Gaming and Entertainment Currency—DMC

First up, Nintendo. Gaming industry is expanding to market to moms (why are all women over a certain age labeled as ‘moms’? I mean, they might be mothers but they are also a lot of other things. I’m not sure we need to give them just one category since I’m sure they think of themselves as more than only a parent).

Now, 600-Second spot. Media scarcity is dead and it’s changing the marketing landscape…ads can be ignored because consumers have a ton of choice. Fuel Industries has decided entertaining consumers is the way to get people to pay attention. Games, interactive websites—basically, making people want to want you.

Brands become content creators—gotta work for it with savvy new consumers. In-depth discussion of a McDonalds campaign of fairies and dragons. How does this campaign actually work for the company? Not clear but apparently Fuel wins awards for stuff. Buzz on Twitter is that this presentation is really more of an ad than education. Next…

Beyond Gimmicks: Behaviour-Changing Experiences at DMC

A familiar face on this panel: Lisa Charters from Random House is joined by representatives from Canadian Tire, Wildfire Marketing and Torch Partnership to discuss effective experience marketing in ‘fragmented digital age’.

Q: Where do gimmicks fit into a marketing plan?

• Transparency is more important than gimmicks (Canadian Tire). Respect the time and intelligence of your consumers: relevancy and frequency.
• Gimmicks only a short term fix…you don’t need gimmicks to add value when you use a customer-centric medium like the web. (Wildfire)
• Gimmick can be effective to hook attention of consumer—all marketing is gimmicky. e.g. Dominos Pizza now has a pizza tracker to track your order in real time (30 minutes or less). (Torch Partnership)
• Too expensive when you have as many products as Random House…but anything that helps to connect with readers goes beyond gimmick: i.e. PDF downloads of ARC with video clips of how a cover is chosen compared to just voting on three potential covers…

Q: How do you connect with emotional needs of consumers instead of just function?

• Resonance comes from using the truth. Being savvy means connecting truth with effective distribution method i.e. Dove’s real beauty campaign
• The Simpsonizer: fits with emotion of The Simpsons movie…fun and entertaining
• Gimmicks not always marketing—sometimes they are PR. Do a campaign that might not connect with readers but satisfies needs of other stakeholders (eg authors)
• Online panel for RHC helps validate assumptions and determine what gimmicks to use

Q: What doesn’t work?

• Anything that can backfire e.g. Bridezilla campaign from Herbal Essences. YouTube video that was supposed to be real but wasn’t generated a lot of bad buzz.
• Corporate blogging/Twitter streams can be dangerous but can show commitment to something even if it doesn’t work at first.
• Bad idea to jump on a bandwagon—new is innovative but copying someone else’s innovation will not pay off for brand

Q: Can gimmicks change behaviour?

• If gimmicks don’t increase transparency, then no.
• Yes, if the customer is glad that you interrupted them—or to design marketing that does not interrupt.

Usability, ROI, and Customer Satisfaction—DMC

Tara Doherty from w.ill.am/Digital presents 8 simple rules:

• Think, implement and “service” holistically
  User experience means integrating web with real life. (Please let Rogers and Bell be in this audience)
• Never get ahead of yourself
  A goal comes before an objective comes before a tactic…
• Give up on miracles. Bad usability is by design—your design
  What are your customers looking for? Up-to-date, easy to navigate, some hand-holding most important to users. Study on Designer/User disconnects
• Measure twice, cut once and avoid focus groups of one
  Card sorting and cluster analysis…letting users group content in the ways that make sense to them
• Start listening because someone is always talking about you
  Unstructured feedback is most valuable: web forums, blogs etc
• Avoid eOverload with personalized content
  Past preferences inform what they see every time
• Evolve past web 2.0 band-aids
  Integrate strategically
• Don’t make people wait for you
  Make forms easier to use and help your consumer find errors quickly and easily

Finding Digital Marketing Talent—Google at DMC

Things to do to hire well (from Charlie Gray at Google):

• Think first about what you need: measure twice, cut once.
• Define what you want: luxuries vs. necessities. Hire smart people who can do a lot of different things and don’t worry if they have direct experience.
• Pipeline: get as many people as possible to apply. Be able to walk away if you need to.
• Avoid overly familiar: if you want your business to evolve, don’t hire people with the same experience as you. Get people who will argue with you.
• Have a process: include a lot of people in the approval process.
• Take time if you have it: patience, patience, patience. Don’t settle
• Take calculated risks: do the best you can with the info you have.
• Treat your staff like they are too important to lose

Canadian Marketing Association—DMC

The opening keynote was from Rob Master, Director of Media North America at Unilever. Big take-away: digital marketing allows for indirect marketing rather than forceful product mentions. Embracing the leaning forward aspect of digital marketing is the best way to successfully market products.

Next up, State of the Nation. Speakers from Google, Microsoft, Queens School of Business, M2 Universal and Olive Canada Network.

Q: Bright spots for digital marketing in declining economy?

• Microsoft: no real pullback from advertisers so far for Christmas season, shift into search and results-oriented marketing.
• Last time bottom fell out, a lot of businesses and campaigns that deserved to die did. Economic woes lead to Darwinist weaning. Smart businesses will survive.
• 40% of companies cutting down marketing budgets to facilitate price cuts. However, keeping marketing level leads to large success when upturn comes around.
• Money will be moving to online without being integrated. Predictions: sloppy work.
• Online will move away from B2C and move to B2B ie social networking.
• Performance driven marketing is only way to justify spend.

Conclusion: Justify campaign spend. Successful businesses are going to use integrated campaigns carefully with precise measurement techniques.

Q: Is there insufficient content for older users online?

• Facebook: 47% of users are above 35. Audience can be reached.
• ‘Tipping point’ reached for young ‘uns but still not for +45.

Conclusion: Opportunity to help this audience find out how to live more cheaply/better rather than just entertain?

Q: New research tools that work?

• ComScore
• Context Matters report (Microsoft): how engagement changes depending on time of day and what they are doing. Successful ad spend should vary depending on what people are working on while they are on that website.

Conclusion: the story behind what people use the web for is the most important tool to have. In other words, first think hard about how your community is using the digital space