A day at Online Marketing & Media 08

Yesterday I was at the Online Marketing and Media 08 show in London. Sam McArthur and I have been going to these shows for quite a few years now, and to be honest I usually come away disappointed. This year was a bit different though, lots of interesting stuff.

First of all, we had booked to hear Adriana Lukas speak about 'new tools for marketers', and although most of the tools she showed us were familiar to me it was very helpful to have some of the functionality explained and demonstrated. It made me realise there's a LOT still to be done on this blog, and in fact I've a LONG way to go in social media generally! I liked Adriana's style, clearly a bit of a guru and a prolific blogger.

We also sat in on a session given by Katy Howell of Immediate Future, again an impressive presentation with a lot of freely shared info about how they monitor and measure online conversations. Good to get a decent seat at it was standing room only at the back - no prizes for guessing what the hot topics were at this show.

Something I noticed about the trade show was that although many of the stands were the same-old, same-old, interestingly there were a number of firms there operating in apparently quite niche markets: German SEO services, online marketing for retailers, email marketing for charities. Could that be how the industry is going, or is it just a case of starting up as a niche company and then being bought out by one of the big boys?

Speaking of which, prize for the most entertaining stand must go to Steak Media, although I'm not sure what the vegetarians thought of it!

Comments

[Sam McArthur]

The seminars were definitely worth going to and proved how much there is to learn on social media!

I think the firms with the niche offerings are finding new ways of making themselves stand out from an increasingly crowded marketplace of online marketing firms. Choosing from a selection of firms offering exactly the same services and saying the same things must be very difficult for businesses looking for an online marketing provider!

[Robin Houghton]

Yes, I'd be interested to know what a company's criteria are when it comes to selecting an online marketing agency. Sector/niche expertise must be a selling point, because when all else is equal it probably comes down to people - everyone wants to work with people they like. And that's hard to communicate before you've even met your prospects.