I Want To Ride My Bicycle, I Want To Ride My Bike!

I love Queen. Of course they made great music, but I also love them because I have fond memories of my then 3-year-old daughter forcing me to play Bicycle over and over and over every morning en route to daycare.

And, for whatever reason, Bicycle also makes me think of tandem bicycles. You know: those silly bikes made for two. I’ve never ridden one and I’ve always wondered if having two peddlers makes it easier or harder. I assume it’s easier provided both riders are coordinating their efforts.

I don’t recall exactly how it came up, but this morning I was thinking about tandem bicycles and how they are a good analogy for advertising campaigns.

For example, consider a traditional ad campaign… print, TV and radio. Traditional advertising can be very powerful. As days go by, though, that is less and less true; but it still has value.

Traditional advertising, IMO*, is more useful when it’s working in tandem with other efforts… direct marketing (mail/e-mail), special events, online advertising, social media, nontraditional (guerilla) tactics, etc. However, those efforts are usually less potent without traditional advertising supporting them.

The key, though, is coordinating the message, tone, call to action, etc. of traditional and nontraditional advertising to maximize reach and effectiveness.

So the picture we arrive at is truly like a tandem bike: you really do need both peddlers to make the thing work, but when they are coordinated it’s much easier to produce the desired outcome.

-Sarah, Emogen marketer

*in my opinion (thanks to John K. for my new favorite acronym)