International Marketing Conference – What’s the Buzz?

As I previously mentioned in our customer newsletter, I attended an international marketing conference in Anahiem, California to network with industry professionals and listen to speakers from the L.A. area.  The trip was fantastic and I learned quite a bit about some new trends.

Those of you who follow us on Twitter probably saw my updates as I heard interesting thoughts and relayed them to our customers (those of you who don’t follow us on Twitter should consider it!)

The most surprising thing was what almost every presentation I saw mentioned: social marketing.  It is a topic I have discussed on the blog before, as it is really a booming means of communication to current and potential clients.  Every speaker mentioned it at least once, but some gave entire presentations on it – some of their companies are basing their entire business model off of social marketing.  There was some very interesting theory behind this.

Case 1 – Park the Van / Rocket Science

Park the Van is a digital production studio for independent artists which is located in the Florida area.  They focus on getting artists names out to a wider audience.  How do they do it?  They provide as much as they can to their followers for free.  This includes quite a bit (but not all) of the music.

Aside from lining up “Free downloads” on iTunes, their focus has been on using social mediums to build a community of followers who join together to support their favorite artists, share music from other independent artists, and really promote the overall market.

Their model allows for a “connection” to be made between numerous groups who may like similar music.  The social networks allow them to interact in ways that were simply not possible on the global scale it is today.

Even some of their talent acquisition was done via social mediums – they pick up recommendations or videos from their customers and, if they like it, go to check it out.

In the independent market, they have found that social marketing (free marketing) is often the most effective way to build and maintain a customer base.

Case 2 – ValPak

Even a traditional direct mail marketing company, ValPak, sees the power of social networking in marketing. While they develop more than just direct mail campaigns, that is their main focus. In speaking with some of the company’s management, they were both amazed and very much pleased with the way social media has taken off in advertising. They say they use it in a variety of campaigns for customers, and use it quite effectively.

Potentially gone are the days of pay-for banner advertising. They have become so saturated on some sites that users actually leave because of them. Instead, we are moving into a direct advertising channel between the company and those who are interested in their product.

The model is shifting from a company-driven effort to bring people in to a customer-driven effort to bring their friends on-board.

It is simply amazing to me that of all the talks and keynotes I went to, every one had some sort of focus on social media in marketing. This is one of those industries exploding with involvement from everyone from professors Tweeting homework assignments to major enterprises announcing product lineups.

Social media is definitely the buzz. How do you better utilize it across your organization?