7th Marketing Dialog: Brand Management in the Age of Digital Communication
How are new ways of communicating via the Internet and Web 2.0
affecting marketing, branding and the role of classical media in
the communication mix?
The 7th Marketing Dialog hosted by the Print Media Academy in Heidelberg focused on the topic of "Brand Management in the Age of Digital Communication." Andreas Gahlert, who heads the "Digital Marketing" working group of the German Association of Communications Agencies (GWA) and has helped to pioneer online marketing as the CEO of the Frankfurt-based agency Neue Digitale, held a presentation in front of an audience of around 200 interested media representatives.
His thesis: technologically advanced online communication offers users new ways of interacting, participating and controlling content, but print will not lose its preeminence.
Internet users are more self-motivated and active, they create and edit their own content and are good at ferreting out exactly the information they want. The technologies that allow them to do this - blogs, RSS, podcasts, etc. - are becoming increasingly available worldwide, largely as a result of the rapid spread of broadband Internet access. The use of interactive applications that allow users to present themselves and post commentaries is growing at a dizzying pace: web portals such as MySpace, OpenBC and YouTube are excellent examples.
The Source of Information: User Tracking
It's a fact that for certain purposes, such as making decisions on which car to buy, booking trips, and ordering things like books and CDs, the Internet clearly has an edge.
The 7th Marketing Dialog hosted by the Print Media Academy in Heidelberg focused on the topic of "Brand Management in the Age of Digital Communication." Andreas Gahlert, who heads the "Digital Marketing" working group of the German Association of Communications Agencies (GWA) and has helped to pioneer online marketing as the CEO of the Frankfurt-based agency Neue Digitale, held a presentation in front of an audience of around 200 interested media representatives.
His thesis: technologically advanced online communication offers users new ways of interacting, participating and controlling content, but print will not lose its preeminence.
Internet users are more self-motivated and active, they create and edit their own content and are good at ferreting out exactly the information they want. The technologies that allow them to do this - blogs, RSS, podcasts, etc. - are becoming increasingly available worldwide, largely as a result of the rapid spread of broadband Internet access. The use of interactive applications that allow users to present themselves and post commentaries is growing at a dizzying pace: web portals such as MySpace, OpenBC and YouTube are excellent examples.
The Source of Information: User Tracking
It's a fact that for certain purposes, such as making decisions on which car to buy, booking trips, and ordering things like books and CDs, the Internet clearly has an edge.
"I can only recommend closely analyzing each target group as
it surfs the Internet, listening to it and appropriately adapting
messages," explained Gahlert. "We have discovered that
users don't usually mind being observed. People love sharing how
they feel and what they like."
According to Gahlert, user tracking provides a technical basis not only for optimizing websites, but also for individually personalizing messages. The most efficient method for this has proved to be search engine marketing: this involves analyzing a combination of search terms and generating a hit list that automatically reflects the user's interests. Also very successful is targeted marketing: the user is monitored, for example by cookies or ad serving, and then assigned to certain patterns or groups based on his or her movements within a website.
Brands Being Put to the Test
"What digital brand management does is permit the testing of brand promises," said Gahlert. He recommended conceptually reassessing websites and if necessary redoing them to enable this. How brands are perceived no longer depends exclusively on content and key visuals. Much more important these days are the paths and platforms through which users obtain information and form opinions.
According to Gahlert, user tracking provides a technical basis not only for optimizing websites, but also for individually personalizing messages. The most efficient method for this has proved to be search engine marketing: this involves analyzing a combination of search terms and generating a hit list that automatically reflects the user's interests. Also very successful is targeted marketing: the user is monitored, for example by cookies or ad serving, and then assigned to certain patterns or groups based on his or her movements within a website.
Brands Being Put to the Test
"What digital brand management does is permit the testing of brand promises," said Gahlert. He recommended conceptually reassessing websites and if necessary redoing them to enable this. How brands are perceived no longer depends exclusively on content and key visuals. Much more important these days are the paths and platforms through which users obtain information and form opinions.
The Future Belongs to Cross-Media
Expenditures for online advertising have tripled over the last three years, while the classic media have lost ground - television far more so than print! Only rarely can online advertising do the entire job by itself, Gahlert stressed. Combining print with the Internet generates significant cross-media effects.
Print is Still Important, but it's Changing
Print and online: two sides of the same coin? No, they are two mutually dependent disciplines! This could be the single most important insight of the 7th Heidelberg Marketing Dialog. The fact is that print meets needs that the Internet cannot. Print provides sensual experiences that can additionally enhance the impact of high-quality content - for example, by means of shape and tactile and visual effects. Print media have a virtual monopoly on the journalistic credibility and sustainable impact of delivered information. Print lets users get their bearings and set their agendas. Print, says Gahlert, has a decelerating effect that adds a vital counterpoint to the concert of fast, fleeting communication.
Print naturally has to keep evolving, he stresses, and focus even more strongly on the reader. What is needed is a return to taking full advantage of its actual strengths: high credibility and visual and tactile experiences.
Contact:
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
Print Media Academy
Kurfürsten-Anlage 52-60
69115 Heidelberg
Tel.: +49 (0)6221 92 24 01
Fax: +49 (0)6221 92 49 29
E-Mail: pma-info@heidelberg.com
Expenditures for online advertising have tripled over the last three years, while the classic media have lost ground - television far more so than print! Only rarely can online advertising do the entire job by itself, Gahlert stressed. Combining print with the Internet generates significant cross-media effects.
Print is Still Important, but it's Changing
Print and online: two sides of the same coin? No, they are two mutually dependent disciplines! This could be the single most important insight of the 7th Heidelberg Marketing Dialog. The fact is that print meets needs that the Internet cannot. Print provides sensual experiences that can additionally enhance the impact of high-quality content - for example, by means of shape and tactile and visual effects. Print media have a virtual monopoly on the journalistic credibility and sustainable impact of delivered information. Print lets users get their bearings and set their agendas. Print, says Gahlert, has a decelerating effect that adds a vital counterpoint to the concert of fast, fleeting communication.
Print naturally has to keep evolving, he stresses, and focus even more strongly on the reader. What is needed is a return to taking full advantage of its actual strengths: high credibility and visual and tactile experiences.
Contact:
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
Print Media Academy
Kurfürsten-Anlage 52-60
69115 Heidelberg
Tel.: +49 (0)6221 92 24 01
Fax: +49 (0)6221 92 49 29
E-Mail: pma-info@heidelberg.com
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