Spanish ban on advertising on public TV (10/08/2009)
WFA research shows insight into global audience measurement (31/07/2009)
Contagious: "The rise of own brands" (31/07/2009)
Bing to power Yahoo! as part of global search deal (31/07/2009)
BRICs well-placed for economic recovery (28/07/2009)
eMarketer: "Seven strategies for surviving the downturn"
Date: 24/11/2008
WFA has partnered with eMarketer to bring you a unique digital story each month. eMarketer is a US based company that aggregates and analyses research from over 3,000 sources, and brings it together in analyst reports, daily articles and a database of global online marketing statistics. If you are interested in finding out more, click on the link at the bottom of this article.
WFA Members can download the full 41 page .pdf below.
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Seven Strategies for Surviving the Downturn
Geoffrey Ramsey, CEO and Co-Founder, eMarketer
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Strategy 1. Get With the Accountability Program
Particularly in lean times, CEOs are going to be looking for accountability across all departments-including marketing programs. Even before the financial crisis, senior marketers responding to a 2007 survey conducted by the ANA identified accountability as one of the top two issues affecting their marketing plans.
Strategy 2. Search: A Necessity for Marketers in a Depressed Economy
Search has become incredibly popular with advertisers. Most importantly, though, search has ushered in a new advertising model-one that serves up relevant ads that are actually welcomed by consumers. As search guru Danny Sullivan has said, "Ads placed in front of searchers aren't interruptions, they're exactly what the searchers are after."
Strategy 3. Beyond Search: Do Not Ignore the Power of Branding Online
Search accounts for over 40% of all online advertising dollars spent in the US. Beyond the debate over whether search is most effective as a direct response or branding tactic, one thing is clear: If marketers only do search, they are missing 70% to 80% of their market opportunity. Search works best when it is complemented by online branding efforts that create awareness, interest and desire among prospects. Often the idea to search for a particular item comes from brand advertising. Moreover, when display ads are combined with search, marketers can expect a significant increase in sales conversions, whether those take place online or offline.
Strategy 4. Stay Close to Customers
Obviously, when times are tough, marketers should attempt to stay as close as they can to their core customers. Fortunately, the Web provides a number of opportunities that allow this to be done as efficiently as possible. With nearly 70% of all adults online, and much higher penetration among teens and millennials, according to eMarketer estimates, the Internet has reached the threshold of becoming a mass medium. In addition to scale, it also accounts for an increasingly large share of consumer media time. Data from Forrester Research indicates that, in 2007, American consumers devoted 29% of their total media time to the Internet, and that usage was second only to television, at 37% of total time.
Strategy 5. Engender Trust
Trust is the currency of brands, and it has never been harder to create or hold on to. The fundamental undercurrent perpetuating the current economic climate is an eroding sense of trust. This lack of trust permeates not only our financial institutions but also consumer confidence-in their investments, in their ability to purchase and in their very future. For marketers, the first guideline for creating trust, especially in this gloomy market, should be no secret at all: Keep advertising. Marketers need to leverage the money, blood, sweat and tears they have invested over the years in their brand's trust equity- now is not the time for brand marketers to go dark.
Strategy 6. Engage Prospects and Customers via Video
The online video revolution has begun. Marketers, content publishers and (especially) television networks are taking notice. The production costs and ease of distribution for online video make it attractive for brand marketers looking to save precious marketing dollars while allowing them to engage their customers with sight, sound, motion and emotion-all the elements that make for compelling brand messages. At the very least, marketers can achieve cost-efficiencies by taking the video assets they already own-including television commercials, video sales demonstrations, videotaped customer testimonials, promotional films and so forth-and putting them online.
Strategy 7. Test, Test, Test
This last strategy is more of a marketing mindset. With marketing budgets slashed everywhere and most consumers in a similar slo-mo spending mode, now is really a terrific time to experiment. Not on wacky, unproven tactics that only get the attention of media headlines, but on practical, datasupported success strategies that marketers are already deploying today, many of which are discussed in this whitepaper.
For more information, visit eMarketer.
Documents:
2008eMarketer_Seven_Strategies.pdf
