I wanted to take this opportunity to share some the experience with you and more importantly outline the exciting new opportunities arising from some of the meetings.

Why the trip?

In my audio I talked about learning from the last 12 months and our 1^st year. My last two blogs looked at everything leading toward the new technology and positioning our company in a brave new world.

The blog today, is looking at my trip to the US and how it would truly test the new concept from people in the music and entertainment business, as well as seasoned technology pros and investors who had held on to the coat tails of the silicon valley dragon.

For me, New York is a given. It is the historical soul of the advertising industry and as such, was core in the agenda. Meeting those that share an entrepreneurial vision of what we are looking to achieve is crucial. Also, re-establishing links with people who we had approached tentatively a few months back was also important in outlining the RTG roadmap for future growth.

So with meetings and schedules prior to Thanksgiving, it transpired that the first leg of the journey would be Los Angeles.

So why LA? Simple. To meet with like-minded people and give the technology platform an airing with the most prolific individuals within the entertainment industry, it was an opportunity too good to pass.

On top of this, we have deep relationships in LA. Meeting Aderra for the first time was such a powerful event that it will no doubt prove pivotal as we move forward and I will dedicate more time on this particular aspect of the trip in my next blog – very exciting.

Again, though the reasons for the trip may be obvious, It was key to capture the hearts and minds on both coasts to make the trip worthwhile.

Testing Concepts

The whole purpose of the trip was multifarious. I had been (and still am) running the agency Digital Clarity, for the best part of 2011 until recent months where I had taken the helm of the technology, to review and bring into a modern arena.

I have spoken in detail already about two things:

• Major changes in the music and technology arena – commoditization, engagement and scale.
• The shift in our technology offering and the need to address the changing market ahead of the curve.

On top of having to re-position RTG’s proposition, the trip to LA and NY would be the litmus test that was required to see whether the prototype, concepts and ideas for our new platform would fly or be shot down in flames.

Los Angeles

Linda Perry had made significant in-roads over the last 12 months to not only (re)establish relationships with major investors but also major names in music and technology. On top of this, it was these major heavyweights we were to meet alongside some people we had already spoken with tentatively and who had been kept warm waiting for – you know what.

If New York is where the money is and the San Francisco/Bay area is where the technology was being built, then Los Angeles was the meat in this musical sandwich.

To keep this short and to the point, we met with several major, successful names, and with all, I outlined and described the expanded technology offering to the industry which would allow us to be First Mover. The First Mover position is not said lightly. It is a position that is both coveted and difficult to achieve. Yet that observation was made by one of the toughest guys in the sector.The dots were connected.”

After crossfire questioning, it was apparent that what I was describing to them was not only something that was needed but would also allow the music business to look at data to make business decisions. This was no longer social media, but social business.

After a gruelling session with one of the savviest technology, music and social investors in town, I was greeted with the words, “Tell me more, this is genuinely investable…!”

Without question, the idea of streamlining our offering and focussing on revenues was unequivocally accepted by all, as well as the wholehearted acceptance of our view on the future. The confidence of knowing what we have in development, augmented with a digital marketing agency both working in harmony, was proving a potent value proposition.

With these thoughts firmly embedded in my mind, I was soon leaving the sunshine of LA and heading for more seasonal climes in the Big Apple.

New York

New York in all its glory with the holiday season round the corner is quite a site. The buy-in in Los Angeles was key to the next leg of the tour.

In New York, my first meeting was with a dynamic duo that runs one the most successful ambient media companies which feeds directly into the leisure and luxury brand arena. Former high level music men, they immediately saw the value in our repositioning and approached us with a likely scenario of how we could work together. As they outlined, finding ‘data value’ against their offering was now becoming crucial to their business as well as giving them an edge, not just in the US but in the important emerging markets of China, India and South America.

Another meeting in New York was with a wonderful and charming individual who heads one of the most enterprising private hedge funds based out of New York, that has its eye on application of technology on a global basis. The discussions centred around intelligent debate about the global, political climate and its effects on technology and infrastructure. This led to how technology with a human face is the right approach in a more socially connected planet.

Partnering for Success

Expanding Digital Clarity’s brand is one of the most important discussions that we had whilst in New York. Digital Clarity’s DNA runs deep in the evolution of digital marketing. Emulating this to the next level, without diluting its offering led to a discussion in a meeting that is currently being explored. Though still in its infancy,  it has the possibility of helping the company take a big leap forward in establishing a footprint in the US for the Digital Clarity brand.

The Missing Link

The learning over the year and the rapid development of digital technologies in the past decade or so has radically changed the way in which we can interact with the music industry. Likewise, the impact of social media upon the music industry has also made it much easier for musicians to interact with their fans.  Having the ability to have all your music, video, imagery and data managed, and reported in one interface is not unique. Having reports that makes sense of data from over 30 social and music platforms is powerful. But having an algorithm that gives you the ability to model forecast and make sense of engagement & sentiment that in turn, indexes against commercial return – suddenly becomes very exciting.

In a recent report looking at key findings of their fifth annual survey, global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, found that there was a large rise in adoption rates of social technologies. They also noted that levels of reported benefits remain high when organizations use social tools for internal purposes but have also increased among those that use them for communicating with customers or for integration with partners and suppliers.

This report and the level of investment that is being ploughed into the types of technology our company is engaged in, is not only a testament to our vision but paint a bright future, endorsed by the meetings in Los Angeles and New York.

The Future is Bright

Unlike before, it transpired that everyone I met and who I’ve have highlighted above, could see the need for this new platform.  It also became rapidly clear that if we were serious about our business, RTG would need to position itself as the pulse at the heart of this conurbation where decisions were made.

Next Steps

We are busy. Tablet based interfaces alongside an app are in the offing alongside a website platform that will give users a login into the powerful pulse gateway. Where possible, I  will keep everyone updated to the progress, partners and opportunities that continue to arise as we build toward 2012. We are moving forward with reinforcing support and will have some great news later this month. Thank you for sticking with us.

Madison Avenue has always had its fair share of challenges as the world of media evolved. Though the complexities exist, so do the opportunities, no more so than now. As brands, big and small wonder how they reach the ever changing consumer and business client, Digital Clarity is perfectly poised to embrace the need to understand, execute and analyse a world full of diversity driven by data.

A little like Sterling Cooper and other agencies around the world, Digital Clarity has evolved itself. This journey started before even Google’s AdWords platform existed, the agency has diversified to offer a bespoke service to advertisers and agency partners alike. A lot of our recent work has come from companies fed up with agencies who only work in one area and who do not understand the ‘joined-up’ commercial complexities that impact business today.

From being a pure-play Search Marketing Agency; the company has moved into design and development, mobile marketing and social media, both as a strategic implementation partner through to using social channels as an advertising platform.

This last area seems to show much promise to add to the company’s current offering. Here are a few reasons why.

At the recent Web 2.0 summit in San Francisco last week, Dick Costolo mentioned that Twitter’s monetization efforts are working better than expected. On top of this, the Twitter CEO also outlined that Twitter would be offering new and innovative ad formats to the array of advertiser falling over themselves to advertise on the social media platform.

Twitter’s advertising platform was a long time coming and in part, this was due to the company looking to strike the right balance between the mass advertising models that have existed historically and the new more sophisticated tools available to brands and their agencies today.

Twitter will bring in $139.5 million in global ad revenues in 2011, according to a new forecast from eMarketer, up 210 percent from just $45 million in 2010.

Currently, the main advertising offerings from twitter are broken into three main areas.

1. Amplify the reach of Tweets through ‘promoted tweets’.
2. Driving conversations and interest around brands through ‘promoted trends’.
3. Targeting a follower-base of advocates and influencers for brands through ‘promoted accounts’

Like Facebook before it, advertising was a sure way of raising revenue on a platform that had a captive audience and an equally excited number of brands looking to reach this group.

Again, according to research firm eMarkerter, Facebook will make $4.27 billion in revenue this year, more than double the $2 billion made in 2010. This breaks down as $3.8 billion from advertising this year, up 104 percent from $1.86 billion in 2010.

More interesting however, is that the company should make $470 million from ‘Facebook Credits’, a virtual- currency program that lets users buy items in games, more than triple the $140 million it made last year.

All these various business models give Digital Clarity a unique insight that many can only dream of and puts the agency in an excellent environment to apply these methodologies to tools we are building out for RTG Ventures as well as new customers.

As mentioned earlier, diversity creates complexity. Complexity creates opportunity. Opportunity exists for those who can make sense of a changing market for its customers.

With the likes of Tweedeck, HootSuite and others providing a better user experience than Twitter itself, it seems that Twitter wants to create a richer destination site to attract advertising revenue.

Another feature is that the new Twitter.com will display information over two “panes” instead of over one page.

More here: http://twitter.com/newtwitter

http://bit.ly/c5XXnl

One thing that has come out of this election is how politicians have uses Social Media to interact with the public at large but also with specific groups and target marginalised individuals. Social media and the willingness for people to share their thought, views and anything else is a major change in both how we live our everyday lives as well as engage with society at large. When watching Question Time on the BBC or listening to Any Answers on Radio 4, it is no longer necessary to do a double take when David Dimbleby ask us to follow the programmes ‘tweets’ or for an old colleague to Link-In to us and for them to see what we’ve been doing (sometimes in great detail) for the past few years.

As I am sharing my thoughts with you, I should point out that the original headline came from Shane Richmond of the Telegraph’s Tech blog who in turn, obtained a spin of the headline and the thrust of the piece from David Armano, of Edelman Digital who had written an article for the Harvard Business Review.

In David’s article he dives deeper into this ‘Social Sharing’ shift, citing it as being bigger than Facebook and Twitter as well as looking at elements that make this phenomenon so big. These elements include:

• Data Gathering
• Knowledge Sharing & Collaboration
• Content Distribution
• Social Currency

Read more at the Harvard Business Review: http://bit.ly/cQ5zYa

What was true 20 years ago is true now and Levi has hit the Zeitgeist again and developed an integrated Social Media strategy with a plug-in for facebook. The plug-in has an integrated “like” feature with every product on the site that allows you to see the number of people on facebook who like the item – it also allows you to cast your own vote.

A big thank you to Aden Hepburn,  Head of Digital at IdeaWorks (Y&R – WPP) who is a fellow Linked In member of the Intelligent Social Media Group
http://bit.ly/cgU2c9

Reggie James

Speaking at Marketing Week’s Social Media for Brand Building event yesterday, Nick Shapeless Sony’s head of corporate communications highlighted the use of Twitter as a tool to amplify the company’s PR activity.
Sony launched a campaign for a special edition of its Cybershot camera range last year and used social media to extend PR coverage over nine months, resulting in over £12.5m in revenue.
More at NMA: http://bit.ly/9n6kWJ

Looking to catch up with Facebook and Twitter, the idea behind buzz is to add elements of Social Media to Google’s Gmail service.

Learn more at http://www.google.com/buzz

The official Google blog today outlined some enhancements to Google search that has more of a social feel and indicates the direction (in part) as to where the Search Engine is heading.

Some of the new features include a new image search algorithm. Now when you’re doing a search on Images, you may start seeing pictures from people in your social circle. These are pictures that your friends and other contacts have published publicly to the web on photo-sharing sites like Picasa Web Albums and Flickr. Just like the other social results, social image results appear under a special heading called “Results from your social circle.” See video below and read the blog here : http://bit.ly/cbgC5C

Having worked at Digital Clarity for some time, I though it was only right that I start sharing some experiences of successful Paid Search and SEO campaigns.

Rather than just show-off, I though it best to mention colleagues of mine, who over the years have delivered ‘killer strategies’ that have helped companies grow.

So, to kick things off I thought I’d talk first about Rachel Mepham.

Rachel Mepham is Head of Digital at Search & Digital Marketing agency Digital Clarity.

In the last 6 years she has helped companies obtain the best form the plethora of various advertising platforms available online. Rachel Mepham has been instrumental in delivering bespoke and strategic Paid Search campaigns for some of the biggest brands today.

Utilising the best of Google AdWords, Microsoft’s Bing and Yahoo Search Marketing Platforms, Rachel has delivered excellent results for companies such as Mercedes-Benz, Bonusprint, All Response Media, and JWT Inside.

If you want to learn more about Paid Search, SEO or Social Media, as Rachel a question here – Rachel Mepham: rachel.mepham@digital-clarity.com

Author: Reggie James