Invest in people, not media After successful digital marketing masterclasses in Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius in april 2009, Nick Baggott (Navigate Consulting Ltd, UK) shares his opinions about marketing in digital era:

Invest in people, not media
It is not advisable to buy internet PR (blogging, comments, social networks, etc) service from PR agencies. It is too slow and too expensive. PR agencies can offer you advice what to do and how to do and what are hot topics, but companies need to have their own people actually executing the communication in social networks.

Today companies need to spend more money on employing good people in their marketing departments and less money on buying expensive media!


The future of marketing department
Marketing used to be one function in the company. Today marketing is really everywhere. All departments and levels of the company should be involved in marketing. There is a need for 3 kinds of marketers:
(1) analyst – somebody who analyses and understands all sorts of data about consumers and media; (2) author/publisher – somebody who creates things: blogs, videos, artwork;
(3) influencer – somebody who understands audiences, selects right content and creative solutions.

These people understand what is hot and trendy.


The role of agencies
Traditional advertising /media agency model is broken. Agencies used to earn money by marking up media and production cost, but this model does not work any more. Agencies must really add value and have the bigger picture of market and consumers. Agencies also can offer creativity. Creative minds usually dont want to work for one client only and that´s why they prefer to work for agencies, not in clients marketing departments.


Problems with internet advertising
The main problem with internet advertising is that there is too much information. You can get 36-page report for your banner ad every day! Technical terms are often not standardized and that is why it is very difficult to really understand and measure internet advertising. Too much data and too complicated terminology.