TFM&A – The Explorer’s Recap

Made Essential Reading on 12 April 2011 Simon Mould

TFM&A is the UK’s largest & longest running multi-channel marketing, media & advertising event. Covering everything from direct mail and digital to data and CRM, TFM&A is a great source of information and an ideal means to see how the marketing and advertising industry is evolving as technology progresses.

This year, Charlotte Olney (who previously shared her findings here on the blog) & myself set off to the event in search of industry developments and hot topics…and a lesser spotted pink T-Shirt, but that’s another story!

1. Data is everything.

Marcel Holsheimer – VP Marketing, Unica

Boots: CRM – Advantage card.

In order to make this work Boots had to be clear on what they wanted to achieve from all the data they were soon to be capturing. To make sure they were targeting their promotions and communications correctly they needed to be thinking about:

Who are their customers? – Age group, parental status, sex…
What is being purchased? – Cosmetics, medication, electricals, photo processing…
When do they shop? – Lunch, after work, weekends…
Where do they shop? – Close to work, near home, along their journey…
Why do they purchase? – Range of products, quality, availability…

To the above you could also add “How are Boots’ customers purchasing?” Online, in store, cash, card…

From signing up and using the Advantage card, Boots are able to gather all the above information, log it in the CRM and analyse it. All of this information forms a rounded view of each customer, allowing for targeted promotions to be created and appropriately distributed. If you understand your customers’ buying habits, you can leverage that to benefit your organisations bottom line.

As a result of having the database of information, Boots were able to launch a very successful integrated campaign via 6 different channels:

• In-store product campaigns
• Targeted email campaigns
• In – store kiosk offers
• Corporate campaigns (for their ‘own brands’ like the No 7 range).
• Clubs for customers aligned to certain core demographics (eg: new mums).
• Statement mailings both online and via post, as a reminder to customers what they have accrued and more importantly what they could save.

All of the above were tailored and targeted to specific customers, which was all possible as a result of the data they obtain during the initial sign up process and use of the Boots Advantage Card.

As a result of this data collection process, Boots now have a staggering 82% of the UK female population on their database, and can define the buying habits of those women on an individual or demographic basis.

Now who here wouldn’t like a customer database like that?

2. How Social Media is a relatively untapped source of marketing.

Emma Roffe – Director Marketing/CMO European Markets Cisco
Aaron Kahlow – CEO, Online Marketing Connect

Everyone is shifting to “digital”, everyone is experimenting with social media and the few who aren’t are certainly considering it. Different digital channels provide different opportunities to marketers and meet a different set of criteria, the key is to finding the right ones. Marketers and companies need to first gain a better understanding of how their target markets are consuming their social media and acting in the digital space.

This digital shift is clear to see at Cisco, where it currently manages;
19 Twitter accounts,
16 YouTube Channels,
12 Facebook pages,
…and that’s Europe alone.

Using more than one social platform is critical, they each offer a different interaction style and opportunity. In order to create a better campaign you need to be reaching out on as many Social media channels as possible. However, it is worth remembering that “as many as possible” only extends as far as your audience or strategy compliance, joining every social network for the sakes of it is simply a waste and can actually devalue your content.

Emma Roffe also informed us that;

“Companies engaged in social media saw an increase of 18% revenue last year.”

Another point which really stood out to me was that:

“Just because it is social does not mean companies can afford to be causal about their social media strategy.”

Thanks to the rise in social media marketing, the opportunities to leverage the consumer seem to be a never ending challenge. As social media is still a relatively new way of marketing in the digital space when compared to other strategies, you need to be willing to take a slight risk in exploring. Thinking like this led Yahoo to approach Cisco and create a social media campaign which would invite David Beckham fans to post questions for him and the best ones from around the world would actually be put to David Beckham in a live webcast. Yahoo had concerns about this strategy, but Cisco was confident as it holds events like this (though with fewer world famous figures) every six weeks, but even they had to start somewhere!

Cisco have also deployed social media in other areas of their business:

NetPro community: Customers helping each other via a social media site set up by Cisco. This has lead to a result of 70% help call avoidance

• Cisco I-Prize: Social media that lets customers pitch Ideas to Cisco for new products
• Cisco I-Zone: Internal version of the above
• Cisco Live: Originally an offline event, Cisco Live has launched via online channels as a result of demand from individuals across the social space
• Cisco Social Miner: Application set up to allow Cisco to catch and track non specific tags on Twitter (ie: without an @ or # tag)

The main points from this seminar were:

• Keep your posts relevant
• Companies need to take the leap into the social space
• Have a social media strategy in place
• Have a contingency plan in case something goes wrong
• Get stuck in! Explore and experiment with social media

Social media is an online reflection of traditional human behaviour. If you can predict how someone will behave you can target them with great precision and, thanks to social media, you can retain them for the future through valuable engagement.

3. New School Marketing

Jon Stanesby – Senior Strategic Consultant, Responsys

The reason behind the term: The increase in device diversity & technology has enabled the usage of a much wider selection of media we’re able to utilise.

There is a noticeable shift from “aiming” a campaign at a consumer demographic to developing a relationship with them via their online activity & profiles. The consumer is being empowered to levels never before considered.

The advances in mobile technology have changed the entire game. With everyone’s life connected all the time and synchronised via the mobile web, individuals are inherently more contactable, but are also more savvy to the traditional strategies employed by companies. The trick now is to identify the best way to engage with consumers through non-invasive yet high value methods.

Data is critically important to everything which I have covered here it forms the basis of every activity carried out online and offline, without it we’re just stabbing in the dark. We are now able to automate the process to a certain extent, but there will always be a requirement for human intervention, especially as we increasingly have to consider human conversation and emotion online through multiple media types.

As digital marketing continues to evolve and shape our everyday world, companies need to work in ‘Harmony’ with consumer, enriching their daily lives, not shouting at them. Throughout all of this, ensure all your marketing efforts are supportive of one another, that they integrate into a seamless experience for the consumer which remains relevant from start to finish. Remember, the relationship with the customer now extends far beyond the point of sale!

4. Why people use their social media platforms

Patrick Kelly – Relationship Manager, Exact Target

From this seminar I gained a greater understanding of which social networks consumers are using and how they use/perceive them. Twitter and Facebook are the two leading social networks in terms of market share and users.

Patrick, also referred to a term called the ‘Digital morning’ or rather where your consumers begin their day (and when/where best to catch them). 58% of those surveyed began their morning on their Email client, and 11% went direct to Facebook.

This did get me thinking briefly about my own ‘Digital Morning’ here at Essential:

1. TweetDeck
2. Hotmail
3. Facebook.

Key factors of what users base their social networking activity on:

Email
Discounts, Promotions, Product information, Cross Promotion.
Exclusivity: This is becoming increasingly important, what are they getting in return for their address?

Why do they unsubscribe?
Too frequent, too repetitive, same information available from other sources

Facebook
Connection with brands they choose in a non-aggressive manner
Entertainment
Discovery of content from friends and groups
Discounts, promotions from brands via their profiles
Support company, self-expression.
Content needs to be entertaining and fun.
Personal space – you can talk to whomever you want and block whomever you want.

Why do they stop following brand via Facebook?
Too many posts, clogged up newsfeed
Repetitive – Same content being pushed over and over until something new comes along.
One time offers as a reward for joining, leaving no reason to stay!
Don’t offer enough value, either emotional or financial…

Twitter
Influence – Users are 3 times more likely to have influence on a brand/product
Brevity – Quick/Easy/Instant
Accessibility – can contact anyone (challenging social boundaries)
Interaction – The whole conversation is open to participate with
Versatility – Constantly changing topics, users can interact across multiple point of interest simultaneously
Able to see true Brand personality as conversations are open for all to see

Why do they stop following?
Content becomes boring and/or repetitive.
Becomes too crowded and begins to be a place for noise rather than conversation, especially in hot topics.
Too Frequent – If it’s not worth hearing they’ll stop listening.

This seminar was particularly enlightening as the findings above are based on quantitative research which has finally given real insight into the causes of engagement failure where previously it was predominantly based upon speculation.

This year’s TFM&A was my first, and having just entered into the world of digital marketing it was enlightening and exciting to see just how big, challenging and fast changing the industry is. There was certainly a strong focus on the shift towards social media, though the elements of data collection and usage remain critical factors for email marketing which is still a driving force in digital marketing. I look forward to next year’s event, where I’m sure that once again the rule book will have been entirely re-written…