Digital Marketing Course in Full Flight

We're just over half way through the ADMA Certificate in Digital Marketing course, and after last night's great chat with Shai Coggins of B5Media fame, it struck me that we've been pretty fortunate so far.

Our small class allows for a pretty interactive (pun?) session each Wednesday, and the guest lecturers we've shared the boardroom with read like a who's who of new media.

Shai has just returned from BlogWorld Expo in Vegas, and is a global expert in the development of communities (and commerce) through blogging. We had Lee Hopkins take us through managing corporate conversations online, as well as the subject of both his PhD and his passion - Second Life. Our own Anthony Coles made sense of the myriad paid media channels available online, and ex OgilvyOne MD Phil Smith held sway on the topic of Digital Strategy. Next week we've got Kevin Wohling from search technology leader eChannel, to be followed by ex Fosters senior marketing exec Georgia Rasmussen's guidance on database and CRM strategy.

Only 6 more weeks to go, and with some of the shared insights from the sessions so far I'm expecting some pretty good strategic campaign plans as part of the student assessments (they get to take a fictional product launch and make it a household name through the - well argued - use and execution of digital marketing strategy).

Heaps of healthy debate, lots of lessons learned, and expert opinions a-plenty. Now I'm starting to wonder what next semester's course will hold.

When marketing goes full circle.

Planes are great to force you to read things. Whilst sitting on CX104 on my way to Hong Kong, I managed to eat up Geoff Livingston's Now is Gone  in which Executives and Entrepreneurs get a primer on Web2.0.


The foreword was written by Futureworks CEO Brian Solis, who highlights the evolution of communications that we are going through, and indeed the Darwinian, "Survival of the Fittest" regarding changing skillset of marketing professionals.

They have Podcast  a few of their discussions, but what struck me the most about his observations were how similar they were my mantra to our guys that:
Listening is marketing
Participation is marketing
Media is marketing, and
Conversations are marketing

Markets, like the flourishing Farmer's Markets, ARE conversations.

The growth of new SOCIAL media are just an evolution in democratising our markets so that We The People are in control.