Yesterday's news...

Sandlines is eagerly awaiting Friday’s delivery from Ocado at home. It’s coming late in the day - around 8pm. I know, I know, but I have a 3 year old, so Friday nights are different to how they once were… and that’s not a complaint btw…

Anyway, I just read over at Brand Republic that Ocado and The Times have agreed to distribute copies of the paper to people getting a delivery. Nice touch. The Times is losing readers - and in credit crunch times, Ocado customers are presumably questioning the value of their weekly order (I know I’m down to about once a month now…)

So at 8pm, do I get that morning’s paper? If that’s the outcome, then someone, somewhere has really failed to think this through. What am I going to do with Friday’s paper at 8pm? If only the laws hadn’t changed, I could have used it to wrap up some fish and chips …

Or maybe wrap up the salad they’ve supplied that is also out of date the next morning.

I feel I should be more demanding!

Tags: brand republic, engagement marketing, newspaper, Ocado, Times

So another entry to the buzzword bingo chart, Forrester Research have published a report under the heading ‘Ubiquitous Marketing’. Whilst it’s not quite James Lee Burke, it is nevertheless a good read… and plays well with Sandlines’ manifesto.

Taking an inevitable cue from Minority Report, this research identifies a few key trends that ring very true:

• consumers don’t much like - or trust - advertising
• marketers are finding it tougher to make advertising work
• people move about, and as they do, their needs change

Their conclusion? Marketing needs to be contextual, reciprocal and successive. In other words, we need to morph marketing broadcasts into something that looks more like a service: relevant and useful, building on previous exchanges.

Digital marketers who have embraced the concept of marketing as a conversation should rejoice: their stock will rise yet higher.

Consumers should, also, be happier - if it leads to fewer, more welcome marketing messages. Broadcast or ‘one size fits all’ marketing starts to look more and more like spam every day.

Tags: engagement marketing, forrester, research, ubiquitous marketing

Curiously, the media this morning seems to have had a bit of a change of tone. I’m seeing positive (comparatively) comments in a number of places that have become more doom laden than a Joy Division sountrack to an Ingmar Bergman film.

The Times are telling us that markets are responding positively to yesterday’s government and central bank announcements. House prices are falling slower than (month on month) than any other time this year (!). Even the Daily Mail is getting in on the act, with a real tabloid lead of “Phew! Shares bounce back…” before dissolving into another attack on the government. Even so!

My favourite though is from The Sun - classic red-top reporting:

The Sun: Simply FAB Darling

It’s good to see the press recapturing a bit of a sense of fun. Maybe, just maybe, things are on the up and up.

I’ve spent the week at a couple of event - Silverpop’s customer conference and the launch of a new product, Vtrenz - talking to people in the digital business. I’ve been struck how the mood has been distinctly lacking in despondency about business and it’s prospects.

Some business types have been decidedly upbeat: a holiday company who are racing to keep up with demand; a high end bank who are seeing people having to put in desperately long hours to keep pace with the (profitable) trading they’re engaged in.

It’s true that growth is forecast to be somewhat slower than the heady days of the mid 2000s, but digital marketing spend is hot on the heels of Press and TV spending. And, according to Rebecca Jennings of Forrester when I spoke to her yesterday, there is every sign that it will continue to grow.

My instinct was to ask whether that was just Search marketing, but no, it turns out that her surveys said that spend would increase for Search, Display advertising, Email… even Web 2.0/Social Networking, which I might have thought susceptible to budget cuts as its ROI is still being proven. Only mobile appears to be showing a modest retraction.

To my delight she was championing the idea of measurement past the transactional level, on to the longer term customer value metrics I’ve long espoused.

Tags: digital marketing, engagement marketing, recession, web 2.0

Sandlines has learnt that epitaphs are being drafted at Ad:Tech London for the traditional campaign timetable for marketing activity as we are urged to build direct and enduring relationships with consumers.

Wow. This is breaking news. I refer you to my ‘manifesto’ post a while back.

But in all seriousness, it’s great to hear a top flight agency - Brooklyn Brothers in this case - talking about unlocking the value of online relationships - a strapline I’ve been using for the last year or so in presentations for my company, Silverpop.

It’s the heart of why, in Sandlines’ view, Digital Marketing is in grave danger of ‘coming of age’ during the current recession. And looking at Brooklyn Brothers’ mission statement, I can’t help but think that they ‘get it’.

Digital marketing will thrive because:

• it can be hugely (cost) effective
• it’s fast
• it can be optimised quickly to what works best
• it allows you to really develop relationships, rather than a series of episodic broadcasts.

But to really get your money’s worth from the medium, you’ll need to break the ‘acquisition’ habit. Digital marketing works best when it’s a programme, not an event.

Tags: digital marketing, engagement marketing, recession, silverpop