Who is in control of your brand?

After 2 weeks in my new role (working with exceptionally smart people), and reading this post my feelings/opinions around marketing have been reinforced. I’ve put together a series of posts to cover a range of topics.

Marketing at it’s core is simple and obvious, the world ISN’T changing dramatically, we’re just creates of habit and have become set in weird and wonderful ways. As a digital marketing strategist I’m proud to believe that mass / traditional media works. Buzz words like engagement, relationships, dialogue, feedback 3.0 are ways for people to talk around real outcomes and facts. Marketing is ALL ABOUT SALES, sure, engagement is great, but do we sell more product now or in the future?

The topics I’ll cover:

1. Buzz words, headlines and stupidity

2. People are people with core desires

3. Broadcast media works

4. Digital media is too accountable

5. Social media experts can’t exist

6. Marketing is inevitably about sales

7. Outcomes are key

These are issues that I deal with on a day-to-day basis as a Digital Marketing Strategist helping organisations connect with their audience. I felt the need to share them.

Dave

So, my good mate, David Campell decided to sell up and move to Londontown. From everything I’d heard late last year the world was about to explode/implode and big cities were being hit hard. Sydney certainly felt it, with most big advertising agencies having global mandates to free all hires, and even fire people.

That makes David insane really, well, he’s a digital creative director, and proportionallty (considering population differences) he found that there there were 10x as many digital creative director roles in London to Sydney… Weird, I thought London was about to implode?

Emma

Then when another mate Emma Rhys flew through town for a wedding, over a quick coffee I discovered that maybe London would be a better place to be as she’s getting offers left right and centre. She’s a digital producer.

This post was prompted by the following article in B&T’s daily email out.

Source: B&T Today

The economic downturn has led to a 30% cut in marketing budgets and the transfer of marketing dollars from traditional areas to digital, according to Joseph Payne, CEO of global online marketing firm Eloqua.

In Sydney for the Ernst & Young’s CEO Roundtable “Creating and Sustaining Business Growth”, Payne said: “We are seeing a shift of business dollars to online marketing with business purchasing search terms, raw lead sources and technology to generate and manage pipeline leads.” Payne also encouraged companies to focus on bringing in business leads from both sales and marketing.

Marketing Decisions CEO William McNamara, on of Eloqua’s Australian partners, said: “These companies recognise that in times like this you would be a brave chief marketing officer reporting on a new branding initiative to the board rather than describing, via numbers, how many new leads you are qualifying for sales to convert, and how many have indeed converted.”

McNamara added that tough economic times have witnessed a “shift from broad spend on advertising to specific measurable programs that generate leads”.Eloqua is a provider of demand generation applications, while Marketing Decisions is a b2b marketing agency.

This is all great news for people in digital (*waves*) as we’re used to delivering high & short term ROI. But my only concern is that digital may be perceived as only that, a DM channel, not a place for building reputation, loyalty and long term ROI… We will see.

So what does all this mean? Move to London? Become a ‘social media consultant’? Don’t listen to Dave? Start up a new TV channel? I dunno, but there are opportunities where you want to see them.

(PS I’m starting a new job on Monday, I’ll let you know more later. One thing I can say is that I’m looking forward to it.)

Just found IBM’s guidelines for staff to use social media thanks to a friend on Twitter.

There are lots of words, and as you’d expect from an IT company, no pictures. So read it at your own will (all 2701 words).

Here are the highlights for me, not all new ideas, but a very good balance of all areas to consider when venturing into the scary world of social media.

Anything they’ve missed?

Whether or not an IBMer chooses to create or participate in a blog, wiki, online social network or any other form of online publishing or discussion is his or her own decision. However, emerging online collaboration platforms are fundamentally changing the way IBMers work and engage with each other, clients and partners.

IBM is increasingly exploring how online discourse through social computing can empower IBMers as global professionals, innovators and citizens. These individual interactions represent a new model: not mass communications, but masses of communicator

IBMers are personally responsible for the content they publish on blogs, wikis or any other form of user-generated media. Be mindful that what you publish will be public for a long time—protect your privacy.

Identify yourself—name and, when relevant, role at IBM—when you discuss IBM or IBM-related matters. And write in the first person. You must make it clear that you are speaking for yourself and not on behalf of IBM.

Respect your audience. Don’t use ethnic slurs, personal insults, obscenity, or engage in any conduct that would not be acceptable in IBM’s workplace. You should also show proper consideration for others’ privacy and for topics that may be considered objectionable or inflammatory—such as politics and religion.

Find out who else is blogging or publishing on the topic, and cite them.

Try to add value. Provide worthwhile information and perspective. IBM’s brand is best represented by its people and what you publish may reflect on IBM’s brand.

Be who you are. Some bloggers work anonymously, using pseudonyms or false screen names. IBM discourages that in blogs, wikis or other forms of online participation that relate to IBM, our business or issues with which the company is engaged. We believe in transparency and honesty. If you are blogging about your work for IBM, we encourage you to use your real name, be clear who you are, and identify that you work for IBM. Nothing gains you more notice in the online social media environment than honesty—or dishonesty. If you have a vested interest in something you are discussing, be the first to point it out. But also be smart about protecting yourself and your privacy. What you publish will be around for a long time, so consider the content carefully and also be judicious in disclosing personal details.

Speak in the first person. Use your own voice; bring your own personality to the forefront; say what is on your mind.

Be the first to respond to your own mistakes. If you make an error, be up front about your mistake and correct it quickly. In a blog, if you choose to modify an earlier post, make it clear that you have done so.

Don’t forget your day job. You should make sure that your online activities do not interfere with your job or commitments to customers.

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This post may not win me any friends, but I’ve needed to get this off my chest for a long time.

Marketer of company X needs to reach their ‘target market’ with a message and influence them to buy/like their product.

So they have options, radio, magazines, newspaper, TV, direct marketing and other stuff.

With all of these media they try to reach as many of their demographic as possible, but there will always be wastage, i.e. you’ll reach people to don’t intend on reach.

EXAMPLE 1: Lets try TV as a channel

So Jane, the marketer, buys some ads on TV, and she’s targeting mothers so she places the ad during desperate house wives. Great, good TV show (Jane likes it) and channel 7 say it’s predicted to reach 100,000 people (its actually much higher) and the TV station ‘knows’ that 60% of them are mothers. So Jane reachs 60,000 mothers. Simple. Great. Sounds ridiculously awesome. And on the surface it is, but there are some MASSIVE assumptions in here.

The way they know 100,000 people watch the TV show and 60% of them are female is because the TV industry pays people to do surveys. They’ll have samples in each region i.e. Melbourne CBD. So 2000 people complete a survey, whether its digital or log book isn’t the point (although there are massive differences), and they find that of those people 50% watch desperate house wives, so they scale that % up, and based on Melbourne CBD’s population that equals 100,000 (it doesn’t but you get my drift).

So in terms of accountability there are some major flaws:

1. Its based on averages, based on surveys, so many assumptions

2. Just because some was ‘watching the show’ doesn’t mean they were there when the adverts were on, or were they playing with their laptop

3. And there could be 6 people sitting on the couch, who counts as a viewer?

So when channel 7 come back to you on Tuesday with your report saying you actually overshot your target and reached 65,000 mothers, you actually have NO IDEA.

They’re saying that more of the surveys said they were watching desperate house wives, and they saw the advert, and you’re assuming that the average is the same for all of Melbourne CBD…

EXAMPLE 2: So now let’s talk about the Internet

Let’s say in this instance that Jane buys some adverts on MSN Recipe Finder, they say you’re like to reach 100,000 people and of those 60% are mothers. Sounds fair and decent right?

Then they give you a report after the campaign that shows you overshot your target and reached 65,000 mothers. Fantastic! But wait, thats the same as TV, and Jane likes Desperate House Wives…

There’s one thing I didn’t mention, the report that MSN give Jane is ACTUAL count of the exact number of people (unique visitors) that they reached. Now there are some technical debates about ‘unique visitors’ but its neither here nor there in the scheme of things.

COMPARISON: Measurement TV vs Internet

Both TV and Internet delivered a report that said they reached 65,000 mothers. The only difference is that the TV stats are based on a small sample survey with the findings extrapolated out, whereas the Internet stats are based on things that actually hapenned.

WHY?

Every time you visit a website, download a file or view an image the activity is recorded. ACTUAL ACTIVITY NOT A SURVEY.

And the others?

Well radio, TV, Bus Shelters/Billboards (OOH), magazines and newspapers are all based on LESS complex systems than TV. Resulting in human error, forgetfulness and well its a boring survey.

SO WHY THE RANT?

Paul Fisher, IAB

Well, Paul Fisher, CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Australia, is focused on increasing the ‘measureability’ of the Internet…. He’s the representative of the Internet as a marketing channel, and he’s out and about saying that its not accountable? WHAT THE? Sorry, but there are much more important issues here to deal with than this. (NB: It seems to be an international focus for the IAB, not just Australia)

There was a story in today’s DIGITAL MEDIA Journal, we also interviewed him on Love Digital a few months back, and he was harping on about the same thing… GRRR.

We can no longer hold our heads up high and say unique browser is the metric we use to measure. Let’s find a metric that works, that people believe in.

From my experience, my clients are overwhelmed by the accountability, to a point that it sometimes can be over-analysed and they end up going with something with less accountability but it ‘feels’ right. (It’s happened more than you’d think).

UPDATE: Paul was interviewed by Mumbrella today with a mention of education and training… That’s what I’m talking about, wonder if anything will happen?

I’d put it out there for Paul to respond or what do you think the IAB should be doing…?

This is the IAB’s mission, as stated on their homepage

1) To promote the standardisation of ad formats
2) To ensure timeliness and transparency of industry data
3) To educate the marketplace about the value of online advertising

I think they’re completely mising the mark with number 3… Contrastly, Free TV Australia are kicking arse at education with ThinkTV.com.au promoting the pants off TV. It certainly persuades me of the benefits of TV Advertising.

… So now you might see why Love Digital was formed. Through this we’re interviewing international and national gurus like Seth Godin, Joseph Jaffe and loads more… With no support of the IAB… weird?

Am I the only one that thinks this? What do you think?

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Hello

G’day I’m Simon T Small. This blog is a running commentary on marketing and digital media in Australia. Digital media should be seen as a marketing channel; a hybrid of everything from Direct Marketing to customer service to mass media marketing. It’s very powerful, it can be good or bad for you depending on how you approach it. To keep in touch subscribe to the RSS feed, my Twitter, Friend Feed.

Be one of the 35% of Australians and my favourite kind of reader by leaving a comment, its the best compliment you can give.

As social media analysts and consultants fall off the pages of the AFR and mainstream media, the excitement is rapidly declining.

In 2009 excitement will be replaced with its less glamorous older cousin ‘measurement‘. People and brands around the world have experiemented with all kinds of social media and its been fun, but now its time to count the cookies, and deliver solid a ROI.

Kate over at Social Abacus brings together the predictions of industry leaders, analysts and researchers on social measurement in 2009.

Top 4 predictions for 2009:

* We will substantially advance our understanding of individuals and the meaningful connections they have.

* We will identify methods to tap what people are *really* thinking, feeling, and paying attention to, meanwhile gaining insight on what a measurement is truly capturing.

* We will determine how to measure the value of social interactions and attach financial value, whether we’re monetizing attention or a new medium.

* We will build better tools to manage– analyze and visualize– massive volumes of data, primarily tapping the evolving social graph.

Jye Smith, over at ‘a digital perspective‘ has posted Ravi Prasad’s views on the highlights of 2008 and what the future brings for digital media.

I agree with many of his predictions, but for me the key points of his post are:

1. Traditional agencies still aren’t getting it

I was left with the impression that many major agencies, brands and media groups don’t yet ‘get it’ or are resistant to the evolution of the media space – this resistance was sometimes at very senior levels and within groups of powerful decision makers. For me, encountering this resistance raised some interesting questions, but I’ll come back to this at the end

2. Marketers, brands and agencies are slower than consumers

The biggest lesson to be learnt is that by 2013 advertising agencies, brands and marketers will have caught up to what consumers were doing in 2009.

3. Follow the consumers, Facebook and MySpace are just the start, more are on their way

In 2009, look for more platforms defined by target market demographics (and dispositions) and less by USPs or other brand propositions.

Social media, in general will evolve with speed and we’ll see a lot of new utility from existing platforms.

4. TV will continue to play catch-up with ABC leading the charge

By 2013, TV networks are in full blown crisis.

Video sharing platforms will now have a bigger share of audience than some networks.

Networks would have turned to a raft of different things to stop the haemorrhaging. All those cool things that the ABC Digital department are doing (think of what they did with programs like the Gruen Transfer to foster online interaction with the show) will be standard practice across most of the programming on most networks – including drama.

5. And his final wrap-up of what 2013 will look like

Given resistance to change from senior brands, agencies and marketers, and the inevitable necessity that change has to happen, I think my final prediction is this: by 2013 there will be a massive change in leadership underway amongst senior brands, agencies and marketers. This will be driven by a crisis or relevancy. We will see, among other things, entirely new classes of marketing, strategic and creative businesses.

You can read the full article here

http://jyesmith.com/a-digital-perspective-ravi-prasad-head-of-strategy-topia/2008/12/16/