I’ll admit, I thought the whole Arcade Fire/Google “The Wilderness Downtown” thing was kinda cool, but I definitely didn’t go gaga over it the way many people in advertising did.
Now, Business Insider takes a look at just how aware the general population is of some of the more lauded social media efforts. I’m not sure I’d put the title this way, but it’s called, Here’s The Dismally Small Number Of ‘Normal’ People That The Biggest Social Media Campaigns Actually Reach. 61% of advertising/marketing professionals were aware of “The Wilderness Downtown,” versus just 7 percent of the general population. This, according to a poll conducted by San Francisco agency Heat.
So, if we accept the numbers, what does that really mean? 7% is not small potatoes, but it does show the wide gap between what ad people notice and what others don’t. Most of us (in the business) are connected on PCs or mobile devices all day with some combination of Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest spreading things around the marketing world quickly.
But the general population? They’re not turning to social media in anticipation of what brands are doing–it’s more about what their friends and family are doing. The money brands are spending on all forms of social media is growing exponentially, but the attention they’re getting for their efforts isn’t.
Will there come a point when big marketers decide they’re not getting their money’s worth from social media? Or are they simply accepting that the audience is forever fragmented and they have to embrace a broad range of marketing tactics no matter what?