Vanksen Group Releases Marketing Trends Report

Preview of 2010 Offers Marketers a Roadmap for Success in the New Attention and Reputation Economy

Too many advertising and media buying agencies are still struggling to figure out how to profit from new media, and are therefore preventing their clients from taking full advantage of online buzz/viral marketing.

That’s one of the conclusions of Vanksen Group’s “Marketing 2.0 Trends for 2010 Report,” which provides a global view on how brands and their agencies are responding to social networking, blogging, mobile media and other elements of the new attention and reputation economy.

“Many big agencies remain slow to fully embrace social media because they haven’t figured out how to profit from it,” said Thierry Daher, CEO of Vanksen Group USA. “They know how to make money using broadcast, print and other old-school platforms, so they have little incentive to help their clients embrace new alternatives that may not provide as much built-in agency profit.”

This inertia among agencies is evidenced by the disconnect between media consumption and how brands spend their advertising budgets.

Thierry pointed to industry statistics that show people consume up to 29 percent of their media online, yet marketers allocate just eight percent of their ad spending to online media. At the same time, print media garners just eight percent of time spent, but accounts for 20 percent of ad spending.

He predicts that this gap will narrow substantially in 2010 as brands demand higher ROI from their marketing efforts. “Advertising and media buying agencies that don’t adapt and fully embrace social media will see their businesses sink like the Titanic.”

The report, available online and for download at (http://www.culture-buzz.com/IMG/pdf/Vanksen_Marketing_2.0_Trends_2010_US-2.pdf), is based on Vanksen Group’s hands-on experience launching nearly 300 social media marketing campaigns during 2009, as well as the company’s appearances at more than 70 major conferences. Vanksen’s clients include regional and international divisions of brands such as Procter &Gamble, Louis Vuitton, Arcelor Mittal, Microsoft, Orange, Canal Plus, Sony, L’Oreal, and many more.

With offices worldwide (including Luxembourg, Paris, New York, Geneva and Hong Kong), Vanksen Group offers a range of services for e-branding and buzz marketing, online reputation management and independent film production.

The report outlines five key predictions for 2010:

1) Online Social Networks will Become the Preferred Home for Brand Engagement

Web sites owned and operated by brands will further diminish in terms of consumer engagement as audiences continue to flock to general interest and niche social networks. Facebook will continue to dominate, as brand marketers embrace new Facebook analytics and content management tools that enable more sophisticated fan pages. As additional social networks release their API (application programming interface), brands will become even more encouraged to develop new kinds of integrated marketing campaigns.

2) Agencies Stuck in Traditional Media Will Die, While Those Unable to Transcend 1.0 Techniques Will Suffer

Agencies unable to provide robust “2.0” services will face extinction as clients demand campaigns that transcend basic “1.0” techniques (e.g., banner ads, e-mail blasts and cross linking). Brands will increasingly focus on earned versus paid media by using engagement-based techniques such as advertainment, widgets, responsive branded content, personalized viral videos, etc.

3) The Age of “Transmedia” is Upon Us

The budgets agencies once spent on traditional media will be allocated increasingly to online viral campaigns. The biggest challenge in 2010 will remain: 1) the lack of competence using new digital tools, and 2) the outdated cost structure of many large agencies (which is based on traditional media campaigns). Moving forward, agencies will need to adopt a “transmedia” approach with proficiency in both digital and offline services.

The notion still held by some brands that online social media engagement is somehow “free” will be replaced by a new emphasis on professional community managers and formal social media policies/best practices. Brands that relegate digital engagement to rookies will continue to suffer adverse and sometimes embarrassing consequences.

Online reputation monitoring will get a boost with improved analytics. But if history is any indication, many third-party providers of such services will be pushed out of the market by Google, which will likely release its own comprehensive (and free) buzz monitoring and analytics solution.

4) Crowdsourcing will Enable Consumers to Further Challenge Brands

As technology continues to democratize communication, consumers will challenge and even compete directly against brands. They already band together to confront brands in order to overcome copy protection, unlock iPhones, etc. Rather than trying to fight this wave, brand marketers will increasingly invite consumers to participate with revenue sharing, online focus groups and other forms of engagement.

5) Mobile Will Shift Into Overdrive

In 2010, it is estimated that more than 1 billion people worldwide will have a cell phone. To reach these consumers, major brands will accelerate development of new mobile marketing strategies. Thanks to the newfound affordability of creating mobile apps, smaller brands will also be able to get into the action. Another factor spurring mobile marketers will be geolocation-based applications such as Foursquare and Gowalla, which will continue to gain traction.

“We are living in a fast moving world where advertisers and their agencies have to be much smarter in order to keep up with consumer behavior and technology,” concluded Emmanuel Vivier, Vanksen Group founder and chief strategy officer. “We have evolved from a ‘message’ to a ‘reputation’ economy in which brands and traditional media have the ability to influence only part of a brand’s reputation. Instead of shouting, it’s now about sharing, creating value and building karma. Attention can no longer be bought; it has to be earned.”

About Vanksen Group

Founded in 2001, Vanksen Group provides social media communications services to major brands. The group operates three divisions: Vanksen Media®, a leader in online brand protection, promotion and monitoring; Buzz Paradise®, an online community connecting brands with tastemakers, opinion leaders and bloggers; and Vanksen’s Culture-Buzz, an agency that conceives and deploys original campaigns and strategies worldwide. Vanksen Group has offices in Luxembourg, Paris, New York, Geneva, Milan, Barcelona and Hong Kong. For more information, please visit www.vanksen.com.

Media Contact:
Erik Deutsch
ExcelPR Group (for Vanksen USA)
(323) 851-2300 x112
erikd@excelpr.com