Modern Marketing - Blog by Collaborate PR & Marketing

Online Spend Rockets

The incredible growth of online advertising is starting to really add up.

Those lovely folks at Jupiter have just released a report that says dollars spent on online ads are set to eclipse the dollars spent on magazine ads.

The report (accrding to the WSJ) projects that advertisers will spend $8.4 billion on online advertising in 2004, while they put $12.2 billion toward magazines. By 2007, both online and magazines are poised to receive $13.8 billion each, according to Jupiter. But in 2008, online ad spending is projected to reach $15 billion, versus $14.5 billion for magazines.

The question for modern marketeers is how to spend these online dollars in a way that fits with Internet Culture, not just trying to take the broadcast model onto the web.

Gmail Genius

I have been using a Gmail account and so far it looks like a stroke of genius on the part of those clever Google people.

When Gmail was announced in the UK there was quite a lot of backlash about the fact that Google would be 'reading emails' so that they could serve targeted ads. Now I am using it I realise it's no more intrusive than Google monitoring my website choice. (After all you'd have to be pretty dumb to start sending really, sensitive emails out into the ether.)

The Gmail interface is very clever and I now realise that the huge 1G capacity means that Gmail will really get to know me really well....and of course will start to auction keywords in my emails, which (in theory) I should find really relevant and useful.....

This is the cutting edge of modern marketing for digital consumers.

Microsoft in the Head?

What appears to be a leaked internal memo from HP shows that the company expected Microsoft to launch a full legal assault on free open-source software (FOSS) using patent law.

The document, dated two years ago and revealed on the Newsforge FOSS news site, details concerns at the highest levels within HP that "basically Microsoft is going to use the legal system to shut down open source software".

Had Bill gone Microsoft in the head ? Had he not been following what was happening to the recording industry ? Perhaps, that £50billion sitting in the bank affected his judgement. Now he's about to give it all back to his shareholders maybe his vision will be clear.

Consumer Power #122

Jobs don't come any bigger in marketing than global marketing officer for P&G running a budget of $4billion in the US alone. So when Jim Stengel talks, people tend to pay attention.

At the Amercian Association of Advertising Agencies media conference in Florida earlier this year, he insisted that agencies embrace the urgent implications of 'consumer control' and announced that at P&G the, 'consumer is boss'. Stengel urged agencies and marketers to go well beyond the 30-second TV spot, to reach consumers wherever they are. That means using all media. And, it means integrated media.

Commenting on this speech Media Post reported that, 'What this does, essentially, is shift the balance of power from the creative strategists to the media strategists and the communications planning departments. It is no longer a question of "TV will get 'X' amount of money, and print will get 'Y' amount," but the communications planners, aided by an intense amount of research, will determine which channels can effectively target specific audiences for particular products. A new deodorant or fragrance product from P&G's Tremor unit is likely to reach teen girls or boys online, via instant messaging and even cinema advertising. Not so for Pampers and Tide, which have a different target and will require their own diverse array of media channels.

Jim Stenger gets this blog's prestigious award of OMM (Official Modern Marketeer)!

Consumer Power #121

In yesterday's Financial Times Lord Hollick, CEO of United Business Media, one of the UK's biggest publishers picked up on a few themes that will be very familiar to readers of this blog.

He highlights three trends which he believes are changing the way companies interact with their customers.

Firstly, the emergence of global digital society. Secondly, the growth of high bandwidth adoption. And thirdly, the emergence of personal technology.

These trends have led to a 'new truth' for mediaowners argues Hollick.

"The old model of,'we control what you get, when you get it and how you get it' is over. The seller's market is dead and this buyer's market is here to stay."

These views are similar to those held by us at Collaborate Marketing:

1) A new Internet Culture has developed with its own demographics, languages, attitudes, economics, media and celebrities that is different from the offline world.

2) Internet Culture has created new, powerful Digital Consumers who use cheap, digital technologies as part of their everyday lives to increase their choice and reduce unwanted interaction.

3) Open Source Branding where, people are asked to be active and contribute to online intiatives are extremely powerful ways of engaging Digital Consumers.

Good to see United Business Media is paying attention ;-)

Peepshow Recordings

Agent Provocateur, the lingerie company, has launched an album called Peepshow complete with stylish videos.

The first track covers Joy Division's 'She's lost control' and features Siobhan Fahey. The accompanying video is provocative as you'd expect and has immediately been banned, guranteeing it a viral audience.

As a piece of modern marketing it's a great tactic as the video shows AP's product in all their glory! First, DKNY Films and now AP Recordings. Just shows how liberating digital technology can be for an imaginative organisation.

Watch it here http://www.agentprovocateur.com/lost_control.php?isource=VIR0

View from America II

Further news from Adtech as Kraft and P&G encourage their agencies and marketeers to pursue integrated campaign ideas that experiment with new media.

Mediapost reports a couple of interesting comments:

"It doesn't take a big budget to test and experiment with emerging media including the Web, digital video recorders, and wireless. You need to be constantly in touch with your consumer beyond the occasional focus group ... You have to look for new ways to connect with consumers," said Tim Kopp, section manager, Beauty Care Division, Procter & Gamble."

"Kraft's new definition of integrated marketing is a participatory consumer experience," said Mary Beth Stone-West, senior vice president-general manager, Meals Division, Kraft Foods.

"Stone-West cited Kraft's "Easy Mac" multimedia campaign as an example of the company's ability to successfully leverage a key consumer insight. The goal with Easy Mac was to build a connection with a target that's less passive [than a TV target]," she said.

Modern marketing is coming of age.

View from AmericaI

At the Ad:Tech marketing bash in Chicago, Geoff Ramsey, CEO of eMarketer, offered his top five principles of digital marketing.

Ramsey's eMarketer aggregates data on the media, marketing and tech universes from a variety of sources--Forrester, Yankee, Nielsen//NetRatings, comScore, Jack Myers, Universal McCann, and many others. So he is well-positioned and his list is appealingly succinct.

*The consumer is in control. Period.
*The consumer is skeptical and increasingly resistant to advertising.
*Media fragmentation is pervasive.
*Mass reach is being supplanted by niche audiences that required improved methods of targeting.
*C-level execs are being held to new levels of accountability.

Digital consumers and internet culture summed up nicely we think. Next step, what do we do as a result ? Watch this space.

Internet Punks

The internet shares similarities with the punk movement that are quite enlightening.

Punk was a reaction to the commercial control of music that led to the fat and lazy sounds of progressive rock bands that ignored popular taste, and particularly youth taste.
The internet has been used as a reaction against a world of mass consumer advertising.

Punk was about the realisation that it wasn't necessary to have expensive equipment and huge backing to to make music. You just needed an idea and the energy.
Anyone can use the Internet to publish to the world. Technology like blogs have made this very cheap.

Punk was initially seen as being for 'outsiders'.
The Internet was initially seen as being important only to geeks.

Punk was about activism and people reclaiming a voice from mass consumer conformity.
The Internet has unleashed new levels of activism and allowed everyone to have their say.

Punk was about energy and freedom and as a result was extremely inspiring for many people.
The Internet has released a huge amount of energy that has left corporations reeling and wondering how to react.

Digital consumers are the new punk rockers!

Blockbusted?

In May, the British Video Association (BVA), estimated that 1.67m people in the UK are downloading illegal films and television programmes. Its American counterpart, the Motion Picture Association of America, believes that approximately 400k to 600k movies are downloaded in the US every day.

Learning from the audio industry the two groups are avoiding the legal route and pursuing an educational path about the effects on the industry of pirating. But it's unlikely this will have much effect.

The real learning from the plight of their audio cousins has been that the industry needs to change, not the consumer. And change it has. In the shape of online download service Movielink, which is backed by MGM, Sony, Paramount, Universal and Warner Bros, and offers 800 recent movies at between $1.99-$5.99 each.

Users download a film and watch it as many times as they like within a 24 hour period. The service is differentiated from pirate services by a high-quality, compressed product (the files are typically pretty big at 5 gigs) with customer service support.

However, the movie industry has a release strategy designed to maximise profits from its product. Firstly, cinema, then home video/dvd, pay-per-view, pay-TV and then free TV. So where do downloads fit ? Straight after the cinema release ? Could be very bad news for Blockbuster.

Another great example of the disruptive innovation of the web. And, (more unusually) of modern marketeers reacting to the needs of the digital consumer.