Social Media Strategy - A Practical Guide for Marketers

Found this great presentation regarding Social Media Strategy courtesy of Spur Interactive. Excellent food for thought!

Never Forget Your Past – Integrating Old School and New School Marketing Solutions

Back in 1994, I had the pleasure of working at Sprint TeleMedia. We spent our time selling the Sprint FON network to Marketing Executives at large Fortune 1000 companies. Notice that I said Marketing Executives, not Telecom Managers. It was a very cool and creative job. I recently dusted off my old two inch V.R.U. University binder to take-in some nostalgia. Sprint TeleMedia’s service brand was called FONMagic, a play on their Fiber Optic Network (FON) brand name. FONMagic utilized the Sprint FON network to develop custom, interactive tele-promotions. Examples of some of these campaigns were Keebler’s “Brings You the Shadow” promotion, Coca-Cola’s “Monsters of the Gridiron” promotion and the Pepsi “Cool-YA” promotion. All these promotions used an interactive toll-free number found on product packaging that “called on” (no pun intended) the consumer to dial a number for a chance to win. I’m simplifying it a bit, but that pretty much sums up the campaigns. These campaigns captured a combined 30 million calls over the length of their promotions. Not too shabby. What was great about these promotions was that they provided quantifiable ROI metrics; a challenge even in today’s hi-tech marketing environment.

Fast forward to 2009. Coca-Cola has been promoting their “My Coke Rewards” promotion for a couple of years now. Where the old school, “Monsters of the Gridiron” was a promotion for new customer acquisition, the new school, “My Coke Rewards” promotion has been used mainly for customer retention purposes. The development of both these campaigns required a similar process to launch. The difference was in the new school automation using digital ones and zeros. The old school method required a bit more analog and often manual processes. Today with the growth of Voice over IP, these processes might be able to move into the “modern age”...and then some.

The point that we often forget in today’s hi-tech marketing age of Internet-based, cross-channel, integrated and unified marketing campaigns is that many of the old school solutions and concepts can still work and should be utilized in our marketing campaigns. We get so wrapped up in the latest and greatest technology that we forget what worked in the past. We need to utilize technology and automation to merge the old school with the new. Radio is not dead! Television is not dead! Print is not dead! Social networking and web to print solutions are not an ends; they are a means to gain positive ROI. We simply need to leverage our new school processes with the old school mediums. Until then, remember the past successes in marketing promotions and campaigns and elevate them with all the new school technology and processes.

Adam Edelman is the President of Refined Technology Solutions and can be reached at 443-310-8777 or via email at adam@refinedtechnology.com.

According to an Association of National Advertisers survey...

Here's an interesting take on "the recession" and the marketing industry:

February 10, 2009 - According to a new survey from the ANA (Association of National Advertisers), the recession had a more profound effect on the marketing industry than predicted just six months ago.

Following up on a survey conducted in August 2008, the second survey reveals that more companies are identifying cost savings and reductions (93% as opposed to 87% six months ago) and that 37% of respondents today plan to reduce budgets by more than 20%, up substantially from the 21% of respondents in the first survey.

The top five areas where marketers plan to reduce costs or expenditures in marketing and advertising efforts:

Top Five Areas of Reduced Spending	July/Aug 2008	Jan/Feb 2009
Departmental travel and expense restrictions	63%	87%
Reducing advertising campaign media budgets	69%	77%
Reducing advertising campaign production budgets	63%	72%
Challenging agencies to reduce internal expenses and/or identify cost reductions	63%	68%
Eliminating or delaying new projects	58%	61%

Other tactics gaining greater consideration by marketers today, as compared to six months ago include:

• Nearly half (48%) are looking at reducing agency compensation today, versus 32% six months ago.
• Alter mix of marketing channels to lower cost channels (44% today v. 40% in first survey).
  
  
  MOD NOTE: This mix will only be implemented smoothly if the companies deploy some sort of marketing automation!

In the first survey, the ANA asked if marketers thought their budgets would increase, decrease or remain the same in the next six months.  In the recent survey, the ANA asked what actually happened.

• In July/August, 53% of marketers thought their advertising budgets would be reduced in the next six months, when in fact, 71% experienced a budget decrease.
• Close to four out of ten (38%) thought their budgets would remain the same, but only 23% had their budgets untouched.
• In the first survey, 9% thought they would see a budget increase, when only 6% did.

When asked about their predictions for what will happen in another six months from now, 49% of respondents felt that their advertising budgets would be reduced, while 43% think that they will stay the same and only 8% have hope that their budgets will increase.

MOD NOTE: I would really like to know the names of those 8% and see the results of their increased spending during these unpredictable times. Frankly, I believe they're doing the right thing!