Hopefully most media planners know that the best way to reach a broader audience is to advertise across media platforms. It also raises awareness, interest, engagement, and hopefully intent to purchase. Advertising on one platform, especially when consumers interact with so many different types, from print to TV, pc and mobile, billboard to coupons, limits the reach and frequency one hopes to achieve.
But I guess ESPN wants to remind us of that. In the Wall Street Journal article in the CMO Today Advertising section, the headline screams, ESPN Urges Advertisers to Hit All Devices. In it, their research reaffirms "that the key to effective ads is getting in front of viewers across all their devices." Did this group finally realize that? That new research was needed to quantify what has been known for years seems silly. If we get to the gist of what I can only consider as pure PR, ESPN wants its advertisers to spend advertising dollars across all its platforms to assure that it best reaches a male skewed demo. Yes, integrated marketing clearly works to reinforce brand messaging and well known for decades. That given the rise in new media platforms, like mobile, hasn't seemed to change this fact. Still, given the start of upfronts, something ESPN found important to reaffirm.
