make 2009 a very merry Xmas

Online has demonstrated non-stop growth every Christmas in the retail sector and never has this been more important than in the current economic climate. Luckily for you, it can be even more cost effective…

We’ve teamed up with SheerLuxe to offer our clients a massive discount of the full day conference… and now we’ve managed to negotiate coverage for all followers of Neoco. The full agenda is below, including how to get your discount but the important thing to remember is that if you are planning on any selling this Christmas, this is a must-attend event. Neoco will be down there too to help out with any additional questions you may have.

A highly esteemed array of industry experts are presenting, including:
• Nick Robertson – founder of ASOS
• Nick Wheeler – founder of Charles Tyrwhitt & other half of The White Company founder Chrissie Rucker
• Emilie Carson – More2 & the founders of Isabella Oliver Vanessa Knox-Brien & Baukjen de Swaan Arons
• Vicky Lovell – Head of Operations at Astley Clarke, previously x7 yrs at John Lewis Direct
• Paul Sheehy – Chillifish & Peter Levenspiel – Chillifish & Ex Net-A-Porter e-commerce manager
• Andrew Wilson – The Catalogue Consultancy

Topics to be covered include planning your Christmas Strategy / Budget / Timings, your Christmas PPC campaign, viral marketing to grow your database cost effectively whilst driving sales, Christmas online merchandising, PR & standing out from the crowd, as well as the invaluable opportunity to network with likeminded businesses in your sector.

Wednesday 8th July, 2009 9am – 5pm Fulham, London SW6

9.30 – 10.10 Ecommerce Lessons from an Entrepreneur
Nick Wheeler (founder of Charles Tyrwhitt)

10.10 – 10.50 Your Christmas PPC Campaign
Piri Ramazanoglu (founder of MinuteSteak)
- When to start
- Allocating your PPC budget
- Finding the right key words in this competitive period
- Writing the right copy
- Bidding on Christmas competitors

10.50 – 11.20 COFFEE

11.20 – 12.05 Strategy / Timings / Budget this Christmas
Anne Stagg(more2)
- When to start planning your Christmas activity
- How to allocate your budget between existing and prospective clients
- Incentives and choices beyond discounting
- Co promotions and joint marketing
- Can you recruit through a sale?

12.05 – 12.45 Viral Marketing to Grow Your Database
Paul Sheehy (Chillifish) & Peter Levenspiel (Chillifish & Ex Net-A-Porter e-commerce manager)
- What is Viral Marketing and why does it work?
- Looking at ways to grow your database in the run up to Christmas to ensure you are communicating to a larger audience during this crucial trading time.
- Pssst, pass it on: a look at successful viral campaigns

12.45 – 13.45 LUNCH

13.45 – 14.35 Online Merchandising
Andrew Wilson (The Catalogue Consultancy)

In this fast paced session Andrew will cover how you can get the most of your merchandising this Christmas to increase your sales and profits with no extra expenditure.
- “Long Tail” or “Paradox of Choice” which applies to your range?
- How to use analytics to inform your merchandising
- Creating the correct price hierarchy for your site
- Getting the correct relationship between navigation and merchandising
- The small changes that can make a huge difference to your profits

14.35 – 15.15 PR, Marketing, Standing Out From the Crowd
Emilie Carson (more2) & Founders of Isabella Oliver
- Recognition: Who are your target markets & how to find them
- Repetition: Getting maximum impact from your campaigns / creative approaches to pr and media
- Reputation: How to influence what people think of your brand / tips to bringing your brand to life
- Recommendation: How to encourage customers to become brand advocates

15.15 – 15.45 COFFEE

15.45 – 16.25 Planning & Executing Successful Christmas Trading:
The rules are the same whether you are large or small
Vicky Lovell (Astley Clarke, Ops Director & previously John Lewis Direct, Head of Customer Service)
- Stock, Delivery, Customer Communications: What should you be thinking about – now
- Which strategy best fits your business?
- A unified approach
- Pulling it off!

16.25 – 17.00 Q&A Session
Nick Robertson (founder of ASOS)

17.00 – 19.00 DRINKS @ Chateau 6

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Interested in your discounted entry:

Simply email georgiecoleridgecole@sheerluxe.com quoting NEOCO to book at the early bird rate ( only £155 for independents).

Don’t say we never give you anything!

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IAB Engage 2008

This year’s IAB Engage Conference was yet again packed with impressive speakers. Digital Marketing professionals and advertisers came together on Wednesday to discuss issues from piracy to measuring engagement, from integration of TV and online advertising to the extreme possibilities of the future – we’ll be sending our robots to shop for us within ten year apparently, and our dreams will soon be infiltrated by product placement via our personal contact lens screens!!

The Keynote speakers, Yahoo! founder Jerry Yang and Rt. Hon Andy Burnham MP, were less controversial and engaging than some of the others guests but their presence was a testament to the high profile of the event. A real highlight was a presentation by Orange brand director Justin Billingsley who certainly made the case for making digital the starting point for any marketing effort.

As impressive as Orange’s campaigns are, it is clear that their creative ideas only work because they are based on a simple principle. Namely that digital marketing should aim to entertain, answer, or add utility before it aims to advertise. This is a great way to make sure brands are working with consumers and not at them and it’s exactly how Neoco approaches its work.

The theme of the conference was “who’s in control” which framed the discussions perfectly. More than one speaker argued that marketeers have the power to make the difference – good news for us! Recent Neoco campaigns, however, are a testament to the success of putting consumers in control. For my part, I can’t help thinking control is the subject of so much debate because it’s basically a redundant concept but perhaps that for another blog piece…

On Tuesday I spent the day at the Being Digital Mashup conference. It was a really interesting and insightful day – although there were way too many pitches crammed into the programme.

For those of you that didn’t attend, I’ve put together a summary of the key predictions from the event, outlining what is going to happen within digital marketing over the next 5 years:

• Media fragmentation and the decline of mass audiences will continue as there will be constant shifts in the way consumers live their lives, but this should be seen as a positive instead of a negative. After all, ad spend can be reduced through advertising to smaller fragmented audiences, as there is less money wasted on irrelevant audiences. Advertisers will need to create innovative and targeted ‘marketing pieces’ for their consumers, reaching them via their niche channels.
• Although it is often thought that young people watch less TV than they used to, research shows that there has been a 10% increase in the time that 16-24 year olds spend watching TV each day (since 1997 their daily viewing has increased from 1.61 hours to 1.77) and this is likely to remain constant.
• The penetration of mobile internet is currently at 30%, but with continued promotion from the iPhone and other key players in the mobile industry, this is going to see huge growth.
• Most sites will have an element of social networking or online community in the near future, as consumers continue to want this functionality.
• Online shopping is not going to take over or replace offline retail. Research has proven that consumers like being able to use a combination of online, store and call centre when shopping, and when given this option to shop across multiple channels, consumers exhibit a higher degree of loyalty – their average relationship ‘lifetime’ with the brand is 2 ½ times greater which is very valuable. As a result, the future will see online and retail work hand-in-hand.

However, the two areas that I think are going to have the greatest significance over the next five years are branded content and location. Predictions for these topics are:

• Branded content is going to be huge over the next five years and brands are likely to benefit hugely from being associated with entertaining or relevant content, as indicated by Nigel Conway from Nestle. Their annual advertising budget currently stands at around £5bn, of which £3.5bn is spent on TV advertising. However, Nigel believes that in 7 years time, this £3.5bn will be spent on branded content. Research has shown that branded content is the most popular of all advertising formats, with 67% of all consumers finding it acceptable or valuable.
• Location is going to play a major part over the next few years, as GPS and mobile internet become more widespread. We all know how to find things on a map if we have the postcode, and with GPS we will all know where people are located – but the key question is how do marketers use this data to add real value to consumers? Many companies are trying to create 3D search interfaces and immersive environments for consumers but at the moment they are too expensive and very difficult to develop, and despite all efforts the interfaces are really hard to use.

My prediction is that whoever can create a user friendly, and ultimately useful and valuable location mashup for consumers will be much much richer in the next five years.

Just a reminder that the FUEL conference is next Friday (13th June) at RIBA.

It should be a really interesting and insightful day with presentations and case studies from Innocent, Virgin and successful start-up Moo.com. Sessions will look at how you can use new web tools to interact with existing customers and bring in new ones; build strong and loyal communities; use the latest in online marketing; and use innovative technology to push every boundary of business.

The organisers are also going to hold a drinks reception in the evening. Benn’s  going to be there, so let him know if you are too.

www.fuel-conference.com

Ahead of the upcoming Social Media Influence conference (to be held on 4th June in London) the following YouTube Corporate Top 10 list has been compiled – comprising of videos which appear within the first 10 results in a search of the company name. Each one has been viewed over 1 million times and generated hundreds of comments.

Over 80 million YouTube videos are watched every day, making YouTube one of the most influential forms of media today. We can’t understand why some brands don’t value YouTube’s power and recognise the potential threat that it could have to their reputation – take the Disney porn for example.

Visit Social Media Influence if you want to view the videos. They suggest that while you’re watching, “ask yourself this question – do you know how your company looks on YouTube?”

Here’s their top 10 (in descending order):

Just wanted to remind you all to come and catch up with us at Internet World this Thursday. Benn will be speaking at the event and will be on hand all morning at the WOM UK stand to answer any questions you may have on word of mouth marketing (stand W985, opposite the DMA Theatre).

It’s being held at Earls Court and is free to register. Just go to www.idmf.co.uk

seems like only yesterday I was on the super secret Beta squad at Joost but it was actually several months ago… time flies when your are on this crazy ride called ‘interweb’. Anyway, today is their first developer conference and it is being held right around the corner in Covent Garden. Will be heading down with a developer and let you know how it goes – part of the afternoon includes an ‘on the fly’ build of a web app! Now that’s TV!