November 13, 2007 | Tuesday

Latitude Client Summit Summary - By Jackie Danicki

By Simon Whittick  in Features

Allow me to be the first Latitude blogger to say what a pleasure the Latitude Client Summit: Digital Renaissance & Revolution was! A stellar line-up of presenters from the world of online marketing and innovation gathered at the Law Society in Chancery Lane on Friday to offer their insights and predictions to Latitude’s clients. Here’s my round-up of big impressions from the day.

Robin Goad, research director for Hitwise UK, revealed in the opening presentation that one third of all UK web traffic comes from search engines. What’s more, since last Christmas there has been a 153 per cent increase in retail traffic from social networks like MySpace, Bebo and Facebook. In fact, traffic to social networks has overtaken traffic to web-based email sites in the UK. This provided a nice set-up for our social media workshop and integration panel later in the day (more on which later).

One invigorating way to start the morning is with a conversation with Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo on the future of paid search and how each of their companies will contribute. As one might expect, opinions were strong and corners ably fought (no search engines were harmed in the unfolding of this panel!).

A particularly strong theme was the advanced sophistication of the UK paid search market in comparison to the US and the rest of the world. Richard Firminger (regional sales director, Northern Europe, for Yahoo), Mark Howe (country director of UK sales for Google), and Mel Carson (adCenter community manager for Microsoft) joined Robin Goad in a discussion which also yielded some interesting social media-related factoids.

For instance, Firminger noted that Yahoo boasts 150 million users across its portfolio of social networking sites, which include Flickr, del.icio.us, MyBlogLog, Upcoming, and others. Goad noted the 1/9/90 rule of thumb for social media sites such as Wikipedia, which posits that one per cent of site users are actively creating and editing content, nine per cent are commenters, and the remaining 90 per cent just lurk. The unspoken point here is that not all eyeballs are created equal, a topic we touched on later in discussing the use of social media to reach influencers.

Neil Dawson, director of search for Latitude, incorporated the social media angle into his presentation on the renaissance of organic search, using practical examples from a host of social networking and other Web 2.0 sites to demonstrate how they could be integrated for successful SEO. One stand-out selection was the official Microsoft Surface video on YouTube and its wildly popular parody from sarcasticgamer.com - the latter accumulating more views and ratings than the former. (This was also a fantastic demonstration of how, after years of being told by companies that “our brand is your brand,” customers have taken it at face value in ways marketers could never have predicted...or wanted.)

After lunch, the agenda took a detour from strict online marketing to the topic of serious creativity for business success. Robert Rawlinson, CEO of the Edward de Bono Foundation, introduced a presentation by Nigel Newman which had everyone’s thinking caps firmly affixed and - in many cases - shown to be somewhat lacking! It was a fun and useful segue into the afternoon’s discussions on social media and analytics.

As I was presenting on commercial blogging, I was not able to attend the concurrent stream on analytics, which was moderated by Latitude CTO Rob Shaw. It was proposed that the aggressively numbers-oriented, detail-fixated types would head to the analytics roundtable, with those more interested in the softer side of driving traffic and sales attending to the social media workshop. Rob and I both had able and astute presenters on hand to help.

Justin Hayward, Latitude’s strategic development director, offered a look at the broad social media landscape, often using his own participation as illustration. I tackled the specific question of commercial blogging, placing distinct emphasis on authenticity, trust, and regard for the individual blogger rather than the technology. Finally, Neil McIntosh, head of editorial development for the Guardian‘s online component, Guardian Unlimited, provided a detailed case study of how they have re-engineered their business on the back of social media.

Jay Stevens, vice president of operations EMEA for MySpace, gave a keynote address which laid out exactly who is using social networking sites like his, how much a part of their lives the online experience is, and what marketers can do to have a conversation with them. Jay almost missed his flight to our event, so we were especially appreciative to have him on hand with the data and analysis from the perspective of one of the world’s hottest web properties.

The day wrapped up with a panel discussion of how marketers can integrate search, social media, and other digital methods such as display and affiliates. (I made a point about the importance of this integration in a pre-event blog post.) On hand to field questions were Stuart Thurstan, Latitude’s digital media director, Revolution editor Mairi Clark, Creston’s group synergy and strategy director Simon Williams, and marketing consultant Andrew Gerrard.

In moderating the conversation, I drew the panelists on several points, including the shift from a campaign mentality that is necessary when incorporating search and social media, which sectors are doing better than others in maximising the potential of newer forms of digital media, barriers to integration, and how to cater to a mix of passive users (those more comfortable with TV viewing) and pro-active users (those who have their hands all over the web, search, and social media). One message came out loud and clear: It is not a question of whether or not to integrate search and social media, but how.

It was a varied and fascinating day of conversations, introductions, and insights. By the time everyone retired to the drinks reception, my head was buzzing with stats, ideas, and connected dots. I suspect I wasn’t the only one!

All presentations and panels were videotaped and will soon be available for download from Latitude. Post-event, clients (and other interested parties) are free to contact Latitude for more information on any of the topics discussed. Please use our online enquiry form or drop an email to marketing executive Deborah Ficamos for more information.

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