COVID-19: A Nail in the Coffin for Traditional Ad Agencies.

COVID-19: A Nail in the Coffin for Traditional Ad Agencies? 

As far as most businesses are concerned, the COVID-19 pandemic has not been kind. The impact traces a similar pattern across a wide spectrum of industries, globally. Shutters have been pulled down, sales have plummeted, and overhead costs have become nightmarish. While there are a few industries that have actually benefited from the spread of the virus and the forced lockdown that ensued, the pandemic will ring the final bell for some that have been on their last legs for the past few years. 

If the outspread of the virus continues to follow the upward trend, the traditional advertising industry will be among one of the hard-hit industries. There are many facets to the inevitable decline of the traditional advertising industry in the post-COVID era, as explained below.

• In most countries, businesses have been asked to close down and pause their activities for the time being until the COVID scare tails off. While many companies resume operations by facilitating a work-from-home environment, it won’t prove to be an effective alternative for traditional advertising agencies. The source of income, if any, will come from newspaper ads. TV ads, which are the major contributors to traditional ad revenue, will take a backseat for now as production is halted indefinitely. 

• When this is all over, things won’t fall back to normal, at least for a while. Dwindling sales and uncompromising overhead costs during the lockdown period will have taken a toll on most businesses. When they finally limp back to resume operations, much priority will be laid on reducing expenditure. Along with firing ancillary staff, superfluous and extravagant services will be suspended too, traditional advertising being one of them. 

• Until an effective vaccine is developed to ward off the coronavirus, social distancing is to be strictly followed to contain the infection. The e-Commerce industry will hopefully bridge the gap between businesses and consumers in the coming months and ensure the free flow of goods with minimal interaction. As money in the hands of consumers is rationed, businesses have to motive them to increase their spending. 

One way of doing this is through advertisements. But, unfortunately, the role of traditional advertising will be negligible as it doesn’t have much to contribute in the current scenario. What happens is, businesses that had previously relied heavily on traditional advertising methods to reach their audience will now explore the opportunities in the digital marketing sector, as they shifted to e-Commerce shopping. A return will be less plausible as the past few years of digital marketing expansion have proven for the traditional advertising industry. 

How to Revive the Traditional Ad Industry?

The traditional ad industry is struggling to keep up with the digital marketing sector. Cost efficiency and accessibility make digital marketing a favorite among businesses. Most small scale businesses have stepped out of newspaper ads and brochures to digital marketing. It is available at a fraction of the cost spent on TV advertisements and newspaper advertisements. TV ads and newspaper ads are here to stay and will contribute to the revenue, but only so long as you have giant players in your hands. When everybody is online today and adept in technology, the traditional ad industry can’t fall behind. It has to modernize to meet the growing demands of customers.

Blockchain Integration 

Digital marketing, although comparatively inexpensive and global, has inherent drawbacks that can’t be improved through conventional platforms. Blockchain technology offers a wonderful alternative as proven in the fintech, insurance, and logistics industries. Here are a few ways blockchain technology integration will help you in the digitization and modernization process. 

1. Transparent Operations & Transactions

Documentation and paperwork are a hassle. Even after diligent verifications, frauds and embezzlements may escape the eye. Digital frauds are not unheard of either. Bot frauds secure the top position among digital ad frauds. But blockchain technology provides no room for fraud. Transparency is at the core of blockchain platforms. Here, through a distributed ledger system, a single transaction can only be changed after receiving consensus from all parties included and alerting all subsequent records. The trust and relationship between publishers, advertisers, and customers are improved through blockchain.

2. Efficiency and Speed

As mentioned earlier, manual inspection and verification of documents and transactions are time-consuming processes, often requiring third-party mediation. But with blockchain, speed and efficiency can be increased a great deal. The distributed ledger is shared with all parties so that they don’t have to individually keep a ledger. Here, multiple ledgers don’t have to be reconciled. 

3. Customer Experience

Conventional digital marketing doesn’t have a good reputation among the audience. Publishers keep track of the consumers’ data to bombard them with related ads, which is not received well in all circumstances. Brands tarnish their image and customer loyalty by interrupting the audience while viewing videos and scrolling through articles. Blockchain technology provides an efficient alternative. 

Data privacy is 100% ensured. Unless the customer wants to, their data is not shared. They can choose the ad they desire to watch. Platforms like Armacoin, one of the pioneers in blockchain advertising, also pays the audience in Armacoin GZM coins for the time they spend on the platform. This increases their trust and confidence in the platform. Rather than feeling like victims of advertisements, they begin to feel like participants.

4. Increased ROI

The key to success in business is not cutting down expenses or going for cheap alternatives, but choosing efficient products and services. Blockchain integration, with improved targeting, accurate metrics, flexibility, and zero fraud guarantees higher ROI when compared with traditional ad industry or conventional digital marketing. 

Conclusion 

The digitization of the traditional ad industry is the need of the hour. The longer you delay it, the farther you fall behind. Digital marketing and traditional advertising should go hand in hand to provide customers with a variety of options so that they can choose a plan that fits their budget. Blockchain integration efficiently solves many of the problems inherent to the digital marketing sector through enhanced transparency and privacy. 

Have more queries on blockchain advertising? Visit Armacoin.