The Digital Day conference focused on how digital technology is impacting all brands and marketing. Several key themes emerged:
1. Digital integration is now essential for all campaigns rather than being pushed to digital teams.
2. Canadians are rapidly adopting digital/mobile technologies like smartphones, tablets, and social media.
3. Successful digital content comes from engaging audiences and facilitating conversations rather than pushing out content.
4. Social commerce is growing, so brands must market socially across screens and create campaigns with purpose.
The conference emphasized that digital must be a strategic part of campaigns, not just a tactic, and should be engaging, entertaining, inherently social, and make it easy for people to buy or find purpose
2. Paul Godfrey kicked off
diGital day with this:
“a year aGo, we declared Post Media
diGital first. those that adaPt succeed.
those that don’t chanGe will disaPPear.”
3. how Much lonGer will
conferences be orGanized
into diGital and traditional
seGMents?
after sPendinG the day at the diGital day
conference in toronto this noveMber, it
was obvious that this wasn’t an event for
those resPonsible for MarketinG, Media
and advertisinG in the diGital sPace - it
truly was for everyone. no lonGer can we
afford to Push thinGs off to the diGital
teaM to fiGure out. technoloGy is soMe-
thinG that touches every brand and can
coMPliMent every tyPe of caMPaiGn.
4. over the Past few years it aPPears that
soMe brands are still waitinG for the
diGital revolution. that what they want is
a defininG MoMent that says, “now. now is
the tiMe to invest in social, Mobile, tablet,
etc.” what this conference Pointed out is
that if a revolution is haPPeninG - in
canada at least - it’s a quiet one. and it’s
haPPeninG now.
5. one of the first sPeakers of the day, steve
levy froM iPsos reid, shared this: 30% of
canadians have sMart Phones; the use of
tablets doubled froM January 2011 to
october 2011; and 91% of canadians used
search enGines to find a brand or a
Product online.
the technoloGy is beinG used by averaGe
canadians, not Just by early adoPters.
6. the last sPeaker of the day, sonia verMa,
a rePorter froM the Globe and Mail,
sPoke of a not-so-quiet revolution
takinG Place across africa and the
Middle east.
here, technoloGy and social networks
such as facebook and twitter were
iGnored by leaders as beinG trivial
“datinG sites” and well, we know how
that worked out for hosni Mubarak.
7. this synoPsis will hiGhliGht soMe of
the key learninGs froM Many of the
sPeakers durinG the day.
the takeaway for us was that there is a
riGht strateGy for every brand, so Get
on board. this is a test and learn
environMent, not wait and see. so have
a read. hoPefully this will start soMe
discussions within your orGanization.
8. lauGh, sinG, Play -
diGital content creation
baron Manett, senior vice-President,
ariad custoM coMMunications, Moderator
Marc dinsdale, director and General
ManaGer, roGers diGital Media, sPorts
walter levitt, executive vice-President,
MarketinG, coMedy central
chris taylor, ceo, last GanG entertainMent,
lawyer, taylor MitsoPulos klein oballa
this content is a suMMation of the first Panel Presentation
9. i think Most brands understand the
iMPortance of creatinG their own con-
tent. there’s no Point investinG in a bloG,
or even settinG uP a twitter handle if
there’s no (valuable) content there.
the tricky Part is creatinG the content.
or, More to the Point, creatinG Good
content that PeoPle care about and
want to read. this Panel looked at soMe
of the challenGes and solutions that
these brands have eMPloyed to build a
followinG and keeP theM interested.
10. they are seen as a tv channel and diGital
is one way of receivinG tv content. but
where they want to be is seen as havinG
unique diGital content. the reason is that
even as Media coMPany, they are coMPet-
inG aGainst so Many others: traditional
Media coMPanies, coMedians, live Per-
forMers, etc.
11. so where can this unique and oriGinal
content coMe froM?
in soMe cases, it’s coMinG froM the fans.
for both sPortsnet and coMedy central,
they see their diGital ProPerties as a
Place for fans to coMMent, curate and
direct.
it’s about buildinG a PlatforM that could
Potentially lead to additional content
and ProGraMMinG.
12. chris taylor froM last GanG records
Pointed to that last k-os release as a
Great exaMPle of this. the tracks were
released online and they let the fans
reMix it.
this led to a contest for the best reMix,
and froM there, another albuM of the
best reMixed tracks was released. it’s
equal Parts crowd sourcinG and fan
curation/content creation.
13. the takeaway here is
that you have to Put the
audience first.
the tactics and channels will bubble
uP based on how your tarGet wants to
consuMe your content not the way you
want to Push your content out.
14. steve levy, President
iPsos reid - east
the canadian diGital MarketinG Pulse
this content is a suMMation of the first Panel Presentation
15. there is a shift in sentiMent
in the canadian MarketinG
industry when it coMes to
Media sPend. eMail, online
and social is on the rise
while traditional sPendinG
is GoinG down.
in 2011 there were 1 different coMPonents
7
of diGital Media that iPsos reid collected
data on. this ranGed froM seo, seM,
twitter and online video to daily deals
and facebook.
16. eMail and seM
cateGory 1 eMail and seM
eMail
this is the Most Mature coMPonent of the
diGital Mix. it’s used very often by 70% of
Marketers and 65% of aGencies.
9 in 10 canadian consuMers have received
a ProMotional eMail and 5 in 10 have re-
sPonded.
17. twitter and
social networkinG
cateGory 2 social
twitter
in 2011, 44% of Marketers and 39% of
aGencies used twitter very often, but
it’s been used Mainly as a custoMer
service channel.
so how do canadian feel about twitter?
in october 2011 94% were aware of
twitter and 11% were actively usinG it.
18. Mobile and tablets
cateGory 3 Mobile
when asked, 19% of Marketers and 31%
of aGencies said that they use Mobile or
tablets in caMPaiGns often.
froM the Public’s PersPective, 25% notice
ads while browsinG on a sMart Phone
and 16% are resPondinG - not nearly
as Much as eMail MarketinG, but it is
GrowinG fast.
19. Pov of brands and aGencies
who does the industry think is doinG
diGital really well?
kraft 1%
coke 3%
ford 1%
starbucks 5%
best buy1%
20. takeaway
there needs to be More strateGy in
diGital. it’s not Just a tactic. we also
can’t Just Put a Print caMPaiGn online
and call it true diGital.
the best Practices in diGital continue
to be the best Practices in traditional -
know your consuMers, understand how
they interact with the MediuM and Give
theM MeaninGful content.
21. shoPPer MarketinG Panel
Joe strolz, vice-President, Microsoft
advertisinG, Moderator
lisa bradner, chief client services &
Growth officer, GeoMentuM
erin Green, director of MarketinG,
dealuxe.ca
anGela scardillo, vice-President,
MarketinG and coMMunications,
best buy canada
this content is a suMMation of the shoPPer MarketinG Panel
22. diGital shoPPer
MarketinG
we’ve talked a lot about the diGital
Path to Purchase. the truth is, diGital is
enGrained in the way that PeoPle shoP.
there are different tactics that can be
used Pre-shoP, durinG the shoPPinG
exPerience and Post-shoP but at the
end of the day, this is about brands
sPeakinG to PeoPle.
23. lookinG at diGital
shoPPer MarketinG
durinG this Panel discussion, three
theMes eMerGed:
1. Media consuMer fraGMentation
canadians have 25% More devises than
they’ve ever had. 30% of tv tiMe is tiMe
they share with other Media such as
a tablet or Mobile Phone.
24. lookinG at diGital
shoPPer MarketinG
2. social Plus local Plus Mobile
30% shoPPers are usinG their Mobile Phone
in the aisles while they Make a Purchase
decision. but they’re not GoinG to review
sites as Much as they Go to true friends
and faMily.
25. lookinG at diGital
shoPPer MarketinG
3. the econoMy has led to a quest for value
shoPPers are seekinG better value and
as Part of this quest, are doinG More
advanced research than they ever have
before.
they are usinG different channels to aid
in their decision MakinG. this results in
fewer visits to retailers. where a shoPPer
would have Previously visited five dealer-
shiPs Prior to buyinG a car, they now only
Go to one or two.
26. best buy’s Pov
focus on location based MarketinG and
beinG truly enGaGinG in the diGital sPace,
not Just servinG an ad.
when a shoPPer enters a best buy, 80%
have done their research and are ready
to buy.
27. takeaway
there Must be a value exchanGe between
the brand, the consuMer and retailer.
brands need to build Genuine
coMMunities online.
service online is key.
don’t Get buried by the diversity or
coMPlexity of technoloGy. instead,
Meet your custoMer’s huMan needs.
facilitatinG conversations is key in the
Path to Purchase.
29. what do we know
about tablets and
canadians?
11% of north aMericans and 6% of
canadians have iPads. and there have
been 1.5 Million tablets sold in canada
but what are they doinG with their tablets?
not enGaGinG brands. the reason for
this is that the MaJority of brands have
develoPed useless aPPs. they neither
entertain nor inforM.
30. who has created a
Great aPP?
charMin’s sit or squat aPP allows users
to Mark the best and worst Public
washrooMs in north aMerica.
31. tablet adoPtion
the tablet is still a luxury Good, not a
necessity. but when the Price Point
coMes down is when we’ll start to see
More adoPtion and More PeoPle coMinG
to website via tablet.
but what haPPens
when they Get there?
32. tablet adoPtion
we see tablets beinG a Part of the retail
ecosysteM and environMent.
and who has Produced the Most aPPs?
disney, of course. they have created
More than any other toP 100 brand with
close to 600 aPPs.
34. your consuMer is social -
is your brand?
every industry and vertical is GoinG to
be rethouGht in a social way.
Marketers Must:
1. Market with a social curve
2. enGaGinG across MultiPle screens
3. create caMPaiGns with PurPose
35. shoPPinG is a social
exPerience, we all know
that. it’s e-coMMerce that
has been Made in an
anti-social way.
so we Must now re-think
this for the social shoPPer
and look at how we can
create social coMMerce.
36. s-coMMerce
the social coMMerce Market is GrowinG
to $30 billion in the next five years. there
are over 100 Million likes on facebook
each day.
how can brands and retailers take
advantaGe of this?
40. s-coMMerce
create a Product with PurPose. it allows
Me to see which of My facebook friends
are GoinG to a show and where they
are sittinG.
41. info
socialize your Mobile aPP. audiovrooM
Picks uP on the likes you have for bands
in facebook and finds other bands that
you MiGht like.
42. so what?
diGital inteGration in everythinG we do
is key. these diGital touchPoints have to
be incorPorated into caMPaiGns not as
a tactic, but as a strateGic Part of the
whole.
diGital and social have PurPoses.
Make theM:
• Engaging
• EntErtaining
• inhErEntly Social
• EaSy for SomEonE to buy
• EaSy for SomE to find purpoSE
43. so what?
diGital inteGration in everythinG we do
is key. these diGital touchPoints have to
be incorPorated into caMPaiGns not as
a tactic, but as a strateGic Part of the
whole.
diGital and social have PurPoses.
Make theM:
• Engaging
• EntErtaining
• inhErEntly Social
• EaSy for SomEonE to buy
• EaSy for SomE to find purpoSE