Posts Tagged ‘Promotion & Events’

Where would Travelocity be without their commercials? How is Apple’s web traffic affected when they aren’t running their memorable “I’m a Mac” campaign? And would Barack Obama have made history if he had to choose between online and offline media?

It seems that even with all of the talk about the demise of the 30 second spot, many of the most popular web sites would suffer without mass market advertising.

Just because it’s hard to measure the connection between traditional media and online, that doesn’t mean that it’s not there. Traditional and online advertising play very different roles, and both are needed to compliment one another.

All target markets have one thing in common….they’re all made up of people. And people have diverse lives. They don’t just live online or off. The same people that are online also watch TV, read newspapers or magazines, pass billboards on the road or ride on a public bus from time to time.

The messages and the branding people are exposed to through traditional media have a very real effect, even if it is subtle at times. And that subtlety can make the difference between a casual interest and active consideration or between a simple familiarity and a sale.

If marketing was a sport, I think it would be most like basketball. A team effort, actively passing the responsibility back and forth until as a group, you score — but always staying focused on the customer.

We’ve all been to trade shows or similar events with rows and rows of exhibitors each with gimmicks, chachkas, and big bowls of candy and pens  that exhibitors somehow think will attract qualified prospects. Then there is at least one person in each row that tries to draw you over with some cheesy line about how their product is just what you needed. And while you’ll usually find something of interest at these events, they’re usually very over stimulating, don’t provide me a great deal of business benefit, and cause my feet to ache while I carry around bags of literature that I usually end up picking through just before throwing out.

But now I’ve changed my mind! Today I attended Marketing Prof’s Digital Marketing World. An all day event jam packed with all the things I find interesting about these shows, but all from the comfort of my desk. Admission was free, there were far fewer and more relevant booths to navigate through, and all of the literature was downloadable so I didn’t dislocate a shoulder carrying them home.

Kudos to InXpo who provided the virtual event environment. It was one of the most seamless and well executed virtual events I have attended with intuitive areas for presentations, gathering literature, chatting and even business card drops for prize drawings.

As my cursor rolled over a booth in the main interface, a small pop-up quickly told me what the firm did. Wow! One click and I was inside the booth where I could get more info, see a video, or leave without being hassled if I wasn’t interested. A pet peeve at trade shows has always been seeing something that catches my eye, but not knowing what the company does — so it’s really hard to ask an intelligent question.

Just this week I was a show for the packaging industry. Booth after booth was filled with a variety of packaging samples, many for the cosmetics industry. Some exhibitors were printers, some made dyes and did color matching, while others made plastics used in the packages. The problem was that I couldn’t tell from their booths, who did what. Exhibitors can’t expect folks to walk into every booth to find what they’re looking for.

Two of my favorite exhibits at this virtual event were Hubspot, because of their ongoing suburb ability to engage their audience, and Emma because of the clarity and simplicity of their message, despite the volume of information they offered.

My favorite part of the virtual show was the fact that it was actually pretty easy to meet other attendees, something that I usually don’t get to do a lot of. There were chat rooms where you could meet folks with similar interests and get a peek at their profile….. if they filled it in.

Not every exhibitor took full advantage of the interactive or communication advantages available, but overall the experience was far less stressful and more rewarding for me than any “real life” trade show that I have gone to recently.

In a recent Search Marketing Survey, MarketingSherpa concluded that cross-functional marketing strategies are becoming more common.

With the ever expanding variations in search, PPC, and contextual models, and now add the introduction of Facebook’s own PPC program, advertisers have increasingly more options to determine not only the medium, but the location, format, and cost structure that works best for their individual needs.

“Facebook serves as a perfect example. They offer advertisers the choice to buy display ads on a CPM basis or bid for PPC placements. These big, successful publishers would not be using the model if it didn’t work.”

The Options Multiply

The variety of options to accurately pinpoint specific markets continues to increase in the form of inbound marketing tactics, PPC, contextual, social media, and display advertising.

In a rush to account to management for their advertising budgets, marketers are jockeying for position and adjusting their numbers between search, PPC, contextual and display advertising. Offline budgets are giving ground to the increasing online tactics, and the allure of easily attainable metrics.

Online marketing is not slowing down anytime soon. It will continue to grow and change, further fragmenting the audience and the marketing mechanisms that we use to reach them. Marketers will need to try new things to determine exactly what the right mix is for them. As they do, new tactics will continue to emerge and further complicate the formula.

“IBM for example has been utilizing a combination of social media, with traditional marketing to create a broader strategy since 2006”, says Sandy Carter, VP Service Oriented Architecture and WebSphere.

Use a Comprehensive Strategy

The most reasonable solution for marketers is a comprehensive one. Learn and adapt utilizing the metrics from the variety of online efforts, while integrating traditional marketing methods, social engagement and a host of inbound marketing tactics.