Seeing is believing
Lucky for us living and working in around wonderful Brighton, we have loads of great talks and get togethers from geeks to designers, social softies and just about everything inbetween. The next great opportunity is to hear some ‘experts’ speak about SM (social media not sadomasochistic) and how it is going to influence our lives in the future. It’s going to be held Thursday 12th February 5.30 pm – 9.00 pm at the not so lovely Jurys Inn in Brighton (beige, faceless crappy hotel - shame). If you want to come sign up here.
The 3 headline speakers are the ‘mutts nuts’ and the panel are ‘top dogs’ too. Attending, will the usual mix of creative, geeks, commentators, agencies, social softies and possibly one or two normal people who might come along for pure “shits and giggles”.
Whilst being part of a strategic marketing agency, I will be going along to see if my current thoughts on social media are going to be verified or changed. I have a completely open mind … well almost.
Observation is that there are just too many people out there (particularly within Brighton, Sussex and London) who are doing a large amount of talking, blogging, twittering, facebooking, linking in, etc all about social media. There is not a day goes past without someone ‘biggin’ it up’ and saying it’s the next best thing since sliced bread. I would love to see more brands embrace this medium and make it work for them instead of hearing what the potential of SM might be by a number of media types in black trousers and polo shirts.
As an ex Marketing Communications Manager, with a nice juicy £30m annual budget, I am so not sure how others in my place would take on board all the hot air surrounding SM. It is also worth noting, that clients in general are not as ‘genned up’ as the agency bods, when it comes to new and emerging media trends. It takes a lot of effort, internal cajoling and networking to get a board to try new things even on a pilot scheme basis.
As part of an ATL, BTL and digital budget with rigorous communication objectives and deliverables, where would the SM line fit into the forecast allocation? Under PR? Under digital? Under advertising? It is unlikely that any Marketing Manager with an ounce of sense, would swap traditional media from a proven ROI set of activities into SM activities. The campaign econometric modelling payback results, are the key driver for further marketing activity/ investment YoY. The payback models for SM, are yet to be proven or robust enough to deliver results that will vastly alter budget allocation by media type. When it comes to brands, the environment, context and the customer targeting that it places itself within, is very controlled to give measurable results. As we all know that, good marketing campaigns are built on acute customer insight and executed with qual. and quant. feedback.
Instigating a SM campaign completely loosens the reigns of the brand (and all that it stands for), and places it in the hands of its consumers, non consumers and cynics to do what they will with it. No control at all. Sometimes the 2.0 world embraces the brand and gives it a new dimension, that could never be created by its owners. It in turn is recreated by its advocates. It’s all well and good when the story for a brand has a happy ending, however many don’t. Not to mention the destruction to the econometric model regarding investment vs. payback figure nor the Marketing Managers sheer horror of a reduced marketing budget.
It is a common thought that SM agencies will end up just coaching / consulting in-house brand and marketing teams to take the mantle of managing a SM campaign. It will become a dedicated role within the marketing function that will sit along side the PR team, advertising team, POS team etc. It will be considered part of the overall marketing mix, just like any other medium and will take its place in importance to a particular brand.
The sooner a trusted level of measurement can be created, the sooner marketing managers will take the risk to divert marketing budget to SM. Until then, SM will be at the mercy of the early adopters, entrepreneurial brands and of course those mega brands that have the cash and kudos to push SM to new heights.
I am hoping that the New Fontiers in Social Media event will put a completely different spin on it for me, and that I will see the light as to how this hot air phenomenon is going to impact, not just my life but also the lives of all the brands that we enjoy now and will enjoy in the future.
Can anyone help me out?
Whilst writing this, I wanted to give an example of a good news story for SM- can anyone give me a best in class example? If I get one or find one I will post an update. Thnx.
Tags: Brightenup, Econometric Modelling, Marketing, Social Media