Mediabistro Panel in NYC

Hard to blog this week because I was traveling. I was in NYC moderating a Media Bistro panel called, "Digital Marketing in a Downturn: How To Get Results Now and Build a Base for the Future."

I had a great panel including Shiv Singh (VP Social Media, Avenue A/Razorfish), Lee "Chappy" Chapman (Director of Strategy - Building & Consumer Markets, Translation LLC), Paul Borgese (Emerging Markets, Associated Press Digital), and Sean Cowan (VP North American Advertising Sales, JumpTap Inc.).

From left: Moderator Larry Weintraub of Fanscape; Translation LLC's Lee "Chappy" Chapman; The Associated Press' Paul Borgese; JumpTap's Sean Cowan; and Razorfish's Shiv Singh being introduced by AgencySpy editor Matt Van Hoven

Since I always like to be transparent, here is what I had prepared for the panel...

My intro was this:

The way the consumer absorbs media is changing at a breakneck pace. How people interact with each other through new forms of what is known as Social Media is evolving at an equally frenetic pace. For an advertiser and a marketer, it is extremely challenging to get that target customer to pay attention to their clients’ message.

This was happening on its own.

Then the economy tanked.

So now we have the additional task of getting that customer to care when they have less money to spend and we have less money to reach them.

What do we do?

That is what we are going to talk about tonight.

The topic is Digital Marketing in a Downturn: How to Get Results Now and Build a Base for the Future

We’re going to address the topic’s main two points:

1. How to Get Results Now
2. How to Build a Base for the Future

I want to start by having each panelists quickly explain who they are, what they do, and how they relate to this topic.

I’ll start.

My name is Larry Weintraub, I run a company called Fanscape.

Just so I didn't forget my own "pitch" I jotted down these notes about what Fanscape does:

Fanscape

• Digital Engagement Marketing Agency
• Means we do Word of Mouth Marketing for our clients

• We get hired by brands and brand agencies to specifically drive awareness about a brand’s products through direct conversational and social media marketing on the web.

• To break that down and make it even easier to understand, we get hired to foster dialogue about a product at 3 different levels:

1. Gatekeeper level – Websites, major blogs, portals, etc.
2. Influencer level – which may be a blogger or a person that has hundreds or thousands of followers on their Facebook or YouTube page.
3. Individual level – which means literally one to one conversations in message boards, blog responses, wikis, etc.

Then I turned it over to each panelist to introduce themselves and tell who they are, what they do, and how they relate to the topic.

After they finished, these were the questions I asked (most of them anyway):

Getting Results (Now)

1. Reaching the Customer via Digital Marketing

• Shiv: Your beliefs / methodology on how to do it (the critical components of a Digital / Social Media Marketing campaign) /Can you give us an example of something you worked on to exhibit that process
• Chappy: Your perspective and an example
• Sean: With a mobile marketing perspective, what is the methodology you use and can you give us an example of something you or your company has done
• Paul: Your perspective and an example

2. Is there an example of a great Digital marketing campaign that you have witnessed or studied that was not yours, but important to the space?

3. Is there an example of a bad Digital marketing campaign and what can we learn from their mistakes? What might you do differently if you were in charge?

4. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, iPhone Apps, YouTube, Flickr, etc. Which web2.0 tools (Social networks, technology, mobile, etc.) are you most excited about and how can they be leveraged to support a marketing and/or advertising campaign?

5. Does Digital Marketing work in tandem with traditional media (print, tv, radio)? If so, how? And, can you give us an example of how to properly use one to influence the other?

6. Costs / Budget
What should a Digital marketing campaign cost?
Knowing this is a broad question, can you give an example of a campaign you worked on and what the approximate cost was

• Shiv and Chappy – you can be vague on stating client name, but the point of this question is to give the room a general understanding of the cost of a digital marketing campaign
• Sean – this is a good chance for you to explain how JumpTap makes money, the costs associated, etc.
• Paul – Knowing you deal with the publisher side, perhaps you can explain the costs on the other side or from a different perspective

7. Can you relate those costs to a traditional media or “offline” campaign – meaning either:

• Results: $ spent on Digital Marketing performed X and $ spent on traditional performed Y
• Ratio: The amount spent on the digital portion was X% of the overall budget yet drove Y% of the results (traffic, purchase, etc.)

8. Measurement - Measuring results is easier than ever because of great analytical tools and resources, but are we measuring the right things?

• Can you give the audience an idea of how you measure your marketing or advertising efforts?
• Media planners still look for CPMs, CPCs, CPAs, but this doesn’t always show the actual results or impact, what are your thoughts on measurement methods?
• Do you see an evolution in brands moving to new forms of accepted measurement?

Building a Base for the Future (tomorrow)

1. If you are a brand that has not yet embraced a proper Digital / Social Media / Mobile Marketing plan, or is just dabbling, what would be the first 3 things you would do and why?

2. At a Fortune 500 company, what department should oversee the company’s Social Media strategy?

3. What’s next? Can you see trends on the horizon?

4. What brands are missing the boat (give a specific example)? What would you do if you were in charge?

That was my prep for the panel. Since I was caught up in the moment, I didn't take notes on all of the responses, but from this blog post I found, looks like someone else was. Read HERE what was said and you can even watch a video interview all of the panelists did after the show.