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Online Marketing at the Crossroads

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By: NMK Created on: November 4th, 2005
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Options for marketers in the era of empowered and connected consumers were explored at Latitude's inaugural Strategy Forum, held in association with NMK on 6 October 2005. Blogging, podcasting, and engagement marketing in general came under the spotlight...

Options for marketers in the era of empowered and connected consumers were explored at Latitude’s inaugural Strategy Forum, held in association with NMK on 6 October 2005. The marketing potential of blogging, podcasting, and engagement marketing in general was discussed and explored...

By Deirdre Molloy

[Register and post your own comments on this story below...]

Paul Doleman, Latitude - Introduction

Paul opened with the observation that traditional marketing is in peril and business models are becoming extinct all over the place. Engagement marketing is building valuable companies: Skype wouldn’t have been worth $4.1 billlion to eBay if Skype hadn’t given away so much value to their users. True interaction needs to provide value for everyone involved. Search does this. But what, he asked, are the options available to companies and brands at the crossroads we face today?

Option one is to smash and grab peoples’ attention, using Flash, sweeping overlays, subscriptions and other methods of harvesting peoples’ attention and personal information. Option two is to provide people with something interesting and useful and give them a reason to pay attention to you in the first place. This means making the most of new networks such as the blogosphere and tapping into positive or meaningful conversations. When the CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi says, “For the first time the consumer is boss, which is fascinatingly frightening, scary and terrifying, because everything we used to do, everything we used to know, will no longer work,” you know the second option is starting to gain favour. It’s all about driving down into the niche that people require, he explained. The name of the game is relevance.

Alan Moore – SMLXL

Business models are under threat from the technologies of decentralization, Alan began. By analogy he said that in this new landscape, companies are from Mars and customers are from Venus. All businesses need to respond to the new consumer mindset. Why? Because consumers connect. Alan dubbed the new consumers ‘Generation C’ – the community generation and he posited that enabling and capturing P2P communications and communities is the key to building business in this context. Technology is revealing that we’re a “we” species by design, but technologies are helping us share and reconnect.

“Who’s doing this successfully?” he asked. Pop Idol is one example – it’s not really reality TV but about getting people to join-in: 7.5 million people texted into Pop Idol 1 in the US, 30% of whom had never sent a text message before. He also cited the Guinness Visitor Centre in Dublin. It cost £35 million, but in its first year it broke even; even in the post-9/11 downturn in tourism its revenues were going up.

Weekend Warriors was another case in point, a project by music equipment manufacturer Korg, designed to get lapsed or non-active musicians reconnected with the fun of being in a rock band again. Some just have fun but others return to playing regularly. It started in the US and has now spread to the UK and Europe.

Alan offered a few key insights for brands. Firstly, they must understand that brands co-create value, and they need to see consumers as partners. You need to give up control in order to extract value. Moreover, brands need to be encouraged to embrace the play ethic; and instead of persuasion, think about how you can support networks and build advocates.

Adriana Cronin-Lukas – The Big Blog Company

Adriana described the internet world as a confusing landscape coming up from under the radar of traditional businesses. What makes it different? It’s faster and distributes things more rapidly and widely for a start. People, in turn, are not just “seats” or “eyeballs”, or “end users” or “consumers”, they’re human beings, and their reach extends past that of business. Echoing Paul Doleman’s statement, she outlined the two directions marketing and advertising can take: louder and more interruptive, or more engaging. The former approach embodies the marketing perspective that it’s about getting the message to as many people as possible by any means. The latter view, embodied by blogging, means that if you think your job is about delivering a message to consumers, the situation now is that the audience is now supplying itself. Advertisers, if they want to enter this world, have to respect that.

Adriana views the internet not as a channel, nor a pipe, but a network. The problem is that ads are formats for channels and pipes; blogs are a format for networks. People nowadays establish trust online through non-verbal signals; and blogs do this through the fact that they are persistent conversations. Also, people start seeing the individual personalities in blogs. If you are transparent about who you are, no-one expects you to be objective or impartial.

Citing the case wherein Federal Express took legal action against a guy who decorated his apartment with Fed Ex packaging and put photos of it on the internet, Adriana commented that this demonstrated how many corporations and brands have lost touch with their audience to the point where they are actually waging war against people who could be their best advocates, or from whom they could learn to be better companies.

She also flagged-up the Cillit Bang episode from this week where an ad-agency marketer posing as the fictitious Cillit Bang ad character Barry Scott made supposedly sympathetic comments on Tom Coates’ blog Plasticbag.org in response to a posting from Tom about the latest development iestranged n his search for his father, all in order to generate ‘Google juice’. Tom tracked down the source of the posting, demanded an explanation, and named and shamed the ad agency and the brand on his blog. The story spread worldwide instantly and was picked up by the BBC and The Guardian amongst others. This crass kind of blog marketing and its rapid exposure shows, Adriana continued, that there is a new peoples’ law being applied to marketers who think they can trick us into giving them attention.

Embracing the networked perspective...

Finally, Adriana talked about how mass networked communications are blowing up the marketing and advertising toolbox. If agencies got into blogging themselves, they’d know better what they were doing. Blogs are a multi-tool and, along with similar technologies like RSS and wikis, these technologies are there to serve your purpose. If you know what you are doing then a blog will work for you. In the case of the new movie Blowing Smoke, the producers decided to release it straight to the audience through a blog. What the producer used the blog for was to talk about why he made the film, expressing his strong opinions and making it his own medium.

Other high-profile examples of individuals in companies using blogs to communicate and converse with audiences are Sun Microsystems COO Jonathan Schwartz or General Motors Bob Lutz's FastLane blog. At the other end of the scale are luxury artisan brands such as that of a Savile Row tailor’s blog, English Cut. Here the tailor set up a blog that talks about what he is doing, about bespoke techniques and related expertise. You receive value from it instead of just being delivered a constructed image of “the tailor”. And he’s getting a lot of business out of it. The artisan jeweler Paul Hatton’s blog Hard Diamond is another one in this vein. They are building emergent brands based on individuality.

Kryptonite [bicycle locks firm] lost $10 million of its $25 million annual turnover when it ignored the connected consumers who exposed how to crack its lock with a ballpoint pen. Over ten days, the story spread from blogs to the mainstream media.

But if you do join the conversation, Adriana noted, there is etiquette to be observed. She advised brands to read blogs, post comments, or start their own blog. Paying attention to blogs is one way of engaging and reconnecting with your audience. Blogs are a brand activator, but you have to understand the protocol. Microsoft tech evangelist Robert Scoble is credited with changing the public perception of Microsoft as a corporate nasty through his blog – now Microsoft encourages its staff to blog and Scoble is just the most visible of more than 1000 active bloggers in the company.

Dominique Busso – VNU Europe

Dominique stressed that as a media group it is very important to VNU that they have blogs in their portfolio. They are the top IT publisher in 7 territories. Trust has shifted way from traditional authority towards bloggers, he continued. Print content is mainly about quality control, selection of stories and deep, analytical content. But the readers are now part of the media game. Readers have access to press releases and newswires free of charge, they have free publishing tools. Encapsulating how far things have come, Dominique pointed out that Bill Gates will only talk to bloggers now.

He floated the interesting question of whether media should continue to create content for people if the people are supplying themselves. VNU have teamed up with a US RSS aggregator to distribute their blogs. They are also offering a blog hosting service themselves, using the Typepad blog software.

The best way to co-operate with the blogosphere is to team up with it, Dominique stressed. VNU have just struck a deal with US commercial blog company Gawker.com to launch localized European versions of the tech gadget blog Gizmodo in the UK, France and Germany.

Alex Bellinger – Origin PR & SmallBizPod

After playing a selection of corporate, consumer and individually-produced podcasts Alex stated that something remarkable is happening here. Podcasting is growing because it’s personal, it’s engaging and it’s portable. Time is short, the media is fragmenting, and customers are individuals. Podcasting caters to niches very effectively as people respond to a personal voice. It’s also cost effective in terms of how it reaches the customers.

Adam Curry and Dave Winer came together to invent podcasting in 2004, Alex explained, their strong and very different personalities embodying one of the key aspects about it – that it’s about reflecting character.

Looking at how companies are already using podcasts, Alex noted that the Whirlpool podcast doesn’t talk about washing machines – instead they facilitate discussion on American family life: stay-at-home dads, career mums, etc. Virgin Airlines had negative feedback for doing actor / voiceover-led podcasts in their travel guide. Why not have real employees as podcast correspondents on the ground at your destinations, Alex suggested, as this is much more authentic? Other uses are typified by St John’s Ambulance, who have done lifesaving tips as a podcast. In terms of customer complaints, Alex observed, podcasting could bypass having a conversation through intermediaries.

Some have suggested that podcasts are the least interactive of new technologies as they are one-way, but Alex argued that successful podcasts need to be interactive. It’s a listener-driven medium, and the listeners inform and shape his podcasts, he added. People – both listeners and customers – leave and record audio comments for him. As a business you can develop a podcast based on – and even directly incorporating – what your customers are saying.

Not listened to a podcast? In terms of finding podcast content, search engines are now moving fast into audio search. Alex recommended Podscope as a good podcast search engine, iTunes now has a podcast directory, and Google is due to introduce podcast-specific search soon.

NOTE: Neil McIntosh, Assistant Editor of Guardian Unlimited, was to speak at the event but due to illness was unable to attend.

About the Speakers:

Alan Moore – Founder, SMXL
Alan Moore is founder of the UK-based engagement marketing agency SMLXL and co-author of the acclaimed book Communities Dominate Brands (Futuretext, 2005). As a creative business and brand strategist, Alan has consulted for a range of global businesses and brands throughout his 16 year career, including the Coca Cola Company, Saab, Nokia, Hennes & Mauritz, and Diageo. Engagement marketing specialists SMLXL produce cross-platform communication strategies and campaigns, operating at the intersection of business strategy, interactive technology, and media and marketing communications. Alan believes there is a greater opportunity today to engage in meaningful ways with consumers than ever before, and advocates a new model of marketing that he holds is more effective than the present interruptive model at increasing sales, building customer loyalty, and increasing customer advocacy.

Adriana Cronin-Lukas - Director, the Big Blog Company
Adriana founded the Big Blog Company, the UK's first specialist blogging consultancy, in early 2003. Since then she has advised companies in Europe and the US on how to integrate blogging, RSS, and other social media into their online marketing activities. In July 2005, Adriana orchestrated the first ever motion picture release via blog for the Hollywood film Blowing Smoke. She also advises PR firms on strategy for their clients in the Web 2.0 environment. A former KPMG management consultant, broker, and risk analyst, her clients include the Adam Smith Institute, National Opinion Poll, Digital Journal Online, Social Affairs Unit, and Kable. Adriana is on the expert advisory board for VNU's annual Online Information conference, has spoken at events ranging from the NMA Online Marketing Show and Marketing in a Digital World to South Africa Online Information in Pretoria, and will soon be presenting at AdTech, the IAA IAB European Interactive Advertising Forum, Johnson & Johnson's Global Communication Technology Conference in New York, and the 6th Marketing Summit 2005 in Istanbul. In addition to being co-editor of one of the world's top 100 most influential blogs, Adriana writes about the application of emerging technologies to online marketing and external and internal communications at mediainfluencer.net

Neil McIntosh - Assistant Editor, Guardian Unlimited
Neil is assistant editor of Guardian Unlimited, the Guardian's award-winning website. He takes particular interest in editorial innovation and leads development of the site's network of weblogs, which have notched up a number of technological and editorial firsts in the last year. He has also written and spoken extensively on the impact blogs and nanopublishers are having on the media. Prior to joining Guardian Unlimited in 2004, Neil was deputy editor of the Guardian’s technology section, Online, and he has worked as a reporter and editor for a variety of newspapers, online services and broadcasters. He lives in London with his wife, and two cats, and has his own blog at www.completetosh.com

Alex Bellinger - Managing Director, Origin PR
Alex is a communications professional, producer of the pioneering podcast SmallBizPod, and a leading player in the UK’s podcasting scene. He has 15 years experience in public relations, marketing and lobbying, having most recently headed-up commercial banking public relations for HSBC and RBS. In September 2005 Alex co-organised Europe’s first podcasting conference and has become a regular commentator on the business and marketing potential of podcasts. In October 2005 he is set to launch Audacious Communications, a creative consultancy specialising in the development, production and distribution of podcasts for businesses, charities and associations. He is an enthusiastic follower of social media trends and blogs at www.verbalism.net

Dominique Busso - CEO, VNUnet Europe
After graduating from France's Dauphine University with a degree in Marketing in Finance, Dominique Busso started his career in California with a technology transfer bureau that helped American companies in setting up business in Europe. A brief stint in the car industry preceded Dominque's move into media, where Dominique has spent the last ten years, six of them in online media. In that time, he worked for IDG and was instrumental in the joint venture between Emap and Wanadoo. Dominique was named CEO of VNUnet Europe in early 2004.

Chair: Paul Doleman - Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, Latitude
Paul has over 20 years’ expertise in technology management, executive management and product development, including e-commerce. He has broad experience of the financial, pharmaceutical, retail, and software sectors, gained with blue chip multi-nationals and start-ups in Europe and the US, including Microsoft, Astra Zeneca, Tesco, Body Shop, and Swiss Life. Formerly a CIO at many of these companies, Paul first served in that position for Latitude, becoming CSMO in June 2005.

This was a Latitude event in association with NMK

About Latitude:
Latitude provides local and global search engine marketing services in more than forty countries. Europe's market leader in SEM, Latitude's pay-per-click and search engine optimisation expertise have generated more than £500 million in online sales transactions in Europe alone. Latitude is also one of the first UK agencies to provide pay-per-call and other innovative search options to our clients, who include Tesco Personal Finance, Alliance & Leicester, AutoDirect, HSBC, NPower, Britannia Hotels, Freedom Finance, Betfair, Otto Group, Kwik-Fit, Ocean Finance, Virgin Cars, and Saga Holidays. www.searchlatitude.com

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