Promo - December 2008 - (Page 27)

Recession Continued from page 25 we’re in a recession doesn’t mean that people are going to stop going on their computers every day and playing games. It’s a stress reliever, it’s a getaway, and it’s free to the consumer.” SKILL, WILL AND TILL Digital marketing will undoubtedly feel the recessionary bite in 2009. But forecasts suggest that the real loser will be marketing through traditional media—TV, radio and publications— and that by comparison, online marketing will fare pretty well. At press time, marketing research firm eMarketer was revising down its 2008 and 2009 forecasts for both total ad spending and online spending. According to eMarketer CEO Geoff Ramsey, spending for interactive marketing of all types should still see an increase of “just below 10%” next year. Companies that have not tested the water in some new marketing arenas such as mobile or virtual worlds will probably not find this a good time to get started, he adds. But those that have gotten some usable experience in online marketing may find this time an opportunity to really put that knowledge to work. Ramsey points to a recent announcement by cereal maker Kellogg that it will slash its broadcast budget by an unspecified amount next year and put that money into online marketing, where its Special K brand has found greater returns than on TV over the last 18 months. On Nov. 13 the company said it had hired Web marketing agency Pure Visibility to help sharpen those online efforts by providing improved Web metrics. Measurability will be the crucial weapon in marketers’ arsenals during this financially dark time, and that may kick in to defend digital budgets. drive, to sign up for the newsletter. You can measure the impact of your campaign based on that task, and that you can correlate one-to-one.” If marketers can persuade online visitors to provide some sort of addressable information about themselves, such as an e-mail address when they click through a widget or banner to sign up for a newsletter, then they can use that information down the road at purchase time to track the effect of those early online ads and promotions. HOMESPUN PROMOS Over on the promotions side, the downturn may in fact speed up some trends that have already begun, says Bonnie Carlson, president of the Promotional Marketing Association. “We’ll increasingly see a move to more targeted mass media such as cable, and more strategic spending with retailers that results not just in trade dollars, but in strategic campaign planning to build brand equity,” she says. “The old shotgun approach to promotions will be called ever more into question.” Basically, promotional marketers in the coming year should learn to get clever about doing more with less, Carlson says. That might mean running fewer promotions in a year or avoiding costly media overlays. In a field such as experiential marketing, it might entail running programs in different markets or taking a more localized approach to events. “It may be that things become more homespun while creating more excitement,” she says. “We’ve got consumergenerated content online; maybe we’ll get to consumer-generated experiential campaigns too, maybe built around the local high-school teams or something. Some small, irreverent company might hit on a user generated event that inspires great interest, and might come up with a way to still have a lot P of visibility on a shoestring.” l 27 “IF YOU’RE THOUGHTFUL, YOUR MARKETING MESSAGE DRIVES PEOPLE TO PERFORM A SPECIFIC TASK.” —TARGET MARKETING CEO JIM STERNE But brand and promotional marketers have a more complex relation to online metrics than do direct marketers, since it’s so much harder to tie brand campaigns to sales results. Jim Sterne, CEO of digital agency Target Marketing and founder and current chairman of the Web Analytics Association, says the key is to design campaigns that offer something valuable enough to induce consumers to take an active part. “If you’re thoughtful, your marketing message isn’t just an ad,” Sterne says. “It’s a specific promotion that drives people to perform a specific task: to buy the shoes, to take the test In other words, marketers will continue to move money into new media— just at a slower rate than in recent years, including 2008—while old-media spending will continue to sink. “The question of how far to commit to online marketing is now, do you have the skill, the will and the till?” says Ramsey. “That is, have you gotten good at doing this new media stuff, does your CEO buy off on these new ways to reach consumers, and do you have the money?” Promo / WWW.PROMOMAGAZINE.COM / December 2008 http://WWW.PROMOMAGAZINE.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Promo - December 2008

Promo - December 2008 Contents Editor's Note Alternative Viewing UGC Refresher Course KFC Takes Wing Title Sharing the Holidays That Holiday Glow Wish List Commentary Ready to Eat Recession Busters Q&A: A Higher Mark Resource Center The Agency Center Gift Giving Index of Advertisers

Promo - December 2008

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