Brunner Digital Blog

The world needs another “how to market in a down economy” blog post like a hole in the head.  For every person who touts the fact that “now is the best time to advertise” there is someone else writing about the virtues of shifting all efforts to measured online media, or shifting everything to the more economical social media.  In fact here’s a link to Business Week’s conglomeration of related articles - http://bx.businessweek.com/advertising-in-a-recession/blogs/.  Enough!

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Brunner and a lot of other savvy Direct Marketers have always known it’s all about building and maintaining a strong customer base. And during this particularly challenging economy, it’s even more important to protect core customer relationships.

A healthy customer database sustains core revenue streams; can provide organic growth through up sell and cross sell opportunities; existing customers can easily become a new acquisition source through referrals and very importantly - intelligence gleaned from your customer segments can help you be much smarter in targeting, attracting and keeping new customers.

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In October, I predicted that Obama’s use of the Internet and social networking would prove vital to his election; that the engagement of younger generations and the dialogue taking place online would catapult the youth vote front and center (even over the women’s vote) and offer a new way of managing a brand.  Less than 2 weeks after the election, the media’s all over it.

In the Sunday NY Times (11/9/08), David Carr wrote about Obama’s Internet strategy dating back to 2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/10/business/media/10carr.html?em.  How, at the time, the proposition of leveraging social media seemed ridiculous and unlikely. Carr goes on to write about the campaign’s success and the implications of Obama’s social network resources as he turns to governing, “The juxtaposition of a networked, open-source campaign and a historically imperial office will have profound implications and raise significant questions. Special-interest groups and lobbyists will now contend with an environment of transparency and a president who owes them nothing. The news media will now contend with an administration that can take its case directly to its base without even booking time on the networks.

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I’ve been surprised recently to hear so many people in our industry claim the era of integrated marketing is coming to an end. They say it’s an overused term, and its meaning has become diluted. If that’s the case, then why did my Google search of “integrated marketing” just turn up 6.6 million hits? A Blog Pulse snapshot indicates the topic is hotter than ever. Clearly, integrated marketing is more than an industry buzz word. It’s actually a concept that isn’t going away any time soon, but the focus has definitely shifted. As digital media becomes ever more prevalent in our society, marketers—clients and agencies alike—are struggling more
than ever to get their arms around how to effectively integrate digital into their marketing programs. MORE

I read a lot of blogs. All of them are free. The content is good content; and if any of them were to go away I would definitely be disappointed.

So I ask this…would you pay for your favorite blog to keep it around? MORE

I finally got around to finishing this post which is why it references an article from April!  One of the writers that I follow, and who’s opinion I very much respect is Steve Rubel who writes for Advertising Age. In his April 21, 2008 column he calls out for digital industry standard metrics and indicates that until we get there, that marketers will not be truly ready to embrace the right level of digital marketing spending levels.

There is no doubt that standard metrics will make it easier for all of us. But at the same time, with all of the press regarding metrics today, you would think that the industry doesn’t know how to effectively measure digital campaigns. I would contend that we know more than we give ourselves credit for…we (collective we) have been doing this for quite a while!

So while we’re waiting for the IAB, the Four A’s and everyone else to sort through the standards that will eventually give us a common language, I’m suggesting that we keep a few of the tried and true best practices in mind:

1) Start with your business goals and objectives in mind. I would start with 3 or 4 and scale up from there.

2) Don’t start out by “measuring everything”. That never works, and you’ll get lost in the data minutia.

3) Build strong relationships with your technology team - they are critical in helping to put the tools in place in order to get the reports that you’ll need.

4) Get comfortable with some of the new metrics that are available to you — engagement time, brand interaction rates and video views. But don’t treat them like they are the be-all-end-all metrics anymore than CTR’s are. They are pieces of the puzzle.

The direct marketing world recognizes that every campaign is different. Every company is different. Although there are more options within the digital realm, if we stick with what we already know, I think we’ll be surprised how effective, and relatively painless, our measurement efforts can be.

Geert Desager is a Trade Marketing Manager in South East Asia for Microsoft. Geert spearheaded the making of a commercial for Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions. The short film, called The Couple, makes a strong statement about the relationship between today’s advertiser and today’s consumer. It was a risky project considering that the ad challenges advertisers and agencies - the target clients for this Microsoft solution - to question themselves and the way they communicate with consumers.

In June, the commercial won a Bronze Lion at Cannes and we at Brunner Digital find it . . . well . . . simply hysterical and right on point. The first commercial was so successful Geert did a sequel. They both promote the advancement of one-to-one, integrated and smart digital marketing in a thoroughly entertaining fashion. Take a look below:

If you would like to learn more about the making of the commercial, check out Geert’s blog, Bring the love back. And oh by the way, Brunner Digital is here to help you bring back the love. Lot’s of love.

You can’t read, listen to, or watch anything about business lately that doesn’t have to do with speculation on the economy. A lot of the speculation we in ad agencies read, not surprisingly, centers around how advertising will fare. Because ad budgets are one of the first things affected when businesses sense a downturn.

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