Ch. 16 -Integrated Marketing Communications

At the IABC luncheon in Regina, Adam Green, Agency Lead for Google Canada, spoke to us about online marketing. When Google speaks, it’s worth listening. Adam covered a lot of ground in an hour, but the highlights were — think mobile, social and local. Adam pointed out how fast the web has grown and is continuing to grow, “When Google was founded in 1998 about 2% of the world’s population had Internet access. Today, 1 in 4 have access. That’s the same amount that own TVs. And that’s a huge shift.” If you’re building your marketing strategy, the future is a mobile web. And social media should not be ancillary to your online marketing strategy. Adam explained Google’s concept of the Zero Moment of Truth . You may have heard of “the first moment of truth”, a Procter & Gamble term to describe the moment when we stand at the store shelf and choose between all the brands before us. The moment is so important, Procter & Gamble invests millions researching displays and packaging. Google’s Zero Moment of Truth, suggests an equally (perhaps even more) important moment, before we go to the store – when we search for deals or product information online. The importance of that moment is substantiated with a study showing 83% of us have made up our mind before we even enter the store. So as Adam said “if you’re not online, you’ve already lost the battle. This leads to the importance of social media and mobile marketing. Social Media, not only helps your search results, but it also affects the moment of truth. Following a purchase, social media gives us the opportunity to share our opinions, and because of social integration like the Facebook Like button, and Google’s +1, one person’s online review becomes another person’s Zero Moment of Truth. Google, like Facebook, has moved into opening the social graph, so that recommendations to your social media network move outside of your Facebook wall or Google circle. Social is going to appear in everything we do online. The Google +1 and the Facebook Like button put your social recommendations in search, in ads, and on shopping websites. And these recommendations don’t just happen once, They stay there. They are persistent. Google, because of its size, innovation, and market position, has a number of competitive advantages. Google’s competitive advantage go into three main categories consisting of infrastructure, innovative services, and market share. First, Google has an incredibly powerful infrastructure is not easily replicated. Just like Wal-Mart is known for having highly efficient supply chain infrastructure with a massive investment in plant assets and equipment including transport vehicles, enormous warehouse facilities, and high tech inventory systems, Google has a vast technology infrastructure.