5 Ways To Unfuck Your Marketing

5 Ways to Unfuck Your Marketing & Advertising

Marketing and advertising can make or break a business. Yet, so many companies continue to sabotage their own success by making avoidable mistakes—whether it’s chasing shiny new trends, skimping on their budget, or refusing to trust experts who actually know what they’re doing.

If you’re serious about fixing your marketing and advertising, here are five brutally honest ways to unfuck it.

1. Know What You Know—And More Importantly, Know What You DON’T Know

Look, just because you watched a YouTube video on marketing doesn’t mean you’re a marketing expert. You wouldn’t build a house because you saw a tutorial on home construction, so why would you try to DIY your marketing and advertising?

There’s a reason successful businesses hire professionals. Strategic media placement, ad targeting, creative development, and branding all require expertise, experience, and data-driven decision-making.

If you don’t understand how to craft an effective marketing campaign, when and where to advertise, or how to build brand recognition—then defer to the experts. Winging it is not a strategy.

2. Stop Chasing Shiny New Trends Without a Strategy

Every year, some new marketing trend emerges that businesses feel obligated to jump on. Sometimes it’s TikTok. Sometimes it’s AI-generated content. Sometimes it’s influencer marketing.

Here’s the reality: Not every trend is right for your business.

Just because it’s possible to market your business on a new platform doesn’t mean it’s profitable or even relevant to your audience. Before you start throwing money at the next big thing, ask a professional if it makes sense for your business.

3. Stop Trying to Do Marketing on a Shoestring Budget

This might be tough to hear, but if you’re not budgeting properly for marketing and advertising, your business is already screwed.

Marketing is not an optional expense—it’s the engine that drives customer acquisition, brand awareness, and sales. If you only invest in marketing when sales are slow, you’re already too late.

Businesses fail not just because they lack sales, but because they are underfunded and unable to sustain growth. If you’re cutting corners in marketing, you’re crippling your business before it even has a chance to thrive.

Make marketing a priority. Budget for it. Plan for it. Invest in it. Every single month.

4. Build a Brand That Doesn’t Look Like a Cheap Afterthought

Branding is more than just a logo—it’s the identity of your business. And yet, so many companies treat it like an afterthought:

• Using random fonts and colors with no consistency
• Slapping together a logo from Fiverr that looks like it was made in 30 seconds
• Using stock photos that don’t reflect your brand personality

Your brand should be intentional, cohesive, and professional. Every piece of your marketing—from your website to your business cards to your social media presence—should reflect the same high-quality, well-thought-out identity.

If your branding looks cheap, inconsistent, or amateurish, that’s exactly what your audience will assume about your business.

5. Stay in Your Lane (And Leave Your Ego at the Door)

Not everyone is cut out to be the face of their brand—and that’s okay.

Some business owners insist on starring in their own commercials, video ads, or social media content, even when they have zero charisma, terrible camera presence, and no ability to communicate their message effectively.

If you aren’t good on camera, don’t force it.

There are better ways to showcase your brand without making yourself the centerpiece. Let professionals handle the visuals, voiceovers, and ad creatives. Focus on running your business, not feeding your vanity.

Conclusion: Fix It Before It Fails

If your marketing isn’t working, it’s probably because you’re doing it wrong.

The good news? Mad Men Marketing is here to help. We cut through the bullshit, build real strategies that actually drive results, and help businesses stop wasting time and money on ineffective marketing.

Ready to unfuck your advertising? Contact Mad Men Marketing today and let’s do this the right way.

Paramount+ vs Broadcast

The Advantages of Advertising on Paramount + vs. Broadcast TV

In today’s evolving advertising landscape, choosing the right platform can significantly impact your brand’s success. With traditional broadcast television competing against newer streaming platforms like Paramount Plus, it’s essential to understand which medium offers greater advantages for your marketing goals.

At Mad Men Marketing, we frequently advise clients about effective advertising strategies tailored to modern audiences. In this article, we outline key benefits of advertising on Paramount Plus compared to traditional broadcast television.

Targeted Audience Reach

Paramount Plus:

Advertising on Paramount Plus offers powerful targeting options, allowing brands to reach specific demographics based on interests, viewing habits, and content preferences. This tailored approach ensures your message resonates directly with your ideal audience, enhancing ad effectiveness and ROI. You can also view analytics about your ads in real-time. Paramount Plus even has a pixel you can add to your website to track a desired action.

Broadcast Television:

Traditional broadcast television typically provides a broad, less targeted audience. While beneficial for mass-market awareness, it doesn’t offer precise demographic targeting, potentially leading to less efficient use of advertising budgets. This is especially notable when you have a business with a single location in a specific area of town that wouldn’t benefit from the reach of a large geographic DMA.

Higher Viewer Engagement

Paramount Plus:

Viewers on Paramount Plus are actively selecting their content, making them more engaged with what they watch—and consequently, with the advertisements they see. Ads within streaming services are often shorter and less intrusive, making viewers less likely to tune them out.

Broadcast Television:

Broadcast TV ads often interrupt programming, leading to lower viewer engagement. Audiences typically utilize commercial breaks for other activities, decreasing ad recall and overall effectiveness.

Precise Analytics and Measurement

Paramount Plus:

Advertising on streaming platforms like Paramount Plus provides detailed analytics such as viewer impressions, demographic insights, ad completion rates, and engagement metrics. This rich data helps brands optimize their campaigns in real-time, improving performance continuously.

Broadcast Television:

Traditional TV ads rely on broader, less granular ratings systems. While useful, these ratings offer limited immediate insight into campaign performance, viewer engagement, or detailed demographic data, making precise optimization more challenging.

Flexibility and Cost Efficiency

Paramount Plus:

Digital streaming platforms offer flexible advertising packages with customizable budgets, campaign lengths, and ad placements. Brands can start, pause, or adjust their campaigns quickly to respond to performance data or market conditions, ensuring maximum budget efficiency.

Broadcast Television:

Advertising on broadcast television typically requires larger budgets, longer lead times, and fixed schedules. There’s less room to make rapid adjustments, potentially leading to less efficient use of advertising spend.

Growing and Diverse Audiences

Paramount Plus:

Streaming services like Paramount Plus are rapidly growing their user base, capturing diverse audiences across all demographics. The rise of cord-cutting means more consumers are adopting streaming platforms, presenting advertisers with significant new growth opportunities.

Broadcast Television:

While still reaching broad audiences, broadcast television faces declining viewership among younger demographics who increasingly prefer digital and streaming platforms. Advertisers targeting younger or tech-savvy consumers may miss key opportunities by relying solely on broadcast television.

Less Ad Clutter, Greater Visibility

Paramount Plus:

Paramount Plus generally offers limited commercial breaks, meaning fewer ads competing for viewer attention. This reduced clutter ensures your advertisements stand out, leading to greater visibility and brand recall.

Broadcast Television:

Commercial breaks on broadcast TV can be lengthy and crowded, making it challenging for individual ads to capture viewer attention. Increased clutter decreases overall ad visibility and effectiveness.

Final Thoughts: Paramount Plus or Broadcast TV?

When considering advertising strategies, it’s clear that Paramount Plus offers significant advantages over traditional broadcast television, especially regarding targeted reach, viewer engagement, precise analytics, budget flexibility, and reduced ad clutter.

Mad Men Marketing can help your brand navigate this landscape effectively. Our expert media planners will develop tailored campaigns designed for maximum impact on platforms like Paramount Plus.

Ready to elevate your advertising strategy with Paramount Plus? Contact Mad Men Marketing today to get started.

Advertising Locally on Streaming TV

Advertising Locally on Streaming TV (specifically Hulu)

I think everyone knows what streaming TV is, but in the very basic terms, it is the digital distribution of any video content that is consumed on TV screens. Some popular platforms are Disney+, Netflix, Prime and for this article, Hulu.

I am focusing on Hulu because they are the first service to offer local insertions in their programming. This is huge for local advertisers! According to Nielsen, adults 18-34 traditional TV ratings have declined 69% since 2017. So in 4 short years, 70% of adults under 35 years of age, are no longer watching traditional, local news station content over the air, or through traditional cable service providers. I for one have been a huge fan of “Only Murders in the Building” on Hulu, and when a platform has successful content such as this, it increases usage in large numbers. As an example, I am now watching the Hulu platform almost daily at some point, whereas before the show, I did not.

So why is this important? Because like me, Hulu viewership is up in a big way.  As Hulu puts it, we are starting to see GENERATION STREAM come to maturity and they consume their content almost exclusively on a streaming service. In fact, Hulu’s research points that ads on their platforms are 151% more engaging than linear TV. There are many reasons for this, but their limited content breaks and non-traditional approach to breaks in general, makes for a better user experience.

The new Hulu self-service option to buying and inserting ads locally in their programming, for as little as $500, is something I hope local companies will take advantage of!

The Rise of Social Commerce (s-Commerce)

We've seen companies like Amazon and Facebook transition from a laser-focused CD and movie source and social media network respectively, into multi-faceted money making machines.  Amazon has positioned itself as THE online marketplace in the United States and has diversified into other web services like hosting and marketing as well as developing its own distribution infrastructure to the point that it can rival virtually any logistics company and it has its sights set on grocers too.

Meanwhile, Facebook has gone from cool collegiate exclusivity to the most ubiquitous social channel in the world.  Recently, Facebook revealed that it would amplify its existing e-commerce ads to account for showcase shopping ads.  Just like Google, Facebook is taking advantage of their online resources to help advertisers push more merchandise just in time for holiday shopping.  The new ad format allows advertisers to display one main picture with several product images that would, ostensibly, have their own unique landing pages.  This gives the potential consumer a broader understanding of what the retailer may be selling and what's specially priced.

Pandora's box is open and there's no going back. Linking a bank account to everyone's personal Facebook page isn't far off and this may raise security concerns all over the world, but for now, social media will undoubtedly see a rise in sell-through, especially with reasonably priced impulse buys.  It will continue to command an ever-increasing amount of your advertising budget as their ads evolve in terms of what can be done with them creatively and who can be targeted strategically.  Currently, only a few heavy hitters are testing out the new format, but look for a wider roll-out soon with other companies following suit in 2017.  Admittedly, I laughed derisively when some people claimed that Facebook was coming for Google.  Well, it appears that not only do they want to compete with Google, but with Amazon and Alibaba as well.  What's more is that they seem to have the golden touch right now and I wouldn't put anything past them.

Marketing Evolved

Consumers are continually becoming more and more sophisticated, especially in an age where we now quantify and track everything.  This allows marketers and advertisers to embrace that kind of transparency, put together their own research, and disseminate that information to a more targeted audience, which makes your advertising far more efficient with fewer wasted dollars.  The role marketing plays has become more comprehensive, including processes such as planning, implementation, and monitoring & analytics (Manning and Reece, 2008).  Analytics have become increasingly important because consumers want to measure success and revise the plan of attack if there are any shortcomings.  Instead of putting together a plan and putting the product out there for eyes to see, the marketer now needs to make sure the right eyes see it and with a certain amount of frequency.  

At the end of the day, the name of the game is value, and what you can bring to the table will ultimately determine your level of success.  Offering a superior value guarantees satisfaction which earns loyalty (Day, 1994).  Marketing in contemporary America now favors the cultivation of relationships, proving once and for all that it is, and always has been, all about the people.