Digital Lifescapes

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...

According to a June 2010 survey by King Fish Media, HubSpot and Junta42, a remarkable 72 percent of the polled American business leaders said that they now had a social media marketing strategy. eMarketer reports that the companies surveyed 457 U.S. marketers and managers -- 52 percent of respondents were in the publishing, media, advertising and marketing industries. Those findings are among the highest percentage from surveys that polled whether U.S. marketers had a social strategy. In May 2010, Digital Brand Expressions found that 52 percent of marketers had no plan -- similar to the 50 percent of poll participants in an April 2010 study by R2integrated. King Fish and its partners found that 75 percent of the companies with a social strategy said they planned to increase their marketing budget investment in the coming year. A February 2010 survey by Duke University's Fuqua School of Business found that survey respondents were devoting 5.6 percent of their marketing bud...

Who should lead our social media marketing activity? It's a question being asked frequently, but the answer can vary greatly from one organization to another. Initially, it's wise to focus on the skilled people within your qualified talent pool -- or, talent puddle, as the case may be -- rather than choosing a functional group. Meaning, the possession of proven experience should be a key deciding factor in leader selection. eMarketer reports that it's quickly becoming common wisdom among marketers that a meaningful strategy is required to apply social media tools effectively. That doesn't mean a majority of those involved in the space have created a well-thought-out approach. According to a May 2010 market study by Digital Brand Expressions, 52 percent of marketers using social media are operating "without a game plan" -- similar to the 50 percent found in April 2010 by R2integrated. Many marketers that do have a strategy find it doesn't address ...

Forward-looking companies are turning their attention to social media sites, but are neglecting the Mobile Internet channel for deepening customer relationships, according to the latest market study by Econsultancy and digital agency, cScape. While presence on social networks has almost doubled from 23 to 44 percent of companies and use of micro-blogging has gone up five-fold (from 7 to 35 percent) year-on-year, only 11 percent of companies surveyed are planning a significant investment in the mobile channel. A large proportion (41 percent) of companies are not planning any investment at all in mobile in 2010, while a further 49 percent are planning only limited investment. Why is there this inaction, given the increased use of multimedia-enabled mobile smartphones and the groundswell adoption of Mobile Internet apps in 2009? Over half of marketers blame this inertia on a lack of experienced human resources -- which was also cited as an obstacle to improving online engagement in gener...

eMarketer reports that while social network advertising gets the attention, it's only one of many ways marketers can reach customers. Social networks can be used for branding, improving customer loyalty, lead generation, direct marketing and e-commerce. "The beauty of social networks is that they are a place where nearly any marketing goal can be achieved, with nearly any marketing tactic," said Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer senior analyst. Common wisdom over the past few years has been that people are interested in interacting with social network friends, not marketers. Not so, according to Anderson Analytics May 2009 survey -- 52 percent of social network users had become a fan or follower of a company or brand, while 46 percent had said something good about a brand or company, that's double the percentage who had said something negative (23 percent). In a December 2008 MarketingSherpa survey, 92 percent of respondents said social media marketing was effective at ...

eMarketer reports that the Social Media Marketing bandwagon is in motion, according to the latest market study from Equation Research. Their survey of U.S. brand marketers found the majority already using social media. Some marketers were planning on adding social media activities over the next year, including 15 percent of respondents in businesses with fewer than 50 employees and 24 percent of those whose companies had at least 500 employees. The most popular social media channels for brand and agency marketers were Facebook, Twitter, online videos and blogs -- each used by more than one-half of survey respondents. Respondents reported common barriers to social media adoption. Among brand marketers, 37 percent did not know enough about social media to begin, and another 37 percent said there was no good way to measure its effectiveness (seriously, compared to traditional "leap-of-faith" mass media marketing?). Agency marketers reiterated those concerns, and were also likely...

According to the latest survey from Reardon Smith Whittaker (RSW), the economy has had a negative effect on the business of 87 percent of U.S. advertising and PR agencies -- and 91 percent of their clients. Could this actually be a good thing for Digital Marketing professionals? In the first half of 2009, 55 percent of clients had spending decreases of 6 percent or more. In addition, 35 percent expect to see marketing spending fall by 6 percent or more in the second half of the year. Fifty percent of agency clients spent more on e-mail marketing than the previous year. Almost one-third of clients increased their commitment to search engine optimization (SEO), while 56 percent and 28 percent did the same for social media and online display, respectively. "If you don't have a good grasp of new media, you had better get on it," recommended RSW analysts in their report of the apparent survey results. Creative talent and business savvy is in demand, regardless of the current e...

Marketers worldwide are shifting their budgets into cheaper, more measurable categories. In most cases, that means online marketing. Meanwhile, traditional advertising and PR firms use their industry associations to spread FUD that new methods aren't effective. Regardless, these legacy firm's concerted smear campaign is clearly failing to stop the continued exodus of even their most loyal customers. In a survey by the Society of Digital Agencies (SoDA), 81 percent of respondents said they plan to invest at least as much in digital marketing in 2009 as in the previous year. Ironically, more than 77 percent of traditional advertising agencies are increasing the amount of digital in their budgets by 1 percent to 29 percent. And over 10 percent are upping online budgets by 30 percent or more. In addition, about 15 percent of digital agencies, digital service providers and freelancers plan to increase digital budgets by 30 percent or more. Brand agencies were least likely to add to ...

eMarketer estimates there were about 116 million U.S. user-generated content consumers in 2008, along with 82.5 million content creators. Both numbers are forecast to climb significantly by 2013. Clearly, today's marketer must understand the various activities that constitute digital content creation and consumption. And, to appreciate the complexities of the content ecosystem. But, is it really possible to describe a quantum leap in culture by simply applying new persona labels? In a 2008 Forrester Research attempted to segment user-generated content participants into the following groups: Creators : Those who make social content go. Critics : Those who respond to content via reviews, comments, forums. Collectors : Those who aggregate and organize content using RSS feeds, tags and voting sites. Joiners : Those who gather around social communities. Spectators : Those who consume user-generated content but do not respond to it publicly. Inactives : Those who neither create nor consu...

Has traditional advertising and public relations lost its prior influence on the public? That was the overriding question that the authors of the book " Groundswell : winning in a world transformed by social technologies" left me to consider. Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, both of Forrester Research, have written a balanced perspective regarding the implications of social technologies impact within the marketplace. Granted, this is the type of commentary that can be interpreted in several different ways. That said, as mass-media buyers apply their legacy skills in measuring impressions and imprints, you can't help but wonder if those metrics -- and therefore the results being reported -- have any meaningful relevance or benefit to advertisers. High Price of Mass-Media Irrelevance Likewise, when assessing the results of traditional public relations investments, if the vast majority of people that are exposed to the carefully crafted content have learned to disregard...

Marketers need an intuitive framework that allows them to move away from treating customers as generic segments to focusing on an individual's buying process, according to the latest market study by Forrester Research. Forrester's assessment says that the framework must align with the multifaceted buying process of today, not the linear process of the past. How can marketers evolve? The answer is engagement -- the level of involvement, interaction, intimacy, and influence that a person has with a brand over time. It's the new approach necessary for mapping intricate customer behaviors into an actionable strategy while aligning them with the buying process. Engagement measurement encompasses the quantitative and qualitative metrics collected from both online and offline channels. It comprises the concrete individual metrics from store visits and online purchases, to the softer, aggregated insights from brand awareness studies, sentiment, loyalty, and advocacy. Four component...

In the very serious world of business technology and enterprise networking, is there ever a time and a place for fun and games? Cisco Systems believes that time has come, and they want you and I to join in and play along with them. Cisco has apparently found a new way to make routers fun -- yes, I really do mean entertaining. Bloggers like Brian Boyko previously shared their perspective on the initial Cisco EDGE QUEST game launch. And now Paul Young has written a commentary about the recently launched tournament of aces that offers a $10,000 prize to the winner. Cisco's Doug Webster says "Our intent with this game is to find new ways to engage with our customers and to have fun in the process." Will the company's newfound embrace of digital marketing practices change people's perspectives about the world's leading networking equipment provider. I think it will. "We've become a society where video and web 2.0 collaboration applications are shapin...

Forrester Research surveyed both client-side marketers and advertising agencies to measure attitudes toward agency effectiveness. Agencies believe that they play a critical role in marketing success, but marketers now see things very differently. On aggregate, agencies score a dismal Net Promoter rating of -21 percent. This negative rating is reflected in the market performance of advertising holding companies -- despite sales growth, their earnings per share lag behind the S&P 500 and profit margins are being squeezed. Despite the poor Net Promoter rating, traditional Ad and PR agencies still wield a great degree of influence in the marketing organization. Although marketers claim they are unwilling to recommend agency services, few believe that alternatives exist. However, marketers clearly need help to reach customers who increasingly tune out their marketing communications. Advertising agencies started as media placement brokers in the 19th century, and some attempted to evolv...

The traditional role of corporate and agency public relations (PR) has reached an important juncture, as the growing body of informed citizen journalists gain market momentum and a multitude of social media platforms enable the potential for self-publication. Being relevant, and newsworthy, can be an ongoing struggle. Historically, the distinction between advertising and PR was that the latter is meant to be inherently newsworthy. That said, most people on the receiving end of today's typical technology sector "professionally produced" press release would argue that this objective is not being met, most of the time. Regardless, the vast majority of the current investment in PR is centered on this 20th Century activity-oriented marketing communications (Marcom) busy work. But the people who pay the bill for this activity are now demanding a measurable ROI, and this has forced PR professionals into a mode of creative exploration and experimentation. Some PR folk talk of the...

The iPhone is a new device that has the potential to turn the mobile phone world on its ear, and with the Apple product expected to be available this June, Harris Interactive recently took a quick pulse of American adults to determine their awareness. Although iPhone is not yet a household word, 47 percent of respondents were aware of the product and a full 17 percent expressed interest in purchasing it, which makes for a pretty loud buzz from consumers for a product that isn't yet available. I wonder, does any competitor doubt Apple's marketing savvy, or their compelling approach to product launches? Perhaps a more interesting question to ask is when U.S. adults would buy this product. Of those expressing interest to purchase, nine percent say they would buy at product launch and another eight percent would buy before their current wireless service contract expired. About 17 percent say they would wait for their current wireless contract to expire before purchasing, and 25 per...

Every day I receive press releases from PR people who are announcing a new product or service launch, and while most are well intentioned they rarely stimulate my interest because they're simply not newsworthy -- from my point of view, as an industry analyst and columnist. In contrast, every once in a while I will read about the retirement of a product or a complete product-line, and while the story is rarely offered to me by the source company -- as a press release -- I sometimes feel compelled to go in search of more information. Why? Mostly because I have a personal sense of attachment, or I seek the historical perspective. What's the story? As an example, when I read the headline "RIP - Dell Axim" on the MobilitySite I was immediately curious. You see, I own a Dell Axim X30 pocket PC, and I have used it extensively for several years. I've also purchased accessories, like the extra-capacity battery, folding keyboard, and SD memory expansion card. The X30 was ...

A new report from Portio Research forecasts a healthy future for SMS, which continues to be the shinning star of the mobile data services show with traffic volumes and revenues that continue to confound predictions. Although the growth of SMS revenues will not be as aggressive as the growth of SMS volumes due to declining prices, by 2012 global SMS revenues are expected to reach $67 billion, driven by 3.7 trillion messages. The report, "Mobile Messaging Futures 2007 - 2012" outlines an exciting future for other mobile messaging technologies especially instant messaging and mobile e-mail amid continued strong worldwide subscriber growth. If there was one message this report should get across it is this -- SMS continues to be a phenomenal success as the cheapest, quickest and easiest to use form of peer-to-peer mobile communication. Markets have continued to grow and greatly exceeded the predictions of similar research carried out in previous years. SMS traffic has not flattene...

According to a strategic leadership study conducted by Louws Management Corporation, while 80 percent of 711 advertising agency and marketing professionals surveyed said they are very aware of their company's brand positioning, only one fourth of them can clearly articulate their company's brand position. This includes 30 percent of senior management, notes the report. The Louws study makes several critical observations regarding the use of advertising and PR tools that would lead to strategic solutions for clients. One conclusion of the study report is that with companies placing more emphasis on establishing superior business strategy, strategic planning skills are still not a priority, and strategic, media and creative briefs are not generating measurable or innovative outcomes. Other detailed study findings include: - 41.5 percent of respondents agree that strategic thinking is a lost art, but 89 percent feel that their agency provides proactive strategic brand and market...

It's not a niche anymore. Nearly half of B2B respondents report that they have used online marketing tactics this year. "The B2B Digital Marketing Shift" study, conducted for American Business Media (ABM) by Forrester Research, interviewed 867 B2B marketers from a number of industries to gauge their views, and current practices, on brand building, lead generation and market spending. The findings indicate that the online channel is continuing to grow. First and foremost, B2B marketers feel that industry-specific marketing -- including trade shows, magazines and websites -- are more effective than general magazines or websites. No surprise there, perhaps, but when probed further, the marketers revealed a shift toward digital media, with 49 percent of them currently using that format. The B2B marketers who are spending at least some of their budgets on the Internet report spending 24 percent of those budgets online. When it comes to the future of B2B marketing, respondents...