The Future of digital marketing
Saint managing partner Adam Graham was recently invited by NMA to speak at Online Marketing week Live 2011.
He joined a panel of experts including nma editor Justin Pearse to join nma columnist, author and consultant Ilana Fox; executive creative director of LBi Laura Jordan-Bambach; chief strategy officer at Somo Ross Sleight; and YouTube and Google display sales director Bruce Daisly for a panel discussion on the future of digital marketing.
‘Key trends in online marketing: shaping the future of digital media and marketing’ opened the second day of the Online Marketing Show, the digital branch of this week’s Marketing Week Live 2011, held at the Kensington Olympia.
With standing-room only in the packed conference room, Justin led the discussion and asked questions about the digital opportunities and challenges facing brands, what was new and exciting in mobile, the consumer backlash against behavioural targeting, and what brands needed to understand to avoid jumping on the Facebook ‘likes’ bandwagon.
Mobile opportunities
Identified unanimously by the panel as a key area of opportunity was the development of mobile.
With smart phone sales outstripping sales of laptops and recent Google research revealing just how much smartphones have penetrated our everyday lives, the pace of development in mobile was such that it was “still not too late to be early” and that it was still possible for brands to stay ahead of the curve through innovation.
Before considering mobile apps, advised Ross Sleight, brands should make sure their mobile sites are fully functional. Whereas consumers used to think problems with mobile sites were down to user error, they now blame the brand directly if they have a poor user experience on a site.
Bruce Daisly, who recently announced early trial results from YouTube’s TrueView – pre-roll video advertising that allows the user to ‘skip’ ads they don’t want to see – was particularly interested in the possibilities provided by mobile for video content.
Adam Graham also identified the opportunities presented by the use of Near Field Communication (NFC) – the short-range RFID technology used in Oyster cards – in that phones could now carry Paypal, Oyster and credit card information, which could mean even more possibilities for the already booming mobile commerce market.
Data challenges
With the EU and some national European governments looking to get tough on cookies and other forms of data capture and retention, Bruce said that Europe may become an increasingly difficult area for digital marketers to work in.
This comment opened up a wider debate about data and how it is used, with a perceived backlash from consumers against more targeted advertising.
Just as it can be unsettling when the same pair of shoes, sofa or 3-bed semi you once looked at online mysteriously follows you around the internet, there is a danger, agreed Adam Graham and Bruce Daisly, that if brands are not transparent with consumers about how they are using their data with clear opt-outs or filters the user can control, the usefulness of the technology will be overshadowed by its apparent “creepiness”.
Ross Sleight went further, adding that traditional marketing controlled CRM so that marketing to an individual was restricted so that consumers were not put off the brand. However, new technology on the web fails to put a cap on how much it uses personal data to target consumers.
This could lead the consumer to feeling that you do not value them as an individual.
Another opportunity that also presents a challenge for marketers, said Adam, was the proliferation of cloud and remote storage in computing. While the data available presented marketers with opportunities, there would most likely be a backlash from consumers if they felt that their privacy had been violated.
There needed to be a value exchange when it came to personal data, said Ross. What are you offering the consumer in exchange for them to provide you with their personal details?
Too much emphasis on Social Media?
With brands clamouring to amass Facebook likes and engage with their consumers on Twitter, Justin asked if they were placing too much stock in Social Media.
Bruce said he was reminded of his time in commercial radio, when station bosses became obsessed with bumper stickers.
Bumper stickers were seen as the be-all-and-end-all of marketing a radio station and deals were drawn up, and a great deal of money was spent, to distribute the stickers.
What the bosses forgot was that their breakfast radio shows were the best marketing tool they had, and they needed to concentrate more on providing good content for their programmes, than on bumper stickers.
The same could be said with brands’ recent obsession with Facebook ‘likes’ or Twitter followers, said Bruce. Many brands make the mistake of seeking approval from consumers rather than using their social media space to listen to them.
Ilana Fox said it was about creating relationships with your customers.
Ross said brands had not historically been customer-centric and were used to talking at consumers. Social media gave them the opportunity to engage in a more collaborative and engaging way. He gave the example of Right Move, whose Facebook page was about consumers telling Rightmove how they could improve what they did to improve user experience. So far the page has provided invaluable information for them.
Adam said that it was important that brands behaved in their social media spaces in the same way that they would in real life. You wouldn’t shout or beg for friends in a bar, so why would you do so online?
Integration
And finally, before running out of time, there was quick discussion about ‘integration’ of digital in marketing campaigns.
The panel agreed that while their clients were slowly moving towards better integration of digital marketing into their organisational structures, there was still the legacy of keeping digital in a silo. This was understandably led by CFOs and COO who wanted to be able to identify revenue streams and make business cases for investment based on numbers.
What financial people needed to realise, said Ross, was that the people who were searching for products online and going to shops to buy them, were the same people who went to the shops, found the product was out of stock, and went home to order it online.
Company structures are moving towards a more integrated approach to digital, but it will continue to take time because of the internal structures they have had in place for years.
Adam made the final point that while integration is important, it’s not the only “I” people should obsess about. Insight, inspiration and innovation are also essential in order to create stand out work.
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