The other day I received a really clear picture in my head – don’t you love it when that happens? The a-ha experience!! Let me see if I can describe it to you.

You have an advertiser. Let’s pretend it is a Ford Dealer and the product is their basic F150 truck. You have determined who the BEST customer for their basic F150 is in detail – gender, age, life style, income, purpose for ownership, how they consume information, etc.

OK, now is when you need to use your imagination a little. All your different programs such as Leno, Ellen, Early Show, Late News, weather on your website, pets on your website, basketball, hockey, high school sports, etc. – these are conduits, tubes, highways or whatever you want to picture. I like “tubes.”

You and your advertiser send the right messages (that’s a whole other issue!) down select tubes to that BEST customer. You have many tubes to select from but they don’t all lead to the same BEST customer. If you send the message down the wrong tube it lands in the wrong location – kurplunk –  and is lost forever. If you send the right message consistently down the right tubes you have success.

Yes, broad rotators mean lots of spots which many untrained direct advertisers find appealing.  Success, however they define it, is more appealing every day. Maybe drawing the new “picture tube” will help them understand, increase their success and help you reduce churn.

Thoughts?