By Simon Moore, Chilli

Advertising used to be so much easier: a simple catchy jingle ("We're happy little vegemites...") or a clever slogan (“Just do it” comes to mind).

In case you all missed it, we're now in a period where our customers hold all the cards. They have, or at least appear to have, all the answers (let’s blame Google for that one), they are in total control, and we face a huge challenge, both as advertisers (that's you guys) and agencies (that’s us). Finding new ways to break through all the clutter and connect with people is the starting point. Of course the ‘one off’ ads are long gone. With all the statistics highlighting that every man, women and child are now exposed to over 5000 messages a day, anyone that actually thinks a one off advertisement is going to get any kind of cut through is just “head in the sand" stuff.

Research shows that it now requires five times the exposure (frequency is the official term) to get any kind of acknowledgement from our audience. I’m sure we all wish for the heyday '70's when markets only had to deal with a mere 500 advertising messages a day. There’s no point looking backwards. The 21st century calls for smarter strategies, a very focused and clear message and most important, apply the three R's – repeat it, repeat it, repeat it!

Advertisers are scrambling to hunt down their once captive audience wherever they can find them.

Considering people are now spending more and more time away from their living rooms, marketers are spending more money on bringing their message to you: in shopping centres and in grocery stores, in the waiting rooms of doctors and dentists surgeries, and even mechanic workshops (as I discovered last week), and of course advertising reaches people on computer screens and PDA’s, magazines and newspapers, outdoor media, billboards, buses, radio, movie screens and TV’s, and the list keeps growing every second of every day.

There is more media than ever before, more choices at every turn. New media is being spawned every second. I mean literally, by the time I finish this sentence, there'll be some sort of new media platform created somewhere in the world, with some new marketing buzz word to go with it.

However, that does not mean we suddenly forget the basics. And for goodness sake, we need to remember that no decision is ever made in isolation. That is, no one ad, presented once, will ever make the phone ring off the hook.

To reach people, advertisers have had to get much more creative - making the message part of the entertainment factor instead of a break from the entertainment itself.

Putting creativity aside, there is a fine line you don't ever want to cross. Some advertisers have run the gauntlet with creative campaigns that look to shock us into noticing their message. Sure, these messages can have a short lived effect of recall, however it is what you’re being remembered for that is the issue. Bottom-line is don’t offend your customer. You don't want to distract them from the actual point of your message, because at the end of the day if they don’t like it, or worse, they don’t get it, it is just not good for business.

Offending the receiver is where many advertisers in the modern age run into trouble. In a desperate attempt to grab the consumers' attention, advertisers are creating what is known as advertising clutter. Everywhere we turn we're saturated with advertising messages trying to get our attention.

It seems like the goal of most marketers nowadays is to cover every blank space with some kind of brand logo or a promotion or advertisement.

Marketers have found a way to use parking stripes, postage stamps every square centimeter of floor space in stores, even the sides of whole buildings. It's like an assault on the senses.

Most of us are at a point where we have to screen out much of the noise because we simply can't absorb that much information. We can't process that much data and so, no surprise, many consumers are reacting negatively to the kind of marketing blitz; the kind of super saturation of advertising that they're exposed to on a daily basis.

The conundrum for modern day marketers is how to cut through the clutter without alienating the consumer.

A great deal of the communication that’s going on is done so in isolation. What this has caused is a race for ownership of the space instead of a focused approach in the right media. Today’s marketers believe they have to up the ante each and every time they speak with their stakeholders simply because their competitors upped the ante the last time. And the only way you can win is to have more saturation - be more inventive; be more extreme.

At the end of the day, engaging our audience with our products and services is the mantra. That is the ‘Holy Grail’.

Ultimately, the consumer is the judge.

We need advertising. We want advertising and we like advertising. Consumers don't hate advertising. What they hate is bad advertising. I think the challenge that's facing most companies nowadays is how to quit doing all the bad stuff that creates the kind of environment people are resisting and figure out ways to engage people in ways that they find to be informative and entertaining. And that's become our challenge in this super saturated world we all live in, even here on the Sunshine Coast.

Make no mistake; you can’t just wing it. Regardless of the size of your businesses and your budget, and while I’ve said this before I’m saying it again, plan your approach. The simple answer in this over saturated world lies in not just communicating but also connecting with your customer. You need to know your market like they’re the most important person in the world, because they are! Try and take the time to understand what they are looking for from your business and how best to speak with them on a level that engages them. And once you have worked out the right mix, don’t forget the frequency or put simply the three R’s – Repeat it, Repeat it, Repeat it!