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Developing strategies for social media marketing

Following our 10 Golden Rules in the practices of social media campaigns, many people asked us for further insights about how to develop social media strategies. This month we finish collating a best practice note on the key steps in developing a social media campaign, including the sequence of ideas generation for social media marketing, piloting social media with small closed user groups, and derisking social media marketing projects. This short Digital Insight Report is available from the Social Media Academy.

Download a copy at www.DigitalTrainingAcademy.com/socialmedia

Digital marketing audits are the new way to improve marketing ROI

The return on investment of digital campaigns often runs at 40% of their potential. These are the findings from research by Digital Strategy Consulting into consumer brand campaigns across a dozen markets. Online advertising and microsite campaigns often fail to reach the right target audience, or the right numbers of people, to deliver anything more than minor uplifts in awareness. Marketers need to improve the return on investment they get from all marketing, but digital channels have key tools that allow this ROI to be calculated and improved more quickly than other media. In response to the research, Digital’s team are releasing new versions of their Digital Marketing Audit methodology for helping agencies and brands get more value from the budgets and human resources invested in digital campaigns.

More online soon at www.DigitalStrategyConsulting.com/digitalmarketingaudits

Today the Netimperative.com business intelligence service launched its first online opinion polls, giving readers and digital managers the chance to chance to vote on key industry issues. First in the stocks is ITV’s sale of pioneering British social media site Friends Reunited. Netimperative.com is asking readers whether the ITV media group destroyed the young social media brand or managed it as best they could given how tough the market was. This test for opinion polls will run for the next month on the website with a key story being polled by readers each week.

Press contacts

Press enquiries: Press@DigitalStrategyConsulting.com

Today the Netimperative.com business intelligence service launched its first reader panel, inviting several hundred users to take part in shaping the future of the website. The readers are being asked what they’d like to see from the publishing business over the next year and how it can help them in their work.

Netimperative.com’ supports 12,000 people with daily email news services and over 30,000 marketers and digital managers visit the news website every month.

Press contacts:

• Press enquiries: Press@DigitalStrategyConsulting.com

We’re delighted to announce the acquisition of the Netimperative.com publishing and events businesses that for 10 years have helped keep digital marketers and managers up to date with business intelligence through their website, newswires and events.

Netimperative.com’s publishing business - which includes their news site, the Digital Industry Guide and the daily email news services for 12,000 people - will continue alongside our Digital Intelligence, Digital Insight Reports and Digital Strategy Consulting’s other publishing operations.

Netimperative.com’s events business - which includes monthly the Directors’ Dinners, NetNights, Digital Seminars and Digital Conferences will work with the DigitalTrainingAcademy.com internet marketing coaching business.

Davina Lines, Netimperative.com’s co-founder and Managing Director said: “It’s great news. We’ve been reporting on this industry for a decade and know it inside and out, but the market is tough for publishers and becoming part of Digital Strategy Consulting gives us access to greater resources and more content – while their DigitalTrainingAcademy.com management coaching business is a great boost for our events.”

Danny Meadows-Klue, Chief Executive of Digital Strategy Consulting said: “The centre of gravity in marketing and communications has shifted to digital channels. Getting the right digital strategy is now a make-or-break agenda item in every boardroom. Netimperative.com will be giving managers the insights they need for making the right decisions, right now.”

The business is relocating to Digital’s soho office and publishing will continue in the next 10 days.

Press contacts

• Press enquiries: Press@DigitalStrategyConsulting.com

Digital Strategy Consulting has again been selected to give evidence to government departments on the development of digital media and the right place for regulation. In a private hearing, today we share insights on social media and our concerns about the amount of information people publish about themselves. Danny Meadows-Klue argues that “government needs to put digital media literacy high on its agenda for training both companies and citizens. The knowledge economy thrives off a strong understanding of how online media work, and how to use tools like social media, email, and Google effectively – yet there is a wide and dangerous gap between how many people use the web and what is both safe and effective.”

Hundreds of marketers from across Austria come together for the Graz Digital Congress, organised by Styria. Delegates heard from one of the world’s leading relationship marketers: the campaign manager behind the Obama election programme among many other influential speakers.

Danny Meadows-Klue urged marketers in Austria to be more innovative in their use of the media mix and to see digital channels as a critical way of connecting with consumers. “Across the Austrian media, there are great examples of innovative digital platforms that are attracting high numbers of audiences. People are engaged and action-orientated online, and by not being there Austrian brands are losing share of voice to international competitors."

The latest overview of internet marketing and use in India is published today. The research covers the growth of the Indian market and the nature of the digital divide. In India the web is now established as a mass market media channel for the wealthy. Email has become a mass market media channel for office workers and professional classes. Mobile (for SMS) is a mass market media channel across many demographics, but the while mobile use is very high, mobile devices and the web will not properly converge until late 2010. The main changes in internet access have happened in the last five years and the internet has become an essential part of office life, and plays a key role in many homes.

www.digitalstrategyconsulting.com/india

Blogs, online communities, social media and then social networks have permanently changed online marketing. In this new landscape brands are in a constant dialogue with customers who increasingly play critical roles in advocacy and recommendation. The brand is only one guest among millions and the challenge for marketers is that while the rewards may be great, the risks are greater. Digital's Ten Golden Rules for Social Media Marketing were extracted from analysing the successes and failures of hundreds of social media marketing campaigns, looking for DNA that was shared between the successful and absent in those that failed. The clarity of patterns that emerged removes much of the mystery of social media and helps marketing teams quickly identify the specific risks and potential of the opportunities unfolding around them.

Download: Social media marketing best practice

London

As part of the next wave of developments for Digital Strategy’s best practice guides for social media marketing, Digital’s team today invite agencies and social media brands to contribute case studies and examples of best practice internet marketing. Following the delivery of social media best practice in over a dozen countries, the team at Digital Strategy Consulting have been concerned about the general level of knowledge and awareness among leading global brands. Case studies are being collated into core principles for effective social media marketing.

London

Digital’s team were invited by the IDM in London to judge the internet awards for direct marketers. For many years Digital has supported the awards as examples of best practice in internet marketing because of the rigour of proving the return on investment campaigns can deliver on the web and in mobile.

Read the directors' statement and introduction to our annual report and accounts. More information and corporate affairs questions should be directed to Press@DigitalStrategyConsulting.com

Continue reading "Digital Strategy Consulting's annual report and accounts: 2008" »

Liverpool

Addressing leading newspapers from across Europe, Digital’s chief Executive Danny Meadows-Klue warned of the wholesale migration of titles from print to online. “We expect 20% of magazines and newspapers to move to web online editions during the next 3 years” he said, “with a further 10% either closing completely or dramatically reducing their frequency of publication”. Digital Strategy has been concerned about the impacts of channel shift in the newspaper industry and believes the economics of newspapers are too fragile for most to invest in the same quality of editorial for web-only editions. “The shakeout and consolidation will lead to fewer news media titles, but much more strongly integrated brands with online, print and broadcast all working well together under a single masthead.”

“Within three years, 10% of Europe’s newspaper titles will have closed and many more will have reduced their pagination or their frequency of publication.” That was the warning in Danny Meadows-Klue’s address to the European newspaper industry at the International Newspaper Marketing Association in Liverpool. “For too long newspaper groups have under-invested in their digital products and teams, sticking with Web 1.0 publishing models at a time they should be moving into social media. Few teams have the people and resources they need to accelerate their businesses and protect shareholder value”, he said. The event launched Digital Strategy Consulting’s assessment on the market: “A perfect storm”. The Digital Insight Report provides a summary of the key factors behind the sudden collapse in profitability of newspapers, and illustrates a series of ways newspapers can navigate the challenges to develop profitable and sustainable business models.

“Most online marketing performs poorly. Fifteen years on from the creation of the banner, much online advertising fails to deliver impact, most email marketing campaigns go unread and most brand websites fail to attract more than a trace level of audience.” Those are the concerns of Danny Meadows-Klue in his address to the World Social Networking Forum in London today. Unveiling Digital Strategy Consulting’s 10 Golden Rules for effective social media marketing, Meadows-Klue explained that “the differences between success and failure in web marketing are no longer a mystery. There are common strands of DNA running through the campaigns that worked and the marketing teams that created them.” The 10 Golden Rules of Social Media provide marketing strategists and consumer planners with a checklist for preparing for the social media journey.

“2009 is a horrible year for the advertising industry. There’s no avoiding the cycle of falling consumer confidence, falling consumer spending, lower sales, lower profits and low marketing budgets - However there is a way of avoiding the effects” said internet marketer Danny Meadows-Klue, in his annual opening of the regional internet congress today.

Continue reading "Digital urges a new approach in the Croatian marketing industry" »

“Marketers can dramatically cut their budgets, without hurting the prospect of sales” explained Danny Meadows-Klue in his annual keynote address to the FuturAd media conference. “For too long, marketers have simply taken last year’s plan and made minor adjustments. The tight budgets of today’s landscape demand a radical reappraisal of the way brands create their connections with customers. By analysing the customer journey and focussing budgets where they create the most impactful connections in driving sales, marketers can rebuild their models in a way that will not only survive recession, but create leaner marketing strategies for the brands that emerge after.”

In today’s annual keynote address to the Technology for Marketing conference, Digital’s Danny Meadows-Klue explained why social media marketing fails to deliver. “Marketing has changed. Success in social media marketing means understanding the rules for engagement and the way consumers want to relate to brands. Most marketers approach the social web with the same philosophy they did in their advertising campaigns and that doesn’t work for this space. For the brands that understand the DNA of social media the rewards are great; for those that don’t, the risks are much greater.”

The internet trade association for Croatia today appointed Digital Training Academy as its official partner for coaching media planners in how to apply the internet to their marketing Mix. IAB Croatia director Jan Jilek said “the time is right for helping media planners uncover how to get the most from the web”. Digital’s team in London supported the creation of the internet trade association in Croatia and have provided the keynote address at all of their annual conferences.

Principle Activity

The company's principle activities during the period continued to cluster around the two core areas of supplying training services (under the ‘Digital Training Academy’ brand and consultancy services (under the ‘Digital Strategy’ brand to firms making the transition into the digital networked economy.

Director's statement

As digital marketing reaches the mainstream, country by country industry attitudes are changing. First email, then the web, and more recently communities and social networks have become part of the everyday routine. They create new opportunities for firms to communicate but also present material risks and challenges in how that communication takes place.

Our forecast from 2004 of online advertising spend overtaking TV by the start of 2010 continues to look certain and quantifies the true scale of change in the sectors we service. As firms shift their focus they need guidance in how to make this happen effectively and how their teams can make effective judgements about how to progress. Companies transiting into the digital networked economy are easily seduced by the opportunity but can equally easily misread the landscape, exposing themselves to huge commercial risk. Digital Strategy Consulting was created to support firms through this transition both by building stronger digital teams (through coaching and training), and accelerating the digital aspects of the brands (through the consulting practice). Models and approaches we developed from 2000 onwards have been proven to provide the right frameworks to achieve this, and have been successfully built upon, with new layers of ideas, structure and analysis.

Digital Training Academy: building stronger digital teams

Investment in the creation and delivery of Digital Training Academy courses continued, with the company meeting its targets of developing one new lesson every week and upgrading a further lesson, and running Digital Training Academies in more than ten countries. The number of Academies swelled to 28, with the advanced courses becoming the most popular in our three levels. Partnerships continued to be run for public access courses with European trade associations, as well as our own public access training courses here in the UK. In-company training continued to be the major growth area, with Digital developing course structures that could be deployed by corporate clients across many markets.
In training, we will complete the period of consolidation and development in the first part of 2008, rebuilding our training courses into a clearer and broader portfolio, with upgraded materials and new exercises and approaches. The competency models we developed for benchmarking performance will be expanded and along with the lessons these will be integrated into the online learning platform which will expand further. By embracing blended learning our business is better placed to scale so online learning will include deeper exercises and video content for the first time. We will refocus on large corporate programmes and gradually withdraw from the public access courses in the UK and Europe, to focus on where the more substantial budgets are.

Digital Strategy Consulting: accelerating digital brands

The consulting practice continued to transform the firms it touched, helping engineer new product strategies and new growth plans for firms from Europe, Middle East and North America. Our work to accelerate the sector's trade associations was finally completed in Europe, New Zealand and Central America, and here in the UK market (the first for us to accelerate back in 2000) the online ad economy reached the highest percentages of digital marketing spend worldwide – in part a reflection of the role our team played in stimulating the industry. The network of Digital Associates that support the consulting activities grew, and with this, so too did the reach of the news services and marketing publications we created such as Digital Intelligence and Digital Thought Leaders.

In the strategy practice we have completed the refocus away from supporting industry initiatives such as the many trade associations we helped create around the world, in favour of publishers and brands that need product strategies or have web-centric business models.

Key performance indicators

Training
Number of countries training courses delivered in - 18 (inc. Singapore and Mexico)
Average satisfaction rate from training - 4.1/5
Number of Digital Training Academy courses - 28
Most popular Digital Training Academy - Media Sales
Strategy
CSR award recipient - Marie Stopes International
Most prestigious client - Cabinet Office
Marketing
Number of conference speeches - 21
Google rank for ‘digital strategy’ - 2
Google indexed pages for DigitalStrategyConsulting.com - 768
Google indexed pages for DigitalTrainingAcademy.com - 187
Number of publications produced - 26

Operations

To support this growth, the company moved into larger offices to London's Soho district, expanded the central support team and recruited additional specialists to lead on consultancy and training projects. To support international operations we began recruiting a network of freelance and part-time support staff in Europe, North America and Asia.
Behind the scenes we began a complete rebuild of the training courses with an upgraded instructional design approach, new branding, and a new model for relationships with learners. We used external funding to support this, develop more courses and aligning existing courses more rigidly behind the three levels of Orientation, Advanced and Masterclass. We also invested heavily in online learning, developing a basic online learning platform to support all of the most popular training programmes. In addition the investment enabled specialist online classrooms to be created for every long term corporate client, and we continue to research new approaches to online learning for extending this further in 2008.

We restructured the team, and recruited at a more senior level in the areas of project management, finance, research and training management. We increased the resilience of our infrastructure further to support business growth in 2008 and 2009, which included new servers and back-up processes, investing in stronger databases to manage our client relationships, disaster recovery and offsite archiving.

Trading outlook

Although the macro economic outlook for 2008 is uncertain, we are confident that the products we create continue to provide a compelling proposition because they allow companies to get the thinking right in one of their key channels for communication. The training courses have been recognised by clients and competitors as being among the best in the world, and firms like the BBC and Microsoft continue to trust us with vital parts of their development. We are expecting strong orders throughout 2008 with a significant increase in the average order value for training as well as the level of sophistication in the training we deliver. Having focussed on product development in 2007 we expect an appropriate increase in turnover and the recovery of that investment by the end of 2008.

Strategic plan

Throughout the next year we will be completing the new training courses and then developing the marketing materials to support them. There will be additional systems and infrastructure going into place in the areas of finance and administration. In our publishing operations we will be increasing the volumes of our outputs and integrating the publications more tightly into our strategy and training activities.

Copies of our full accounts and abbreviated accounts are available from Digital’s finance director.

The Direct Marketing Commission (DMC) (www.dmcommission.com), the independent regulator for the UK direct marketing industry, today announces the appointment of Danny Meadows-Klue to its Board of Commissioners. The appointment will strengthen the DMC’s expertise in the regulation of online advertising, email, social media and emerging digital platforms.

Continue reading "DMC appoints Digital's CEO and former President of the IAB to help regulate digital direct marketing" »

The internet trade association for Croatia today appointed Digital Training Academy as its official partner for coaching portals, newspapers and web publishers in how to apply the internet to their marketing Mix. IAB Croatia director Jan Jilek said “the time is right for helping media planners uncover how to get the most from the web”. Digital’s team in London supported the creation of the internet trade association in Croatia and have provided the keynote address at all of their annual conferences.

With digital marketing centre stage on most form's agendas, Digital is recruiting ten additional people in a mix of full time and part time roles both here in our London office and overseas. The growth in our business coaching services has created opportunities for experienced marketing consultants and trainers, as well as roles in the management of training services. Behind the scenes there are new support roles in research and production, and two internships available. For more details, prospective candidates should email JoinTheTeam@DigitalStrategyConsulting.com

New positions we're looking to fill:

• Materials developer
• Executive assistant / New York
• Executive assistant / Japan
• Executive assistant / Mexico
• Executive assistant / Sao Paolo

Read more about these jobs on our Jobs @ Digital page.

With e-learning and blended learning forming a fundamental building block in 21st Century training and development, Digital's CEO, Danny Meadows-Klue was delighted to announce this year's award for excellence. Congratulations go to Young Foresight for their work with the National Skills Academy Nuclear group to create such an excellent learning tool to teach 14-16 year-olds about electrical energy, production and distribution. The film is being used as part of Key Stage 4 in the UK national curriculum and was an outstanding entry in this year's awards. Digital's corporate social responsibility programme supports the goals of sustainability in energy and population. More details of recent corporate social responsibility projects are in the CSR pages.

Corporate Social Responsibility @ Digital | Join our press release list

Continue reading "Young Foresight wins Digital's e-Learning award at IVCA gala" »

Stockholm, Sweden

Speaking at today’s TS annual conference in Stockholm, digital marketing pioneer Danny Meadows-Klue urges Swedish brands to be more innovative in the use of online as a marketing channel and Sweden’s media owners to embrace more deeply the models of digital publishing in a converged sector. “We’ve moved beyond the era of getting blogs, social media and video into web businesses; smart online media need to define and deploy new business models if they are to truly champion the potential of online customer engagement, and win the hearts and minds of their audiences in Sweden.” In an address to key Swedish media owners, Meadows-Klue examines some of the global trends in online advertising as well as the craft skills for helping media owners boost their revenues in online advertising and the formula for profitable online entertainment firms.

Today Digital’s team publish a new guide to help media planners new to the industry get up to speed with online advertising. The guide contains practical hints and tips and is a course companion for the Digital Media Planning Academy training programme.

Read the highlights

Zagreb, Croatia

Digital’s team are taking live online questions from participants following their annual keynote at the FuturAd digital media conference in Zagreb. Following the success of the pioneering digital media event last year, Digital’s Danny Meadows-Klue will be taking live questions and answers in Digital’s Online Media Planning Academy classroom. Participants can pre-register their questions or take part in the discussion at the event. Watch the Q&A online or add your own questions, here: http://www.digitaltrainingacademy.com/mediaplanning/2007/09/digital_media_planning_academy/

Olympia, London

Digital’s publishing team are taking live questions and answers at the PublishingExpo 2008 event in London. Participants can pre-register their questions or take part in the discussion at the event with materials published in the Digital Publishing Strategy Academy classroom. Digital publishing pioneer Danny Meadows-Klue is in the hot-seat for this Digital Training Academy workshop - with an agenda that's entirely set by the audience. Watch the Q&A online or add your own questions, here: http://www.digitaltrainingacademy.com/publishingstrategyclassroom/enter_your_digital_training_ac/

Olympia, London

Publishing Expo (13th & 14th February, Olympia – www.publishingexpo.co.uk) opens a very extensive free seminar programme with a major session of particular interest to anyone publishing, or looking to publish, electronically.

Digital publishing pioneer Danny Meadows-Klue kicks off the first day with a Digital Training Academy workshop - with an agenda that's entirely set by the audience. It could be about how to use Web 2.0, or the models for online advertising sales, how to write for the web or manage your content and data - the topics are up to you. Find out more and submit your questions in the Digital Publishing Strategy Classroom

Find out more: Digital Training Academy @ Publishing Expo 2008 London

Earl’s Court, London

Digital’s team are taking live online questions from participants at the TFM&A show in London. Following a keynote address to 500 people, Digital’s Danny Meadows-Klue will be taking live questions and answers in Digital’s Web 2.0 Marketing classroom. Participants can pre-register their questions or take part in the discussion at the event with materials published in the Digital Publishing Strategy Academy classroom. Watch the Q&A online or add your own questions, here: http://www.digitaltrainingacademy.com/web2/2010/06/digital_classroom_questions_ab.php

Read and download the lecture handouts | Upcoming public training events you can join | Digital Social Media Academy | Ask Danny a question about his talk | Ask about in-company training

Zagreb, Croatia

Today sees the launch of the new edition of the Digital Training Academy online classroom for Croatia. As part of a strategic partnership with the INAMA trade association, Digital Training Academy is building online resources that include an online case study library, question and answer services for Academy Participants and profiles of leading players in the digital media industry in Zagreb. Participants can access the digital classroom here: http://www.digitaltrainingacademy.com/croatia/

Digital Strategy Consulting and the Digital Training Academy are moving to Piccadilly Circus. The group has outgrown its home in Covent Garden and moved to Soho, between Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square. The new offices have extra desks for the team and more hot desks for Associates, larger board room, and space for workshops.

The London office is now

Digital Strategy Consulting, The Digital Hub,
18 Rupert Street, Soho, London, W1D 6DE, UK.

The company's registered office address is unchanged. Details, directions and up to date travel advice is available here: http://www.digitalstrategyconsulting.com/contact/thedigitalhub/

Stockholm, Sweden

TS have chosen Digital as their partner for the first Digital Media Sales Academies to take place in Sweden. The training programmes will be an additional strand to the annual TS conference in one of the most advanced digital markets in the world. This Digital training Academy will look at some of the global trends in online advertising as well as the craft skills for helping media owners boost their revenues in online advertising.

Today Digital Strategy Consulting launched the mobile edition of its Digital Knowledge briefing services. Alerts about the most recent editions of Digital Intelligence, Digital Insight Reports and other Digital Publications are now available in an aggregated feed at http://www.digitalstrategyconsulting.com/mobile/. There are special editions for early mobile browsers, Blackberrys and iPhone. These news content feeds are also available through RSS and Atom, as email newsletter briefings, printed reports and face to face in-company briefings. The mobile edition of Digital Knowledge is free to access and will be in beta until early March.

Speaking at the INMA Internet Advertising Summit in London last month Meadows-Klue was clear that the pace of change will not slow down, describing a fundamental shift in the way all firms will market themselves. One of the trends advertisers should consider in order to gain more from their online investments is called behavioural targeting, and if you think the recent debate regarding targeted advertising within social media such as Facebook, is controversial, Danny Meadows-Klue’s prediction is that advertising will become much more personal across all digital media. He expects to see the majority of online display advertising switch to have behavioural and re-targeting elements within it during just the next couple of years.

Continue reading "Online advertising trends: Digital’s team outline key strategic trends" »

Netimperative, the leading online magazine for digital media and marketing professionals, has partnered with the Digital Training Academy to launch new courses to help online publishers get the most from digital channels.

Created by the Digital Training Academy, the Digital Publishing Strategy Academy helps publishers get the most from online by delivering a step changes in thinking about how to create online communities and content, and how to build online advertising sales revenues.

Continue reading "Netimperative and Digital Training Academy launch specialist training for online publishers" »

Digital is delighted to be joining forces with the British Polish Chamber of Commerce to work on the acceleration of digital strategies for leading companies in Poland. The partnership launches with a programme of breakfast briefings in Warsaw and details are available from Digital's team.

17 March 2008 - Keynote lecture: How to avoid wasting money on your website | 18 March 2008 - Management training – Your website: Giving you great value or wasting money?

INMA has selected the Digital Training Academy to be its partner in management training for digital publishing teams in Europe. The two organisations have begun exploring ways to take Digital's cutting edge thinking about how online media groups can succeed in the cross-media landscape, to the leading newspapers across Europe that are members of the INMA. Activities begin at the end of January when the internet directors of newspaper groups from more than 20 countries converge on London for the INMA Internet Advertising Summit. Digital's team will be helping to host and moderate the event, presenting online advertising research, delivering new reports about publishing strategy, and looking for ways publishers can boost their revenues without boosting their costs. Look out for news of future events together.

Every year Digital invests in charity and social responsibility projects. We work on many different projects for many groups, but our largest single event is our CSR Partnership Award. This year Digital is looking for multinational charities or government policy groups where strategic input from us on their content or communication plans can be amplified to affect the lives of millions of people. The aim is to us our strategy skills as consultants to help unlock much more value from the investments already made in their digital content or communications assets. Following on from our work to help build communications strategies for Marie Stopes International in 2007, submissions for the 2008 CSR award are now open. For application details charities can write to us with an overview of their organisation and the ways we might be able to help you achieve more. Our CSR board meets to review applications twice a year.

Following Netimperative’s digital publishing events, and our launch of the Digital Publishing Strategy Academy in South Africa, Digital’s team are delighted to announce that we’re teaming up with Netimperative to run a series of Digital Publishing Strategy Academy courses in the New Year. These events include one day deep dives on the commercial models for online publishing, and the content models for producing sustainable content to media websites. With rapid development continuing to be the norm, publishers need to be able to read the landscape and work as a team to set the right direction. This Academy series has been designed by Digital’s director Danny Meadows-Klue, who said that: “magazines, newspapers and internet entertainment brands are at a crossroads again. With social media now in the mainstream, the nature of a content and media site needs to evolve and many are failing to make the challenge. These advanced management coaching workshops are designed to help publishers leap forwards in their understanding, getting new strategies in place, and new levels of audience attending.” This Digital Publishing Strategy Academy examines the next wave of Web 2.0 techniques, including social media and online communities, letting publishers prepare for the next paradigm in media.

With rapid development continuing to be the norm, publishers need to be able to read the landscape and work as a team to set the right direction. Digital’s team are delighted to be launching the first Digital Training Academy in South Africa to help publishers learn more about how to harness the medium and get the most from online channels. With the price of broadband connections reducing in the country, and mobile access at an all-time high, now is the right moment for Southern African publishers to be accelerating their internet strategies. This Academy series has been designed by Digital’s director Danny Meadows-Klue, who back in 1996 opened the Southern African Internet Congress in Midrand (SA), saying that: “internet communications will change landscape of media and marketing on a scales as great as the impact of television, forcing media groups to rebuild their products and reposition their brands”. Today’s Digital Publishing Strategy Academy examines the next wave of Web 2.0 techniques, including social media and online communities, letting publishers prepare for the next paradigm in media.

Closing the annual European Pharmaceutical marketing congress – The Communication Challenge 2007 – Danny Meadows-Klue urged firms to rethink how they approach digital channel communications. “Repeating in your 2008 plans what you did back in 2006 or 2005 simply isn’t good enough”, he said. “At a time of massive social and technological change, most firms are failing their brands and their shareholders. In today’s world patients look to Google before their GP, primary healthcare workers struggle to keep up with current practice and rely heavily upon online learning, new digital communities have replaced the hospital canteen for informal chats, and most clinicians simply don’t have the time to see pharma sales reps. The customer has changed, the channels have changed, yet most companies are yet to do more than tinker with their marketing mix. Take your best people, take some time out from the day today, take stock of the changes, and create a new plan.”

Congratulations to the latest group of graduates at the Digital Training Academy. Completing this orientation course puts the learners in an excellent position to boost their online advertising revenues and volumes over the next year. In this internet advertising sales course, there was an examination of online formats, a look at the latest in the creative of web advertising, an examination of the integration of the web with other channels and a chance to explore media planning. Need more on our Digital Media Sales Academies?

Congrats today to all of the participants in this three month orientation level Digital Social Media Academy: Lizzy Ewer, Erica Pease, Judy Piatkus, Caroline Lenton, Pauline Rowson, Mithu Mukherjee, Nicola Beauman, Katie Johnson, Helen Griffiths, Alec Gregory, Simon Clegg, Emma Dowling, Thomas Caldwell, Sam Enthoven, Leda Sammarco. This Digital Social Media Academy includes an intensive romp through the beautiful, baffling world of blogging, creating online communities, harnessing social networks and a big dose of viral marketing. Graduates left armed with three sets of digital marketing plans for their own businesses, and all confirmed that they now feel much more confident and skilled in tackling digital marketing. The Digital Social Media Academy was first devised in 2003 and includes the practical use of blogs, Facebook, YouTube, and MySpace in consumer and business marketing for both large and small firms

Congratulations to the latest group of graduates at the Digital Training Academy. Completing this orientation course puts the learners in an excellent position to boost harness blogging, social media and online social networks in their integrated marketing plans. In this internet marketing training programme, they learned the models for using social media, the structure of social media campaigns, techniques for blogging and the ten steps to online marketing planning in these disciplines. This Digital training Academy, also showed best practice in email marketing and viral marketing as well as the rules for engagement in online social networks. Need more on our Digital Blogging Academy or Digital Viral Marketing Academies?

After keynoting at Croatia’s first Digital Marketing Academy, in 2007, Danny Meadows-Klue rejoins colleagues in Zagreb to chair the country’s internet marketing congress, and launch the first Digital Media Planning Academy in Croatia. This is an extension to the highly successful FuturAd event and is geared to the needs of both advertisers and their agencies. At FuturAd last year, Meadows-Klue said that “the tumbling price of broadband, the growth of internet access at home as well as at work, and the rapid expansion of entertainment and commercial sites are all creating the perfect climate in Croatia for a marketing switch into digital”. On the launch of the Digital Training Academy, he announced that Digital’s team were delighted to be working with agencies, brands and media owners in Zagreb and that “the smartest techniques in online media planning are now open to all, revolutionising the accountability in media and allowing marketers new levels of insight and control in the way they acquire and retain their customers.” This Digital Training Academy teaches the key steps in online media planning. It is an acceleration course that looks at the general theory, and then focuses on specific media planning challenges firms face. Customised for the Croatian internet industry, it explores the steps and processes behind online media planning and the challenges facing clients, agencies and media owners. The Digital Media Planning Academy shows how media space can work harder on the web and what is worth tracking. Guides and training materials accompany the course, along with additional tuition for planners requesting it. Follow our hints and tips and discover what you need to know.

Congratulations to the latest group of graduates at the Digital Training Academy. Completing this advanced level course puts the learners in an excellent position to boost their online advertising revenues and volumes over the next year. In this internet advertising sales course, there was an examination of online formats and where they are heading, an exploration of the models for targeting online media, and how they can be used to boost revenues, a look at the latest in the creative of web advertising, an examination of the integration of the web with other channels and a chance to explore media planning. Need more on our Digital Media Sales Academies?

Warsaw – The Polish internet trade association IAB Poland commissioned Digital for a longer term partnership in the provision of structured training for the leading media owners and search engine marketing agencies in Poland. The programme of training begins in September and will be run in Warsaw in partnership with the IAB, following the popularity of the courses in the summer for top SEM industry leaders. Danny Meadows-Klue will be leading the training, along with two of Digital’s team from Warsaw.

Today, Digital and The Bookseller launch the first in a programme of "Web 2.0 Marketing Academies" geared to the needs of the book publishing sector. Suddenly every book publisher wants to harness digital marketing, launch their blogs and connect to their communities. These Academies are geared to the specific challenges book publishers face and Digital has put together a special programme to show book publishers the theory of communities, social networks and blogs; the strategies for weaving them into the book publisher’s business; and the practical strategies for what really needs to be done. These half day sessions run throughout the Autumn.

Mexico City - With online marketing continuing to accelerate in Mexico, marketers need to be braver in exploring the media mix. Speaking at the Mexican internet marketing industry's annual congress, Danny Meadows-Klue tells industry leaders that "it's now time for the web". He says that "The google generation need to be embraces and that means acknowledging the web as a mainstream media channel. In Mexico it's the must-have tool for upscale office workers, and the demographics are broadening fast". Launching a report on best practice in internet media planning, Meadows-Klue explained that "too many marketers and agencies shy away from online advertising, finding excuses to avoid anything more than minor experimentation. Mexicans are online, and marketers need to be online with them to get the message across."

London - Today international healthcare charity Marie Stopes was selected by Digital to be the beneficiary of the 2007 CSR partnership award, a donation of time and sponsored training to help accelerate the organisation's use of digital media and marketing. Since Digital's creation in 2000, 7.5-10% of Digital's activity has been given to charitable causes and not-for-profits every year. We believe CSR should be part of every firm's agenda, and whether it's cash donations or management time, every firm has something to offer. If you'd like to contribute to our Corporate Social Responsibility work then get in touch; digital media and management skills are key for charities, and if you're in the industry then you're already well placed to help. Previous beneficiaries of Digital's CSR activities have included: The University Teaching Hospital (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia), The English Place (Africa), World Wildlife Fund (Geneva, Switzerland) and political policy think-tanks in the UK.

Mexico City - In 2005 Digital's team worked on the creation of the Interactive Advertising Bureau in Mexico, and this summer they return to launch the first Digital Media Planning Academy in Mexico. The public access short courses take place as part of the Mexican advertising industry's annual internet congress and are accompanied by the release of a best practice guide packed with hints and tips about online media planning.

Continue reading "Digital Training Academy selected by Mexican advertising industry to launch Digital Media Planning Academy in Mexico City" »

With search engines accounting for almost 60% of all online advertising spend, Digital's team have been concerned that the understanding of search remains too narrow among many brands. Speaking today at the MEC Interaction search conference, Digital's Danny Meadows-Klue urged advertisers to examine their customer's journeys to find the real role of search. "Search is not just about a single point in customer acquisition; it's in the frame at a much wider group of touch points along the way. Search is a brand building medium, and with the ceaseless product development of the engines, the opportunities will only get greater."

Continue reading "Understanding the customer journey is the key to understanding search" »

Brussels - Danny Meadows-Klue urges industry to back their marketing trade associations in their efforts to create a strong model for the self regulation of digital advertising content. "As internet advertising evolves, there's a need to back the self regulatory organisations (SROs) to create the right framework for the online advertising industry", he said. Meadows-Klue was part of the group who established one of the first frameworks for the self-regulation of online advertising and has been a long-time campaigner for the industry to take the lead. Speaking as an independent commentator, he said: "This means that agencies, media owners, advertisers and service companies need to really get behind the trade associations that are developing the online industry to ensure that SROs have the resources and the teeth they need to do the job". on the subject of Audio Visual Media Services Directive he concluded that: "The online industry has been given an incredible opportunity, but now is the time to rise to the challenge of self regulation."

Warsaw – The Polish internet trade association IAB Poland commissioned Digital for a Search Engine Marketing Academy as a part of its Summer School Programme. Digital Training Academy will provide advanced learning sessions to top SEM industry leaders. Danny Meadows-Klue, the leading tutor will talk about the changes search engines have brought to marketing and the ways Polish market will be influanced by the future development of SEM products.

Warsaw - Internet advertising spend is rising more than 30% year on year and topping €60m. In Poland there is clear evidence of a switch from classic direct marketing into search engine advertising. Digital's Danny Meadows-Klue told industry leaders that "the web should be at the heart of the media mix". Speaking at the Golden Arrow awards and the SMB congress in Warsaw he explained how online marketing has changed and how the technologies of the ‘Web 2.0’ generation of applications and services have big implications for how marketers work. "They have triggered a massive wave of participative communities, online social networks, user generated content and social media that have changed the landscape marketers work in", he said.

Brussels - Digital Strategy Consulting released its latest insight report to help trade associations grow stronger in the digital arena. "Building stronger trade associations" focuses on strategies for developing trade bodies and accelerating markets. The digital economy creates the need for businesses to change the way they work. Internet communications, email, ecommerce and web media have each created huge commercial opportunities, but persuading the market to move is often too big a challenge for individual digital businesses. Commenting on the report, its author, Danny Meadows-Klue said: "By acting together through trade bodies the sector can move faster, and can work together to tackle common problems. Strong trade associations have a massive effect on accelerating their markets, and this is absolutely the case in digital advertising."

Brussels - The European federation of digital marketing trade associations today invited Digital to provide Digital Training Academy lessons to the hundreds of delegates at Interact 2007, IAB Europe's first international congress. Digital's team will explore topics ranging from media planning, to advertising effectiveness, in a programme line-up that includes Esther Dyson and Commissioner Vivien Reding. Digital Strategy Consulting's Chief Executive, Danny Meadows-Klue, was one of the founders of IAB Europe and held its presidency from 2000-2005. Digital's team have helped accelerate 30 internet trade associations and trade initiatives.

London - The BBC has again invited Digital's team to deliver in-company training for its teams, this time in advanced areas of digital marketing and digital media sales.

London - At today's Internet World annual congress, Danny Meadows-Klue launched Digital's "Seven Simple Steps for Getting Started in Search" to help marketers get prepared for bringing search engine advertising into their firm. "Too many businesses fail to get online right; search engine advertising is the most business critical form of lead generation and it's staggering how many firms still give it no attention," he said. "Get search right and it can transform your business, that's why it accounts for more than 40% of all online advertising in many countries and almost 60% here in the UK. Search engine advertising and search engine marketing will become major tools for your brand; it's time to get you started."

Continue reading "Digital's launches the seven steps for starting in Search" »

Online or virtual communities, in their various guises, are fast becoming the must have component of every corporate online strategy. The increase in online communities continues to grow as the internet becomes more deep seated in our day-to-day lives and through the development of technology. This new Digital Insight Report examines what an online community is, how it works, who is benefiting from them, and how they can support a marketing strategy.

Congratulations to the latest group of graduates at the Digital Training Academy. Completing this intermediate course puts the learners in an excellent position to boost their online advertising revenues and volumes over the next year. In this internet advertising sales course, there was an examination of online formats, a look at the latest in the creative of web advertising, an examination of the integration of the web with other channels and a chance to explore media planning. Need more on our Digital Media Sales Academies?

Budapest - In response to concerns about the frameworks for governing internet commerce, Danny Meadows-Klue today called on advertising self-regulatory organisations to seize the online opportunity. "The web community needs your leadership and your support", he said, addressing the European Advertising Standards Association's digital summit.

Continue reading "Self-regulatory organisations urged to seize the online opportunity" »

London - The consumer magazine division of Haymarket Publishing has again invited Digital's team to deliver in-company training for its teams, this time in advanced areas of digital marketing.

Director’s statement

The use of digital communication channels continues to increase dramatically across Western Europe, with more people spending more time online, and marketers shifting their focus to follow. The scale of these implications for companies transiting into the digital networked economy becomes more apparent, and their need for help, more fundamental. Digital Strategy Consulting was created to support firms through this transition by building stronger digital teams (through the training side of our business), and accelerating the digital aspects of the brands (through the consulting practice). Models and approaches we developed from 2000 onwards have been proven to provide the right frameworks to achieve this, and have been successfully built upon, with new layers of ideas, structure and analysis.

Training academies: building stronger digital teams

Investment in the creation and delivery of Digital Training Academy courses continued, with the company meeting its target of developing two new lessons every week, and running Digital Training Academies in more than ten countries. The number of Academies swelled to 20, with the formalisation of clear levels for orientation, advanced and masterclass level participants. Partnerships continued to be run for public access courses with European trade associations, and the first of our own public access training launched. The largest area of business growth became in-company courses, with Digital selected by many leading web firms to provide their own internal training; quite an accolade in such a demanding industry.

Consultancy services: accelerating digital brands

The consulting practice continued to transform the firms it touched, helping engineer new product strategies and new growth plans for firms from ten countries. Our work to accelerate the sector’s trade associations started to near completion, and the UK market (the first for us to tackle back in 2000), yet again broke records, recording the highest percentages of digital marketing spend worldwide. Our client base broadened from the media firms and trade associations who historically used us, and as we diversified our dependency on key accounts. The network of Digital Associates that support the consulting activities grew, and with this, so too did the reach of the news services and marketing platforms we created such as Digital Intelligence and Digital Thought Leaders.

Operations

To support this growth, the company moved offices to London’s Covent Garden district, restructured the roles of the team, and took on additional full time employees. All of which was achieved without external funding. We increased the resilience of our infrastructure to support business growth in 2007 and 2008, which included investing in stronger databases to manage our client relationships and launching a series of websites to support both the strategy and training sides of the practice. Separate brand identities were developed for the training and consulting activities, and this has boosted customer recognition and brand preference.

Trading outlook

The need for the services we provide will grow in 2007 in all the geographical and vertical markets we are active in, however, our long term success will demand our services become codified and structured into off-the-shelf products that can scale and be delivered effectively by a wider variety of partners than in the past. Throughout the next year we will be investing in those products, as well as the infrastructure needed to support them, with more developments in our web and email services, while continuing to broaden and deepen the portfolio of Digital Training Academies.

Copies of our full accounts and abbreviated accounts are available from Digital’s finance director.

Copenhagen - The Danish internet marketing trade association has championed the power of online advertising and at today's conference, Digital Strategy deliver a keynote message to urge firms to continue the switch into digital media, because "that's where customers have shifted their focus to and advertising budgets need to reflect this if brands are going to get the most from their marketing". The event - one of the largest ever in Denmark - reflects how web marketing has gone mainstream, and in the speech, Danny Meadows-Klue will urge marketers to be even braver in building up their online marketing capabilities.

London - The switch to internet advertising continues at a rapid pace and online is set to overtake direct mail advertising spend in the Spring of 2007. Speaking at today's Digital Training Academy, Danny Meadows-Klue released Digital Strategy's latest forecast for online advertising growth in the UK that outlined the leapfrogging of direct mail spend, and maintained Digital's previous forecasts of the web overtaking television in early 2010. "It's clear that far from slowing down, the migration of marketing budgets is accelerating, and as marketers switch their focus into the digital channels, internet spend will overtake direct mail, and eventually TV to account for more than 22% of all UK adspend in the first half of 2010.

London - Getting to grips with internet advertising is tough and today's event - in partnership with the PPA trade association for magazines in the UK - is a great way to start thinking about online advertising and where it's heading. Media sales teams can apply for places through Digital's customer service team.

Copenhagen - The FDIM internet trade association of Denmark has teamed up with Digital to address skills shortages across the digital marketing sector, with a personal development initiative that will focus on media sales training. The initial courses are from Digital's 'Media Sales Academy' aimed at the newer entrants to the media sales industry to help them accelerate their understanding. The academy courses have been designed by the UK IAB's co-founder and former President Danny Meadows-Klue, and will be delivered by him and his team. Danny commented that "the Digital training Academy team are delighted to be working with the FDIM trade association to help raise standards and best practices even further in Denmark.

Warsaw - The award winning Gazeta newspaper of Poland has invited Digital to deliver in-company training for its media sales teams who are looking to learn more about digital marketing. The course is part of the Digital Media Sales Academy and equips media owners with the tools they need to unlock the potential of online commercial revenues. Media brands that cross from print into online have additional potential to harness the power of cross media packages, and the academy explores this, along with the latest insights into media planning, online creative, marketing strategy and digital technology.

London - With the standards and best practice for online advertising continuing to develop, there are dozens of new projects under way, and the industry is right to celebrate the diversity of what has become possible online. But in today’s address to the Advertising Operations Leadership Forum in London, Danny Meadows-Klue urged newcomers to “enthusiastically adopt the existing standards and best practices that industry has created”. He went on to say that “by working from these agreed guidelines agencies and clients can have the confidence to plan and buy campaigns that run seamlessly across thousands of website in Europe” - find out more at www.IABEurope.ws

Warsaw - The Polish internet industry, led by the IDG and Agora media groups has teamed up with Digital to address skills shortages across the digital marketing sector. Next month Digital launches the first of its oene day Digital Marketing Academies for FMCG brand managers. The initial courses are aimed at the newer entrants to the industry to help them accelerate their understanding of how online can enhance their brands. Commenting on the launch, Danny Meadows-Klue, Digital's founder and chief executive, said: "There's a skills crisis in the digital marketing industry and it's holding firms back across Poland. This is what happens when a market explodes and suddenly every brand realises they need to be there; a natural product of rapid growth. This is a simple, effective way to boost your results by accessing the latest thinking.

London - Speaking at the IAA European Online Congress in London, Danny Meadows-Klue today talks of a new era in marketing in which brands sought ways to build time with their audiences. He explains how the conversations and social networks of the online environment were creating entirely new opportunities for brand engagement. Reflecting on his address last year about the tipping points for digital marketing, he outlined how those tipping points had now been crossed in Scandinavia, France, Germany and the UK. But at the same time he urged marketers to be bolder in exploring the new digital media mix. Closing words: "The changes that lie ahead for us in the next five years of marketing will dwarf those of the previous ten."

London - The Haymarket Magazine group has again invited Digital to deliver in-company training for its senior management team who are looking to explore further the frameworks for consumer digital publishing. The course is part of the Digital Media Strategy Academy and equips media owners with the tools they need to make stronger strategic decisions for the development of their businesses.

London - At Digital we've been probing people's views for what the online ad industry will be with at the end of the decade. Since 2004 we've been forecasting internet adspend to be around the same size as the TV industry by the end of 2010. TV we expect to drop from 23% into the high teens and although the advent of IPTV will blur some of the definitions, we’re confident that web advertising will overtake national press and then direct mail to match TV. Tonight we invited the Daily Mail’s Guy Zitter, i-Level’s Andrew Walmsley, Future’s Stevie Spring and The Guardian’s Richard Eyre to join us in some crystal ball gazing and suggest what the numbers will be. Only Richard Eyre would be drawn to a number: “With the traditional media all going online, the difference between their online product and their traditional product is blurring; it all blends into one. The future of advertising expenditure will be very different from what we have today. By 2020 50% of UK advertising spend will be online.”

London - The IPC Magazine group has invited Digital to deliver a wide ranging programme of in-company training for its management teams and media sales teams who are looking to learn more about digital marketing. The course is part of the Digital Media Sales Academy and equips media owners with the tools they need to unlock the potential of online commercial revenues. Media brands that cross from print into online have additional potential to harness the power of cross media packages, and the academy explores this, along with the latest insights into media planning, online creative, marketing strategy and digital technology.

London - Online pioneers CNET Networks have invited Digital Strategy Consulting to support the launch of their new UK website ZDNet. The site is a pioneer of Web 2.0 design and architecture.

London - With the standards and best practice for online advertising continuing to develop, there are dozens of new projects under way, and the industry is right to celebrate the diversity of what has become possible online. But in today’s address to the Advertising Operations Leadership Forum in London, Danny Meadows-Klue urged newcomers to “enthusiastically adopt the existing standards and best practices that industry has created”. He went on to say that “by working from these agreed guidelines agencies and clients can have the confidence to plan and buy campaigns that run seamlessly across thousands of website in Europe” - find out more at www.IABEurope.ws

London - The IPC Magazine group has invited Digital to deliver in-company training for its media sales teams who are looking to learn more about digital marketing. The course is part of the Digital Media Sales Academy and equips media owners with the tools they need to unlock the potential of online commercial revenues. Media brands that cross from print into online have additional potential to harness the power of cross media packages, and the academy explores this, along with the latest insights into media planning, online creative, marketing strategy and digital technology.

London - The Interactive Advertising bureau (Mexico) has asked Digital to return to support in the management of the next phase of its growth. Digital was instrumental in the launch and planning of the IAB in Mexico , working with teams from MSN and Yahoo on the idea of a trade body in the country back in 2005. Eighteen months on the plans have delivered a successful body and a booming internet economy and Digital has been reappointed as a strategic advisor for its expansion.

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