We don’t all live online
Recently I had a meeting to discuss ideas for innovating an online service. Amidst the hopes and dreams such a meeting can draw out nestled a frank discussion about how consumers could be reached. Although it was a brief diversion from the main topic it was a diversion we will be revisiting at a later date.
And one comment struck me above all others.
Publishers tend to forget that not everyone accesses their campaigns online.
It’s an easy thing to forget.
Publishers, developers, creatives, writers, we all share one thing in common: our working days revolve around easy Internet access.
And whilst we are all video conferencing, instant messaging, twittering and browsing our customers and our audiences might be hard at work in classrooms and factories, call centres and ticket offices, earning their pay and looking forward to relaxing with friends during their leisure tine.
Internet usage, despite its rich experiences, may be crammed into brief periods before bed or at the weekend. Decisions on new purchases, be they books or games, cars or holidays, may be made in the cracks of their lives as they share their hopes and dreams with colleagues or flick through a lunchtime magazine or casually browse a bookstore on the way to buy a sandwich.
Just as I am sometimes surprised how few of my clients keep a Twitter client open behind the multitude of email windows and spreadsheets, so too am I surprised how easily I forget the real lives of others.
These lives are not impoverished by their lack of eighteen hour exposure to the bells and whistles, news and opinions of a life lived online. No. These lives are simply filled with different priorities and different processes and as we seek to make our information available to them we would do well to walk where they walk and pause where they pause.