Evangelizing digital marketing

In a few years every marketeer will probably spend at least half of its marketing budget on digital marketing. This will include marketing on the internet, digital tv (iptv, streaming video, video-on-demand, p2ptv) and digital radio. Certainly in Belgium we have such a high penetration of broadband, that this evolution seems inevitable.

Of course we will also see a significant uptake in the mobile data use. At first it seems logical that people will want to search locally with their phone (maybe even based on the GSM grid cell location or the GPS coordinates). Such time- and location-targeted ads will have a huge impact on the role of digital marketing.

At the same time, the first DMB-ready phones or mobile devices are already rolling out in Asia (Europe is next in line). With DMB you can watch digital tv over the air, giving a second breath to traditional tv channels at first. However it is for sure that with the same techniques used for local search based on your actual location, the tv commercials can be much more targeted and interactive.

So the commercial opportunities are immense and close by, and people take notice. Last week I had the opportunity to give a lecture at 600 students at the University of Leuven (which exists since 1425), and the strong enthusiasm about digital marketing among the Business students is really encouraging. Maybe one of these students will come up with some new application, or at least this generation of marketeers will be prepared for digital marketing.

They are ready, and we are ready (why else would you read this blog). So let's build this new advertising market as soon as possible. Are your ready?