People interact with brands across multiple channels such as email, social media, and offline. Multichannel Marketing means delivering a cross-channel experience, including your email marketing, direct mail, and social media
communities to create an ongoing dialogue designed to drive customer action.

It is no surprise to you that because of the volume of marketing messages out there, people are increasingly numbed to your story. Booking a number of banner ads and hoping for the best won’t create the impact it once did.

Consumer behaviour has made multichannel marketing a must, forcing your marketing department to extend the consumer viewing experience across screens—iPad, mobile, computer & TV. We have seen this mobile interaction ex
plode firsthand in the last four months on the website we manage: SKYROCKET

Nielsen found half of US consumers exposed to and ad on TV only recalled it. So now, when you add multiple screen exposure, including online, that percentage shifts another 48%.

We know the majority of B2B marketing may never see a TV screen. My interpretation of this data is that there needs to be a shift from short, snap campaigns to becoming a holistic, drip feed information source. Customers must experience you over a prolonged time. You must build trust while highlighting your conviction to serve them.

Social Media, for example, cannot be a stand-alone tactic. You must consider:

• What unique pieces of advice can you turn into an event or workshop or perhaps a ‘downloadable‘?
•  Have you planned to capture those prospects into a web form for your email marketing list?

Image Credit:  Mari_1008

In which of the following, if any, does your organisation plan to invest in 2011?

Key findings:

• 80% of marketers plan to increase the volume of digital projects in 2011
• 76% of the marketers plan to invest in Facebook & 69% in Twitter
• Overall, 95% of respondents plan to use some form of social media in 2011
• 67% of marketers are increasing investment on Unpaid/Earned Media
• Just 14% of all marketers surveyed plan to increase investment in paid traditional media

While these statistics were taken from a global sample, the last point is reflected in the outlook in the latest IBISWorld Report on advertising services in Australia for the next 4-5 year.  Advertising services industry will have to reinvent its services to be more in line with increasing media fragmentation.

The survey respondents were split roughly evenly between the three target groups: agencies, brand marketers, and technologists from around the globe but mostly from North America.

In the US earlier this week, Gap introduced a new logo designed by Laird and Partners. And after receiving a multitude of unfavorable comments, particularly on social media channels such as their Facebook and Twitter pages, Gap’s President Marka Hansen, just four days from the introduction, announced the switch back to the old logo and admitted that the new logo was a mistake.

The logo is that bad that some people think it was a planned publicity stunt. We all remember a similar episode here in Australia when Vegemite unveiled the iSnack 2.0.

There is something courageous to me about this move. For a large multi-national retailer to listen and then publicly announce that they have made a mistake is a beautiful scene. President Marka Hansen also kept the communication going. “Now, given the passionate outpouring from customers that followed, we’ve decided to engage in the dialogue, take their feedback on board and work together as we move ahead and evolve to the next phase of Gap,” said Hansen.

Gap had also announced through their official Facebook account that they will be doing a ‘crowdsourcing project’ and entertaining ideas from fans for their logo design. Perhaps, Gap did not consult their fans enough before they launched their new and controversial logo. However these platforms clearly give us the ability to do exactly what good marketing practice is anyway – listening to our market.

The certainty of breakdown is quite phenomenal.

Let me know you thoughts below!