As people spend more of their lives online, the industry can't afford to ignore the use of social media and online marketing to reach them
As more and more people live their lives online, companies can’t afford not to use digital marketing and social networking websites, says M&C Report editor Mark Stretton
In the old world Unilever spent 97 per cent of its marketing budget on TV advertising. Next year it will reportedly devote 50 per cent of its entire global spend to digital marketing.
When a consumer brands behemoth such as Unilever – owner of Flora, Marmite and PG Tips – makes such a fundamental change to the way it reaches consumers, it is clear the world has changed.
There has been much noise around digital marketing and social media, especially about social networking brands such as Facebook and Twitter, and it is tempting to think of these things as passing fads: the latest, latest thing that will grab popular culture’s increasingly fleeting attention span for the briefest of moments, before being dropped for whatever comes next. But the mist is clearing.
Given the brevity of television channels, and the plethora of alternative media platforms, big brands are starting to appreciate that buying TV ad spots is the equivalent of throwing jelly at a wall and seeing what sticks. On the other hand, using digital marketing in the right way – sending messages to those who have somehow sought out your business – is like firing an arrow at a target.
It also means that businesses of any size can build relationships with their customers. Increasingly, firms are starting to appreciate that being online is an increasingly important part of the way people live, and that Facebook and Twitter, having reached critical mass, are key components in a new age of communication.
As Dan Holm pointed out at the recent Digital Future conference, with more than 320 million users, if Facebook were a country it would be the fourth largest in the world, bigger than the US. There are
22.6 million people using Facebook in the UK. It is also not just the preserve of “yoof” – 33 per cent of Facebook users fall in the 35-54 age group. Plus, silver surfers (55+), which account for 34 per cent of internet use, are catching up fast. Toby Carvery knows this – it has a Facebook fan page with 40,000 members and gives discount vouchers via Facebook.
By the end of the year six million people in the UK will be on Twitter. It is something that Giraffe is alive to, and that YO! Sushi has just started encouraging (visit twitter.com to see who’s there, and who’s not). One of the key points, or “take-aways” to use the correct parlance, of the Digital Future day was that this stuff is happening. Companies do not have an option of whether to participate in online communities or not, but they can manage their presence and try to influence positively.
However, beneficial participation requires dedicated commitment. The point is, there is a point to all this; done well, online marketing and social media engagement creates footfall, drives sales and produces decent returns.
They say that word of mouth is the most powerful marketing tool, especially in the eating and drinkingout market. Social media is word of mouth, in the digital age.
As Holm put it: “According to Peter Drucker (the celebrated business author), the purpose of a business is to create and keep a customer. But now businesses can create a customer who creates a customer.”
And the next thing is mobile. Scott Seaborn, head of mobile marketing at Ogilvy, said that too many companies were just “ticking the innovation box” when it came to mobile, with social-media and marketing campaigns from other media channels crow-barred into a mobile format, rather than companies focusing on bespoke initiatives.
He said this was changing. “What we are seeing is the unique emergence of the channel. Mobile is a fantastic way to reach people – it is golden and 2010 will be the year of change in the mobile space. Lots of people have been saying [the time of] mobile is coming. It hasn’t happened yet, but it will happen soon, and it will happen fast.”
Mobile is not just about whizzy marketing campaigns, said Seaborn. It could be used for very simple messages, such as a text to a guest on their way home from an evening at a pub or restaurant, to check they enjoyed themselves and also perhaps including an incentive for them to return soon.
Mark Stretton is editor of M&C Report. Email mark.stretton@william-reed.co.uk
