Last Thursday I had the honor of sitting on a panel titled ""HARNESSING THE POWER OF NEW MEDIA PLATFORMS" at the 2007 Association of National Advertiser's (ANA) B-to-B Conference in Chicago, IL.
Joining me on the panel were: Barbara Basney (Director, Global Advertising Xerox Corporation) and Ellis Booker (Editor B-to-B Magazine). Frank Dudley (Vice President of Marketing Guideline Research) moderated. Our talk centered around the results of a joint ANA/Guidlines/B-to-B Magazine study that explored the use of search, social networks, user-generated content, podcasts, blogging, etc. within B-to-B and B-to-C marketing efforts.
You may download the results of the study here:

Overall findings include:
• For B-to-B marketers, a company’s website is the oldest and most often used new media platform that B-to-B companies are using. Email marketing, online ads, search engine optimization, paid search engine marketing and webinars are also widely used. Podcasts, blogs and video on demand look to grow over the next year, while little interest is shown in mobile and second life/social networking media platforms.
• B-to-C companies are also using their own website, as well as email marketing, and online ads. SEO-organic and SEM-paid have been in use for the past 3 years. Blogs and video, both on-demand and viral, look to grow over the next year. There are no plans to use webinars, Wiki or Second Life within the next year.
• Comparing B-to-B to B-to-C: significantly more B-to-B marketers have been using email,,SEO-organic and webinars for more than 3 years, and have begun to use blogs. They are also significantly less likely to use mobile, social networks or viral video in the next year than B-to-C marketers. B-to-C marketers have begun to use these platforms in the past year and the trend will continue.
• Of the B-to-B marketers that use these new media platforms, Brand Building is most frequently accomplished through blogs, second life, social networks, viral videos, wiki and their own websites. Demand Generation is accomplished through email, online, SEO, SEM, and video on demand– while companies use blogs, podcasts and webinars to generate Customer Loyalty.
• Of the B-to-C marketers that use these media, blogs, podcasts, second life, viral video and wiki are use to accomplish Brand Building. SEO and SEM are used for Demand Generation. And Customer Loyalty is mostly accomplished through emails, RSS feeds, and blogs. Cross Selling is an objective for emails and webinars.
• Comparing B-to-B to B-to-C, B-to-B marketers use email and webinars for demand generation significantly more than B-to-C. Of the all marketers who use mobile and podcasts, significantly more B-to-C marketers use them for brand building.
• Effectiveness varies greatly when looking at B-to-B vs. B-to-C companies. While both have seen success from their own website, B-to-C companies have seen significantly more success from paid key word searches, online ads, and social networks, B-to-B companies have seen success in webinars.
• B-to-C companies typically look at downloads and registrations to their website and specific events. While B-to-B companies are more likely to measure effectiveness of new media platforms through purchase behavior, site visits and time spent.
• B-to-B Companies spend significantly less on media than B-to-C companies. As a percent of revenue, they spend an average of .58%, while B-to-C companies spend an average of 1.18%.
• Currently, B-to-B companies are significantly more likely to allocate a higher percentage of their media budget (more than 20%) to new media platforms as compared to B-to-C companies.
• All marketers expect to spend more on new media platforms in 2007 compared to 2006, with significantly more B-to-C marketers trending towards an increase.
• Of the marketers that expect to spend more on 2007, B-to-B marketers will spend it on their own websites, email and online ads.
• Typically the responsibility for managing new media platforms is added to an internal group. New internal groups are formed about 15% of the time.
• Internal Marketing Departments and Interactive/Digital Media Agencies drive the use of new media platforms for B-to-B companies. B-to-C companies new media strategies are also driven by Internal Media Departments, but also by Interactive/Digital Creative Agencies.
• All marketers are concerned about their lack of experience with new media platforms, followed by their inability to prove effectiveness/ROI.
Jeremi Karnell-President, One to One Interactive
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