I wonder how many marketers feel like this. My old friend and terrific illustrator Roger Harvey, drew this cartoon for me and I think it captures how many marketers find themselves today.

One foot in the traditional marketing camp they have lived in for most of their careers and one foot in the digital camp, which is not living up to the expectation or the promise.

Surrounding them are the vendors, agencies, suppliers and media encouraging them to “Go forward” or to “Pull back” depending on their vested interest. Meanwhile the marketers feel like they are trapped in a precarious position feeling that if they stand still too long they will be left behind and if they go forward or back they could be seen to fail.

What they do know is they need to make a decision one way or the other as in the meantime they will continue to haemorrhage budget on both their traditional and their digital strategy. So how did they get here and more importantly how can they get out and avoid being trapped?

How did we get here?

There are many reasons marketers end up in this situation. Understanding these is the first step to finding the best way out of the situation, or even better, making sure you avoid it completely.

1. Assuming traditional and digital work the same way

There is a very senior marketer who got stuck here because he simply transitioned their spend from their traditional media to their digital media. Working for a services company, they believed that the way digital advertising worked was exactly the same as traditional advertising.

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