What's Dead, And What's Not
It's become fairly fashionable in digital circles to pick on trends and describe them as 'dead'.
And if you were to listen to every doomsayer out there, you'd probably believe that the digital marketing world was populated by brain-eating zombies.
Fortunately, to misquote Mark Twain, the rumours of certain deaths have been greatly exaggerated. So here is my take on what's dead and what's not.
The Digital Agency Is Dead
Doomsayers here, here and here.
Well, there's no question digital agencies are the need of the hour. Unfortunately, not every digital shop has the ability to really think from a brand and business point-of-view. Most are still in the 'engagement' business, and spend their time coming up with different ways to give away iPads on Twitter.
The challenge is that the independent digital agencies in India have become acquisition targets for mainline agencies. Given time, mainline agencies will probably begin to truly integrate digital thinking into their mainline processes. Which means that digital shops may end up becoming nothing more than digital production houses.
The big "Unless..." here is that integration may happen the other way around. Where the digital shop may integrate video production, PR and event capabilities. They may start thinking from a brand and business perspective. And suddenly, they'll be eating into the mainline pie.
Verdict: The digital agency isn't dead...but unless they change their medication quick, they will pass on peacefully in their sleep.
The Full-Service Agency Is Dead
Sure, they're coming under pressure from digital shops right now. But see above. Eventually, integration - whether driven by traditional agencies or digital agencies - will win out - from a creative, brand, business and economy point-of-view.
Verdict: The full-service agency is visiting the doctor regularly, and the pills are bitter, but the long-term prognosis is still good.
Email Marketing Is Dead
Yeah, look. As much as I choose to send most emails I receive straight to the bin, I have to admit that email marketing is far from dead. Gmail tabs notwithstanding.
Yes, open rates have dropped. But here's another way to look at it. I was recently tracking Open Rates and Click Rates across a bunch of brands, and sure enough, they'd all declined to some level after Gmail tabs. However, Clicks Per Unique Open were up. Which showed me that I was engaging with my most meaningful customers.
Across all our brands, email marketing continues to drive conversions, cross-sell and up-sell. Based on smart analysis, segmenting and targeting. And it's working for our clients.
Verdict: Alive and kicking. And don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
Real-Time Marketing Is Dead
Evidence here, here, here and here.
Oreo screwed us all. What started as a single, beautiful (if opportunistic) tweet has snowballed into a flood of desperate attempts to capitalise on news. What Amul did in India on hoardings decades ago, brands are doing now on Twitter and Facebook.
And, let's face it, 99.95% of all real-time marketing tweets are crap.
They're a force-fit. A desperate attempt by a brand to sound cool and 'with it' by jumping on to an event that the brand might have absolutely no connect with. An event that may not even gel with the brand's personality. And with creative that will most likely suck.
Verdict: It's alive, but I wish it were dead so that brands could focus on what's relevant to them and their audience.
Social Media Marketing Is Dead
My take here is really simple. The last great innovation I saw on social media was Skyrec (Google it). Right now, I see brands busy spamming News Feeds and Timelines with "engagement posts" and, worse, contests. (More about that here.) It's still driving clicks to e-commerce, but...
It's become a numbers game instead of a quality game. Instead of following a funnel from broadcasting to narrowcasting, brands and agencies are sticking to broadcasting. 5 million fans? I have 10 million. And 30,000 Twitter followers to boot. Fuck you too.
Most importantly, Mark Zuckerberg has proved thrice in the last two years what I've been saying for a while longer - that social media cannot be owned media. Because you, as a brand, don't set the rules. First, Zuck reduced the reach of Posts and made advertisers spend money to reach an audience they'd already spent money to acquire. Second, he introduced Timeline, and put paid to all those Facebook apps brands had spent crores creating. Thirdly, he gave image posts the maximum reach last year - and, this April, chopped that down, sending social media managers into a tizzy.
Over time, Facebook will become a brand's RSS feed. And Twitter will become a brand's influence marketing platform, once (if) agencies realise that contests are doing sweet fuck-all for a brand's image and bottomline.
Also, from an agency standpoint, social media management is pretty much a loss-making proposition. Lots of man-hours, piss-poor retainers, ultra-easy to screw up. So yeah, it's not exactly a bed of roses.
Verdict: Yeah, social media is dead, and I'm kicking the corpse on the way out.
Content Marketing Is Dead
Again. It's a question of creativity. Most of the content going up on brand blogs and websites is repetitive, redundant and boring. There's no newness, no novelty, no differentiator. Often, there's no focus on a brand's tone of voice. Most content is just clutter.
But, that said, we've just begun to explore content marketing. And, every now and then, brands like Red Bull will come along and do a space jump and content marketing will once again be the new darling of the crowds.
Verdict: Content marketing is alive, but just a toddler, and needs some hand-holding to grow up.
Banner Ads Are Dead
The shortest take yet. Yes they are. When was the last time you clicked on one, eh? Or failed to get annoyed by a pop-up, a pop-under or (that new darling of publishers) auto-play video?
Verdict: Save yer money, cut the life support, let banners die. And look for more organic ways to engage.
This kind of a topic sort of demands a poll, so I'd love to know what you think.
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