19.10.23
Do you remember when...?
To celebrate our 20th anniversary, we’re taking a trip down memory lane. Here’s a taste of the content that was working marketing wonders in the days when mobile phones were just becoming ubiquitous, offices were filled with desktop computers and Google Maps didn’t even exist.
The world wide web was still a baby back in 2000, so digital didn’t hold the marketing mettle it does today. Aside from the odd pop-up ad or email, traditional marketing dominated. Print was the go-to channel as marketers churned out research papers, flyers and branded flip calendars for office desks. Rather than being posted online, content was used at events and business meetings and shared via CD-ROMs.
We’re not talking about LinkedIn here, we’re talking direct mail in the form of postcards, letters, brochures and catalogues that used to drop right through your letterbox or onto your desk. Personalisation was on the rise thanks to better data processing, helping marketers to understand audience behaviour. Like today, these pieces of content were usually integrated into a wider, strategic marketing campaign.
Back in the early noughties, the Nokia Tune was more recognisable than the Coca-Cola theme and that’s partly thanks to the proliferation of telemarketing. Getting a call on your mobile phone was still novel and people typically responded well to a direct, personal approach. Trust, rapport and relationship building were all foundational to this method of marketing, but as time went on scams and overuse of the channel meant it wore thin with customers. Do-not-call lists and a preference for digital channels among younger generations meant it was soon replaced with the more modern approaches we’re familiar with today.
Digital marketing was just becoming visible on the horizon, with Google's AdWords platform launched in 2000. This service marked the beginning of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising and SEO - and the most forward-thinking organisations were just beginning to put together web-based marketing strategies. In just 20 years, the burgeoning area of digital marketing has grown exponentially across both B2B and B2C with once unknown concepts like ‘going viral’ securing a place in our collective psyche.
While the methods we use to reach your target audience might have changed, our creativity and dedication to strategic, effective marketing hasn’t. Get in touch today to see how we can work with you to create content and campaigns that will keep your audience coming back for more.
