The Changing Face of Digital Media & Marketing : direct marketing

The Internationalist Awards for Innovative Digital Marketing Solutions

Scott Berg — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 16:25:00 GMT

I have the honor of working with some of the leaders in the Digital Marketing world regarding a new Digital Marketing Solution Awards Event. Some of those names include Rob Norman, CEO of GroupM, Rishad Tobaccowala, CEO of Denuo and Chief Innovation Officer, Publicis Group. As you can tell these fellow judges are the cream of the crop – and the leaders who I and many of you look to for leadership and thoughts.

That being said…I’ve attached some information below on how to enter and participate.

A big thanks to Deborah Malone and the staff at The Internationalist for helping to drive this unique digital award judging.

Scott

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"We have moved from language-based or analog marketing to a system now dependent on 'ones' and 'zeros' or digital codes. Our way of creating marketing solutions must also now transform dramatically.." -Scott Berg, HP's Director of Digital Strategy and Jury Chairman

www.internationalist-awards.com

Marketers, today, need digital answers, but formulating the right questions is often challenging. With dozens of new forms of non-traditional advertising, the digital options can be overwhelming. Our industry can benefit from examples of best practices. Marketers today need digital solutions that bring results.

The Internationalist Awards for Innovative Digital Marketing Solutions will be the first international awards to be given based upon the geographic footprint of the campaign, specifically: a global campaign, a regional campaign, a local execution of a multinational campaign, and a local campaign worthy of international adaptation based upon world class standards.

These Awards are an outgrowth of The Internationalist's Awards for Innovation in Media and an acknowledgment of how today's marketing strategy is affected by the growth of Digital. They also reflect the way companies market their products. No other awards offer these types of international categories. Most are by product group (food, auto) or type of media (TV, print).

It's simple to enter-- just answer 5 critical questions about insights and solutions, the show up to 3 examples of the work. There are only 4 international entry categories.

CALL FOR ENTRIES DEADLINE is SEPTEMBER 8, 2009.

Winners will be announced in Autumn 2009. A Grand Prix will be announced, along with Gold, Silver and Bronze winners in each of the 4 international entry categories.

Winners will receive:

An Award statuette for office display.
The Internationalist will feature a story on the winners in its next edition.
All winners, including Honorable Mentions, will be showcased on www. internationalist-awards.com. A search feature will enable people to better access case study highlights.
Oxford University's SAID School of Business will use the winners as teaching case studies in their marketing program.

For more information on Judging, the Jury, Fees, and How to Enter, go to:

http://www.internationalist-awards.com

Created in January 2003 by Deborah Malone, The Internationalist was launched to connect the people and ideas in international advertising, marketing and media. Today The Internationalist has become a trusted source for international best practices, and is dedicated to the business needs and challenges of international marketing professionals as they participate in multinational branding and campaign building. The Internationalist is now IN PRINT, ONLINE and IN PERSON- all to better serve the needs of this community.

2009 Digital Media Trends – Update & Scorecard

Scott Berg — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 17:28:00 GMT

Late last year I posted my 2009 Digital Media Trends. I thought it would be a good idea to see where they stand as well as add in a few other trends I’m starting to see emerge.

It’s the Economy Stupid...

More newspapers and print publications will go out of business -- I hate to actually say this one is dead on. All you have to read are the following articles on the demise of newspapers across the US.

San Francisco Chronicle Might Shut Down

Denver Rocky Mountain News Shuts Down

Derby Daily Reporter Shutting Down

Taconic Group Newspapers Shut Down

Accuracy: Dead On

Weaker online sites will see advertising revenue sales fall – the economy is not only pushing pure “print” revenue down, but newspapers online revenue as well as “pure play” digital advertising is taking a hit as budgets get tight.

Search Revenue Falling

Online Video Ad Revenue Decreasing

Digital Shops Begin to Feel Effects of the Economy

Accuracy: Dead On

Sponsorships will take a beating….

RBS Sports Sponsorships

Sports Sponsorships Take a Beating

Accuracy: Dead On

Social Websites will see a decrease in ad revenue –

Accuracy: Too early to tell

Community development will be a priority – marketers will engage differently with the end customer by developing stronger communities and/or engaging with current standing communities.

Accuracy: Too early to tell

Rise of the “Un-Badged Employee” – most people use reviews before making a product or service purchase… but in an economic downturn, that input revs up to make sure the purchase is what the consumer wants. Check out this article.

Accuracy: Dead on

SEO will become more important – with decreased budgets, SEM will also feel the budget pinch, so advertisers will focus more attention on SEO to decrease costs and increase search page placement.

US Search Spending Falters

Accuracy: Too early to tell

Again, mobile will struggle – tough to tell right now… but keep your eyes/ears tuned in the coming months.

Mobile Marketing Watch Newsletter

Accuracy: Too early to tell

Google will continue to gain share – ok this is a “duh” prediction, I admit it. But with Yahoo in turmoil, the recent layoffs, Microsoft not making headway on revenue in the online space… Google will extend it’s lead – either by sure will might and force or through acquisition.

Google’s Share Extends

Accuracy: Dead On

Online Upfronts get more momentum –

Accuracy: Too early to tell (but if I was a betting man) – I’d say I’m way off on this one. Prices are falling as demand craters… who wants to get locked in on long term inventory when the short term rates continue to fall.

Digital television platform (aka Canoe Ventures) will get serious attention – Certainly the new administration pushing back the digital transition date didn’t help, but frankly with the advertising world in a tail spin right now, Canoe still holds promise of better targeting….although I think most advertisers wished it were live and ready to go today.

Accuracy: Too early to tell

CRM and database marketing will make a comeback – well I’m not seeing it yet… although my email box is deluged daily with a great deal more email than ever, but I can’t attribute that to better CRM or just desperation on behalf of marketers. Plus, with the economy in the dumper, big tech projects are harder to sell unless they can guarantee a result.

Accuracy: Seems I was a bit too optimistic

Media inventory costs will decline – regardless of whether you’re buying upfront or not. This one is definitely on track… with the networks taking a bath on inventory, newspapers having difficulty selling pages prices are falling. What’s concerning is we’re only in March…what will this look like in July?

Accuracy: Dead On

Scott

Project Canoe

Scott Berg — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:18:00 GMT

We’re doing a joint blog post this week – Colin Linggo is joining me to discuss Project Canoe. So this past week we had the pleasure of having David Verklin – the new CEO of Canoe Ventures speak to the marketing leadership at HP regarding the company and it’s plans for changing the way people interact with television.

For those of you not familiar with David, all you have to do is Google his name and you’ll get a ga-zillion hits as he is the former CEO of Aegis Media. I’ve heard David speak on a number of occasions and have found his discussions to be extremely thought provoking, controversial at times – but always leaving me with more questions to ponder.

So, for those of you not familiar with Canoe – I direct you some articles on AdWeek, TechCrunch, NYT.com, to get a better understanding. We’re now referring to Canoe as a television platform on steroids!

The part of the discussion which we’ll focus on specific product areas and possible implications:

Addressability – or “targeting” has been an online buzzword for years, but TV has been lagging in this basic online advertising feature. Los Angeles’ interconnect, also known as AdLink, was one of the major DMA’s to employ a technology called AdTag and AdCopy to segment the market and customizing specific messages across it’s footprint. This technology has been around since 2004, but only at the local level. Similar to AdLink, Canoe’s first national go-to-market product is called Creative Versioning Platform which marries the cable industry’s ad zones with demographic databases, and this will offer national advertisers more targeted, relevant and effective advertising with commercials that run simultaneously across the national market with different messages and tags. Although national addressability (or NA) is rudimentary at first, this will be the foundation Canoe will be build upon.

So who might this impact... How about consumer banking? Although there is a major consolidation in recent weeks with consumer banks, they still have specific audiences they are trying to target with their diverse banking products. Imagine Bank of America’s Private Wealth Management group only targeting household income over $150k with one specific message and another message for free checking account for households less than $75k. Or how about Purina dog food for only dog owners? Did you know that 40% of all U.S. TV households own a dog? The opportunities are endless.

Data – will be a major emphasis in Canoe’s charter. Nielsen’s TV ratings methodology has been the currency in which TV advertising deals are negotiated for as long as I can remember. For anyone that sold or bought television knows that Nielsen people meters are only a sample size of the U.S. TV viewing habits. How could this be a true reflection of whom and what people are actually viewing? In the very near future, Canoe will have the ability to measure and monitor viewing via their set top boxes, second by second data by each box. Look familiar? That’s right, the Internet! These boxes will have in-dept and granular data for programmers and advertisers alike. Could this revolutionize how we negotiate TV deals in the future? We shall see…

Voting & Polling – basically being able to use your remote control buttons to vote or answer a poll that shows up discreetly in the corner of your TV. Now this might seem like basic “internet” technology, but think about it from a consumer engagement perspective. As opposed to having to call in to case your vote for American Idol or Dancing with the Stars -- you could simply click the remote control. Or how about during the Super Bowl – as opposed to having Madison Avenue Think Tanks tell us which ads “won” – the consumer could actually vote. And the obvious one, happening right now are the Presidential Debates and Vice Presidential Debate… as opposed to having to do polls after the event, viewers could cast their vote immediately.

So who might this impact….How about cell phone companies, internet surveys and possibly research companies who rely on the internet, telephone or in-person interviews to get quick answers to simple voting, etc.

Request for Information (RFI) – another basic feature with high potential. Basically requesting information on a product/service, etc. via your remote control through a visual that comes up on your TV screen. Now I’ve used this service with my TIVO device to receive information on the new Land Rover vehicles – and it worked great. So imagine being able to have mass network commercials running and people requesting a coupon, information, etc. Pretty powerful stuff – high level of tracking, reduced costs of doing “mass” mailings, ability to test different offers or creative, etc. etc.

T-Commerce – or purchasing products by using your remote control via a TV infomercial or commercial. Now you can sit down and watch The Home Shopping Network and purchase today – but you have to call in, give them your credit card number and sit in front of HSN for hours/days/weeks to find what you might want vs. having it appear as a 1 minute TV ad while you’re watching House and then allowing you to purchase it. What could be better – you buy it during your favorite show, have it billed to your cable bill, have it shipped to your house (as the cable co. has your address) and you pay for it at the end of the month.

So who might this impact….How about credit card companies to begin with! And if the cable company offered to finance the purchases, they could create their own finance companies – similar to auto dealers. That’s called “extra income.”

As we see it, the key to all of this is getting all the cable MSO’s to agree on technology, platforms, compensation, etc. If the MSO owners don’t see the benefits clearly or get greedy, the whole thing could fall apart – and the hope for a true national platform to conduct business through the cable box would be lost. Frankly, I don’t see that the MSO’s have much choice – with ad revenue falling, the percent of each hour the local stations have to sell, and the competition from the internet, search, etc.

If anyone can pull them together and get this project accomplished it’s David Verklin…

Colin Linggo & Scott Berg

The Internationalist

Scott Berg — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 21:02:00 GMT

If you’re not familiar with the publication The Internationalist…. I suggest you check it out. Deborah Malone who is Publisher of The Internationalist is known globally as an expert on media and marketing. Anyone who has interest in international (for that fact domestic) marketing can gain the thoughts of leading marketing and agency folks from around the globe. Just like going to a fancy conference, but in the leisure of your home.

I was fortunate enough to be interviewed with folks much smarter than myself regarding the changing world of marketing.

Scott

If A Client Created a Stop Sign....

Scott Berg — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 16:05:00 GMT

I had this video sent to me the other day... and after laughing for 10 minutes.... I realized it also shows the reality of the sometimes insane situation we as clients put our agencies and partners through on a daily basis.

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Scott

What’s the Most Important Media Type During a Recession??

Scott Berg — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 15:26:00 GMT

With the Dow dropping nearly 20% the US economy seems to be poised for a technical “bear” market. Not that the word “technical” means a whole lot, when you have commodity prices rising driving an inflationary marketplace.

But with that in mind, and with the announcement from Zenith media in which they cut the rest of the years media forecast by .03% (from a previous increase of 3.7% to a revised 3.4%), so what’s a marketer to do? And where should you invest your dollars to maximize the highest ROMI?

A number of factors play into these types of decisions, but let’s hash through a few of today’s market and customer realities.

Gas Prices – with gas prices around $4.00 per gallon, the consumer is trying to combine trips, limit overall travel, etc.
Pocketbook Squeeze – with not only gas going up, but the costs of food, clothing, etc. also being pushed upward, the consumer is searching for the lowest possible cost.

Here’s how and why I’d rank my media choices based on the before mentioned consumer challenges….

Search – allowing the consumer to find the lowest price and/or check the availability of the product before running out can work to your advantage.
Point of Sale – boost up those POS signs in store to drive impulse purchases.
Web Site – ensure your web site is optimized for search; landing pages are extra easy to navigate and drive to checkout quickly. And use the web site to advertise sales, discounts, low shipping costs, etc.
Interactive Banners – driving demand generation banners which allow the consumer to actually purchase the product at a lower cost (while keeping shipping costs manageable) is another way to help the consumer and gain market share. Make it easy, fast and cost efficient.
Radio – it’s cheap on a per GRP basis, easy to target and can be used to get the message out about a sale or discount. The key I believe is to ensure you have plenty of frequency during afternoon drive and be sure to list out locations so the consumer can make a “quick” stop to pickup the item(s). My recommendation… weekday’s afternoon drive/weekends during the entire day part when shopping is at it’s highest.
Newspaper – yes newspaper… but I would use it only on key shopping days such as Saturday or Sunday.

Others that should also be considered but I won't rank include: direct mail, email, etc. All the other media types fall off my list at this point for demand generation, because either the cost is a bit too high or the return is bit too low.

Needless to say, regardless of the media type, you must spend money during recessionary times to make money… they key is investing it appropriately.

Scott