I think it’s important for us to get a clear understanding of the playing field as it relates to digital marketing today in order to prepare for the challenges we most definitely will face tomorrow. My hope is to provide context for the ideas and direction EMG is heading.

I begin with a few questions that I ask myself every day.

What ideas should we lead with? – The one’s with the best or most compelling creative, relevant strategy, newest technology, most popular or that shows the most promising return on investment? Is it all of the above or something much more complex, integrated and visceral?

How do we measure or benchmark success? Monetize social media? Break through barriers? How do we adapt faster and test quicker? Who are we influenced by? Who do we want to influence?

We now know that digital marketing can at times become the single backbone to success or failure – that it is no longer for simply marketing to youth, Millennials and soccer moms.

We have a continuous flood of information and intelligence resources to help us monitor, uncover and identify common campaign curses, unforeseen pitfalls, potential market penetration opportunities, unique engagement challenges, unconventional strategies and user experience best-practices.

Thought Leaders, must now work together to quickly take advantage of the ever changing digital landscape in order to continue to meet and surpass audience expectations; to not become stale; to determine what to embrace and what to ignore.

Digital marketing has now moved well beyond its infancy of simple electronic press kit sites and landing pages, search marketing, widgets, apps, online promotions and mobile contests, display advertising and even alternate reality games.

Think about the ground-breaking campaigns that are showing success with non-competing partnerships; campaigns that are reaching unbeknownst audiences via aggregated and unique content, popularity rankings, social evangelism and innovative creative; that are creating a personalized story and connection with our audiences outside the boundaries of the previous conventional digital campaign.

How much risk do we take, however?

Regardless of the complexity, all of our goals are singular, simple and historical. Identify the audience, both the core and the fringe, find the best way of delivering our content to them, learn from our success and failures, and risk just enough to stand out and be different.

So last week while at a partner conference for ECM leader Interwoven up in San Francisco, I was able to pop over to the Web 2.0 conference right across the street, where EMG happened to be exhibiting for the first time. After spending just 20 minutes talking with my colleagues in the booth as well as a few attendees here and there, I began to notice something very peculiar. Never in my life has there been a greater diversity of industry, age, culture, interest or human specimens under one roof then at this conference. It was an anthropologists dream.

Now, regardless what you may feel about the term “2.o” in general, you have to admit that never has such a buzz phrase fostered such indulgence and interests since I can remember… OK, don’t judge on that one. I guess the fascinating part for me was just how individuals, companies and the conference hosts themselves had spun the 2.0 genre to include so many things. From major media providers to small technology start ups to interactive agencies to the biggest names on the Internet - everyone has found a way to exploit, nay I say, capitalize, on the phrase itself. But has it worked.

Let’s ask the eighty-year old woman slowly shuffling down the walk way about just why she is here shall we - oh wait, where did she go. Never-mind, I was bombarded, humbled and entertained by the gamut of other conversations I engaged in. From the genius start-up entrepreneur looking to change the way the web fosters communication as we know it to the stoic academic that was just looking for some great debate to the individual from the SF Parks & Recreation department and his dramatic testimony on the future of the parks and social networking.

Everyone had an opinion. Well good for them, because regardless of how you feel, there has been a noticeable shift in those that are standing behind the school of thought that demonstrates the web as a true business unit and aren’t going to settle for anything but more accountability, more engagement and more advancement around this extremely young medium. So I say, hats off to all you(us) weirdos, evangelists and experimenters on the edge of digital sanity. You are the beacon for my faith and the direction you will take us.

So I’m just finishing up one of the most fascinating books that was given to me by one of my colleagues, Amanda Vande Brake. The book is The Culture Code. Without going into hundreds of lil nuances and details, the basic summary is that the book takes a psychoanalysis rollercoaster and multi-layered adventure into how a consumer’s individual unique culture, personal experiences and life patterns define the way they respond to brands as well as to marketing in general.

I think the most fascinating portion of the book was in fact not the outcomes, but simply the process and journey that author, renowned cultural anthropologist Dr. Clotaire Rapaille, takes his test subjects through as he delves into how their own behaviors, thoughts and relationships with various test products (i.e. cars, ceral, wine, etc). Him and I share a common belief. Ignore what people “tell” you in a workshop, survey or focus group because more often then not they lie, are easily influenced or just don’t really remember or have an opinion on the information you are trying to get out of them. Instead, Dr. Rapaille says to focus instead on the common structure of stories that your test subjects reveal.

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It’s always an interesting discussion when you sit down with a prospective client for the first time and the first things out of their mouth is, “so we have all these great ideas, but we’re not sure if they are any good, and we really have no clue where to start”. Many of these ideas stem from the over stimulation of creative and experimental media we are bombarded with on a daily basis. We think to ourselves, what would I respond to, what really works. But how do you decide where to start, what to do first, and how much budget or simply human resources should you dedicate to new ideas. Notice, that I’m not detailing what type of ideas, since they can pretty much be anything - spanning from whether or not to attempt a viral-based or social networking campaign to whether or not to put a new arcade room in your office (wink).

A few weeks ago, I was part of EMG’s executive retreat in which we were determining the future of our agency and how we could continue to effectively set ourselves apart from the competition, continue to grow soundly and profitably and how to remain at the forefront of what many consider cutting-edge marketing and technology strategies. The format that we followed in order to achieve this came from a fantastic book called “Blue Ocean Strategies”. The premise essentially is to make your competition irrelevant by creating and developing a new uncontested marketplace. Sparing you the details, there is one central theme to this concept. Using “value innovation” as a guiding rule for determining which ideas to move forward with. Value innovation is simply a different strategic logic and mindset. It places equal focus and weight on both value and innovation.

Value without innovation tends to focus on “value creation” - or otherwise something that is not sufficient to make you stand out in the marketplace. Likewise, innovation without value tends to be considered market pioneering or futuristic, however it often shoots beyond what your audience or consumers are ready to accept, engage or even pay for. So next time the light-bulb goes off or a think-tank, or even dare we say a COMMITTEE is formed, take into account this concept of value innovation to determine the best ideas to support and commit to.

Thought I’d take a break from signing Christmas cards to settle in for a long winter’s night of blogging. Ok, maybe more like 10 minutes.

So the Holidays are known for bringing out some of the most in-your-face advertising and promotions from every corner of the retail world, and across every media channel know to man, woman or child. From silly jingle bell burger commercials to a never ending stream of stuffed mailboxes, all of which seem to the most horrendous misspelling of my name, or better yet refer to me as Mrs. Navarro - oh my mother would be so proud. And of course we can’t forget the wondrous chore of deleting thousands of SPAM e-mails from my quarantine box. A box that of course also seems to always hide the most important of e-information from a client or the accidental cancellation of my reservation amongst the kilobytes of junk.

However, this year I’ve noticed something a little bit different. Could it be that the marketers of yore have finally gotten ahead of the game and decided to do something different? It could be because the talk of….”recession” has scared the knickers off of the retail world - but I’d like to think it’s due to marketers finally having the chutzpah to try something new. They’ve finally found a way to cut through my clutter. Hit me with the memories of youth!!!

And regardless of what you think, I feel it’s refreshing nonetheless. In my opinion, if you want my dollars, it’s all about tapping into the nostalgia of my past. Unlike an unfair fight, I say, make it personal, pull no punches and force me down that long dark path to my childhood days of cardigans, He-Man and Woody Woodpecker.

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First and foremost, I hope that you are never able to dig down to this inaugural gem of a ‘welcome’ in the months and years that pass from this day in time. Why? Because you won’t believe the incredible amount of talent, personalities, goofs, characters, and all around great group of individuals that will be adding their own spice, wisdom and flavor to this blog - keeping you busy exploring much more important, interesting and exciting content. You may wonder what’s going to make ours different - you won’t have to wonder for very long. So please - feel free to wander and please, please, please don’t be shy. I challenge you all to push the envelope and challenge us anytime you’d like – we love it.