Oct 10
26
Social Media Draws A Crowd
Advertising dollars are increasingly flowing into social media campaigns with Facebook, Twitter and similar sites getting more and more attention from Madison Avenue.
Companies new and old, from startups to long-established public relations firms, are vying for dominance in this new marketing arena.
Many large names, such as Interpublic Group of Cos., Publicis Groupe, Meredith and others are getting into the game. Interpublic has a new practice called Rally which began last month to focus on online marketing campaigns. Publicis will enter the space this year and Meredith Corp. has New Media Strategies handling the online campaign for Chrysler.
The number of big names in social media marketing – which even a year ago was still a buzz term in tech offices, mostly ignored by media giants – has grown to become an estimated $2.5 billion market this year. Up to now, most of those involved in the genre were either startups with little name recognition or were hands-on, internal affairs by the advertisers themselves.
PepsiCo is one of those hands-on advertisers, with its Gatorade brand buildings its own Mission Control Center for monitoring social media efforts for the sports drink.
Other big names in the goods and services fields are looking to make partnerships with established experts in media marketing. Kraft signed on 360i, a Japanese digital advertising agency, to handle its social media monitoring and development. Kraft is entering the social arena with brands such as Oreo and Jell-O.
Microsoft, meanwhile, is looking for a social media handler to pool all of its disparate efforts for Xbox advertising together, through their asset management firm State Street.
The ubiquitous proliferation of the social media expert is something of a liability to the industry, though many big companies are looking to smaller firms with more specialized expertise. Dominos hired New Media Strategies, a word-of-mouth marketing firm. Dominos says it specifically chose NMS because of its focused expertise, whereas many larger marketing firms are including social media as a “side note.”
The space is growing fast and as larger names enter the field, many of the smaller experts will be absorbed or displaced. Others will find a niche they can hold and exploit. Most in the industry agree that the next couple of years will see a lot of consolidation and shakeup in the field.
