Dear Forrester. No, We Are Not Going to Die.

März 29th, 2010 • 2 comments Business, Strategy
Tags: Adaptation Marketing, Agencies, Brands, Business, Diagram, Forrester, Future, Ideas, Industry, Reports, Social Business Design, Strategy, Trends, Truth, World

Since Digital has initiated the revolution in Marketing the question for the ‘Agency of the Future’ has almost become an Internet Meme. Pretty much every agency around claims to have found the recipe. That’s in fact no very surprising. Over the time the already-complex agency-marketer relationship has been significantly altered by factors such as the recession and the rise of social media. With brands and agencies stumbling into the real time web and over interacting customers (OMFG!) the key question is obvious: Whose agency future is it anyway?

The challenge

In their late Forrester report about ‘The Future of Agency Relationships‘ Dave Frankland, Sean Corcoran, and Vidya Drego have tried to define a CMO’s challenges and their criteria catalogue when it comes to choosing an Agency of Record – a highly complex task. Agencies have always managed to adopt to changes. There were many paradigm shifts from the ad sales era of the early 19th century to our wired reality. Nevertheless agencies (or similar institutions) managed to offer services which were relevant enough. Today, once more, agencies are faced with new requirements in what they are supposed to deliver:

That may not exactly sound completely new. But it is quite interesting to ask which agency model might be able to accept these challenges.

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Agencies. Thank God It’s Doomsday.

März 23rd, 2010 • Business, Trends
Tags: Ads, Agencies, Business, Funny, Future, Ideas, Philosophy, Prediction, Social Influence Marketing, Strategy, Trends, World

Nowaday’s challenges for ad agencies worldwide are closely connected with a grown up customer. Personally I am not a fan of agency bashing. I am convinced most agencies are not well prepared for today’s world. But I think most of them will reinvent themselves.

Nevertheless I found this little clip remarkable. It tells a good story as starting point to stress today’s Ad Agency’s Public Enemy #1 – substantial Change. It was produced for FITC, Toronto, a digital tech & storytelling conference. I want to go there – unfortunately I won’t be able to .

>Via Fischmarkt

Survey. One in five U.S. Marketing Dollars will be social by 2015.

März 3rd, 2010 • 1 comment Business
Tags: Business, emarketer, Future, Prediction, Report, Social Influence Marketing, Strategy, Survey, Trends, World

If there is one survey result connected to social media which really surprised me, it is this. According to emarketer and a survey by Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and the American Marketing Association (AMA), almost 18% of all marketing dollars will be parked in social media activities by 2015. This is one fifth of every U.S. all budgets  - not just digital or PR. Yes – wow!

Figures. The Gaming Industry.

Januar 19th, 2010 • 1 comment Business, Games, Trends
Tags: Business, Future, Games, Gaming, Strategy, Trends, visual, World

We all love Info visualizations. Similar to the ones by The Oat Meal this one explains us the wonderful world of video games. The gaming industry succeeded in becoming the #1 entertainment sector, to be at the forefront before music and movies. And even though there was a drop in video game sales in 2009, it’s quite impressive to see the industry recover.

Here are a couple of figures revolving around this industry. Don’t forget to check out the numbers behind the adult movie industry as well (thx to geekologie).

2010. What’s going to happen in 140 characters or less.

Dezember 23rd, 2009 • Business, Reports, Strategy, Twitter
Tags: Brands, Business, Cool, Diagram, Experimental, Ideas, Prediction, Presentation, Reports, Social Influence Marketing, Strategy, Trends, Truth, Twitter, World

As the year ends it’s time to think of the next big…year. 2010 is coming closer and while the Mayan Calendar seems to save us from the rapture for two more years, it is still time to think about next year’s trends. Okay…we get drown in trend predictions lately, but I liked this one – Trendspotting‘s third annual prediction report following major trends in six categories. This time with trend predictions by the industry’s rock stars in 140 characters or less. Good to go?

Adaptive Marketing. How not to go the Dodo way, Part 2.

Dezember 9th, 2009 • Business, Intelligence, Reports, Social Business, Strategy
Tags: Adaptation Marketing, Business, Forrester, Future, Ideas, Reports, Social Business Design, Social Influence Marketing, speed, Strategy, Trends, World

I did write about the concept of Adaptation Marketing two weeks ago. I admit, it’s another buzz word in the digital/social realm. But it’s a meaningful idea for what brand management might be like in the near future. A model which enables brands to deal with the social sphere without necessarily focusing too much on Facebook, Twitter & Co. A thoughtstarter for rather traditional as well as new marketers alike.

Adaptation is a term from Darwin’s evolution theory. Wikipedia knows that “when the habitat changes, three main things may happen to a resident population: habitat tracking, genetic change or extinction. In fact, all three things may occur in sequence. Of these three effects, only genetic change brings about adaptation.”

The life of the last Dodo ended in the 17th century. His habitat changed drastically when men appeared. An unwelcome surprise for Dodos as for brands who also struggle with real people who behave different than what they are used to. They talk and they walk and they don’t necessarily care for Dodos and brands. We, marketers or advertisers may like it or not – but things in our habitat change. Quickly. And two key aspects of it are  feedback and real time.

How social will we have to be?
The Dodo formula is simple: Humans arrive = Problem. Brands know this problem since the social web startet going mainstream. Some of them adapt quickly. But most of them behave like rabbits in the headlight.  Caught between a rock and hard place, the challenges seem to leave no other way than to use it or lose it, Facebook Fan Page or nothing at all.

I think there is a third way.

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eCommerce. ebay’s Black Friday Watched from Outer Space.

November 30th, 2009 • Business
Tags: black friday, Business, Diagram, ebay, ecommerce, visual, World

The word Black Friday is not very well known in Germany as it is a U.S. only phenomenon. It describes  the Friday following Thanksgiving Day in the United States, which is the beginning of the traditional Christmas shopping season. Basically Black Friday is about shopping till you drop. Retailers of all kind present quite impressive bargains and even the Apple store offered apps for free which actually cost a couple of bucks. Check out this great heatmap visualization of Black Friday’s buyer and seller interaction on ebay. It looks like nuclear war but it is in fact thousands of Christmas presents. Did anybody use the word economic crisis?

Pricing. We call it valuation.

November 15th, 2009 • 2 comments Business
Tags: Business, Cool, Quote, Truth, World

Definitely the economic quote of the day. Get the wallpaper here. Thanks a lot to greyscalegorilla.

Online Advertising. Humans bow down to google.

Oktober 27th, 2009 • Brands, Business, Media
Tags: Advertising, Brands, Business, Diagram, google, Media, Strategy, Trends, World

O….kay, google, way to go. (All figures in 1,000$)

Found on Silicon Alley Insider

Social CRM. Ready for action?

Oktober 11th, 2009 • 17 comments Business, CRM, Strategy
Tags: Business, CRM, Future, Prediction, Social Business Design, Social CRM, Social Influence Marketing, Strategy, Tools, World

While we are talking way too much about real vs. not so real Social Media Experts, definitely too few people debate about what social might contribute to the value of business-client-relationship. I believe the question how CRM will evolve is absolutely crucial for what lies ahead in social. While we have to answer questions about Social ROI (which does not always make sense), all too often we really seem to care too little about customer relationship in a social era. In this post I would like to give a very brief introduction on the topic and discuss the question whether traditional CRM decentralizes itself or if we can integrate Social CRM in traditional tools.

What is Social CRM?
Social CRM is a term which evolved over the last couple of years as extension to the classic understanding of the different forms of traditional CRM. While CRM describes an “information industry term for methodologies, software, and usually Internet capabilities that help an enterprise manage customer relationships in an organized and efficient manner” (via Marios Alexandrou), Social CRM can be seen as the next step in a world which is more and more decentralized.

According to CRM maven Paul Greenberg Social CRM (SCRM) is:

CRM is a philosophy & a business strategy, supported by a technology platform, business rules, workflow, processes & social characteristics, designed to engage the customer in a collaborative conversation in order to provide mutually beneficial value in a trusted & transparent business environment. It’s the company’s response to the customer’s ownership of the conversation.

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