News From the 2013 Online Marketing Summit

Heidi Melin at the Online Marketing Summit

Several topics surfaced from the keynotes at the Online Marketing Summit (#omsummit)

Heidi Melin, CMO of Eloqua said that engagement is a key tool. We know much more via digital channels and need to use digital body language to create engagement with prospects and customers. Heidi uses a dash-board with 5 key metrics for 3 key strategies. There she sees what works and moves dials to improve. That helps simplify work with large amounts of data. You should use data to determine what to eliminate in the process of making decisions so that you monitor what you keep.

According to Heidi, technology will not take over creative. We need balance between those two. Nothing compares to the power of a clever idea.

About ROI, she believes there are many ways to measure it. Most CEO’s want marketing to be measured on revenue and ROI but only 1 out of 3 is equipped to measure it. Eloqua’s process to measure and qualify sales opportunity is done via a number. They monitor information on social networks and use the digital body language to make decisions and create a more personalized offer.

It is important that you understand how much of the pipe line comes from marketing and how much from sales to develop a partnership that impacts revenue and use shared goals. Eloqua uses top-level metrics for entire team but each department has its own metrics, some of which may not be in the top-level.

Aleks Reljic, Vice President, eCommerce, Sony Electronics indicated that Sony uses about 14 media channels including affiliates, SEO, retargeting and other. Marketing technology has gotten complicated. Ad serving has changed roles and companies need to make decisions on how to deal with those changes. To build the ecosystem, you need to decide what data you want to own. For this to take place, the account needs to be on your name. You need to have a conversation with vendors when you build the ecosystem.

Start with a tag management system to work with retargeting, this will provide you with revenue attribution tools and the ability to react to marketing changes quickly as long as your budget is fluid. For Sony the window of the online sales process is about 10 days.  What is the best time to re-target and with what media? You need to learn about this.

Using too many tracking systems may slow your page. You have to understand whose pixels go on your site so that you maintain a good experience for users of your site. Sony prefers to be in control and manage the data. I-frame pixels are not a good sign, a single pixel is good and server originated is better.

E commerce platforms are difficult to change. When building them, consider a modular approach because change is here to stay. Use segmentation and keep it at a manageable scale. With regards to media, do direct buys if you know the clients are there. Develop a 52 weeks calendar for your buys and adjust for season, special events, launches (CES) and look at best day of the week. It is important to test. Sony looks at the data they have before making decisions on new technology and work with partners that are reliable.

Given the ecosystem you need many partners and need to determine what you keep in-house. Simple is not a key selling proposition. Sony asks a lot of questions and you need to be clear and up-front on your capabilities.

John Boris, Senior Vice President and CMO Shutterfly Said that most of their spend goes online. They have real-time information. New ideas are welcome at Shutterfly, they invest 17% on new ideas and use offline to bend the curve online by getting better customers.

According to John, mobile is pervasive. Most studies have 30% of traffic coming from mobile. However no company is spending 30% of their budget on this platform. The metrics are not quite there since you can’t prove that discovery comes from a mobile device. Quantifiable metrics are important and need to be used when looking at different channels. You also need to layer offline components and factor them in even when you can’t put a number to it.

Smarter analytics are a good tradeoff for dollars. Revenue metrics used at Shutterfly include CPA, ROI, LTV among others.

Social is big media for Shutterfly, it’s good for awareness and engagement. Content on social needs to be relevant, timely, and thoughtful. Social allows you to do fun things.

They look at customer engagement model and work with the CRM team to determine distribution of messages based on mindset at that time.

DSPs Stole Ad Networks’ Thunder In Q4, At Least On Retail Sites

Highly recommend this reading that highlights the importance of marketing technologies and ROI improvements.

“It’s a golden opportunity for retailers, as in theory and in practice, marketing technologies help drive conversion which drive sales, which is what retail is all about,” Herman said. “The benefit is better consumer experiences, better conversion rates, and a more modern retail construct.”

Read more http://www.adexchanger.com/data-nugget/dsps-stole-ad-networks-thunder-in-q4-at-least-on-retail-sites/

The Future of the Media Industry

The theory of evolution doesn’t only apply to live species like humans, animals and plants. Industries are also touched by evolution and need to adapt to the changing environment. The media and advertising industries are not immune. I have been following media and advertising for over 10 years and have seen them go though many changes. Those changes were usually the result of a new technology. Perhaps, one the most sweeping change is taking place now and it’s the result of the fast evolving internet related innovations.

Five years ago, the term RTB (Real Time Buy) was not part of the media and advertising lingo. Today, it’s a reality and the way many agencies are buying their online media and in the near future all media. Just as the name of this blog, RTB stands at the intersection of technology, media and advertising. This is a reminder that more changes will take place and new technologies will become part of the day-to-day business in media and advertising. The changes will require a new set of skills and knowledge and a new generation will take over the positions that individuals from legacy media will vacate.

There is more to come and at a faster pace. The innovation on technology brings us new media formats and with that native advertising. Not all media formats will survive but the ones that make it will become significant parts of our lives just like Facebook has done it. The current trends tell us a bit of what is to come that that is just a small part. This report from e-Marketer tells us about the use of online video by top advertisers and it’s an indicator of a shifting tide and with it budgets from traditional media to digital. http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Advertisers-Deploy-Optimize-Video-Content/1009651

Mobile, online video and social are the top contenders. What do you think are other media and technology plays that will affect media and advertising in the future?