Posted via web from Antony’s posterous

Posted via web from Antony’s posterous

Last week’s C&binet Forum was dominated by the debate around file-sharing and copyright. Between bouts of debate between old and new media and government pronouncements on the issue however, there were glimpses to be had of how media and marketing may evolve in the coming years.

It was clear talking to people from indie production companies and traditional broadcasters that many of the challenges they face from the web’s unending waves of disruption were very similar to those faced by marketers:

* Attention scattering: Where are the big audiences? If attention is scattered across the web how do we aggregate that attention and express its value?

* Monetisation & measurement: The difficulty and complexity of measuring attention and engagement and expressing their value are just as much of a challenge for media producers and broadcasters as for us in marketing. It leads to innovation and risk-taking innovation being stunted.

* Commissioning mind-sets: Just as brand-owners are struggling (with increasing success) to throw off the constraints of the campaign model, producers and broadcasters are trying to imaging new approaches beyond the commissioning model, where indies have only the commissions of broadcasters. At the same time,

* Broadcast-centric: This mind-set flows into the broadcast. Having a series on TV is hallmark of success - the talk is of 360, transmedia or cross-platform media, but too often these are after-thoughts to getting-something-on-telly. It is reminiscent of how brands still often put the 30-second spot at the centre of their creative and media planning.

Two sessions at C&binet Forum led me to think that just as there are similar challenges for marketing and media there may be common solutions.
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Precisely why marketers have turned to digital channels was laid painfully bare for traditional marketers at a DMA event earlier this month - and their reaction was shocking.

At an event labelled ‘digital measurement’, the always excellent Omaid Hiwaizi of Chemistry unveiled a piece of research that should have prompted constructive soul-searching for the many traditional marketers in the room, but which actually turned them into traditional apologists as they debated how marketers can’t measure digital nearly as well as they think they can.

Marketing spend follows measurement confidence

The research demonstrated a precise link between how well marketers feel they can measure something and how much money they are prepared to put into it. It did so by first asking a mix of integrated and digital DM marketers where they had increased budget last year and where they would do the same next year. The answer in both cases was digital, particularly email, natural search and websites.

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I’m currently researching some data for a budgeting and savings planning calculator for one of our clients, and during the course of my research, I’ve been struck once again by the wealth of free data that is available to every citizen in the UK at the click of a few links.

As digital marketers I’m sure none of us need to be told about the power that intelligently analysed and appropriately presented data hold. After all, where would our businesses be without web analytics? But did you know that there are huge, shimmering pools of astoundingly robust and statistically accurate data sitting on government servers just waiting for intelligent minds to dive in? And all for free?

Here are my two top sources of free, public data - so why not hold your nose and take the plunge?
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Forgive me if you’re not into cars, but there’s more than one lesson to be learned from the upcoming face-off between US car blog Jalopnik and GM’s global head of product development, Bob Lutz.

First, a bit of background. Back in September, Lutz issued an impromptu challenge as part of GM’s “May the best car win” campaign. The 77-year-old offered to take on any comers; him driving a stock Cadillac CTS-V, with challengers free to choose their own unmodified production saloon.

Jalopnik - a Gawker Media title with around 1.8 million monthly readers - took him up on it, originally planning to field an AMG C63.

And here’s where it gets interesting. By the time the duel was confirmed, Jalopnik had found that Mercedes “wasn’t too keen on the idea”, and had switched their car of choice to Jaguar’s XFR. Yesterday, just two days before the event, Jaguar pulled out for reasons which aren’t entirely clear.

Here’s Bob Lutz’s response on hearing the news:
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Posted via web from Antony’s posterous

If you are up to date with SEO you will know that Matt Cutts usually answers the questions from SEOs all around the world in their YouTube channel.

On the last round Matt received more than 440 questions in a period of 2-3 days. He obviously cannot answer all of them, and these go through Google Moderator, where approximately 25 of the most popular questions will be answered.

Out of the 441 questions that were submitted last time, four of them were mine. And guess what. Yes, he answered two of them:

• Will Google personalize results based on user IP location?
• What will happen to paid links implemented using JavaScript?

50% is a very good ratio of response if you take into account that he only answered about 5% of all questions.

How did I manage to do it? I guess he likes my name. But seriously, take some of this advice home.

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Last week there was an announcement made by Marissa Mayer (VP at Google) that was eclipsed by the Google/Twitter/Bing deal. Marissa introduced a new search feature that will be available soon, Google Social Search.

So, what exactly is it?

Google’s Social Search is a new feature that aims to improve search by using your social networks. Once that you are logged in and perform a search, Google will include snippets at the bottom of the page containing relevant content written by people in your social network.

It also works for images, where you will be able to filter the images to show the ones that are related to your network and therefore more relevant to you.
Social Search will be particularly useful when doing local searches. Let’s say that you want to know about the restaurant in the corner, or maybe you want to know about the latest blockbuster in your cinema. Social search will let you find out about which of your friends have said about it before.
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Posted via web from Antony’s posterous