Some of the world’s brightest and most influential marketers gathered at the Festival of Media Global event in Switzerland last month.
Naturally, the opportunities and threats of digital media featured heavily in discussions. And a prominent theme was the risk of marketers over-investing in platforms that are not appropriate for their business.
We all know people fiddle with their smart phones whilst watching TV. Indeed, new social apps like Zeebox are successfully capitalising on it – inviting us to rate the new ‘hottie’ on TOWIE or chat about the latest wannabes on Britain’s Got Talent…. at the same time we’re watching it.
“The last six pitches we did were for clients that complained of terrible service elsewhere.”
This comment from UM London’s head honcho in last week’s Campaign should get agencies everywhere sitting up and taking notice.
A report issued by the CIM at the end of 2011 advised companies to merge their sales and marketing functions. Otherwise, it claimed, they would risk damaging bottom line growth.
The report sparked some hot debate. Most people would agree that better integration and reduced conflict between sales and marketing departments would be a good thing. But merging the two into one? It’s a step too far.
When the recession hit hard three years ago, some very influential marketers predicted that things would never be the same again. In many ways, this has proved to be the case – whilst things are now on more of an even keel, most business sectors seem to be characterised by a sense of ongoing uncertainty.
How can we start thinking about online activity as a single entity – an ecosystem – rather than a series of separate activities?
Typically, marketers structure online activity in silos:
*web
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