Despite its relative immaturity, the digital sector's creative talent has been much applauded. However, those individuals with the practical skills to ensure the success or failure of a brand's digital marketing strategy have largely gone unsung. Until now.
We gathered six of the industry's best business brains - those who have been at the forefront of developments in digital marketing, risen to the top in leading agencies, and set up their own businesses - to tap into their expertise. Their insights reveal how brands can best improve their marketing strategies in tough economic times, as well as some of the key challenges marketers are likely to face this year.
In the past, brands have tended to give digital a secondary role on their media plan. But our experts agree that advertisers wanting to improve their marketing strategies need to ensure that digital is integrated into their very core.
JAIMES LEGGETT, MANAGING DIRECTOR, GRAND UNION
Leggett, 29, is managing director of Grand Union, one of the UK's few remaining independent digital agencies. He spent his early years at Grand Union, taking control of Abbey, one of the agency's biggest accounts at the time, with only occasional input from the management team.
Marketers need to think of multi-channel in terms of seamless integration, says Leggett, as consumers will continue to approach content through a variety of formats. "Consumers do not think of a brand in terms of channels and they no longer go through a linear process when it comes to purchasing products," he explains. "Brands need to think more intelligently about infrastructure, presenting customers with propositions how and when they want it."
Leggett believes that the notion of authenticity, whereby brands open themselves up to consumers, will also be important. Personal recommendations and user-generated content will have a bigger influence on product purchase and consideration. "Brands are losing the battle for share of conversation so it will be increasingly important for them to do the things they say they will do," he says.
Simple integration is crucial. This means that messages need to be communicated in the same way and using the same assets, regardless of the channel used. "Don't send customers mixed messages - marketing is still too fragmented."
ED LING, FOUNDING PARTNER, ANALOGFOLK
Ling, 34, founded AnalogFolk in April last year, having spent nine years at i-level. Ling's agency is currently pushing a concept called 'communications products', with the aim of helping marketers devise standalone brands that consumers will want to interact with.
According to Ling, brands must focus on innovation and value creation. "A tougher economy will persuade people to spend more time at home online," he says. "They will interact with brands that don't just hard-sell but attract them with more substance-based marketing. Brands must build new currency with consumers by offering valuable experiences through content, entertainment, community, services or utility."
He expects brands to follow the lead of Fiat eco Drive, Xbox Live and Apple's iPhone. His tip is to put innovative user experience at the heart of marketing. "Collaborate with consumers to do something that communicates, rather than relying on unique selling propositions," he says.
Ling believes that there will be a greater movement away from online advertising towards more content- and service-based marketing, and an increased emphasis on turning customers into advocates and content creators.
"There will be a move away from expensive campaign microsites and the location-based mobile web will take off," he adds. "As digital permeates every area of a brand's business, it will move away from being the remit of one tech-savvy person or a department and become a core part of boardroom strategy."
EWEN STURGEON, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, LBi
Sturgeon, 42, is chief executive of LBi and heads one of the largest digital agency networks in the world. He started his career as a founding partner of Wheel, one of the forerunners of digital marketing in the UK, and has worked as an adviser and strategist for brands such as Argos, InBev, Marks & Spencer and Unilever.
Sturgeon says the backdrop of a straining economy and slashed marketing budgets means it is imperative for brands to work at retaining their existing customers as well as gaining new ones. In his opinion, digital is no longer a channel but the heart of a marketing strategy.
Greater accountability and more responsive marketing will be the big issues for brands to focus on this year. The ability to track the entire customer journey from acquisition to advocacy in real time will also prove crucial.
"Marketers can do this by ensuring that every piece of dialogue they have with their customers is relevant and able to be measured in real time," he says. "There will be a greater push for marketers to analyse and optimise at a fast and flexible pace. Digital will take a front seat with marketers redistributing significant amounts of their budget from above-the-line channels to below-the-line ones and investing more in customer relationship management."
Sturgeon is convinced that brands can stand out from the competition by investing in search and real-time metric analysis. He believes there will also be a move away from broadcasting messages towards a more targeted dialogue with the consumer.
"There needs to be less emphasis on indulgent virals that might be deemed irrelevant to the brand - virals will be based on tactical ideas that won't require too much production," he says. "There will be increased integration of natural search and online PR, and brands can expect to see slower banner growth, a trend that has been visible in the past year. Authenticity and relevance are key"
GUY WIEYNK, EUROPEAN MANAGING DIRECTOR, AKQA
Wieynk, 38, joined AKQA more than ten years ago and was responsible for the network's first global client, Xbox. In 2006 he was promoted to the role of managing director of AKQA in New York, and under his leadership the division gained a reputation as a creative powerhouse.
Wieynk believes that digital has changed the dynamics of companies at board level and altered the traditional delineation between marketing, technology and the rest of the business. Marketers need to look at building complete digital experiences across a range of platforms. This, he says, will only be achieved by brands that respond to consumers' needs by delivering ideas, products, services, experiences or applications over and above a strapline.
"Brands need to accept that digital has created an age of content democratisation," he says. "Search will become increasingly important as brands seek to improve efficiency. Alcohol brands, for example, will benefit from Google further relaxing its restrictions, and retailers will have to create innovative search strategies in order to gain share in an already competitive environment."
Wieynk claims it is crucial for brands to understand the needs of consumers and what services or experiences will enhance their lives, both from a practical point of view and an entertainment perspective. "Today's consumers are inspired by immersive and entertaining experiences. They want to be charmed and want to feel that they have made a discovery," he says. "Ensure that the values that underlie your brand are instilled in every experience."
FAITH CARTHY, GROUP MANAGING DIRECTOR, I-LEVEL
A former director at Zenith Media, Carthy has been in the top job at i-level for more than five years, and has built an enviable reputation as a media practitioner with extensive experience across different types of media.
A desire for accountability will accelerate the development of what Carthy terms 'new evaluation frameworks'. An example of this is buzz monitoring, which Carthy says has helped to quantify the effects of social media activity.
Her tips on how brands can best improve their marketing strategy include focusing more on customer retention, satisfaction and engagement.
"Use a wide range of perks and benefits to recognise and reward the most valuable customers, providing them with upgrades, rewards and services which make life easier," she says. She also believes that search will continue to thrive as, in her view, its highly measurable nature makes it recession-resistant. The rise of universal search will prompt companies to view all of their own digital assets in an integrated way and understand how their digital activity extends to media such as blogs, listings and news stories, all of which they have less direct control over.
"As a brand, you need to think about how you can appropriately respond to any criticism with honest replies - not being talked about is scary and could mean your brand isn't relevant any longer," says Carthy.
Tighter budgets will polarise marketing strategies and those brands at the conservative end will retreat to the traditional. Others will push for more catch-up services, such as the BBC's iPlayer, which will build on the growth it achieved last year.
JOHN BAKER, JOINT MANAGING DIRECTOR, IRIS DIGITAL
An entrepreneur and innovator at heart, 42-year old Baker's career spans numerous agencies in the US and UK. Before joining Iris, he was managing partner at Ogilvy, where he led the agency's flagship digital accounts, including BP, Unilever and American Express.
In Baker's view, if a brand wants to improve its marketing strategy it has to let go of the traditional 50s paradigm of a series of campaigns against a demographic target. "The best marketing is a programme of activities that helps brands support their audience in achieving their dreams and aspirations," he says. "When we all realise it isn't really just about clever, creative campaigns, we will improve."
He advises brands to stop thinking about marketing's role as a "communications" programme and start thinking of it as a "service" programme. This means that rather then finding your audience and delivering a message, you are thinking of what your audience needs and determining where best to put it so the audience can find it. "Good marketing isn't based on campaigns but on 'fixed marketing' - brands that support a position, provide a service, or supply a consistent angle of entertainment and don't disappear but are consistently present," he says.
Baker believes applications will be one of the hottest areas in digital marketing this year, including those on mobile, tools that run on iPods, widgets that work across websites and programs that run on interactive billboards.