Marketing Automation Services, Demand Generation, and Lead Management | Allinio
by terren in Virginia
Never mind that Christmas and holiday decorations started appearing in strip malls, stores, and mega-malls before Halloween (and never mind that since our focus is B2B we try not to claim any expertise in the B2C realm!). The lastest stunt that has people raising their eyebrows is the announcement of big-box stores like Target and Kohl’s that they are opening their doors for Black Friday shopping not at 5 o’clock a.m., but at midnight after Thanksgiving Day. [Read more...]
From the left: Chris Wolf and Marcy Wilder of Hogan Lovells; Maneesha Mithal of the FTC; Stuart K. Pratt of the CDIA, Justin Brookman of the CDT; and Jane Horvath of Google. (not pictured: Hooman Radfar of Clearspring and Robert Quinn of AT&T)
It’s been over two years since we blogged about “Do Not Track” regulations, and the pendulum has been swinging in favor of those who want to impose Do Not Track laws upon businesses. Earlier this week, we attended an event in Washington, DC regarding data and privacy, organized by Biznow.
Poor T-Mobile. First they lose all the Sidekick data from their Microsoft-hosted server. Then people scoff at their offer of $100 or to comp a free month for users. Then they allow customers to get out of the contract without penalty.
Now T-Mobile is the defendant in two class-action lawsuits accusing them of misleading users with regard to the integrity of their data storage. $100 million worth of headache, embarassment, and fingerpointing.
When does offline beat online? When you need to make a point about the physical world and physical media can pack the most punch. The Marketing Consigliere likes to focus on Internet based technologies that marketers should use, but tips his hat to some good old-fashioned analog ingenuity. DMNews recently highlighted a very creative effort by agency DraftFCB New Zealand that helped their client, the Aotearoa New Zealand Cluster Munition Coalition (ANZCMC)
A year ago, The Wellington Conference on Cluster Munitions, the largest disarmament meeting ever convened in New Zealand, was an opportunity for the ANZCMC to promote their cause. They played a crucial role in raising awareness of New Zealanders on the issue of cluster bombs, wanting to rally the populace to garner opposition a weapon that doesn’t exist in New Zealand and most citizens had most likely never thought much about.
They printed thousands of M-85 cluster bomblet-shaped leaflets, which explained the deadly threat of cluster bombs, and also served as petitions for people to send to the New Zealand Ministry of Defence.
Out of “concerns for litter,” the Wellington City government refused to give the group permission to fly a helicopter to drop leaflets over the city. However, the ANZCMC went ahead anyway with an airplane, dropping 30,000 of the leaflets. This video, posted on YouTube, shows some graphic depictions of victims of cluster bombs, but is overall a great recap of what the ANZCMC accomplished.
The effort was covered by major New Zealand media, and DMNews reports that over one third of the leaflets were sent in. However, the Marketing Consigliere couldn’t imagine a that high of a response rate given the random landing of leaflets dropped from an airplane. While the ANZCMC reports a few thousand petitions being submitted to the New Zealand MOD, it is uncertain whether they were all the result of the air drop or from other distibutions of the pamphlet during that time period.
Nevertheless, it is good to see agencies helping their clients achieve positive results with offline campaign management. It is with dark irony that they used the same distibution method as cluster bombs to make their point. This is not an example of Net-Centric Marketing, but is a great example of public relations for a cause.
Prediction 1: Robert Scoble will become marginalized as a new “Twitterer to follow” emerges that is less condescending and opinionated.
The Marketing Consigliere actually likes Scoble, has met him twice, but understands that like all “celebrities,” a new one will probably come along that the huddled marketing masses will want to anoint as their new savior. He will never be relegated as the “Lindsay Lohan” of the social network scene, but rather more as a William Shatner-like figure.
Ok, that got the blogosphere’s attention. Now for the Marketing Consigliere’s real predictions:
Prediction 2: More brands will use Twitter and some people will tolerate push communication.
Just as the original commercial Internet “pioneers” were eclipsed by corporate suits in regard to the continued development and exploitation of the Internet, brands will become a more dominant player in this tool. While the Innovators and Early Adopters who embraced Twitter may feel their “find” has been violated, this is just another stage in the product life cycle as the Early Majority and Late Majority get on board. Many of these later adopters will be complacent with one-way messaging, just as they have been while using other media.
Prediction 3: More B2B companies will embrace microblogging for their direct customers.
Like in Prediction 2, see more corporate activity in social networking, specifically in communicating by B2B in addtion to B2C. As B2B buyers become less reluctant to use “consumer” apps in their daily work routine, they will accept this relatively new form of blogging as the primary means of communication with their vendors.
Prediction 4: More local and state legislatures will pass “anti-sms and cell phone use while driving” bills.
The Marketing Consigliere has personally been at risk due to the muttonheads out there who refuse to use headsets or keep both hands on the wheel of their 2 ton gas-guzzling SUVs. He sincerely hopes that this safety issue will be recognized by government leaders. Currently only a handful of states have enacted laws. We can still communicate on the go without endangering the life and property of others, but it will take the law to influence this foolish behavior.
Prediction 5: Broadband companies will increase competition by offering more local marketing services for small businesses.
As print newspapers and yellow pages hemorrage money, broadband companies will recognize that to keep SMBs hooked up to their copper, cable or fiber, they will have to provide assistance to drive traffic to the customer. Just like a shopping mall markets itself to drive traffic to its doors and helps its tenants, telecommunications service providers will have to assist its “tenants” by driving visitors to the small and medium size businesses that use their connectivity or hosting services. This especially will affect the local search (SEO/SEM) and campaign management of SMBs.
Prediction 6: Businesses will continue to gravitate towards opensource CMS.
With more stakeholders involved in collaborative use of internal and external enterprise content, there will have to be easier ways to administer and control the use of the content. Companies will be looking at solutions such as Acquia supported Drupal that allow them to quickly get up sites for relevant users.
Prediction 7: The Federal Government will take more of a leadership role in developing web based technologies.
Yes, the Feds have always been behind some of the greatest technologies enjoyed by the private sector. Look forward to seeing more emphasis by the Obama Administration on the development of applications that bring more efficiency to the organization, including the tech transfer of C4ISR tools from the military/intelligence sphere into the commercial sphere.
Prediction 8: There will be a major IT security breach of a Fortune 500 company and/or a significant cyber attack on a major social network.
The Marketing Consigliere risks being a Cassandra and makes the above prediction. We are accustomed to hearing about laptops gone missing, customer lists being compromised and other events that make the news. However, there are negative, malicious forces which will eventually find a vulnerability in a significant corporate place or social network that takes us all by surprise – remember, corporate resources are thin and that includes in the IT department, so redundancy will count. So will the ability of net-centric marketers, especially public relations professionals, to communicate the truth to mitigate distrust and damage to their brand.
Prediction 9: Net-Centric Innovation will increase despite the macroeconomic situation.
Most VCs and investment bankers aren’t any smarter than the rest of us. For the most part they have to manage their risk the way they can to minimize the wrath of their investors. So while many people decry the lack of investment out there, entrepreneurship will play a tremendous role in keeping innovation going. A confident entrepreneur who can exhibit the leadership to get people to help execute his or her visoin will make a huge difference. Luckily, across the globe, there will be a critical number of these hearty individuals to help keep enthusiasm at a high level.
Prediction 10: Despite controversy, marketers will try more forms of analytics – behavioral, video, voice, text, etc.
As more people depend on mobile computing for their daily lives, it will behoove marketers to test tools that help them better gather, store, analyze, share, and act upon data to drive revenue. Despite the cry from civil libertarians, the Marketing Consigliere is certain that the data derived from a person’s online actions, their physical behavior in a retail surveillance environment, what they type, event their tone and speed of speech, can and will be used in positive ways that can benefit them by marketers. It will take a lot of time and investment to execute this effectively, however.
Thank you for being part of the Marketing Consigliere’s far-flung audience; he plans to continue blogging about network-centric marketing and will endeavor to post relevant, thought-provoking content for marketing professionals and business executives. May you and your organization have successful, net-centric marketing in 2009!
Poor Betty Draper. A “desperate housewife” with nothing better to do. She mysteriously appeared as a “follower” on The Marketing Consigliere’s Twitter account. He didn’t know who she was, but her picture sure was glam. Used to the advances of WASPish women seeking more than what their husbands offer, he checked out her profile…
Actually, someone at AMC or one of their agencies somehow found him on Twitter, decided he was less Machiavellian than they were, and got on his map. Betty Draper is a character on the AMC show MadMen and doesn’t exist. This is obviously part of some publicity stunt – which seems to have worked since she is now being blogged about. Luckily he will benefit from this as people conduct searches on “Betty Draper” and stumble upon his humble blog.
The Marketing Consigliere is glad that the show is using net-centric marketing tools like social networking to do their B2C advertising and public relations. But to have a strange blonde stalk him on the Internet perpetuates bad stereotypes of women. Where are the histrionic Motrin Twitter protestors to protect him from the evil media conglomerate? Why not a “keep Betty Draper in the home where she belongs and not try to be a homewrecker” campaign? Oh, we guess keeping Betty complacent in her kitchen perpetuates another stereotype…
Anyway Betty, and all you other women who think “made men” are more exciting than their “mad men,” The Marketing Consigliere belives in monogamy so keep your girdle and cross-your-heart bra on… and besides, just because he’s a Marketer doesn’t mean he even watches your show…
