Categories: Articles

CMA 2004 Digital Marketing Conference Wrap-Up

Both Patrick Keane (Head of Advertising Strategy) from Google and marketing Guru Seth Godin both feel that the true power of Blogs and RSS feeds are still untapped markets and that is the place in which marketers can truly create ideal relationships. Glad to hear it, considering that I covered it as my topic for the What’s Hot: Marketing’s use of Internet Technology session in the afternoon.
It was interesting to hear two very different types of marketers both agree that the more marketers use the internet to cram messages in our faces instead of using it as a true tool to probe, create and retain the best of the best clients that, as expected, it will in all likelihood just turn into another marketing channel instead of its true potential at delivering the ultimate one-to-one relationship.
We’ve been banging at this online marketing component for nearly fifteen years now and it’s still very nascent. Even more so in Canada. The true take-home of the Canadian Marketing Association’s 2004 Digital Marketing Conference? There’s lot of potential for any company, in nearly any vertical, to own the space. There may not be as many people buying online in Canada… yet… but when they do, the question becomes: are you willing to let your competition eat your lunch because you didn’t get in when you should have?
Lots of opportunity – lots of potential – lots for us (and me) to think about!
A special “thank you” to the organizers for inviting me out (especially Laurie and Howard – you’re the best!)

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.