Friday, August 26, 2005

Online trend continues

The trend to Web-centric marketing seems to be continuing unabated. This recent article points out that Ford Motor “will spend 30 percent of its $1 billion-plus marketing budget this year on ‘targeted’ media.” This targeted category includes Internet marketing, CRM, video on demand, mobile-phone ads, email, sponsorships and direct mail. Online advertising alone will get 15 percent of the budget.

In other news, Nielsen/NetRatings reported that in just one month (July) the total number of online searches increased nearly three percent over the June figures. Total searches for July were 4.454 billion. Many analysts had expected search figures to drop in the heart of the summer season, but this was certainly not the case.

Things are heating up even more for online retail sales. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, online retail was up 26 percent in the second quarter of this year compared with the same quarter in 2004. The story also points out that total online sales for the second quarter were nearly $1 trillion dollars!

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Sunday, August 21, 2005

ROI: Bottom-line it for me

I remember when ROI was “easy.” Finish your project on deadline, come in under budget, win an award, and if the company president liked it (or his photo), then you had great “ROI.” Well, the times have changed and now you’re wondering how to really prove ROI, let alone even define it. And the scary part is, we as marketing types better figure out the ROI deal, because when there is a downturn in business, what tends to get scrutinized first? The marketing budget. Why? No quantifiable ROI, at least in the eyes of the finance department.

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Tuesday, August 16, 2005

What Headhunters Are Seeking In CMO Candidates

It’s apparent what companies are expecting from their marketing efforts when you look at the attributes/experience top headhunters are seeking to fill Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) positions.

I saw this article in Marketing Sherpa recently and it quickly made its way into many other marketing blogs and relevant Web sites (118 links at the last check). A quick diffusion rate like this usually indicates a great deal of interest in the content. To summarize the article, here’s what CMO headhunters want in a candidate:

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Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Let Me Have Your Undivided Attention

What would all marketers like to have? For one thing, they would like to have their customers’ or prospects’ undivided attention. However, that seems to be a tall order these days. According to a new Simultaneous Media Usage Study, highlighted by the Center for Media Research, getting someone’s undivided attention is difficult.

The study, conducted by BIGresearch, polled over 12,000 random respondents that were representative of the Census 2000 population. It clearly shows that most people multitask when “consuming” media. In fact, 70 percent of 25-34 year olds say they simultaneously access one or more media on a regular or occasional basis. The 55+ age group multitasks the least, but even 60 percent of that group says they simultaneously use two or more media on a regular or occasional basis.

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Monday, June 27, 2005

Pay Per Call Could Grow

Pay Per Call is one of those things that just seems ready to burst on the online marketing scene in a major way.

What I found really interesting in a recent Pay Per Call report summary from the Kelsey Group, was the author’s comment, “[Pay per] calls potentially also help ‘close the loop’ between online shopping and offline buying — the dominant transaction model into the foreseeable future.” We all know that people often shop and research online, but still buy locally. Pay Per Call is a way to convert a company’s national online marketing presence into directly trackable local Cost Per Lead actions. It is a way of harnessing the power of the Web and the power of the local Yellow Pages.

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