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BUS & BOARD Conference 2007 (Long Beach, CA) Panel Overview: Industry Marketing in the Internet Age |
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Written by Barbara Kalkis
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January 19, 2007
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Print may not be dead, but its role in marketing has clearly waned as industry marketers grapple with the enormous opportunities and challenges of winning customers via the web. This was the takeaway of the industry marketing panel at Bus & Board held this week in Long Beach.
Panelists and participants jumped from one topic to another, trying to cover all the opportunities companies have on the web. Barbara Kalkis presented an overview of the web’s impact on industry publishing just over the past seven months, noting the demise of print publications, the launch of new online-only publications and industry blogs, the emergence of video as a means of coverage for people, products and technologies…as well as events. Barbara reminded attendees that the worldwide web leveled the marketing playing field by giving even the smallest and newest companies the same opportunity as multinationals to reach potential customers in every corner of the globe.
Dave Lesser and Chris Ciufo
Some highlights of the discussion:
- Associations have become information and data outlets and provide members with a news source focused on their interests. According to Ray Alderman, VITA is working in conjunction with publications to provide news and share information of mutual interest.
- Rich Nass, CMP Media, sees associations like VITA as information partners by providing coverage and references to various association sites and news updates. According to Rich, CMP will point readers to portals, blogs and association websites, knowing that will bring the reader back to CMP because they see it as a valuable source of information.
- Chris Ciufo, Open-Systems Publishing pointed out that consumers now choose when/where/how they get their information and that publications must use all methods to reach readers.
- Dave Lesser, Simon Group, added on to Chris’s point, saying that agencies must be masters of all web media and use that expertise to guide companies in selecting the right mix (of media) to reach customers.
- Barbara Kalkis, Maestro PR, added that PR gives companies an easy means via direct email to reach the media with more immediacy and with follow-on comments to news stories, in ways not possible via print.
Barbara Kalkis, Rich Nass, Dave Lesser and Chris Ciufo
Selected questions for panelists:
- Journalist credibility. Are web publications more credible than print?
- Aren’t associations really competing with traditional publications?
- Blogs. Are they credible? Should bloggers be considered journalists? Must bloggers follow the same rules of ethics/vetting info/etc as traditional publications? Are they protected by 1st Ammendment like journalists?
- What is the business model for allowing industry web-based publications to succeed and thrive? What is industry’s role in creating a win-win model?
- Keywords. Their importance in news releases and other marketing information. How should these be chosen?
- ROI. How can a marketer measure his ROI is on web advertising and in leads garnered through other press coverage?
- Brand. How can companies build brand using the web?
- Journalists. What is their role in the future?
- Video. What role will journalists play?
- Webcasts/Podcasts. Importance?
--Barbara Kalkis, Maestro Marketing & PR
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