My comments yesterday about CES notwithstanding, such a large agglomeration of smart people is sure to yield come valuable insights.
I believe that the panel conversation that I moderated was one of those moments.It wasn't an auspicious set-up; scheduled as the last session on the last day of the show, seven of today's leaders in delivering and measuring digital content were given an hour to explore "Advertising Analytics and Social Media, Search, Video Search and HyperTargeting" or, as one of the experts called , "the session where they threw together every remaining topic."
Oddly enough, though, it worked, moving more than a few attendees to tell me afterward that it was one of the best sessions of the show. Conversation didn't stop at the designated end point, and continued over the loud thumps and bangs of the facilities crew as they dismantled the stage.
There were at least three conclusions that I thought were very powerful:2009 Will Be The Year of Measurement: There was nearly unanimous agreement that 2009 will be the year that measuring the value(s) of delivering content will take center stage.
This will be due to factors we've already read about, like limited budgets, and marketers' near-desperate need to prove some payback for their efforts. But we agreed that the money dedicated to digital content will likely increase, pushing said efforts out of the realm of smallish experiments, and into the big-leagues of vital programs.
With this shift will come more time and ingenuity dedicated to finding ways to measure these activities. If 2008 was the year of "just do something social," 2009 will be the year to "prove that it matters."You Find What You're Looking For: There was some thoughtful and spirited debate about what should get measured: engagement, brand lift, referrals, transactions. Time emerged as an important metric -- it was postulated that minutes spent interacting with branded content was an absolute benefit -- while another commented that it was unfair that Google got paid for actualizing the last step (over time and media) in the multi-step sales funnel.
We learned about some clients who were happy to measure the front end of brand awareness, while others wanted every penny spent to connect to the back end of a tangible referral or sales transaction. I think we concluded that more programs in 2009 will take into account behaviors at both ends of the funnel -- and actions between -- thereby broadening and deepening the utility of digital content (and, thus, the metrics).Selling Doesn't Have To Be a Dirty Word: I admit that I offered up this idea, but I hope I was building on comments made by the panelists.
The Conventional Wisdom is that consumers don't believe the pitches made via traditional marketing because the media are disruptive, and the messaging too commercial. So the new media need to endlessly engage, and do what it can to avoid trying to sell anything.
I think this is a misreading of the facts, and has led the content marketing world down a convoluted, self-referential path -- much of online branding constitutes consumers talking about how they talk about brands -- and metrics invented to substantiate that dialogue. The diverse leadership group on the panel seemed to say that relevance and utility were core principles for measurement, as well as guides to creating content. And that those ideas, if properly conceived and transparently delivered, can include overly commercial messages. We didn't forecast more "buy now, or die" nonsense, but similarly didn't think that the pretense of talking to consumers with no hint of a sales purpose would thrive in '09, either.
It was a really energetic and engaging panel, and I want to thank each of the participants for making the last session, by any measure, a really useful and enjoyable experience:Tom Des Jardins, VP of Product Development, Affine SystemsNichole Goodyear, CEO & President, BrickfishElaine Warner, Director of Consumer Technologies, Compete, Inc.Chris Lee, Director of Search and Analytics, Local.comAlicia Morga, CEO, Consorte MediaManish Patel, CEO, Where 2 Get ItBrian Shin, CEO, Visible Measures
Link to original post