Change Impetus Group

We received a final notification regarding the status of our entry into the Innovation Exchange Challenge for the "Marketing with a Twist" campaign for an international automotive manufacturer. I am really excited by the response we received. Kudos to the winners- hopefully we can all see who won and what the final solution was!

Our entry is now cleared for remarketing to other manufacturers so I am open to partnering with any agencies who want a leg up on the innovative concepts we put forward. We can deliver the entire project in terms of Social Media, Wire Frames and financial modeling. I also have a few tricks up my sleeve on this project.

Dear change impetus:

The challenge sponsor for "Marketing with a twist" (#0820) wishes to congratulate you on making their final stage of assessment.  Out of hundreds of solutions submitted from over 95 countries, yours was one of only a few which made this finalist stage.
 
After long and careful consideration the sponsoring company has established that it is unfortunately unable to commercialize your innovative solution. However, because of its unique inventiveness  they would recommend that you promote it to other companies and wish you every success in doing so. 
 
Once again congratulations on being selected as a finalist. It is not an easy achievement when you consider the quality of the solutions submitted. You showed real innovative thinking and are a valuable member of our innovator community. Your innovator profile will be updated.

Regards,
IX SUPPORT TEAM

Craig Stark

President

Change Impetus Group Inc.

Websites Not at Campaign Core: Alterian Survey

Though online investments are the focus of many campaigns, one-fifth of respondents claimed that their website was only ‘basic’ and not at the core of its marketing activity. With increased investment predicted in online marketing channels, companies need to better understand the importance of the website in effectively underpinning its online presence, Alterian said, adding that this statistic demonstrates a need for companies to better understand the channels available to them before investing their marketing funds.

“Marketers must not forget that their own website is the destination that many of their activities drive customers and prospects to, and they need to be extracting the maximum value this cornerstone of any forward-thinking company’s marketing activity,” Eldridge added.

About the survey: The Alterian 2008 Survey polled a total of 1,545 marketing professionals. The annual survey, now in its sixth year, was conducted in North America and the UK October 1 - December 4, 2008 through a dedicated website landing page, and hardcopy, in-person interviews at the 2008 Direct Marketing Association Conference and Exhibition in Las Vegas, the 2008 Ad:tech Exhibition in New York and the 2008 Interactive Marketing Show in Manchester.

Our understanding of the 20% who have basic websites is that they need to get that in order to deliver effective Social Media Marketing initiatives, their web platforms need to be moved to Web 2.0. Hoarding the masses to a useless website is not a strategy, it's a disaster in terms of moving people from awareness to interest when the destination website essentially kicks them in the intellectual shins.

Becoming aroused in a program, service or product offering and then finding there is no way to sign up, comment, take a poll, download a coupon, create a profile, participate in a forum, share a link or download a webinar or source a retailer/ on line agency to place and order is suicidal. In terms of abandonment, it is a too common scenario which leaves the visitor permanently turned off.

Many companies are still spending time and effort on the look and feel of their web properties in terms of graphic design, interesting flash vignettes or outlinked Blogs. Getting to a web 2.0 enabled platform should be a priority one objective.

For the other 80% of companies using websites for marketing purposes, they also need to gear up for the use of Social Media Marketing tools and best practices-beyond basic Blogs. There are many best practices which can be drawn from. Social Media Wave can assist in getting your marketing strategies to the next level.