I was heading across town the other day and saw a local plumbers mobile phone number on the back of his truck and an old "Find Me in Yellow" sticker , I called, left a message and three days later still not reply.
What's the point of advertising if you can't get the next part right?
In hindsight I suppose it's just supply and demand and that some plumbers don't need to advertise - a good reputation and word of mouth is most important.
Anyway, in other industries that's not quite the case, there's a battle for customers and advertising is critical to the mix. Even in a 50% downturn there's still 50% to be spent!
Yesterday small business advertising landscape was dominated by the Yellow Pages. Today advertising dollars are migrating to where customers now find out and talk about your products and services - that's online - whether Google, Facebook or the other billion or so websites and services out there.
Australian online advertising spend was around $1.7B last year and growing while conventional media is decreasing. The current economic climate is only going to increase online marketing's share of the advertising dollar.
The majority of those online advertising dollars are going to Google Adwords - the paid, auction type classifieds listing in the right hand column of search.
It's sort of funny how a majority of businesses have just transferred the old Yellow Pages, dominant market share "Not happy Jan" if you're not in, belief across to Adwords.
Don't get me wrong, Adwords is important but IMHO it's not as important as good content and design, SEO (Search Engine Optiminisation) and a good business to start with.
For example spend money on advertising and web only to take ten rings to answer the phone or three days to reply to an inquiry email. Not good.
I'm amazed how much is thrown at all these advertising options to drive people to a website only to deliver an ordinary experience. That first 15 seconds on a website is the most important - it has to quickly build trust and transform a web site browser into an inquiry.
The better your website qualifies the visitor the less physical resources required to manage the leads.
As a student of marketing and advertising we were always taught to create a Sustainable Competitive Advantage - whether that is brand, a unique selling point (USP), service, distribution, your company culture, staff, partners and systems.
Whatever it is, it has to be something that is important to the customer.
With the today's Connected Net - Internet advertising delivers online word of mouth marketing and reputation building.
This is Part 1 in a new creative project I'm working on looking at Australian Digital Media Strategy.
As every business owner knows the economic landscape has been rapidly altered after the stock market crash of last year - it's a bit like looking out the window after the Pearl Harbor attack - most of the destruction done, the full reverberating impact still too early to tell.
The old supply demand ratio and attitudes (including the much maligned Y-Gens) of the last twenty years has changed, as a result, new thought-models, approaches, attitudes and opportunities will surface and prosper.
In today's market Buyers are now back in full control - cash is scarce and surviving companies must actively compete. As a supplier you are either a commodity or added higher value - the middle ground will be flattened.
A contracting marketplace offers smart expanding companies the ability to increase market share as their competitors retreat and defend - head in sand, reactive.
From the laggard industrial manufacturing complex through the Information Economy we will move towards an Innovation/ Creative Economy
One of the biggest impacts will be on the media, advertising and the entertainment/ Internet video space (think how Ipods changed the music industry and how faster broadband wil impact video, film and television).
There will be an accelerated shift towards online video advertising and marketing away from conventional television, newspapers and magazines.
A great little video from PRBlogger
How PR works online
Adobe Flash Player not installed or older than 8.0.22!
This then raises the question of who are Australia's most influential Internet users?
How would you create a list? Some initial thoughts...
Top 100 Australian Bloggers - how many subscribers? How many comments? (any list needs to be contextual and relevant)
Facebook and Linkedin - how many friends/ associates - engagement and influence?
Google - number of articles and links etc
Corporations/ Government - The Telstra's, News Ltd's, Seven Sunrise, politicians and celebrities
Twitter/ Flickr/ Youtube and so on
Engagement
Once you have your list how do you engage?
In sales, the best customer is through a trusted third party referral.
For example, hey Scott, you're in marketing do you know a good event management company? Absolutely - Monique at Creative Stars.
Most people begin any new purchase with a search (see How PR works online above).
The question is how do you engage influencers without trying to sell them, ie jamm a message down their throat like historial repeat and interupt advertising?
WIIFM - What's In It For Me?
What is your product or service? (keywords and message)
What does it mean to your customers (wants and needs)?
Inspire
In the online world original, quality "content is King".
Find a creative approach, create something new and share. [Goes for swim and walks to coffee shop]
At coffee this morning the idea crystallizes. I've been looking to incorporate more of my photography interests (particularly portraits) within my work.
Motivating the committed outperforms persuading the uncommitted. The unheralded success factor of Obama's campaign is the get out the vote effort. Every marketer can learn from this. It's easier (far easier) to motivate the slightly motivated than it is to argue with those that either ignore you or are predisposed to not like you.
To get a deeper understanding of this we need to take a few steps back and understand
The evolution of society and economy from nomadic to agricultural, industrial, informational towards the Creative Economy (see HP's Phil McKinney's presentation)
We are currently transforming from an industrial based economy to informational (see Morgan Stanleys Mary Meeker Web 2.0). Key points are
An 81% correlation between GDP and advertising growth.
Undermonitezed social networks/ VoIP and Video which is driving powerful usage growth
Facebook and Youtube gained 500 basis points of relative share while Yahoo and MSN lost share over the last two years
Focus on BRICS (Brasil, Russia,India, China and South Africa)
Companies with cogent business models that provide consumer value should survive/ thrive. consumers need more value than they have needed it in a long time and the Internet should be the best place to find it
An understanding of Groundswell - Internet user technographics - from "inactives" to "creators"
So what does that mean for Australia?
Australia is currently looking to implement a National Broadband Network (NBN). One needs to understand that the Creative Economy of the future is based on the broadband infrastructure of today. The challenges of an aging population (e-health); skills shortage (e-education); green (carbon reduction); economic (global service export) are underpinned by a world best practice broadband infrastructure.
With the basic world class broadband infrastructure in place, innovation will prosper. Australia has the opportunity to take a global leadership position in the development of the Creative Economy.
"G'day Jerry, Bill here, maaaatttee, listen, some bad news, the campaign sucks, people hate it, I'm pulling the plug...it's OK Jerry...don't get upset, look maybe we look at an online video tv show or something like that, I'll get my marketing guys onto it Jerry, Jerry!"
According to Digg - Valley Mag, Microsoft dumped it's anti-Apple campaign ads featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Big Bill just into the second part of the $300m campaign. The Microsoft spin doctors are out there telling everyone it was planned, maybe/ maybe not (I’m writing about it). Bad news spreads like wildfire but blind Freddy can see that the battleground here is not the desktop but a positional play by Microsoft to launch a new mobile Google killer.
If you don’t know the background this was Microsoft's attempt at being cool and funny like the much loved Apple ads. Who has time to watch something this long ( I stopped after about a minute)?
It wasn’t! It missed the mark completely – way too long, too high brow, too complicated, too hard (a bit like Vista) and not funny, whatever message was in there was lost.
I also read that in the first time in history some people were feeling sorry for Microsoft – LOL not sure that’s the type of response you want from the market.
Interesting - Why do some messages “cut through” and stick while others fail?
Apples market share continues to increase and the comparison between the two is a great case study but honestly does anyone really think MS cares too much right now? Apples market share is what 15%-20%? The real inroads will occur when the major internet interface is your mobile phone and in this space Apple is way ahead.
On one side Steve Jobs (head of Apple) has done a great job (excuse the pun) in understanding the market and in particular curving a niche in the creative space and positioning and targeting innovators and early adopters. My film director mates and designers are fully branded advocates!
On the other side Microsoft has never been cool, rich yes, cool no, it serves to point the business was founded on someone else s hardware and it’s early adopters were accountants (not that there is anything wrong with that). My PC buds aren't nearly as passionate.
From a selling perspective it's interesting to look at buyer behavior - don't get me wrong my first home computer was an Apple IIe nearly thirty years ago but I gave up on computer branding and advocacy a long time ago.
Microsoft does well at the majority of late adopters and laggards in the market – those computer users who are simply happy to email and browse the web using Explorer. BUT today’s computer space is no longer driven by spreadsheets – it’s driven by creativity and communication and this is where Apple "excels" (excuse the irony). Personally I still use my trusty old PC – it does what I need to do.
The question is – would I consider a Mac next time around? Now's there's a change!
An "interesting" week in the wide world of the web - 
