Connected Marketing v The Silo Approach August 13, 2010
Posted by andrewbetts in Behavioural, Cross Channel Attribution, Digital Agencies, Marketing and Demand, Sales and Marketing, Search, Search Agencies, Social Media, Talent Management, Uncategorized.comments closed
I have been talking a lot recently about connected marketing. Maybe it will become one of the numerous over-used industry phrases.
I hope so as it’s bang on the money.
Fragmentation within disciplines
Yes, yet another new buzz word in the industry, is a challenge that many marketers face:
For example;
• Fragmentation in SEO – content and link strategies, black/grey/white hat, universal search, and social media optimization
• Fragmentation in PPC – localization, personalization, universal search, cross channel attribution
• Fragmentation in Display – Audience networks and Ad networks
Fragmentation in the Industry
Brands have a difficult choice to make in vendor selection. Is it?
Tier One/Full service agencies, larger specialist digital or search specialist, the pure play SEO, the pure play PPC and SEO company, the ‘boutique agency’, the freelancer, the technology provider and agency, the consultancy, the in-house team, or a combination of some/all?
Fragmentation within the Digital organization
Basically this relates to discord between;
- Sales and marketing functions
- Marketing, sales and operational and the specialist departments who are the knowledge backbone of the company.
- (The ‘Snake Oil Salesman’ v the ‘non commercial technical specialist’ -that’s another post on its very own!!)
- Discord and Alignment between emerging media teams, social media teams, search and display teams, media planners and buyers, technology and consultancy, affiliate, rich media and so forth
The list goes on…..
The Challenge
The common challenge marketers now find is how to ‘connect the dots’ and ensure that any search or digital discipline is not viewed in a silo. Clients want to see streamlined search and digital solutions.
Many practitioners tend to focus solely on their field of discipline (be it search, seo, display, email, or affiliate).
That’s fine as clients and in-house departments want to learn about specific domains of specialism. However – If you ask them would they like to see a little bit also on how this fits in their marketing mix and with other channels I bet most say yes.
Insights into a solution
If you are in the US and you agree, then you need to get to Connected Marketing week in San Francisco next week;
It will be the biggest gathering of interactive marketing events aiming to educate marketers on every aspect of the digital industry. Participating events include SES San Francisco, Online Marketing Summit (OMS), Jeff Pulver’s 140 Characters Conference, Email Experience Council, IAB and Tim Ash’s Conversion Conference.
http://www.connectedmarketingweek.com
“With ClickZ’s Connected Marketing Week, we’re launching a new vision of marketing – one that incorporates not just search but the reality that a successful marketing program has to incorporate an understanding of just how audiences are connecting and sharing vital information,” said Mike Grehan, Global Vice President of Content, SES, Search Engine Watch and ClickZ. “We’ve lined up the top organizations in the marketing industry to present, share and mingle with marketers during our festival.”
I am very interested to see how many speakers will just do a one product presentation.
Even just one slide on how it connects with other media would be nice, No?
The solution
In a follow post I will report on the key takeaways and show you how marketers can work closely in a matrix type structure to meet the changing demands of clients and their audiences. This will include;
• How to build better relations with their prospects by not just focusing on their core product in a silo and showing how their product and services ‘connect’ with the rest of the digital marketing mix.
• Giving insights into what clients want, how they like to see information shared, and how they view connected marketing.
For example – Search Marketing needs to connect the dots between;
Search management
Search optimisation
Crosss Channel Attribution
Digital optimisation
Onsite optimisation
Behavioural and re-targeting
• Provide examples as to how agencies and search/digital providers alike can build better relations with their in-house peers (marketing and product specialists) by sharing insight, avoiding conflict between domains of specialism, share knowledge on the different audience type profiles across their digital disciplines and win more business
If you’re a marketer, brand, consultant, specialist, or full service agency….We are all in it to win right?
Hence we should be ‘connecting the dots’ between our products and services and between our company colleagues and specialist departments (internally) to build an even brighter future for Search and Digital
Watch this space on how to begin to ‘connect them dots’
Oh behave – Advertising July 31, 2010
Posted by andrewbetts in Behavioural, Cross Channel Attribution, Digital Agencies, Search Agencies, The Future.comments closed
In my latest Econsultancy post on Behaviorual Advertising……
I talk about how behavioural targeting has always been a hot topic as marketers constantly strive to understand exactly who’s interested in their product and exactly when they’re ready to buy.
Innovations in technology and onsite analytics allow marketers to tailor their online ads based on consumers’ behaviour. However, critics of behavioral advertising believe it is invasive and unethical and can become quite worrying for consumers who believe advertisers have their personal data.
The full article is here;
Behavioural advertising can be a win-win for consumers and advertisers
In my next few posts I aim to explain how search optimisation becomes more holisitc looking at the path from;
Search management
Search optimisation
Crosss Channel Attribution
Digital optimisation
Onsite optimisation
Behavioural and re-targeting
and what this means for the Future of Digital Agencies
Watch this space!
CEO’s give Marketing Grades – A B or C July 28, 2010
Posted by andrewbetts in Digital Agencies, Marketing and Demand, Sales and Marketing, Search Agencies.comments closed
Following on from my articles on Marketing and Innovation – I read a great article from Marketo recently that talks about what CEO’s want from marketing. Whilst some CEO’s may disagree, I think many forwarding think CEO’s will agree.
I am a big believer in Innovation of talent (let’s call it a hobby). In my experience changing the way you do things, optimising and retaining talent, and being more strategic and creative in how you approach Sales and Marketing is just as important as Innovation in products and service offerings. In fact, in many cases, it is far more important – What’s the point in investing big money in products and services if you cannot market and sell as efficiently as possible?
The article states that
“67% of CEOs give their marketing departments a grade of a “B” or “C”. Those that gave their companies an “A” did so because marketing programs made an impact in their organization, and marketing was able to document their contribution. This is key for the CEO to understand that the marketing dollars being spent are to create more revenue than what the programs are costing.”
With 4 key tips
Focus on the entire revenue cycle to deliver qualified opportunities and revenue
Build alignment between marketing and sales
Measure and forecast metrics that matter to the CEO
Be a strategic advisor that drives plans for future revenue growth
The full article is here
A Few Good DSP’s – Demand Side Platforms July 27, 2010
Posted by andrewbetts in Cool Stuff, Digital Agencies, Digital Buzz, Search, The Future.comments closed
As the comment and debate of Demand Side Platforms (DSP’s) builds, I found this video on the Internet.
It was first released back in May, by Terence Kawaja, at an IAB forum in the USA. It’s funny and informative. A must watch!!
Whilst I explained some of the key benefits in previous posts, understanding DSP’s is a tough task and there has been some opposition from;
Traditional Media Buyers
Who are seeing there skills being automated?
Agencies
A huge amount of resource, skill and knowledge is required to learn about these platforms as Adexchanges are essentially stock markets. This argument may be fuelled, in some cases, by the media buying department?.
Premium Publishers
Who think that DSP’s lower their CPM’s
Reach the most qualified audience – Behavioural targeting and retargeting July 21, 2010
Posted by andrewbetts in Digital Agencies, Search, The Future.comments closed
Another hot topic at the moment is Audience Networks and Behavioural targeting.
In fact many people think that by 2020, behavioural targeting will surpass search in online ad spending.
eMarketer projected that spending on behavioural targeting will hit $3.8 billion by 2011 as many people argue that this is the best way to reach your most qualified audience and target. I presume that figure has been slighlty revised in line with consumer adoption?.
Marketers want to know exactly who’s interested in their product and exactly when they’re ready to buy?. Innovations in technology and analytics allow marketers to tailor their online ads based on ‘their’ consumers’ behaviour. The targeted ad is a product of this consumer behaviour on research, product preference, brand, website views and so forth. This leads to relevant ad placement and increases in conversion rate.
Marketers can retarget then deliver the right advertising message at the right time. 
Some providers will give you a menu of audience segments to choose from. The more advanced will give you a customisable and scalable approach tailored to individual campaign goals. Flexible pricing models can include CPM, CPA and revenue sharing. Having a proprietary audience engine powers your custom database and delivers improved performance and provides real-time insights into your audience profiles and marketing analytics.
Fragmentation (as I have mentioned in previous posts) is occurring across all forms and format of online media. It makes sense if you have built a high-value audience to try and continue to monetise this right?
However, the topic of ‘sharing data’ and tracking’ raises some debate.
Extracts below from an article by Kim Komando, in USA today, gives ideas on solutions and a compelling case for opt-in as the benefits can be shared by consumer, publisher and advertiser.
“Still, many people are uncomfortable with ad tracking. They don’t know what information advertisers have gathered or from where. They may feel that tracking is a privacy invasion.
Advertisers are responding to the complaints. They’re testing a new system called Power I. It is designed to make targeted advertising more transparent. Of course, the industry also wants to head off any government regulation.
Maybe you’ve noticed the Power I icon on targeted ads. It looks like a power button with an “I” in the centre of it. Holding your mouse over the button reveals more about the ad. You’ll learn why you’re being targeted. You’ll see the data used to target you.
The Power I button also gives you the option to opt out. But, many people will find the options lacking.
On one hand, you only opt out once. That’s true even if you use multiple browsers. It is unclear how the system identifies you. It likely uses your IP address to identify your computer.
But, you are only opting out of targeted advertising from a single advertiser. Say you opt out of AT&T’s targeted advertising. You’ll still see targeted advertising from others like Microsoft and American Express. You have to opt out from each advertiser individually.
And you will continue to see advertisements from the companies after opting out. That’s because not all online ads are targeted. Advertisers may buy space on sites directly.
Or they may use contextual advertising; ads are served based on a particular page’s content. This is similar to traditional advertisements. Most visitors to a page will see the same ad.
Power I is still in the trial stage. Dozens of companies are using the system. But you won’t see it on every online ad.
If you do see it, go ahead and try it out. And remember, by opting out, you’re helping the advertisers, too. They will get a better idea of what works and what viewers find creepy.
If you find targeted advertising troubling, there may be an easier way to opt out. The Network Advertising Initiative will help you opt out of its members’ targeted advertising”.
You can opt out of targeted ads from almost 50 advertising networks. NAI’s membership changes, so you will want to opt out fairly regularly.
Opting out places cookies on your machine. They tell the advertisers not to serve targeted ads. If you delete the cookies, you will need to opt out again. You must opt out in each browser you use; cookies aren’t shared between browsers.”
Some consumers and groups are not too sure (having their movements tracked) about this form of advertising yet. 
The only barrier to growth of this market is making sure people see the benefits to consumer first and advertiser second.
Watch this space.
Search and Display – Demand Side July 20, 2010
Posted by andrewbetts in Consultancy, Digital Agencies, Search.comments closed
The growth of Demand Side Platforms (DSP’s) and the potential, very powerful, relationship with search is something you will hear a lot about in the next few months.
I recently wrote an article for Econsultancy on the topic as it boasts a huge opportunity for digital and search marketers.
Over recent years the online display market has become more and more fragmented. This has presented numerous challenges for advertisers when it comes to buying display advertising. Buying media across multiple platforms can be a very complex matter.
Demand Side Platforms make this process a lot simpler, and offer advertisers and agencies the opportunity to buy across multiple platforms and inventory sources. In a nutshell, DSPs allow advertisers a new way to purchase and manage auction-based (display) media.
The drive for digital marketing efficiency is pushing agencies to change, adapt, and use technology that can attribute, and hence distribute, spend effectively across all of these channels and piece together ad inventory from numerous, fragmented sources.
Being able to purchase, optimise, measure, and combine display and search data is just about as exciting as it gets for many a digital/search marketer.
The development of these new technologies will help improve online media buying and the potential to be able to report across search and display is a potent one.
NOTE
The topic (relationship between search and display) is not a new one.
The topic has been talked about for at least 3 years.
During the last 3 years companies have taken huge strides to ‘fill the gap’ and report and de-dupe across PPC, SEO, Email, and Affiliates
Companies have made headway in developing DSP’s and are now integrating them with search reporting
Google saw the potential with the purchase of Invite Media
It will take another year of building, testing and refining to see who the clear winners are as companies buy, build, and develop and integrate these platforms
Watch this space!
http://econsultancy.com/blog/6280-what-does-the-rise-of-demand-side-platforms-mean-to-marketers
Sales and Marketing Integration in a Digital Agency July 19, 2010
Posted by andrewbetts in Consultancy, Digital Agencies, Marketing and Demand, Search Agencies, Talent Management.comments closed
Two of the most important business competencies necessary to generate demand, capture revenue, and gain competitive advantage are Sales and Marketing. Many agencies find the current relationship between sales and marketing is more antagonistic than synergistic.
“Sales departments tend to believe that marketers are out of touch with what’s really going on in the marketplace. Marketing people, in turn, believe the sales force is myopic–too focused on individual customer experiences, insufficiently aware of the larger market, and blind to the future. In short, each group undervalues the other’s contributions. Both stumble (and organizational performance suffers) when they are out of sync.” – Harvard Business Review
This divide is down to 3 reasons:
Cultural – The Marketing and Sales department have vastly different groups of people.
Marketing have a traditional conception and view of marketing. The skill sets, educational, product and market knowledge, are far apart. Sales and Marketing need to know the product and market as a core skill. Marketing extends beyond just brand marketing and needs to generate demand (a lead in not necessarily qualified demand), engage, and be sales led with ROMI (return on marketing investment) targets.
Economical and Political – This relates to power, perception, and accountability in 3 of the for 4 P’s. Promotion, Place, and Product.
The fact is that innovation in sales and marketing structure will reduce costs and rapidly improve revenue. Politics, on the other hand, can ruin company growth – especially when looking at sales and marketing synergy. If someone is good at something – let them do it (be it an exec or a VP). Build around skill sets, experience, and results . If your objective is to get the best results then companies need to do this. Sadly, many companies fail to build Sales and Marketing departments based on objective factors and make subjective decisions based on ‘feeling’, personal relationships and agenda, length of service, or because they feel the need to take less risk averse strategy – an economic smokescreen. Subjective elements are important factors to consider but making decisions based purely on these factors alone will not get results.
Organisational – Strategies and programs have been developed in isolation, customer, and prospect information should not be silod and be shared.
Many Sales and Marketing departments have little/no communication with production/operational divisions. Product Managers/Teams should be collaborating closely with sales and marketing. This fuels marketing activity, messaging, and sales activity. Interdepartmental engagement and processes (the pitch/RFP at the end of the process) is a key issue that needs to be addressed rapidly within many organisations.
As Digital agencies become more competitive marketing faces a tough task. However, with so many engagement tools out there in a market full of Innovation it is surprising that few companies actually use ‘digital marketing to market their digital service’. It is even more surprising that many CEO’s do not look at innovation in Sales and Marketing structure and delivery.
Where is the Chief Revenue Officer ?
“Companies like these are saying that we have to find new ways of combining sales and marketing. We ought to think more in terms of what competencies have we to generate profitable revenue and in what combination do we now use them. And I think that can be very successful if it’s entered into that way.” – Rackham (Harvard Business Review)
The fact that the article below is from 2006 is testament to the fact that many companies still do not fully understand how best to integrate sales and marketing functions for the good of revenue.
Time to start again May 10, 2010
Posted by andrewbetts in Consultancy, Digital Agencies, Marketing and Demand, Talent Management.comments closed
It’s been February since I last posted!. Whoops
There are many topics I feel the need to talk about soon;
The change in the digital landscape over recent months
New Innovation in Marketing and Demand Generation
Search Expos, conferences, and events – The Good, Bad and the Ugly
Talent Management v Talent shortage in Digital and Search
I am hoping to start this week and engage the brain once more.
SearchIgnite, Innovation Interactive and Dentsu January 26, 2010
Posted by andrewbetts in Digital Agencies, Search, Search Agencies.comments closed
This is big news for the US search market and will have a great, positive impact in EMEA also.
The Wall Street News reported yesterday:
“Dentsu Inc. is in talks to acquire Innovation Interactive Inc., a New York digital-advertising and marketing firm, according to a person familiar with the matter, as Japan’s largest ad company seeks to reduce its reliance on a declining home market.
Innovation Interactive, which owns digital-ad agency 360i and Internet-search marketing firm SearchIgnite, has about 300 employees. It has worked for companies such as E-Trade Financial Corp., Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC and General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal.The deal under discussion is valued at roughly $200 million, the person familiar with the matter said. In 2009, Innovation’s revenue was about $69 million, according to the person.
Since coming up short on Razorfish, Tatsuyoshi Takashima, Dentsu’s president and chief executive, has been outspoken about his desire to find new acquisition targets, as Dentsu faces falling advertising spending in traditional media in Japan. The company, whose clients include Toyota, Honda, Hitachi and Sony, generates 8.7% of its net sales overseas. It recently said it aims to boost that figure to at least 12% by 2013. “
Today’s official press release states;
” Dentsu Inc. (President & CEO: Tatsuyoshi Takashima; Head Office: Tokyo; Capital: 58,967.1 million yen) announced today that its consolidated subsidiary Dentsu Holdings USA, Inc. (President & CEO: Tim Andree; Head Office: New York City, NY) has acquired Innovation Interactive LLC, a leading provider of global services and technology for search marketing, social media and audience targeting. Innovation Interactive will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dentsu Holdings USA.
Innovation Interactive consists of three operating units: 360i, an award-winning digital marketing agency; SearchIgnite, a leading paid search management technology; and Netmining, an audience optimization platform. The company, with 9 offices in 4 countries, will continue to operate under the leadership of co-CEOs Will Margiloff and Bryan Wiener, who will report to Tim Andree, President & CEO of Dentsu Holdings USA, Inc. and an Executive Officer of Dentsu Inc.
With Innovation Interactive’s industry-leading agency solutions and proprietary digital technologies, the Dentsu Group will be able to bring enhanced integrated marketing solutions to its clients which include a roster of some of the world’s best-known, blue-chip brands. Innovation Interactive’s clients will now have the benefit of Dentsu’s extensive global resources.
“We are pleased to have the strong management team and outstanding talent and technology of Innovation Interactive join the Dentsu Global Network,” said Dentsu President & CEO Tatsuyoshi Takashima. “This acquisition is continuing evidence of our determined pursuit of innovation in the digital and global arenas.” “
Update:
Dentsu Acquires 360i, Taking a Big Digital Shop off the Table
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — If you’re looking to acquire a U.S. digital agency of scale, the pool of prospective acquisitions just got a bit smaller.
The U.S. arm of Japan’s biggest ad-agency network, Dentsu Holdings USA, has acquired New York-based Innovation Interactive, which owns digital agency 360i, search firm Search Ignite and analytics and targeting practice Net Mining. And that means there’s one less digital agency of scale on the market.
“I think digital is where the growth is right now, so if you want a major presence in U.S., there are a smaller number of agencies out there,” said Seth Alpert, managing director of New York-based Ad Media Partners, an investment bank that specializes in ad and marketing deals.
Read the full article here : http://adage.com/u/8fW3Sb
SearchIgnite in the US and UK – Optimising Everything January 23, 2010
Posted by andrewbetts in Cool Stuff, Digital Agencies, Search, Search Agencies, Web Analytics.comments closed
I read a great US article, from MediaPost, last week from SearchIgnite about Search marketing in the US.
In the article, Roger Barnette, the CEO explains;
” Understanding the click path helps marketers maximize investments in paid and organic search. Barnette notes there are CPA-based visual ads within Google’s normal paid search listings beginning to attract attention. Google is finding a way to monetize the clicks, as well as what’s in organic search results.
Barnette says advertisers are more upbeat and providing longer outlooks for campaigns. He expects the first quarter to come in down-to-slightly flat, sequentially, which remains typical.Based on recent trends, Barnette expects travel marketers to make more investments in paid search during the first quarter 2010. Investments in local paid search are increasing, too, but the investment isn’t appropriate for all, he says. “
And where does mobile come in? “Marketers in the U.S. will test mobile in 2010, but [they're] about a year away from any substantial media spend,” he says. “Mobile is big in Japan, but that has to do with the advanced capabilities on smartphone. User behavior in Japan is more advanced, but over time in the next few years, mobile in China and the United States will growSearchIgnite is growing rapidly in the UK, having launched in the USA over 5 years ago. They offer a level of unique features that, from what I have seen in the marketplace, no other technology is currently providing with so much success.
The company launched in the States about five years ago, and as you can see, offer more than just tools to manage online campaigns. The company optimises over £300 million in search spend for clients such as American Express, Avis, and agencies such as LBi, I-level, and Havas/Media Contacts.
They are also releasing come really innovative features in in February, around integrated bid platform decision making (PPC, SEO, Email, Affiliates, Display) as well the integration of behavioral targeting into the paid search model (Netmining).
I would recomend any Agency, SEM provider or large Search advertiser give them a call for a demo at:
covert@searchignite.com | 10 Margaret Street, London | 0203 178 2429
