More and more brands and companies have begun taking advantage of social media, mobile and video and using them as an essential part of their marketing plans. As important as these formats are as advertising and marketing tools, it is also important to view emerging media with an educated eye.

Consumer brand logos are everywhere in the social media space. According to Business.com, two-thirds of business-to-consumer companies have a social network profile page and half use Twitter. Social media budgets across all industry sectors this year were expected to balloon from 43 percent to 79 percent, according to MarketingSherpa.

Yet the way brands are spending those social media dollars is changing dramatically. For one thing, advertising is becoming less important as the primary revenue driver. More important, social media is not confined to social networks, or even digital media. Instead, it is spreading across all marketing.

A recent article found on iMediaConnection discusses these revolutions in the social marketing realm. The article states that brands are starting to see that the most critical social media expenditures are not in the realm of buying paid advertising but in building out infrastructure and a strategy to enable social media to transform their businesses. That means money will be allocated from marketing budgets, not media budgets.

What will marketers demand for their buck? Information. Not just information gleaned by listening to their customers, but by listening to those noncustomers whose opinions are shaped by the social interactions and commentary of others. As customers and customers-to-be drive the conversation, they will increasingly drive the evolution of a company’s brand.

As brands become the property of consumers, rather than companies, the notion of earned media is more important. Earned media are brand engagements a business doesn’t pay for, which range from blog posts to Facebook updates to virtual gifts.

As social media has matured, mobile marketing, too, has finally arrived. But where is it headed next? eMarketer predicts mobile ad spending will rise from $416 million in 2009 to $593 million in 2010 — a spike of 42.5 percent. That’s not surprising as more brands and agencies integrate mobile into their marketing mix. Plus, Google’s acquisition of AdMob is certain to prompt greater interest in the mobile space from agencies, brands, and media companies alike.

Noah Elkin, eMarketer’s senior analyst, mobile, says, “The fusion of mobile and social and the appetite for apps (among both consumers and brands) will continue unabated.” Location apps will be a key avenue for brands looking to engage consumers on the go.

Brands are taking advantage of consumers’ proclivity to keep friends on their radar and reveal their own locations wherever they may wander. Loopt, for example, helped establish the practice of “checking in” to find nearby friends, places, and activities. Foursquare added a gaming element to compete to earn badges and points based on the number of times users visit a particular location.

With 90 million consumers accessing the internet from their devices in 2010, mobile phones will transform into consumers’ personal shoppers. Major retailers such as 1-800-FLOWERS, Barnes & Noble, Sears, and Target have launched well-regarded m-commerce offerings. Third-party app developers have introduced location-based services that enable on-the-go shoppers to find products and learn about promotions at nearby stores.

But in general, m-commerce is still in its infancy, with most shoppers using their mobile phones to call a friend for advice on a purchase while standing in a store or to order a last-minute gift for an almost-forgotten birthday. Shopping ranked low on a list of activities conducted by mobile internet users, according to a report by Nielsen Mobile. But mobile shopping also grew by 39 percent between October 2008 and March 2009. That is a powerful sign of what lies ahead.

The fastest-growing ad technique among emerging formats is online video. It will surge nearly 40 percent this year and more than 36 percent in 2011. Marketers remain fascinated with video’s possibilities because of the proven appeal and success of sight, sound, and motion. But video advertising still accounts for a relatively small share of overall internet ad spending. Compare online video to TV, and TV wins hands down. For every $1 marketers spent on video ads in 2009, they spent $65 on TV commercials.

What’s the answer to this imbalance? In a word: convergence.

One convergence will be the fusion of TV and internet video consumption. Whether that occurs by connecting computers to TVs or via internet-enabled TVs, the direction of the connection will matter less than its existence. The other convergence will be a combination of business models, with digital video increasingly supported by a mix of ad dollars subsidized by audience subscription fees, much like cable TV.

Consumers are certainly ready for TV-internet connections. A Deloitte report showed that 65 percent of internet users wanted to connect their TV to the internet in 2009, a 7 percent increase over 2008. Web users across all generations want to watch online content, as well as content on their PC and on traditional television screens. Even among matures, nearly half were ready for internet-enabled TV sets.

As marketers forge pacts with online entities like Hulu and traditional players like TV networks, it is becoming increasingly clear that advertising cannot pay the entire freight for this medium, which continues to explode in popularity. A UBS study shows that by 2012, U.S. online video revenues will come mostly from paid models (77 percent) and will reach $5.4 billion. Ad-supported online video will represent just 23 percent of online video revenues, at $1.6 billion.

In the short term, though, more marketers are embracing online video advertising, supported by the twin boom of video streams and video ad networks. Further support for video ad growth will come from sites that offer a deeper catalog of professional, premium video content. Their survival will depend on creating a hybrid model that combines subscription fees with advertising.

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