths. The best marketers understand these strengths and know when to switch each channel on and off in their campaigns,” Northwood says.
“The idea that established media’s, including print, are no longer relevant says more about the marketer than it does about the channel – print works very well with television and digital and should never be overlooked in building strong campaigns.”
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