Today I had a ‘presentation’ for the top-dogs of the SA office. It went quite well (I think) & it seems like there is a bit of interest in the implementation thereof. However, I could see that there were a few confused, dazed & even (sortof) threatened looks on some of the faces. Mike, I assume this is normal?!?
It is now clear to me that change is a scary thought for many individuals and organisations. It might be scary, but it is essential, & thus also inevitable. If I am not mistaking, the #1 environmental factor that most influences business is that of change, environmental change that is. Be it in the internal, industry or international environment. A constant scan should be performed and I find it astonishing that so many organisations are simply overlooking the magnitude of online trends. Screw eMarketing, I am talking about a package deal here. Myself and Uno were briefly discussing it this morning and it appears to us that even eMarketing firms are as closed-minded and dof as a lot of the conservative/traditional organisations out there.
Why have Ogilvy not yet fired up an online department? Why are they referring clients to firms which are supposed to be direct competition? I am all for competition and a diverse market, hell I am the first one to shut down a monopoly. However, the fact is that business-wise, this makes no sense. Effectively the market is splitting itself down the middle, it must be because everyone is stupid 
No, I’m just joking, but is there a specific reason why the marketing industry now has 2 separate branches at the expense of obvious revenue?
Even if the traditional marketing firms team up with the online marketing firms to create package deals, it would make more sense. That way they get to stay specialised and make the outsourcing process for their clients a whole lot easier. Actually, I think I like this strategy more. Methinks Cerebra & Quirk should team up with Ogilvy or Joe Public or whoever really, to provide a valuable and effective combined package. That way more than one company benefits from another company’s client base without it being at the expense of the bigger company. Pareto Optimality.
Anyway, there are so many flawed industry tactics out there. Which ones have you noticed?
4 responses so far ↓
bsdguru // March 15, 2007 at 8:07 pm
You keep forgetting that companies see things as being old school. You mentioned at 27Dinner kicking off the Clickatell Blog again, any news when this will be up?
Generally you have to do politicing to various people in the company prior to any presentation. Remember the days where Clickatell were giving away free SMS messages ala MTNSMS.com style?
It built brand (getting users to see the value in mobile messaging, it put the Clickatell name out there, that’s how I first ‘heard’ about Clickatell via the V&A Waterfront SMS service).
I work with the marketing guy who talked Vodacom into allowing him to tag please call me messages, as they were missing out on revenue generation opportunities.
Remember to give examples and take things in baby steps, especially for non-marketing people who don’t know your vocabulary of marketing lingo.
Uno De Waal // March 15, 2007 at 9:51 pm
Stii has a really good post on this I think (sorry I’m link lazy right now). It’s very easy for us here to say yeah, youse gotsta do this and that, but when you are sitting with a company that has sensitive information, it isn’t always in the best interests to make that information open and so (even internally) publicly available.
It’s great being able to harnass tacit knowledge, but you need to be really careful in spreading that knowledge. Ofcourse for us it’s great, we want that, but not if you’re doing product development that competitors shouldn’t be seeing.
Another thing is that we still have quite a long way before RSS and the concept of syndication is fully understood at all levels. “Oh, so it’s like a newsletter?”
/me smacks forhead.
sessa // March 15, 2007 at 10:02 pm
sure, information is sensitive. obviously, the fact is that harnassing information, socially does not put you at a disadvantage. It is knowledge you would previously not have, and with this knowledge one could formulate something different incorporating functions of various ideas which could be unique to the company. Developed internally. It is like building a bank of secondary data to facilitate the process of formulating primary data.
And, sure, what I said about merging to halves of the same industry is idealistic and theoretical, but, if the two companies serve two different purposes and a certain level of alliance arises, then working together on a tailor made package is not disclosing sensitive information.
However, I do not agree with your counter-transparent outlook on internal sharing of information. I believe if everyone, internally, is fully equipped with company knowledge (ESPECIALLY operational knowledge) then performance level would be for the better. There is obviously some information that does not need to be disclosed, but that sort of information should be kept to the absolute minimal.
Anyway, when I refer to implementing social media, corporately, I do not necessarily refer to implementing the exact same concept. One tailors the concept to fit in with your needs and especially with sensitivity. These are all natural factors that should be taken into consideration without even discussing whether to, or not to.
sessa // March 16, 2007 at 9:50 am
Jacques, TFYC. You say “I keep forgetting” as if I often forget this one fact. Please substantiate. The blog will go live once participation levels are what they have to be and once people know what to do with it. Guidelines need to be set and a general goal should be in mind. It is silly to just up it and see where it takes you without any idea where you want to end up. However, it will go live within the next month.
Regarding the free SMS, that was before Clickatell’s service changed to what it is today. We are now a service provider. If you want to set-up a service which gives away free sms’s with and advertising revenue model, feel free to contact us. You buy the SMS’s and charge a premium rate for your advertisers. We aren’t interested in that. We merely provide the most effective service which enables other people to do exactly what the want with SMS.
I understand the brand building you talk of, however, we do have other means of getting our brand out there, these are very effective. Remember, Clickatell is not consumer orientated at the moment. We are concentrating on enterprise messaging. Keep your eyes peeled for some interesting additions though.