bigmouthmedia's 2011 digital marketing predictions

8/8/2019 Bigmouthmedia's 2011 digital marketing predictions

1/14

The Year Ahead in Digital Marketing2011


2/14

Page 2 of 14

Executive summary

The year 2011 promises to be a landmark one for digital marketing industry, withthe industry coming to terms with a raft of legislative, technical and economicchanges that look set to make a fundamental impact on the sector.

Legislative change will strike in March, when theAdvertising Standards Authority plans to expandthe Committee of Advertising Practice to coverthe digital sector. The precise details of how thiswill affect online advertisers are yet to emerge,but PPC, Display and websites themselves look

certain to be affected by expansion of theregulations.

While discussion over its practical implicationswill dominate much of the year, the change willresult in a tougher approval process for PPC &Display creatives following ASAs code of conduct launch. Digital marketers will need tobe careful of the competitive claims they make,ensure that quoted prices are inclusive of VAT and other added charges, provide limited stock warnings and cope with increased regulationaround the health, medical, gambling andcharity sectors.

A rash of technical innovations are also likely toimpact upon the sector as marketers expandtheir activities to cope with increased interest inmobile marketing and the introduction of

internet TV. Taking into consideration a flourishing apps market and theexpected growth in demand for Apples iPad and competing tablets, retailers inparticular will be focusing far greater effort on exploiting this kind of technology.

The increasing importance of such technology will also herald renewed interestin the technical infrastructure upon which digital campaigns are run. Consumerexpectations over speed and ease of use are likely to see more emphasis placedon site usability, with an increased focus on both site architecture and trafficmeasurement and analysis.

In 2011 consumers will continue to drivechange and new habits and usage of social networking will bring to light opportunities for companies to react. Owned social mediachannels will become increasingly important asbrands become more confident in the ability tomanage the B2C conversation in the public domain. We will definitely see social mediabecome an integral part of the marketing mix.The brands that will win the battle for the heart of the socialised consumer will be the ones whoinnovate and inspire by creative use of social media.

Eva KeoganHead of Social MediaLBi


3/14

Page 3 of 14

Three separate disciplines will be fighting for control of digital budgets in 2011.While companies continue to ponder whether social media is a function of

either digital marketing or PR, CRM departments are also likely to begin makingclaims on the channel in the year ahead.

2011 will also be the year that many businesses become publishers, withcompanies around the world placing increased emphasis on creating originalquality content at the core of their marketing strategies.


4/14

Page 4 of 14

The digital marketers curse: to live in interesting times

Andrew GirdwoodMedia Innovations Directorbigmouthmedia

The digital marketing industry has never been afraid of change. Since themoment it emerged it has been characterised by a spirit of perpetualtransformation, and as a year that looks set to be characterised by legislation,fragmentation and evolution, 2011 is likely to bring more of the same.

From its very building blocks, the internet is poised for rapid change that will

begin with the humble webpage itself. As the next generation of hypertextmark-up language readies itself for W3C approval, we are preparing to move

from a scenario where HTML will no longer just beabout users being able to watch video withoutvideo software (such as Apples Quicktime) or Flash(as currently used by sites like YouTube). HTML5 willlead the way, creating more interactive experienceson the web, and in 2011 digital marketers will haveto work out ways to track and respond to thoseinteractions.

Only time will tell, but the advent of HTML5 maywell give companies reason to consider re-launching their entire site just to keep up withtechnology. This will strike a bitter blow againstbrands that have only recently rebuilt theirwebsites, but they certainly wont be alone in theirperil.

Keeping up with technology may be close to impossible in 2011. As if its notenough to contend with significant changes in the way that websites are built

and perform, its the way that consumers view them is set to shift as well.

Creating something of a nightmare scenario for digital marketers, over the nextyear we face the very real chance of seeing four different generations of InternetExplorer in use ranging from the dreaded IE6 all the way up to the promisingInternet Explorer 9. At the same time it seems likely that Microsofts share of thebrowser market will continue to drop as an increasing body of users becomesaware of alternatives like Chrome, Safari, Opera and Firefox.

The year ahead looks set to be full of technical challenges and brands are going to have towork hard to keep on top of the many changes.It will not be easy by any means, but consumer demand will mean that it is a task which must be met head-on.

Richard FalconerHead of Technical Servicesbigmouthmedia


5/14


6/14

Page 6 of 14

competitive claims they make, ensure that quotedprices are inclusive of VAT and other added

charges, provide limited stock warnings and copewith increased regulation around the health,medical, gambling and charity sectors.

The year 2011, I fear, will also be the fulcrum onwhich many other battles are to be fought as athree separate disciplines fight for control over thedigital budgets. Although not a new scrap, thetussle to determine who owns social media is itdigital marketing or is it PR? - will intensify as theheavyweight CRM department climbs into the ringto make its claim on the title.

In response, some full service digital agencies willramp up their CRM offerings, some PR firms will improve their digital marketingskills and decision makers from the customer relationship management side of the fence will find themselves sitting in agency procurement meetings.

Strap yourselves in, folks, because 2011 will be an important year for digital. Bigdecisions are going to be made. It will be a year of new. It will be a year of progress.

"Personalization of search results based onusers IP will force businesses to think more out of the box and localize content. The Semantic Web will take full shape, with early adoptersenjoying a significant competitive advantage.

Susana InarejosHead of Media Servicesbigmouthmedia


7/14

Page 7 of 14

A web without wires: the mobile revolution continues

Leanne Johnson Group Account Directorbigmouthmedia

While it has become a long-running industry joke to predict that next year willbe the moment that mobile finally comes of age as a marketing medium, 2011

will see the sector finally reach its tipping point.With the ascent of the smart phone central to manycompanies thoughts, we will see a flurry of big

brands move into the mobile space with mobileenabled sites and cross-platform apps as moreevidence emerges to prove that it represents agenuine, revenue-driving channel.

A slew of devices to rival Apples iPad is set to hitthe market over the year ahead and will see tabletuse continue to increase, setting a chain reaction inmotion. With the investment case for mobilestrengthening by the day, we will almost certainlywitness growth in mobile advertising and mobiletargeting strategies as usage rockets upwards.

Marketers may have been slow to adapt to thetechnology, but all the indications are that therewill come a moment of realisation in 2011 whichwill make companies begin to take their mobilestrategy more seriously, moving it towards the

centre of their marketing mix.

Affiliates are likely to continue leading the charge. Their focus on SMS couponsand mobile discount codes has been key to joining up digital marketingcampaigns with their High Street equivalents in 2010.

Amidst this atmosphere we are likely to see app downloads continue to increase,with competition between Apple and Googles rival smart phone operatingsystems intensifying. Taking account of the scale of the growing market, wewould also expect to witness attempts by both companies to further monetizethe trade in apps.

Companies moving to engage with the mobilechannel over the coming year face a steeplearning curve. Our research has shown that more than three quarters of the UK's big brandsdo not understand the value of a visitor viamobile compared to other digital channels, and many will struggle to build the campaigns that will keep them ahead of the game."

Simon HeyesHead of International Mediabigmouthmedia


8/14

Page 8 of 14

Fuelled by such growth, it is also expected that Augmented Reality will continueto create real interest amongst marketers in 2011. Although the technology has

been around for a while and there appear to benumerous benefits for the retail and travel sectors,it has yet to breach mainstream consciousness.However, with several big players alreadyinvestigating its potential, we remain only onesuccessful case study away from seeing thisexciting field attract major commercial attention.

Already, companies interested in providing thetype of user help that Augmented Reality cansupply but unwilling to go all the way haveimplemented some interesting apps and widgets. Theres a growing list of retail examples thatincludes everything, from virtual personal shoppers

and dressing rooms to interactive catalogues, and we expect to see an explosionof such applications over the course of the coming year.

2011 is finally going to be the year for mobile, particularly when it comes to e-commerce,which is most likely to grow at a faster rate inthe rest of Europe than in the UK and US.

Sandra DOnofrioHead of PPC

bigmouthmedia


9/14

Page 9 of 14

Buckles, bolts, belts and braces: getting the basics right

Sarah Curds Head of Media Usabilitybigmouthmedia

Its all very well coming up with clever breakthroughs and cunning twists onexisting technologies, but none of them will amount to much if you cant get thebasics right. Consequently, we believe that usability will gain increased

prominence in the eyes of the digital marketingindustry as 2011 rolls forward.

The smart phone war has really spiked interest inoptimising for mobile browsers and building thelatest mobile app allowing clients to extend theirreach online, and in the year ahead the userexperience of these sites and apps will beparamount. We expect demand for a range of mobile and mobile app usability services toincrease strongly over the coming months.

Despite the fact that usability testing has been

around for over a decade, there are still so manycompanies out there not getting the basics rightthat there will always be a need for basic usabilityreviews. Businesses are getting savvier aboutemploying usability during new builds, butbecause this doesnt always go to plan we expectour team to spend a lot of time in 2011 helpingclients reverse engineer and fix mistakes.

Another aspect of usability services we expect to move centre stage in themonths ahead is conversion optimisation, which is becoming more steadilyrecognised as a means to improve digital marketing activity. Based on currentexperience, it seems likely that well be seeing more and more new clientsexpecting this kind of service as standard with their PPC or SEO campaigns.

Google Instant is also likely to have a continued impact on search marketing inthe year ahead. When the service launched experts speculated that one of the

"An increased focus on accountability will continue to raise the priority of analytics withinmany organisations in 2011 to match business' desire for transparency across digital channels. As companies look to optimise budgets crossdigital, marketing mix reporting will becomeincreasingly important, while long termcustomer value and genuine ROI will become

the goal of more and more operations."

Luke MaxwellHead of Reporting & Analyticsbigmouthmedia


10/14

Page 10 of 14

effects for non-paid search would be a shift toward longer or shorter searchqueries, and to some extent that seems to be the case so far.

Our research, which focussed on major brands, found that it appears to be theshort- to middle-length (two- to four-word) terms that have dropped. This is

likely due to a combination of users using thesuggest function more, as well as refiningsearches in real time by adding more words totheir queries.

Bigmouthmedias usability team also expects towitness increasing focus upon customer service asan aspect of user experience. Consumers are

increasingly demanding higher levels of care fromthe companies they do business with and as sitesimprove their level of optimisation and usability,customer service will become the next cleardifferentiator and as such, increasingly importantto big brands.

This trend looks likely to encourage greaterintegration between online and offline marketing

campaigns. Most users lump every interaction with a brand together and expectthe same experience in store as they do online as they do using a catalogue orphone. Irrespective of how they do business with companies, the whole journeyfor each method of contact should be as consistent and as joined-up as possible.

Many in the industry believe that web users will increasingly expect websites tolook and work like online apps in 2011. Users will begin to expect the samesimplicity and intuitive ease of use on websites that they can get via webapplications, and brands desire to present a consistent approach to their displayof content across all mediums may see us finally move away from printinfluenced design and towards a mobile influenced look and feel.

Speed will be a critical factor in 2011.Consumers increasingly want to get what they want even faster, and this trend will continueaffecting conversion cycles, with impatient users frustrated with click-heavy sites movingelsewhere.

Dee MillerHead of SEObigmouthmedia


11/14

Page 11 of 14

Content is king: the rise and rise of quality information

Julie Mahoney Head of Content StrategyLBi London

Back in the late 1990s, not long before the original dot-com boom explodedand fell flat on its face, one of the digital marketing industrys best worn clichswas that content is king.

Flash forward more than a decade and once again,the spectre of top quality content has raised itshead again. All indications are that content

marketing will be firmly back on the agenda in2011, and that the blending of SEO, Social andusability will demand a fresh approach to onlinecontent diversity, quality and trust.

We expect that brands will continue their movetowards becoming online publishers and targettheir production budgets towards video creation.ComScore reports that 300 million people acrossthe globe discover, watch and share videos each

month, while Cisco predicts that by 2013, 90% of allweb traffic will be videos.

Given this shift in behaviour, brands will need toramp up to meet the demand for creating

engaging rich media content. Creating videos will gain increasing importancefor companies as they come under pressure to produce not merely standardadvertising videos, but creative executions which dont seem immediately self-promotional such as reviews, industry discussions, crisis management responsesand product walkthroughs.

Inspired by pioneers such as French Connections video-based Youtique storeand Googles Boutiques.com, luxury brands will delve more into content drivenecommerce to satisfy the needs of shoppers for convenience. Prada reports in The Economist that within five years some 40% of its revenues in America willcome from the Internet, and luxury brands will need to figure out the rightcontent to educate and inspire consumers to purchase big-ticket items from the

This will be the year in which the digital mediais finally no longer seen as being distinct fromthe traditional press and broadcasters. Serviceslike Twitter and Facebook now playing anintegral role in many aspects of the popular medias output and this process will becomeirreversible in 2011.

Leanne Rinning

Head of Online PRbigmouthmedia


12/14

Page 12 of 14

web, which will increasingly be acting as more of a virtual shop assistant than astraightforward display platform.

Accompanying this rethink on the value of content will be a reassessment of thevalue offered by affiliates. Frequently the force powering the mix of blogs,

coupons and videos that drives sales online, thesecritical players could find themselves viewed in adifferent light by the brands they sell.

With content increasingly seen as the key to onlinesuccess in 2011, we expect competition to intensifyas the videos, reviews and personalities emergingonline begin to occupy a more central role in the

overall media mix.Digital media is poised to strike at the heart of traditional outlets. With the BBCs early adoption of twitter and bloggers into their TV programmes, weanticipate that more and more social media expertsin niche fields will be invited to present guest postson television programs. Early programmes to dothis are Film 2010, where a film blogger appears asthe co-host. In turn this will elevate social mediasprofile and entice more users to start blogging andtweeting.

Google and Facebook will continue to fulfil their current roles major trafficdrivers, indicating that defining strategies for both platforms will remain a 100%necessity in 2011, but every business serious about marketing online will need toformulate an approach to content. Like it or lump it were all publishers now.

"Were about to see a real burst of creativeinnovation as the industry reacts against the'age of austerity', bringing some much needed colour back into our lives. 2011 will also be the year we begin to see brands experiment withWii-style gestural interfaces as the technology becomes available and savvy marketers beginto test the possibilities of a whole new type of user experience."

Laura Jordan-BambachExecutive Creative DirectorLBi


13/14

Page 13 of 14

And finally: ten top predictions for 2011

1. Greater sophistication: Overall, we will see greater complexity in digital campaigns,with increased focus on tracking, targeting, remarketing, cross digital reporting and realtime influences.

2. Prepare to get tribal: Social media will remain crucially important with the emphasisbeing placed on relationships. Cultivating relationships online will dominate value incontent, links and promotion.

3. More metrics: As advertising measurement improves, advertisers will engage in moreguerrilla marketing and viral techniques as Twitter introduces more advertising options.

4. Integration: There will be less and less the need for specific PPC, SEO or social mediastrategies as clients look more and more into integrated approaches.

5. Cross platform: Social media will link into all other elements of on and offlinemarketing and will have an influence on lots of other departments from customerservices and human resources to product development.

6. Local focus: Success starts at home, and those sites that are in tune with their localmarkets and key business areas will find a wealth of social, content and link value.Localised search and language management will advance, breaking down barriers andborders for online communities.

7. Power shifts: The Yahoo and MSN search alliance has experienced delays in the US,but it could mean serious competition for Google in 2011.

8. The need for speed: Consumers need to get what they want even faster, and withimpatient users frustrated with click heavy sites, usability will be the white knightsaving those deep, cumbersome websites from instant dismissal by users.

9. Highly targeted: Digital advertising will become increasingly more personal withimproved targeting becoming a feature of every aspect of search, promotion andperformance.

10. A breakaway in 3D digital campaigns: Were already watching 3D TV and movies,and its only a matter of time before digital advertising heads the same way. 3D laptopsare now available, and two 3D Android handsets are available in Japan. The first 3Dcommercial aired in November 2009. Expect by November 2011 to see 3D advertisingacross TV, mobiles and the mainstream internet.


14/14

Page 14 of 14

The Year Ahead in Digital Marketing

0845 130 0022 [email protected] @bigmouthmedia

SEO PPC AFFILIATES DISPLAY SOCIAL MEDIA INTER

These predictions were put together by various heads of department in LBi and bigmouthmedia in December 2010 and iscopyright of bigmouthmedia. We are very happy (and flattered, actually) for you to quote or reproduce the content as longas you source it to LBi/bigmouthmedia and you don't reproduce it for any commercial purposes.

2011

bigmouthmedia's 2011 digital marketing predictions

Documents