Ten Brainstorm nuggets on digital advertising

Nugget #1

Fernanda Romano, worldwide creative director of Euro RSCG, in her presentation entitled Reset, used the analogy of how rural societies used to buy supplies direct from the local farmer who knew them by name.

In 2009, she says, people have come full circle, do not want to feel distance between themselves and their brands. An example of this is that when Apple's Steve Jobs was sick everybody knew about it, in contrast to the fact that nobody knows or really cares about the health of the CEO's of other multinationals such as Vodafone, Toshiba or Sony. Once a niche brand, thanks to the iPod and iPhone Apple is now a mass-market brand that still feels like it's just for me.

Nugget #2

US-centric digital case studies have made us compare the reach of digital campaigns with our own and found it wanting. However vast the potential networks of the digital media are, they should be not be thought of in terms of mass, but more in terms of one-on-one or relationship building. Based on the new premise that I no longer have to buy the whole album, but can buy just the songs that I like, digital models allow the participation that anticipates your customer's specific needs.

Nugget #3

Get over the remuneration thing. Advertising now does not have to be about big budgets, but about delivery - of services, programmes, platforms and experiences. When Google has become the 7th largest brand in the world without any advertising whatsoever, it is surely time for agency remuneration models to be renegotiated.

Nugget #4

The definitive new marketing buzzword is "storytelling". Every brand has some interesting story and can span across all media from radio to mobile to PR to in-store. It is asking for new types of industry job descriptions and storytellers.

Nugget #5

Digital agencies are not producers in the same way that for example, TV production companies are ie they are not the end point of the brand building process. New collaborations should see clients, traditional agencies and digital agencies working together to identify the brand objectives that will enable our industry to tell its breakthrough brand stories, while the playing field is still level.

Nugget #6

New media revenue models should be about volume. In contrast to how our mobile and bandwidth service providers are holding us to ransom, in Korea you can download 50 movies for US$2. Mass digital distribution models will be the only way to free Africa from its information and education strangleholds. Is there anybody out there?

Nugget #7

If the adoption curves seen globally with regard to new media uptake are anything to go by, ours are about to climb steeply in the next five years. While everyone is sleeping, is the ideal time to get a digital competitive advantage or be first to market in your business category.

Nugget #8

Digital media allow you to make mistakes. You could not recall 500 billboards around the country on a whim, but you could tactically tailor different integrated marketing messages every day for different target audience via digital to see what works.

Nugget #9

To paraphrase the old adage, "the consumer is not a moron, she's a person with a life." The job of marketers has shifted from developing push advertising to understanding pull. By getting to know your customer and anticipating their needs - like Google [and Facebook, and Twitter, and Myspace and Second Life, and, and, and ...] they will come.

Nugget #10

The new consumer mindsets to be met: Talk to ME, listen to ME, enable ME, engage ME, customise ME, know ME, value ME.

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