All the while the one unseen variable and perhaps the most crucial variable slips silently by... time.
When I worked in the arts we had time-in-market down to a T, for all but the most exciting of performances, if you were not in market for a minimum of four weeks, ideally six, you simply did not have enough time in market for the public to find out about it, talk to friends and family about going, ruminate, waste time and then finally purchase tickets. If it was four weeks you needed to spend way more money than you did over six too for the same effect.
Now at the University my time frames are much longer but time-in-market is no less critical.
One of the best gigs I worked on, in terms of understanding this, was Yes Prime Minister, the stage show. We were in market nearly somewhere between 10-12 months out. We went on soft sale, did a groups launch but otherwise we just generally left it there, sitting on the website, postered up in the foyer, flyers on racks. And you know what, it just ticked away selling in dribs and drabs and when it finally came to planning and mounting a campaign we had a solid pool of tickets already sold.
Another element of timing is to put work into what is called 'flighting' its when you think about your peaks and through in your marketing spend. No one can afford to shout at the same volume 100% of the time, you get hoarse and your audience tunes out. Better to think about when you want to be loud, when you want to be quiet. Just like a good Pixies/Nirvana song quiet/loud/quiet/loud done artfully.
The things that eat into time-in-market are,
- lack of awareness as to when time is slipping away and a subsequent lack or urgency.
- lack of pre-planning, thinking ahead of time how much time you need to get sorted with your campaign in order to be in market for the ideal time. (DId I say the word 'time' enough just then? Here it is again TIME!)
- the 'perfect being the enemy of the good' thing. When you prioritise going for that fifth or sixth creative concept because the others had 'not quite nailed it'. I'm here to tell you, better to be in the market for the perfect amount of time with a 70% creative, than have perfect creative but for too short amount of time.
Anyway something to think about and consider when planning your campaigns. Maybe you can study your own past campaigns and see if there's a pattern or optimal time-in-market. One benefit is that in an increasingly digital world you can get out into market faster than ever before in some mediums. I have often begun campaigns on Facebook and other social and digital mediums simply because I could get that out quickly and then buy the breathing space to work on other executions.
If you do have some 'perfect is the enemy of the good' stakeholders, you need to work with them to get them to understand the importance of time-in-market, although admittedly some will never get it and happily fiddle while Rome burns down.
Alright that's enough from me, sorry it's been a while since my last post, hopefully I'll get my blogging mojo back and it won;'t take me so much TIME to blog again!
