News: Big Ideas

Rules of Engagement 2012: Winning in the New World

by Linda Rosanio

Remember the TV show Star Trek: The Next Generation? Two of Captain Picard’s most-famous directives to his crew were “engage” and “make it so.” Those are precisely the directives we give to marketers and advertisers heading into 2012.

In the digital world in which we all live, work and play, the key is to engage, to interact with peers, staff and most importantly, consumers. They now hold the power; they now control the conversations; and it’s our job to actively participate in those conversations.

Face it. The traditional marketing paradigm many of us are accustomed to is gone. It has been turned, literally on its head. In today’s world, it’s about transparency and allowing consumers to participate and shape a brand based on authentic interactions between employees, product or service and customers. It's about human connection and relationships – not a marketing identity of the traditional brand.

It is vital that we understand, practice and study the end-user’s online habits and know how to engage that user. Marketers must live, breathe and believe that all marketing is about engagement. It was the web that set us on the path to true engagement marketing and it is the web, or rather, the browser, that has proven to be the barrier to true engagement. The web makes us search to find—it is reactive, rather than proactive. The web is dying a slow death, but the Internet is going strong. Today’s marketers need to lead the charge in new technology, engagement strategies and optimization of campaigns based on data. It’s “Synegrated.” That’s how we describe it.

Take a look at a typical day in the life to see why engagement is so important and why we are engaging without the web. First thing, we check email on an iPad and browse a favorite TV station, Facebook and Twitter—app, app, app. At work, we scroll through RSS feeds in a reader and Skype and IM. More apps. At day’s end, we listen to Pandora, watch a Netflix streaming video—both apps. The entire day’s been spent on the Internet—but not on the web. The Internet is a key transporter of data. Consumers are telling that to us, indirectly, everyday. They aren’t rejecting the web; rather, they are choosing to use dedicated platforms because they just work better.
Social media and mobile marketing have dominated our predictions in years past. Now they are the routine cost of entry in doing business.

Here’s what we predict is trending for 2012:
Google Fades in Leading the Search Party. When was the last time you found something easily that you really needed on Google? Google has become a victim of its own success--its search has become tainted by SEO. How do we know this is true? Just look at all the “non-search” specialized sites that really solve a search problem, like Amazon.com, Vehix.com, Match.com or Realtor.com. Added up, these specialized sites account for 50% of searches. Google, at its core, is an incredible tool as its algorithm ranks sites and pages, but in an effort to get client sites ranked, we have driven non-relevant information to the top of Google.

HTML5 is the Flash of the Future. Steve Jobs was right. Who needs Flash? Just ask Adobe. HTML5 will prove to be a game changer. It provides a comprehensive application development platform for web pages that eliminates the need for third party browser plug-ins like Flash. Web designers and developers can create the next generation of great online applications--lowering the cost of development, providing cross platform compatibility and improving graphic capabilities. An ad is an app, a tweet is an app, everything is an app. HTML5 is a blank sheet of paper so creativity will rule again. In HTML5, there’s no need for display ads. For example, Amazon can have a section of its store as an ad. A consumer can read a book review and buy the book right from the page. Because HTML5 can make sites rich and interactive, engagement can increase from seconds to minutes.

Touch Computing Hits its Stride. The iPad will be the most important device since the IBM PC. Why? First, it makes the computer experience transparent to the user. When we use the iPad, we don’t feel like we are using a computer. Second, the iPad will firmly plant us in the era of touch computing. For decades, computer scientists have known that touch is a far more natural way to interact with computers. And finally, most of the time we are on computers, we’re consuming information, not creating it. The iPad is optimized for consumption, accommodating 70 percent of what we actually do on computer--from the comfort zones of our couches, our beach loungers…wherever!

Television as We Know It is Over. There will still be a screen in our living rooms, bedrooms and throughout our homes. But we will be able to track usage since the device will also be a computer or have Internet connection. With almost 70% of video consumed on Internet connected devices, revenue models for television advertising will change. Once televisions are computers, analytics of who watches will get more accurate than Nielsen panels. With actual measurement, ad rates will adjust because the numbers aren’t as rosy as Nielsen makes them look. Newspapers felt it first and television will experience a similar shift in revenue models.
These are just some of the trends we see happening in 2012. The underlying theme to all of this is engagement. Consumers want to be engaged now more than ever, and just like Captain Picard’s galactic directive, it’s our job to make it so.
 

Linda Rosanio is CEO of the Star Group with offices in Philadelphia and Fort Washington, PA; Voorhees and Morristown, NJ, Wilmington DE, Kansas City, MO and Las Vegas, NV