The Salak Group : Stragic Communcations and Research
Outlook 2010: Welcome to New Hope
January 2010 (Continued)Merging the digital-centric approach with highly focused customized outreach isn’t impossible. It is just not a slam dunk either.
Ultimately, effective marketers are going to have to figure out how to manage customize digital marketing so that their messages resonate. Once that’s in hand, they’ll have to integrate these efforts into their overall marketing strategy.
Face Time: Video Goes Online
Video is everywhere. From mobile devices flawlessly streaming video in your Palm to YouTube developing into a unique search engine, video is becoming the populist communications channel of choice. Chances are if you are not already employing video to build your brand, you soon will be. Want proof? Comscore reports over 75 percent of the U.S. public now views online videos each month with a preferred length of three minutes for each video.
The advent of broadband wireless networking, effective and inexpensive video cameras, and related production and editing software are opening the floodgates to widespread video distribution. YouTube, in fact, now accounts for more than 90 percent of all online video consumption, with 100 million viewers watching 6.3 billion videos per month in the U.S. alone, according to Comscore. With this type of development, chances are that video will soon become as ubiquitous and as effective as e-mail.
But shooting and showcasing videos is only one challenge. And given the advent of user-friendly technology, video production may be the easiest part of the equation. More critical and challenging is producing the video’s message. It has to be meaningful, entertaining and visual. The Hollywood treatment isn’t required for every clip. But each video (just like any message) has to provide value for the person viewing it to be effective. This means knowing your audience and delivering videos tailored to visually resonate with targets. One size doesn’t fit all for e-mails, hard letters and executive speeches. And it won’t work for video messages either.
Companies and organizations, of course, can’t afford to overlook video. But success demands that they understand this medium; effectively customize their clips; and leverage tight delivery channels to reach targeted audiences.
Conferences Called
Big flashy conferences that traditionally attract tens of thousands of visitors aren’t what they used to be – and that’s probably a good thing given their diminishing return on investment. The question now facing conference organizers, however, is what they will and should be doing heading into 2010. The answer? Develop more focused, productive and smaller events in order to enhance high-value networking opportunities.
Reduced staffing levels, budget cuts and negative press coverage of company “junkets” during the past year all but decimated the mega-conference concept. The Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority underscored the point by reporting that some months in 2009 saw an attendance drop almost 60 percent from 2008. The US Travel Association chimed in by predicting overall spending on US events in 2009 will fall almost 13 percent against the previous year.
