Advertising has a new coat, “adverfanning” as in advertising to attract “fans” for your social site, who are then the target of directed or “Permission Marketing“, a term coined by Seth Godin over a decade ago.
Adverfanning has been growing exponentially with the growth of social media, it is the foundation of the business model, but the cost/impact has been increasing as click through rates decrease. According to a report by analytics firm Webtrends, it now costs $1.07/fan, as reported in this WSJ article, which is getting close to TV cost/impact in some time slots.
The business of advertising has not changed, but the tools have. The old ones, TV, radio and magazines have fragmented enormously with choice, and new ones have emerged from the social media, but the objectives are unchanged.
Gain attention
Generate engagement
Motivate trial
Build repeat sales
Encourage brand evangelism.
