This video was shown at the beginning of the presentation and in 5 minutes certainly shared some mind-blowing statistics …where would we be without the ever changing face of technology? I don’t want to imagine! If you haven’t seen this before enjoy, if you have watch it again

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As a parent myself and a new comer to the digital world I was amazed that some parents still think this “Fad” that their teenagers are going through will fade away. With the stats that were revealed to us last night the digital world is growing at a fast and furious pace. It is not going anywhere and it is up to us as parents to empower ourselves with this knowledge. I also believe that schools in general should be working towards incorporating this as part of their education system.

This is the future of our children and generations to come. Is it not better to have the “know how” so we can also educate our children with the correct “etiquette” of social networking and how it could affect you in later years to come.

The next subject is MXit and how popular it is and the increase of its impact on our daily lives. He reinforces this by using a case study as an example to show the impact of MXit and other such tools similar to MXit on our lifestyles.

Tyler next chats about how advertising is migrating from push advertising to pull advertising and how viewing a small screen ( phones, mobile game player etc) is ‘normal’ for people who have grown up with a small screen.

The youth market segment also live their lives differently by doing multiple tasks at the same time, this in Tyler’s opinions is killing Advertising alongside traditional education.

Time and attention is the new currency according to Tyler. We can learn and understand more about people through all the information gathered by online sources Google, Facebook etc. Marketing needs to become more relevant to “ME” who in this self-obsessed world is the pinnacle of one’s thoughts. The advertising also needs to be “on my terms”. The marketing must add value to our lives, it must be “Useful”.  Lastly the marketing must not be “intrusive”.

1 018 610 active facebook users is South Africa and 9 502 581 page served by the SA blogosphere in the past month were two interesting stats from Tyler.

Trends for the future

• Big companies will increase spending phenomenally. For example Coca Cola is looking to spend $11 Billion on mobile ad campaigns
• Phones will have a much longer battery life i.e. 9 days and owing to this instant messaging will increase its popularity while sms’s and mms’s will have their popularity decreased.
• Location based advertising will become more effective and popular as its useful and relevant
• Mobile Video usage is increasing with the cheaper price of data plans.
• User generated content from mobile phones will become the mainstay of news content.

Tips for Engaging the youth

• Quick cheap and easy
• Market through multiple channels
• Be a friend, make us belong
• Don’t try be cool
• Be entertaining and interactive
• Don’t push, let me pull

Please start preparing. You dont advertise in social media, you get involved in social media- this was the crux of Tyler’s presentation

Rob went into how the Google page rank algorithm came about whereby links as opposed to purely on-site factors are important in ranking sites. He then overviewed certain elements of organic SEO as well as several SEO tools such as Google insight, Google analytics and Google webmaster tools to use to increase the effectiveness of your SEO campaign.

Some barriers to visibility are:

• Flash
• Frames
• Dynamic URL’s
• Video
• Ajax

Black Hat SEO Techniques:

• Google Bowling
• Span in competitive names
• Cloaking
• Sneaky Redirects
• Hidden Text
• Link Spam
• Faux copyright complaints
• Faux duplicate content

Rob then went onto extol the virtues of link building and how it comprises 85% of organic SEO, something this blogger disagrees with.  He then also highlighted the value of the no-follow link.

SEO considerations for new sites

• Domain Age
• Early Links
• Keywords in domains and URL’s
• XML Sitemap
• Above All- make your site a resource.

Rob then goes onto speak about PPC and how cost per acquisition drops sharply over time with organic SEO and rise quickly over time with PPC.  He also went into a summary of how PPC and some best practices to use.

Although nothing revolutionary came from this presentation, it was a good reinforcement session on the importance of organic SEO, PPC and the best practices involved in this.

Online strategist John Kotsaftis from Naspers was supposed to discuss how the advertising industry can encourage and attract more qualified digital specialists in South Africa.

However, in his place, Tyler Reed, MD of Younique, a youth marketing company, will replace him. Tyler will continue on the subject of Social Media.

Overnight change takes a long time

Arthur brings up a map of old style telecommunications lines in 1898 and then contrasts that with the 2008 telecommunications map. In both maps South Africa is woefully connected. However with new connections, internet access will be 40 times what it is now in 2009.

Take nothing for granted

We have the potential, we have the capability but government red tape is holding up progress of new media up. Growth of internet access has slowed over the past 5 years.

The Numbers are not what they seem

SA internet users with 5 years experience on the web reached 2.8 million and online retail has taken off due to this. Online retail in S.A has grown exponentially from 2006 due to greater understanding and higher broadband speed available. Online retail Revenue is expected to break the R1 Billion rand mark this year.

Learn from failure

Markets must be segmented for online campaigns just as we would segment it in the “real world”. You cannot take your internet presence lightly. Arthur goes on to show epic failures of so called big brands online. Don’t disrespect the online user or the online community.

You don’t have to understand the tech but you have no excuse for ignoring its impact

Many broadband users in SA have more than 1 account. ADSL is used as the primary method of communication with 3G as a backup communication device. SME’s get it, they are the early adopters and they take advantage of new technology. At the moment only 8% of SME’s use dial-up. In the corporate world 3G is fast becoming the communications tool of choice, with 82% of corporate users utilising 3G to connect to the internet.

Regardless of your size or sector, the internet user is at your door.

Using the examples of the online failures of the big brands mentioned earlier, Arthur shows how these corporations have changed their online strategy and recovered to have an online presence that is well renowned.

The user is already changing.

Arthur uses Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to demonstrate the changing stages of the online user, with self-actualisation being the pinnacle of the evolution of the web user. Number of active blogs in SA is around 10% compared to the worldwide average of between 2%-4%. Blogging is moving beyond the hype more blogs with a specific purpose are emerging.

Online marketing and advertising has arrived whether marketers like it or not.

Online marketing is experiencing a rapid growth. With 31% growth last year and 37% growth this year. Media planners don’t recognise this as it still makes up a relatively small piece of the advertising pie. However due to its rapid growth it should be ignored at the marketers peril.

The internet is not the only digital channel but at the moment it’s the most important.

Awareness of cell phone technologies has increased by 11% on average while usage has increased by 5% on average.

The mobile media revolution has not happened, YET

It is coming but more users involved with a higher level of usage and more applications such as the grid, a Vodacom utility where user’s position is pin pointed, need to be implemented before the revolution takes hold.

DANGER

Even if you absorb all the lessons, the landscape is changing so quickly you must be cognisant of these changes and take them into account when planning strategy. In 2012 bandwidth will treble over the 2008 figure. The TV set will become an internet channel.  For media and marketers this opens a whole new world.

Strategy without execution is like watching Bafana in the 2000′s

Arthurs Top 6 Tips

• Do your homework.
• Benchmark.
• Don’t let IT departments dictate business or marketing strategy.
• Listen to your audience
• Don’t do whats sexy, do what makes sense.
• Responsiveness is the new innovation.

A thoroughly enjoyable presentation from Arthur who had all the stats to back up some interesting insights in the new media revolution.

Today is all about Search Engine Optimisation; building your brand digitally; and why digital media matter to South Africa.

The description for the session is “A more complex media environment highlights the need for strategic planning. Some observers have questioned the relevance of online in a country with such a low penetration of home computers and laptops.”

To kick off the session, Arthur Goldstuck of World Wide Worx will explain why we can’t ignore the digital environment, followed by Quirk’s Rob Stokes on the magic of search engine marketing and finally, online strategist John Kotsaftis from Naspers will discuss how the advertising industry can encourage and attract more qualified digital specialists in South Africa.

Again, longtail team members are at the event and will blog as it happens.

Great, you might have the best optimized site, or the coolest banner ads, but what are they in the end? They are the immediate actions, the tactics that should form part of a total strategy.

So many times people seem to forget that just like all their brands have a business strategy which resulted into the communication strategy, the same counts for online. Banners can’t stand alone from your website. Neither can online stand alone from a communication strategy. It can’t be the last thought.

Some online elements get talked about and are popular – you hear of Facebook, Thunda.com, Twitter, Yahoo, MXit, Flickr – so many elements, but what do you do with it? Where do you start? But before you get freaked out about it, there are easy steps of developing an e-marketing strategy.

Firstly, look at what the strategy is supposed to do for you. Japie points out several goals:

• Gain insight into that market segments
• Build the brand
• Gain more awareness
• Generate leads
• Generate sales
• Maintain relationships with the target market
• Build a database
• Build and refine your products and services

Now that you know what strategy can do for you, you can look at the tools to help you fulfill your strategy. The only important thing is to understand what these tools are and what they do. Just because everyone else is using a certain tool doesn’t mean that this tool is right for you.
After figuring out which tools you would like to use, decide on how much you would like to spend on the strategy. Develop a budget.
Setting tools and budget aside, there is a process to develop this online strategy. longtail have a magic 7 step process to develop a key strategy, which is the following:
1. Audit – look at where you are
2. Compare – with what you want
3. Workshop – get together, talk, debate it
4. Develop an online strategy
5. Implement
6. Monitor, track, report, plan
7. Audit

Finally Japie ends off by providing 3 key elements to take home:

• Get all role players on board
• Sync – throughout your whole business
• Be prepared to experiment

Being the CEO of 24.com Russell is in a position to inform people about why online advertising is different, yet the same to traditional ATL. Something that I have been trying to teach & share with my clients and peers.

Coming from an ATL background , where DPS’s are part of the staple diet, it’s been a big learning to know that one can’t just squeeze a print ad from all four corners and “voala” you have a banner ad.
It’s important to fully research the space onto which you wish to place your branding (you ad), ensure that that space will do justice to the branding (the message), and most importantly that the creative you do have, can work on that specific site you desire, failing which, the same idea executed on other mediums can be tailored to work online.

Creative is often a concern that a lot of online media planers, buyers etc have on a daily basis, where you receive creative that is “force fitted “onto websites because that creative is “what is available”. We should now move towards including online as part of our brand strategies, of our BIG ideas, where online isn’t the “long lost cousin” but actually thought of and included very earlier on in the game (planning process).

This way, good, and relevant creative = successful & measureable campaigns…. That hopefully positively converts & influences consumer (user) behavior.

With consumer generated content, people discuss you or your brand and your reputation and you need to control it or at least engage with people, whether the conversations or perceptions are good or bad.

One way to control ownership of your brand is to own keywords related to your brand – people use keywords and associate your brand with these to either find you or descibe you.

Your brand need to appear for terms searched for in search engines and if your brand does not come up in searches then you are not effectively marketing your brand or product online. People won’t find you. You need to be in that space.

Apart from owning keywords or terms, you need to deliver relevant content to consumers and also need to engage with your consumers on the channel where they are. that means that you have to be out there, everywhere.

Everything offline goes online
Campaigns in traditional media are not only viewed offline, but people talk about campaigns or ads online. You need to discover, identify and monitor these mentions to assess whether your campaign receives a positive or negative response.

Your reputation + credibility = $

Ingrid then covered two case studies to illustrate user perspectives/perceptions.

1. The first was Stork and how they turned around bad reputation from an TV advertisement run in 2006 and made good with a new campaign. The new campaign is a new social networking site foodcrEATions. Read the Stork foodcrEATions case study.
2. The second was Absolute Vodka and there campaign launced in Mexico and how this negatively affected their brand. A official press release was not sufficient to stem the tide in terms of bad comments. Read the Absolut Vodka case study.

Managing your business or personal reputation
You need to let people know who you are. If you have an online presense, what’s on there and how up to date is it?

What should your personal reputation consist of?

• what’s your current position?
• What are your achievements?
• Do you have a history of your career?
• Is there a bio of yourself?
• Is there a picture of yourself?
• Are you showing that you’re a real person?
• You need to build yourself and your name as an industry specialist
• You need to respond to blogger posts and comments on consumer portals
• You need to write articles and distribute them

Steps to influence and control your reputation online

1. monitor the conversations
   • 24/7 monitoring required
   • respond in real-time
   • use all possible platforms
   • know your competitors and there names, brands and services
2. Insights
   • analyse and understand the information you have and found
   • know what they are talking about
   • is it positive or negative
   • corporate responses
   • potential brand crisis
3. Engagement and participation
   • engagement is everything
   • show understanding
   • put relevant action plan together to reduce damage and changes perception
   • pro-active monitoring
   • store sentiment over time to get full picture
   • continue to monitor

3 take-aways from this presentation

1. Online is a platform where consumers talk about you
2. You have to influence and control your reputation
3. Review and make sure you have a successful ongoing strategy