What I Learnt in 2012 - Part 1

OK - no end of year predictions (2013 - year of the mobile anyone....) but these are things i learnt this year...

1. OnlineMediaExperts is a very old, clunky name for our business - its OME now. Now if i did not fear that i may disappear up my own backside - we would probably re-brand ourselves to much better cover the full service nature of our business but i fear that most (all?) clients don't care - they just want great service from people they trust. (but the new website is on its way in Q1!)

2. Good things do come from adversity. In 2011 - we lost our first major client, It caused us (after i sulked) to re-assess what we did, concentrate more on structured biz dev and maybe...maybe...just maybe try a tiny bit harder. This has meant a great year for client acquisition and existing client growth which was made even better when the old client asked if they could come back in May.

3. There is a lag between stuff that we talk about and stuff clients want to invest in. We have known it since day 1 - but we will talk about PPC, SEO, social, mobile for ages before it becomes a profit centre for this business and an effective ROI channel for our customers. PPC became properly profitable for us in about 2009-10 and this year social became a non loss-making part of our business (i still hesitate to call it profitable given man hours that go in at this end).
And this "lag" will always be the case i think.

4. This industry is and will be for foreseeable constantly in flux and that's why we love it. It must have been so dull when attraction channels were so fixed for 20 years. We all know that job boards are under pressure from aggregators, LinkedIn etc (see previous post for why i think they will be fine), we all know that FB in some way shape or form will grow stronger as a recruitment channel, we all know that mobile comms are vital for recruiters to engage with users. But, and i think this is brilliant, none of us can say with any real certainty what it will look like in 2014 let alone beyond. We can have our expert opinions but you know what they say about opinions

Part 2 to follow next week

The Times They Are A Changin'

Been reading some really interesting posts such as Reconverse and others on social vs job boards and launch of Facebook job board (clue its not really a job board)etc and it seems as ever in this industry we are at another big turning point..

Let's declare our credentials first - OME are about (or one of) the biggest buyers of digital recruitment media in UK so i think though we will always be ahead of most of the industry - our stats will be a good indicator as to what's going on "out there".

1. We have been advising/consulting on LinkedIn strategy for 4-5 years but we used to spend a negligible (i am talking under £10K) amount of our clients' cash with them. In 2012 - LinkedIn became our biggest single supplier. Why? well firstly they charge (or charge more) for everything now and secondly it works as a recruitment tool and is increasingly important as a branding / engagement / platform / communication (delete as appropriate).

2. At same time - our spend with the major job board media has grown but this is more about our client acquisition i think than any increased demand from the recruiters. The growth here is less than social, less than PPC as would seem logical given job boards are a pretty mature market now.

3. This spend is under pressure - due to the economy being "delicate" - if we are doing more PPC or want to pilot some small activity in mobile - it has to come from existing budgets.

4. Facebook PPC almost scares me - it is so cheap and has worked really well - largely with our retail and catering/hospitality clients.

So all the chatter - all the cool conversations are about everything else other than boards/postings/CV DBs/HTML emails - does this mean a meltdown or the same thing happening as happened to press. I will reiterate my view which is absolutely not - why?

Press was destroyed as it was so inefficient - it took the recruiter and candidate days/weeks to run an ad and apply respectively. A great job posting (well written, attractively displayed) on the right board (relevant, right audience, good search functionality) works brilliantly. And the candidate can search and apply in 30 seconds from desk, bus, sofa. So there is not a problem that needs to be fixed.

So i think these channels will co-exist (but not happily in terms of commercial pressure and client spend)

* i have been wrong as many times as right - so its just an opinion rather than a prediction!

Happy Thoughts

OK - so here goes and with the stuff below this - i could easily be making a fool of myself. But ultimately - i think just possibly - just maybe - that things economically are getting better. 

I have two thought patterns as to why this could be the case

1. Stuff We Know

•  House prices up
•  Unemployment down
•  Euro crisis possibly worst could be over
•  Tad more confidence out there
•  New Client and Campaign requests significantly up at OME towers

2. Stuff I Feel

• It just seems more positive out there - can i define that? nope
• We have bumped along at this level for ages - markets always bounce back - don't they?
• Recruitment is an early indicator - and again there are bumps and nods that the beast is beginning to re-awaken
• I just want the above to be true - so wishful thinking maybe playing a part

So buy stocks, sell long, buy a house, start a business, take that new job, buy sterling and do whatever you do with derivatives, swaps, hedging and leveraging things.

* for those followers of my financial advice (currently a group consisting of zero members) it is important to note that investments can go down as well as up and that in fact overall on balance they are much more likely to go down.

Confused of N1

Have been visited by the great and good from the digital media industry over last few weeks and all are preaching similar concerns - to summarise
1. Most ad agencies' media spend is falling
2. Most ad agencies say it will continue to be of less importance to them
3. Many clients are going direct
4. Will their spend be eroded/replaced by social/direct recruiting etc

To be fair this tallies with the rare conversations i have with peers/competitors in industry (always noticeable still in 2012 how reliant some are on print billings for any healthy margins)

The "Confused" bit comes from that this conflicts hugely with our experience at OME -

1. Media billings going up ie more direct recruiting
2. LinkedIn spend replaces spend on rec agencies not necessarily media
3. They want a holistic approach to outward employer/recruiter messaging/process/engagement. Negotiating media deals is not the hard bit - its having an metric led approach that ensures you continue to deliver efficient results while simultaneously being innovative and managing the whole process (using the right MI).
4. So desire (not need but desire) for the right supplier has never been as high or as useful i think

So what to think

1. we are wrong (possible)
2. the old industry is so fragmented that no rules apply across the board. You have big trad agencies desperate to reinvent themselves (RPO/Marcomms/Strategy), small players wo have found a niche and doing fine and many in the middle.
3. I dont think we fit any of those categories anymore - so will concentrate on delivering a product to market that people want to buy.
4. Critical we stay on top of what is happening out there but not so far ahead as to be offering non practical advice for clients in next 12 months.

Events and Awards

Now i have tendency to be cynical about attending too many events and award ceremonies but i do have to say how pleased i am that Mike Roberts is organising the 2nd Social Media Grad Conference and Awards

It took brave organisations last year to stick their head above the parapet and let peers, competitors, cynics view their work in social media but as we all know - there is now some brilliant work (with tangible results) going on now in this sector and i think the event will go from strength now.

Now we need to see if Mike will invite me back as a judge this year.....

Tectonic Plates Are Shifting

We love digital media, in fact we love most media but.....
most of the schedules we put together now are not classic postings on jobsites, emails etc.
they are properly integrated with press, radio and (for us) the big element of SOCIAL. I am going to try and share our billings splits between the various parts of our business and i think, as a biz that was so concentrated around classic digital rec media, i think it will make interesting reading.

Content over Style

I have had a week of presentations and feel a little bored by the sound of my own voice and the relentless self promotion unsubtly disguised in presenting research, trends and case studies (and yes i am aware of the irony that i am writing a broadcast blog post bemoaning that i have been talking too much about OME).

Last month - i overhauled the content and how we present and sexed it up a bit - i felt happier with what we had created, all good yes?.....

Nope - all the consequent feedback though quite positive is that people want the info displayed in a clear structured way (that they can quote, re-use....copy and paste) and also not to go too bleeding edge with examples and advice.

Organisations want to know what they can do practically and what they can get done in no longer than the medium term (define - medium term?? i think it is a time period that covers when the decision maker is likely to still be in the job)

So this week - it was back to clear directional advice (not you could do this or you could do that or that etc), how to kick it off, resources required and how to avoid it all going wrong.

Feedback much much better

Lesson of the Week
Don't get too clever and forget its about what your clients want not what you want to give them

Now all i need is for someone to remind me of this, say maybe every hour.