Depending on who you believe, ad spending in 2009 will drop anywhere from 3% (GroupM) to 6.2% (Publicis). The Internet, however, stands tall, with expectations hovering at an increase of 5% – strong growth in this market. Google “online spending,” the returns are overwhelming.
The continued growth of online ad spending is surely driven by the channel’s ability to produce measurable ROI. This, combined with the ongoing migration of consumers to the channel as a whole, is a winning formula for online destinations that, for a long time, have cried foul as it pertains to their share of marketing budgets. Well my friends, the time has come. Step up or step off.
Remember a time when you had certain freedoms and someone ruined it for you? I remember when I was in high school and we were allowed to leave the school grounds to go out for lunch. A lot of kids began skipping classes instead. You already know what happened. They stopped letting us leave. A few of the reckless ruined it for all. Corporate social media makes me feel like my “lunch freedom” was taken away, again.
The recently released Forrester study, Time to Rethink Your Corporate Blogging Ideas states, “Only 16 percent of consumers trust what they read on company blogs.” Darnit. In the past year, we’ve watched 100’s of marketers create branded blogs.
What went wrong?
Many marketers weren’t prepared. In short, they were used to pushing mass-media communications and were not ready for a dialogue.
Consumers caught on quick. They saw that many marketers weren’t honest in their outreach. Blogs and branded communities were selective about what comments and criticisms they’d allow to go public. What’s worse is that some of these “communities” didn’t allow for comments at all. I don’t need to tell you that using smoke and mirrors is wrong – we all know that.
Many marketers were lit on fire. Build a Facebook application. Create a YouTube branded page. Commercial messaging flooded the platforms, and marketers weren’t equipped or ready to take on such a responsibility. I can’t tell you how many articles I’ve read in the past year – from some of the greatest minds in our industry- that say “go out and try it – it’s free.” Now we’ll all pay for it.
Is Social the wrong way to distribute my brand message? What do we do next?
I know what you’re thinking. “Not another recession article – ugh.” Well it’s not, really.
Several weeks ago, I had the opportunity to go for a ride in the world-famous Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. Actually, I went on several rides, and it started with getting picked up at the Las Vegas airport, no less. Right off the bat, there were several things I noticed as I approached the giant wiener on wheels. It was surrounded by a crowd. Everyone was taking pictures, talking to each other about it and, of course, smiling. Just take a look at my own behavior as I sat inside of it. I was instantly transformed into a child. Which isn’t really hard for me because I’m a kid at heart, but as we drove around I noticed that the Wienermobile had this effect on virtually everyone.
Today marks the end of Movember, a moustache-growing fundraiser our offices participate in. For a month, guys like myself shave clean and grow a moustache while raising funds (and awareness) for prostate cancer.
Though for a very good cause, I knew the economic downturn was going to make collecting donations rather difficult. The economy is making people think twice about their money, and the novelty of doing Movember a year ago wears a little thin. So how do you improve your reach and the possibility of collecting donations over the course of the month?
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