In his book Purple Cow, Seth Godin writes,
"TV and mass media are no longer your secret weapons. Stop advertising and start innovating."
I'm not necessarily a marketing guy (at least not in job title), but his words, written in 2003 are being proven truer every day. Not a day goes by where I don't read a news story, magazine article or blog post about the death of 'traditional' media and how advertisers and marketers are scrambling to cope with this reality.
And what does this mean for nonprofits? As someone who ultimately tries to connect people who want to change the world with organizations already doing so, I constantly think about the best ways to do this, given a nonprofit's mission, event, or needs.
One thing it means is that the free ads many organizations get from newspapers or TV stations will have less and less of an impact. It's great if the local paper offers a full-color, full-page spread for an upcoming fundraiser, but that free gift is meaningless if it doesn't get in front of the right audience. And the 'right audience' is what is so hard to find for some companies and charities.
If an ad runs on the evening news, but no one's watching, will anyone come to volunteer?