Last night at the Colorado chapter of the Business Marketing Association, I listened to Matt Preschern, a VP of Communications for IBM, talk about the digital convergence of marketing. He started off his presentation with a focus I appreciated — how much smaller, more niche audiences are (the lead in to talking about targeting markets in a narrower way for better return on marketing).

He asked a question: In the 1950’s, when I Love Lucy was the #1 show in the US, what percentage of the US market could an advertiser hit by advertising during the program?

I won’t give you the answer yet, instead, his next question: The #1 show today is American Idol. What percentage of the US market can an advertiser reach by buying ads during the show?
The answer is even more surprising than most marketers in the room thought:

I Love Lucy US audience reach: 45% of the US population
American Idol US audience reach: 4% of the US population

Certainly, this splintering effect on TV has been apparent for some time, starting with the rise of cable TV. But, now that (another stat from Matt) teens spend 40% less time watching TV than their parents, and 600% more time online than their parents, those reach stats for TV will continue to sink. Sure, you can make waves with your single Super Bowl ad, but you’ll extend its power with online tie-ins, contests and viral marketing add-ons.

Let’s face it, the power of mass media is more limited than ever. With lower viewership overall on TV, companies poised to add targeted social media marketing to their mix are not only going to do a better job reaching consumers, they’ll have a better ability to track their return on investment. So, the key question for marketers looking into social media campaigns is not reach or impressions. It should be about penetration within the communities of influence in social media.

Why does the micro approach work better? A few reasons I posit here:

• the mass market isn’t so massive anymore
• micro means better, more niche targeted messages
• its more trackable