If 2001 – 2011, what we’re calling the “Digital Decade,” has taught us anything, it’s that change is now routine. It has taught us that many long-established rules don’t last long and that we are just now on the cusp of even more dramatic change.

With all that in mind, what might occur after the tenth annual MIMA Summit has passed us by? Here are some random prognostications for the next decade, 2011-2021:

Video Ubiquity

Data storage and transfer costs have been near or at zero for some time now. Camera, screen and encoding technologies get less and less expensive and video capture and editing software gets easier and easier to use. My first prediction is ever-present video, for every computing device and display surface. We will come to prefer our content in motion, often created and always controlled by ourselves. We will walk away from static, inflexible materials and towards moving surfaces and ambient sound. This shift will change the biology of how we interact with each other and with our knowledge. It will often overload us, and stillness will stand out.

Every Surface A Display

Due to innovation in microelectronics, bonding and paint, and fabrication technologies, every wall, tabletop, ceiling, floor, containment material and vehicle exterior will have the capabilities to display digital information. It will be horrible and wonderful all at once. You won’t pick a color for a wall because it can be any color, anytime. Or it can be a video. So, on the one hand, we might not need to carry anything with a screen because everything could be our screen. It also seems possible this technology could capture input as well as display data, meaning you might not need to carry a keyboard or trackpad either.

The New Facebook, By And For The People

I think one of two scenarios might happen with our current most popular network: The first is some form of government presence in the network that is demanded by the people. This might be a reaction to a perceived rise in corporate power, a policy gaffe on Facebook’s part, or a desire to insure rights and protections. Consider this scenario similar to government regulation of broadcast frequencies or air travel. As networks grow more prominent in public life, we will ask where and how they ought to be accessible to all, all the time.

The New Facebook, Isn’t Facebook

Or, if we take the last ten years as any kind of indicator, our society will soon—despite massive, rising adoption—walk away from accounts on facebook.com. We just will, because of what it has become, has not become and because of what isn’t, which is new. This natural evolution is one of any network’s biggest threats. It will spur constant acquisition of perceived threats to leadership. It will someday inspire an actual marketing campaign for Facebook. And yet, another idea might simply take root and do to Facebook as it has done to networks before it.

The New Education

Perhaps the biggest change I see occurring in the next ten years is the beginning of the end of education, as we know it. Too many empowering technologies, the ever-increasing globalization of DIY groups, and the growing sense education should and must change will drive profound effects. Grading will be based on interests, not age. Point systems common to gaming will replace grades. Education will be supplied more and more by a global network of those who are willing to teach versus a mandate of state and local government. Education will not occur in centralized buildings and, perhaps most important, education will not be confined to specific age segments. Graduation day is forever.

I hope you’ll join us this October 11-12 at the tenth annual MIMA Summit when Wired’s Chris Anderson and Google’s Avinash Kaushik keynote along with over 50 session speakers. I’m sure you’ll hear even more (and better) prognostications that inspire useful conversations in the days that follow.

— Tim Brunelle

When will the word ‘interactive’ become irrelevant in marketing? Soon, I hope.

Back in 2001—before the first dot-com crash, before the app marketplace—our predecessors in the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association produced the very first MIMA Summit. I was working in Boston at the time, and recall the fervor that era required, distinguishing interactive marketing from its sluggish parent. ‘Interactive’ described a new approach to thinking about the practice of marketing. It defined a rejection of bureaucracy, an embrace of entrepreneurial action and much better taste in eyewear.

Working in and creating ‘interactive’ has certainly rewritten my deepest understanding of the role of marketing and how it can best serve the needs of the world. And I believe the inception of ‘interactive’ has changed business, not just marketing, forever. A few examples of how interactive marketing advances have impacted business over the past ten years:

Data

The sheer amount of digital data created in the early days used to numb and crush but now serves to inspire, fuel and sustain. In the past decade we have seen data become the new storytelling device. Yet, as our 2011 morning keynote Avinash Kaushik has noted, the vast majority of marketers still do nothing with the incredible stores of data at their command. Where is the next Nike+, which is already over six-years old?

Empowering Tech, Empowered People

Perhaps the greatest impact of the past decade has been the technical means and avid culture inspiring individuals to produce, curate and promote as they see fit. Marketers are no longer the only ones marketing, nor are they entirely in control anymore. This has re-shaped how creative agencies operate and opened billions in realms of new marketing services.

DIY Revolution

Home Depot’s “You can do it. We can help.” tagline synthesizes the effect of interactive upon marketing over the past ten years. Consumers don’t need brands and marketers the same ways that they needed or utilized them in earlier decades. It’s not about passive consumption anymore. Marketers need to embrace the ability and willingness of people to tinker with the inner workings of the brand.

“Good Enough” Revolution*

The flip side of easily empowering technology is a lessening interest in product quality and craftsmanship. The new enemies are cost and time. The World Wide Web and ubiquitous computing creates a false confidence, that anything can be done faster and cheaper. And the truth is this revolution cuts and challenges agencies and marketers with equality.

“Free” Revolution

We also now have the dramatic reduction in costs of processing, data storage and transmission – what was prohibitively priced is now almost free. Where the “Good Enough” revolution lowered expectations of quality, the “Free” revolution made it okay for anyone to act big. Small agencies now have access to tools and functionality that only big agencies could afford in the past. And ‘pro-sumers’ can effectively act as agencies if they want, which they often do.

There are more, and there will be more of these examples. That is the nature of a rapid re-combining, testing, and mutation of existing systems and rules. This is why I’m convinced all marketing is inherently interactive now, and we probably don’t need the term quite as much as we used to. We’re not over yet, not by a long shot.

Good thing there’s the 2011 MIMA Summit coming up, featuring Wired’s Chris Anderson and Google’s Avinash Kaushik. You’re sure to hear about all of these ideas, and many more. And currently all for the same ticket prices as 2009. Hurry, before time runs out.

*Kudos to our 2011 afternoon keynote, Chris Anderson’s Wired magazine for first coining this term.

— Tim Brunelle

A good idea is a funny thing. If you keep it to yourself long enough, it’s no longer a good idea. On the other hand, inviting others to hear your ideas and contribute to them allows them to blossom. Heath Rudduck believes that crowdsourcing your creativity is not only beneficial, but mandatory in this day of ever-increasing complexity across the interactive marketing landscape.

Heath Rudduck is Campbell Mithun’s Chief Creative Officer, a post he started this winter after moving his family west from Boston to the Twin Cities at the end of 2010. I’m not sure which came as a bigger shock: changing residences from his native Australia to the United States or being greeted by four and a half feet of snow upon his arrival in Minneapolis after the blizzards of December 2010.

Barely six months later, Heath seemed right at home with his Minnesota neighbors as he presented Crowdsourcing Creativity at the well-attended MIMA event held at the University of Minnesota’s beautiful McNamara Alumni Center on Wednesday.

The first part of Heath’s presentation examined how complex our marketing and technology landscape has become, a point which was underscored by the event staff’s initial difficulties in projecting the slides from Rudduck’s laptop. Heath cited a plethora of new gadgets and technologies that have made our lives both more convenient and complex.

This complexity has made for an extremely fragmented interactive marketplace, and this fragmentation requires that more thought and collaboration go into new creative and marketing ideas than ever before. Gone are the Mad Men days of copywriter and art director duos. Today’s teams also require new roles such as user experience strategists, media planners, and even search engine optimization professionals to be successful.

Adjusting to all these new touch points and contributors to our efforts can be difficult, but Heath had five suggestions to ease into crowdsourcing creativity within our own teams:

1. Relax to go fast
2. Stop hiring in your own image
3. Embrace the entrepreneur
4. Risk getting it wrong
5. Embrace the under-confident over-achiever

Heath finished with the thought that it takes a village to raise an idea. Good ideas will go bad and will never become great if their originator doesn’t share and grow them with team members of different skill sets, passions and perspectives. This requires a new level of planning for most creative projects, which isn’t always easy or fun. But all this planing pays off when our campaigns are able to capture the attention of today’s consumer and their increasingly complex worlds.

Blog-Only Bonus: After the event, Heath sat down with me to share his ideas on his own creative process and when he considers a good idea to be complete.

Watch the post-event interview on Vimeo.

Crowdsourcing Creativity was an entertaining and insightful look into developing creative ideas. Heath’s presentation added to the list of successful 2011 MIMA events, which are building up to the 10th Anniversary of the MIMA Summit in October. Register now for discounted tickets before it’s too late.

Advertising and marketing professionals have all long known that great brands – and great campaigns – are primarily built on great ideas. And that developing and communicating great ideas depends on great copywriting. Just ask any copy writer.

Seriously though. The classics are memorable, in part, because they so clearly provoke strong emotional connections with the intended audience for the message.

Indeed. Traditionally its the copy writer’s ideas and words that tell us what we can expect. Consider: “Mm, Mm good.”

Or they remind us about what we aspire to be. Such as: “Breakfast of champions.”

Or they promise something new that will change our lives for the better. Who can forget: “Think small.”

Just for context, in case these little gems are not part of your personal experience, they are examples are slogans from 60s-era campaigns for Campbell’s Soup, Wheaties and Volkswagen, respectively. Anyway. The list goes on and on.

As you might have noticed, the media landscape has evolved and grown over the last decade (or two) to include new communication channels that offer more and more and more ways to get the word out about the product or service you want to promote.

At the same time, you may also have noticed that these new channels, while opening new opportunities to marketers, are also changing the way people respond to marketing messages and relate to brands.

Essentially, new technologies like social media, mobile internet, radio frequency identification, geo-location and other “Dick Tracy-like” capabilities are rapidly reshaping the way consumers behave.

The upshot of all this? The role of the writer, ever essential to the creative process and the creative product, is changing. Evolving. Growing. Even maturing?

Teressa Iezzi, editor of Advertising Age’s Creativity magazine wants to help us understand where our industry is headed – and how copy writers will continue to help drive results as the paradigm shifts force marketers to update the way they do their jobs.

This must be a subject on the minds of many creative and marketing leaders these days. Because more than 200 MIMA members and guests, convened for the February monthly presentation to listen to ideas from her recently published book, The Idea Writer: Copywriting in a New Media and Marketing Era.

(Kudos to the programming committee for bringing her in to speak with us. And a sincere thank you to Teresa for traveling here to share her experience and insights with us.)

The good news is: while technology innovations are driving the changes in how marketers and consumers interact, the fundamentals of human nature remain the same. So while copy writers may have an expanded set of tools to use to communicate ideas, their primary duty – to help create relationships with consumers is pretty much unchanged.

Basically, copy writers simply have more competencies they need to develop. Just like copy writers in the 90s had to learn to expand their range from ideating and writing print ads, direct mail, sales collateral, outdoor and broadcast to also include websites, banner ads and e-mails, copy writers today must continue to expand their repertoire to include social media, “apps” and more. Because developing effective ideas, depends on understanding the underlying technologies.

So the craft of copywriting is not dying. It is simply changing. From being mastery of writing to including mastery of conversation.  And being conversant with technology.

Our industry will always need idea people. Word people. People who can take complex ideas and boil them down into something easy-to-read and easy-to-understand. (Like helping people quickly get the gist of an hour-long presentation that touches on a lot of great ideas.)

If you can do that, you’re golden. Writers who can engage readers will always be in demand. There will always be a need for Mm, Mm good ideas and writing.

Download the podcast (available soon, please check the Resources section next time you visit this website) and listen to the complete conversation for a number of practical insights. And be sure to leave your comments here, to share the key take aways you think are important.

The programming committee continues to impress with the quality of the monthly presentations they plan and host. If you need proof, just look at the more than 200 MIMA members and guests who showed up at the Metropolitan Ballroom bright and early Wednesday morning for the July event: a panel discussion on integrated communications.

The panel format works well for challenging topics, such as integrated communications, for a number of reasons. You get to hear more than one point-of-view. You get to learn from some of experts we have right here in our local professional community. And you get to participate in the conversation yourself, as was evidenced by the many thoughtful questions and insights offered by the audience.

Moderator Andrew Eklund, CEO and Founding Partner at Ciceron, set up the conversation by showing three charts describing the media environment that underscore the degree of difficulty marketers have with integrated communications.

The first chart showed media channels available in 1975. It featured a dozen or so data points – television, radio, newspaper, outdoor, direct mail, etc. – and corresponding arrows pointing at how they touch the consumer of the media. Very neat, organized and easy to look at.

The second chart showed the media channels available in 2008. With the addition of digital media, the number of data points and delivery arrows mushroomed. Imagine a chaotic web created by a hyperactive spider on mescaline. (That’s a powerful and dangerous mind altering substance, kids; leave it alone.) There were many nods of agreement when this slide was displayed.

The third chart showed the media channels available in 2010. With the addition of social media, the number of data points and deliver arrows was so dense that it was, indeed, a solid black box, with every pixel filled with information. This got a few knowing, and nervous, chuckles.

Eklund then opened the discussion by stating that, with our evolving media environment, integrated communications is like a holy grail to marketers and asking if we have found it.

Paul Ratzky, Interactive Director and Vice President at Olson, observed that the concept of integrated communications keeps changing, because the integrator is shifting from the agency to the consumer, as people select their own channel pathways. Which means marketers need to follow their audience and deliver messages in the audience’s preferred channel, as opposed to trying to move them into the marketer’s channel of choice.

Glenn Karowski, Managing Director, The Business of Ideas, added that effective integrated communications is about conversation and relationships. And the key is to be a good listener.

When asked who is responsible for listening to consumers (marketing? branding? advertising?) Erik Erickson, Owner of Erickson McGee, LLC and former Vice President and Creative Director for Target commented that we are still in the early stages of figuring out how to listen. And that figuring out what to do with what we hear is the next big challenge.

Download the podcast (available soon, please check the Resources section next time you visit this website) and listen to the complete conversation for a number of practical insights. And be sure to leave your comments here, to share the key take aways you think are important.

What is crowd sourcing, you may ask? It’s like a new-fangled online contest combined with an old-fashioned cattle call – where project-based jobs are posted, creative-types submit their entries and the winner(s) receive the prize: compensation for the time and talent they invested. It’s a new paradigm, with the potential to revolutionize the way creative services professionals work, and the way businesses utilize creative services.*

Crowd sourcing is the act of making social media productive

This according to MIMA’s June’s speaker, John Winsor, a leading strategic marketing and product innovation thinker especially known for his work in collaboration, co-creation and crowd sourcing.

He is a serial entrepreneur who has started and sold successful businesses, a respected author of four business books and the CEO of Victors and Spoils, the world’s first creative/ad agency built entirely on crowd sourcing principles. And he had the 200+ MIMA members and guests present at the Calhoun Beach Club the morning of the 16^th alternately nodding enthusiastically with approval and recoiling in horror. What could create such a dramatic range of responses?

Crowd sourcing may democratize the creative class and displace the agency model

As Winsor observed, technology is driving change in the workforce. Transparency is flattening organizations as walls become more porous. A digital workforce has the latest tools and can work anywhere at any time. The rise of the curator class has created a new generation of social and creative directors and editors. And the economy has accelerated the death of the middle man.

Together, these disruptive forces could spell the end of the old agency model, which is based on bringing talent and resources together in one room to get the job done. For example, Winsor said one of the top performing graphic designers in his agency’s emerging crowd sourcing network is a young, stay-at-home mother from Serbia, who is “beating” many of the experienced agency professionals who submit entries.

Crowd sourcing has the potential to liberate you or destroy you

Winsor shared a personal story from his background in publishing. In the mid-80s, he spent $30,000 annually on professional typesetting services. A $2,300 investment in a Macintosh Classic and a laser printer allowed him to reinvest the savings in other magazine properties and grow his businesses. He also pointed out that many successful agency designers got their start by taking advantage of tools developed during the “desktop publishing” revolution.

These technology changes created opportunities for some, while putting a whole industry of highly skilled craftsmen – typesetters, key liners, camera operators – out of work. Today, we are at a similar point, where only those who adapt to changes will remain working in their chosen field.

Crowd sourcing is gaining in popularity

Chief marketing officers are under pressure to perform. They want the best work AND the best value. Winsor gave one recent example. For his client’s previous brand campaign, their agency of record had four creatives, who came up with eight ideas and delivered two campaigns. Victors and Spoils brought 1,000 creatives onto the job. They came up with 105 ideas and delivered nine campaigns. All for 25% of what was billed by the agency of record.

Businesses aren’t the only winners, though. Entrepreneurial creatives (read: disciplined, talented freelancers) appreciate the freedom and independence the crowd sourcing model offers. And because no one can be an expert in all the new and evolving roles people play in the creative/marketing world, crowd sourcing gives creatives and marketers alike the freedom to diversify and specialize without pressure to be a jack of all trades and a master of none.

Crowd sourcing is …

How would you finish the sentence? Which concepts do you agree with? What don’t you like about it? What other “take aways” made an impression on you. Please leave your comments.

* Tip of the hat and a nod to one of my former employers, a leading innovator in staffing and project outsourcing called Creatis, Inc., whose former tag line/brand promise was “changing the way creatives work … and the way businesses utilize creative services.” We had some great clients and truly amazing people who were committed to the business model.

On possibly one of the most quintessentially pleasant mid-spring evenings cherished by Minnesotans who’ve endured the long, cold dark, approximately 200 MIMA members and guests chose to resist the temptations of warm sunshine and the lingering scent of lilacs drifting through the air to instead convene at Solera on the 19^th for the May event.

Crazy? Hardly! These Twin Cities-area marketing professionals were all eager to listen to local-girl-done-well-for-herself, Porter Gale – VP of Marketing at the brand innovator, Virgin America Airlines.  And as the photo gallery shows, a good time was had by all.

Some of you may remember when, once upon a time, she was at Martin Williams. Indeed, some of her old cronies were in attendance to help keep her on her toes. On this day, she flew in from San Francisco to talk about how her company uses interactive channels, including social media, to make limited marketing dollars go, well, farther.

If you’ve flown in the last 20 years or so, your airline experience may have focused on enduring the process of getting to your destination rather than enjoying the journey. One of the things Minneapolis advertising legend Ray Mithun used to say is: “If 13 is unlucky for someone, it must be lucky for someone else. We decided, at the start of our business, to be someone else.”

While Gale did not refer to this tenet of the agency that bears Mithun’s name, the point is: in an industry full of brand mediocrity, Virgin America decided to be lucky number 13. The heart of its marketing strategy, according to Gale, is to position the airline as different from anything else in the category. The company’s goals are to create an airline people love and to reinvent travel.

When Virgin America profiled its customers, the company realized its best customers are opinion leaders who enjoy using social media and other new technology. So it is using this information to help distance itself from the competition and chart a new course for airline travelers by using three innovative social media marketing approaches.

• Create buzz-worthy experiences
• Engage customers and listen to them
• Connect with customers on a genuine level rather than “marketing at them”

Gale’s slide set and the podcast from her presentation both provide details on how Virgin America executes on these approaches. Check the resources section next time you visit this website, as they should be available soon. Perhaps some ideas may translate well to your company and industry? Or spark creative marketing ideas of your own?

She left lots of time for questions and answers. And audience members responded by asking her to elaborate on many different topics. Following are selected insights on social media shared by Gale.

On customer relationships

“Social media should be authentic, real and honest. People should follow because they want to.”

On celebrity endorsements

“Most of the people fly Virgin already and just do it for ticket trades. We look for natural relationships matched to a purposeful reason for the endorsement.”

On co-branding partnership opportunities

“We don’t have an agency helping source our partnerships. We believe in ‘less is more’ and ‘going deep rather than broad.’ Chemistry and fit is important to us, as is having a fair and equitable relationship.”

On marketing team structure

“Sir Richard (Richard Branson, major shareholder and corporate “celebrity”) is a risk taker. If you believe in taking risks, you need to empower your people.”

On measuring ROI

“Our guests are using social media. Since they will talk, we joined the conversation. We look at how our social media strategy affects customer relationship management.”

On the pace of change

“If someone says they are social media experts, you should question them.”

Which memorable concepts did you take away? What quotable quotes made an impression on you? Why was listening to Porter Gale and schmoozing with your MIMA colleagues the best use of your time on one of the few remaining warm, yet bug-free evenings left to enjoy this spring? Please share your comments.

On a blustery November morning, nearly 400 MIMA members and guests convened at the Depot in downtown Minneapolis for the monthly presentation and networking event.

It was standing room only; the crowd buzzing with conversation beforehand, listening intently during the program (and laughing together at the speakers’ humorous comments) then asking thoughtful questions before departing. And if this kind of participation continues to increase, the nation’s largest regional Internet Marketing Association may need to start reserving larger venues – a la convention centers or sports arenas.

7:30 am comes pretty early for most peoples’ schedules. At that hour, what could possibly bring together so many marketers, innovators, entrepreneurs, creatives, new media types and others who are curious about latest developments in the interactive space where technology and business intersect?

In addition to the quality of the content, it might be the opportunity to share ideas and inspiration – over coffee and a tasty breakfast – with leading thinkers in our industry. If you have attended events before, you know. If you have not, make a point of attending a future event to see for yourself.

This month’s program, the Constant Challenge to Acquire and Convert, served up some classic marketing strategy with a heavy emphasis on contemporary interactive tactics. The information was presented by John Barton, Vice President of Creative Services of Sight Marketing and Tom Masterman, Associate Director, Earth Collaboratory Initiative for the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota.

Far from being a boring theoretical lecture or a dry technical discussion, John and Tom made their presentation equal parts education and entertainment. Effortlessly switching back and forth between the roles of straight man and comedian, it was like watching the Smothers Brothers* talk about what’s going on in the interactive world instead of current global geo-political affairs.

Indeed. Interspersing smart marketing ideas with smart aleck commentary made a fairly content-heavy presentation stream by effortlessly. And they wisely provided key take aways and practical “how to” ideas you can take back to the office and begin using right away. All in all, an excellent way to start the day.

Take away number one: Measure everything – don’t accept unfocused targets or unmeasurable social media.

Associated action item: Go to wefollow.com or twazzup.com and listen.

Take away number two: Be organized – coordinate tactics, separate measurement (drive traffic for each tactic to a different URL, use different key code, etc.) and plan for data-driven relationships.

Associated action item: List campaign elements and expected outcomes, then make sure you can isolate what is driving results for each.

Take away number three: Get personal – know the story for each individual … so you can write the next chapter.

Associated action item: Take your customer service manager out to lunch, and your sales manager out for drinks, and ask a lot of questions that will help you gain insights into your customers’ relationship with your products, services and brand.

For more details, please review the take away slide they provided.

* Cultural reference for the younger crowd: The Smothers Brothers were a popular comedy duo in the late 60s known for liberal politics and championing social causes. Look them up on YouTube. You’ll laugh at more than the turtleneck sweaters. And you might think about what is happening in today’s news.

On August 12, about 200 MIMA members and guests gathered after work at the Metropolitan Ballroom in Golden Valley to sip cocktails, snack on hors d’oeuvres and network. And a fine evening was had by all.

Our guest speaker for the evening was John Dames, Design Director at CoolFire Media who traveled up the Mississippi from St. Louis to share his experience as a designer who has “done it all.” From print design to motion graphics to commercials, and now, most recently, iPhone applications.

John’s philosophy is simple. “My goal is now and has always been to make stuff. Not talk about it, write about it or think on it. But find a way to get it done and execute.”

Sounds like a common sentiment from most of the designers I know. One of the first things he said by way of introduction to his presentation was that he wasn’t a public speaker. So the evening depended kind of heavily on samples from the CoolFire Media reel that he brought with him as examples.

With that in mind, here are some gold nuggets taken from an hour and a half of ramblings, tangents and free-association on the subject of designing across platforms. This was all good right-brain stuff, after all. You just had to really listen for it.

General observations
“When taking on a new design challenge, it’s okay not knowing everything about the tools you are using. What you don’t know means you innovate.”

“Less people, money, resources and time has forced the return of the holistic thinking role of a designer.”

“Talent can trump depth and infrastructure any day. With the right people you can accomplish great things with small teams.”

“Designing across platforms allows marketers to more effectively create the user experience they want their audience to have.”

“Designers are now taking a more defining role in developing the user experience.”

Strategies for success
1. Take a holistic approach to production. “Want to do everything. Be happy doing anything.”

2. Allow cross pollination of disciplines. “Don’t just execute ideas – feel empowered to have ideas and share them with others on the team.”

3. Encourage blurring of roles. “Who knows where design is going to take you. Listen to everyone.”

What is coming next culturally and business wise?
“More advertising and branding messages will be integrated into content.”

“The internet is becoming more codified, less of a content dumping ground.”

“Media is all independent of the medium it appears in.”

“Procedural culture is driving change – nothing stays the same.”

“Design will become even more relevant, to help facilitate effective communication.”

Conclusion
What gold nuggets did you leave with? Reply to this blog post with some of the highlights you found meaningful.

So where are you reading this blog post from? Your home in Minneapolis. Your office over the River in St. Paul? Or a coffee shop in Mexico?

You know they call it “the world wide web” for a reason. And as the infrastructure to support it expands around the globe – and as the technology to access it becomes more affordable and readily available – the Internet truly is facilitating communication across widely dispersed geo-political boundaries. So visitors to your website could be coming from anywhere on earth, really.

Lots of smart interactive marketing professionals recognize the Internet’s burgeoning capability to facilitate international transactions. Recently, 200+ members of the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association (and guests) met at W Minneapolis for our July event, featuring a presentation by Joe Kutchera an expert in online marketing and building sales in Latin American markets and founder of dotGlobal, an international e-commerce and media consultancy.

Joe spoke to the group about concepts related to localization and internationalization, using Latin American markets as an example. Here are select highlights from his full presentation.

Localization trends
Joe gave us some examples of how geographic boundaries can affect shopping behavior.

Price. According to Joe, who lives in New York City, many people in Manhattan cross the Hudson River to save on groceries and gas, because prices are less expensive and taxes are lower in New Jersey. Or compare the prices for the same products available on Dell’s U.S and Mexican online stores (both prices given in USD).
• Inspiron 13” – Dell.com: $499; Dell.com.mx: $665
• Studio Slim Desktop – Dell.com: $399; Dell.com.mx: $702
• Dell V305 Printer – Dell.com: $99; Dell.com.mx: $132
(Sources: Dell.com and Dell.com.mx, July 2009)

Availability. Joe shared several anecdotes about Latin American friends who frequently seek out U.S. sources to buy products because they often have greater selection and better quality. For a local example, who among us as creative and enterprising MIMA members have not crossed the St. Croix River on a Sunday afternoon at least once to replenish the liquor cabinet after a rollicking party the night before, because of Minnesota blue laws prohibiting alcohol sales on Sunday?

Internationalization trends
Joe provided a variety of figures verifying what we already know: the Internet is an increasingly international space. A look at the top 50 ostensibly U.S. websites shows that many are getting more traffic from abroad than from U.S. visitors. The New York Times web edition gets 42% of its readers from abroad, Twitter 51%, YouTube 81% and Facebook 82%.

Where could these visitors be browsing your website from? According to Internet World Stats, the top five most used languages on the Internet are: English (430.8 million), Mandarin (276.2 million), Spanish (124.7 million), Japanese (94.0 million) and French (68.2 million).

Indeed. For those of you who think visually — or for you verbal people like me who need context to put large numbers into perspective — try this on. The Minneapolis Star Tribune print edition reported two days after Joe’s presentation that China now has more people who are online than the entire population of the United States.

Opportunities for marketers
How are Latin Americans and Spanish-speaking people in the United States finding your website? By typing Spanish terms into their favorite search engines. Joe suggests making sure your SEO strategies include optimizing your site for Spanish (and other important international languages).

Look at your media plan. Joe said to think about your audience’s international language needs or professional interests horizontally across the vertical media channels in your strategy.

Target your messaging. Joe said there are a lot of ways to deliver messages to international audiences.
• By IP address or geographic region
• Re-target (follow up)
• Behavioral/linguistic
• Contextual (by subject)
• Profession/company/social network
• Country

Explore emerging g-commerce best practices. Joe said there is tremendous opportunity for marketers in the United States who make it easier for customers from around the world to buy their products.
• Give your visitors a choice of geographic denominations to transact in and make your offers available in multiple denominations.
• Give your visitors a choice of geographic locations to pick up products they order. If you do not have a physical presence in a foreign market where consumers are looking for your product or service, partner with a business there who can serve as a distributor for you.