âAll marketing is directâ says Harper Reed

Marketers need to create genuine communities if they are going to talk with people one to one in a very real way, Harper Reed, chief technology officer of Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign, told delegates at the DMA Technology Summit on 30 April 2013.

Harper sees community as our number one asset and yet we underestimate it. Businesses looking to facilitate community could learn a lot from the Obama for America campaign, which used technology, intelligence and targeting to create genuine conversations and give people the best user experience.

The internet has democratised access – there is no hierarchy in communication. Marketing today is like ping pong, a two-way activity where sometimes you’re serving and other times you’re on the receiving end. Not my words, but those of Steve Plimsoll, chief technology officer for Mindshare Worldwide and WPP Data Alliance. So businesses need to put the user experience at the centre of everything they do, and learn to be great listeners.This need to listen and not just broadcast messages is seeing a sea change in the way businesses work. Just like marketing channels, departments are no longer operating in silos but are integrated, with marketing and IT teams working closely together. Plimsoll predicts that creative teams of the future will include analysts.

Did you know that by 2017 the chief marketing officer will spend more on IT than the chief information officer? Of course, people need to feel that their data is safe with you for any data-driven marketing to succeed. Channel 4 has struck the right balance with its drive to get viewers to register for 4oD. Head of viewer relationship management at Channel 4, Steve Forde, showed how Channel 4 went out about gaining trust with its viewer promise and has to date got 7 million registered users on 4oD.

Exciting as all this new technology is, it shouldn’t be the focus of activities. Technology is simply the tool that will help you find the solution. As Plimsoll said: “I need a hole not a drill, but I need a drill to make the hole.”

Businesses need to use data and technology to join up all customer touch points to give people a consistent customer experience. Don’t just focus on delivering a brilliant outdoor poster campaign but read through the call script in your contact centre to make sure that when people call they get a consistent customer experience.

Harper goes as far as to say that everything is marketing and Plimsoll takes this one step further by saying: “We’re all direct marketers. If you don’t understand direct marketing you shouldn’t be in advertising.” Do you agree that all marketing is direct today? We’d love to hear your thoughts on this.