Home > Career > LEAPWebinar With Annet Aris: What You Need To Know About The Impact Of Digitization

LEAPWebinar with Annet Aris: What you need to know about the impact of digitization

Mon 20 February 2012

, Maurice Eykman, LEAP

Last Wednesday LEAPmembers got the unique chance to sit in a digital INSEAD classroom and enjoy a state of the art presentation by professor Annet Aris. In this first early morning LEAPwebinar she addressed the challenges marketers face ‘living in a world of social media’.

As Hiltje Verhagen, Consumer Insight Manager, FrieslandCampina put it: “Up even earlier than usual to be in the office on time for LEAP’s 1st webinar. A smart and efficient way of being inspired by a professor of such a renown institute. In this case it brought Annet Aris very close in a sympathetic way. Biggest learnings are: there is a tipping point in embracing new technologies; the adaptation curve gets steeper and steeper; marketers need to change their ways of working 180dgr. Maybe hire the newest generation cause they will understand intuitively.”

And Liesbeth van de Garde, Senior Strategy Advisor Personeel & Organisatie, NOW gave a sharp ‘management conclusion’ of the presentation saying: “Marketing by social media: since consumers are in the lead, you'd better engage them & be honest.”

For those of you who missed the webinar, this is what we learned.

What is the impact of digitization?
It all started with Technological ‘game changers’ who make consumers change their behavior in a big way, which leads to new entrants on the market that capture value, which leads to new rules of the game for the established players on the market. Marketers from the ‘old school’ will have to take a place in the back seat if they don’t understand the new rules for getting a ROI in  marketing in the world of social media.

Technological game changers
Technological game changers offer true new benefits that are easy to use and affordable. We have had several game changers, like the mobile telephone and the world wide web that had a big impact on consumer behavior and there will be more. For those of you who thought tablets and smart phones are the latest influencers, beware because Smart TV and HTML5 are coming. HTML5 will make it easy for everyone to introduce apps on all devices without having to market them via companies like Apple.

And digital television is growing, in the UK and Germany already over 50% of the households have access to over 200 television channels.

Consumer tipping point behavior
Consumers change their behavior when the game changes. According to research they don’t spend much more time than say 10 years ago in using different media, but they use more media at the same time. And they use different media to get information, shop and keep in contact with their peers.  Look at the chart below to see what US consumers use their mobiles for as an example.

New rules of the game for marketers
New behavior by consumers leads to new rules of the game for incumbents. It is no longer about advertising, it’s about social marketing.

What tools to use?
Key questions for social media marketing are what tools to use, what needs to address, what methods to use and what goals to reach to get the ROI?

Great examples of successfully integrating tools are offered by Come Dine With Me (CDWM) and Top Gear who successfully create an engaged community.
Successful marketing in the world of social media means changing from a smart push – campaign driven approach to a pull, getting people to voluntarily come to you & co-creation of marketing approach. And from targeting audiences based on their age or income to targeting behavioral micro segments.

To be able to do so you need to know exactly who your customers are and by whom they are influenced. Around 90% of people using social media are so-called ‘lurkers’ , they don’t actively participate but do see everything that is happening. Of the 10% that is active, 1% is responsible for around 90% of the content active users offer. Successful social media strategies are the ones that effectively target the heavy users who act as agents of the campaign - Incentivizing the right individuals to “share” is key to spread the message across networks. You need to need to listen, talk, energize, help and embrace your customers in interacting with the social crowd.

Food for thought for marketers
Annet finished her presentation with food for thought for marketers.

• Go from mass to class.
• Do not try to dazzle with (fake) promises and claims, be authentic
• Take the driver’s  seat, do not let others take it from you.
• Engage and help create great value.