Strong vs. Weak Ties in Advertising
http://adage.com/article/guest-columnists/long-live-reach-buying-eyeballs-works/307490/
The article, “Long Live Reach: Buying Eyeballs Still Works If It’s Done Right”, by Brian Sheehan, discusses the pros and cons of broad reach advertising and how, in recent years, companies and advertising agencies have been switching to more targeted advertising options. Broad reach advertising became the norm in the mid-1990s with television viewership at all-time highs, allowing companies to spread their advertisements so that the maximum number of people can view them. Sheehan works to explain how media companies of this time had all decided to operate under the understanding that “an eyeball was an eyeball”, meaning that it did not matter who saw the advertisement on television, just the amount of people that it was reaching. Furthermore, in today’s digital world with options for entertainment being shifted away from television to the internet, a turn towards a more targeted advertising policy amongst companies and agencies can be observed. In response to arguments that targeted advertising may be the better route, both Coca-Cola and P&G make the claim that when broad reach advertising is much more effective when carried out correctly, resulting in a $2.13 return for every dollar spent by Coca-Cola.
Advertising almost exclusively deals with networks. Advertising is all about getting an idea about a product or service to people who do not know about it yet. Broad reach and targeted advertising to the concepts of strong and weak ties discussed in the Networks course at Cornell University. Here, strong ties parallel targeted advertising, because the “eyeballs” reached in this form of advertising will be more likely to purchase whatever is being advertised and will experience a strong relationship with the product or service. On the other hand, broad reach advertising can be more closely related to weak ties, which in some cases can be very powerful. Broad reach advertising where companies can notify the public about their products using only a weak relationship is an example of “The Strength of Weak Ties”.
The millions of “eyeballs” reached by television advertisements in the broad reach train of thought (or millions of weak ties) are exactly what Coca-Cola and P&G rely on to sell their product and see the great returns that they receive from their broad reach advertising campaigns. If selling a can of Coke was compared to getting a job, all the millions of people that see the advertisement would be the acquaintances (weak ties) a person looks to when getting a job. These acquaintances have proven to be more helpful than actual friends, which could be more closely related to the people who are reached targeted advertisements. Coca-Cola and P&G, by using broad reach advertising methods, prove that you only need an acquaintance (weak tie) to sell a can of coke, not a friend (strong tie).