Vovia & Google Team Up to Deliver Marketing Advice Over Breakfast

Delicious Breakfast & Tasty Insight

Times are tough and many may be wondering how to achieve their marketing goals in today’s economy. Lucky attendees at the Vovia:Google partners digital breakfast on Tuesday, February 23rd had the opportunity to discover how to do this and enjoy a delicious breakfast at the same time.

Attendees started trickling in around 8:30am and were able to visit amongst each other and grab some morning nourishment from the buffet that was filled a number of tasty food and drink options. Despite the early timing, the event brought in a good turnout of lively marketers ready to hear what Vovia and Google had to say.

The Importance of Micro-Moments

After everyone had a chance to make their way into the Twin Rooms at Le Germain Hotel in Calgary, Alex Marks from Google began his presentation. He started by making the point that we are in a state of media abundance and that mobile sales have experienced an intense rise since 2008. According to Alex, people pull out their phones an average of 150 times a day! Considering these “micro-moments”, Alex then moved on to some great advice on how to make the most of them.

• Identify moments – Google Trends and Google Consumer surveys tools can help you to identify these moments.
• Deliver on those moments – Pay attention to context and intent. When searches are spiking, find out who is doing the searching and figure out how you can help them. Be useful in that moment, and you will win their intent.
• Measure what matters – Prioritize KPIs that matter to your brand, and let that drive your marketing efforts.

In closing, Alex laid down three action items that he encouraged the audience to get started on right away:

• Verify your Google Places listing
• Be mobile friendly
• and talk to an expert!

Marketing On a Budget

After a quick five minute break, Vovia’s own Heather Ilsley spoke to the crowd about how to efficiently market on a budget. She explained that the recession itself has changed the marketing landscape and that consumers have also changed in this difficult market. Heather discussed some of the trends that are happening telling attendees that online and mobile use is on the rise, whereas some forms of traditional media are on the decline, like print and newspaper. Heather used the success of various clients and campaigns Vovia executed as examples of how marketing can still be successful without breaking the bank. She went over how this was achieved:

• Measure what matters – Is website traffic what really matters to your company? Really? Or is it the actions that a user performs once they get there?
• Invest in channels that drive results – Always be mindful of how much you are investing in a particular channel vs its share of performance.
• Optimize media buy – Now that you know what channel is working the hardest, it’s time to optimize it so that it works even harder for you!
• Optimize for web – Now that you have the channels optimized, the next step is to make incremental changes to your website to improve the chances and opportunities for conversions.

Common Traps & Distractions

Heather also listed three common traps and distractions to look out for;

1. One size does not fit all – Just because a certain channel or strategy works for one product, service, or demographic, doesn’t mean that it will work for the rest. Each situation really needs to be evaluated before commencing any advertising.
2. What NOT to do is just as important as what to do – through proper measurement and analysis, you can make better decisions on inefficient channels that should be cut.
3. Match up your creative, digital doesn’t work for traditional – One set of creative DOES NOT work across multiple platforms and channels. It should always be adapted for the medium that you are working with. Heather used a hilarious example of a company using a cut out coupon flyer creative (the kind you would find in a newspaper) in the digital display space to help illustrate this.
4. Ensure Accuracy in Measurement – When using multiple platforms and tracking systems, it will be important to determine which is the most reliable and is giving you the most accurate data.

Leading the Pack

The presentation ended with some last pieces of advice:

• Focus on the user – Relevancy is the key to success.
• Focus on Measurement – You need to measure your efforts so you know what is working (and what’s not).
• Assume nothing, test relentlessly -Test, iterate, measure, and repeat!

After the presentations wrapped up, Google and Vovia stuck around to network with attendees and to answer their questions on the materials covered. There were many happy faces in the crowd, looking fully satisfied by the delicious breakfast and tasty insight consumed this day. If you happened to miss the event and want to know more about the topics covered, leave us a comment below or contact us today!