We at New Media Now are pleased to be supporting the awards ceremony that will bring together the industry to celebrate those excelling in marketing innovation.

In its second year, the MI awards are part of the Marketing Innovation Expo (MIEXPO) – an event showcasing technology-driven marketing trends.

You have until 3 February to expose your innovative side and enter your company into the pool.

There are 12 award categories including ‘Innovative mobile marketing’, ‘Innovative use of social media’ and ‘Innovative digital brand strategy 2012′.

Entries for ‘Innovative start-up’ and ‘Most innovative individual’ are free. The latter will be nominated by the members of UTalkMarketing – a community of 140,000 marketing and brand professionals.

The award ceremony takes place as part of MIEXPO on 6 March at Altitude 360 in London.

Speakers at the event include representatives from Twitter, Foursquare, Facebook, Virgin Media, 10 Downing Street, The British Army, PeerIndex, Adjustyourset, Youtube and Buyapowa.

NMN readers can take advantage of a 20% discount on tickets for the event using promocode 20NMN.

For full event details of both events and to book your place today visit www.marketinginnovationexpo.com

Now in its second year, MI EXPO, a unique innovation showcase, is set to return in 2012 providing senior marketers’ key insights into the essential technology driven marketing trends for 2012.

Attend MI EXPO 2012 to discover….

• Techniques that are delivering success for marketers
• Digital trends driving the market place
• Which new platforms are hot & set to explode in 2012
• The hot new marketing start-ups for 2012
• New opportunities for marketers in 2012

Marketing innovation is what will set you apart from your competitors and will give you the edge.

With an ever changing array of innovative marketing techniques and new tools emerging into the market, organisations are constantly left confused and overwhelmed.

MI EXPO will help you recognise which technology driven trends you should be adopting and which are just a marketing fad and better left ignored.

MI EXPO will showcase the innovative marketers, technology providers, and tools that will explode in 2012. The conference will bring a spotlight on the marketing innovation “must haves” to achieve success.

Speakers include senior representatives from Twitter, Foursquare, Facebook, YouTube, British Army, 10 Downing Street, Virgin Media, PeerIndex, buyapowa & many more.

Visit the event website to view the full agenda for the day.

Join the most important people from the digital industy & creative agencies on the 6th March 2012 at the River Room, Altitude 360, for key insights into technology driven trends that will drive ROI and give you a competitive edge.

The Marketing Innovation Awards, now in their second year, are set to return to bring a spotlight on the innovative brands, agencies, start-ups & technologies pushing boundaries and shaping the industry.

UTalkMarketing are delighted to be hosting the awards which are taking place on 6 March at the end of MI EXPO at Altitude 360 in London.

The MI Awards will uncover the innovative strategies, start-ups & technologies set to create an impact in 2012. Are you one of them?

New for 2012, the organisers have introduced seven new award categories which reflects the growth of innovation within the marketing sector and illustrates new depths marketers are adopting to achieve success.

Entry deadline: 3rd Feb, full details at www.marketinginnovationawards.com

With eleven categories open to submissions & twelve awards up for grabs, what are you waiting for submit your entry today!

The Marketing Innovation award categories:

• Innovative digital brand strategy 2012
• Innovative use of social media
• Innovative use of mobile marketing
• Innovative use of search
• Innovative use of CRM
• Innovative use of affiliate marketing
• Innovative use of display
• Innovative agency 2012
• Innovative start-up 2012 *free to enter
• Innovative technology 2012
• Innovation grand prix 2012

Community choice awards

• Most innovative individual 2012 *free to enter

This candidates for this award will be nominated by the members of UTalkMarketing are invited to nominate and vote for their most innovative individual proving a true reflection of successful innovation in the eyes of the marketing community.

With over 140,000 marketing & brand professionals as members of the community, this really is the crème de the crème of recognition.

To find out more and submit your entry, visit the event website.

Si Bales is the Managing Director of bdaily.

Bdaily is looking to re-invent business-to-business networking by combining social networking with their popular North East business news bulletin bdaily.

Titled MyBdaily, the new site offers members a supportive online business community that is dedicated to answer the needs of the business network.

“Bdaily was started to service businesses and the people within them”, bdaily Managing Director Si Bales said.

“Delivering daily business news, relevant to the individual reader as well as offering a more appropriate online channel to promote, connect and profile businesses with others through a deeper, richer experience.”

Streamlined approach to digital marketing

Built to enhance B2B networking, MyBdaily enables businesses with the tools to promote their brand and services amongst an active online community of over 30,000.

Members will be able to create individual business profiles which helps to streamline their digital marketing efforts and manage them together with their social networking activities.

Businesses can also tailor their newsfeed and updates to meet their personal requirements in order to get the most from their membership.

Companies can upload their own blogs directly to the site engaging in an immediate dialogue with the editorial team and other members regarding issues or developments relevant to their sector.

In addition to creating brand awareness, MyBdaily founders see this as an opportunity to showcase industry expertise to peers on a national level and highlighting the North East as a region with a thriving and forward thinking business community.

Moving towards national roll-out

MyBdaily isn’t the only development at bdaily headquarters.

As the company prepares for their national roll-out early next year, they are planning to narrow their news sector focus from 24 sectors to 8.

This means more in-depth and targeted feature articles helping to pave the way as the UK’s online business network.

Compact: Making the Most of Digital Marketing Platforms takes an in depth look into the key channels for marketing music using digital media and will assist in developing a strategy for your music business.

Across the two sessions you will learn…

• How to build a complete strategic digital campaign
• Effective communication through your social networks
• The impact of advertising on social networks and other online platforms
• Methods to develop and monitor your fanbase
• What you can learn from analytics and metrics
• Enhancing your video content
• Use new marketing technology – mobile / apps

This is delivered over two days at Dance City, Newcastle on 8th & 29th February 2012 by Music Ally, who are globally recognised as a provider of digital music intelligence and strategy. Music Ally has been providing digital training to the global music industry for almost a decade.

Compact: Making the Most of Digital Marketing Platforms is free to attend but spaces are very limited so please register interest as soon as possible.

For a full breakdown of the content of both days and to book your place, visit: www.generator.org.uk/compact

A unique and exciting opportunity for an exceptionally talented digital marketing individual to lead the creation of the world’s biggest online golf community. The role requires a results driven true all rounder.

Responsible not only for building membership and developing an online community but also building your own team around you.

You must have extensive experience in CRM products and strategies and be a committed and pragmatic self starter with a professional approach and a sense of humour.

Objectives:

• Working as part of a focused management team to create and engaging, effective and innovative marketing strategy;
• Drive player/venue registration and membership subscription through direct marketing and online activities;
• Build a cohesive and focused marketing team.

Role and responsibilities:

• Source, co-ordinate and manage suppliers;
• Manage all digital content for the website;
• Develop and deliver marketing plans on behalf of resellers;
• Define CRM approach and develop proposition to move customer along path to membership;
• Create a two way dialogue with the market;
• Develop and refresh online strategy based on market awareness and developments;
• Strategic work with the MD to deliver corporate marketing objectives.

Skills and experience:

• Extensive experience in mobile and digital marketing;
• Demonstrable knowledge of digital advertising and CRM;
• Ability to draw up and implement CRM data strategies and experience of working with data analysis tools;
• Solid grasp of mobile technology fundamentals and how they can enhance membership experience;
• Meticulous attention to detail;
• Be able to write flawless and creative copy;
• Involvement with developing online communities;
• Golfing knowledge/ability not essential but an understanding would be preferred.

Personal attributes:

• Committed, enthusiastic and pragmatic self-starter;
• Good collaborator and communicator;
• Sense of humour;
• ‘What it takes’ mentality;
• Ready and able to take initiative, initiate action and take responsibility for outcome;
• Resilient – can maintain effectiveness under pressure and demonstrate commitment, motivation and energy.

If you are interested in the advertised position please apply by contacting Sharpe Recruitment.

Sharpe Recruitment is a North East based consultancy, dedicated to placing professionals in rewarding jobs throughout the North of England across a variety of disciplines including Digital Media, Creative Advertising, Sales & Marketing, PR, IT and Business Operations.

The global cosmetic giant’s digital strategy specifically targets baby boomers by freeing up shopping time for leisure time.

“The big transformation in the retail market is that more and more people believe in proximity”, Georges-Edouard Dias, senior vice president of L’Oreal’s digital business said at the Forrester Marketing & Strategy Forum EMEA 2011.

“So if you combine the power of technology with proximity you start have a powerful tool.”

According to Dias, digital is at the heart of L’Oreal’s brand strategy driving growth.

One of the company’s apps, Instant Beauty, allows French consumers to scan L’Oreal products to access additional information such as consumer reviews, friends’ recommendations and add it to their online shopping list.

The beauty giant sees digital as an opportunity to transform how their customers shop.

“If we can give them the information in their hand it simplifies their life, it saves them time”, Dias said.

“Free time is a luxury and if you can tap into that, it is great and we can do it.”

Source: Marketing Week

It’s time for the music industry to really bring their marketing into the digital era, speakers at the digital music conference Music Futures say.

Nikke Osterback, digital campaign manager at Atlantic Records, and Shamal Ranasinghe, founder of direct-to-fan marketing platform Topspin, were invited to join a panel discussion on how to effectively monetise your fan base.

New Media Now had a chat with the pair to find out the key steps on the path to success.

Time to skill-up

Mastering digital marketing skills has become essential for record labels.

According to Nikke, you simply can’t afford to ignore high quality digital marketing anymore.

“It’s about transparency. If you want to actually have a successful artist nowadays, you have to have meaningful communication with your fan base”, he said.

“People have to trust you. If you have that trust with you fans, they still see value buying your music, go and see your artists play live, stream music and so on.”

The power of platforms

To really make the relationship with your fan base effective, Shamal advises music marketers to go where they are.

His company, Topspin, enables artists and record labels to publish and manage marketing across all the platforms they are engaging with their fans on, whether it’s their official website, Facebook, Twitter, or the like.

The vision behind the service is based on the idea of treating the entire web as your artists’ store.

“The whole concept of direct-to-fans marketing is that you need to get into a dialogue with your fans wherever they are”, Shamal said.

“So instead of getting them to come to you, to where your artist’s store is on the web, try to deliver the diret-to-fan experience to them wherever they are.”

Read also:

North East digital music conference a buzzing success

Let’s be optimistic, but realistic, digital music strategist says at conference

This month’s Codeworks’ Think and a Drink event boasts yet another great set of speakers & topics.

The event takes place in Teesside at Digital City Boho One in collaboration with the Federation of Small Businesses with the discussion focussing digital marketing.

What are the strategies and tactics that small businesses are using in digital marketing to get ahead? It should be a fascinating & very practical event.

The speakers include:

Mark Easby (Better Brand Agency) The benefits of social media
David Dixon (Business Link) The future of business support
Tom Fotheringham (Orange Bus) Affiliate marketing
Kev Price (Ki Media) How SEO can change your business
Graham Morley (Thap) Our Mobile Future
Christian Mawlam (90 Second Story) Top 10 Do & Don’ts in Using Video for Marketing
David Erasmus (Givey) Growing Trends for Startups & Small Businesses
Herb Kim (Codeworks) Event Host

Agenda

6pm – Registration Opens
630pm – Event Kicks Off
640pm – Talks Begin
755pm – Event Close
8pm – Drinks & Food

The venue, Boho One, is a great space, which recently won the overall NE award for best new building from the Royal Town Planning Institute.

To find out more, visit Codeworks website or register at http://www.amiando.com/ConnectTAAD-FSB.html

The online study, carried out by Simpson Carpenter, found that only 11% of consumers have used QR codes with lest than half (47%) finding them useful.

Kevin Connolly, from Simpson Carpenter, said one of the main reasons for the low adaptation is the lack of familiarity with new technology.

“Marketers would do well to focus on educating and informing consumers about their purpose rather than simply adding QR codes to their products and their advertising campaigns”, he said.

Just over half (52%) of the respondents said they didn’t own a device to scan QR codes with 23% naming “apathy” as the main reason of non-use.

Perhaps Betfair’s recent campaign will encourage at least the male smartphone users to get scanning. Trialling a new marketing technique at the test London 2012 beach volleyball tournament, the betting agency placed QR codes in the female players’ bikini bottoms.