Ad:Tech Day 3 - wrapup

Art of Persuasion - New laws of eCommerce Marketing
Natalie Long - Internet Marketing Manager, REI
Peter Brumme - Director of Web Marketing, Intuit
Monte Hudson - VP Sales, Revenue Science
Joey Wilson - Director of Marketing Strategy, Sapient
Moderated by Bill Tancer - GM Global Research, Hitwise

Currents:

• online sales US 155.8B - up 17% from 2007
• Internet penetration slowing but sitting at 71.1% - meaning people that want internet, have it
• Number of new retail sites slowing (3.5% growth)
• Visits to retail sites are up 26%

Are there any new rules of eCommerce?

REI

• interesting customer centric views - order online & return in store, and many other innovations
• moving towards portable content (good for their customers) but paying special attention to making sure the content and network experience across all channels (blogs, reviews, video, podcasts, etc.)
• Customers expect more our of brands - responsible, at "your" service

Intuit

• spend your dollars in the highest ROI areas
• be relevant at all steps of the purchse funnel - persuasion comes from the consistency at every point in the process
• the power of FREE is a way to significantly shorten the buying cycle
• testing remains one of the best tools that exists - dont forget about simple things like testing buttons - tactics will be different at different points in the funnel

Revenue Science

• personalized & relevant messaging is key to moving people through the funnel process

Sapient

• clients dont take advantage of conversations they have already started with a client - so many dont even do simple things like re-engagement messages on dropped baskets and the like.  If you already have the lead, it is more critical to work it, than to look for new ones.
• knowing what and how to measure is critical - have to name specifically what factors represent success - and this should be based on revenue not based on CTR or CPA.
• media should be optimized - focus on whaat drives sales, retention or profit
• Testing plan is critical important - focus on placements first, creative second - aplit vs multivariate - walk before you run.
• every step of your process can be optimized, personalized and impact can (must) be measured.

Q/A

• Fuze Question to REI - Since REI has always subtly been a "member" organization, has REI considered building social spaces or engaging in more trendy blogging tactics like Twitter to show they are connected to the bleeding edge and engaging with their members/customers.  if not, do you plan to, if so does it drive any sales and who runs the programs?
  • Answer: REI is considering taking on the social space by building tools that allow their global customers/members connect, share, review, travel
  • My Take: this could be the most explosive case study in social networking/media ever - just hang on for a year or 2 - REI over almost anyone, could pull this off - BIG TIME.

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The Empowered Consumer - Are we losing control of our brands?
Chas Edwards - Federated Media
Keith Rabois - Slide (180 Million unique viewers/month)
Bill Capodanno - Microsoft
Richard Becker - Citi
Marc Ruxin - Mcann worldwide/populist

How has the conversation evolved?

• First age - uni-directional - TV/Radio
• Second age - bi-directional - Interactive
• Third age - multi-directional - participatory

Here are my rambling[genius] thoughts...

This session can be summed up in a single word: Yes.  Companies are losing and having to relinquish control of their brands/products/services to the social world.  it will remain incredibly challenging for big brands to stay in the conversation and successfully "advertise" to people who dont want to see their message.  Good luck having a conversation that isnt exploited as we go forward here.

I have much less of an issue with brands reading what i have to say than i do with brands trying to control my conversation or interrupt me with advertising.  For instance, Citi relaunches mortgage.com and is, yawn, showing rates of competitors. Hasnt the insurance industry has done this for years? It blows me away how some brands think because THEY do something new to THEM, that is should all of a sudden be interesting to US.  Being interested in that, folks, requires you to take a healthy dose of Crazy Pills.

Citi [and others] need to respect and submiss to the fact that: no "institution" web tool will be more valuable and useful and visited than an independent. Ex: Which site will you trust a home valuation from: one on Citi vs. Zillow?  Of course Zillow.  They are the pioneers, they are impartial, they are data fueled. They have the eyeballs.  They are NOT TRYING TO SELL ME SOMETHING! This is a fundamental issue with big brands getting into the social space...they try to control too much.  Poop on them.

I hate that marketers "follow" everything that consumers embrace as a format and immediately exploit it for their own benefit.  Sort of wondering when the backlash will happen?  Maybe sites like facebook et al need to start generating a little revenue by charging people some small amounts of money to strip out the advertising.  They cant do this however, because ADVERTISERS pay them WAY MORE than users ever could.  Users are the pawn...and it sux.  Think about what happened to the original "social network" AOL...learn it, know it, live it.