Nancy Pekala is the AMA's Director of Online Content and Editor of Marketing Matters.
It’s time to get in the game. Today’s savvy marketers know they can no longer afford to sit on the sidelines when it comes to social media. As social media tools and platforms continue to emerge, a “wait until next year” approach to integrating digital into marketing campaigns can prove costly.
From digital storytelling and mobile apps to virtual worlds and branding strategy, marketing professionals gathered at an Mplanet pre-conference Digital Marketing Lab learned how they can jumpstart their journey into the digital landscape.
Julie Fleischer, Vice President/Group Director of Account Planning and Innovation with DIGITAS, suggested that as the social media landscape continues to evolve, considering non-traditional platforms while keeping an eye on what consumers need, will become increasingly important.
“There is no single formula when it comes to digital,” Fleischer said. “The best thing you can do is question everything. Start thinking about digital marketing as a way to give consumers’ what they need and deliver it where they want it, whether on Facebook, Twitter, Second Life or other digital media.”
Fleischer also urged marketers to move beyond their social media comfort zone and explore non-traditional platforms such as virtual worlds and gaming, digital advertising and mobile marketing as targeted extensions of a campaign. “Become the content with your digital marketing, whether with podcasts or videos on YouTube or elsewhere,” she said.
Stephanie Diamond, president of Digital Media Works, Inc., who opened the Digital Marketing Lab, agreed with Fleischer that it’s the story that counts. She emphasized the importance of storytelling across multiple platforms in order to successfully engage customers. "Pick your tactics last," Diamond advised. "Start with your story and develop your strategy before launching any tactics."
Getting Started
Toby Bloomberg, president of Bloomberg Marketing and MarketingDiva blogger, agreed that social media will continue to play an important role in shaping a brand. “We are returning our relationship with the consumer back to the days when people knew their neighborhood merchants," Bloomberg said, but today customer opinions spread rapidly and have far greater reach. “Marketers must keep the powerful opinions of customers top of mind when trying to shape a brand with social media efforts,” she said.
A successful social media strategy should not only support business objectives and be developed for the target audience, but should also be fully integrated into a master enterprise marketing and communication plan, Bloomberg advised. In addition, an effective digital marketing plan needs to be sustainable, supported by one or more evangelists, allow for internal and external guidelines and defined by success goals. Creating an effective social media strategy also involves both listening to and participating in the conversation.
There are a number of good ways marketers can begin to get engaged in social media. Bloomberg recommended the following low-risk activities:
●Subscribe to news readers/aggregators (Bloglines, Google, Yahoo)
●Listen to the conversations
●Identify, subscribe to and read blogs
●Watch consumer generated videos
●Listen to a few podcasts
●Participate by commenting
●Create a “throw away blog”
●Create A Twitter account
●Join a community
●Develop A Social Media Strategy
Getting in the Game
As the social media landscape expands, Greg Verdino, Chief Strategy Officer of Crayon, suggested that virtual worlds and in-game platforms will find a place in more marketing campaigns.
“The days of ‘sizzle then fizzle’ marketing may be over but virtual worlds are ripe with opportunities for customer care, 1-to-1, research and prototyping,” Verdino noted during his presentation, “Gaming, Virtual Worlds and Life After Second Life.”
He urged marketers to look beyond hardcore gaming. “Console, online and mobile leisure gaming cuts across demographics and provides opportunities to engage virtually any group,” he said. “Look for deep integration opportunities that allow your brand to add real value for the players.”
When planning to integrate virtual and in-game elements in a marketing campaign, Verdino stressed the following principles should be considered:
●Emphasize depth of relationship over scale
●Find ways to add value and improve the experience
●Move beyond real world constraints
●Understand that you’re joining a community
●Don’t forget the CRM opportunity
●Combine physical, digital and virtual elements
●Make residents “part of the story”
●Context and relevance are key
●Integrate directly into the “story line”
●Consider build versus buy
Mobile Matters
Mobile web continues to emerge as an important digital strategy 
offering untapped opportunities to marketers. In his presentation on Mobile Digital Advertising Russell Buckley, Global Chairman of the Mobile Marketing Association, offered up some interesting statistics that support the argument that more marketers will be looking to integrate mobile into their marketing strategy:
●BMW ran an SMS campaign with 120,000 texts. The campaign generated a 30% response rate, $60,000 in costs and $45 million in direct sales.
●Land Rover ran a mobile site targeting males 34-55. The result was 45,000 video views, 5,000 dealer lookups and 1,000 click-to-calls.
●Smart phones serve up a full third of all mobile ads served and that number is growing rapidly.
●Food and restaurants have a 29% uplift on mobiles vs. PCs for responses.
●30 million people have fixed data plans in the U.S.
●The iPhone serves up the most impressions of mobile ads. The iPod Touch ranks right behind it.
Earlier this year, on his blog, Buckley offered up some interesting mobile predictions for 2009. Below are a few highlights.
●mCommerce will begin to really take off. Mobile will begin to emerge as a viable media channel to be used to sell goods and services designed specifically for mobile consumption.
●Handsets will make a comeback. Nokia, faced with fierce competition from Android, iPhone and Blackberry, may have a tough year ahead. .Android is likely to increase its share of page views by the end of the year in its attempt to catch up with Apple which continues to capture a significant share.
●Mobile Web overtakes PC Web. It’s been coming for awhile, but in many emerging markets, the mobile web has already overtaken the PC. With an estimated 1 billion viewable pages for the mobile web, an increasing number of people will access the web via a mobile device rather than a PC.
●WiMAX networks will begin to emerge in the U.S. As more WiMAX-capable devices emerge, new networks will follow allowing WiMAX to legitimately enter the mainstream in the U.S.
●Mobile phones as a transaction platform will take off in both Europe and the US.
Mobile phones will increasingly be used as a transaction platform in the U.S. Mobile users will be able to use their devices for public transportation ticketing, airline boarding passes, coupons and other types of transactions. Payments, however, are still in a holding pattern when it comes to the mobile web.
●2009 will be the year of the “app store”. Apps will continue to be where it’s at in 2009. An app store will be on every major provider’s wish list.