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First, you’re talking about advertising, not marketing. Also this all might have been true 15 years ago. But these days you aren’t likely to see a startup with

First, you’re talking about advertising, not marketing. Also this all might have been true 15 years ago. But these days you aren’t likely to see a startup with under $50million in funding (so, 99% of startups) do TV ads and OOH and event sponsorships. Those are “brand” advertising techniques still popular among legacy CPG brands who are stuck in the old world. Those are the campaigns with no exact way to measure returns other than educated guesses. Any properly run startup today is focusing the majority of ad spend on “direct response,” or direct sales ie. Facebook ads, google AdWords, etc. or actual human sales teams. This spending is 100% measurable so any company paying more to acquire customers than the customer’s exact LTV is simply dumb or trying some nefarious loss leader strategy. Facebook and Google sit at the top of S&P 500 right now because their ad networks are so measurable and perfectly targeted. There is no problem with a lack of visible returns on Facebook or google ad spend.

chiefalchemist 6y ago
Marketing (and advertising) revolves around human behavior. Anyone who thinks that's easy is a fool, or not human ;) Fact #2 that most inside a given (startup) brand find hard to swallow is this: Nobody cares. About your product, or your brand. Sure, there's an audience of early adopters, and maybe you're gotten traction there. But once you get past "the cool kids" the dynamic changes. As you venture towards the middle of a market, people like their status quo. A wink, a smile and "try me, I'm new" isn't going to cut it. Or maybe you're a B2B play. Yeah, (e.g.) banks are great customers. Do you think you're the only one with that in mind? Do you understand how slow they are to evolve? And...They don't care. You need them. They don't need you. Solving tech problems is _easy_ relative to growth-seeking marketing (and advertising).
jonwachob91 6y ago
Startups may not be running traditional TV ad campaigns, but a lot are running LIVESTREAMING ad campaigns on services such as YT and Twitch. Not just traditional ads either, sponsored streams that the streamer puts up the logo on the overlay for a few hours and plugs the product occasionally. Those are the new TV ads

chiefalchemist 6y ago

Marketing (and advertising) revolves around human behavior. Anyone who thinks that's easy is a fool, or not human ;) Fact #2 that most inside a given (startup) brand find hard to swallow is this: Nobody cares. About your product, or your brand. Sure, there's an audience of early adopters, and maybe you're gotten traction there. But once you get past "the cool kids" the dynamic changes. As you venture towards the middle of a market, people like their status quo. A wink, a smile and "try me, I'm new" isn't going to cut it. Or maybe you're a B2B play. Yeah, (e.g.) banks are great customers. Do you think you're the only one with that in mind? Do you understand how slow they are to evolve? And...They don't care. You need them. They don't need you. Solving tech problems is _easy_ relative to growth-seeking marketing (and advertising).

jonwachob91 6y ago

Startups may not be running traditional TV ad campaigns, but a lot are running LIVESTREAMING ad campaigns on services such as YT and Twitch. Not just traditional ads either, sponsored streams that the streamer puts up the logo on the overlay for a few hours and plugs the product occasionally. Those are the new TV ads