Blog smog

I'm forever adjusting my radar between the global phenomenon of inter-connected conversations facilitated by the Internet, and the microcosm that is the South Australian marketing community.

The tsunami of change has to eventually crash upon our shores.

Our isolation and ignorance is not a unique phenomenon though, as new findings from the Technorati "State of the blogosphere" report highlights.

I remember it was only a couple of years ago while I was doing some consulting for Starcom that we had a representative from Google in to share with the planning team some of their products and services offerings.

"I never click on links on Search Engines", was the defensive cry from the room.

Well someone does.

Business Week this week just published its Top 25 "Web's Most Influential People " report, and although they're only No 5., they talk about their key task managing the breakneck growth of the company, now comprising more than 18,000 employees and expecting $16.2 billion in sales this year - up 53%. 


Even the declining economy has not yet seemed to slow its dominance in Web search and search-based advertising. 


But that very success is creating challenges, namely a backlash against their increasing power online from competitors, advertisers, and government regulators. Now, their main job will be convincing the world they mean it when they spout their informal corporate motto, "Don't be evil."

iMedia Brand Summit distant memories

Wow, a week goes fast these days.

This time last week I was cramming to get jobs out the way before I rushed off to the Blue Mountains for the iMedia Brand Summit. My last post was about the presenters from Tuesday morning, and its now Monday after already.

I loved Jenny Williams' summary of the greatest challenges for the industy - motivating change.

It is however still all about the creative idea and with the lines blurring between media, creative and strategy, that idea can come from anywhere - its just about the conversation that helps we service providers gets to the core of the business challenge.

The challenge for many marketing service providers today though is that despite the "20+ years" in the industry, they don't have the same value proposition in the fast-changing digital media landscape.

Jenny provided a great example of a simple stone-masonary business leading the charge with his use of web 2.0 tools to grow his business beyond the yard he's working in and into Education, (for those that haven't seen it, he's using Ning as a platform - something we've used on a few solutions this year).

And as a great Jedi once said, "Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to the Dark Side". It is certainly time for clients getting advice on this space from traditional agencies to look around for more qualified help.

The Summit format offered many opportunities for conversations with peers in the Australian Digital Marketing industry and I had a great chat with Christian Bartens from Datalicious in the break. A very clever dude doing some amazing things with data and analytics.

Sat in on a few 'spotlight' sessions after lunch.

Fionn Hyndman from DGM gave a tannin-impared presentation on customer acquisition strategies. Their speal is that they are a wholly owned subsidiary of Deal Group Media Plc UK. To quote the website, the company's principal activity is the provision of online marketing services through the mediums of performance based marketing, search engine positioning, optimisation and marketing services, including the provision of competitive intelligence gathering services.

Ian Gardiner from Viocorp showed the crowd why their business has doubled in size in the last 12 months. Their tools are driving some of the best examples of integrated video content in Australia.

Nice to be representing them West of the Blue Mountains.

Trolling through my notes from the Summit, there were many "Nuggets" that I hoe to share over the weeks ahead.

More iMedia moments

"Stay relevant" said Dave Cormier from StrongMail. Stay relevant, test & monitor, keep things in balance and add a sence of urgency to your email.

"Grow or go" said Mehrdad Baghai of Alchemy Growth Partners in an awesome presentation that highlighted the elevated discussions of the corporate strategists considering "Where to compete", vs the day-to-day dilemas of most marketing practicioners worried more about how to execute. Granularity of growth a great book if you want to purchase.


"Know your customer, digitally" professed Anthony Goldman of NextDigital. A challenging thought for those of us not skilled in proctology. Pretty good overview for his Ten Commandments for digital strategy. The 4 P's have become 10 P's in the uber-complicated digital world.

Ed Smith from News Digital Media cracked open the 2nd day with his inspiring presentation on the global trends from his recent visit to Cannes. Whopperfreakout and HBO Voyeur campaign blowing people away with its scope and breadth.

And wrapping up Tuesday morning was Jenny Williams from IdeaGarden nailing the need for internal organisational change and a commitment from industry to bridge the skills gap.

Awesome crew.

iMedia Brand Summit is all action

The iMedia Brand Summit kicked off in the Blue Mountains last night with Mark McCrindle from McCrindle Research giving a very entertaining overview of the changing social landscape, and how that is fundamentally affecting how brands connect with consumers.

Of note were the key trends of a post-life stage, post-structure, post-linear and post-rational society.

Shifts from the drawing to Tradition to a drawing to Innovation. From Reputation to Recommendation. Sit and Listen, to Try and See. Long-term needs to Short-term wants. Content, to Process. Authority, to Authenticity, and from Tech IQ (a given), to Emotional IQ.

These changes best reflected by an observation of a friend of his trying to offer a Gen Y-er a job. Highlighting the generational gap the Boomer saying "You're ignorant and Apathetic", to which the Gen Y-er said "I don't know what you mean, and I don't care"...

Good luck to us all.

Some interesting downloads from his site.

No Such Thing as an Average Joe

When it comes to discussions about email marketing I often get asked the same question: What is the average click through rate?

Without wanting to be too flippant with the standard 'piece of string' comparison, its important to get past what the Average Joes (or Joneses) are up to. Benchmarking is one thing, but in the world of digital media the cost of entry is so low, and the quality of measurement data so high, that there's no real excuse for not putting a toe in the water and creating your own INTERNAL benchmark. Then all you need to do is test some variables, look at the results, and apply the information in a cycle of continual improvement.

In a blog post at Email Insider, Jordan Ayan notes that 'industry average' metrics can be so broad a range as to be totally useless, and that companies should look in their own backyard to find that starting comparison. Trust your own stats, and improve on them from there.

The Adelaide Crows Inner Circle

Fanatical Adelaide Crows supporter, Rebecca, had a real MCB (Money Can't Buy) experience on Saturday when she belted out the Crows team song arm in arm with the players after a nail biting win against the Western Bulldogs.

Rebecca was one of more than a thousand punters who risked the life of their mobile phones in a deluge of biblical proportions when she texted her entry in the Carlton Draught Text'n'Sing promotion at AAMI Stadium.

Via Media was engaged by the Crows and Fosters to manage the interactive side of a test campaign that looks like running through to season 2009 after positive feedback from club, sponsor and fans alike. With co-operation from partner 2moro Mobile, Via Media set up an inbound mobile number to capture entries, before bouncing back an unexpected voice message from superstar Crow Nathan Bock, thanking fans for their support and asking for help to get the Crows over the line in what was a tense final quarter.

Not quite the Big Ad, but targeted, relevant, timely, contextual, engaging communication. Maybe just what Fosters was after?