Connecting the Dots / An Agency Blog

SoDA 2010 Digital Marketing Outlook – released today!

The Society of Digital Agencies released their 2010 Digital Marketing Outlook today and it’s packed full of great survey data from hundreds of executives from major global brands, traditional and digital agencies, and vendor / service providers. Some key stats and points of view that have caught my eye so far:

• 81% of brand execs expect an increase in digital projects for 2010
• “The most effective digital platforms have shifted from ‘disruptive’ to ‘productive’ by providing a service or utility…[they] fundamentally change the approach from “how we reach our customers” to ‘how we make their lives better.’” K. Blitz
• 59% of respondants say that cost-per-click, conversion, and ROI are the digital marketing metric they’re least interested in
• Most important technical skill sets to hire / contract in 2010 (in order): Flash, ActionScript, CSS, PHP, iPhone SDK – showing that the microsite is indeed still alive and kicking

Get the report after the jump…

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Whenever one of the big tech co’s does something even remotely of interest, and even more often when it’s under the radar, the tech blogs light up with speculation and criticism instantly. Even when it’s as insubstantial as the Microsoft Bing.com team’s recent internal use of their new Binged.It URL shortener.

Microsoft seems far less
concerned with an extra
character in their URL
shortener, or even the
prospect of using a truly
short URL than they are
about building a solid and
recognizable brand around
the Bing product.

The service isn’t yet public, and for all we know, it may never be. But with URL shortening becoming commonplace and creating some interesting business opportunities – tracking audience interest for example – it would be surprising if the Google’s, YouTube’s, and Microsoft’s weren’t exploring the space with some level of interest.

Microsoft’s Binged.It URL shortener caught some heat recently on TechCrunch.com, with the blog and most of the commenters jumping all over the fact that Bing’s short URL (Binged.It – 8 characters) is longer than the service’s main URL (Bing.com – 7 characters). Fair point, considering a URL shortener should, er, shorten a URL, right?!

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Web Apps are fun. Especially when they’re useful. We’ve been working on a few concepts over the past year, and this one has begun to evolve. We’ll be working to jam this out in the new year and when we’re ready to launch we’ll be sure to make some noise. For now though, we’re keeping quiet as to what Chym.In will actually offer. Feel free to post your best guess in our comments below.

In the meantime, please follow Chym.In on Twitter and visit Chym.In to sign up for our launch email. Those signed up to the Chym.In email list and following Chym.In on Twitter will get first invites to the beta.

We’ve been following Foursquare on this blog since it was introduced to Vancouver because we knew that even if Foursquare isn’t around in the future, location based digital experiences will be.

As we said earlier, this technology is in its infancy, and it’s evolving. On November 16th, Dennis Crowley from Foursquare announced in Amsterdam that Foursquare would be teaming up with the Augmented Reality app, Layar. Now you’ll be able to hold up your phone to a real world setting and have the benefits of both apps at your fingertips. Get all the details here.

Inevitably, this story will be continued.

The theory of value is subjective. In regards to a product or service, value must be useful in satisfying the wants and needs of the consumer, we’ve also seen value generated when something is in limited supply. While this idea holds up in the comparison of two products side by side, it does not induce a desire of want in the customer who is inundated with hundreds of choices for nearly the exact same product or service.

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