Asia Reports Stating Not to Focus on Emerging Digital Marketing Trends

http://marketing-interactive.com/news/11769 and in summary they recommend to spend marketing budgets on traditional channels (offline) and only choose the "safe" online marketing channels like CPC, CPM etc... They also suggest not to try mobile streams, social networking and the gaming market.

My response: It's nuts. :) Here is why:
Interesting article and agencies and marketers need to get up to speed on digital marketing strategies. Those who don’t should be prepared to get lunch eaten by competition. Asia might be behind North America and Europe but I am seeing lots of hesitation even here in Australia when talking to companies about how to increase their revenues.

Research (RazorFish 2009) actually indicates new emerging trends among specially women. Digital moms under 35 are more likely to leverage newer communications platforms like:

• social networks (72%),
• SMS (64%)
• mobile browsing (13%);

while moms 45 and older are more likely to utilize deeper informational tools like

• news sites (61%),
• online consumer reviews (43%),
• podcasting (12%).

So when this report says not to focus on emerging technologies I beg to differ. I’m not saying to drop SEM and Email etc... instead I recommend to get smarter and use new emerging channels to build communities and ultimately boost sales. Companies can either be part of this and take advantage of new markets to a) build brand and b) boost sales.

My clients are looking for smarter ways to market themselves. They don’t ask me to coast along in cruise control mode – they want results. Long lasting results. Look at Dell. They caught on to the Twitter band wagon and their sales of PCs was around $1 million dollars from that channel alone. They used a really well thought out strategy how to do this and I really applaud them for it.

In Tough Times You Need Smarter Web Marketing Strategies

In these economic times I am recommending using Social Media strategies the right way so it assists companies in boosting their awareness and that increases their online sales. There is a right way to do this but it is becoming somewhat of a “snake oil” salesman market out there where companies are buying everything that sounds great – when in fact there are proven ways how to do this. Makes the professional web marketers look bad.

Did you know... (Source: NCM)

From 2006 to 2008, the ROI of Powered social marketing sites has increased by 10%. These ROIs have consistently outperformed the Direct Marketing Association, and in fact the Marketing Management Analytics ROI estimates for all of direct marketing and non-CPG mass media advertising for the past 3 years NCM has conducted this study. In addition to the ROI results, some of the most significant findings attributed to Powered’s online communities for 2008 include:

• Purchase Intent: Two-thirds of the respondents stated they were more likely to purchase to sponsoring brands products and/or services as a direct result of the learning experience offered in the community.
• Brand Affinity: Two-thirds of respondents indicated an improved brand perception of the sponsoring brand.
• Brand Loyalty: 63% of respondents stated that they had a more positive opinion of the sponsoring brand.

So to sum it up;
Companies need to get up to speed. Agencies must get smarter in how they pitch their clients and let’s face it, the Internet market is changing on a daily basis. We can be ignorant about this change or we adapt. These findings come at a time when the marketing industry stands at a crossroads, questioning all of its existing approaches, and seeking solid footing with which to go forward. The rapidly-evolving future is changing everything we used to know about media and about consumers. Hope this sheds some light on it :)

Chris
www.ReallyHotIdeas.com