Investing in digital media remains as clear or unclear as it was 10 years ago.
- The next big platform/shiny new plaything is presented and pushed for in every other meeting.
- Viral videos still remain the elusive holy grail.
- Gratification is still the goto tactic for engaging users.
- Statistics are still thrown without any cross-check.
- Social listening is still about keywords and sentiments.
- CPM rates are still the same (actually crashing).
- Defining objective, success and knowing if strategies are working is still a challenge.
- Budgets are still “limited”.
- “Digital agencies are still young kids having fun” (Pops’ actual statement), and
- Digital Marketers still tom-tom and showoff every little non-achievement.
This snippet I posted on LinkedIn, post a frustrating meeting with a digital agency, garnered the maximum engagements of a post I wrote on that site. About 7,500+ views, 34 likes and 28 comments.
Among the comments that followed, there were a few that continued this series. Summary of the important ones below.
- There are no big success models and digital is not any cheaper for the same impact that traditional media provides.
- Lack of distinction between ATL and BTL spends in Digital is confusing allocation to Digital much more.
- Not many digital agencies manage to unravel properly the variety of measurement and variety of options that digital media provides.
- Click farms still run amok in China and Bangladesh.