My friend Mark Schaefer has an interesting reaction to the Proctor & Gamble shift on social advertising over at {grow} today. He seems rather shocked that P&G decided to shift away from finely targeted social advertising, instead saying it will now pull back to a more broad approach on networks like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Mark says toward the end of his analysis:
On the one hand, the P&G revelation shakes long-held assumptions, but on the other hand, I don’t think we necessarily need to make wholesale changes to strategy. We need to consider this new perspective but adjust based on our own products and markets.
I agree with him, certainly. But I think we’re all forgetting something critical here: There are more than two ways to slice an apple.
P&G’s declaration (detailed here) was they went too far with niche targeting and are now looking to reach the most people for the most efficient use of their ad dollars. Which is a fancy way of saying, “We’re spending too much money without the good return and don’t want to be stupid.” The fact they seem to overlook is hyper-targeting is a great strategy FOR SOME THINGS.
I commented on Mark’s post with this: