Marketing Governance

polled 329 North American executives regarding how their firm used social tools to connect with staff, customers, business partners and other stakeholders.

The companies deriving the best results in this area secured a return on social engagement of 7.7%, versus 3.9% for a more typical performance, and 1.3% at the bottom end of the spectrum. Paul Walker, a partner with the PulsePoint Group, said:

We believe we are seeing an inflection point at which many organizations are moving from an experimentation phase with social technologies to achieving tangible and measurable returns on the investments. Read More

Global Marketing Index. In the monthly GMI survey for March 2012, overall expectations for marketing budgets stood at 51.5 points, on a scale where scores above 50 points suggest an expansion, and figures below this benchmark point to a decline.

This total had come in at 43.9 points in November 2011, before gradually improving every month since that date, reaching 49.3 points in February 2012. Read More

It’s still a little while off, but probably worth clearing some space in your schedule for: Warc’s Measuring Advertising Performance conference, which will be held March 27^th and 28^th 2012 in London.

Featuring talks by speakers from Coca-Cola, Specsavers and Kantar, the MAP conference tackles communications measurement and evaluation from the perspective of three inter-related fields: clients, agencies, and media owners:

• Clients have traditionally taken the lead in owning data and commissioning research to help shape their performance and planning.
• Increasingly, agencies are using less industry-standard data and are taking a stand based on trading media across many media channels, new and old. Consider the data thrown off from that trading, blended with the core agency skills of understanding and predicting consumer behavior… and it’s clear that the major media agency networks are becoming increasingly powerful.
• Media owners, too, are building data positions based on new platforms for their content, proprietary research and deep, two-way relationships with their audiences. Read More

Over the last decade online research has grown exponentially. With consumers worldwide empowered by the Social Web and the increasing adoption of mobile devices, there is now more pressure than ever on researchers to stay flexible, keep up with the rapid pace of change and be fast adopters of new innovations. Read More

Procter & Gamble, the FMCG giant, is using digital tools to build a one-on-one relationship with shoppers, within a wider effort to enhance its marketing and innovation capabilities.

With digital technology, its now possible to have a one-on-one relationship with every consumer in the world. The more intimate the relationship, the more indispensable it becomes, Bob McDonald, P&Gs CEO, told McKinsey. We want to be the company that creates those indispensable relationships with our brands, and digital technology enables this.

One way the firm is exploiting such opportunities is via its Consumer Pulse system, which analyses online comments. Comments are grouped by brand and delivered to a relevant individual staff member.

Broader initiatives include letting staff use iPads to download precise, up-to-the-minute insights about the production process, alongside equally rigorous systems covering transport and logistics, and automated retail ordering platforms for retailers.

Read More

Coca-Cola, IBM and Volkswagen are among the brand owners that have made the most effective use of marketing in 2011, according to a report from Advertising Age, the industry title.

Coca-Cola, the soft drinks giant, took top spot in the Advertising Age rankings, not least thanks to the Coca-Cola Music platform, aimed at teenagers worldwide, and Fantas Less Serious campaign, which ran in 190 markets. Diet Coke also became the number two cola brand in the US, overtaking Pepsi, and sales of Coke and Fanta have grown by 3% year on year. Moreover, Del Valle and Minute Maid Pulpy have both seen annual revenues reach $1bn. Read More