Jeff Dachis on Digital Marketing's Past, Present, and Future

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By: Tiana Tucker

Marketing in the digital space has come a long way since the first banner ad in 1994, which featured the following copy for AT&T: “Have you ever clicked your mouse here? You will.” Jeff Dachis had a role in helping marketers enter the space as a member of the team that created the previously referenced banner ad for the Web.

Dachis, founder of Dachis Group and co-founder of Razorfish, sat down for a conversation with the Financial Times reporter Emily Steel on how social media is redefining mass communications. This was a keynote event that helped kick off New York City’s fifth edition of Social Media Week on Tuesday. Social Media Week is an international event hosted simultaneously in various cities that brings together experts in the field to discuss social media's past, present, and future.

Dachis emphasized that the shift from mass communications to having mass communicators is the result of the proliferation of technology and simple channels on which anyone can have a voice. Brands are now being forced to talk with consumers instead of talking at them with carefully crafted one-way brand communication messages. It has also become more apparent than ever that consumers trust friends, followers, and strangers on a variety of different channels. As a result, brand building stands to undergo a renaissance as brands continue to try to understand social media. Dachis made it clear that he believed display advertising in digital, especially on mobile devices and on web pages, is largely a failure because it misses the mark on engaging the consumer.

According to Dachis, in social media “a more engaged audience is a more valuable audience.” As brands seek to have these conversations in social spaces they should strive for “trusted, authentic, and transparent engagement.” Prior to getting started in any particular social media space, brands need to understand the currencies of engagement distinctive to each network so that a unique way of measuring performance can be established. It is also important to identify and mobilize the brand’s advocates, also referred to as the "engaged audience". Brand advocates only make up 1% of the audience, but they generate at least 30% of free earned impressions.

Here are a few predictions on what’s next for the ever-changing industry from Dachis:

social media networks will find a way to monetize
the mobile industry will start to take shape in response to the explosion in mobile use
a more than gradual move to pair paid and earned media activity with social engagement insights to mobilize brand leaders in topics they already engage with will occur
social media engagement will become included in the cost or value of print and billboard advertisements

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About the Author

Tiana Tucker is an Online Marketing & Communications Assistant at the Danish Institute for Study Abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark. Learn more about her at: about.me/tianatucker.

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