Digital Lifescapes

I read the book “ Connecting the Dots ” by John Chambers from the perspective of an industry insider, having worked within the internet sector since the mid-90s, and also previously as an employee at Cisco Systems for six years. I believe that Mr. Chambers was instrumental in helping to make ‘strategic communications’ an essential part of the company’s high-growth culture. Therefore, I’ll elaborate on a key topic, highlighted in Chapter Four of the book -- “Embrace Your Purpose, Not Your Products.” Cisco is often referred to as a ‘bellwether’ stock, meaning it’s a leading indicator of the direction of the economy, or of a sector of the market, or the market as a whole. How did Cisco achieve that eminence with a remarkable internet-enabled worldview? It was partly via commercial storytelling . "Together, we did play a critical role in changing how the world works, lives, learns, and plays." - John T. Chambers Rise Above the Me-Too Vendor Noise In an industry that...

When implemented correctly, the potential benefits that Artificial Intelligence (AI) can bring to the digital advertising industry are significant. Enhancing a digital advertising platform's ability to efficiently target the correct audience, while detecting fraudulent publisher activities, would be a huge advantage. According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, the use of AI for advertising purposes overlaps with the development of other applications. For instance, as bots and digital assistants are mechanisms for human to machine communications, the opposite may also be true -- where the AI machine, aware of the user's interests, can be used as a tool for brand advertising. However, the applications of AI in advertising extends beyond this use case. AI for Advertising Market Development That said, what's primarily driving the demand for AI apps in advertising? The Juniper Research study found that advertisers will lose an estimated $19 billio...

Informed management consultants and industry analysts agree, the digital transformation journey begins with the adoption of digital marketing practices that enable companies to evolve beyond obsolete advertising-centric thinking. Today's progressive marketers have embraced change. They've learned new skills and pushed past the fears that were once holding them back. Now, digital marketing is an imperative, and digital commerce is also a top priority, according to the latest market study by Gartner, Inc. The recent Gartner survey also found that marketing budgets increased by 10 percent in 2015, with 61 percent of respondents saying they expect budgets to increase once again in 2016. "There is little doubt that digital marketing is now mainstream," said Yvonne Genovese, group vice president at Gartner . "Marketers no longer make a clear distinction between offline and online marketing disciplines." Gartner believes that as more enterprise customers op...

If you're an American digital marketing practitioner and you're not already optimizing content for the mobile channel, then you are missing both a strategic and tactical market development opportunity. Mobile internet use is a mainstream activity. Mobile media consumption is commonplace. Review the latest market study findings and see for yourself -- mobile content marketing matters. comScore reported the key trends in the U.S. smartphone industry for February 2014. Apple ranked as the top smartphone manufacturer with 41.3 percent OEM market share, while Google Android led as the number one smartphone platform with 52.1 percent platform market share. Google Sites continue to rank as the top mobile media property, while Facebook was the top individual app. Meanwhile, Yahoo has expanded its mobile audience reach and now ranks as the second largest mobile media property in America. Exploring Smartphone OEM Market Share 163.2 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones ...

As the wealth of information and content available online continues to grow at a rapid pace, the environment becomes increasingly difficult for people to navigate. Also, the challenge for online content providers is to ensure their best information assets are being found by their target buyers. Savvy marketers are already utilizing the mobile channel to reach their key target stakeholders online. Why now? Smartphones and media tablets are already mainstream devices that are increasingly being used for the search and discovery of online information -- often just-in-time to make purchase decisions. Juniper Research has revealed that by 2018, the total advertising spend on mobile search and discovery will reach $16.8 billion -- that's up from an estimated $6.4 billion in 2013. According to Juniper's latest global market assessment, while mobile web search will continue to account for the majority share of advertising spend, ads in local search applications will be the faste...

With macro-economic uncertainty continuing in numerous markets around the globe, some chief marketing officers (CMOs) at large multinational companies are already being forced to make dramatic budget cuts to both their staffing levels and the associated annual operating budget. One key area of marketing that’s going to be hit particularly hard is the Corporate Social Media team. These organizations -- led by people who consider themselves as “Social Media Experts” -- are notorious for having difficulty justifying their leap-of-faith expenditures. But the savvy senior executive is no longer intimidated by their jargon, or tolerant of their demands for greater budget allocations. Game over. Experts, or not, they’ve now come under the close scrutiny of their CEO -- just as their counterparts in the legacy PR department did during the end of the 20th century. What’s happening here – and why is it surfacing now? The High-Cost of Low-Quality Business Communication B2B Social M...

Today, what's the primary purpose of the website for a major brand? Should content from social media drive traffic to the brand's website? Or should brand sites drive traffic to social sites? If a brand’s social media activity gets more traffic than its website, is it necessary to maintain both? These are the key questions that eMarketer attempted to answer during their latest market study. Perhaps 2013 is the time to rethink the inherent goal and objectives for maintaining a corporate branded website. Regardless, when potential customers search for online information during their buying cycle, they eventually arrive at a company's primary site. That being said, eMarketer believes that product marketers are typically spending more effort to engage with customers outside of their company website -- on Facebook and numerous other social media channels. Brand web pages are still a primary resource for people seeking information about products and the companies that m...

According to the findings from a recent market study, when generating new content from scratch, establishing prospective customer engagement is a common objective for business-to-business (B2B) marketers. But what constitutes meaningful engagement? Apparently, it's all about the inherent power of a good story. eMarketer reports that eighty-one percent of B2B technology marketers worldwide cited "engaging and compelling storytelling" as the most important elements of effective content marketing. Regardless, few actually practice what they profess -- given the content they routinely produce and distribute as marketing communications professionals. Within the highly technical or complex industry sectors, engagement and originality trumped professional writing when generating content marketing assets. Once again, indicating marketer recognition that customers and prospects will rely on substantive content to make their decisions, we know that people are initially draw...

comScore released the results from a U.S. market study on mobile travel related activities. The results indicate that 51 percent of smartphone owners accessed travel content on their devices during the three month period ending February 2012 -- with nearly 1 in every 5 smartphone owners using their device to book air travel or hotel reservations. "The on-the-go convenience of smartphones has facilitated their emergence as an essential companion for travelers," said Mark Donovan, comScore SVP of mobile. "We all know how hectic a travel experience can be, but smartphones have really stepped in to meet a variety of needs for travelers, such as coordination of schedules, locations, trip itineraries and transactions." With more than half of all smartphone users now engaging with travel content and related apps, there has never been a better opportunity for suppliers and OTAs to invest in their mobile strategies to provide a great experience and win loyalty from thei...

comScore and EXPO released the results of a study on the synergy of professionally-produced video content and related amateur video used in marketing campaigns. The study evaluated an actual campaign that included a combination of a professionally-produced “how to” video and a user-generated product video that was created and submitted by a product user. The results of the study indicate that professionally-produced video content and user-generated product videos are complementary, driving higher levels of sales effectiveness when used together. “This study aimed to answer a critical question for today’s digital advertisers: how do user-generated videos complement professionally-produced content, if at all? What we found was strong evidence of incremental benefit with exposure to both forms of media,” said Frank Findley, Vice President, Research and Development at comScore . In the sample campaign, professionally-produced content and product videos drove strikingly higher lifts w...

There's much to be learned by observing the evolution of mobile device adoption and digital media consumption in the U.S. marketplace. About forty percent of all mobile service subscribers already own a smartphone and about twenty percent of all internet users own a media tablet. That being said, this marketplace will likely move slowly past the early-adopter stage of market development. The reason being: these new devices are still being marketed -- more often than not -- by vendors and mobile network service providers that fail to acknowledge the apparent consumer market segmentation. The problem of communicating the application value and benefits of these products is compounded by tech media journalists and gadget pundits who write product reviews that focus on esoteric feature/function and tech spec comparisons that are meaningless to most mainstream consumers. It's unfortunate, because digital media publishers and most savvy brand advertisers really want to reach th...

Under normal circumstances, a change in business practices typically flounders in the realm of the legacy marketer. Standing on the sidelines -- with no intent to act -- is the norm for too many executives. Any excuse that could be used to rationalize further inaction merely fuels the status quo. Undaunted, the progressives among them will still advance the much needed transformation. According to the latest market study by eMarketer , regardless of the growth of digital marketing practices in leading markets, advertising across all media in Western Europe will grow more slowly than expected -- as a result of the region's economic troubles. eMarketer estimates total media advertising spending in Western Europe will have grown 1.8 percent -- to $114.4 billion by the end of 2011. They previously forecast, in June 2011, that ad spending in the region would grow 3 percent to $115.8 billion in 2011 -- before reaching $120.8 billion in 2012. Online advertising is growing slightly ...

I'm eagerly awaiting my review copy of a new book entitled "Managing Content Marketing: The Real-World Guide to Creating Passionate Subscribers to Your Brand" by Robert Rose and Joe Pulizzi. This book builds on the foundation of "Get Content, Get Customers" that Joe Pulizzi co-wrote with Newt Barrett at the outset of the content marketing phenomenon, back in early 2008. Today, I'm sensing that savvy marketers everywhere are ready to move their budgets away from under-performing advertising, to something that's potentially more appealing to their customers. Yes, it's about time. eMarketer reports that with the average cost-per-lead increasing -- and too many marketers competing for the same buyer's attention -- traditional tactics are no longer enough to influence the sale. Business-to-business (B2B) companies are looking to content marketing as a way to proactively boost their return on investment. “Informative, nonpromotional content i...

We know that the internet is a source of consumer product information and guidance, but how are marketers helping B2B decision-makers . According to the latest assessment by eMarketer , buyers investing in high-cost complex product or service purchases require extensive research and consideration. Typically, these buyers will search for meaningful content online, select a short-list of vendors and solicit peer advice -- in order to finalize their purchase decisions. That said, survey findings from TriComB2B and the University of Dayton School of Business Administration suggest that these buyers are now using their smartphones to gather purchase information. In fact, their market study revealed that 59 percent of B2B purchase decision-makers and influencers had used a smartphone to gather information -- indicating there's a significant group of buyers seeking content sources such as websites, catalogs and insightful blogs. But data indicates few product and service vendor...

I was an early-adopter of the LinkedIn.com platform, having received an invitation from Reid Hoffman shortly after the beta site was launched. Back then, the user experience was very different, because the site was little more than a U.S.-centric online directory of member profiles. The site is now an invaluable worldwide business development tool, for those who apply its unique attributes that enable commercial-oriented interactivity. eMarketer reports that merely a month after its debut as a public company -- and now eight years after its launch -- LinkedIn has recently passed Myspace to become the number two global social networking site in terms of visitors, according to the latest market study by comScore. Marketers can learn how to most effectively reach LinkedIn members by observing how they typically use the site and where they interact on the platform. In July 2011, market research firm Lab42 surveyed LinkedIn users and found that the membership is somewhat engaged. ...

Today's technology-centric business success often hinges on the ability to inform and guide prospective customers who are entering the buying-cycle for complex products and services. However, few marketers have mastered this essential skill -- informing and guiding via digital multimedia content -- in a meaningful way. That said, eMarketer reports that findings from Focus Research indicate business-to-consumer (B2C) marketers are more likely to direct their attention to improving client understanding and retention this year than their business-to-business (B2B) counterparts, who are placing a higher emphasis on filling the sales pipeline. Among B2B marketers, lead acquisition was the top priority for 55 percent of respondents, followed by lead conversion (45 percent). Both B2B and B2C marketers were equally focused on building brand awareness. The inherent complexity of the B2B buying process often requires better sales support tools -- that facilitate and accelerate the ...

Legacy marketers in the U.S. rarely invest the time and effort to understand the interests and needs of their customers, which would enable them to segment the addressable marketplace -- and thereby personalize their offerings. Why is target marketing uncommon? It's hard for someone schooled in traditional mass-marketing methods to make the transition. eMarketer reports that it requires having the market data that can be applied in relevant ways to personalize the marketing creative for each of the target groups. But for those that do the market assessment work and make the transition -- the pay-back can be significant, with personalized offers consistently outperforming the mass-market ones. March 2011 research from web content management provider EPiServer found that a third of U.S. marketers considered personalized campaigns to be highly effective and measurable, with another 14 percent reporting a better response rate than traditional campaigns. But the vast majority ...

Many companies in technology-centric industries like to believe that they employ lots of thought leaders, when in fact they don't. Why are they mistaken? They confuse product subject matter expertise (SME) with real thought-leadership. It's not the same. Moreover, informed people understand the key differences. What is Respected Industry Thought Leadership? According to Craig Bading , who wrote a book on the subject, "Thought Leadership is establishing a relationship with and delivering something of value to your stakeholders and customers that aligns with your brand/company value. In the process you go well beyond merely selling a product or service and establish your brand/company as the expert in that field and differentiate yourself from your competitors." Are you still confused -- does your company employ recognized thought leaders? Let's consider some of the common characteristics of corporate SMEs who are likely NOT industry thought leaders: You a...

Brand marketers in a variety of different industries are beginning to accelerate their multimedia production and distribution efforts. They're acting more like non-fiction storytellers and commercial publishers, as they create new forms of digital content. This established trend was one of the significant themes at South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) 2011. In addition, the early-adoption of Transmedia Storytelling techniques -- by a relative few forward-looking organizations -- was the noteworthy emerging theme. I attended several conference sessions on these topics. Here's my summary of the commentary shared at the event and the apparent implications to savvy marketers. Don't You Dare Call Them Journalists "Brave New World: Debating Brands' Role as Publishers" produced a lively discourse among panelists who believe that purchasing ad space in a trade publication is obsolete. Instead, now marketers just create their own site on the topic. Howev...

Marketers value engagement with their content marketing efforts, because it indicates that people actually care enough to interact. However, according to a recent eMarketer report, while engagement is compelling, 10 marketers might define it in 10 different ways. As the interactive ad format that most attracts brand marketers, much is riding on internet video advertising -- mainly their marketing budget ROI. But are consumers really paying attention to online video ads, when most say they avoid or ignore them on broadcast television channels? As spending for online video rises and takes a bigger slice of the display ad pie, marketers must be confident that they are spending wisely. Engagement may be difficult to quantify abstractly, but is key to the worth of video advertising. "All effective advertising today -- not just video -- requires some degree of audience engagement," said David Hallerman, eMarketer principal analyst. "However, unlike some metrics that pr...