It was a jaw-dropper. An impressive crowd of nearly 300-plus marketing specialists from Montreal, Quebec bared witness to many great presentations that ended with a heated panel discussion on interactive marketing in the French-Canadian marketplace. Welcome to Marketing Magazine in association with the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada‘s – Interactive To The Max – the 2004 Canadian Tour.
First off, eMarketer‘s Co-founder and CEO, Geoff Ramsay, mixed impressive growth numbers with clever visuals that painted a rosy and impressive picture of what’s working online and where this is all going for Canada. Some of my favorite insights he provided were:
Answering the age-old what does the “e” stand for? His answer “efficiency.” Online campaigns are efficient and powerful.
Relevancy. The true power of marketing online is its ability to deliver the right message to the right user at the right time. Pointing out that television advertising is something like 1% effective (so 99% of viewers are not paying attention), whereas with online the results can be incredible if marketers take the time to do it right and get it right by testing and learning.
Next up I had the honor of helping out ComScore Media Metrix Canada‘s President (and IAB Canada Chairman), Brent Lowe-Bernie, present five compelling case studied culled from Canada’s Cross Media Optimization Studies (CMOST). This was an especially gratifying session because it relates strongly to an encounter I had with the head of a major advertising agency. The study from CMOST concluded that whenever you add an online component to an advertising campaign there is a huge lift in brand awareness and recollection. This is telling. Most marketers think of adding an online component as a supplement (kind of like a protein shake in between meals), when in reality we’re now seeing conclusive results that say: if you don’t do online, you’re falling short because there is branding happening there too. Huge stuff. Key learning. A report you need to get your hands on. Especially that advertising agency executive who plainly stated that they’re not engaging in anything interactive as there’s no evidence that it enhances a brand’s awareness (the report is a gift and will be in this person’s inbox).
Straight from One Microsoft Way in Redmond, WA, MSN Video‘s Director, Andy Beers, gave us an insightful look into how rich media is playing out online and the many ways to get people to pay attention and get interactive with their online marketing efforts.