The challenge, however is the integration of the user experience across all of these channels. Given the ability to interact and the user expectations of functionality and value, it is far more important than ever before to target the message and the experience for the medium. I mentioned in my recent post the need to consider the technology on which the message is delivered and indeed, the platform often influences the message.

It is no longer sufficient to resize your print ads to an animated 728 by 90 gif and stick it on the website of choice. For example, the tone and purpose of, a Facebook implementation is completely different to what you might stick on ninemsn. One is more informal, two way and fun while the banner campaign needs to catch people’s attention. What you deliver in a mobile environment needs to be relevant to people when they are out and about. The extent to which you differentiate between your customers and your targets on each platform may also vary. So the message needs to fit the environment in which it is delivered and the nuances of the audience.

But while the message and the intent may vary across platforms, how you weave the advertising message together across these platforms is also important. Not everyone will see your message in every channel however, if they do, it needs to reinforce the message by building on it rather than just representing the same idea over and over in different formats. Channel planning needs to consider how we can integrate the experience and in an ideal world, inspire prospects to seek out further experiences with a brand in alternate channels. This goes far beyond putting the URL in the last frame of the TVC.

With the diversity of channels the challenge many marketers face. As technology evolves and emerges, it is hard to find one supplier who really understands them all. Many clients have moved away from the “full service agency” idea and set up contracts with multiple suppliers and agencies to service their different needs but while this means you have experts in their field, it also means that you need a bigger board room table and the process of co-ordination becomes far more complex.
But whose role is it to manage the integration of the message across platforms that are being managed by multiple suppliers? Should this be the marketer, the media agency or the strategist? My guess is that this will vary from case to case and individual to individual however, if you don’t really understand a platform, you can’t leverage its full potential, nor can you appropriately consider its role in the communications mix. The amount of time people need to spend educating themself on the new technology in marketing has increased tenfold in the last 5 years will only continue to expand.

We’ll be hearing more about this at ad:tech on the session Channel Planning: How To Weave The Advertising Message Through Different Platforms (Monday 16th March, 11am). We’ve got a great panel of digital marketers who will be discussing this in depth and sharing their opinions:
Aisha Hillary, Senior Marketing and New Media Specialist, SBS - Special Broadcasting Service
Ruby Grennan, Marketing Manager, triple j
Dirk Freytag, CEO, ADTECH
Wolfgang Jaegel, Founder & Regional Managing Director, Syndacast

Since the beginning of advertising, creatives have been focused on generating a ”big idea” that will capture the hearts and minds of consumers and inspire them to want and buy products.  With the advent of digital, we added the need to “interact” or “engage” with that advertising online and we measure this interaction as a gauge of how good the idea actually is.

To achieve this, we have to employ a much broader range of skills and considerations and this is at the heart of what makes “digital” different. 

It drives me nuts that so many clients still want to see creative in a pitch long before the agency has had time to really figure out what they need to build. 

Driving the right kind of engagement is as much about the technology and how you use it, the interface and how you arrange it (UI), the content and how you structure it (IA) and the way that your interface actually works to deliver against the needs and wants of a consumer (UX).  These aspects require us to gain insights into not only how the hearts and minds of consumers work but how their devices and their brains work too.

Sometimes technology creates barriers to the experience.  It might be that databases need to talk to each other to deliver personalised information, and they just don’t. It might be that the audience is living in a part of Australia that still can’t watch youtube because their connections are too slow.  It might be that you want to deliver the experience on a mobile phone and half the users will be looking at it on a screen that is tiny.

So how do you then balance the technological capabilities with the emotional requirements of the marketing campaign?

To do this in a vacuum is impossible.  Just as ads get tested on focus groups, digital executions should always be tested through usability analysis.  And even once you go live, the data on usage patterns will tell you a lot, not only about what content people are interested in but also, whether the site you have built is easy and intuitive or confusing and not worth the trouble.

2 or 3 years ago, many digital agencies gave strategy away with a pitch in order to win the production business. Now, the field is varied.  Some companies still consider their web presence a channel and relegate it to a project manager to … well, manage.  At the other end of the spectrum however, we are seeing more and more companies pitching strategy out separately and involving many people in their organisation who previously had no insight into marketing activities or their rational.

The question for this panel is, does a company need an overarching digital strategy or is the strategy digital?  Here are a few things to consider:
• Digital is like a retail location.  Even if customers are not wanting to buy right now, if they’re looking at your web presence, they are an opportunity.
• Customers’ expectations are to be able to transact online but delivering this often requires new products and services to be developed.
• Digital initiatives often interface and depend on large scale CRM systems and data warehouses.  Responsibility for these areas crosses many different departments and might require complex political negotiations to get working together.
• When companies start investing big budgets, they also expect ROI. 

Since this is what I do for a living, I have to say that yes, companies do need a digital strategy, but how far should we go? 

Some initiatives in digital marketing are no more complex that promoting something or gathering email addresses … over thinking a simple campaign microsite makes what used to be a cheap and effective use of the internet, prohibitively expensive.  It is interesting to debate just how necessary a digital strategy is.

Strategy also implies something fixed.  However, the ‘always live’, instantaneous digital experience affects how strategies need to evolve, like a living, breathing thing based on feedback and results. How many companies budget for and organise themselves around this kind of effort and how many are still revamping their website every few years and then leaving it alone?

So what makes a good strategy today?  One that the board can understand and ‘buy in’ to, or one that constantly evolves?  Can these be the same thing?  My view is that it is more dependent on organisational culture and less on the PowerPoint but there are times when I have wondered. 

This panel should be really interesting (Tuesday 16th March, 9.45am, Track 3).  Anthony Goldman, Citrus; Ben Dux, theirspace digital; Yvette Mayer, SMV Group Australia; and Mac Walker, Hyro would love to hear what you guys think and any other burning questions you think are worth debate on this topic.
What is the role of a strategist today?
    * What’s the right skill set for a strategist today?
    * Does digital have a role in strategic planning in 2010?

That is continuing into 2010. People want to know how to plan their product and marketing campaigns even better, particularly how to weave them more succintly into the wider buisness objectives. In order to capture new business and spark passion (even influence!) with your market, innovation is a critical requirement. Innovation in terms of products, campaigns but also business structure and relationship management. And of course measurement - the need to account for each dollar, report bottom line impact and understand return beyond black & white figures - is thoroughly in the limelight.

How important are these areas in your business right now? And what’s changing?

We’ll be addressing these issues in detail at ad:tech and finding out what the leading minds in digital media & marketing are doing and what you can learn from them.

You can register for the FREE ad:tech EXHIBITION and full ad:tech CONFERENCE here.

Internationally ad:tech works with very senior advisory boards and here in Sydney we want to get more hands on, really tie ourselves to the digital market and make sure we’re doing what the industry wants; the advisory councils will help us achieve just that. For a full list of the online marketing councils and their members, click here.

Jenny Williams, chairperson for ad:tech said, “I’m really pleased that so many senior and experienced people in the digital marketing community have agreed to be part of this new initiative. It’s always been essential that we deliver the most topical and important content that the industry needs and the councils will ensure that we do that at ad:tech 2010.”

The initial council meetings are currently taking place in Sydney and the program and speaker line up for ad:tech 2010 will be announced soon. You can keep checking the ad:tech brain for more details and also see the ad:tech website for all up to date details.

Core Digital Media
Digital Strategy
Performance Marketing
Social Media Strategy
Creative
Emerging Technology / Channels
e-Commerce / Online Retail
Data Analytics
Mobile

ad:tech is the number one event for digital marketers, the conference program comprises two days of content tailored to the needs of the digital media and marketing industry. There are keynotes from significant international business leaders and also panel discussions and case study presentations addressing the most pertinent challenges and critical issues in the marketplace today. By bringing together a number of experts to discuss each topic area ad:tech guarantees that you can take away multiple insights, expert opinions and real tangibles that can actually make a difference to your marketing operation.

Mark Abay, Director, ad:tech Australia said, “The content at ad:tech has always been designed around the needs of the industry. The formation of the councils now means the content will be designed ‘by the industry, for the industry’ and will therefore result in the most relevant, valuable and exciting conference sessions.”

You can have your say here on the ad:tech brain. Submit your suggestions for topics and speakers using the Voice of the Industry tab at the top of this page.

Core Digital Media
Chris Brown, Group Managing Director, DDB
Josie Brown, Digital Marketing Manager, Proctor & Gamble Australia
Midu Chandra, Group Manager of Digital, Telstra
Kerry Field, Partner, Innovation, Mindshare
Paul Fisher, CEO, IAB

Digital Strategy
Jules Hall, Managing Director, The Hallway, and chairperson for this council
Sudeep Gohil, Partner, Droga5
Alex Houghton, Strategist, OMD
Harry Lowes, Digital Marketing Executive, Commonwealth Bank

Performance Marketing
Scott Ennis, Director, Switched on Media
David Holmes, CEO, caradvice.com.au
Liam Walsh, MD, Microsoft Media Network

Social Media Strategy
Julian Cole, Digital Strategist, The Population
Karen Ganschow, Executive Director Relationship Marketing, Telstra
Aisha Hillary, Communication Specialist, New Media & Brand, SBS
Mark Pollard, Strategy Director, McCann

Creative
Matt Eastwood, National Creative Director, DDB
Iain McDonald, Founder, Amnesia Razorfish, and chair for this group
Bob Mackintosh, Digital Creative Director, Host

Emerging Channels / Technology
Ben Cooper, Director of Digital, Three Drunk Monkeys, and chairperson for this group
Guy Gadney, Director, The Project Factory
Alex North, Software Engineer, Google
Drew Parkes, Digital Marketing Director, Xbox

e-Commerce / Online Retail
Nicolas Cabrera, Head of Digital Marketing, Westfield
Adam Canter, Country Manager, Australia, shopping.com
Will Easton, Head of Retail, Google
Hamish Stone, Head of Marketing, eBay

Data Analytics
Christian Bartens, Managing Director, Datalicious
Alexx Cass, Digital Services Manager, Audit Bureau of Circulations
Andrew Eckford, Senior Business Analyst, Telstra

Mobile
Oliver Weidlich, Useability Specialist and Mobile User Experience Consultant, Ideal Interfaces
Jennifer Wilson, Director, The Project Factory
Neil Wiles, Managing Director, Mobile Active Ltd
Darren Burden, Director of News and Platforms, Fairfax Digital

And then it starts.

The sessions fly past you at a rate of knots. There are networking drinks. Dinners. Meetings for coffee. Your brain sags like an overworked sponge and you think, at some point, that the stream of same-same Twitter responses may just make sense. In between workshops, the occasional donut beckons. And then, before you know it, you cocoon yourself in your car and shuttle back to the office. The conference over. Swag secured. Notes to digest and summaries to write. Your boss will be expecting a report first thing Monday.

Yes. You know it’s true. ad:tech Sydney is a festival.

But what happens a month on? Three months? Six? After the bold curation of ideas – of jamming social media cheek-by-jowl with electronic direct mail, strategy and ad networks, SEO, virtual worlds and innovation – what happens next?

Every time I attend a conference I always see them as lost opportunities. They can be intense hives of activity, leaving participants with dozens of ideas to work on – to digest and execute. But rarely does a conference event extend beyond its immediate horizon. Rarely does a conference work with the biorhythms of the business world to enthuse, engage and energise its community over the longer term.

But the folks behind ad:tech Sydney are taking on such a challenge – and doing admirably well. Not only do they have the ad:tech Brain operating as a blog and industry news aggregator, they have now run two free, breakfast briefings that provide us all with an intellectual caffeine hit just before the work day begins. Dr Jeffrey Cole, founder of the World Internet Project, will no doubt continue this new tradition and jolt us awake at next week’s briefing.

I like the way that Lucy James, ad:tech Content Director, is taking this opportunity to weave a story around the conference brand. The briefings are run with neat precision – setting a cracking pre-work day pace and leaving us all with a line or two, or an anecdote that we can easily relay back in the office. And the line-up of quality speakers adds to the experience – yes, you can read about Zappos until you fall out of your ergonomic chair, but it’s not the same as hearing Aaron Magness, tell the stories in his own words.

If authenticity is what we crave in social media, it doesn’t get any grittier than an intimate 80 seat room face-to-face discussion with the people who are taking these ideas and transforming them into successful businesses.

Is this the future of conferences? It certainly changes the way that you think of the conference “value exchange”. It’s not just a one-time event. It creates a sense of involvement, connection – and dare I say, “community”. It establishes an intellectual agenda and serves as a constant reminder of our participation in the world of ideas. I have a feeling other brands could learn some lessons here.

Read more on Gavin’s blog here.

Last year we lauched this - the ad:tech brain - and used the forum to get your suggestions, feedback and direction on what topics we should be programming and which speakers you’d like to hear from. If you take a look through this site you’ll see some of the conversations that took place as we developed the ad:tech 2009 agenda.

We’d like to get things rolling again and invite you to share your ideas on this site through the Voice of the Industry section (look at the tabs at the top of that page!) You can use that section of the site to write your ideas on:

* hot topics that you think MUST be discussed at ad:tech
* questions that you want answers to
* new things in the industry that you think we should include
* work that you’ve done that you think is particularly brilliant!
* work that other people have done that you think is particularly brilliant
* topics from last year that you think we should include again / change / build on
* issues & challenges that are really affecting you and your peers or colleagues

You can also write a post with your thoughts on who should be speaking on the ad:tech 2010 program and asking others what they think. You could write about:

* Experts who you’ve read about but never heard speak
* Companies that you know are doing great work that you’d like to hear more from
* Colleagues or peers that you think would be good speakers
* Suggestions for the ‘type’ of person you think should be on the program
* Excellent speakers that you’ve heard before that you’d like to hear again.

Of course that ad:tech brain can be used for lots of discussions - it’s a forum for the industry to debate as much or as little as you’d like to! We’ll keep an eye on the chat, answer any questions, through some responses in, ask some questions ourselves, but really - this is for you.

We look forward to seeing what you’ve got to share. Enjoy.

Although there really is no subsititute for attending the conference this is a great way to get a feel for what was being discussed during the conference program.

Enjoy!

ad:tech Sydney’s marketing “love-in”

I read someone on Twitter describe this week’s ad:tech Sydney conference as a “love-in for marketers and ad agencies.” (Read ad:tech twitterings here.) It’s an interesting description that betrays an obvious slant towards the “other camp” which I heard one ad agency exec describe with a hint of derision as “all these social media consultants.”

As an aside, we’ve also got the “tech” part of this whole “ad:tech” meme. But that’s been conveniently sidelined in the battle of marketing ideologies. Maybe we just take technology (ie. the one giant computer called the internet) for granted now, since it’s use-case scenarios that matter.

So all this got me thinking. What is it about the mindset of agency-types, and the mindset of social media consultant-types (I tend to fall into the latter), that causes mild friction at events like ad:tech?

If I can be permitted to grossly simplify, agencies are commissioned by clients to conduct campaigns. Defined periods of time in which various media tools are exercised to generate sales on behalf of said client. No shock there, since advertising still keeps most of the media industry running.

Then we’ve got social media consultants, whose stock in trade is the intellectual property and experience they sell to clients for the purpose of engaging target stakeholder communities in conversations about brand, ideas, ideologies, and so on. The marketing angle can be less clear, or stated positively, more broadly defined.

It’s the classic conundrum where the disciplines of marketing, advertising, communications, PR and good-old editorial collide and get mashed up. The answers are not simple or easily quantified — unless of course you’re an agency charged with delivering quantifiable results to justify a very large invoice. Quantified results are where you make, or lose money. And by the way, that’s what this whole internet thing has promised the marketing community since the mid-1990s and we’re still trying to figure it out!

Anyway, while listening to keynotes and panel discussions yesterday, I got the impression agency types are very clearly focussed on the profit motive (surprise!). They might not be getting it right all the time, but their drive to find measurable results is clear. And you know what, I don’t think that’s bad.

However it does raise a challenge for content-focussed social media consultants (communities are giant content machines, after all). They must come up with some clearly agreed metrics and models that communicate to c-level executives just why the social media revolution matters to the bottom line. I’m the first to admit this is not an easy problem to solve.

But let’s face the harsh recession reality: if more of the social media consultants out there want to make more (or any) money from client engagements then it’s time we developed more solid, industry-wide accepted answers when companies demand reasonable levels of quantitative measurement.

Am I right?

Mark Jones is an enterprise technology strategist, speaker and journalist. mark@filteredmedia.com.au