The quote of the week from this article is that “Gift cards are still better to get than to receive.” This is probably due to the hidden fees, the unused card value, and the loss/forgetful factor.

I can’t help but be a little scared with how important my cell phone will become in the next three years (as if it doesn’t control my work/life/schedule today…). The idea of having my wallet on my cell phone with contactless payments, loyalty cards, contacts, schedule, email and more becomes the proverbial “having all your eggs in one basket” and makes me cringe upon the thought of losing this device somewhere. Either way, the adoption of smart phones has been the single biggest hold-up (in my opinion) for a lot of mobile marketers and brands that want to engage consumers with communications and rich media via their mobile device.

A lot of brand marketers are still dabbling with the internet and are not quite sure whether spending big dollars on the internet the way they do with print/tv/radio will drive the results they need, typically as measured for retailers by same store sales growth and foot traffic. Also, the web provides so many different ways to reach consumers that it requires traditional marketers to “re-tool” in order to understand the vast array of opportunities and options.

We’re seeing a shift for retailers in their direct marketing budgets. A lot of retailers are interested in moving direct mail budgets to the web, eliminating enormous cost centers for production / mailing etc. The issues direct marketers face via the web is that their options are limitless. Segmenting and analytics are often daunting and most marketers don’t really know where to start. It is super important that direct marketers retain the same level of control over their digital channels the same way they do via print, which means preventing things like coupon fraud and consumers sharing offers via social networks and email.

People used to share coupons in-person back in the day with shopper-clubs and other informal social networks, at times evening trading coupons and other offers so that the final allocation of offers between members of the club were optimal. These coupon-clubs have evolved into facebook groups, blog, and coupon message boards, which take the control-factor of 20 people in a room sharing coupons to the WWW with the ability to share an offer with millions of people within minutes. While both scenarios are viewed negatively by marketers who wish to reach their intended audience with control and measurement, the latter example clearly presents severe issues to direct marketers with a need for control, measurement and security.

I think that we’ll see marketers migrate to digital in even greater droves when they have these problems addressed, and they get up to speed with all the latest ways to reach their customers…

I think two key reasons for the shift to digital is (1) advertisers want to reach their customers, who are increasingly flocking to the web for everything from reviews, products, editorial content, offers, etc., and (2) advertisers need to make budgets go farther and drive higher ROIs, which are more feasible with the performance-based marketing and tracking/analytics available on the web.

More to come on this tomorrow…

I don’t think anybody can ignore all the TV ads that Wal-Mart is running for back-to-school. I actually find them very well-done. However, my hat goes off to Marshall’s for their TV adds that explain in no uncertain terms how they prosper from mainstream retailers misfortune. Not sure that the right angle to take with consumers and not sure how consumer have reacted to that angle. I think there would be a better way to distinguish themselves from their competition…