I was reading the Wall Street journal article on the effects GM’s bankruptcy is going to have on prices for TV ads and I got to thinking about how GM’s bankruptcy filing could have an even greater effect. It could force those rooted in network ad purchasing processes that date back to the 60’s to take a step back and rethink their advertising and marketing strategies, perhaps even reassess the greater purpose for advertising and marketing in the first place.

GM clearly needed sales, but they also needed to improve their reputation. It’s no secret that traditional advertising media such as print news and television are no longer converting ad space to sales the way they used to. In fact, as far as television is concerned they are not even reaching audiences the way they used to, so it’s not clear that GM buying $2b in TV ads last year was the right path to sales.

And advertising is certainly not a path to improving corporate reputation. Reputation is about building trust, and think about it, who really trusts what a company says about itself in advertisements?

So what was the point of the 2 billion dollar ad program? $2b in ads won’t fix the fact that GM was making cars that weren’t appealing to the market in general.

Just as GM lost touch with consumers in the auto market, perfecting designs that appealed to very few in any demographic, so it lost touch with consumers in media. Unfortunately, for GM and their advertising agencies, social media marketing, viral marketing, web news, blogs, online television, dvr, on demand, and mobile internet have changed the game so drastically that I think the only companies that should still be advertising via traditional mediums such as television are those that clearly understand their market, and have a strategy that not only incorporates the ever changing media market, but thrives on it.

Hulu, for example has begun using clever television marketing campaigns to target the perfect audience delivered by TV; those people still watching television. It’s a simple strategy, yet one that GM could not get right. A successful marketing and advertising strategy understands audiences first and foremost. If you’re tuned in to your audience, they’ll tell you everything you need to do and say to keep them coming back all the while succeeding yourself. Presenting an image that is in accord with the needs and wishes of your audience is the way advertising and marketing is supposed to work.

Case in point, while networks are hurting for ad sales due to companies defecting to Hulu for advertising, Hulu is turning back around and using network television to gather more business by targeting audiences with messages that network TV is a dying breed and they should get off the sinking ship and watch commercial free TV on Hulu.

In an unprecedented entrance into online television, Hulu has created a household brand name that is being made as distinguishable as FOX or NBC through their ads. Further, they have established their brand as the leader for an industry that has yet to come to fruition. It’s a strategy that was born from Nielsen ratings and focus groups, but now thrives in twitter and Facebook, you tube and blogs. It lives and breathes in your audiences, and in their beliefs about brand authenticity, what your brand stands for and their connection to that belief. GM failed due to a poor business strategy but their efforts to reach out to consumers for help (by way of purchases) failed because they no longer understood who their target audiences needed to be, no longer understood their media for effective advertising and marketing to those audiences, and therefore no longer had an audience or a market.

Without knowing their audiences, GM’s advertisements became just another image on the screen, their message, just a bunch words on a billboard and their brand became just more words on a page.

So I guess what all this boils down to is; you'd better know your target audiences and you'd better know them well. As we see with GM you can have an unlimited advertising and marketing budget, the most sought after ad space, a well-recognized brand, even a good story to tell; but without knowing who you are trying to appeal to, and listening to them as much as you talk to them, you may as well have said and done absolutely nothing at all.