Viral video campaigns, social media and mobile marketing are some of the top online ad trends for 2009, according to b-to-b marketers and agency executives.
Andreas Combuechen, CEO-chief creative officer of Atmosphere BBDO, New York, said mobile marketing applications will really take off next year.
“We are seeing a rise, especially among the b-to-b audience, in the use of mobile devices,” he said. “Everyone says [2009] will be the year for mobile, given network speed and new handsets out there. The iPhone had led the way, but applications will move over to other devices.”
The agency is now exploring mobile marketing applications for clients including FedEx Corp. and Hertz Corp.
Another important area the agency is exploring is social networks for b-to-b clients.
“There are huge questions to be answered, such as how do we really use social networks and help companies forecast customer advocacy for a product and service,” Combuechen said. “How do you build applications that are branded and engage people in behavior that is relevant to the brand?”
Atmosphere BBDO recently launched an online campaign for Citi Cards, which had a Facebook application as part of the effort.
Another big trend for 2009 will be viral campaigns, particularly with video components.
“Video e-mail is something we are having success with,” said Chris Lindau, creative director at Ogilvy North America, New York. “If you get people to open an e-mail and see a video, they will sit with it longer.”
Ogilvy has created a few video e-mail campaigns for IBM Corp., including “IBM Storage Scavenger Hunt Game,” aimed at storage professionals, and “Lost in Space,” aimed at software developers. The campaigns have a viral component and encourage users to forward the e-mails to colleagues and friends.
Lindau said Ogilvy is now working on video e-mail campaigns for other clients, which he declined to name.
Marketers are also being more strategic about their use of existing technologies, in an effort to streamline production and improve marketing efficiencies.
“Some of this stuff has been around for a year or so, but agencies are being more creative in using the technologies,” said Courtney Buechert, president of online agency Eleven, San Francisco.
“We want to uncomplicate the technologies and apply them in a more strategic way.”
For example, Eleven created an online ad for Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection’s “We” campaign, which allows users to sign a petition within a banner ad without leaving the Web page they’re on.
“We created widget-level functionality within the banner ad to allow the petition signing, which is much less expensive to administrate and eliminates a major barrier—the user leaving the site. I think you’ll see more of that,” Buechert said.
