The
Future Is Already Here
We’ll save you the trouble. I don’t know if you got the memo, but the future of digital marketing, advertising, content and connectivity officially hit us some time around mid-year 2006. If your business depends on reaching busy accounting and financial professionals at work, the Web is no longer a discretionary expense. It’s a core part of the media buy for the majority of business to business marketers. Still waiting for the tipping point to occur? The adoption of the Internet has been pretty dramatic. It has taken only 11 years to overtake two long-established media: cinema (which it overtook in 1997) and outdoor (which it overtook this year), and by 2009 it will be larger than radio. That makes online the fifth largest advertising medium, and closing in on No. 4 with what ZenithOptimedia termed "plenty of potential growth" due to the still rapid expansion of its market penetration worldwide, which is driving advertising spending. Eighty-four percent of Internet households now have broadband access, according to Forrester Research. Three years ago broadband’s penetration was about 28 percent. That’s not a tipping point. That’s a landslide. Elsewhere in today’s issue you’ll see reports about continued double-digit growth in Web advertising and marketing spend, more remarkable since it comes amidst an otherwise stagnant media environment. Consider this: the spending on Web advertising and marketing is still only a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of time busy professionals are using the Web. The Financial Times notes that in the three biggest markets — the U.S., Japan and the U.K. — "consumers now spend 21.9 percent of their media time online but only 6.8 percent of advertisers' budgets are allocated to the medium." Imagine what will happen when marketing budgets catch up to the Web’s share of mind. How Traditional and New Media Work Well Together If you’ve read this far, you’ve probably labeled us just another cadre of old media bashers who are too consumed by our blogs, RSS feeds and podcasts to acknowledge the value of any medium that’s been around more than 10 years. Hardly. At AICPA, we’ve found the Web to be an excellent complement to traditional media, especially trade publications and live events. When it comes to business-to-business (B2B) each has a unique place in the prospect’s decision-making process and you need to allocate your budget appropriately to hit them at all stages. Print is still the most trusted B2B medium, according to American Business Media research and it’s the best place to introduce or reinforce your brand. The Web is best suited for the “further learn” phase of the purchase cycle and live events are the place to meet, do the demo and close the sale. American Business Media and Forbes have done extensive research on this continuum and the results are similar. Marketers who use each medium in tandem achieve better results than those who rely exclusively on one. At a publishing summit I attended in New York last month, David Klein, a Vice President at Crain’s Advertising Age said the digital edition of Ad Age helps boost consumption of other Ad Age media products. For example:
Marta Wohrle, a vice president at Hachette Publications noted that they agonized over the decision to shut down a promising startup magazine called Elle Girl. A strange thing happened. The magazine may have been shuttered but the audience didn't die. Instead, traffic to the Elle Girl Web site tripled in one year even though "we didn't spend a dime on marketing." The site will break even this year, said Wohrle, and will be in the black next year. More than 80 percent of visitors to the Car & Driver Web site don’t actually read the magazine, continued Wohrle. They’re already “in-market” for new cars. But do you think they’d go to the C&D Web site if it didn’t have such a trusted and powerful brand? “The days of printed magazines as we know them are disappearing,” said Gloria Adams, senior vice president of PennWell Publishing a producer of specialized trade publications. “We’re taking our trusted brand of information and simply expanding across whatever platform our readers want. Webcasts and e-newsletters have been increasingly important drivers of business for us.” At PennWell, 15 percent of magazine subscribers receive the digital edition. About 30 percent of magazine readers receive at least one of our e-newsletters and roughly half of our e-newsletter readers don’t get the related magazine,” said Adams. “Users want control. The content is just the raw material,” said Paul Gerbino, a senior publishing director at the manufacturing information provider, Thomas Net. “Access to the content is the key differentiator.” Readers want to be able to reach the editors directly, he said. They want to be able to reach advertisers directly and they want to be able to reach each other. For publishers, control is moving more and more to readers and for marketers, control is moving more and more to customers. Just remember that today’s 20-something media buyers, assistant brand managers and junior reporters will be running tomorrow’s ad agencies, Fortune 1000 marketing departments and major media outlets before you know it. They’re what Robert Sacks, head of Precision Media Group, called “Generation Wireless” at last month’s Digital Magazine Summit in New York. They were raised as “screen-agers” who don’t get information like we do. They’re incredible multi-taskers who rely on constant connectivity. They don’t have to learn how to use the Web or “re-think” the way they go about building brands, reaching customers and measuring ROI. So what’s in store for 2007? Jay MacDonald, who’s a partner specializing in digital media and technology at New York investment banking firm of DeSilva & Phillips, had a good take on the “macro trends” to look for:
Now, about those New Year’s resolutions. |
This
is the time of year when we tend to take stock of what we’ve
accomplished (or not accomplished) over the past 12 months and try
to predict the opportunities and roadblocks we’ll encounter
in the year ahead. If you’re too burned out from your budget
meetings, revenue forecasts and Holiday parties, just file today’s
issue away in your “shoulda’ oughta’ read
if only I had more time” pile….it’s right
next to your New Years Resolutions and that half-finished “Goals
& Objectives for 2007” strategy document that was due
two months ago.