Comments on: CM Conversation: Laura Desmond, CEO Starcom MediaVest Group

By: Book

Book — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 13:06:48 +0000

That's it for now.
Good luck with all the prep work you must be swamped with by. Thanks..

By: Ben Shepherd

Ben Shepherd — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 07:55:24 +0000

Another one from me – how is Starcom transitioning from being a ‘media buyer’ to a communications/business partner (ie strategy, planning, activations, events, content creation, econometrics etc) and how is this being received by clients?

By: Lora Lufark aka SexySEO

Lora Lufark aka SexySEO — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 16:40:56 +0000

“In our day and age when traditional online marketing strategies based on content oriented advertising are gradually becoming obsolete and first attempts to introduce a new user oriented advertising model (like Becon) failed miserably, what is in your opinion holding this new trend back – is it a lack of clearly defined methodology capable to realize the colossal potential for targeted delivery we have in raw user data, or merely a lack of processing power to implement those methodologies, or perhaps it is just conservatism of advertisers coupled with stubbornness of Social Networks who are afraid of sharing any data about their users that’s slowing it down?”

By: ivan sutila

ivan sutila — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 06:45:15 +0000

would be interesting to know how SMG handles flatness of the world, maybe Tom could help to formulate the question.

By: nmw

nmw — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 05:35:38 +0000

Is Ms. Desmond concerned about monopolistic exploitation on the Internet (e.g. by Google, Inc.)? What risks does she see if her clients were to become too dependent on one provider of information services (such as online advertising and/or internet marketing)? On the other hand, if she doesn't fear any negative results of "putting all the eggs in one basket", could she wager a guess concerning what opportunities might be attainable by using such a "betting on one horse" strategy? Finally, what does Ms. Desmond expect might happen if all of a sudden there is a widespread realization that ppc advertising and/or link-based marketing/advertising models are a "folly"?

By: Gui Ambros

Gui Ambros — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 03:36:44 +0000

as a top executive at SMG Laura has a big responsibility over *buying* media for her clients.

Still, despite all the growth, *buying* media (even on digital) most of the time is just the traditional way of thinking applied to new channels.

With the growth of social media, where customers are in charge of relationship with brands and products, pure one-way "push media" tends to play a secondary role. Far from being unimportant (it's much more actionable and measurable than traditional channels), but you don't necessarily need to spend huge amount of money in media to get your message on customer's mouth.

I'd suggest you ask her

1) what does the future reserves to SMG, considering the new context where customers are in charge and less open to media of any kind, regardless of channel?

2) will search kill the retail campaigns on display media?

3) what's the role of content on the media plans.

4) what's her forecast for 2009-2010 in terms of growth? Will the conversion from TV and traditional channels offset the economy slowdown?

By: John Battelle

John Battelle — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 23:49:36 +0000

@joshua sorry about that, fixed the link, thanks!

By: Joshua Weinberger

Joshua Weinberger — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 23:19:12 +0000

John:
First, I believe you left off a link here:
"...my writings on CPG vs. Conversational Media, here..." [I'm dying to read what lies on the other end of the phantom link! or was that "my writings, here" just an oblique reference to all our writings on this site?]

I digress.

I've got a few to toss Laura's way:
a) We hear a lot about how the digital channel has "opened up" the creative side of marketing -- but does Laura feel anything has been lost or is constrained by ever-smaller media?

b) How does she/SMG convince clients that brand marketing works -- or even better, when it's NOT working and that it's time to pull the plug or switch gears? (A perfect segue to get her 2¢ on the MSFT/Seinfeld campaign(s), btw.)
(You may have to lead into all this, of course, by asking if she's a believer in brand marketing in the first place.)

c) I also love @rodneyrumford's point -- above -- about **metrics** in this Brave New (Social) World of ours - what metrics has Laura seen that (really) work, and what are they telling us about the maturity of digital?

d) Since she's playing show-and-tell, can you please insist (well....strongly recommend) that she bring along a **failure** to discuss, as well as case-study-worthy successes?

That's it for now.
Good luck with all the prep work you must be swamped with/by.
j.

By: Ben Shepherd

Ben Shepherd — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 23:04:11 +0000

I’d ask Laura what SMG are doing to try and integrate measurement across the board – ie, be able to report on a campaign across mediums and being able to start analysing the impact of each channel in the purchase funnel. Digital is still measured effectively in a silo and very rarely is any insight gained into how internet works with TV, mobile with radio, in game with magazine etc.

Disclaimer: I work for MindShare so am mainly asking this question more out of curiosity … but I do think it’s a relevant issue for agencies looking to increase client confidence/spend/advocacy on digital channels.

By: rodney rumford

rodney rumford — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 22:43:23 +0000

Ask her how brands (her clients) plan on doing social relationship management (a new term I coined) and measuring social influence and impact on the brands?

Shouldn’t brands try to find a efficient way to measure digital influence and connect/manage relationships with the digital influencers that are already speaking about their brands?

Just a few top of mind thoughts as I push forward with a new project http://www.sociallybranded.com

Cheers!