Week One Journal Entry

The first week of our clinic has exposed the students to one of the most powerful tools available to businesses, digital media. Having a digital marketing and communications presence is key because of the on demand nature of the content and the ability for consumers to experience the content on their own time and in a repeatable fashion. As a Director in the Digital group at Fleishman-Hillard International Communications, my job day in, day out is to continue to push the use of digital communications and strategy for our clients.

In the book “Always On”, the author details the resistance for some CEO’s and CMO’s to fully embrace the digital media space. Often, these individuals see traditional media (TV, print) as the key areas to market and advertise. In communications we often experience some of the same resistance. Often the resistance is the result of the individual operating outside his/her comfort zone. But a key point that we often illustrate to our clients is the ability to attach very powerful metrics to digital communication/marketing that can clearly demonstrate a return on their investment. In addition to usage and conversion metrics, agencies can capture information about these visitors that can help better refine the target demographic that is consuming the media being produced and allows the company and the agency to better tailor their messages to convert these visitors into consumers.

Marketing in the digital space also provides consumers an unprecedented experience. Online marketing and communication can allow visitors to interact with a product or service in a way that print or television advertising cannot. Leveraging online product simulations, videos and augmented reality can bring a product or service to life for the consumer and then immediately take the consumer to a point of purchase. Having this capability is a tool that executives and marketing teams have not had before and with the dynamic nature of the digital space, messaging and product information can be changed with ease. In addition to the experiences, key word advertising in the major search engines can surface content about a product or a service to those that are already online looking for this information.

I am truly looking forward to participating in this course. My experience as digital media professional in the communications industry comes from a college education that included software development and general business acumen in addition to years of experience working as a professional and continuing my education by reading and learning from my peers. I am very interested in being exposed to how academia is studying this space and the trends that are being uncovered and the pedagogy being developed.