June 2008

In most countries there’s a 3-5 year lag between where audiences place their attention and where marketers place budgets. That’s the pattern I’ve tracked since the mid 90s across Europe, Asia and the Americas. Brands everywhere still struggle deeply with how to harness digital channels. At over 16% of adspend, the web in the UK may have the highest share of media budgets worldwide, but the behaviour of any two firms within the same sector varies radically. One may have little more than a brochure-ware site, while its competitor could be generating buzz on Facebook, leads from Google, impacts through in-game ads, engagement on its content platform and intimacy through relationship marketing. Of the 30 or so factors that shape online advertising uptake in a country, the digital skills crisis is key - but inside each firm, training needs to tackle the cultural frameworks, silos and structures to let digital marketing release its real potential.

29 April 2008

As UK online ad spend crosses 15% of total media spend and leaps 38% year-on-year, Danny Meadows-Klue reflects on why half this investment goes to search engines, and explores some of the critical elements that brands should take to get themselves effectively listed.

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February 2008

Copy available on request

Readers could post their questions in our online marketing classroom

January 2008

A white paper by Danny Meadows-Klue

Copy available on request

Download the article from Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice (2008)

How the impact of digital networking on healthcare marketing is leaving some marketers and their brands behind...

Seven years ago, I found myself rummaging around under desks in a stark concrete basement at the end of a neglected corridor, under the teaching hospital in Addis Ababa. We were laying Ethernet cables next to the pathology lab to connect the first computing network, in the first computing room, of Ethiopia’s first teaching hospital. It was one of digital’s early corporate social responsibility projects, and although I was there to think about what would come down these telecom pipes,

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Zagreb - Read Danny Meadows-Klue's interview in Marketing.Up magazine.

Feb 19th 2007

What are the predominant trends in online advertising?
Online marketing is now mainstream, From the smallest one-man business to the largest corporate, digital marketing tools are now a core part of the mix. That's a big leap in just a few years, and while the percentages may vary radically between firms, the reality is that every business is changing; refocusing its marketing to embrace digital channels deeply.

In an interview for Internet Standard (Polish equivalent of Industry Standard) Danny Meadows-Klue discusses the current challenges for marketers naming the seven deadly sins which are most often committed while going digital. Reflecting on new trends he explains that Web 2.0 is not a new Internet bubble despite the fact it is incredibly popular and commonly misused by many firms. Danny summarizes: "Web 2.0 is one of the main rules for digital publishing, businesses based on Web 2.0 are run in a completely different way".

The interview is available here in Polish: Web 2.0 to nie bańka internetowa

The biggest challenge for magazine groups is the business model. It's not about having a great online magazine; that was the goal back in the mid nineties, but the game's changed. Business magazines live in a place where buyers and sellers come together, they aggregate a niche audience by providing great editorial and make them reachable to advertisers. They're a product of live before the digital networked society, and in the long term the magazine model simply doesn't stack up online. Business publishers need to reinvent their model online and re-earn their place in the value chain. It's a tall order, and let's be frank: many will not make the transition. Danny Meadows-Klue is the CEO of the Digital Training Academy, a business strategy group that trains media companies for the new digital environments.

Comments from Danny Meadows-Klue, in interview with the New York Times on how the UK came to leap ahead of the US in the percentage of ad spend that goes into online.

The UK crossed its tipping point over three years ago. Remember that the UK ad industry has always been brave and experimental, and you need to see the leap to online in that context. I was running the IAB in the UK back then, and massive marketing efforts from the trade associations, combined with rapid product development from the global online media groups, and an explosion of broadband use, together created a climate where the desire for experimentation could be turned into action.

04/09/06

“Reskilling Britain’s marketers is no small task. Every firm needs to be embracing digital sales and marketing channels, and this scale of change brings with it some vast training needs. While smart firms have been investing in training for a long time, many HR managers simply don’t have the budgets they need because their firms haven’t yet acknowledged the importance of training in their sudden stepchange to embrace digital channels. Every chief marketing officer needs their firms support to make this happen.” Danny Meadows-Klue

03/09/06

When Google and eBay announced an international advertising partnership last week, they did more than just bring together two of the most powerful players on the Internet. The deal also underlined the growing primacy of search-based advertising, a business that Google pioneered, over more "traditional" kinds of online ads like banners or pop-ups.

Search ads: Spreading the word - Full story

12/08/2006

Following the creation by Digital of a series of our academies for the IAB’s Progress initiative, this article by Ben Carter outlined some of the reasons why the skills gap is so great. Full text available on www.BrandRepublic.com