Mitch Joel recently interviewed Avinash Kaushik, Digital Marketing Evangelist at Google and author of the best-selling business books, Web Analytics – An Hour A Day and Web Analytics 2.0. One of the jump-out topics they discussed was the future of digital marketing. It turns out, there’s an app for that.
Kaushik, in addition to touting the importance of measuring the impact of your digital marketing campaign, has “a mini orgasm” when he describes the digital marketing campaign of a small surf apparel company. Instead of “shouting” at their customers on Twitter and offering the now-standard discount, this company designed a branded app for its customers. The app uses the mobile device’s GPS to figure out where you are, and tells you the local surf conditions for the six nearest beaches. There’s also a “tiny” link to buy some of the clothes.
This is the same concept that Google uses for search. The marketing message is brought only to those who are actively seeking out information related to the company’s product. Where on Google, it’s a search term, here the user identifies herself by downloading the app. And when she thinks “surfing,” she now begins to associate a brand.
Kaushik also discusses Red Bull’s Facebook Page. Postulating the “everyone goes on Facebook to waste time anyway,” Kaushik claims that Red Bull designed their page for that audience. Hence, the page has got tons of games, soundbites, and… apps.
The next content marketing goes beyond the blog. It takes content to the consumer where they are.
