Technology

(WBZ) Join host Josh Bernoff of Forrester Research and some of the leading thinkers in digital media who reveal their insights and predictions into how changes in people's behavior are rewiring the media world. In this series, local leaders share their perspectives on how technology has transformed the media landscape, how consumers are leading the charge with social media, and what the media world should do to stay on top.

Click below to Hear More from our Leading Guests

 "Can Commercial and Consumer Content Co-Exist?" - Henry Jenkins, MIT
 "The Media Company of the Future" - Hilmi Ozguc, Maven Networks
 "Fulfilling The Promise Of The Web" - Jeffrey Rayport, Marketspace
 "Building a Better Customer Relationship" - Larry Weber, W2 Group

The Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange (MITX: "my-techs") is the region's premier industry and professional organization dedicated to support and promote technology and innovation in New England. MITX focuses at the intersection of technology, marketing and digital media and its community is comprised of individual and companies that work in the digital industry.
Watch individual segments of Sarah's interview below:

Isobar and its role within the Aegis family
Digital Marketing, fries on the side to foundation
Is TV advertising dead?
Social websites and brand control, what's the right approach?
Interactive Marketing, who are the leaders?

Josh Bernoff: Hi this is Josh Bernoff with Forester Research. I'm here with Sarah Fay, President of IsoBar, global network of digital marketing services, under the umbrella of Ageus, a multi-national agency. Sarah, it's great to be able to talk to you. Could you tell me a little bit about IsoBar and its role within the Ageus family, and what it is you do for your clients?

Sarah Fay: Sure, so IsoBar is a global service, it's a global network of best of breed digital marketing agencies and it was formed by Aegis in 2003 because Aegis, one of the largest Global Media services holding companies, decided that they wanted to use digital to differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack. So they formed IsoBar as a network to bring the various services of Digital Marketing together so that we can create end to end marketing solutions for our clients that integrate back up with traditional media, but also integrate through all of the different types of service that you can provide with digital media. The entire network of agencies are now called IsoBar.We've allowed all of the agencies to keep their individual brands and their individual DNAs so in the US we have for instance Carat Fusion, which is a full service Digital Marketing agency. We have iProspect, which specializes in search; you might be familiar with them because Forester just came out with their wave and gave iProspect the highest mark of search marketing agencies; give you a little plug and me a little plug. (laughing) Molecular is an internet consultancy that helps companies figure out what their business model is for the web. We have Freestyle Interactive, which is another type of full service Digital Marketing agency, kind of specializes in sports and youth brands. We also have ammo, which is word of mouth marketing. And then we connect up with all different types of agencies overseas.

Josh: So let's talk about digital specifically. You've told me that over the six years that you've been doing this that digital has become more and more important to your clients. So how is it now that digital fits into the marketing mix and in what ways is it different than how it was in the past?

Sarah: Well in the past and I think that you've lived through this as well, the way digital would enter in the marketing mix was kind of like: do you want fries with that? So, you know, marketers knew that digital was increasing in importance and that they should probably be testing and trying online marketing. And so they would chunk off a little piece of budget and we would do a sort of specialized but over to the side online marketing program. Today digital tends to be more central to the overall strategy. So you can't just break off 5% of the budget and say toss that over the wall and go play with it. In many cases it has to be connected back up into all of the other forms of media whether it's outdoor or TV or print. There's a jumping point form the other mediums that drives to either the web or the micro site or the online program which will capitalize on the message that's being pushed. So you have to often begin with digital to plan the overall media mix. You think "what do I want the consumer to do?" and then you plan your campaign from there.

Josh: Now, there's been a lot of controversy especially with regard to digital video recorders. We see in talking to marketer s at Forrester, there's a real shift happening of moneys from television advertising, much of it going into internet advertising. So do you think is television dead? Is it decreasing in importance? How do the marketers see television and digital and how do they shift their perspective now on the mix of media that they're using?

Sarah: Well I certainly won't go as far as saying television is dead. And I do think that television will continue to be an important medium well into the future. I think that though television is changing and it's changing fairly radically in terms of how we have to look at it. Media planners used to be able to determine impact of a program or the overall goal of the program on a spreadsheet. Right? A reach and frequency analysis would tell you whether you are reaching your audience. And that is no longer true. You no longer can get the reach that you need any more to create the impact through a simplistic buy. Even if you do get the reach and frequency you are looking for there is no guarantee of impact. You really need to focus on relevancy of the message. So we like to look at TV as an important part of a program but it should be part of an integrated program where you actually leverage many different mediums to help the message get through to the target audience. And I think that we're looking at TV in more targeted ways and as a contributor to an overall mix versus just doing a monolithic TV buy, which is in many cases the way it's been done in the past.

Josh: So anytime you talk about the internet now you have to look at social websites like MySpace and I think that makes a lot of marketers a little uncomfortable to realize that people are talking about their brands in places that they don't have any control over. So what's the right approach to these social internet phenomena for a marketer?

Sarah: Well I think that first of all when you put yourself out there with your brand in a place where it can be talked about by the consumer it is a brave move. You know, you do need to feel confident that overall the feeling of your brand is going to be a positive thing, there can be negative things said. But I think you also have to recognize that consumers have always been out there talking about your brand. Whether you have been present or not, and the fact that you're willing to put yourself front and center and have them participate with you and talk to each other about you shows confidence and shows trust in your customers and your consumers. And I think that the positives outweigh the risks and the negatives. We as an agency believe that the brands that win will be the brands whose customers and consumers tell the best stories. Versus those who tell the best stories to their consumers. So we're looking for platforms where we can talk through the consumer to other consumers. We feel that there is much more power in the message. There's much more trust that goes along with the message if it's from one friend to another, versus just from the marketer to the consumer.

Josh: But I bet a lot of marketers aren't really comfortable with that. I mean you have among your clients Pharmaceutical companies and the idea of people getting together to talk about how their drugs are working is sort of threatening to a drug company, isn't it?

Sarah: I mean I think you have to be careful. And not every company is going to jump in there with the social marketing platform or message. But I think more and more these days you see companies starting their own blogs or getting out there and participating in blogs. So just at a very simplistic level having a voice in the community.

Josh: Which of course allows people to comment, right? It's not just a one-way communication.

Sarah: it allows people to comment. I think that there is a certain finesse to participating in your own company's blog. First and foremost I think that you know everyone has learned the lesson that you need to be public about who you are. You have to be honest, you have to speak in an honest voice, you can't always be on the defensive. If somebody says something negative, you have to allow a certain amount of negativity to take place and participate where you can be helpful or contribute more information. I think also the invitation to have consumers join you and express creativity is a powerful way to message, it's a powerful way to engage the consumer.

Josh: So, last question here. In looking at interactive marketing over the last 10 years, one of the things I've seen is some clients; some marketers really are the leaders here. And sometimes you also see the agencies trying to show that they have leadership. So who's really going to take us into the digital world? Are you responding to the desires of your clients or are you really leading or showing them the right way to do things?

Sarah: (wow) I mean there's a push and pull going on of course. I've played the role and the agency has played the role of evangelist for you know, going on years now. And you and I both have lived through some of the dark ages where it really was difficult to get people to understand the value of digital marketing, but I do think that marketers are now seeing the power and the value that digital marketing can bring to the overall mix. And so I think that it's really a team effort of getting together and understanding how to do it. Not whether to do it or not.

Josh: Thanks very much that's Sarah Fay from IsoBar US.

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