Spending on Conversational Marketing to Outpace Traditional Marketing by 2012

In conjunction with and on behalf of the launch of my new book, Join the Conversation, I'm pleased to announce - together with the Society for New Communications Research and TWI Surveys - the launch of a research study dedicated to conversational marketing.

The full research release is here . Digg the release here.

The primary findings are on a continuum of stunning to pleasantly surprising. Here are the highlights:

• 81% of marketers believe that in 5 years they'll be spending as much or more on conversational marketing vs. traditional marketing
  • Nearly 57% of respondents report that in 5 years time, what they spend on conversational marketing will be greater than that of traditional marketing.  Another roughly 24% believed it would be the same as traditional marketing
• 70% are currently spending 2.5% or less of their communications budgets on conversational marketing, but two-thirds plan to increase their investment in conversation within the next twelve months
• Respondents noted that the primary obstacles currently preventing them from investing more in conversational marketing include: “Manpower restraints” - 51.1% “Fear of loss of control” - 46.9% “Inadequate metrics” - 45.4% “Culture of their organizations” - 43.5% “Difficulty with internal sell-through” - 35.8%

There are plenty more findings...which are available and represented in the book.

I must admit that when I first saw the results, I struggled to believe them. Could it be possible that within 5 years from now, conversational marketing will actually outpace traditional marketing? I checked with TWI Surveys and they stood by the data. Then I saw this 1-2-3 punch from Veronis Suhler, which validated this data second to none:

1. Alternative Media is becoming a tradition
2. Internet Ad Spending set to overtake all other media by 2011
3. Time spent with media falters, digital spawns shorter attention spans

 

In addition, most people I speak with don't seem to baulk at the fact that traditional marketing is going to be a 2nd or 3rd tier component of most marketing plans in 5+ years' time. If digital takes center stage AND most mediums will be digital anyway, then it seems like a no-brainer that "traditional" marketing will continue to fade and be phased out. Other than print advertising (although surely RFID is not too far away...), not many media will be immune to digital integration.

The second factor is conversational marketing (community, dialogue and partnership), which is as much cultural, strategic and philosophical, as it is tactical per se. It's probably safe to say that most brand initiatives will contain an unbeatable punch of interactivity and conversational activation by 2012...hence the belief that linear, one-way or unidirectional, intrusive, poorly-targeted and static communication will take a back seat to the rise of what I believe will be the next way of growth, innovation and evolution of marketing (as a conversation)

I want to send a big thank-you to Jen McClure at the SNCR, as well as to Tudor Williams at TWI Surveys. I'm also proud to announce that I'm now a Senior Fellow at the Society for New Communications Research and I look forward to contributing and collaborating more with SNCR in the foreseeable future.