All around the world digital and social media has introduced a new form of communication. Social media has shifted control of the corporate message  from the organization  to the consumers and other stakeholders, It is high time for corporations to learn the lessons offered from this new reality and accept the challenge of open dialogue rather than keep on hiding behind their corporate walls.

 Many organizations are monitoring great numbers of social media and blogs, and others are engaging in this direct communication with news, information and promotional messages  utilizing the proliferating social media channels. It is through engaging with its stakeholders online that an organization can strategically conquer a fair share of voice and manage its own reputation.

I strongly believe that it is high time for companies to embrace, not fear, this new form of communication because there  is no other way to remain competitive.  Social media allows for a true dialogue in ways never before possible. The benefits for research, brand building and the creation of loyalty and trust are limitless As the recent study by Burson Marsteller correctly points out “The value of social media is that users are highly engaged and want to be heard. So, by listening to them and approaching them from their own point of view, it is possible to have a positive impact on beliefs and perceptions.”

read the study at Burson-Marsteller 2010 Global Social Media Check-up white paper

 About this Study:

Data was collected between November 2009 and January 2010 among

the top 100 companies of Fortune’s Global 500 companies. Sample size

for countries/regions: U.S. = 29 companies, Europe = 48 companies, Asia-

Pacific = 20 companies, Latin America = 3 companies

“ Interactive marketing will near $55 billion and represent 21% of all marketing spend in 2014 as marketers shift dollars away from traditional media…” Forrester Research 002180.forrester.interactivemarketingprojections

As mentioned in the report titled “US Interactive Marketing Forecast, 2009 to 2014,” interactive marketing spend will increase from 12% today to 22% in the next five years. Money will shift from traditional marketing and advertising channels into social media, email and mobile marketing”.

We have discussed this powerfull trend in past posts of Hot Business Issues (December 20 and November 21, 2009) and pointed out that a major issue troubling businesses is how one can be sure that the money is efficiently spent. Simply transfering money from mass media to search marketing and online display advertising is not always the answer. Without a strategy and appropriate tools with which to measure success, little if no advantage is gained.

At the same time, consumers are demanding more from businesses. They want appropriate and relevant content tailored to their needs for information and knowledge. Thus, we come to some very simple conclusions useful for businesses in their efforts to take advantage of this new trend.

1. Foremost is the realization that interactive will definitely cannibalize traditional media.

2. More than 40% of marketers believe that “marketing is the strategic leader in their organization. and Forrester predicts that CMOs will begin to buy their own technology and focus on interactive solutions like Web analytics and email marketing.

3. Search Marketing has a leading share of the interactive budget and will continue to be very important in the future

4. Social media become an integral part of the interactive marketing mix. More companies will embrace social media and Forrester points out that 64 percent of marketers already invested in social media applications and 30 percent more will be added by the end of 2009. This creates a need to measure user interaction and activity with your brand on social networking sites.

5. E-mail marketing will continue to grow fast since marketers see this as an economically efficient method to reach customers. Forrester points out that email marketing is overtaking direct mail as a better way to communicate with customers.

6. And finally we see the evidence of strategic mobile application development. Everyone is participating these days in developing mobile applications.. With the increase of applications, an opportunity will arise for marketers to use this means to reach their customers.

002180.forrester.interactivemarketingprojections
Hot Business Issues in four recent posts, Nov 21st and 14th and October 19th and 15th, presented new prevailing views of the changes we are facing affecting the importance and role of digital and traditional advertising. The subject created a lot of interest and heated discussions and on many occasions opposing views were put forward. The recent study and forecast for interactive media constructed by Forrester, sheds some further light on this argument and points to changes and what we might expect to experience in the near future.
The main conclusions can be summarized as follows:
Interactive media will further cannibalize traditional media.
This trend will be intensified because of poor economic conditions,
the boom in interactive customer relationships,
the increased power the marketing is gaining within the organization,
and the prevailing belief and proof that interactive marketing works.
As a consequence, only in the US interactive marketing expenditure will more than double exceeding $55 billion by 2014. The same robust increases will be realized around the world with investments in e-mail marketing, search marketing, on line display ads, social media and mobile marketing taking over substantial parts of the marketing budgets.

For some time now the Energy Race was driven largely by economic rather than ecological incentives. Governments, in cooperation with investors and entrepreneurs are stepping up efforts to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. However, be aware that this mega goal won’t be easy or cheap, despite the fact that numerous innovative ideas are being developed around the world.
On the other hand, consumer awareness has been rising and interest in green products and the green way of life is surging. Consumers feel better about consumption when they choose brands and retailers that exibit a green philosophy and ethic. We expect businesses that adopt sustainability policies will gain competitive advantages in their markets.
A recent study by JWT addresses the issues.

Key Questions Investigated
• Why is clean energy an important goal, and how has it become a priority all around the world
• What is the role of the public sector in the Energy Race? or of the private sector? Which countries are making significant progress in this direction?
• What alternative energy sources are attracting the most interest and investment?
• How are consumer priorities are influenced by the issue of energy conservation, and how are businesses addressing these new priorities?

Key Findings of the Study
1.Climate-change skeptics have lost their footing, but the prospect of global warming is only one factor driving the Energy Race. The current international search for energy has serious political and economic consequences for governments and consumers.
2.However we should be aware that good intentions or modest inflows of money to this direction are not enough and also have the danger to raise expectations but result in mediocre energy savings
3. But at this stage, it’s unclear which clean energy solution will win. Many ideas are being developed that may in the future prove more viable than today’s leading options, such as solar power and wind energy.
4.As government and investors work together to fund green energy projects, more people are thinking about how they impact the planet and are acting accordingl by buying hybrid cars, and purchasing carbon offsets
5. There is no doubt that businesses who will lead these initiatives will gain competitive advantage.
6.Corporations and governments, both national and local, are fast coming to understand just how powerful, and profitable, an early role in the Energy Race can become.
However, one word of caution is appropriate especialy now that economies are in deep trouble and consumers are counting their scarce resources.

http://adage.com/agencynews/article?article_id=140549
It seems that the debate for the roles of traditional, digital agencies and recently the role of the production shops is raising the players’ blood pressure. Advertising Age is leading the debate with some eyeopening stories. Up to now we were experiencing the rising importance of the digital agencies who are challenging traditional advertising. I believe this challenge should be seen in a positive way and lead us in finding ways of fruitfull cooperation rather than jumping on each others throats. On the other hand recent developments as the recent AdAge article points out digital production aencies seem to be on aspree trying to eleiminate the “middleman” and appeal directly to the client/advertiser. The pot is boiling and we will watch with great interest of the outcome.

Advertising Age Why Digital Agencies Aren’t Ready to Lead
On two of my earlier posts I dealt with this issue concerning the changing form of communication. (On Oct 17th: “Advertising will not be the same a few years from now”, and on Oct. 8th: “Traditional vs Digital Advertising: and the winner is..”)
Both posts analyzed and presented new evidence on the overwhelming influence exerted by the web on the advertising industry. On the quantitative side I pointed to evidence that in many countries digital is growing fast and overtakes traditional ad expenditures. On the qualitative side I presented the way the web and digital advertising is leading the way in creating needed content and building close relationships with the customers.
But only a few days ago a great article in Advertising Age points out to a simple truth.
Digital agencies are excellent in Exploration, that is thinking and creating new things, uses and applications for communication while advertising agencies are excellent in Exploitation, they are accountable and systematic and on target with the marketing needs of their clients.
It remains to be seen which of the two will improve on their weaknesses and build on their strengths.

For centuries since Guttenberg books have remained virtually unchanged.
But today the Internet has changed the way we process information, even the way we read and eventually all information will be digital. Publishers especially those who realize they’re in the story business, not the paper and printing business, have adopted the digital generation from social networking to mobile phone novels to multimedia add-ons, to electronic readers. The most recent example is Amazon’s Kindle.

A recent study by JWT has possed the following questions and then went on to answer them.

Key Questions
• How will books change format to fit the habits of generations of readers accustomed to on-demand access to information?
• How are authors and publishers experimenting with different forms of media? How are they digitizing to better engage readers?
• How is the digital age changing reading habits?
• How are authors and publishers changing their marketing strategies and tactics in response to these developments?
• Can the digital revolution actually help save the book industry?

Key Findings
Some of the results are mentioned below:
Internet and digital media is changing the way we process information. The image of the reader, the book and a quiet place is being replaced by a busy noisy environment where we are hearing music, driving through windows of info dozens of times in the span of an hour. Our minds have become reluctant to stop in one place for too long—the digital age has created an urge for diversion that one academic calls
“acquired attention deficit disorder.”

Some believe this spells the death of reading—but consider that literacy has always leapt forward when more information is made available to more people. And ultimately it’s not the thing book lovers are taken with, it’s what’s inside the thing—the ideas, characters, possibilities. Expanding a good story into the digital realm opens numerous opportunities to attract consumers. Authors and publishers are finding ways to engage the digital generation. And e-readers like the Kindle speak to consumers who increasingly expect information on demand, on the go and online.
Eventually, books will have to evolve even further, and even faster, if they are to survive. For example, Millennials (see my post ….) will demand content be made available digitally. Some might look at these developments with disdain, but ultimately an evolution will result in engaging more people in the written word.

What we are experiencing today will continue, with people connecting to each other –rather than institutions. Consumers adopt social media at an increasing pace, brands are jumping on the bandwagon even in the middle of a recession so we should expect to see lots of changes in the web trying to accomodate this trend.
According to Forrester “social experience is disjointed because consumers have separate identities in each social network they visit. A simple set of technologies that enable a portable identity will soon empower consumers to bring their identities with them — transforming marketing, eCommerce, CRM, and advertising.”
Portable identities are marking the beginning of this transformation, in which the Web will evolve step by step from separate social sites into a shared social experience. Consumers will rely on their friends as they make online decisions, whether or not brands choose to participate. Eventually this will result in more empowered communities who in turn will create the next generation of products.

During a recession, marketers are often forced to reduce budgets.
A recent study showed 53% of marketers a determined to increase their social media budget during a recession, and 42% will keep it the same, for a total of 95%. The reasons are obvious to me, it’s inexpensive and the opportunity to benefit from cost-effective word-of-mouth, are quite promising.
Of course this doesn’t mean that expenditures are huge, since this is a ‘new’ media, with small budgets. Just keep in mind that 75% of marketers spend up to $100,000 for social media marketing.
Although budgets are small and growing, I believe that in order to be successful, one should approach social media marketing seriously and put the right process, and measurement and human resources in place. We should always remember, the most expensive cost is not technology, the most expensive part is the soft costs: strategy, education, process, roles, measurement).
Read more
• Adweek’s Brian Morrissey: Notes that the budgets are quite small, in his piece Social Media Outlay Still Small
• Read Write Web: Despite Recession, More Than 50% of Marketers Increase Spending on Social Media

In the near past the prevailing belief was that bigger and better is the required strategy that led to progress. Now, the global recession is forcing us to live with less, and as a result we’re rethinking our strategies.
The oversized gasoline thirsty cars look a lot less attractive and don’t make sense.
Construction companies and real estate developers are downsizing their projects and are building smaller homes. And our mobile phones are now coming up with various other devices into one small package.
We can call this the Small Movement, and it’s the new frontier of product development. In this post I am presenting the recent findings of a JWT Trends study examining the global trends that are making our world a smaller, more efficient place to live.

Key Questions
• How is the Small Movement manifesting itself around the world? Which markets are leading the revolution for small?
• How is the Small Movement playing out in various industries, such as the housing and automotive sectors?
• How is the Small Movement affecting business processes? What has compelled these changes?
• What “small” technologies are scientists and engineers getting excited about?
• What is it about the environment and the economy that is attracting people to a small-is-good ethos?
Where do brands fit into this conversation?

Key Findings

The Small Movement is working hand in hand with the environmental movement—more is no longer more.
Big-ticket gas guzzlers are sitting on lots as fashionable drivers zip by in small—and getting smaller—cars.
Homes are getting smaller too. While some builders, especially those in the developing world, are motivated by space constrictions, small-house proponents tout the tiny footprints of these homes, both physical and environmental.
Big-box retailers are downsizing as many consumers find smaller stores more convenient and easier to navigate. How small can they go?
Retail kiosks, which are popping up from malls to airports.
The packaging surrounding products is also shrinking—smaller in this context means more sustainable and generally reduces costs.
Technology also continues to get smaller, and with the advent of Netbooks and increasingly sophisticated mobile phones, we can get considerable computing power in a handbag.
For some, smaller means living with less, or downsizing to a simpler, less cluttered life.
The younger generations are embracing the Small Movement, not just as a fashion statement but also as a life philosophy. And thanks to good design, we can take up fewer square feet, use less battery power and simplify without downsizing our lifestyles.
Small may not be new, but it’s now and it’s beautiful.