Advertisers preach to an ‘ecosystem of influence’ and must hit prospects at the right stage of the ‘buying journey.’
By Hank Berkowitz
from AICPA Custom Media
The hazy dog days of August are upon us. But are they still lazy? Traditionally it’s time to take a breather, catch a little R&R and take stock of how the year’s been going before gearing up for the September whirlwind of pent-up decision-making and the Q4 budget grind. Anybody remember those good old days?
We’re not suggesting you’re a sloth if you don’t have your Holiday greeting cards already at the printer, but in today’s business climate, you better be ready to hit the ground running well before Labor Day. To make life easier on you, here’s a summary of what we’ve learned in this column this year (it won’t take up too much of your time):
Key Learning #1: Marketing budgets are set (and reset) on a year-round basis.
August has become the new September. Many of your colleagues are making those painful, post-Labor Day budget decisions right now. Marketing budgets seem to be evolving, readjusting and resetting pretty much on a year round basis.
Need proof. Less than half of you (45%) who responded to the spring CPA Marketing Insider reader poll told us you were nailing down your marketing budgets in the traditional October to December quarter. Almost a third of you (31%) said you were setting budgets the January to March quarter and 26 percent of you are waiting until the spring or summer quarters. It’s still painful, but at least the pain is more evenly distributed.
Key Learning #2: Marketers have more choices (and objectives) than ever.
The choices for B2B marketers are more varied than before and hopefully you’re taking extra time to think through your decisions and add effective new weapons to your prospect-hunting arsenal. The good news? Three-fourths of you (73%) have more dollars to work with than last year and 40 percent of you told us your budgets are 10 percent larger than they were they year before.
READER NOTE: “Beyond the Click,†a new case study from AICPA Media and Bay Street Group Research explores ways to use online effectively to tie into the customer’s purchase decision process. Click here to request your FREE copy.
Key Learning #3: Customer acquisition and lead gen are top marketing priorities in B2B. Branding is less important.
Top marketing priorities for AICPA clients in 2007:
Customer Acquisition
Lead Generation
New Market Growth
Brand Awareness
Product Penetration
Customer Retention
Thought Leadership
Source: CPA Marketing Insider and Bay Street Group Research, 2007
Key Learning #4: ‘Interrupt and Repeat’ ad model gives way to relevance and engagement.
As research guru, Steve Rappaport, told us in his June interview in this column, the advertising industry is crossing an inflection point. It’s passing from the conventional mass media ‘interrupt and repeat’ model to a family of advertising models centered on relevance and engagement. Steve is Director of Knowledge Solutions for the New York-based Advertising Research Foundation (ARF). Steve and his colleagues have published a new book, The Online Advertising Playbook, which is one of the 10 best selling business books on Amazon.com. If it’s not on your must-read list, then put it there today. (Disclosure: Neither the CPA Marketing Insider nor the AICPA has a financial interest in the sale of this book).
“Online advertising is about 10 years old and it’s driving three new models that seem to be bubbling to the surface,†noted Rappaport. They’re called “On Demand,†“Engagement†and “Advertising as a Service.†Although they differ, the models share similarities: a focus on dynamic relationships among brands and consumers; penetrating insights into consumers through data on behavior and preferences; and support from technology.
On Demand means prospects are “in market†for your product or service, but not yet ready to buy. They’re interested, but not necessarily ready to talk to you or a sales rep right away. Advertising as a service means smart marketers are finding ways to remove the barriers for prospects to get information from you — they’re not going to wait for you to push it to them. Engagement is the stage in the buying cycle when prospects finally engage you for a substantive dialogue about doing business together. You have to earn a prospect’s trust to get to this stage.
Rappaport says we will never see another 75-year period of advertising centered on a single model and four dominant media.
Key Learning #5: B2B marketers sell to an ‘Ecosystem of Influence.’
In B2B media you’re the hunted. You’ve got to be where prospects can find you. Once they find you (for instance on your Web site) they want to interact with you. But that interaction’s got to be more than just downloading a dry white paper. You’ve got to find a way to build a relationship, which is crucial since so much of B2B marketing involves a lengthy and complex sales cycle.
You’re not selling to one person or a group within one department. You’re selling to what Steve Rappaport and other trend watchers call a whole “ecosystem of influence.†The system is composed of one or two people from many departments or organizations. “And the closer you get a target company to making a buying decision from you, the more folks have to be involved in the decision,†said Rappaport. In technology, financial services and other areas with long sale-cycles, you start with two or three key influencers at a company and it’s not uncommon to be presenting to 15 to 20 before you finally close the sale.
Key Learning #6: Hit prospects at the right stage of the ‘Buying Journey.’
“The media landscape is changing drastically and daily,†said Michael Paradisio, VP, Global Media Director of CA (formerly Computer Associates), which devotes about 40 percent of its marketing budget to online media. Paradisio, speaking at the May Digital Velocity Summit in New York, said integrated campaigns will generally outperform campaigns built around a single medium. For instance, a recent CA study found that its brand awareness was nine percentage points higher for respondents exposed to CA’s print and online ads than for respondents who were exposed to just the print ads.
There is no one-size-fits-all media any more, noted Paradisio. “You need to look at your communication plan holistically as opposed to just a print plan, just a direct mail plan, just an online plan. And you have to use them all to pinpoint customers at the right stage of the buying journey.†Since CA has a long complex sales cycle, Paradisio said his team has increasingly been utilizing Webcasts, Webinars and e-newsletter sponsorships to supplement its traditional media.
Key Learning #7: Integrated media the answer: not easy to get there.
It’s no secret that advertisers and their agencies would like to see more integrated media packages from publishers so they can break through “the clutter†on the marketing landscape. Publishers would sure like to help them. Why is it so hard to turn the key?
For one, publishers (i.e. media sellers) have to start breaking down their “P&L silo mentality,†said Barbara Basney, Xerox Corporation’s Director of Global Advertising, at a spring BtoB Net Marketing Breakfast in New York. In other words, they have to stop obsessing about meeting specific budget targets for their print, online and live events channels. Instead, they need to start helping their advertising clients deliver the “right message to the right prospects at the right time.â€
Both media buyers and sellers agree there should be more collaboration between clients, agencies and publishers, but the cultural shift will take some time.
“The lines are blurred,†noted Joe Duncan, a Vice President of global ad agency Leo Burnett USA. “It’s no longer clear that this is what the client does, this is what the agency does and this is what the media partner does.â€
Adds Bekkedahl: “A lot of print buyers don’t even know what the online buyer is doing at their own agency. Clients are demanding more integrated (advertising and sponsorship) packages, but agencies aren’t equipped to deliver it right now. They’re asking publishers for help, but at the same time, they’re saying ‘Don’t go straight to the client…we still need to protect that relationship. It’s a delicate balance.â€
Key Learning #8: Sponsored content mainstream and effective.
The BMA panel agreed that “sponsored content†is becoming increasingly important to B-to-B marketers and eMarketer research shows that e-mail, Webcasts, Web sites and search engines are now rated among the “most effective†marketing tools it tracks.
According to eMarketer, more than half (53%) of the business audience watches Webcasts versus 22 percent of the overall U.S. population. Among “at-work†viewers, 72 percent consider Webcasts “very convenient†and 44 percent say they find them effective. What’s more, 95 percent of business viewers view the archived version of Webcasts, rather than the live versions. Thanks to the Web, consumers are taking control of the content they want and consuming it on their own terms on their own time. They no longer accepting having your message pushed at them.
Key Learning #9: Traditional media just has to make some room at the “grown up’†table for the newcomers.
“I’m amazed at how much angst and discussion there is about dollars and mindshare shifting from print magazines to online, said Carr Davis, Co-CEO Cygnus Business Media, who keynoted a session at the Folio Publishing Summit in Chicago in March. Davis pointed to American Business Media (ABM) estimates of 14 percent of business-to-business marketing dollars — one out of every seven — now being earmarked for the Web.
As publishers, Davis said we have to ensure that we have “branded information that our advertising clients and readers trust and respect.†The platform on which that information is delivered should not be such a big deal, said Davis.
“It’s not a matter of print becoming less important and other media becoming more important,†said Philip Juliano, VP–global brand management and corporate communications at Novell Corp., in a BtoB Magazine special report last month. “Just because we dialed back our print spending doesn’t mean you can draw the conclusion that it’s eventually going down to zero. Advertisers need to be on the leading edge of new technologies, but that doesn’t mean you throw out the old tools.â€
Key Learning #10: Web is here to stay. Ad spending will soon catch up to consumption patterns.
Ten years out of the box, online still accounts for only five to six percent of media budgets in the US, but that’s not commensurate with the amount of time consumers (including B2B executives) spend with the medium. For instance, a recent Middletown Media study found that TV ranks as the Number One media in terms of time spent with it, but computer-related activities (about 50% of TV) are now Number Two and no other media is even close. Sooner or later media spending will catch up with media-consumption patterns. Outside the United States, digital advertising spending is approaching 20 percent in countries like Japan, Korea and the United Kingdom.
Remember, it’s still August. Go out get some R&R. Take a deep breath. OK that’s enough.
