A Brave New World for Marketers

Welcome to the brave new world of marketing, where brand trust is up for grabs, media gets fragmented by the second, and economies of scale are no longer benefits and sometimes even a hindrance to success. Welcome to a world where the latest economic downturn takes words like ROI (Return on Investment) and accountability to new heights. Welcome to a world where everybody has enough technology to be in control; yet everybody—consumers, customers and marketers—feel more “out of control” than ever. It is a world in which consumers and marketers are facing the “blessing, and the curse, of choice.”.

Depending on who you talk to there has never been a better or worse time to be a marketer. We are living in times of tremendous transition for the discipline, a time of confusion but also a time for great questions, and a time of opportunities for collaboration. At no other time in my 29 years as a marketer has there been a greater need for collaboration between private enterprise and the academic world. And in no other turf is the opportunity for collaboration greater than in solving “the media questions” —or as some progressive media people like to call it, the “audience” question.

As we all know, the simple days of the big communication through big channels to a big audience have given way to a new “Wild West” of borderless exchange of content and data between platforms and consumers. At the same time, the pace of change and adoption of new technologies is accelerating. It took only 28 days for 1 million iPADS to be sold. It took the iPhone 74 days to reach that number. That means too many options for engagement, too many tools to measure performance, too much data to sort, and too little time to integrate, understand and react.

Let’s see how it looks from where marketers sit.

[The World of Search]
Google (3 billion searches daily) will make you believe that it will provide a one- stop-shop for all your digital needs through search. Evidence is on their side. Paid search spending is expected to rise to over $22 billion by 2010. Robust ROI tools and 10 years of “tried and true” behavior drive these numbers. Search dominates today’s Internet use. Unfortunately, the world is more complicated than that. Mobile search and social search are becoming increasingly popular. Facebook will become a formidable competitor in the search world, as we all now trust friends and family recommendations for products and services more than ever.

[The World of Social Media]
The decline of trust in brands and institutions, accelerated and amplified by the recent economic downturn, has caused consumers to turn to each other for information, conversations and empathy. Social media has become the institutional “word of mouth” vehicle for the newer generations. Consider this: if Facebook was a nation it would be ranked fourth in population! Facebook, like Google, does not lack challenges. In its search towards sustainable monetization, Facebook is changing privacy rules constantly. This has caught the eye of privacy advocates and government officials.

In spite of its challenges, social media is here to stay. The way consumers have learned to interact with each other in the space is changing the dynamic by which brand will engage and interact with consumers more broadly.

[Twitter]
Twitter, with its 50 million daily tweets, makes a lot of noise on irrelevant issues, but is also a great tool for business.

[YouTube]
Video entertainment and consumer-generated content is the currency of YouTube. Every minute, the equivalent of 24 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube, making it a great amplifier of digital or TV created content.

[Mobile]
Here marketers can guide behavior: suggest things that consumers may want, crave or need while walking in the perimeter of a store. Consumers can even receive tailor-made messaging or offers... and of course, they can tell their friends to meet them where they will be shopping or even ask them for an opinion on what to buy.

[Tuning in to TV]
Then there is TV (which, by the way, is not dead). According to Nielsen, TV viewing in the U.S. is up 3 percent with an average person watching 154 hours per month. But while viewing is up, ratings are down.

It’s true TV viewing is not what it was. The rise of the DVR and multiple screen options for content has drained some of the channel impact. About 40 percent of consumers in the U.S. claim to skip ads. But TV, with all its drawbacks, is still one of the most effective, proven channels to build brand awareness and revenue. Are you overwhelmed yet? Just wait, there is more!.

[Multi-tasking]
Picture this: a dual income household: husband and wife are seated in a living room, watching a “DVR proof” reality show, or a live event like the Superbowl, the Oscars or an NFL game. Both have their laptops on and are switching between work and social network. Occasionally they visit a shopping site based on either a recommendation from a friend or stimulus from TV, or just a latent need in their head. Oh, by the way, both have their smart phones on as well. Multi-tasking has become the norm for consumers as we are all “on.”

[Three concepts to begin a conversation ]
As marketers navigate the endless sea of options, three concepts developed by OMD, the Omnicom media agency, should be considered at all times:

a.) Sharing is the new giving. Consumers expect valuable, entertaining and utilitarian experiences to be shared.

b.) Participation is the new consumption. Consumers in social media are participants and contributors. About 240 million of them will create content in 2010. Millions more will edit, modify and share. Consumers expect to play and share with content.

c.) Consumer reviews are the new advertising. Whether we like it or not, consumers will comment on anything and everything marketers do, as long as it is noticed.

So, as you can see we are living in interesting times. They are times of great questions and great opportunities. Two great questions will require the marketing world to join forces with academics and entrepreneurs from around the globe. 1.) How do we make sense of the multiple media options? And, 2.) What would be the right engagement model in a multi-tasking world? I can see nothing more important or more exciting.