Marketers, do you own the conversation?

Social platforms, the Internet and mobile venues are changing when consumers connect with others, how they read and interact with news and why they choose different products. It has many marketers trying new ad platforms to reach those crucial demographics but the wrong advertising could have a negative effect on the consumer - and the brand.

by Kristina Knight

According to venture capitalist Mark Kvamme, partner with Sequoia Partners, marketers must own the conversations about their products and services. If you don't own the conversation, which includes everything from the old :30 TV spot to new rich media ad formats online, you could be doing the brand a disservice.

Kvamme's suggestion? Try something out of the box. Rather that transplanting television commercial to an online format or simply shortening a TV Ad, marketers need to think about blurring the lines between content and ads to create a new type of format that consumers can interact with.

Instead of investing marketing dollars only in typical paid search, place a bit of that cash in new search platforms which return pictures, video clips and even Wikipedia information rather than the standard one or two line entries in paragraph formats.

Another of Kvamme's suggestions? Don't forget social. He, like many American's, admits to getting the bulk of his news from a few trusted blogs. Finding blogs which have high traffic from a demographic interested in your products is a great investment of marketing dollars. Place a sponsorship on the site or advertise within specific topic areas to get the best targeted traffic.

Tags: online marketing, online video, search advertising

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1) You CANNOT "own" a conversation, the mere idea is absurd. Mark Kvamme doesn't get it. 2) A 30 second TV spot or "rich media ad" is NOT a "conversation." No one is conversing! It's a one-way street.

Posted by: Bambi on June 6, 2008 20:36