Information about engaging your audience online and creating powerful 2.0 based marketing programs. This was a presentation I gave to marketing professionals from events, fairs, amusement parks and expos.

1. ENGAGING your customers
online ‘dialogue’ marketing

2. About Me
Creative Director at Empirical
Successfully started a sold interactive marketing company
Been in the online game for 12 years
Produced 100+ websites, and hundreds of marketing programs
Blog @ www.whiteboarddiaries.com
Online Communities I engage in:
Facebook, linkedIN, Twitter, MyBlogLog, Flickr, CreativeHotList, Technoratti,
SlideShare, del.icio.us, digg

3. My Blog www.whiteboarddiaries.com

4. Online Marketing 101
What I’m not going to talk about today
Make sure you have a website
Make sure you have a GOOD website
• Up to date - should be able to be updated at an hours notice
• Make sure any user can CLEARLY and QUICKLY find the info they need
• Well designed and professional - impression counts
Have a customer database that you can act on
• At the very least, you should be able to send email newsletters to registered users
Your URL (web address) is on every single piece of communication
you produce
• ads, posters, tickets, emails, business cards, banners, videos, buttons, coasters, maps,
programs, schedules

5. Agenda
What I Am Going To Share Today
Ideas about Engaging your customers
A sample integrated marketing program driven through online
activities
Give you the floor to ask questions - even if they’re about the stuff on
the previous slide

6. Four Fundamentals of in the age of engagement
Source: Stan Rapp
1. the internet is the CENTER of the Universe

7. TV/Radio
Internet
Word of Mouth
Offline
ads
billboards
posters
Events

8. Four Fundamentals of in the age of engagement
Source: Stan Rapp
2. the EXPERIENCE is the brand differentiator

9. 3. the DATABASE is the primary marketplace
Four Fundamentals of in the age of engagement
Source: Stan Rapp

10. 4. the TECHNOLOGY is the explosive ingredient
Four Fundamentals of in the age of engagement
Source: Stan Rapp

11. are you communicating with your customers
like the individuals they are?
you

12. In the new free market, individual
customers expect to be listened to.
They not only expect it, they demand it.
are you communicating with your customers
like the individuals they are?
you

13. Each and every customer expects to be
treated as they are the most important.
are you communicating with your customers
like the individuals they are?
you

14. Each and every customer expects to be
treated as they are the most important.
Expectation Shift
are you communicating with your customers
like the individuals they are?
you

15. The new empowered customer believes that
they lead the relationship
Customer

16. The new empowered customer believes that
they lead the relationship
You
You better know who they are and
what they want.
Customer

17. The new empowered customer believes that
they lead the relationship
You
Another Thing
You better know who they are and
what they want.
Customer

18. You’re not always invited to the conversation
Customers
Customers

19. You’re not always invited to the conversation
Customers
Customers
Customers You must find a way to authentically You
join the conversation.

20. You’re not always invited to the conversation
Customers
Customers
You
Customers
Better yet, you need to be at
the center of the conversation

21. 76%
A huge amount of consumers
don’t believe that companies
tell the truth in advertising and
marketing -- Yankelowich

22. Their Friends
Their Friends
There is still one trusted
medium left in the world
Me and My
Friends

23. People Trust People
When forming an opinion of a company/product or service
how credible would the information be from...
Edelman Trust Barometer - 2006
%
Academic 62
Doctor or similar 62
Person like yourself or a peer 61
Financial Analyst 58
NGO Rep 58
Accountant 53
Lawyer 36
Regular employee 33
CEO 29
Union 19
Entertainer 17
PR person 16 People like yourself
Blogger 15

24. Web 2.0
It’s a free channel if you can find an authentic way to harness it.

25. What Really Distinguishes Web 2.0
Systems that harness network effects to get better as more people use them
Web 1.0 Web 2.0
DoubleClick Google AdSense
Ofoto Flickr
Akamai BitTorrent
mp3.com Napster
Britannica Online Wikipedia
MySpace/Blogging/Facebook/
personal websites
LinkedIN
evite upcoming.org
page views cost per click
screen scraping web services
publishing content participation
content management wikis
systems
directories (taxonomy) tagging (“folksonomy”)
stickiness syndication
Image courtesy of David Armano

26. The Lines Have Blurred
We’re all marketers
Image courtesy of David Armano

27. 14,463,346 auctions 200,000,000 blogs
www.ebay.com - Nov 21, 2006
Almost 4,000,000 articles
> 100,000,000 Videos
(10 languages)
(65,000/day)
1,500,000 Residents
33,347,000 profiles
Some mind boggling stats

28. Dialogue
Can users ENGAGE in your site?
Company to Consumer: Shut up & listen
Consumer to Company: Is anyone there?

29. User Participation
This is the true value of the web
Blog or Be Blogged
If people are already talking about you
online (and they are) you need a way to
participate/respond to that conversation.
200 million + blogs
120,000 new blogs created today
1.5 million blog posts today
1.4 new blogs every second
Adult blog usage grew 163% in 2006
If you don’t add blogging to your
marketing mix - you’re not even in the
game.

30. The Blogospere is on Fire
What does this mean for you?
Remember: People trust People
blogs are about user participation
Is there a way to motivate your audience to participate in
your site - even if it is not a blog?
(joining the conversation - read the new book by Joseph Jaffe)

31. Dialogue
Blogs Are The Next Generation Websites
1 out of 5 adults will comment online
80% of all consumers read online comments/recommendations
75% do online research before making a purchase decision
1 out of every 30 comments is an employee discussing the
company they work for
Jupiter Research

32. Why This is Important
If Google says it is.....it must be
82% of Google’s top result pages have
blog/discussion posts
63% of Yahoo’s top result pages have
blog discussion posts

33. Do you have the stomach to play in this game?
You can’t control word of mouth (community), you can only guide it

34. Who is participating?

35. A Crazy Statistic
Users with high-speed internet spend 48%
of their spare time online
Why would they spend it with you?
Give them a reason (join their conversations)

36. Are You Worth Talking About - Online?
“Be Remark-able”
Seth Godin

37. Creating Remarkable Marketing Programs
Pick the Campaign, not the medium
Where does your market congregate?
What kind of message will resonate best?
What are my touch-points?
The medium is the facilitator not the differentiator.
Remember: The Internet is the center of the universe

38. Technorati Windows Live Spaces
Yahoo!
vimeo MSN You Tube
Blogs Outlook Wikipedia
MySpace Lavalife
Flickr
del.icio.us Joost
Zazzle.com MySpace
Meetup
dailymotion Sharkle
digg
Friendster clipshack
grouper.com LinkedIN
ning.com
dabble Personal Blogs
Orkut Revver
twitter
gofish AOL Shutterfly
hi5.com Stumbleupon.com
Facebook grew by 1300% this year
can you make your content authentic and relevant in this (and many other) environments

39. a strategy is necessary
{ as of April 24th, 2007 }

40. { as of Feb 19, 2007 }

41. Do you have video on your site?
Use the power of SYNDICATION and EMBEDDING
This little piece of code is your best friend
<object width=quot;425quot; height=quot;355quot;>
<param name=quot;moviequot; value=quot;http://www.youtube.com/v/BLdU8z1zMgw&rel=1quot;></param>
<param name=quot;wmodequot; value=quot;transparentquot;></param>
<embed src=quot;http://www.youtube.com/v/BLdU8z1zMgw&rel=1quot; type=quot;application/x-
shockwave-flashquot; wmode=quot;transparentquot; width=quot;425quot; height=quot;355quot;></embed>
</object>
It’s attached to every video on YouTube and its free

48. TIP
Be proactive in enabling sharing and syndication

49. TIP
Don’t be guilty of the ‘cart before the horse’ or ‘chicken and egg’ syndrome
Before you even think about optimizing for
search engines...
...optimize for user experience
I can take a blind man to see a mime, but chances are he’s not going to care

50. Final Thoughts
Remember its not about you - its about them
Enable the voiceless to have a voice because they’ll
take care of each other - and you.

51. Program Idea

52. Obvservation
a large audience that congregates around a specific event
little or no relationship exists post event
word of mouth activity is not facilitated
no database is generated
no online follow-up

53. You Are Canadian

54. how are you going to bridge the gap?
...and truly connect digital life and real life
Online - Mobile - Offline - Event
You Are Canadian

55. Image courtesy of David Armano

56. Image courtesy of David Armano

57. What’s the one thing that Amusement Park, Fair and Expo
attendees usually have after attending?

58. Memories

59. Right now - that responsibility is left completely up to the
consumer

60. What If...
Every entry ticket
has a unique ID or
a barcode

61. Camera’s/photographers
photo opportunities placed
throughout the event

62. All digital photos were captured and associated with
that unique ID and uploaded to web-app at the end
of the day

63. Remember This?
Enable quick and easy sharing and Syndication

64. Photos will be shared with friends and family who will be
looking at them in YOUR branded, engaging environment

65. A Sponsor/Partner Opportunity?

68. A collaboration
Alain Thys Kim Sheehan Thomas Purves
Marketing3 University of Oregon
Ben Kelly
Creative Director
Jeff Brennan
Laurel Papworth Apollo Ideas
Social Network Strategist
ben.kelly@empirical.com
David Armano
Logic + Emotion
Christina Wodtke Andy Howard
Public Square Online Community Dude