by Mattr | Dec 8, 2015 | news
Ever wonder how Vice Media became such a digital marketing powerhouse? Vice creator, Shane Smith, had this to confess: “Young people have been marketed to since they were babies, they develop this incredibly sophisticated bull**** detector, and the only way to circumvent the bull**** detector is to not bull****.” Cynical Target Markets He’s attributing their success to a unique editorial approach that resonates well with their target audience: Gen Xers and millennials. Hardened by economic hardships and distrustful of institutional organizations, both generations are cynical and hungry for authenticity. Such insight into disenfranchised generations’ values has helped cement Vice’s status and powerhouse ranking among legacy media companies. But I’d also venture to say that advancements in technology catalyzed real change in how news organizations and brands have addressed their audience over the years. Vice blossomed at a time when video production costs have gone down and quality has gone up; and when viewer engagement is easier to quantify too. This was hardly the case three decades ago when direct marketing was first introduced in the 1970’s. It was mainly used to send mail-in campaigns, promotions and coupons to the Baby Boomers. But marketers eventually realized it generated poor leads. This generation valued trust and loyalty, which gave rise to telemarketing as a replacement to direct mail where two or more calls were involved to determine a consumer’s needs and motivate them to purchase. As demographics became more diverse, so were the challenges of marketers to reach their audiences. And as they saw success rates flourish, they also became greedy for more. So robocalls and auto-dialers were introduced to expedite...
