At the recent ad:tech conference in New York, top-tier marketing executives from leading firms sounded off on the state of the industry, dishing out astute tips that could be a windfall of wisdom for PR professionals looking to increase their effectiveness when planning and launching campaigns.
On the problem of developing reliable metrics, all the panelists involved in the “Brand Nation: Leading Marketers Share Their Vision” session agreed that this is the bane of everyone’s existence but there could be resolution at the end of the rainbow. Daina Middleton, director of global advertising and interative marketing for Hewlett Packard and Mark Fogelberg, ANA director of communications and content, offered up these musings:
• “You have to have standardization across all the activity you’re doing. If you’re building assets, you better know what your metrics are," said Middleton.
• On the value of SEO marketing, Middleton was even more effusive: “In the old days, we spent all of our money to get campaigns out the door. Today we should reserve some funds, get insight into what we’re doing, analyze it and make adjustments as you go along…[For instance], we use search to measure our PR activities. We never did that before. Make sure your press release is search optimized.”
• On a very interesting change in the consumer/marketer relationship, Fogelberg maintained that “the CMOs of our largest marketing companies say consumers need to be advocates of their brands: They need to love it. If you’re a consumer and you can help marketers sell their targets [via social media or other online platforms], you become a trusted partner.”—Iris Dorbian