Digital marketing is dead â no itâs alive â no itâs all integrated now⊠eh?
There isnât a day that goes past when Iâm not deep in discussion with one digital marketer or another. God knows, when all this kicked off back in the 1990s digital marketers were a rare enough breed with a limited vocabulary (banner, online, Yahoo, etc) but now it seems that everywhere you turn people are investing in âdigitalâ and the surrounding air is peppered with the murmurs of click-throughs, shares, likes, tweets, uniques, captchas â the lexicon of the modern marketer. Against this flowery backdrop there are those among us seemingly hell-bent on strangling digital or (worse still) squeezing it on to a generalized, integrated palette from which to paint overall marketing challenges.
Some talk of the death of digital in the process. Some describe all marketing as digital marketing. Whatâs that about? Why confuse things? I mean it sounds interesting to talk posthumously of digital but it just isnât the case. Let me assure you that technological advances in digital marketing and increased online populations over the next five years will utterly decimate the integration theory.
I think itâs more like this: marketing is an art and a science. I believe what digital marketing is doing brilliantly well is to fulfil the âscienceâ requirement. Furthermore, I believe existing currencies and standards deployed in media research and traditional reach and frequency models will evolve towards a digital marketing-based standard or perish in the process. Perhaps the âartâ side of the equation is becoming more integrated but marketers should not lose sight of the greater scientific challenges and opportunities that are so evident on our horizon. If anything has become more integrated in recent years it has been the massive amount of confusion created by practitioners and service providers as they compete for advertising and marketing spend.
Confusion is creating distressed digital marketers
New buzzwords, new metrics, social is dead, no sorry I meant social is alive and in fact search is dead⊠is it? When did that happen? Itâs all about data, but not small data, it has to be big data but phew, at least search is still breathing and social is too, in fact has anything really changed or is it all different again â are people really banner blind, does that hurt? Or will Cost Per Engagement be replaced by Cost Per Marriage, no wait a minute, you canât do that because that would mean CPM⊠gosh I love this business!
Digital marketing slinks on and onâŠ
My pal Richard Eyre (Chairman of the IAB and soon to be Antarctic adventurer) likens this ever-confusing and elusive world of digital marketing to a âslinky toy going downstairs⊠and just when you think the toy has stopped on a particular step, gravity takes over and off it goes again, slinking its way forever onwardsâ.
This âdigital elusivenessâ is being widely reported as marketers tell us their fears and doubts about their own level of skill and effectiveness to measure the impact of their campaigns. At the time of writing (October 2013) Advertising Week has released some important findings that expose new insights into the industryâs beliefs and attitudes towards digital marketing. Based on a broad survey of marketers, the findings revealed a striking lack of confidence in digital ability. Less than half of marketing professionals who consider themselves to be primarily digital marketers feel proficient in digital marketing. A majority of digital marketers have not received any formal training, with 82 per cent reporting learning on the job. It goes on to say only 9 per cent of digital marketers strongly agree with the statement âthey know their DM is workingâ yet 68 per cent felt pressured to show ROI on their marketing spend.
Ann Lewnes, Chief Marketing Officer, Adobe, said:
Marketers are facing a dilemma: they arenât sure whatâs working, theyâre feeling underequipped to meet the challenges of digital, and theyâre having a tough time keeping up with the pace of change in the industry. Whatâs worse, no one hands you a playbook on how to make it all work. But the opportunity for marketers is too great to let uncertainty slow them down. Marketers who are bold in their digital marketing efforts and investments, who are taking smart risks, and who are training their teams to be more âdigital readyâ will be in a great position to capitalize on digitalâs full promise.
David Edelman, Global Co-leader, McKinsey Digital, McKinsey & Company, said:
Marketers feel the pressures, and in some cases understand what they should do, but lack the confidence that they will succeed. Theyâre anxious about understanding ahead of time what makes for good creative and smart digital strategies, managing complexity, and measuring real impact. Plus, so much of marketing today is a moving target. But you have to get in there and play and learn. The challenge is getting comfortable with risks. Set aside a portion of budget â10â20 per cent â and really try new things.
Underscoring the strain of rapid change in the industry, a strong majority (76 per cent) of respondents think marketing has changed more in the past two years than in the past 50. Sixty-six per cent of all marketers think companies wonât succeed unless they have a digital marketing approach.
Yvonne Genovese, Managing Vice President, Marketing Leaders Research, Gartner, said:
Business leaders recognize the potential of digital in driving revenue. Marketers need to rise to the occasion and mature â quickly â in digital proficiency. The challenge is to stop being digitally paralyzed and start align...