MSLGROUP has listed out the top questions that clients should be asking their agency partners about digital marketing at the start of 2014. The questions, from second-screen programming to mobile messengers to online video to 3D Printing, portray the accelerated pace of change in the social and digital space. According to Stephanie Agresta, the start of the new year is the right time for conversations built around strategic foresight and the key trends driving change in the space. “A strong perspective on these critical trends can help inform and optimize strategies that are being put in place,” she said.

1. 10 Critical
Questions
to Ask Your Agency Partner in 2014

2. 1
What do you think we should
do with our website?
It's back to digital marketing basics – your
website matters again.
After years of shifting resources away from
corporate sites and into social channel
development...
...companies are realizing that they can gain
great value from infusing their owned sites
with new sophistication, making it more
social, personalized and mobile.

3. 2
How should I go about setting up an
Innovation Lab?
No longer just for the big technology
companies, Innovation Labs have become a
required foundation for marketers that merely
want to keep up with the crowd.
The digital marketing world is moving so fast.
Mission Control Centers are helping
marketers keep up.
Without dedicated resources to keep up with
new technology & platforms, customized
solutions for companies and brands, as well
as education inside the organization, you
can't keep up.

4. 3
We built it. So why aren't
they coming?
If 2013 was the year of content marketing,
2014 will be the year of content distribution.
It is important that content be high quality
and based on insights related to the target
personas, but in the coming year we are going
to see more discussion on paid content and
native advertising, as well as branded
content partnerships.
The goal is ensuring the audience you are
trying to reach sees your great content versus
"hoping they will find it and watch it" position
of the past year.

5. 4
Should I invest more in online video
production & distribution?
For some, this question may be obvious. For
others, it is still an important question that
requires a strategy.
50%
In Brazil, video consumption was marginal in
2008. And now it represents 50%.
Facebook is a digital marketing hub to many
brands. We will see more brands starting
to invest in some of the other platforms —
YouTube, Linkedin — where video and other
sophisticated content can play a major part.
Snackable video drives traffic through Vine
and Instagram.

6. 5
Big data is a digital
trend again.
What are we going to do differently this year?
Data capture, analysis and reporting is a messy
business.
Country-specific data laws, data activists, and
ownership and privacy concerns add a layer of
new complexity to an already complicated
landscape.
Brands can rise above the fray with a data value
exchange, through crowd-sharing (WAZE) and
real-time reporting (Nike+, FitBit, etc.).
The data can be used to create dynamic reports
and new content through data visualization.

7. 6
Amazon
has joined
Netflix as a
content
creator.
How are we programing for the
“second screen” (which is now the
new first screen)?
Social networks
have become
less about
connections
and more about
showcasing
individual
identities and
providing a
platform for
selfexpression and
personal
branding.
Twitter has
sought a role
beyond the
newsfeed
"bullhorn.”
Real-time
Twitter
integration
can enhance
TV coverage
and help drive
viewership.
Facebook has
become TV,
interrupting
our
programming
with unwanted
— but often
ignored — ads.
G+ has gained
mass but cannot
seem to drive
participation.
Niche networks
— SnapChat,
WhatsApp,
List.ly, Learnist
— disrupt
traditional
media
consumption.
Cord-cutting
has gained
momentum
as enabling
hardware like
ChromeCast,
Roku and
AppleTV
proliferate.

8. 7
As consumers become more geeky and
streamlined in how they access
information, what do I need to do
differently to reach them?
Probably the best thing to do is to keep a great handle on your
consumer.
Understand not only how they access information, but how that
access is evolving and the speed with which it is changing.
What's trending up and what's down? Armed with this data,
you can develop the strategies you need to make continual
course corrections and maximize your digital marketing reach.
The new generation that you need to think about builds
experiences mobile first.
Along the way, it'll be helpful if you learn to speak “Geek.”

9. 8
What digital marketing efforts
should I say no to in 2014?
As platforms continue to recalibrate, the larger
channels build or buy whatever is creating a
buzz, and target audiences diversify their time
and attention across many channels.
It will be increasingly important to make
selective and deliberate content, initiative,
program, and channel choices.
Taking a long-range view and developing
critical metrics with robust analytics will help
ensure that each YES decision is a success and
offer quantitative grounding for the NOs.

10. 9
Why should I care about mobile
messengers gaining in popularity
in Asia?
Asian messengers are growing at an immense
pace, and Asian brands treat the
messengers - WeChat, Line, KakaoTalk like Facebook, engaging with the followers
and audiences for digital marketing.
The messengers have invested heavily in
entering India this year, and activated
Indian brands around their platforms. In
2014, they're heading to the U.S.

11. 10
How well are we doing at omni channel retailing?
In 2013, Forrester noted that omni-channel marketing or retailing
— an integrated sales experience that melds the advantages of
physical stores with the information-rich experience of online
shopping* — was a “business need.”
In the omni-channel world, customers expect the business to know
they are following them on Twitter, Facebook and that they just
emailed customer service.
In this world, all platforms have an awareness of each other. The
customer is at an inflection point and expects the same level of
experience across all channels.
*Darren Hitchcock,
http://www.selligent.com/
en/blogs/tipspractices/the-rise-of-omnichannel-retail-definitionand-5-tips/
Omni-channel success can be powerful once the business endures
that painful organizational restructure, and provides a more consistent
message and content delivery to the customer, and more responsive
customer service that leads to more repeat business.
Note the emphasis on MORE.

12. Bonus
Question
Is it finally time to care about
3D printing?
Jeremiah Owyang — industry analyst and thought
leader who recently launched a new company,
"Crowd Companies," in December 2013 — has
pointed to 3D printing hubs in China that make this
technology accessible.
3D printing has cross-functional applications in a
modern company, from R&D to marketing and even
communications.
The specific applications of 3D printing to
marketing and communications may not be known
yet, but through innovation, new applications are
bound to become the cutting edge.