Advertising Moving To Interactive Faster Than Expected

A new study by the Winterberry Group seems to confirm what many other marketing experts have been saying. Advertising services are moving below the line quicker than most had predicted.

In advertising, above-the-line (ATL) services are associated with the more publicly visible, mass media brand efforts, and below-the-line (BTL) services are attributed to more specifically targeted, measureable, interactive and direct marketing methods.

The Winterberry Group study was also highlighted in a story this week on ClickZ. That article quotes Bruce Biegel, Winterberry Group’s managing director, “Simply stated, above-the-line marketing that utilizes generic messages to build awareness is no longer the best way to influence customer behavior. Below-the-line initiatives are more successful because they stress targeted and customer-centric communications. Below-the-line also creates measurable results and ROI metrics, which are important to marketers under growing pressure to prove the value of their campaigns. We expect this demand for quantitative results will continue to intensify for at least the next five years.”

Based on survey data in theWinterberry report, BTL services have grown over 40 percent faster than ABL services since 2003.

Other recent stories would seem to corroberate this rapid shift to interactive and accountable marketing methods.