Module 3: The Digital Marketing Mix & The Rise of The Consumer

Before the world of digital, consumers shopped with their feet. Literally. Shopping meant a drive into the nearest town, a browse around retail units dotted down the high street, followed by the treck home to unpack and unload everything. Not anymore. Consumers have become tech-savvy, and the needs of consumers has changed also. They have needs, needs that change based on the what they have the ability to do, or what they want to do. How has digital affected the requirements of the typical user?

They want to shop when they want to shop. No longer do they have to wait until 9am and doors to unlock. They can login online at 3am from a hammock in hawaii and order themselves the latest trending trainers. They want to involved, take part, be seen to be recognised by a brand. Social Media has finally helped bridged the communnication divide between company and consumer, helping both parties to communicate easily in a way that is convinient to the consumer. They want the best price, the ability to search across the internet in seconds for that special purchase and instantly compare who is best suited for their next buy. Pay as you go services have seen a massive rise in line with digital, allowing low cost monthly movie, music or e-book rental services to flourish, allowing consumers to do what they want, when they want. The creative and social side of consumers means they may want to share what they have bought, what they have seen or what they have recently read. The needs of consumers can be seen in every aspect of digital interaction.

To stay abreast with these evolving requirements means companies have to look to reach out in new ways, to stand out in the digital landscape already scattered with numerous online retailers. They have to help the consumer stay up to date, make transacting easy and allow the consumer to do more than they've even been able to before. Communicating with consumers through multiple channels should now be considered, reaching out to them on multiple social network channels, perhaps even tied in to traditional print media. Consumers want value for money, they want service and they want to transact on their terms. If a business wants to continue to trade well, they must evolve to meet these demands and transact on platforms familiar to their users.

Module 2: The Mobile Revolution and Technological Disruption

50 years ago, the thought of being able to check the prices of an item in your hand, in the 5 nearest shops around you would be just a dream. The ability to check the status of your upcoming flight on route to the airport, without calling the airport to check. Strange. Being able to lay outside in the park, drinking a chilled beverage, whilst ordering your monthly groceries and having them delivered straight to your front door. Unreal.

Mobile technology has progressed in such a way, modern society has adapted and evolved and incorporated the convenience of mobile technology in every day life. For the consumer, technology via the everyday mobile smart phone has allowed people to manage business from around the world, check the status of your latest online purchase or even view a live stream of the CCTV at home. Consumers no longer need to rely on manual methods to undertake everyday tasks, they can simply refer to the mobile phone for the answer.

As a result of this convenience factor, the ease of accessing information, mobile technology has affected real life businesses in many ways, both positive and negative. For example, Royal Mail, the UK standard for sending 'snail-mail' has seen a substantial drop in the number of letters delivered. Why? E-newsletters, E-Statements, E-mails have all but taken over and reduced the need for businesses to use paper to communicate with customers, reducing costs and increasing speed of delivering a message. On the flip-side, postal and delivery companies have seen a substantial increase in business in regards to package deliveries. As a result of convenience and being able to purchase almost any item online and have it delivered, the number of packages requiring delivery has increased through the likes of e-commerce, again accessible via the mobile handset and using mobile technology.

Mobile has changed the digital and physical landscape. To remain competitive, companies have to evolve and cater for the every increasing demand for mobile content. The fact is, a business can take it in its stride, develop mobile content, mobile solutions and provide convenience for a user. Alternatively, they can stand still, ignore the digital revolution and very soon, find themselves being ignored by a majority audience as a result. What will you do?

My Digital Life | Adam Prettyjohns

The first module of Googles' Squared Online concludes with a one-page submission, outlining "My Digital Life". It is intended to demonstrate our daily browsing habits, how digital has come into our lives and is used in every part of our day, from being at work, to your mobile, even the digital that now streams into your television. Here is an insight into 'My Digital Life'.

Click Image To Enlarge

Consider, Facebook was born only 10 years ago, only in 2006 was it then made available to the world, not only residents of the USA. Digital and the surrounding technology has evolved and adapted unrecognisably in a very short period of time - whether you realise it or not, digital is here to stay.

What digital services do you use on a daily basis? What service could you not live without? Why do you love digital? Leave you comments and thoughts below!

How Has Digital Impacted Brands of Today?

When the word "digital" is mentioned, bounded around and waved about the place, what does the term actually mean to you? An endless stream of 1's and 0's? Green and red flashing lights? A digital clock? The Matrix? The term digital now widely encapsulates a number of areas online, including (but not limited to!) social media, data analytics, mobile browsing and mobile experience, e-mail marketing or generic online advertising, plus a wide range of other online activities.

Digital has already impacted on how businesses operate on a daily basis, particularly with the explosion of well-known social media sites that have developed over the last 10+ years. I've listed below some great examples of companies using digital methods to their advantage, marketing, serving and conversing with their customers and prospects in a very different way or to provide a level of service over and above that offered by their competitors:

First Direct - Internet Banking, a division of HSBC Bank

firstdirect.co.uk | FirstDirect on Twitter | FirstDirect on Facebook

First Direct originally joined the 'social media bandwagon' as they very quickly realised that customer recommendations provided a very powerful tool for referrals and new business for the company. First Direct has always strived to provide the best customer service possible from a bank and this has been proven by the numerous awards the company has received since opening. Some of the more recent awards the financial institution have received; "Recommended Provider - Current Account 2013" - Which Best Buy Awards, "Moneywise Customer Service Awards 2013" & "Moneyfacts Awards 2013" - something that FirstDirect are proud to mention on their ever-growing awards page.

Typical FirstDirect Digital Advert (Source)

By incorporating social media into the brand, alongside informal brand advertising, it encourages their visitors to interact with the brand itself, not just the bank itself for transactional relationships. First Direct want to be more than just a bank. They want to to be your one-stop finance solution, a company you can trust and turn to. It also provided additional routes to market the business and stay closely in touch with its customers and fan base outside of the normal methods of telephone and internet banking. 

They openly accept and seek feedback, both positive and negative via Twitter and Facebook and are very quick at replying to these comments to try and leave the customer feeling positive and satisfied. Convenience also plays a massive part - allowing customers to get in touch with them through methods more familiar and convenient to the consumer. So confident are FirstDirect at their level of service that they even offer cash sums for leaving them - something that they hope is unlikely to happen, based on communicating more effectively with their customers and responding quickly to their needs.

Wonga - Short Term Cash Loans aka "The Digital Finance Company"

wonga.co.uk | Wonga on Twitter | Wonga on Facebook

Wonga, designed to provide a short term loan of cash on a day-by-day basis have broken out of the 'loan-shark' category by becoming a household name, with the clever use of TV, web and digital advertising. A self-proclaimed "Digital Finance Company", Wonga was founded in 2006 and were amongst the first company of its type to use fully automated risk processing technology, allowing decisions to be made on new loans instantly, with customers receiving cleared funds in as little as 5 minutes. 

Backed up by strong marketing campaigns, Wonga operates entirely digitally, with the ability to provide an instant quote on the web or directly via a mobile app. Clever branding and key icons such as the three distinct elderly characters used across their marketing strategies ensure continuity whilst putting a 'smiley face' on what would otherwise be a just another money lending business. Wonga has built a very strong personal relationship with its fan base with the use of "The Wongies" - smiley-faced digitally-created personas to front the Wonga brand, pictured below.

The "Wongies" Social Club (Source)

Wonga has provided over 7,000,000 short-term loans and operates in the UK, South Africa, Canada and Poland since 2007, they were also the first business to enable quick-quotes via a mobile application. Clever use of social media has led them to create the "Social Club", a Facebook app that records how much a user visits and interacts with the brand, earning points enabling users to redeem these as rewards or money-off vouchers. By measuring tweets, shares and competition entries, Wonga has the ability to collect user information on-mass and can distribute marketing messages very quickly. Additional the "#WongaFriday" hashtag used (you guessed it - on Fridays) as a competition method, has proved popular with its audience, by encouraging their audience to share a specific post on Twitter or Facebook publicly in return for the chance to win £100 weekly, therefore increasing brand awareness and widening their potential future clientele for only a minimal outlay every week.

It is clear the digital world has had a tremendous impact on every industry, from Finance to Healthcare. The youth of today are growing up in an ever-evolving technological world and businesses need to embrace this fact as oppose to ignoring it. Digital affects everyone - prospects, existing customers and general brand-engagement. What companies do you know of, that are using digital in a particularly noteworthy  or innovative way? Post your comments below!

Creating A Video | The Incomplete Guide

Let me firstly lay down a precedence for this post - I am not a professional videographer, in fact far from it, but I recently had to delve into the world of video creation myself to create my Squared Online introductory video, introducing myself to my fellow classmates. I thought I would share with you the ups and downs of the process and the research I undertook to do the best I could with the tools available to me! 

Please remember - I am not a professional videographer and this article is called "The Incomplete Guide", but I do hope that those finding it difficult making a start, feel a little more inspired!

Some questions I first asked myself:

1. Who was my audience?
   My audience would mainly be my Squared classmates and tutors. In the first instance, this is who I wanted to create the movie as the audience in mind. However, I could also publish this to my blog to show others that may be following my journey, outside of the course.
2. What look did I want to go for? Modern, Nostalgic, Mystery etc.
   My course was digital. I love digital. So a modern, fresh theme was what I wanted to achieve, something catchy that helped to present my view of digital and the explain to others a little more about me, in a simple, direct way.
3. What resolution did I want to produce? 360p / 720p HD/ 1080p HD?
   In fitting with my aim at a fresh and clean-cut look, I decided the only way I could achieve this was to use HD (high-definition) footage, shot in 1080p. I would then create my movie with HD in mind, remembering to output my final video in 1080p HD. This would allow those with the a higher broadband speed to watch it with the clearest sound quality and better definition to the pictures themselves. Further to this, bearing in mind the YouTube flexibilities, I also knew that those with a slower Internet connection could also stream the video in a slightly reduced quality, to allow the video to be shown.
4. Did I want my video 'branded' by a third-party company?
   I wanted to try and steer clear of free services that would add their logo to the corner or through the video, with the aim of the user paying an upgrade fee to remove the branding. For it to remain clear, concise and modern, I felt I needed to use a tool/service that did not brand my final video.
5. How much time did I have to play with?
   I had a few days to play with, so I knew I had a bit of time to play with my creation to get it right. Had I been restricted to a few hours, this may have affected the decision of programs to use.
6. What tools did I already have for the job? What else would I need?
   I knew pre-installed on Windows 7 & 8 is Windows Movie Maker. I had this already, it was free and included on my PC already. Having used this only once, I decided this may not be enough. I researched numerous other programs, including Animoto, Stupeflix and WeVideo. All of these services, I'm sure are great and fit a need, but all charge a fee to output at higher resolutions (anything above 360p) and some were restricted in length. So Windows Movie Maker it was! (no branding, free, 1080p output).
7. Where was I going to upload the footage to?
   I knew I was going to upload to YouTube, so I researched the type of videos that work best on the site: > YouTube Help.
8. What footage did I own, what footage did I need?
   I already knew I had a selection of videos that I had taken and wanted to include, but I also wanted to add other, more abstract videos. A great article that helped me find free, HD stock footage was published by Ashutosh KS on Hongkiat.com here.

After collating my personal videos, my stock videos, a storyboard of what messages I wanted to get across and a catchy background track I already had in mind, I took to Windows Movie Maker to start compiling the videos. I trimmed many videos down to 3 seconds, or increased the footage speed of longer shots to coincide with the music itself, interrupting the shots momentarily for key words or phrases to be shown. You will find the finished video posted just below. See what you think!

"This is Adam" - Adam Prettyjohns

Can you recommend any video editing software? Have you written a guide of your own video? Post your answers in the comment box below. Thanks!

Digital + Becoming T-Shaped!

The Squared Online course by Google has definitely been an early hit with my fellow Squared classmates. Yesterday, we has our second class. We were introduced by Aiden, followed by a class with Mike Berry. Mike was fantastic at presenting the course and has worked as a Digital Lecturer, Trainer & Consultant for the likes of Imperial College Business School, Hult International Business School and the NHS.

There was a lot of discussion in the course as a result of the questions raised in the lesson. Interestingly, one of the questions asked, "What would you like to get from Squared Online?" ties in nicely with one of my previous blog posts, "What does Squared Online mean to you?"

Another interesting debate arose when discussing the word "Digital". What exactly does "Digital" cover? What does it mean? I have summarised some of the responses from the discussion below:

"Digital is a whole new way of doing things" - Chris Farrance

"Digital has become a way of life" - Narayan Sahota

"Connected intelligence" - Carman Telehoi

"The future of marketing" - +Camilla Shuckburgh 

"Multi-screening, sharing, communications" - +Amy Vears 

"Digital is Connectivity...anywhere...anytime" - +Qurat Qaiser 

"Interconnected, real time communications" - +Samuel Carbonero 

As you can see from the examples above, the term "Digital" has a different meaning to each and every one of us. A fantastic idea and explanation of what a Squared student aims to be is T-shaped. Now, I know what you're thinking, how can someone be T-shaped? 

The T-Shaped Theory

The illustration above aims to outline the "T-shape" theory. Along the top, lay your general skills, a 'jack of all trades' as such. These skills could be Social Media, Google Adwords, Data Analysis, Mobile Traffic. The aim is to have the broad knowledge of the Digital Marketing world, and to specialise in one key area. Maybe it starts in the reverse - you are a specialist in a dedicated area, ultimately looking to broaden your knowledge across the board.

Integration is a key aspect of the "T" based theory. Regularly, different departments are responsible for different aspects of a campaign or strategy. The key to understanding this is to understand how each of the departments are interlinked, how an action from one area of the business has an effect on another area of the business. Having a true understanding of this then allows data to be used and processed in new ways, extracting new information from data already in existence. 

Planning future campaigns and strategies using this knowledge of how each department links and joins to another allows an individual the consideration of various requirements for all areas of the business, resulting in a campaign maximising returns for a business.

Some great thoughts and phrases I would like to close this post with, courtesy of +Mike Berry;

"Keep an open mind, challenge your assumptions and fail small - win big!"

What does the term "Digital" mean to you? It would be great to hear your thoughts!