With 2010 quickly approaching, businesses are finally able move forward and begin to transcend the difficult year behind us. Many industry experts are looking to the year ahead optimistically for growth and recovery, especially in the digital medium. A recent article from eMarketer sums up CEO Geoff Ramsey’s annual predictions for the direction and focus of marketing efforts in the New Year, showing a continued shift from traditional marketing practices to the digital media space.
The Article
By Geoff Ramsey, CEO eMarketer
“During 2010, as US ad budgets crack open just a little, look for an accelerated migration of ad dollars from traditional to digital media. Advertising on social networks will never attract a large share of marketers’ ad dollars, while the classic interruption/disruption model of advertising, whereby marketers insert unwanted, usually irrelevant ads as a price the consumer must pay to view desired content, will erode, if not fade away.
Social Media: Marketers will demand better ways to manage and measure the impact of earned media—the additional unpaid exposure a brand gets when consumers share about the brand online. Search will get more social in several ways: by including real-time content in results (e.g., Twitter posts), adding information from social network friends to results, and using collective information from other Web users to hone search relevance. These trends will yield new ad formats that may incorporate friends’ viewpoints or interactions directly into the ad—and will raise new red flags among privacy advocates.”
Click here to read the full article.
The Response
TIG Global
This article provides an interesting take on marketing focus for 2010. Marketing budgets have already begun to shift increasingly to digital outlets, as the online medium provides greater speed, convenience and interactive benefits than its more traditional counterparts, such as print advertising. A recent Social Media and Online PR report (of over 1,100 companies) found that most businesses are planning to invest more in social media next year, but are struggling to find the time and resources to manage their activity. According to the report:
-86% of companies plan to spend more money on social media in 2010
-13% of companies are planning to maintain their current social media budget
-54% of companies citied lack of resources as a hurdle for participating in social media
-90% of companies say social media takes up more time internally than a year ago
eMarketer also published a recent report which found that in 2007, businesses spent 7.6% of their marketing budgets online, and 8.7% in 2008. Based on their calculations, this proportion is set to grow to 15.2% in 2013.
It is apparent, based on these statistics, that online marketing has become essential, but it also takes time and nurturing. Simply placing an advertisement in a static environment in anticipation that it will be stumbled upon by consumers has become a practice of the past. Today, digital advertising allows for greater measurement on returns and proactively brings your message to perspective customers where they are already looking. But, that said, these tactics also require a great deal of time, planning and attention to stay ahead of the rapid movement in trends.
These statistics, along with Mr. Ramsey’s predictions, indicate that Social Media is one aspect of the online realm that promises to weave itself more indelibly into the online marketing mix in the year ahead. In a recent blog post, we discussed the rise of social media related search functions, such as Google’s new Social Search, which delivers additional results on search engine pages based on recommendations from each users’ personal social networks. The emergence of these new and innovative search functions from major players, such as Google, continue to up the game for social interaction and increase the importance of building a strong social media strategy. As implied by Mr. Ramsey, it seems inevitable that social media will continue to flourish and become even more integrated with the ways in which consumers conduct searches and make spending decisions.
Emerging technology also looks to play a big part in fostering digital marketing growth. Televisions have evolved into pseudo computers and now include search capabilities, allowing viewers to access social networks and stream videos right from the living room. With such developments, it is logical that businesses will benefit from adapting budgets to include increased digital media advertising and professional video libraries to keep in step with the competition.
Smartphones also continue to experience growing success and provide greater flexibility for marketers. iPhone, the Droid, and Blackberry, for instance, continue to develop and support popular location based apps, giving hotels and destinations the ability to deliver targeted advertising based on geography and specific local activities.
These examples are only the beginning. With a constant influx of new technology and online media outlets, 2010 is bound to bring about considerable changes for marketing and advertising strategies. Stay tuned to see how these predictions play out and for updates on the latest trends in the New Year.
Looking to ramp up your online marketing strategy in 2010? TIG Global offers a full suite of interactive marketing tools to get you noticed. Click here to learn more, or give us a call at 301-841-4700.
