Spur Interactive

Yesterday I had the pleasure of participating on a social media panel at the Houston Technology Center along with Katie Laird and Kelsey Ruger. I didn’t see any glowsticks, cell phones or lighters swaying in the audience, but I heard good things and thought you might be interested in learning more.

After Kelsey spoke about social media from a sociological perspective, I presented the business case for Social Media and discussed why brands have to embrace it, and how they can measure the impact on their business. To learn more, you can view my presentation below or on slideshare. Katie then spoke about how to implement a social media program. You can view their presentations via the links above.

If you have thoughts, comments or questions regarding social media, I’d love to hear from you! Also feel free to Join me on facebook or Follow me on Twitter.

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Over the past 10 days I’ve had the opportunity to speak with marketers in Milwaukee, Chicago and Boston (via the OMS tour) about interactive.  Regardless of industry, markets or size, there are some common threads that run through most organizations.  The common challenges are:

1) Figuring out what to do and where to start (paid search, natural search, email marketing, display advertising, social media (and its 31 flavors), ecommerce, video, rich media, sms, etc.). In other words they  need a Strategy.

2) Measuring activity and translating web metrics into business results (e.g. leads, sales, revenue, ROI).  This is especially challenging for those who rely on their web presence to seed and support offline transactions (in other words, 99% of U.S. companies).

3) Educating upper management on the benefits, opportunities and threats represented by digital media.

If these happen to be your pain points too, you’re in good company.  Even though we’ve been in the digital arena for a decade, most marketers are still scratching the surface in terms of maximizing value from their web presence and leveraging digital media.  Most admit there is much more to be done before they can say they’re doing a sufficient job.

The good news is that the models have been proven, the documented successes are there and the path to online marketing success is becoming much clearer.  So there is hope, and a lot to be excited about.  Now get back to work!

BTW – for some ideas on how to address the issues above read the article Overcoming Barriers to Online Investment.  You can also check out the OMS blog where I explain how to calculate ROI from online marketing.

Let’s hear from you! If you have thoughts or questions re: these issues, please comment!

And if you like what you read, please feel free to share with your friends.  Click “share this” below for details.

Thanks for your time!

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If you missed Internet Retailer, AD-Tech, the Internet Ad Bureau conference or Online Marketing Summit, you’re in luck!  Below are some of the highlights and takeaways from the conference.  Feel free to share with your colleagues!

GENERAL STATS:

The Web continues to grow in importance to all of us:

• Ecommerce will exceed $550bn globally and $200 billion in the U.S. in 2008, still accounts for less than 4% of U.S. retail sales
• IBM reported that adults spend almost as much time online as they do watching TV: 60% of adults spend 1-4 hours online each day (66% watch 1-4 hours of TV)
• Teens spend 20% more time online than they do watching television (13 hours / week)

Online advertising remains one of the economy’s fastest growth markets…

• Digital ad spend is expected to exceed $26bn in 2008 (up 23% from 2007) and $41bn by 2011.
• Digital now comprises 7.5% of ad spend (up from 5% in 2006).
• 85% of B2B marketers are increasing online budgets in 2008.
• GM is shifting 50% of its $3bn ad budget to digital
• McKinsey reported that by 2010, 2/3 of CMOs expect to spend more than 10% of ad budgets online. 11% expect to spend more than 50% of budgets online. More than 2/3 of respondents believe online media is more efficient than traditional advertising.

Traditional media channels are struggling (Geoff Ramsey, eMarketer)

• Radio ad spending is expected to contract 3% in 2008
• Newspaper ad spend is expected to contract 8% in 2008

Many still struggle with online marketing (Chris Vollmer, Booz Allen Hamilton)

• #1 pain point: inability to measure effectiveness of online efforts
• Also of note: brands need to improve integration of all activities (creative, media, reporting, analysis).
• Only 25% of respondents felt they were sufficiently savvy to manage the entire interactive process.

Leaders are taking action to put in place:

• Metrics and capabilities to assess impact of digital efforts
• ROI dashboards
• New positions to coordinate integration of efforts and agency relationships

Leading digital agencies and media companies…

• Invest to help marketers “get it”
• Link metrics to marketer brand/business objectives
• Don’t just sell ad space – they sell solutions
• Turn Consumer Insight to Marketer Foresight

Trends

• The line between “above the line” and “below the line” is becoming blurred.
• The need for accountability and an increase in younger CMO’s will drive digital. Of all media channels, TV may get hurt the most.

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We at Spur Interactive are very pleased to introduce you to our new brand and our new blog. We’ve been meaning to launch a blog for more than a year, but kept finding reasons to put it off. With our rebranding and launch of our new site (don’t worry – this is just phase 1) we decided it was time to execute on this part of our plan and launch our blog site. So here it is – we hope you’ll enjoy.

I just arrived in Milwaukee (originally pronounced “mill-e-wah-que” which is Algonquin for “the good land.”) and am preparing for tomorrow’s launch of the 2008 Online Marketing Summit tour which will hit 11 cities in July and August. Spur Interactive is a sponsor and I’m speaking about measuring ROI and building a business case for interactive. I’m hoping for a few lighters, a standing O and maybe a “freebird!” request. But in truth I’d settle for knowing my presentation helped a few marketers build the business case they need to get management buy-in to their interactive plans. I also need good marks or I’ll be relegated to moderating panel discussions, so I still have some work to do on my presentation. BTW – if you want a copy of my presentation, send me a note!

On the subject of events, here are a few to put on your calendar:

July 25 – Houston Technology Center presents Blogging for Business
Join local thought leaders, including yours truly, to learn how social media can work for your business. For details visit www.houstontech.org.

July 29 – Online Marketing Summit comes to Houston
Fresh off the heels of stops in Milwaukee and Chicago, OMS is coming to Houston on July 29 with new content and industry leading speakers, brand practitioners, and educators. To learn more visit www.onlinemarketingsummit.com.

September 18 – HiMA presents Interactive Strategies ’08
The Houston Interactive Marketing Association presents the 2nd annual Interactive Strategies (IS) conference: Secrets Exposed. Attendees will learn about the secrets to success for digital media, which includes mobile, video, email, websites, and more. For details visit www.is-conference.com.

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