For the sixth in our series of Google Firestarters events focusing specifically on issues around performance marketing we've picked a theme that must be close to the heart of just about any marketer – how to align marketing activity more directly with the bottom line. Taking marketing as a profit (rather than a cost) centre means getting a better understanding of customer lifetime value, the customer journey on and offline, the role of brand and the value of word of mouth. But with improved data and technologies (particularly in tracking and attribution) and with much greater levels of flexibility and agility in spend and activity levels, there has never been a greater opportunity to have a more precise understanding of the value of digital media investment and more directly tie marketing spend to resultant profit.
Yet this requires us to approach familiar problems in new ways, some of which are captured nicely in this piece by Matt Lawson on the profit-driven marketer. Could this be the next big trend in digital advertising campaigns? What are the key facets of this new trend and what does this mean for the future of marketing? To help us navigate this emerging territory we have three excellent speakers:
Ian Jindal is a long-time friend of ODF and one of the most experienced and knowledgable e-commerce and multichannel experts out there. Ian runs his own consultancy (working with clients like Marks & Spencer, House of Fraser, Westfield), is the founder and publisher of Internet Retailing the trade journal for eCommerce professionals, founder of the European eCommerce Forum, co-founder of the UK’s first Masters (MSc) in Internet Retailing, and a regular conference chair and speaker.
Thomas Byrne is the Commercial Director at Periscopix, the award-winning digital agency which specialises in PPC, Google Analytics and Real-Time Bidding Display
Dave Byrne (no relation) is a Performance Specialist at Google. It's unusual for us to have a Google speaker at a Firstarters event (in fact we've never had one before) but Dave leads the focus on shifting digital marketing thinking from a cost centre to a profit centre so has something of a unique perspective.
So, it's shaping up to be a fascinating event. It's happening next week, 6.00pm on Wednesday 10th September at Google HQ in London. As always, I have some guest passes to give away to readers of this blog so if you'd like to come along, do drop me a line.
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