Category: Research
We asked: Does the future of aerospace include advertising?
Advertising — once the mainstay of BDN’s business — is now a source of ongoing discussion, debate and uncertainty within the Aerospace and Defense industry. Our team routinely fields a great many advertising-related questions from clients and colleagues. We find that in general, people want to know if advertising is relevant, effective and worth the investment — and they often want to know about industry trends and understand what their peers are or are not doing.
This survey, “The Role of Advertising in Aerospace and Defense Marketing,” was designed to get a sense of trends and how advertising is used and viewed in our industry today. Based on more than 150 responses, from marketers covering a broad array of industry segments, it is not a scientific but is certainly suggestive. We hope you find it useful.
Key Finding: Advertising is in decline, and people who once advertised are no longer advertising.
While 93% of respondents said they have advertised in the past, just 72% say they advertise now.
Key Finding: In general, the majority of advertising budgets are increasing or staying the same. Fewer budgets are declining.
Key Finding: The majority of respondents think print advertising is still relevant and effective in our industry, but many are unsure.
Key Finding: While print is still important to respondents, digital is growing in importance, with spending split fairly equally between print and digital.
Next Up: Our series on the “The Role of Advertising in Aerospace and Defense Marketing,” will continue next week as we reveal industry marketers’ preferred publications. Watch for the People’s Choice results on April 12.
Don’t Forget: BDN’s Complete Guide to Aerospace & Defense Media is a great resource for industry advertisers. Download it here.
Four Aviation Marketing Trends that May Surprise You
It’s a time of unprecedented change for B2B marketers — perhaps even more so for those involved in aerospace and aviation marketing. There’s a seismic shift underway, and the bedrock of our traditional knowledge and belief system has started to crack. We can embrace it, ignore it or fight it. But there’s no denying that change is in the air.
Plenty has been written about B2B marketing trends. Every marketing guru is talking and blogging about the importance of mobile technology, the use of automation, personalization, big data and, of course, content.
But to really understand our own industry trends in a more meaningful way, we spoke to a group of marketers attending a recent industry event. Scientific? No. Enlightening? Yes.
Check out our marketing trends graphic below to see what they said.
You can also download the graphic here.
Trade Show Exhibiting Trends
The world of trade shows is ever-changing. More and more research is showing that marketers are becoming smarter about their exhibit strategy, or at least trying to make improvements. And trade shows are still important to business overall. An article from Exhibitor Magazine documents the results of its 2013 Economic Outlook survey, including:
- A little more than half of the respondents will maintain the same number of shows they attend in 2013.
- 19% anticipate that some of their trade show budget may be allocated to other marketing activities in 2013.
- 55% will increase their spend in email marketing
- 76% are optimistic that they will improve their execution of trade show programs in 2013.
From my perspective, this data aligns with what I’ve seen across many clients. Trade shows are not declining by any means, but I see a lot more focus on creating a better trade show. Pre-show promotion, pre-show planning, better tracking of leads and a defined follow-up plan all lead up to a smarter, and more successful trade show overall.
7 Steps to Campaign Success in the Aerospace Market
- Goals. What are you trying to achieve with this campaign? Who are you targeting?
- Research. Talk to your customers. What are their pressures, concerns, needs and drivers? What marketing tactics work with them? The aerospace industry is very different than other markets so it’s important to find out what works for your specific audience.
- Personas. Use your research to create a representative “persona” of each group you are targeting. This helps to visualize that person.
- Content. Map out your content based on what your persona research has outlined for you. Address your customer’s problems.
- Tactics. Your research told you where your customers engage and the best way to influence them. Plan out your tactics based on this and use your story map to tie it all together.
- Measurement. Make sure you’ve included a tracking mechanism on all tactics to measure success. If this isn’t tracked, then how do you know if your methods worked?
- Reassess. If you didn’t get the success you were hoping for, change a headline, try a different tactic, check your customer list contact info . . . keep adjusting until it works.