Ancient Athenian Philosopher Plato described the human condition: “Man is a being in search of meaning.”

But where can we find it?

We humans are a curious species – I don’t mean weird, I mean nosy. We want to know stuff.

As parents we patiently answer our children’s questions with joy in our hearts. We encourage them to challenge and to think for themselves – to seek answers and meaning. To learn and so make their way in the world.

Educators encourage curiosity in students – every Lecturer/Professor I know welcomes dialogue in class – ‘chalk and talk’ can be as boring for the talker as for the audience. And great business leaders inspire, motivate and encourage questioning and knowledge-sharing, since they believe that mobilising facts and understanding will help their people do a better job and make their company more successful. Smart companies hire curious people and encourage them to keep asking questions and finding better answers.

For centuries, books have been good for answers. The story starts with cave paintings, then clay tablets in Mesopotamia around 3,000 BC. By 2,400 BC, the Egyptians were writing on papyrus. The Great Library in Alexandria, Egypt, was the largest library of the ancient world. The plan was that it would hold a copy of every scroll in existence. The idea of a universal library may have been proposed by Demetrius of Phalerum, an exiled Athenian statesman. The Library soon acquired many papyrus scrolls. It is unknown exactly how many such scrolls were housed at any given time, but estimates range up to 400,000 at its height. Many influential scholars worked at the Library during the third and second centuries BC, including Callimachus, who wrote the Pinakes, aka the world’s first library catalogue

I wonder how many reading this post this remember visiting a lending library – you borrow a book for up to 3 weeks (say) and bring it back on time for fear of getting fined. Physical Libraries have had a good run, though today they are suffering from Digital Disruption, like so many other parts of our world.

The Dewey Decimal Classification (DCC) is a library classification system first published in the United States by Melvil Dewey in 1876.  DDC introduced the concepts of relative location and relative index, so that new books could be added to a library in their appropriate location depending on the subject. Libraries previously had assigned books permanent shelf locations depending on the order of acquisition rather than topic! The classification’s notation makes use of three-digit numbers for main classes, with fractional decimals allowing expansion for further detail. A library assigns a classification number that unambiguously locates a particular volume in a position relative to other books in the library, on the basis of its subject. So, it is possible to quickly find any book (and also to return it to its proper place on the library shelves). Today, the classification system is used in 200,000 libraries in over 135 countries. In addition to Dewey Decimal, traditional librarians had access to card indexes of all the books in their library (and sometimes other libraries) in order of author name, or alternatively of book title.

The idea here, of course, is to help us locate stuff – giving us ‘the answer’. Without the classification system and the librarian, the library would just be a useless pile of books. Finding a particular book would be “like looking for a needle in a haystack”.St. Thomas More wrote in 1532:

“To seek out one line in his bookes would be to go look (for) a needle in a meadow.”

So that’s where a good librarian can help; he/she loves books, but (more relevant for the potential book borrower), s/he knows the classification systems, so that s/he knows exactly where they all are!

“Everything is in its place and a place for everything.”                                -Benjamin Franklin

The ex-UK newspaper The News of The World had a slogan : “All human life is here.” (Until 2011, when it was closed by owner Rupert Murdoch amidst accusations of ‘cheque-book journalism’ and ‘phone hacking’).

But what if we could actually see all human knowledge? Are we sure we want this? Could we handle this ‘giant library in the cloud’? This sounds rather like looking into ‘the abyss’. In the Bible, the abyss is ‘an unfathomably deep or boundless space’. The term comes originally from the Greek ἄβυσσος, ie. bottomless, unfathomable, without limits.

“Whoever fights with monsters should see to it that he does not become a monster in the process. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.”

-Friedrich Nietzsche

Can we have too much knowledge? Or does it depend how it is presented for us to access?

Fast forward to the internet age, with a mind-blowing quote:

“Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That’s what we’re doing.”

– Jimmy Wales. Founder, Wikipedia

When British Physicist Tim Berners-Lee invented the worldwide web (www) while working at CERN in 1989-1990, he had a vision that he was creating a place where all human knowledge could be shared and ideas exchanged openly and equally, free from domination by any corporation or government. He’s stayed with that project and recently commented: “The web is for everyone,” he says, “and collectively we hold the power to change it. It won’t be easy. But if we dream a little and work a lot, we can get the web we want.”

But of course, a lot of information is trapped in individuals’ brains/memories. How can it be effectively mobilised and distributed so that others may share it and build on it? Today, how can we ‘mere mortals’ find our way around Tim Berners-Lee’s worldwide web, replete as it is with all human knowledge, without collapsing through information overload?

What we need is a guide, a librarian, otherwise the wonderful worldwide web might overwhelm us, like Douglas Adams’s Total Perspective Vortex from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QM0K4VODk8Q&ab_channel=NickPage

So, what do we want from a search engine? Simply, the ‘best’ answer to our every question. Every time. Instantly on our screen. It comes from the Search Engine’s index of the web (which is not the whole web) but in fact we mostly don’t care where the answer comes from. We just want to know – and fast. The search engine must be a wise and kindly mentor, an intelligent friend, a loving and helpful parent, uncle or aunt. Never judging, nor condemning our ignorance, always supportive and generous, providing THE RIGHT ANSWER every time. Not necessarily to what we type, nor even to what we think we’re looking for, but to what we REALLY want to know (aka our INTENT). Enter Google, since 1998!

A web search engine is a software system that designed to carry out web search (ie. Internet search), which means to search the World Wide Web in a systematic way for particular information specified in a text search query. The search results are generally presented in a list of results, referred to as search engine results pages (SERPs). The information may be a mix of links to web pages, images, videos, infographics, articles, research papers, and other types of files. Search engines maintain real-time information by running an algorithm on a web crawler. Tough job!

The first well-documented search engine that searched content files, namely FTP files, was Archie, which debuted on 10 September 1990.

The first tool used for searching content (as opposed to users) on the Internet was Archie. This program downloaded the directory listings of all the files located on public anonymous FTP (File Transfer Protocol) sites, creating a searchable database of file names; however, Archie Search Engine did not index the contents of these sites since the amount of data was so limited it could be readily searched manually.

The rise of Gopher (created in 1991 by Mark McCahill at the University of Minnesota) led to two new search programs, Veronica and Jughead. Like Archie, they searched the file names and titles stored in Gopher index systems. Veronica (Very Easy Rodent-Oriented Net-wide Index to Computerized Archives) provided a keyword search of most Gopher menu titles in the entire Gopher listings. Jughead (Jonzy’s Universal Gopher Hierarchy Excavation And Display) was a tool for obtaining menu information from specific Gopher servers.

By 1993, there was still no search engine for the whole web, though numerous specialized catalogues were maintained by hand. Oscar Nierstrasz at the University of Geneva wrote a series of Perl scripts that formed the basis for W3Catalog, the web’s first primitive search engine.

Next JumpStation (created in December 1993 by Jonathon Fletcher) used a web robot to find web pages and to build its index, using a web form as the interface to its query program. It was thus the first WWW resource-discovery tool which combined the three key features of a web search engine (crawling, indexing, and searching).

One of the first “all text” crawler-based search engines was WebCrawler, launched in 1994. Unlike its predecessors, it allowed users to search for any word in any webpage, which has become the standard for all major search engines since. It was also the first search engine that was widely known by the public. In 1994, Lycos (which started at Carnegie Mellon University) was launched.

The first major web search engine was Yahoo! Search. Yahoo!, founded by Jerry Yang and David Filo in January 1994, launched Yahoo! Directory. In 1995, they added a search function, allowing users to search Yahoo! Directory. It became one of the most popular ways for people to find web pages of interest, but its search function operated on its web directory, rather than its full-text copies of web pages. Soon a number of other search engines appeared (including Excite, Infoseek, Lycos, Ask Jeeves and AltaVista).

In 1996, Robin Li developed a site-scoring algorithm for search engines results page ranking and was awarded a US patent for the technology. It was the first search engine that used hyperlinks to measure the quality of websites it was indexing, predating the very similar algorithm patent filed by Google two years later in 1998. Indeed, Google’s Larry Page referenced Li’s work in some of his U.S. patents for PageRank. Li used his Rankdex technology for the Baidu search engine, which was founded by Robin Li in China in 2000.

Google was founded in September 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were Ph.D. students at Stanford University in California. They incorporated Google as a California privately held company on September 4, 1998, in California.

Crucially, Google adopted the idea of ‘selling’ ads on search terms in 1998, from a small search engine company named goto.com. This move led to AdWords (now Google ads) and to Google becoming one of the world’s most profitable businesses.

Around 2000, Google’s search engine started to dominate. Google delivered better results for most searches with their algorithm PageRank, as explained in the paper ‘Anatomy of a Search Engine’ written by Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the founders of Google. This iterative algorithm ranks web pages based on the number and PageRank of other web sites and pages that link there, on the premise that ‘good’ pages are linked to more than are others. Larry Page’s patent for PageRank cites Robin Li’s earlier RankDex patent as an influence. Google also maintained a minimalist interface to its search engine without ‘spam’ or clutter. Straight out of the blocks, Page and Brin’s new search engine provided superior results and won searchers over almost immediately.

Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, was launched on June 1, 2009. On July 29, 2009, Yahoo! and Microsoft finalized a deal in which Yahoo! Search would be powered by Microsoft Bing technology.

Before Google, most search engines relied on the databases of textual keywords to find and display relevant results. Whenever internet users entered a search term, programs such as Lycos and AltaVista would simply compare the term to their databases.

Web pages that included texts most similar to the search terms were considered to be most relevant, and they were featured higher in the lists of the search results. However, this automated approach did not always provide the best search results.

Google has succeeded where others failed (overtaking competitors and staying ahead) since it has consistently given users a better experience, first on desktop, later on mobile and indeed all devices. It has successfully focused on:

-Relevancy

-Speed

-UX (User Experience)

Page and Brin built Google in a way that was better at connecting users with more relevant results. Google simply gave users better answers.

Google began offering text ads (AdWords, now Google Ads) which were separate from the organic results but still relevant to their search query.

Today, Google’s businesses include Android Ads, Commerce Ads, Chrome Ads, Maps, Cloud Services, Search and YouTube.

Google’s biggest sources of revenue are Google Ads and AdSense. With Ads, advertisers submit ads to Google that include a list of keywords relating to a product, service or business. When a Google user searches the Web using one or more of those keywords, the ad appears on the SERP. The advertiser pays Google every time a user clicks on the ad and is directed toward the advertiser’s site.

AdSense is similar, except that instead of displaying ads on a Google SERP, a website owner can choose to integrate ads onto their website. Google’s spiders crawl the site and analyze the content. Then, Google selects ads that contain keywords relevant to the webmaster’s site. The website owner can customize the type and location of the ads that Google provides. Every time someone clicks on an ad on the site, the site receives a portion of the ad revenue (Google gets the remainder).

With both Ads and AdSense, Google’s strategy is to provide advertisers with ad placements that are directly targeted to the Google users who are most likely to buy their products or services and to give users information that is most relevant to what they’re looking for (which may include goods and services to purchase).

That relationship between users and advertisers is at the heart of Google’s business… though Google always puts users first.

“We believe if users get what they want, get what they’re looking for … then they’re going to keep coming back to look for more things, and we send more traffic to the Web and we keep the Web ecosystem healthy.”

-Pandu Nayak, Google

Google Search has become the most used search engine on the Internet, handling more than 3.5 billion searches each day. (See Google Search Statistics)

Google’s share of the global search market is a dominant 92.26% (ahead of Bing 2.83%, Yahoo! 1.59% and Baidu 1.14%) (Statcounter). https://www.internetlivestats.com/google-search-statistics

So, what about marketing? Well if we’re selling products which enhance people’s lives, we naturally want to tell everyone – ie. advertise them. But where? Very simply, wherever the target audience is. We must ‘fish where the fish are’. And today, a lot of fish/customers are ‘Googling’. So that’s where brands need to be – prominently displayed on Google’s results, either using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or the paid ads on Google (pay per click=PPC). Search marketing should not be seen as a fight against Google – rather as a potential win-win. Google has customers visiting its search results pages, right now, who are looking for exactly what you sell – they just don’t know your company yet. Perhaps there is a mutually beneficial deal to be done? This can be good for the users, for your company and of course for Google. This idea (launched as AdWords, now renamed Google Ads) has made Google very successful; its parent Alphabet had revenues of 161.9 billion USD in 2019 – it is the 4^th largest US company by Market Cap – not bad for a 21^st century librarian!

Seek and Ye Shall Find* (*Matthew 7.7)

The www has changed the world and Google is our trusted guide to it. As consumers and business customers, we have become addicted to the web and at the same time, addicted to search. To ‘Google’ has become a verb and if we’re browsing using Chrome, we are probably searching on Google without even thinking about it.  Google has won big and looks likely to continue to dominate in most countries as search changes (naturally, Google has advanced plans for voice, image, and AR search). Your business can win too. As always, all brand owners should stay close to their customers and specifically understand what they are searching for (via Google, Baidu, Yahoo!, Bing, Yandex, Alexa, Siri, Wikipedia, YouTube+++) so as to deliver it to them – conveniently, speedily and profitably. Today every marketer needs to understand and practise Search Marketing.

Mike Berry FCIM, F IDM, is an internationally recognised (digital) marketing lecturer, trainer, author and consultant.

In the above toothpaste example, the CEO and CFO might have had a coffee and agreed the wholesale price (based on ‘cost-plus’ say). The Sales Director might be meeting with Key Accounts to suggest their selling prices. Again, Marketing is asked to generate demand so that the sales targets can be achieved. However, Marketers, with our access to market research data and increasingly insights derived from analytics. understand the benefits which customers derive from the underlying product features. We should have a good idea exactly what customers will pay for. And how much. Professor Kotler rightly preaches about ‘creating ad capturing value’. As marketers, we need to be the champions of value-based-pricing and assertive in sharing our understanding and recommendations with the rest of the organisation; even if vested interests sometimes mean they are not immediately welcomed!
Place: something of a fake P, in that it should really be ‘D’ for Distribution. In the digital age, many products are ordered and some even ‘delivered’ via the Internet: no warehousing, pallets, no trucks, no scheduling of drivers or freight forwarding admin. So, ‘Place’ translates to ease of access; can the product be downloaded and installed seamlessly and efficiently? This is after all not only user experience (UX) but indeed customer experience (CX). Again, Marketing should have a big input into this. Ecommerce is all about ‘Place’
Promotion: yes, indeed we love this bit: as regards marketing communications channels, we still have all the old stuff (TV, newspapers and magazines, radio, cinema, outdoor/posters, POS and direct mail) and also all the new stuff (SEO, PPC, social media, email, online display+++). However: how many companies have truly succeeded in integrating their communications? Work in progress in many cases I would suggest…

I firmly believe that modern marketers deserve a seat at the ‘top table’, after all, every business should be built around customers and we marketers are the customer experts!
However, in order to justify membership of the C-Suite, the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) needs to remember McCarthy and actively engage with, and add value to, the organisation’s operations across all the four Ps – not just one.

So why settle for a career as a “Single P marketer”? – we’re too good for that!

By Mike Berry

The recent Mary Meeker (KPCB) report began, surprisingly for many, with the news that overall internet growth in 2015 was flat. And that global smartphone unit shipments were slowing dramatically. Growth is, of course, still growth but, after years of astronomical percentage increases, ‘The Queen of the Internet’ at last reported that things are plateauing. With one very important exception: India.

http://www.kpcb.com/blog/2016-internet-trends-report

India will have more than 500 million web users by 2017: Google

According to a Google report (February 2016), India will have over 500 million web users by 2017 of which 80% will be via mobile devices. India has already surpassed the US (in 2015) in terms of active smartphone users (220 million) to become the second largest smartphone country in the world. Facebook has 110 million users in India.

With a Growth of 51% Indian Ecommerce Revenue is highest in the world: ASSOCHAM-Forrester

Research by ASSOCHAM-Forrester reveals that India’s e-Commerce revenue is growing at an annual rate of 51%, the highest rate of any country in the world, and revenue is expected to reach $120 billion in 2020 from $30 billion currently. <http://digiperform.com/>

Online Ad Spend in India to exceed Billion Dollars in 2016: GroupM

A report from GroupM in January 2016 revealed that of all advertising spend in India, digital will account for 12.7%, up from 9.9% in 2015. Digital spend will grow to over Rs 73,000 million in 2016, i.e. over a billion $, while overall ad spend will grow to Rs 574,860 milion by the end of 2016.

Meanwhile in January 2016 the annual report from We Are Social http://www.slideshare.net/wearesocialsg/digital-in-2016 painted a similar picture of the accelerating growth in this digital powerhouse region:

All figures for India (compared with January 2015)

• Active Internet users up 19%
• Active social media users up 15%
• Active mobile social users up 16%

These numbers explain the dramatic growth of digital marketing in India. And it seems that we ain’t seen nothing yet. The trend is set to continue. This is, of course, exciting news for professionals already working in the industry, for students aspiring to a career in tech/ marketing and especially for budding Indian entrepreneurs looking to launch a tech start-up in the Subcontinent.

Adoption of new technologies is itself interesting to some people; but what really excites marketers is changing human behaviour which is exactly what is happening in India right now. Smart marketers are already tuned in and ready to take full advantage of the many opportunities this trend is providing.

I’ve always believed that it’s best to be in ‘The Eye of The Storm’ rather than observing from afar; so I’m really looking forward to my upcoming visits to Delhi and Mumbai; thanks Programic Asia. http://www.programicasia.com/Brochure/Digital-Marketing-Conclave.pdf

Mike Berry is an internationally-recognised Digital Marketing Lecturer, Trainer, Author and Consultant.

Thailand is a dynamic, creative, entrepreneurial emerging economy which is currently embracing technological innovation. I’m delighted that I’m due to be visiting Thailand to deliver a Masterclass in Digital Marketing for One Roof/ TDMA.

There are 23.9 million Internet users in Thailand which represents 37% of the population. The world average is currently 39%.

Like other countries in Southeast Asia, Thailand is growing year-on-year. With a population of 67 million and an average age of just 32, Thailand is a major world country and it’s natural that a large part of the population is spending increasing amounts of time online. So what are they doing? In effect, whatever they like, including watching videos, streaming music, social media, playing games and even a little online shopping…

Marketers have been quick to notice this change and logically enough are considering how to engage with consumers (and indeed business people) using the new online (digital) channels.

However, as in other developing countries, one major challenge for Thailand is providing the infrastructure; a key issue is how easily the non-urban population is able to connect to cabled internet. In fact, despite the improving availability of fibre broadband in Bangkok, only 7.8% of the Thai population is currently connected to broadband Internet.

If we compare this to the total number of Internet users, currently around 37% of the population, it becomes clear that Thailand is all about mobile. A massive 80% of Thais using the Internet, are connecting via smartphones.

In common with many of their neighbours in nearby countries, the average Thai has 1.49 devices (more than 100 million devices in total), with mobile growth rates of 5.41%. Interestingly, the vast majority (around 82 %) are pre-paid users.

Most smartphones in Thailand are lower-priced labels manufactured in China, and GFK estimated that in 2013 Android devices were 70% of the total market share, against just 18 % only to iOS, So, price is clearly a major factor.

Now let’s look at what they do while they’re online. Thais are ranked number one in Southeast Asia in terms of time spent online, with 27.2 hours a week (source: comScore).

One thing the Thai people are not yet doing in big numbers on their mobiles is buying things. This still seems to be some time away. However globally this is changing with the emergence of ‘Buy’ buttons on websites including Google, Facebook and Pinterest; there is every reason to believe this trend will affect Thailand too.

Next let’s consider the Thai digital economy. Despite the relatively low connectivity rates I mentioned earlier, the trends are upwards; more Thai people are using their mobile more of the time. Ecommerce is growing but Thai people still enjoy visiting physical shops. The National Statistical Office of Thailand has provided some statistics about ecommerce in Thailand, which showed that 61.9% of all e-commerce companies operate both an online shop and a standard retail shop.

The main products sold by ecommerce in Thailand are travel (hotels/resorts and flights) with 24% of all business, next fashion and accessories with 23.3%, and then Computers and Electronic Appliances in third place.Thai people use social media like everyone else on the planet; for staying in touch, sharing, considering views and even asking for the opinions of other people. Most of us these days wouldn’t book a hotel without reading all the reviews available; fashion is all about what other people think; and when you’re looking for electric appliances of any sort you want reassurance that you won’t be making a mistake and will indeed get value for money, which all comes from reading reviews.

In Thailand today, people use social media to speak to each other, browse products, and compare experiences before making a purchase decision. And once they do, they’re just as likely to visit a store in person as to purchase online. This means that retailers need to be offering a ‘clicks and mortar’ solution, not just ‘pure-play’ online.

It appears that the average Thai’s online purchases are heavily influenced by what their friends are saying in their social networks. Marketing to social media users in Thailand has a familiar look to Western Marketers (more so than in some other Southeast Asian countries) as most of the social networks are the global ones: Facebook, Google+, Line, Instagram and Twitter being the most common networks. So marketers should create and maintain brand image via social media, apps, e-commerce, email marketing and blogs in order to engage your customers and drive sales (online or off-line).

As stated above, it seems that Thai people like to have the choice of buying from physical shops or via e-commerce; the key for brands is to give them the choice. Digital media can support brands (B2C, B2B and NGOs) even in situations where the final transaction is completed offline. In Thailand brand owners need to seize the opportunity to engage the growing online user base (of all ages), while understanding that shopping is still a physical activity which a web presence can support and supplement.

In her latest report, Mary Meeker of KPCB includes Thailand among the group of countries where the next influx of Internet users is likely to be currently using non-smart mobile phones; in other words, a large percentage of these people will simply upgrade their mobile device to a ‘connected’ smartphone.

Thailand:

Population- 68 million
Mobile subscriptions- 99 million
Smartphones as % mobile subscriptions- 29%

This indicates a big opportunity for the handset manufacturers/ network operators to persuade Thais to trade-up…

We Are Social reports that last year, Thailand saw impressive growth in social media: 2 million new accounts in the past 2 months mean the country’s Facebook population grew by almost 7% in 12 months.

Ohad Hecht of Emarsys tells us that 80% of Thais using the Internet are doing so via mobile devices (and more specifically smartphones). So it is clear that the opportunities for digital marketing are all about mobile, including search, advertising, email, and increasingly m-commerce (ie. buying straight from one’s phone).

More and more people in Thailand are getting online and spending more and more time there; Thai people going online for the first time are unlikely to be doing it via a desktop computer. In Thailand it’s all about mobile. Why are marketers interested in this trend? Well possibly because they’re geeks and they are just fascinated by the technology itself. However for most thinking marketers the real reason is that our customers are changing. If people are spending more time in front of a vertical screen (mobile device) then they may be spending less time in front of the TV, or reading newspapers and magazines. So they money may need to be moved.

As brand owners, we need to consider how can most effectively engage with consumers on mobile devices. After all no-one checks Facebook or Instagram on their mobile hoping to hear updates from brands. As marketers, we have to find a way of interrupting to the user’s advantage; we only have seconds to convince them of this or our communications will be ignored. Doing this via mobile devices is the new challenge and opportunity for marketers in Thailand.

Marketers shouldn’t forget that offline is still very important in Thailand so TV, print and outdoor should still be a major part of the media plan. After all, as of last year, only 39% of people in Thailand could even see your website!

Of course we also need to look ahead and prepare for the future in order to seize opportunities as they come up. Given the growing importance of digital (or rather mobile), Marketers in Thailand certainly need to embrace the opportunities offered by the massive US tech brands (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram +++) but also local forums and portals e.g. Pantip and Sanook. In short, marketers must “fish where the fish are”! There may be learnings from the West which can provide guidance as to ‘Best Practice’. Moreover, I predict that as digital/ mobile marketing grows in Thailand, trends from Western markets including programmatic buying/selling of online display ads and also Affiliate (Performance) Marketing will take off in the coming years.

I’m really looking forward to my forthcoming trip to Thailand and to meeting lots of creative and enthusiastic digital marketers who can share their success stories with me!

Sources:
KPCB/ Mary Meeker http://www.kpcb.com/internet-trends
We Are Social http://wearesocial.net/tag/statistics
Ohad Hecht of Emarsys http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2375913/thailands-digital-landscape

That country is a land of polite, uptight people standing patiently in queues; cool, damp and very changeable weather; Sherlock Holmes, William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, The BBC, Big Ben, red buses, black cabs, James Bond, David Beckham, The Beatles and (err) Sam Smith. Also the birthplace of Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the Web. Yep the good old United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

This small island nation has for a variety of reasons reached a stage where it can reasonably claim to be the “Digital Capital of the World” (sorry Silicon Valley). London is certainly one of the world’s top digital cities; ‘Silicon Roundabout’ is an entrepreneurial hive of tech start-ups and it’s increasingly difficult to get ‘desk space’ in any Costa Coffee, Cafe Nero, Pret a Manger or Starbucks in the UK Capital; then you’ll need to fight the “Macbook Espresso Wi-Fi” (MEW) brigade for a power socket. Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham and Edinburgh are close behind.

According to Strategy Analytics, this year we will find that the sum total of money spent in the UK on all advertising media offline will be exceeded by that spent online (primarily online display including video and pay-per-click, mainly Google AdWords). We’ve seen this day coming for a long time, but it’s still a major milestone.

Total UK advertising spend is forecast to hit £15.8bn in 2015, up 5.5% from last year the researchers said, and just under £8bn of that will go on digital ads, whether on search engines, mobile apps, newspaper websites or video-on-demand services such as ITV Player or 4oD. Of course much of this ‘digital advertising’ will be consumed on mobile devices.

Interestingly Strategy Analytics claims that TV is not in decline; rather its diminishing share is mainly due to advertising pounds diverted into digital away from declining press and radio advertising. The TV companies (ITV, Channel 4 and Sky) are successfully selling advertising on their websites including online video ads. Which raises a question: “what is TV?”.

We are getting close to the point when the word ‘digital’ won’t mean very much. In an age where people can stream video on their phones, surf the web on their TVs and games consoles and buy a device which might be variously described as a very large phone, a tablet or a small laptop, the old language of communications technologies and devices is increasingly inadequate. This veteran marketer reflects with a smile that in 1990, we considered that marketing was challenging, sophisticated and complex; we had no idea what was about to happen. Even Sir Tim Berners-Lee probably didn’t imagine what he was about to unleash on us all when he invented the web some two years later. Social media and smartphones subsequently offered new opportunities for users and brands. And it’s not slowing down; who knows what’s next?

Meanwhile, I personally hope that the Strategy Analytics forecast is accurate: So hold your heads up you Brits: shame about football (soccer), cricket and rugby but at least the UK leads the world at something; hip hip hooray!

Mike Berry is an internationally-recognised Digital Marketing Lecturer, Trainer, Author and Consultant.

***This post by Mike Berry first appeared on Dr. Dave Chaffey’s site Smart Insights ***

1.Mobile (still)

“It’s all going mobile”.

Yes, we’ve been saying this for some time now. And every year it gets more true. The technology gets better (both hardware and networks). Things just work better. It’s faster. And easier. So consumers are more inclined to do things on mobile devices. As users, we are all accustomed to our mobile devices. We’re well up the learning curve. And so the payback becomes greater and the effort required becomes less.

For most of us, using mobile devices has become a habit and increasingly a life-support system. This thing in our pocket is the most personal communications device ever invented and many of us would struggle without it (ever lose your phone? Or drop it in the toilet? Or just run out of battery? Or struggle to find Wi-Fi when roaming?) so the right question is not “will mobile take off?” but rather “has mobile already taken over?”.

The statistics on mobile adoption are, of course, mind-blowing:

In 2014 Mobile platforms – that’s smartphones and tablets – combined to account for 60% of total digital media time spent, up from 50% a year ago according to comScore.
Gartner predicts that “by 2018, more than 50% of users will use a tablet or smartphone first for all online activities”
According to Mary Meeker of KPCB Mobile data traffic is growing rapidly —up 81% year-over-year—thanks mainly to video, while mobile is now 22% of consumption.
Many websites are now recording more than half of their visits via mobile devices – for example retailer John Lewis has reported that over 50% of visits are from smartphone and tablet.
But we should bear in mind that:

Mobile advertising is still under-performing vs. time spent on mobile devices according to ad spend figures whereas print is still significantly over-performing according to Mary Meeker.Smartphone users are still only approx. 30% of the total global 5.2B Mobile Phone User Base (i.e. only a third of all ‘mobile phones’ are smartphones)
So there is still plenty of potential for smartphone makers and it’s essential that marketers think mobile (‘first’ for now and possibly ‘only’ in due course).

The time when marketers talked earnestly about “mobile-friendly” (as if it were some kind of revelation) has gone and now even “mobile first” sounds a bit “old hat”. So will ‘desktops’ be an interesting new niche? I don’t think so… Sure, there are times when we like a nice big screen and maybe a conventional physical keyboard, particularly for creating something. But these peripherals can be ‘plugged in’ to our ubiquitous mobile devices which are easy to carry round as we go about our lives (business or pleasure). End of. Many consumers are already “mobile-only”. So increasingly mobile=digital=mobile. With my cynical hat on, I explain it like this: Computers got smaller; get over it!

2.Grown-up Social

Social Media is now part of most people’s lives. Marketers are always looking for new, cheaper, better ways to reach audiences; and those audiences have moved onto Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and all the others. So marketers must “fish where the fish are” but how? Do people really go on social media to hear updates from brands? Even those they have “liked”? Generally, not. So marketing must be ‘interruptive’ but of course that was always the case. The challenge now for brands is to add value in social spaces; the only way to interrupt successfully is to engage immediately and continuously.

Interestingly, there is evidence that organisations are getting their act together in social media. It’s been around long enough now that there are capable managers with 5 years+ experience of building and managing online communities. They understand the opportunities and the dangers. They know how to do stuff. They are valuable and much in demand. Policies are being drawn up, teams are being structured, people recruited and trained. The respective roles of Marketing and Customer Service and other departments in the socially-connected world are being clearly defined. So everyone knows what they should be doing. And not doing. This is not Rocket Science. Just sound business planning. And about time too.

There are signs that Facebook growth is plateauing in the US and Western Europe. But there is still plenty of scope for further expansion in India, Indonesia and Africa. And if Facebook is not quite as ‘cool’ as it was 5 years ago, Mr Zuckerberg et al have wisely acquired WhatsApp and Instagram which are (currently) ‘cooler’.

Then there are the Chinese platforms (see below). So the brand names may change, but the learnings, for marketers, are transferrable.
Which just leaves us with the ‘biggie’: the difficulty of calculating true ROI on social activity. This is one of the biggest challenges for marketers in 2015 and, I am sure, beyond. Lots of work is being done on this but naturally, not all of it is public.

3.(Online) Video

According to Cisco, video traffic will be 79% of global consumer Internet traffic by 2018, up from 66% in 2013.

Why is the cinema still going strong after more than one hundred years? Why has TV being so successful for so long? Why has TV advertising been dominant marketing communication channel for over 50 years in most countries? Well because it offers a powerful combination of moving colour pictures and sound. If “Advertising is what you do when you can’t be there yourself” (attributed to Fairfax Cone: founder of FCB now part of Interpublic Group) then a TV ad is a pretty good substitute for walking the streets and knocking on doors to sell your product to consumers one at a time. More and more people are spending more time online. What content do they want? Video would be right up there. Increasingly so as the technology works better and better (see Mobile above).

In the UK, Sky TV is offering advertisers something stunning. Sky AdSmart technology means I can be watching the same Sky programme as my next-door neighbour (a live broadcast) but when the ad break comes, we see different ads, tailored to us. Households can be selected based on factors such as age, location, lifestyle. Targeting is based on a combination of Sky’s own customer data and external information (e.g. from Experian). Wow!

All the power of TV, targeted with a previously impossible precision. Is this “Direct Marketing”? Above-the-line? Digital? Who knows anymore? And does it matter? Indeed, how ‘separate’ is Digital Marketing in 2015? Let’s not get started on that one right now…

The Cinema wasn’t killed by TV. And TV wasn’t killed by the internet. TV advertising is alive and well and part of the future. (HD, 3D, Connected+++). If you need convincing, go here:http://www.thinkbox.tv
Video isn’t TV or online. It’s just a form of content. And, done well, it works superbly well.
Seth Godin http://sethgodin.typepad.com/ talks about Permission Marketing. Dave Trott argues for what could be called ‘interruptive creativity’ (forgive me if I’ve misinterpreted Dave). There is merit in both approaches and of course it all depends. On your brand and on your audience. Video can be very powerful and effective when it engages, informs and entertains without irritating. (More difficult to achieve than it might sound.)

Video is very big. Online video will be huge. Enough said.

4.(Big) Data Analytics

Facebook recently announced its plans to make historical posts searchable. Mark Zuckerberg estimates these may amount to around 1 trillion pieces of content. That’s a lot of data. And potentially a lot of useful information.

William Edwards Deming (1900–1993) is believed to have said “In God we trust. All others must bring data.” Today, lack of data is not the problem. Moreover the abundant data itself is not a solution. Rather the challenge is one of interpretation which requires special people. They are scarce, useful and consequently valuable.
I teach at several Business Schools (in the UK and internationally) and students often ask me “What is the best career path for marketing/business graduates in the digital age”? Well to be honest I’m not certain I’m the best person to ask, but I want to help so I normally say:

“EITHER a) start a social network which becomes fabulously successful and in seven years do an IPO and become a multi-billionaire OR: b) become a data scientist and you will always have a job.” The students generally smile at this, whether or not they understand my (rather dry) sense of humour. Seriously: the future belongs to the data scientists; even if the analytics tools of choice are not always going be Google Analytics, Adobe SiteCatalyst, Webtrends or the IBM suite of products, the need for someone to make sense of the growing mass of data and to tell marketers what they should be doing will only increase. And why stop at what’s going on on your own website? What about Social Media analytics? Offline? CFOs generally take a media-neutral and bottom-line-focused approach. That’s their job. So: CMOs and CEOs either need to be data analysts themselves and/or to know where to find them; intelligent people who fluent both in data and (international) English will be in demand. If you can speak confidently and knowledgeably about things like Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) and Cross Channel Attribution, people will listen. And pay you. So: start reading Avinash Kaushik’s Blog today! It contains great wisdom, based on experience and is also highly readable. Data got bigger. And analytics got more important. Both trends will continue.

5.China

We hear a lot about China these days, for example this is how McKinsey summarise their digital transformation.

China is the second biggest economy in the world, has enjoyed double-digit(al) growth in GDP for most of the last 3 decades. There are some great stories of Chinese tech successes. Mobile phone maker Xiaomi has become the world’s most valuable technology start-up just four years after it was founded. Xiaomi has raised $1.1bn (£708m) in its latest round of funding, giving it a valuation of $45bn, compared with the $40bn value of Uber (the taxi booking app). In 2014 Xiaomi outsold Samsung in the massive (and growing) Chinese market. Alibaba’s initial public offering in September ranked as the world’s biggest IPO at $25 bn. Including its subsidiary Taobao, Alibaba handles more transactions than Amazon and eBay combined.

However: Shock! Horror! Whisper it quietly! It appears that growth in the Chinese economy may be slowing. Observers cite the cooling property market, soaring total debt and higher labour costs. But several Chinese Tech firms have both momentum and ambition. So remember these names: Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu (as well as Xiaomi) and watch out for them all in 2015. These companies have so far focused on the lucrative and expanding domestic market; however there are now signs that they are looking for expansion opportunities internationally. And after all, why should the biggest tech brands be predominantly from the US? Maybe some healthy competition would be a good thing? So look East this year. There is much to learn from these new kids on the block…

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So that’s it. Another dynamic and unpredictable Digital Marketing year in prospect.

But why only 5 things? What about Wearables? Omnichannel? Content Marketing? Facebook Search? Google+? Instagram, Snapchat and WhatsApp advertising? The Internet of Things/ Connected Lives. Semantic Search. Won’t these all be big too?

Yes probably. And so too will some things that we haven’t thought of…But these are other posts for another day.

Have a good 2015. And stay tuned.

Mike Berry is an internationally-recognised Digital Marketing Lecturer, Trainer, Author and Consultant.

Since then it’s been quite a journey (literally and metaphorically); working with our dedicated team of researchers, we’ve collected hundreds of digital, mobile, social and integrated marketing case studies: from all vertical sectors (B2C, B2B, NGOs, Governmental), from major global brands and from tiny local not-for-profits. We’ve shared them with enthusiastic audiences in more than 30 cities all over the world (from Minsk to Cape Town and from Madrid to Kuala Lumpur) collecting more cases on our travels. Along the way, we’ve met some massively talented (digital) marketing people, learned lots and made some lasting friendships; long may it continue!

And now here’s ‘The Book of the Show’. We’ve selected some of our favourite cases from various continents and a range of vertical sectors; many are award winners; all were highly effective. We wanted to make this book ‘snackable’; so feel free to jump from one section to another, ‘drilling down’ into any case which catches your interest. In most cases there is a link to a ‘case video’ which provides a quick overview; we’re immensely grateful to all the brand owners and their agencies who have contributed and generously shared background and insights, although naturally full results are rarely available, owing to commercial confidentiality. For each case, we’ve tried to draw out some key practical learnings/ lessons which I hope you will find both interesting and useful.

As digital marketing matures and becomes mainstream, there is a growing body of excellent ‘academic’ books covering digital marketing theory and strategy; this is not one of those. Although I teach at world-class universities and I have a healthy respect for marketing theory, I must stress that the campaigns featured in this book are 100% real world, real budgets, real marketing.

We’ve really enjoyed putting these cases together and we would welcome any feedback about the book.

You can buy The Best Of Global Digital Marketing Storybook from Amazon here: http://amzn.to/Utqjjh

See all the videos here: The Best Of Global Digital Marketing Storybook Videos

Hopefully we’ll bring the BOGDM Show to your town soon. Meanwhile, let’s connect!

Mike Berry

mike.berry@mikeberryassociates.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeberrylinkedin

Think of your own experience as a user of the web. How easy do you find it to use websites in general? That probably depends on how regularly you visit and try to do things on them. This seems reasonable: indeed obvious. In fact, if there is no easy alternative, we’ll tolerate quite a lot; ie. we’ll learn how to use a poor site and ‘suck it up’, even though we may curse every time we need to go there to do something. But should this be the case? If brands are to be truly available to their customers (and potential customers) shouldn’t the site be simplicity itself to use? Shouldn’t the brand remove every barrier which is getting in the way of delivering a delightful experience to each and every site visitor? As users, it is too much to ask for a pleasant, easy, enjoyable experience? Crucially, some brands have stepped up to the plate and an increasing proportion of websites not only work but are easy (and even enjoyable!) to find your way around and to achieve what you trying to do. This has improved user experience generally, and users are increasingly demanding a good (preferably great) experience in exchange for their business.

It’s not just a matter of the first experience of the website (customer acquisition). It’s also a question of users’ ongoing experience as a customer (retention). And of course UX testing can and should continue even after the site is live. When the user has finished doing whatever it was on our site and is about to exit, what would they say if we grabbed them and asked “how was your experience on this visit?”?

It is possible that we wouldn’t like some of the answers but it’s highly likely that we would learn from them. Site surveys don’t get 100% participation, but they’re cheap and can sometimes yield ‘golden nuggets’ of insight, so why wouldn’t you do them?

The most general definition of User Experience (UX) is “the sum of a person’s emotions about using a particular product, system or service”. It’s all about the various aspects of human-computer interaction and product ownership (or potential/intended ownership). It also includes a person’s perceptions of practical aspects such as utility, ease-of-use and efficiency. UX is inherently subjective in nature because it’s about individual perception, and to make matters even more complex, it’s dynamic due to changes in technology, user habits and preferences! Online UX today includes much more than basic ‘user interface’ issues.

The term ‘user experience’ was popularised by Donald Norman, User Experience Architect, in the mid-1990s. Massive recent growth in mobile/ social connectivity via smartphones and tablets (and maybe soon via watches and glasses!) has meant that usability and indeed user experience has (rightly) risen up the agenda of many senior marketers. Indeed, in Web UX, the focus has now moved far beyond pure usability (which is largely about engineering, having grown out of ergonomics) to the much broader concept of user experience, where users’ feelings, motivations, and values are given equal and sometimes more importance than pure efficiency. It deals with how people feel before, during and after a visit to the site.

In the design of websites , it is necessary to achieve a balance between the priorities of various stakeholders: including the competing and overlapping areas of marketing, branding, visual design, and usability. Marketing people must consider usability, while Developers need to understand marketing, branding, and aesthetic factors when designing websites. User experience testing and development should encompass the interests of all stakeholders: making sites easy to use, valuable, and effective for visitors, which should lead to increased ROI, which is in everyone’s interests.

Many factors can influence a user’s experience with a site. Single experiences influence the overall UX eg on a smartphone, the ‘experience’ of making a single key click affects the ‘experience’ of typing a text message, which affects the whole experience of texting, which in turn affects the overall user experience with the device. This overall UX is not just the “sum” of smaller interaction experiences, because some of these experiences are more important than others and should be weighted accordingly. Overall, UX is also influenced by external factors: the strength of the brand, pricing, friends’ feedback/ attitudes and of course, social media.

There is also the crucially important “emotional” factor, including momentary experiences during interaction. In the world of hardware design, Steve Jobs recognised this perhaps better than any of his peers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPfJQmpg5zk importantly, Apple products “just work” (as well as looking great) and their users love them and will pay a premium accordingly.

UX consultants also consider the long-term relationship between user experience and product appreciation. Indeed the UX of the brand at every touchpoint is critical for building and maintaining brand loyalty, and as a result driving profitable sales. And let’s remember: online, a bad experience can lead to an immediate click away; it’s so easy to ‘Google’ another site or go back to Facebook. User engagement is extremely fragile. No wonder UX is becoming such a priority for CMOs.

Here is a mnemonic which I have found helpful when advising my consultancy clients on all aspects of User Experience. Like all the best mnemonics, it’s cheesy but (I hope) memorable (and true).

So: make your website GREAT!

Get users to the content they want – fast

Reward their effort/time

Engage them – or you’ll lose them

Add value at every stage of the customer journey

Think about users first – then your objectives

© Mike Berry Associates 2013

For all web users, the bar has been raised by effective, enjoyable, usable websites which have become the norm. Today’s connected brands need to ensure they deliver a GREAT experience; to every single visitor/ customer, at every touchpoint, every time. This is good news for companies like Seren www.seren.com whose mission is to help their clients ensure that every visitor gets a truly GREAT experience, in every channel, over their entire customer lifetime. Not easy of course, but absolutely worth striving for!

Marketers have been required to get involved; not least because their target audience is spending increasing amounts of time in digital spaces and often actually making purchases there; naturally the advertising needs to follow the eyeballs. But how to fit the new stuff in alongside the old? Depending on the make-up of your audience and the geographical regions you operate in, you are likely to find that offline media are still vitally important within your marketing mix, especially for delivering reach. People still watch TV, read newspapers and magazines and listen to the radio; although admittedly there is some substitution with digital channels. There is also the new phenomenon of multi-screening (eg smartphone and tablet in front of the TV in simultaneous use). So it’s really not enough just to understand the ‘new’ digital platforms; how to fit them into the mix effectively to maximise ROI on the total budget is just as important.

As Digital has grown in importance and in its share of marketing budgets, the thorny issue of integration has raised its head periodically; i.e. how to make sure all marketing communications, online and offline are working together seamlessly with maximum harmony and synergy. It’s effectively a ‘no-brainer’; we all aspire to it, but there are lots of reasons why it’s so difficult to achieve out there in the real world. The latest challenge is that of integrating ‘mobile digital’ with ‘desktop digital’; although ‘mobile’ is rapidly ceasing to be a niche and we talk confidently about ‘responsive design’, many websites are still not optimized for mobile devices… Noting that 80% of brands still don’t have a mobile optimized site, Simon Andrews of Addictive, speaking recently at The Future Of Digital Marketing conference said that the opportunity was now too big to ignore. “You are losing money by not doing it properly now – if you’re not doing it then someone else is”.

Econsultancy, who were one of the pioneers of publishing and training in digital (previously internet and e-) marketing, originally in the UK and now also in the US and Asia, recently published their Modern Marketing Manifesto.

Here are some highlights:

Strategy

We believe marketers should sit at the board table and help set strategy. If you do not believe your understanding of markets, products, customers and positioning plays a vital role in shaping strategy then you are not a modern marketer.

Digital thinking should be embedded in marketing strategies as a matter of course. Digital may not be relevant to every marketing effort but organisations need to properly consider digital and change their culture and processes to become more digitally oriented.

It is a mind-set rather than just an executional approach. If you do not ‘get digital’ then you cannot be a modern marketer.

Great businesses look beyond the horizon. Great marketers have the vision to define the horizon.

Customer experience

We believe that improving the customer experience must be the relentless focus of modern marketing. We believe this is key to customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Customer experience is about customer centricity as evidenced by the service or product that we deliver across channels. It is about respecting the power and importance of great design.

Experiences are events, products, services, hardware, software, customer service. Indeed, every interaction with a customer is an experience that we must make as relevant, pleasurable, easy and useful as possible for them.

Since resources and time are not infinite we need segmentation to help ensure we deliver the best possible experience to our most valuable customers.

Integration

We believe that the mobile revolution is only just beginning. But we see beyond just ‘mobile’. Modern marketers think about the whole customer experience and the multiple screens and touchpoints that control and mediate it.

Customers do not recognise lines and nor should we. Online, offline, above the line, below the line… we need to think and deliver experiences and marketing without delineation.

Modern marketing must be connected, joined up and integrated. This includes internal integration and goes beyond integration within the marketing function, across digital and classic skills.

Integration must also exist between customer facing functions. It is about working across the entire business and collaborating with other functions, such as sales, technology, editorial, HR and customer service.

Brand

We believe the internet has forced transparency upon brands and businesses. Brands no longer control the message, consumers do.

This loss of control means businesses must communicate authentically and this requires a clear sense of self to which they can be true. In a digital age what modern marketers need most is a strong brand.

Data

We believe data must be turned into insight and action to be a source of customer, competitive and marketing advantage. Data is the bedrock upon which successful research, segmentation, marketing automation, targeting and personalisation are built.

Data allows us to predict future behaviour which is fundamental to creating strong customer lifetime value models and optimising marketing effectiveness. Digital channels provide new and valuable sources of data and customer insight that can be acted upon in real time.

If you do not see data as exciting, valuable and empowering then you are not a modern marketer.

Personalisation

In the quest to deliver outstanding brand experiences across channels, we believe that personalisation offers the greatest opportunity to transform what customers currently get.

Digital channels in particular allow us to use everything we know about a customer to inform and optimise each interaction. Location, device, screen size, usage characteristics, the weather… we are in an era where we have exciting and powerful new data points to power personalisation.

Personalisation is not just for existing customers: we no longer need to know who the person is to provide convenient and relevant experiences.

As modern marketers we respect the privacy of our customers and recognise we must deliver value to them in exchange for personal data.

(Econsultancy: The Modern Marketing Manifesto 2013)

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It is interesting to note that Econsultancy, having been, since its launch, the champion of the interactive/ e-marketing/ digital community is now taking in a broader view of the marketing mix, perhaps reflecting a more general recognition by the marketing industry that digital should, increasingly NOT be viewed as a stand-alone discipline.

It is worth reading the entire Manifesto which is full of common-sense thinking for the modern (integrated) marketer.

I indeed, this Manifesto might well, with hindsight, turn out to mark the end of ‘the digital age’ and the start of ‘the post-digital era’ when it’s all just seen as ‘marketing’ and ‘media’. And marketing is always evolving. Yes we have Pinterest, Instagram, Google Glass and Twitter Vine, but we also have HDTV, 3DTV, Connected (Web) TV and Interactive Digital Billboards/ facial recognition; nothing stands still. How long before creative and media advertising and digital agencies consolidate via merger and ‘Head Of Digital’ disappears as a job title?

22 years on from Sir Tim’s invention, it is time for Digital Marketing to grow up and take its place alongside the longer-established but still effective marketing channels as part of a post-digital marketing landscape. In this new age, Digital shouldn’t be viewed as ‘better’ or ‘cooler’; rather as offering new opportunities and challenges. So: Marketing got more fragmented and complex… and more interesting. Get over it! And let’s get on with it!

“Digital Marketing Conference 2.0; Deploying Digital Marketing for Competitive Advantage” http://www.digitalmarketingnigeria.com/

Q. So what is Digital Marketing and why now?

Digital Marketing is now really taking off in Africa and, more than ever before, it presents a transformational opportunity which businesses in Africa should meet head-on.

Businesses in Africa and those intending to penetrate the African market must now focus on integrating Digital Marketing into their overall marketing strategy. That is the opportunity and those who seize it will reap handsome rewards.

Digital Marketing is still something of an unknown to many companies and organizations in Africa. Definitions vary but I would define it as “reaching out to an identified audience with a targeted marketing message via the web and Mobile media to conduct profitable business”. Indeed, increasingly the web is Mobile and people are accessing it via tablets and smartphones rather than desktop machines. This definition of Digital would include online display advertising, social media like Twitter and Facebook, Search Engines like Google and Yahoo/Bing, Email, and Mobile apps and most of all Web Analytics to tie it all together and calculate the all-important return on investment (ROI).

Q. But Africa is not particularly advanced in technology, at least when we compare it to more developed economies such as Europe, the US and parts of Asia. So why should we care about Digital Marketing in 2013? Shall we leave it a few years until the technologies are more established?

There’s no need for any marketers to fear Digital. In fact, Africa is comparatively advanced in technologies which are needed to support digital marketing. The rate of internet penetration in Kenya for instance is at an all-time high according to a recent TNS report. Mobile internet adoption and usage In Africa has been phenomenal. There are now over 48 million Internet users in Nigeria; 10 years ago that figure was less than 200,000 (worldinternetstats). What does all this mean? In a nutshell, more and more people that we as marketers want to target are spending more and more time online and on their tablets and mobile phone screens. We know that the customer must always be the focus of our marketing efforts. It is clear that the customer is changing and marketers need to change too; in other words we must “fish where the fish are” and the fish are swimming more and more in the digital lake right now!

Q. So what is the reality at the moment? Are businesses in Africa really ready to take up Digital Marketing?

Well Digital Marketing is still a mystery to many companies in Africa – some think it is only about creating a website – that’s just the start. Some turn to their agency for help, only to find the same old answers: print, outdoor and TV (if the budget is big enough). Others take it a step further to add a Social Media presence on Twitter and Facebook or even building brand awareness via banner ads and lead generation via Google AdWords. The digital marketing picture in Africa is very fragmented at the moment, but that’s completely normal at this stage of development of Digital Marketing in any country.

One of the patterns we’re currently seeing in new Digital markets is that at first there is plenty of tactical activity at the expense of an overall Digital Marketing Strategy ie a deeper and holistic understanding of the role of digital as part of the whole 360° marketing effort. The integration of the various channels of Digital marketing is the next stage but African marketers shouldn’t feel they have to do everything at once; these are early days and some companies are doing a few things really well.

To make things more challenging, the Digital landscape is always evolving which makes getting into digital feel like aiming at a moving target. At the end of the day however, it is still marketing! It’s still about putting your product or service in front of the right target audience consistently and persuasively; Digital and Mobile just give us more ways to do that.

Q. So exactly how do the businesses in Africa stand to benefit from Digital Marketing?

The opportunities presented are enormous – firstly, the whole scalability aspect of Digital Marketing campaigns. This means that anybody, with even the lowest budget, can do some Digital Marketing and have a chance of getting good results. From then on it’s a matter of testing,learning and development. This is a huge opportunity for SMEs in Africa who are driving the economic renaissance of Africa.

Secondly, digital marketing is highly measurable – you can tell what sales came from where and what is the ROI. Indeed the old adage of Lord Leverhulme, “I know half of my marketing budget is wasted; I just don’t know which half” increasingly doesn’t apply; in the Digital world, things are more measurable than ever before which means we can test, learn and improve.

Q. And what about those overseas businesses planning to penetrate the African Market? Is Digital Marketing something they should take seriously?

Yes for sure. Many of these organisations are already have Digital Marketing experience gained elsewhere so that the key task is one of optimizing their campaigns to fit the rapidly-developing African Digital Landscape.

Q. But right now, is there sufficient professional support to enhance uptake of Digital Marketing in Africa?

Not yet, but this is changing fast. Where do you learn Digital Marketing? Most Digital marketers that I know (in any country) tend to start as enthusiasts who learn on their own, from fellow practitioners and also by actually doing Digital in their day-to-day job. They then narrow it down to specialize in a branch of Digital Marketing e.g. Email, PPC, SEO, Social Media, Online PR or even Analytics. Given the current lack of available training to help African marketers develop their digital skills, growth is still held back by a lack of suitably qualified and knowledgeable practitioners. However: organisations like Simon Page are doing a great job at addressing this problem. Marketers must understand all they can about Digital, including learning what has worked and not worked in more developed Digital markets, in order to drive their own Digital education and progress.

Q. Based on your analysis of the markets and trends, how long do you think it will take Africa to fully embrace Digital Marketing?

This is an exciting time, which is why it’s great to be visiting Lagos right now. Things are happening very fast. The market is driving growth: consumers are embracing digital media and so are business decision-makers. As a result, brands and their agencies have no option but to jump on the Digital bandwagon: to learn all they can and crucially integrate digital with their offline activities which are still very important in Africa. I would say that Digital/ Mobile Marketing will be highly developed in most African markets within 2-3 and maximum 5 years from now.

Q. What does all this mean for Africa as a continent?

In Africa, the Digital Revolution has been building for some time now. It’s no exaggeration to say that the web is the greatest driver for economic empowerment and social change in Africa. There is virtually no barrier to starting a business online and the voice of one person can be heard by millions online; almost instantly. This is a great time to be in business in Africa.

Q. How are the figures for Mobile penetration in Nigeria looking?

The numbers are staggering: The number of people accessing the Internet over GSM mobile networks in Nigeria has now reached 32.3 million, according to the Nigerian Communications Commission. (mobile-ent.biz)

Since the end of 2012, the number of people logging on to the worldwide web via their mobile device has increased from 30.9 million to 32.3 million as of February of this year.

Leading the market in February was MTN Nigeria with 21.31 million users, which accounted for a market share 65.9 per cent, then in second place was Airtel Nigeria, which took a market share of 18.16 per cent with its 5.87 million users and Etisalat totaled 4.35 users, equating to 13.47 per cent market share, while Glo registered 801,218 users for a share of 2.48 per cent.

These figures reinforce my belief that Mobile (rather than desktop PC) will be the preferred method of connection to the web in Africa going forward. The sharpest African marketers need to get into Mobile now and learn all they can from other Mobile markets. However bear in mind that you’re not far behind, as Mobile is new to everyone!

Q. Any more thoughts on the Digital Opportunity in Africa?

The growth of social networks and consumer culture in Africa means brands must fundamentally change the way they engage with potential customers. It’s clear to me that Mobile and Digital are driving the growth of the whole marketing sector in Africa.

The emerging economies will play an increasingly important role in the future development of Digital Marketing throughout the world. Already, the ways people consume information, share content and make purchasing decisions in these markets are leapfrogging older, more developed economies.

African marketers should grab the opportunity to embrace the role of technology.

Historically, a low growth rate (less than 5% per annum) coupled with low levels of investment in the African Continent have meant that brands have been slow to innovate and embrace new technologies, but now this is changing – rapidly. Technology is a key area for economic growth in Africa and Mobile phone penetration demonstrates that there is a large untapped consumer market on this Continent.

In Africa, it is clear that the time for mobile and digital solutions has come, which makes this a really exciting market right now. I’m really looking forward to my visit to Lagos, and I’m very grateful to Simon Page Business School for the invitation.

Mike Berry is an internationally recognised Keynote Speaker, Trainer and Consultant in Digital Marketing. He is Adjunct Professor of Marketing Strategy at Hult International Business School, London.

https://twitter.com/mikeberrytweets

http://mikeberryassociates.com