Online Marketing Blog from metrocafe311

UPDATED: Added by Sinead Conway, 30 September 2009

We’re back in Dublin and stuck into work after a really nice break across to London for the premier digital marketing event that’s been around for more than ten years. Hard to believe AdTech London was only last week! Now, did we learn anything this year that we can apply now that we’re back to business?

Along with our fellow Irish digital agency representatives, off we headed to London last Tuesday morning to arrive at the National Hall in the Olympia, greeted by the larger UK digital marketing community.

Upon first impressions, one would have to commend the vast amount of Expo stands the event organisers secured, despite the year we’re in. Expo stands pulled out all the stops to get the attention of our eager eyes; with pitches spanning across Search marketing, online advertising, mobile marketing, publishers, video and viral specialists, innovative promotions companies, and everything else you might have thought of.

If I had to choose, I’d give a high five to the Fox network and National Geographic stand, who caught all of our attention with the work of their hired Magician on Tuesday afternoon. Additionally, the representatives from PR Newswire displayed expertise in their product offering for Social Media Metrics monitoring tools. We’ve got our eyes open for similar products that are yet to hit the Irish market.

Additionally, this year’s exhibition was packed full of Mobile marketers, claiming to have the answer to the “year of mobile” that has yet to come around.  One such company who spoke on Tuesday afternoon, BlisMobile, outlined that we need an “integrated call to action,” reaching customers at all of their touch points in their daily journey. This sounds like your standard technique; but if we reach our consumers on their mobiles during their “dwelling time” we will be reaching them more directly. Not anything new; but reminds us to consider using not just one method to reach consumers on their mobile, but several. Consider SMS, Bluetooth, and mobile internet.

Talks on the future of digital indicated beyond clicks, interaction is key. Warner Brothers Pictures saw a great take off from consumers viewing movie previews within ad units with average viewing time reaching almost max ad time. From the ad unit consumers were able to select the option to view photos and see background footage all within the same ad unit. A low CTR in such an instance is insignicant. This raised an interesting panel discussion as to communicate to brands engagement time may just be as important for brand building as CTR

Ebay provided some insights into the area of shopping online. Ebay European research indicated “82% are spending more online in a recession” and “87% spending more time online researching.” We all assume this is the case but interesting that the percentages are so high. Trust, Value and selection are indicated as three main key points when buying online. From the European research it was noted people notice advertising in the following places, “Shopping channel, Search engine, Social Media - Facebook.” Context and targeting is very important for ROI as user behaviour moves more towards research, so let’s ensure this is all put into practice.

Of course an ongoing topic of interest for conference delegates is Social Media; and this year’s AdTech was no exception. While there were a few social media sessions in the Expo area that offered very little insight, the Social Media Power panel in the Auditorium was incredibly impressive; and used social media functionality to drive the panel discussion. While the panel was full of big names in the social media space (such as Simon Podd, Head of Sales at Bebo, Ivan Croxford from BT, Lulu Phongmany, Marketing and Business Development Manager at ivillage.co.uk, and Peter Ward, CEO of WAYN.com), the most impressive aspect of the session was the discussion driven by Tweets posted by audience members via their laptop or mobile phones.

You can see here the screen displayed a Twitter search for the session hashtag (#at09socnet) to feed in

questions from audience members; which were then fed to the panellists from the session moderator. (By the way, a “hashtag” refers to a keyword or phrase tag posted at the end of the tweet to categorise the post; and identify where others might be talking about the same thing. Compare it to a tag we attach to a YouTube video or a keyword we attach to a blog). While we tweeted and the panel responded, a representative from AdTech posed as a commentator throughout the session, taking quotes from the speakers’ responses.

I can imagine it sounds confusing, but it was simple: Everyone in the room was comfortable with social media, just like our consumers; and we were able to hold a traditional panel discussion…in a very untraditional way.

So what did the panellists end up telling us? Well, a few things I jotted down before heading off for dinner and drinks:
•    We don’t need the Social Media representative to be the expert; but we simply need to identify other experts.
•    Harness social media correctly; and you’ve got yourself “word of mouth on steroids.”
•    Choose a “default” social network to drive your interaction; and this will drive more effective interaction on other networks. We can’t use all social networks, all the time.
•    We can’t just assume Social Media will work; and must seriously consider the level of value we are adding to the community before entering the space. Remember that nowadays, the last place customers now go is your website.
•    And nicely put to summarize my findings, “A hammer’s useful, but you don’t need to carry it all the time.”

While we attended a number of sessions, we’ll leave it at that; and ask for your findings from the conference if you were also in attendance. You might find this roundup of AdTech Twitter Streams useful, posted by Suzie Shore of Juicy Marketing Intelligence.