Desperation, they say, breeds creativity. The same is true for advertising, where many look to cut costs in favor of highly targeted and new media channels. Mike DiFranzi’s article at MediaPost claims that economic crises are breeding grounds for wide-sweeping media innovation: the radio during The Great Depression; television during the mid-1950s recession; cable during recessions in the 70sand 80s; the Internet after 1988’s recession; and, interenet advertising after 2000’s recession.

DiFranzi goes on to note that, without recessions, most marketing departments don’t concern themselves with efficiency – they are not concerned with what and what is not working. During good times, most people subscribe to a “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” thought process. Once economies begin to slow, and cost cutting becomes a reality, advertisers are forced to pick and choose between advertising methods, choosing only the most efficient.

Today, marketing executives are being forced to find new ways to engage potential customers. Paying for exposure doesn’t quite cut it any more; conversions are the measure of today’s success.  As a result, today’s advertisers are demanding a greater level of  effectiveness in their online advertising campaigns.  Fortunately, today’s advertisers are better suited to produce targeted campaigns than their predecessors due to the availability of metrics, targeting, and data to optimize their online ad campaigns. This is extremely useful to advertisers, as audiences continue to splinter into finer and more illusive places, and going increasingly mobile.

The onus is on the online advertising providers to meet the challenge by offering new ways to meet the effectiveness challenge.  The need for effective advertising will ignite and drive the next wave of improvements in online advertising.

via Mike DiFranzi @ MediaPost