Marketing in a Digital World 2005 Tour: Boston
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Written by John Bohan, President of i20Events - Part 1 of 2
Featuring:
Rob Cosinuke, President of Digitas Boston
Ken Kimmel, President of Baskin-Robbins Concepts
Josh McCall, CEO of Jack Morton Worldwide
Greg Johnson, SVP, Director, Arnold One
Greg Smith, EVP of Insight & Planning, Carat Interactive
Micah Donahue, SVP/Group Marketing Director, Mullen
Rob Cosinuke discussing the Gillette Promotion on MSN
Ken Kimmell (Baskin-Robbins) & John Bohan (i20Events)
Josh McCall discussing the Microsoft Tablet PC Event
Baskin-Robbins & American Greetings
John Bohan (i20Events) & Jason Baadsgaard (Claria)
Phil Hollrah, Director of Corporate Marketing, Claria
"Marketing is in a Crisis", said Rob Cosinuke, President of Digitas Boston, at i20Events' (i20) "Marketing in a Digital World" Dinner Party earlier this month. "Twenty years ago it took three commercials to reach 80% of the US population and today it takes over 150. US consumers are spending more money on accessing media than marketers are spending on advertising to them. This means that the consumer is empowered and is paying to filter out the free broadcast media."
As i20's keynote speaker, Rob addressed "Embracing the Empowered Consumer" and went into some detail as to how Digitas is addressing and capitalizing upon the rapid changes in media consumption. His message was clear that "push" does not work anymore; you have to "pull" by engaging customers across channels and over time to create relevant, motivating experiences.
He said, "We, at Digitas, like to say that awareness is no longer relevant. What's relevant is engagement. It's not about shouting louder; it's about listening harder. It is now critical to have a deep insight and understanding about your target audience. From there, you will learn their passions and interests and you can then create engagement and connection."
Rob gave an example of an American Express campaign called "My Life, My Card" which began with a web centric idea of putting celebrities online to talk about their real lives and to see how they used the card. The TV commercials were part of the overreaching plan but the foundation of the idea began with the web. One of the featured celebrities was Ellen DeGeneres who opens up on her view of the world allowing consumers to connect with her and simultaneously, connect more with the card. Consumers also had the opportunity to customize dance moves for Ellen which kept them thoroughly engaged with the site and the card.
Rob then provided five points that he has learned this year:
- The Internet should be integrated within a campaign at the beginning of the development process. Internet plans rarely get a fair share of the budget by forcing themselves into the plan after most of the creative and media elements have already been planned out.
- Double or triple online budgets. Most clients are spending in the 3% to 4% range and given where the web is in terms of reach and efficiency that is wrong.
- Embrace your top Publishers. Many of the marketing campaigns are custom built with partners and cannot be done alone.
- Exploit the possibilities in behavioral marketing. Technologies are world class in scale and are beyond the imagination of 99% of marketers.
- Find the best flash talent that money can buy to help you to become the executive producer of your brand.
Rob concluded by emphasizing that now, more than ever, interactive marketing executives have the tools, the power and the clout to truly affect the future.
Ken Kimmel, the keeper of the Baskin-Robbins' brand, took the stage next and supported the need for significant change even for his 50 year old brand.
Ken discussed an online campaign entitled "Are you Bold" which challenged consumers to submit mini biographies and photos of themselves being bold in order to compete for prizes. The winners were voted upon by consumers. American Greeting (AG) played a critical role in promoting the campaign by driving over 200,000 consumers to the site. Baskin-Robbins chose AG to promote the campaign due to its previous success with them in designing and developing custom e-cards that connected with customers.
Ken continued by mentioning the tremendous success it had in promoting Yahoo!'s 10th Birthday Celebration where Baskin-Robbins gave away a $3 coupon toward free ice cream. Over 1.5 million people downloaded the coupon and on the actual birthday many of the Baskin-Robbin"s franchises were overwhelmed with customers.
Ken concluded by indicating that they had gone from having no internet advertising last year to running virtually 35 weeks of presence this year. He also appeared enthusiastic in expanding his web budgets given the right opportunities.
"i20Events" next guest was certainly the man, behind the man, behind the man. Of course, very few ever get to meet this type of person unless, of course, you go to an i20Events' conference. Josh McCall is the CEO of Jack Morton Worldwide who is the producer for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics, as well as one of the top experiential marketing companies in the world. They specialize in developing live interactive experiences that engage a target audience.
Why then is Josh presenting at a conference entitled Marketing in a Digital World?
The reality is that event marketing or experiential marketing is more important and influential today than it has ever been. It is an increasingly effective way to get an advertiser's message across.
A case in point is Jack Morton's work in building out the democracy plaza in New York City two weeks before the Presidential elections. The clients were NBC and Bank of America (BofA). By broadcasting from Democracy Plaza, NBC"s election coverage became a much more engaging event and as such, its ratings outpaced its nearest competitor by 25%. In addition, BofA's favorability ranking increased significantly. The bank's success was partly due to Jack Morton's ability to help BofA to leverage its name during this patriotic period with a walkthrough experience of democratic history and a scholastic reach program that educated students on the elections.
Over the past ten i20Event conferences and dinner parties panelists consistently center upon the theme of engagement. Whether advertisers create this engagement through virtual experiences such as an interactive dance program for a comedian or a live event in Rockefeller plaza, the success of advertising will come from how well we listen to our consumers and to the success stories of our peers.
Read Part II of i20Events' Marketing in Digital World Dinner Party in Boston
