As we look ahead, we’ve spotted six things that anyone involved in digital marketing should take note of… here goes:

1. Mobile Finally Delivers

It is common to get premature in excitement over new technologies. For example: the dot-com bubble was burst on the delay between the promise of the eCommerce revolution (2000/2001) to the actual fulfillment of that promise (from 2004 incrementally to today and beyond).

The same is true of mobile – yes, we’ve all replacing our old titchy ‘just call and text’ handsets with funky new smartphones for the last 3 years or so, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s an immediate payoff.

Expensive data plans, clunky interfaces, steep learning curves and lack of confidence in security has meant that many have not used these devices to their fuller potential. Now, that has changed. The devices are better, the pricing is much more competitive, the user-experience is tight (and not just the Apple iOS platform any more) and social media is driving increase in use.

Here are some stats for you to consider. By the end of 2011 these were the stand out numbers:

• Over 30% of emails are now opened on smartphones / tablets, over 50% at weekends (evenings)
• Over 40% of posts to Facebook are from mobile devices
• When incorporating tablets into ‘portable PCs’, Apple will become the world’s biggest portable PC supplier (volume and turnover)

If you have not planned for the mobile revolution then make sure you do this year. Ideally this quarter!

2. Bing Comes Second… A Good Second!

And that’s no bad thing when position one is secured by Google. You can be sure that Microsoft are going to be pressing hard to increase market share but their merger (read: takeover) of Yahoo! Search and Search Marketing, plus their ‘relationship’ with Facebook means that Bing has got a bright future and enough traction to take an increasing share of the advertisers’ buck.

3. The Social Backlash

There is no doubt that Social Media continues to gather steam – growth, use, time on site – whatever metric you want to use, it wins.

There is no doubt that IF you want to engage, speak with, understand better, relate to you customers and prospects, then Social Media is an excellent place.

However, where there IS doubt is how brands, products, services and companies can make this work to their advantage for two main reasons:

• Lack of imagination: we don’t know how many businesses do this, but many have the ‘Field of Dreams’ approach to their Pages (‘build it, and they will come’). Er – no they won’t… build it, put no creativity thought into it, and they won’t come. And for the few that do will leave. This is a social media, you need to think socially
• Narrow focus: you cannot treat social media like direct marketing and measure response and revenue out of it. If you do it this way you will fail for too many reason to mention in this article (TBC at a later date!)

At the same time, these principles need to be accepted: a ‘Like’ is worthless unless it becomes a ‘do’, impressions on your social pages are worth less than impressions on your own website, social media advertising is patchy at best (particularly LinkedIn) and the true cost of social media is the time spent managing it.

So the social backlash will mainly consist of businesses who thought (or were persuaded into) that either it would be self-fulfilling, or that it’s a straight marketing tool. Or, it may be that you have outsourced it to incompetents.

4. Companies Will Work Even Harder to Ringfence and Reward their Clients

It has always surprised us how little SMEs work to support their existing client base and reward them for their loyalty. Given that we can expect another challenging year, the competitive business will work as hard as possible on their existing contacts and make sure that they retain custom from as many as possible.

The smarter ones will also use techniques to use their existing customers to leverage further opportunity.

This will be the opportunity for true CRM – the management of actual customer relationships through a combination of media, not CRM as Salesforce describe it (sales channel – CRM with a silent ‘relationship’).

5. Limitations of Automation Will be Revealed

We get approached by many agencies purporting to have automated various things – from pay per click performance, to email response. All offering, for a monthly fee, to make our lives easier.

For the buyer this is serious compelling as the more automation, the cheaper and more scalable the services are. So, if it works then quickly, with little staff resource needed, then the benefits are clear.

However, the main question is: ‘is it better?’ And we believe that for marketing – the answer is a firm ‘no’. The main reason being that strong marketing needs two things: creativity and market knowledge. Give us a strong ad copywriter any day over an automaton: better copy, better click through, better quality score, lower spend, improved performance.

So, if you buy into automation, be very careful and test against a ‘human managed’ (ideally experienced) alternative. You may find that the only thing you’ll be scaling is your losses.

6. Performance of Apps Will Come Under Scrutiny

We’ve always maintained, when approached by clients wanting apps, that this is no gravy train… in fact, far from it, it’s more like a Ponzi / Pyramid / MLM scheme where the winners are deliberately PR’d to create the illusion of success. Yet, Apps are a thin layer of great success, covering a very deep ocean of failure.

Apple, Facebook, Google and Amazon will court you, create a convention just for you, present bold plans to you, bring you into their carefully controlled circle and, if you’re very lucky, even get you a signed Zuckerburg t-shirt.

What you have to remember is that they’re taking about 40% of everything – and every app ties your users into them (as much as you, of course). So, the more apps they have, the better their reward and, actually, it doesn’t really matter which ones make it.

So, you can see why focusing on Rovio (developers of Angry Birds) and not the 100,000+ other games that die a death hides the true picture. Recent research suggests that the average Game in the Apple App Store takes £4,000 in total revenue to the developer, and games is supposed to be the most successful category.

So, we wish you all the best for 2012 and if you want any advice or help, then please call 01962 605 000 – we’re more than happy to have a chat.

If you don’t know what we’re referring to, let me get you up to speed: Flash, a software owned by Adobe, is responsible for most of the attractive moving graphics on the web including adverts and games. This software is free to download and use, but whoever uses Flash to design needs to buy licensed software to create Flash applications.

Given that it is free, easy to embed, and a ‘one size fits all’ offering creating beautiful interactive treats, you would have thought that the Apple audience would be ideal users for Flash. Sadly, they aren’t given the option.

What initially leaked out from Apple as ‘the iPhone is not compatible for Flash’ reason last year (let’s call that ‘Episode One’), then became ‘we don’t want Flash because it isn’t Open Source’ (Episode 2), has now grown into a corporate mud-slinging match (Episode 3) with Flash ‘banned’ from all mobile devices and optional on laptop and desktops.

The irony here is huge. Because if there’s ever been a more tightly patrolled walled garden, then Apple is the curator. Every product they produce is policed. Every competitor pursued. If they really believed in Open Source then surely they would allow full access to their software, which, of course, they don’t and won’t.

Looking at this purely commercially  the real reason that Apple doesn’t want Flash on it’s phone is quite clear and is hidden in this ‘open letter‘ from Apple:

“Another Adobe claim is that Apple devices cannot play Flash games. This is true. Fortunately, there are over 50,000 games and entertainment titles on the App Store, and many of them are free. There are more games and entertainment titles available for iPhone, iPod and iPad than for any other platform in the world.”

Though true, the reality is that with so many Flash games available free of charge, the revenues from the app store would shrink dramatically if Flash were readily available. By backing HTML5 Apple give the impression of being the good guys. But they know that there are hardly any HTML5 games available and most are of a poor quality and difficult to locate on the web… as most are supported by advertising and sponsorship using… yes, you’ve guessed it, Flash design!

Far be it for us to support Adobe, given that they’re masters of acquiring great software and then tripling the price. However this instance, for all the hot air from both sides, gives the impression of Apple protectionism.

As usual Apple, and teflon Steve, seem to come away from what amounts to a corporate mugging looking clean. However, their actions show that for all the words written and spoken, they are as commercially merciless as the competition, if not more so.

Why all the fuss?

Well, it’s the use of gaming mechanics to make boring bits of life more interesting (to paraphrase the 1,000+ words on Wikipedia). So, if like 99% of the population, you don’t like writing task lists, let alone actually doing the tasks – so, why not get EpicWin on your iPhone? Your tasks are now quests, and you win points and level up your Avatar as you complete tasks.

Ah, But Will it Catch On?

Ironically, it has already, you just haven’t spotted it yet. FourSquare already make a great line in making visiting places (however dull) interesting. Become a mayor, unlock a badge… and there are millions of users around the world ‘signing in’ when they visit places.

And all those automated posts onto your Facebook feed? Chances are they’re posted by these kinds of services – making virtual and real worlds more interesting by adding a layer of fun.

What’s the Next Move?

If you haven’t heard of Farmville, then you probably in the minority.  It’s the most popular game on Facebook. In a neat twist, it’s made the mundane out of a game. Stripped away all the fun and left you (and your farmer) with a load of chores to do. Guess what? It works. People love it and get hooked: must increase yield, must buy cow, etc.

So, if you’re thinking of applying gaming wisdom to make your business more effective, then talk to us, we’d love to help you level up your online activity. Because all the ‘games’ mentioned above are very, very, very serious businesses.

On the face of it,

However, this is just the tip of the iceberg, there is a lot happening at the intersection of Local and Social marketing – which is what this week’s Social Summit is covering. We haven’t had a chance to make it down there, but it is the most interesting dynamic happening in online marketing and communications at the moment.

Why Social?

For many Social Media seems an impenetrable waste of energy. Why should someone be interested in our tweets? Or our followers? What is it all about?

Well, the key reason is something that has long since been the holy grail of online: community.

Facebook has done the best job so far of identifying the need for community and still it struggles to retain interest over a period of time. Other communities existing based around interest – whether it’s car ownership, or nail varnishing.

However, the issue is that these communities are mainly virtual and therefore artificial. This is not to say that the participants are not real, but there’s not much of a real world dynamic to the relationships.

How Web / Mobile Can Get Real…

Therefore, the intersection of Local and Social marketing is where it’s going to grow… where it’s going to develop, and fast.

From the $100m funding Yelp! got; to Google’s live search… to FourSquare and their ‘check in’ functionality based around geo positioning and real-life experience.

2010 is the year for Local Social. Are you prepared?

The Case for Print

It seems that the concern is that Google has been long held that Google has been surreptitiously ‘stealing’ content from their websites using Google News and the new entrant Google FastFlip. By hosting pages on their own websites containing this content they have been using other media’s work to fill their advertising boots as well as stop visitors to these sites.

However that ignores the fact that many users search through Google as the starting point to get to articles and then often do click through to read further or to browse the media. It also ignores the fact that many news sites have ALLOWED Google to index ‘protected’ pages precisely because they want searchers to come to their sites and then pay to subscribe.

They Have the Right to Know!

What seems to have transpired is a concerted effort to squeeze Google so that they relent and ensure that pages which are behind subscription systems aren’t pilfered by the general public and that IF the public want to read them, then they need to subscribe.

This all seems eminently sensible. Media owners really need answer the fundamental question of what their existing content is worth and they’ll never discover this if Google is taking a substantial proportion of the traffic.

Our Prediction, FWIW

Now, if you’ve read this far, you’re probably thinking ‘why is a marketing agency talking about this?’ … well, it’s because it’s another sign of the paradigm shift we’re on at the moment. Yellow Pages decreasing, print prices dropping, Evening Standard being given out F.O.C. Media is a mess. Digital is superceding print and offline media with professional journalism on life support.

Our view is that this strategy will have the desired effect. It will force an answer.

And the voice will say ‘we don’t value your content enough to pay for it’.

Only the strong will survive.

Looking forward to going to the ‘Local Social Summit’ in November. Speakers from all round the globe coming to London to get busy and share some of the latest stuff.

Ergo will be there… keeping an appropriately firm finger on the pulse and making sure that we know exactly what we’re talking about when advising clients.

Maybe see you there? Local Social Summit Website