I attended a few sessions on the 1st day of the Online Marketing Show, which was this year moved to the Business Design Centre in Islington from the Royal Horticultural Halls near Pimlico.

The first session in the “advanced” stream was Marketing 2.0 and with speakers from Virgin Interactive, BBH, and the like, I was hoping to get some new insights, thoughts and perhaps some good perspective on the challenges that we as marketers (online or off) will need to face. Whilst it’s great to hear people all singing from the same hymn-sheet, it was a little disappointing (though arguably still reassuring) to hear basically the same points, catch-phrases and (sadly, what are now becoming) clichés.

Perhaps the conference is better suited for clients and marketers not totally immersed in the digital world as we are. There were the usual valid and well versed points about looking first to see whether your brand can add value in this new world where consumer is king.

What can you bring to the party that hasn’t been seen before?

We at Altogether have the same criteria for out creative in this area:

Why should the audience care.

It’s a good measure we think.

BBH quoted their illustrious and wise leader by stating that we must realise the spirit of adventure, the trial and error, the “doing and learning” ethos. It’s absolutely key for us as marketers to recognise and reward creative and strategy that pushes boundaries and engages consumers in ways previously not thought of. There’ll be mistakes along the way, probably many of them in fact, but the shining lights that come through are beacons for us all.

Naturally, the strategic questions about brand, audience etc.. still remain the same, it’s just that now consumers have control of their media in a way never seen before & we need to add value to our communications. As a result, it’s important to realise that it’s the execution that is different. We should provide the tools & the applications to get consumers involved with our brands.

The question was raised as to whether brands can sustain the current drive in new media. It’s clearly labour intensive to talk to barely a few hundred thousand people (and that’s the few good campaigns) but the 80/20 law was again raised: engage with the few to speak to the many. It’s a good one for arguing with stubborn clients about the R&D nature of brand work in this area, and that it’s not simple ROI.

There’s certainly opportunity and hit-rates in short term value for brands via the “cheap gag”, but what about long-term brand building? A few campaigns have succeeded in this, but really, very few… Joga Bonito and Lynx Effect are perhaps the stand outs, but that may be more through trial and error than design.

Key principals for clients to think about are, as so often: removal of barriers to purchase, collaboration not disruption or interruption, and creation of a dialogue.

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