Digital marketing has caused quite a stir across the marketing landscape over the last 20 years. A totally different beast to traditional advertising (TV, Radio, Print etc), digital marketing has grown over the years from a tactical/experimental execution into an essential part of every campaign’s media mix (often taking preference over other traditional channels).

With digital forming such a huge part of everyone’s lives, you would think that digital marketing would be widely understood within traditional marketing and advertising agencies, however it is not. Traditional above the line (ATL) ad agencies still have no clue about how digital really works and of the multitude of channels available within the digital ecosystem. I believe that many traditional advertising and media agencies still see digital as a threat, an unfamiliar and complicated medium that is filtering away more and more of their campaign budgets.

I have a different view; digital marketing is the glue that holds a full 360 degree campaign together. While there is a lot of digital advertising that follows the formula of ATL media (reach, frequency, impact etc) there is one medium in particular that is entirely unique. Search engine marketing (SEM).

Search has revolutionised the way we use the internet and the way that we acquire knowledge in general. Search engines provide direct access to the information that consumers are searching for within seconds. Search marketers are able to target specific keywords and display relevant adverts to the users searching for those terms, providing endless targeting ability based on consumer behaviour and insights.

So why should traditional agencies care?

SEM provides a strong call to action and an instant gateway to any campaign. What this does is it allows agencies to be far more creative than ever before when creating executions/campaign for high reach mediums like TV and outdoor. Gone are the days that a billboard needed to feature the company name, the product or service and other vital information. Today advertisers can focus more on creating impact and standing out from the all the clutter. If the campaign is creative and manages to capture the consumers attention, all the consumer needs to do to find out more is type a few phrases into Google on their phones or PC’s and they can be transported directly to all the campaign information.

Have a look at the Telkom Mobile Heita campaign. Bold creative outdoor executions and TV teasers provided a lot of interest and speculation about the campaign without the need to display a traditional call to action (URL, Facebook page, in store etc):

This call to action was included within a SEM campaign that captured consumers interest in the campaign and directed them to the official channels where they could view more of the campaign:

Would this be possible without search, I suppose so – but not nearly as effective, in this case search provided the ability for users to instantly find out what all the hype was about. In addition this permanent always available call to action allowed the creative agency the freedom to do something creative in ATL media to create the impact and hype that they were looking for without totally confusing consumers.

Do you have any other thoughts or idea about this? Let us know in the comments section.

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Everyone loves a good time lapse video, but today we have something special for you. Norwegian photographer Terje Sorgjerd spent a week freezing his ass off around the regions of Kirkenes and Pas National Park to capture some breathtaking time lapse footage of aurora borealis.

The Aurora from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo.

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