In late August Advertising Age published an article entitled 'Has The Big Shift Began?'. They were refering to a campaign that Pontiac had decided to launch exclusively on the web. According to Pontiac this will cost them 60-70% less than the way it was traditionally done. Six weeks into the campaign, sales had exeeded August goals by 185%.
This story is one of the many stories being told in meeting after meeting on the subject of marketing. Things are changing, but this time it’s different. Last time marketing people went through this it was around 2000. And it all went terribly wrong. Those who had hyped the web were punished, those who were seen as ‘old guard’ were rewarded for their caution. But since it was period of cut back anyway, things didn’t change much. But slowly, the Big Experiment (doing marketing on the web) continued, and as people were getting better, and collecting more data, and the number of consumers online continued to grow.
So what changed?
1. This time it is for real: I think that it is now correct to say that the shift that people had anticipated in the early days of the web is now beginning to transform traditional business. But it was never in the dotcom world that the internet would have the biggest impact but in the traditonal marketing world.
2. The shift is driven by business: People in all field of business are beginning to see that the internet changes the way you think about marketing. It connects sales (lead generation) with branding (marketing) and can be measured. The people in senior management like the sound of that (although most of them still struggle to figure out what it really means).
3. But it is slow and painful for the vast majority of people in the business. Like all changes it can be a very painful experience, especially for those whose entire skill set is based on traditional marketing.
4. Understanding emarketing requires a profound shift of paradigm. Although the word has been overused, it remains true nonethless. To really make use of emarketing, you cannot be content with an understanding of new tools and techniques, you need to switch your entire paradigm and look at things from an entirely new perspective (do I dare call this Markerting 2.0?)
5. It requires learning new skills: of course you need to learn new skills. You should try to blog yourself, take part in online communities, meet lonelygirl15 on YouTube and if you have time go check on SecondLife (but you probably have a few years before it will really matter to your job in marketing).
6. It goes against the vested interest of many of the key players. Advertising agencies what to do ‘great creative’ and ‘big ideas’. Sometimes in emarketing this thinking is counterproductive, you need smart ideas, effective tools that might not win you awards but will generate business (I don’t think any blogger is getting an award at Cannes this year – although I am ready to stand corrected).
So what do you do when you are in a position of decision making/or able to influence the marketing process?
- The future is clearly pointing towards change. The problem though is that emarketing is about constant change. Banners where great at the beginning of the web, then terrible when they were overpriced, then – only a month ago we did a campaign with a client that got a 15% opening rate of rich media banners – banners are dead – long live the banners! Email was a magic bullet, still is, but seems to be seriously threatend by overload. So you need to do three things that many people find too painful to contemplate: learn to understand the technology enough not to depend on agencies, IT people and technospeak to make a strategic decision, and experience this first hand - and be ready to make some hard decisions.
Why? Although most advertising and marketing will still be 'traditional' for many years to come, this is becoming increasingly defensive - and new words are entering the marketing vocabulary such as ROI, buzz marketing, integration, sales and CRM that are based on a new perspective. When shaping a long-term strategy, these skills will become increasingly important, so it is probably a sound investment in your future career.
Where do you start? We have compiled a little guide of what we considered priorities for emarketing, (by the time we had finished the first draft I was already beginning to wonder about several of the key insights). But still, the basics I think are correct (see the document on our collaborative wiki: http://hyperthinker.wetpaint.com/)
- Learn to measure everything, eBay style - it's the best way to learn, and prove your effectiveniss
- Start simple, and learn the basics (how to use email, blogs, RSS technology)
- Think like a publisher, telling a story and NOT like an advertiser, pushing a message
- Embrace the consumers and follow their lead
- Proactively build traffic to your site
- Integrate – break the silos in communication between PR, marketing, branding, sales and IT
- Upgrade your thinking: learn to Hyperthink.
My last point is probably the most significant: you need to learn to dramatically change the way you think. Simply put you need to learn to learn, and to start thinking about thinking…
This means to think creatively about everything from technology, to integration to smart ideas with big potential. This requires a change of attitude: a passionate embrace of learning, a renewed curiosity and an open minded spirit that takes nothing for granted is ready to be wrong once a day, and is boldly going where no one else has gone before…
Equipped with new thinking and the right attitude, the challenges of emarketing can become a phenomenal opportunity.
This week I hope to explore what challenges different marketeers have faced when using the web in marketing, and what they think are the biggest obstacles and opportunities they are facing.
What do you think is holding your or your organisation back? What are the biggest obstacles in the face of change and how will be they be overcome?
Phil
http://blog.hyperthinker.com
http://www.zn.be
