Many consider 2007 to be the year digital settled into the marketing mainstream.
If that’s the case, it’s a confused and misguided mainstream. Too many web sites make the user experience a secondary priority. Too few advertising campaigns deliver personal and relevant messages. The brands that have made meaningful digital connections with their customers are few and far between. For many consumers, an engaging advertisement still powerfully influences their decisionmaking.
But even more powerful, are the opinions they share with each other through trusted blogs and social networks. A mother in Topeka, Kansas, or a teen in a London flat can become trusted authorities, influencing more decisions than the best formulated professional branding campaign that an advertising agency can offer. Consumers are turning to a seemingly endless source of specialized media – so much so that commonly accepted best digital best practices have very short shelf lives. Yesterday’s solutions simply aren’t adequate to solve today’s problems. Is it any wonder that most businesses are coming to the hard realization that they aren’t organized effectively to respond to change?
For all of the angst that marks this environment, we know that it doesn’t matter how unpredictable and unsettling the digital world is – marketers still need to figure out how to invest their digital spend wisely.
Avenue A | Razorfish’s 2008 Digital Outlook Report examines where that digital spend is going. We provide direction on how marketers can align their organization to respond to the new digital environment, as well as a framework for effectively managing emerging channels and social media. And we give you some interesting new insights into consumer behavior.
It’s your digital future. Embrace it now.
Jeff Lanctot, Senior Vice President jefflanctot.com
Full Report: http://guykawasaki.typepad.com/AARFDigitalOutlookReport.pdf