Digital Marketing Ideas
Our Feed
Archive for May, 2008
Consumers Like Email!
MarketingVox has a story today, about the continuing preference of consumers for email for commercial correspondence. Here is a brief synopsis of the results, click over to the MarketingVox article for their take, or the original at Habeas, or the MarketingCharts opinion.
- 67% of respondents prefer email as a communications channel over
other online vehicles, and 65% say they believe that will remain the
preference in five years. - Consumer opinion of the future importance of email registers far
above future expectations for video conferencing (19%), instant
messaging (17%), SMS text messages (12%) and Web meetings (12%). - 65% of the demographic ages 18-34 – those most comfortable with IM,
SMS and emerging communications methods – say they will likely favor
email to communicate with businesses in five years.
Online Threats
- 69% of those surveyed expressed concern about being victimized by
email fraud scams, an increase from the 62% finding in the 2007 Habeas
report. - 43% of respondents voice concern over the spam and virus threat to
mobile devices, up from 2007’s 36% – and a reflection of the increasing
use of the "mobile inbox" through smartphone and internet-enabled phone
devices. - As many as 35% of those surveyed do not know what to look for when
trying to sift through emails that might potentially be dangerous.
Unique Approach – The DMIdeas “Way”
The "mantra" of DMIdeas is to create innovative and engaging digital marketing for their client-partners. Taking a new approach to the client-agency relationship, DMIdeas examines each potential opportunity as an opportunity to partner for growth rather than merely provide marketing services. Big agencies are "locked" into either the fee or AOR model, they don’t have the "freedom" at the local office level to form strategic partnerships. At DMIdeas we look forward to working with partners strategically rather than just providing marketing services.
Microsoft Stops At Nothing?
Well, it’s just odd, Microsoft will begin a form of payment to have users on their LIVE Search product. MediaWeek has an interesting "take" on the "offer" from MSFT. My view is that the guys in Seattle will stop at nothing to try and catch Google & Yahoo! The problem is that Microsoft has become too large and cumbersome to effectively generate new product innovation. They have BRILLIANT people working for them, however, that doesn’t stop a flawed corporate structure and process… Anyway, we’ll just have to wait and see how this works for them.
WPP + Yahoo! – Good For Marketers??
AdWeek (yes, I know, they’re always mentioned, but they are on top of things usually) has a story out, today, that discusses the deal between WPP and Yahoo!. For those of you that don’t know, WPP is a holding company that owns 254 agency brands worldwide. The following are some better known names:
- 24/7 Real Media – A Digital Media Company
- Blast Radius – Digital, Direct, Promotion & Relationship Marketing
- Brierley+Partners – Digital, Direct, Promotion & Relationship Marketing
- Burson-Marsteller – PR & Public Affairs
- CommonHealth – Healthcare Communications
- digital@JWT – J. Walter Thompson’s Digital Advertising & Marketing Group
- G2 – Direct, Digital, Promotion & Relationship Marketing
- Grey – Advertising
- Hill & Knowlton – PR & Public Affairs
- JWT – J. Walter Thompson – Advertising
- Kang & Lee Advertising – Demographic Marketing
- KnowledgeBase Marketing – Digital, Direct, Promotion & Relationship Marketing
- Landor Associates – Brand Identity
- Marsteller – Advertising, Corporate & B2B
- Mediaedge:cia – Media Management
- MindShare – Media Management
- Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide – Advertising
- OgilvyOne Worldwide – Digital, Direct, Promotion & Relationship Marketing
- Studiocom – Digital, Direct, Promotion & Relationship Marketing
- Sudler & Hennessey – Healthcare Communications
- Team Detroit – A "blended" shop consisting of teams from Y&R, JWT, & O&M to service Ford’s brands
- VML – Digital, Direct, Promotion & Relationship Marketing
- Wunderman – Direct, digital, promotion & relationship marketing
- Y&R – Advertising
- Young & Rubicam Brands – Advertising; Branding & identity ;
Direct, Digital, Promotion & Relationship Marketing; Healthcare Communications; PR & Public Affairs
Sorry about the long list, but I sort of took a walk down memory lane… I’ve worked for the WPP companies in the past and know people at most, if not all, of the agencies above. Read my commentary after the break about why I think this is HORRIBLE for marketers…
CBS Gets Aggressive Online
Out of the blue, for many analysts, CBS has agreed, today, to acquire CNET. AdWeek is reporting that news; in addition, they’re reporting that CBS is also worked a deal with the Lonleygirl15 creators.
According to Nielsen Online data being reported on AdWeek, the combination of the CNET and CBS online properties will generate approximately 60+ million unique visitors per month.
The Lonleygirl15 deal is described in depth in the AdWeek story. The summary, however, is that CBS will be using EQAL, the creators of Lonleygirl15, to enhance the online facets of their offline programming.
More Social Networking?
Well, the "traditional" folks just can’t get enough of the Social Networking "Revolution." AdAge is reporting, again, on the fairly significant changes in the social networking space. Now Forrester’s Charlene Li is getting in on the analysis, writing on her blog, that, "I believe that in the future, social networks will be like air,…." She suggests the following in the same post:
- Create linkages between services based on
individually-controlled identity federation - Compete on creating the most compelling social
experience, not social graph lock-in - Develop social applications that have meaning
- Integrate social networks into existing activities
- Design business models that reflect the value
created by people’s social network
These are great ideas, it’s interesting to see that the "traditional" research companies are breaking new ground and helping us (digital/online/interactive folks) educate both the traditional agency folks and our clients.
One Online Site to Rule Them All?
AdAge is reporting that MySpace is rolling out a new "tool," for it’s users. This tool will allow MySpace users to "control," their other social networking "applications," like Twitter, eBay, and others. They’re calling the service, Data Availability. This, "single site," or, as AdAge calls it, "control center," approach is going to make the social network expand even faster as more users are exposed to things that might’ve been more, "techy," in the past. This will allow marketers to use these technologies, too, and expand their brand’s online presence. This is something that will also allow users to opt-in to more communication with the brand, on their terms. As the internet continues to evolve (insert funny Web 2.0 reference here) marketers will need to become smarter about how they talk to consumers. Long gone are the days when a 500,000 piece direct mail job was identical. Personalization and targeting technologies are about to get an ENORMOUS boost in focus, both for marketers, and for agencies.
UPDATE:
Reuters is also reporting this with a different "take," than AdAge.
It would seem that this is another show of support by MySpace towards the Google OpenSocial initiative.
It’s The Economy, Stupid…
What’s happening with the economy? Every day there is another news story about someone loosing their house because the economy is … dare I say it … in a RECESSION. Well how is this downturn going to affect the advertising industry? Companies still need to advertise, right? Of course, it’s more important in a "down" economy for companies to fight harder for their share of the dwindling consumer dollar.
So, what is a company to do with it’s marketing budget?
SHIFT IT TO ONLINE
Why, you ask? Because it is measurable, trackable, and it is not hard to generate the metrics to determine if a campaign is successful.
eMarketer has an interesting article, today, on a study conducted in February by Penton Research for PROMO Magazine that talks directly to this point. It is reporting that 43% of marketers surveyed are planning to increase their online marketing budgets in 2008.
Chrysler Marketing – Genius or Lunacy
Sorry this isn’t digital in nature, but, it’s so… interesting that I had to say something about it…
Well, Chrysler is either being run by the smartest people in the world, or someone with a SERIOUS gambling problem! Autoblog is reporting that Chrysler is going to GUARANTEE $2.99/gallon on gas for the next THREE years! I’m not sure what Chrysler knows about the global fuel market, or if this is just a slick ploy to sell cars, or, if they’ve worked some deal with the oil companies to get a bulk deal on fuel, as happens with commercial fuel purchases. It’ll be interesting to see how well this works for Chrysler…
The WWW Historical Perspective
The BBC has an interesting story out today on the history of the WWW. The article features commentary from the following, "Top 10."
- Sir Tim Berners-Lee – Here is his blog, and his predictions for the future of the WWW.
- Professor Nigel Shadbolt
- Professor Wendy Hall – Her homepage.
- Kai-Fu Lee
- Dr. David Belanger
- Mitchell Baker – Her blog.
- Mark Bernstein
- Robert Cailliau – His website.
- Robert Scoble – His blog.
- Tim O’Reilly – His homepage.
Not a list to laugh at, at all. So, where was I among all of this? Well, thirteen years ago, while Netscape was undergoing its IPO and starting the first "boom," of what we now call, "New Media," I was working in IT at a large advertising agency in Los Angeles. We decided it would be a good time to demonstrate, to our clients, at the time names like, Vons, Flamingo Hilton, Honda Motorcycles, that we should be doing something with this "WWW" thing. Well, we built some small products in JavaScript (well, back then we called it LiveScript); we went to the first Netscape Developers Conference in NYC; we impressed our clients with flashy branding stuff. Then I moved on to a classified service, headquartered in Orange County, CA… We began putting classified ads online, we migrated their flat-file system to a dynamic, server-side database system, then, we moved in on to a Microsoft based database application…
The point of the story, though, is that what was misunderstood fifteen years ago is still misunderstood by a great many people. Click through to find out what and why…