Tales from the Nordics

Nokia goes to war with Apple!

2009-10-22T16:33:00Z

Another bite coming from the Finnish giant of mobile phones... Nokia is suing Apple for allegedly infringing ten of the company's patents in the iPhone...

The hot news in more detail will be all over the news so I won't go into details but yet another slash in the mobile phone war for the bid to dominate the world!

Finland - Its your god given right to have broadband!

2009-10-22T16:28:00Z

Yes, we have Nokia & a hand full of other pretty big tech firms but announced today - that by July 2010, it will be your god given right to have high speed broadband in the comfort of your own home! Yep, we're making having access to broadband a legal right, ensuring that every single one of these lovely Finnish citizens has an Internet connection of at least 1Mb/s by July 2010. Pretty cool no...

Makes you wonder why countries like the UK, being major leaders in so many sectors of everything still get away with charging a fortune for broadband... My personal connection is 25eur per month and thats around 5mb... Soon I'll upgrade to 100mb which is around double the price!

Banned from Facebook for 48 Hours!

2009-10-22T14:12:00Z

No, I wasn’t banned by Facebook, rather I banned myself from Facebook & TV for the past 48 hours – and wow what a difference!

Reason for the Ban:

Simply put, I felt Facebook & Television where taking up too much time – Yes, they essentially become addictions of everyday life! Even at my ”young” age many people are permanently logged in… Spare time is being spent in Facebook instead of something useful & we all know the ”Girlfriend & Boyfriend scenario: Honey, what are you watching… Be quiet babe, I’m watching TV… What is it your watching?... Oh for *** sakes, I don’t know babe – just be quiet”

The effects of these two combined are detremental if you ask me! I am as such a victim who easily finds himself in front of the TV at night time with laptop permanently on Facebook, while offcourse I scroll and study other sites also…

I decided it was simply high time to see what happens without either & in the long-term my ambition is to find the happy medium – somewhere between the latest technology and old fashioned ”face-to-face” communications. Simply put, its about finding a balance & the right tools that benefit your life, without sacrificing life offline!

So I put together a few positive / negative thoughts on FB & following that I’ll give a brief of what can happen in 48 hours

Positive effects on work life:

Is there a positive effect? Yes we can network but this isn’t work life… this is essentially personal life. As an entrepreneur their are ways to network and FB is not one of them…
Yes as a digital marketer I need to know whats happening in Facebook for the sakes of my clients and their positioning to the consumer within social media, but this once again is not worklife – its is a requirement of my profession to ensure clients maximize their position online/offline etc…

Negative effects on work life:

- Less hours a day spent on actual work
- Less thinking time (I am a solid believer that FB fills in the gaps between work but shouldn't thinking do this?)
- On-going distraction - "whats happening in FB - I'll just check"
- Friends wanting to chat in FB chat (which hardly works anyway). Yes, friends overseas are a positive effect but your local friends? Really guys, pick up a bloody phone or go meet them…

Positive effects on personal life:

- Keeping in touch with friends everywhere made easy. Especially friends from abroad who are difficult to keep in touch with otherwise.
- Self learning through groups/clubs…
- Dating (various dating tools which actually work kinda….)
- Games (if your into that)

Negative effects on personal life:

- Less hours a day spent on actually doing something
- Reduced motivation to see your friends face-to-face
- I think a mix of old & new communications works. Many are using Facebook for everything – in some cases its even taken over the horrible SMS which we all know we use too much.
- Relationships are being managed from FB. People are loosing touch with the need to see each other or at least speak over the phone. People are dumping each other in FB & having relationships that never make it outside of the cyber world - is this honestly healthy?
- Why see my friends? Lets hang in FB & have a beer...
- Less motivation to work out...
- Combined with TV the overall effect is just laziness
- Future generations will be pail white, fat & munch of unlimited amounts of sugar and junkfood while they couch potatoe themselves with a laptop on their laps with FB

The last 48 hours

Just briefly instead of sitting on my sofa starring into the TV & speaking to 20 people in Facebook while I update my status every five minutes I’ve read 200 pages of a book which by the way, I rarely allocate time to myself for reading, I’ve done a lot of thinking (which otherwise I would have been telling people in FB that I’ve done alot of thinking instead of doing alot of thinking), opened up my eyes to various music groups via Spotify (now that is a good online source), had coffee with two friends in the evenings, been to gym, been shopping & essentially just spent more time doing what we used to do… Active ”offline” stuff!. Oh yes, offcourse I have been working as one always does anyway…

Please note...

I am not at all saying Facebook is no good but I think what I am saying is that we need to be self indepedant from things like Facebook & TV. I will use Facebook everyday in the future, just to communicate with friends abroad & yes, I am sure I will speak a little to my local friends but I will ensure I keep my distance & only spend a short time in there everyday. I don’t need to say anything about the combination of this & TV – I think that one is obvious!!!!

ECONOMIC SITUATION - Down or up?

2009-09-03T10:38:00Z

Seems to change dependant on which company you ask. I have personally seen here in Finland most major ad and media agencies lay-off people. It's very difficult to fire someone here in Finland without real cause & hence in some ways the economy has helped these agencies to go into this process called "cold termination" - which essentially is a BS way of saying we are gonna fire a whole bunch of you and give you some legal mumbo jumbo that its up the company to decide who goes! It has given agencies the opportunitiy to review their strategies & get rid of the old useless people who have no understanding of the ad/media landscape today.

Right now, lots of talk is going around about new divisions specializing in digital opening up, ROI based models and so on - Funnily enough friends are telling me that these are radical new ideas when really, is it just that Finland is two steps behind the rest of the world - creatively there are great guys/girls here but strategically I really can't say I have seen anything that would meet the standards I have adhered to in the UK, Australia and other major markets...

Old colleagues in Australia have said by January 2010 brands will be recruiting again - 90% digitally focused... Here in the Nordics the market is quite stale - companies are not sure and in most cases companies in the Nordics are very "safe" and don't take big risks.

Simply interested to hear whats going on out there... Finland is slowly curving back up I think and by the end of the year/beginning of next year gaps will start to be filled. How about the UK?

SPAMBOOK - Is Facebook becoming the next SPAM medium?

2009-09-01T08:58:00Z

SPAMBOOK - Is Facebook becoming the next SPAM medium?

Facebook... the new giant that has a generation almost attached to it. Generation F some call it! The 70's were "free love", the 80's were "rock", the 90's were "grunge", and now... "Social networks - FACEBOOK".

So is this new so-called generation soon going to get angry? Why? SPAM.... While many successful brands are moving forward & embracing social platforms and new avenues of reaching their consumers, many are misusing these channels & quite frankly just ruining them for other brands. I've noticed an influx of brands in particular one or two in the Nordics simply attacking Facebook & using it as a personal source of SPAM. At this stage I am really narrowing down my friends in Facebook and what I see on the homepage. I really don't want to see 20 updates on my homepage about one brand - SPAM SPAM SPAM. Too some extent its becoming a little like MySpace but at least we as the user, do have somewhat control but seems rude to delete all your fan pages and friends.

In the past 6 months a massive explosion of brand pages have been created. Facebook has become like the web during the dotcom boom - brands then said "we need a website - just create us a website" & now they are saying "we need a Facebook page - just create us a Facebook page" - So what’s the long-term strategy, what’s the point of difference, how will Facebook align with all your other marketing channels, how will you engage your consumer more so than other brands, without spamming them? Yes, another SPAM giant was email - no segmentation, no behavioral targeting, no strategic approach at all - just spam those consumers and hope for the best - What ever happened to first impressions last? Well it seems to me like Facebook is slowly moving towards this & if brands don't follow a marketing strategy to align all their mediums and have "original concepts" to apply to Facebook then well... soon We'll be seeking the next "anti-spam" platform.

One thing is clear that we need to build up our brands across all channels - and yes, we have to start somewhere, but not SPAM. Somewhere means having an in-depth long-term strategy as to how you will use these new channels of media to promote your business. Being marketing professionals we are obviously much more critical of the way brands place themselves to the consumer, but the consumer remembers - they are not dumb! Assume the consumer is smart, savvy, and intelligent - tell them what they want to hear, give them what they want to see... Target them & be their friend - But guys... Stop and think & ask yourselves one question - What are you trying to do in the long-term and are you going to achieve it with your current approach? I for one object to being spammed in anyway - email, facebook, telesales, forums... - Leave me alone :)

Love to hear anybodies thoughts on this on a regional level. Examples would be great but I am personally trying to stop myself from attacking individual brands.

Digital in the East - Ukraine

2009-06-17T09:35:00Z

Developing markets are becoming somewhat of an interest to me now. I plan to continue my work in East Africa, maybe sooner than later as its now boom boom boom! In all honesty though, its not such a nice market to work in because politicans in Africa are a different breed all togther and essentially any big business guy in East Africa is in some way or another very connected to the politicians = which in many cases equals criminal activity in some manner. Now I wouldn't expect most to understand this, but go down there, network your ass off and then get back to me. Please don't comment til you know the market.

But moving on from East Africa, I recently spent a short time in Ukraine which was also super interesting. A country that is incredibly cheap, if not cheaper than Africa & has a huge pool of resources. The number one problem here is most speak Russian only - but if you can work around that, there is a very good market here, people are willing to work hard & many have a decent education. They at the very least have access to fast internet which in development terms is education for most - like me :)

The quality of work or should I say sites is pretty low but its getting better. I personally met with several freelancers and entrepreneurs and also intend to tap into this market in some manner or another so if your interested in Eastern markets then get in touch with me as I am currently working on ideas also.

The great thing about Ukraine is it meets many of the requirements that East Africa did not 1) fast internet capability (mind you the cables are laid in East Africa this month) 2) accessibility (while many are poor there is a much greater accessibility 3) wealth - there are many who are desperate but its by no means, Africa... Education is not free but some can afford it & mobility was definitely there, with lots of iPhone users, Nokia smart series etc...

Stay tuned for more on Ukraine, as at this stage, I am just tapping in...

Digital in East Africa: Exploring the obstacles

2009-05-20T04:42:00Z

OK, normally I write about Digital Marketing in the Nordics but I just spend 2 months in East Africa and wanted to take a look at a few of the crucial factors that are playing a role in its future development. My sincere apologies for being away for so long but my new found combined profession with digital marketing includes my photographic works at michaeltrenerry.com.

So here are some of my observations of digital in Kenya & how this effects the population over all. As I had a few discussions with different experts, I found that due to the extreme difference in wealth there are very different opinions on where some would like to see the internet go. Some underlying ”social” factors that will effect the growth include:

Wealth is the underlying factor in these developing countries. Kenya is a crazy country that is incredibly corrupt. Like in most cases the Rich get richer and the poor continue to struggle but here, they don’t struggle for the things you’d think, rather they struggle primarily to put clean water on the table followed by basic, and I mean very basic food. Following this education is important but there are many hurdles for some to get their kids to school – distance of travel, purchasing uniforms, disease and malnutrition, no family support, food for education and so on. The most horrible thing that I found were many key powerful people, don’t even want to see the internet as a tool for all – for them, if the poor have access to the internet, the % of rich vs poor may shift a little, simply due to accessible information for the poor, self education, entrepreurism and so on.

Corruption plays a massive part in the future of Kenya’s business economy. I heard many talk about Kenya being similar to a country like India one day. A country that while extreme poverty exists in well over 90% of the countries population, the country in the future will have access to fast internet, laced with a good education for those who come from a wealthy background – like in India, most have no chance to or can not afford universtity or higher education.

But, for this to happen, I believe that corruption will need to reduce. How can a country & its people not be corrupt, if the most part of the police force, militar & government are corrupt – everybody wants a little something on the side in Kenya and it is in your face! You’ll see bribes taking place as you leave the airport, with all the police pulling folk over to ”check their cars”…

Any company doing business in kenya must be prepared to bribe the right people. This can make business easy to some extent but difficult to another – one example is a big shopping centre created in Westlands – Nakumattt Ukay. This centre should have never been built as it is sitting above wasteland and a river. Money bought the rights to build about 9 years ago through an instable government and politicians… Now, it is being ripped down! Different government, different demands & now the business is loosing everything.

I personally look for stability in an economy to invest, what will international companies do in Kenya? I may start exploring the East African Digital Market more so stay tuned.

Accessibility follows the path of Corruption and wealth in some terms. Simply put, unlike Finland, where pretty much 99% of homes have internet access, it is closer to 1% in Kenya. As it was kindly put to me by a local business man, why will slum dwellers in Kibera, Africas second largest slum with around 1.5 million residents pay for the internet when they can’t afford water & food.

Well, I didn’t like this guy one bit & would like to see this proven wrong. Accessibility is the key & to have a market, they need to reach a far greater audience. There are many ways to achieve this and we have seen it done in many western cultures – wireless hotspots, education funded development programs, free courses to promote business online and so on. I would definitely like to mentor this market in some way but that means living down there – lets see what happens eh?

Speed ultimately plays a big role in the use of the internet. And the speed in Kenya sucks. Mind you, its the fastest in East Africa, but still while I was there, in many cases I was not able to see sites E.g. when trying to buy a ticket from Blue1… the site simply didn’t work on a slow connection! Remember folk, the average connection there is more like 28k in & out, and in many cases one line for ten people. The guy I stayed with for the most part of the trip essentially had the fastest line in Kenya 512/256 but in many cases it felt like a quarter of that…

But, the fibre optic line is opening ”evidentally” in June, so this should solve the problem of speed BUT, it is not clear how expensive this will be. Yes, it will benefit big business but will it simply be too expensive for most the population? I will get back to this, as it will play a very important role in the growth of entrepreunerism & business from Kenya to the outside world – like India and many other developing countries have seen.

Education no matter what, is needed – and it needs to be government funded or privately from companies interested in the growth of Kenya. Yes, those going to university can access the internet but smaller courses need to be created on all levels of the internet. There are an abundance of ”private” courses advertised but one wonders who effective these are, and who is actually training in the courses – more on this later.

I feel that education also influences social attitude – While the rich of Kenya will be online, the poor need to be educated in the benefits of educating their kids online! For if a child of today does not know their way around the internet, then they have no chance in competing with the rest of the world. This is where some amazing educational based social methodologies and platforms need to be built specifically for Africa. Yes, it will take time for these to be developed, but they will be one of the key growth foundations for the poor in Africa.

Mobility is an interesting concept in Kenya. Before I went to Kenya I read bits and pieces in journals, magazines and portals about Kenya being a pioneer in Digital in this part of the world – pioneer? I also read, that many people had access to mobile internet. Well, first of all, its expensive, second of all, they need newer generation phones to effectively access the internet and thirdly, its expensive. Mobile credits is pretty steep in Kenya, more so than in Finland by a long shot. So do the maths.

However, the invention of M-Pesa is a great example of mobility without the internet. A ping of a text message has never sounded so nice. In what is being touted as a world first, Kenya's biggest mobile operator, Safaricom is allowing subscribers to send cash to other phone users by SMS . Vodaphone invented the functionality and owns 35% of Safaricom.

Apart from transferring cash - a service much in demand among urban Kenyans supporting relatives in rural areas - customers of the Safaricom network will be able to keep up to 50,000 shillings (£370) in a "virtual account" on their handsets.
M-Pesa's is simple. There is no need for a new handset or SIM card. To send money you hand over the cash to a registered agent - typically a retailer - who credits your virtual account.

Summarising the above isn’t easy. I may very well explore East African developing markets over the coming months – so interesting to follow a market that has near to no maturity in it at all. I even noticed small things like Niveas giant outdoor billboards not being contextually right! I mean, what does having one fo the biggest billboards in Nairobi do for you if the women in the poster is a white super model? Ummmm, hello – 99% of Kenya is Black, apart from the damn colonists who settled with the English… There are lots of small things I’d like to talk about focusing on smaller issues but maybe later…

Anybody interested in East African Markets please get in touch as I would like to further my research in this region & also any persons interested in investing or setting up business in this region, I would like to hear from – its gonna be an interesting but possibly lucrative market to get on board with – especially if we can fill the gap for poor people and make internet accessible for a much greater % of the population…

Facebook is getting way to commercial...

2009-03-17T18:21:00Z

Not to sound like a broken record or a teen following trends, but Facebook is totally heading down the same path as the likes of MySpace in my opinion.

The new layout sets the path for more paid advertising both on the homepage and profile page, removes any white space that the previous version had & has even gone to the extent of removing elements that allowed one to easily customize what they see. Too take it even one step further downward I would love to know who is concepting for the platform now. Functionality on your profile page below each of the "commercial" banners, allows one to skip forward and see another banner. I mean, are we developing for the 1990's or are we moving forward...? Thumbs up, down and skip on a banner?

I for one liked the recent version - it was simple, allowed one to customize and navigate easily but this time round - usability and personalization is out the window. Has Microsoft taken over?

Is Google cheating with Jaiku?

2009-03-06T04:35:00Z

Who has a Jaiku account out there? Jaiku was a product of Finland and when it came out some 2 odd years ago it was quite ahead of alot of other mobile devices. Essentially you can use it on the web but the key is to download it as an app to your mobile phone. Essentially you can do status update stuff but the winner here was the whole location based mapping - showing where you are so your friends could see on a map via GPS exactly whee you are via their mobiles (on the basis you are their friend).

Well anyway, Google bought them out some time back and basically Jaiku went of the map for that time - nobody was using it & people pretty much figured, that Google bought it just to keep it off the map for a while - it's not like Google doesn't have location based technology after all eh? And they didn't have so many users when the acquisition took place.

So Jaiku is back on the map now but still has few users but here is my "annoying bitch" about Google today. If you have an account then search in Google your name. If I type in Mchael Trenerry in Google, Jaiku comes up first & you know what - I don't use it anymore...

That's what we call ownership but really, not fair game in my eyes. Defeates the rules of search!

Skittles - Too quick to the draw... or not?

2009-03-03T20:59:00Z

Positive buzz was moving around yesterday about the Skittles website taking on the social media genre quite nicely. Not even a day later they move the homepage to the static Facebook group page due to negative chatter about skittles on Twitter. So the big question I am asking is:

a) were they smart enough to predict some negativity & change it to Facebook with the aim of getting more press. Sorry, but negative press is good press if they handle it correctly OR;

b) were they simply not competent enough to predict that there will always be some bad with the good...

I honestly can't believe it is the first, because all brands know that putting your brand out into the communities, will always erupt some bad chatter also. Its the strategy you have in place to counter act the bad - support it & grasp it! "we all know that not everyone out there loves our brands" - and that's fine!

Interesting to see how they counter act & comment on this... Either way they got bucket loads of press out of it as they are the 3rd top word used in Twitter two days in a row! Yep, beating politics, world news and so on in Twitter...

Good job guys - at least for trying... Not necessarily award winning material but not bad either!

Russia - 4th largest Social Networking Marketing in Europe

2009-03-02T12:54:00Z

Well I might be in Finland but you only have to drive 5 hours to the border of Russia and its a different world.

The growth in the Russian online sector is exponential at the moment and I don't just mean finding a Russian Bride for yourself!

Odnoklassniki.ru is Russias 3 year old community with over 30 million registered users - according to Quintura! Odnoklassniki was launched in early 2006 so has some pretty nice numbers being the language is Russian!

Statistically it has about 8 million visitors each day. Their core competitor is Vkontakte.ru with a trailing 28 million registered users and 1.4 billion page views per day.

According to the Russian TNS Web Index Vkontakte had 13.09 million visitors a month, which is slightly higher than Odnoklassniki’s monthly audience. But these stats basically make the Russian social networking market the fourth largest in Europe after UK, Germany and France.

Quite impressive & very interesting markets to watch as well as the Ukraine.

Watch this space!

Twitter Twitter Twitter

2009-03-02T12:21:00Z

First of all appologies for not being here for a while! Many things have been happening in my life both good and bad but now back on top of the ice-cream and ready to dip the cherry into the chocolate - bit too much detail eh?

Righteo, well I was previously blogging last June so I am not going to write everything that has happened since then but I am back & will be blogging weekly and daily if I find the time as lots to report. But during this time I have left the Isobar family, worked within a Finnish start-up and now going out on my own and looking for exciting projects to get involved with pretty much anywhere in the world.

But down to blogging - Twitter Twitter Twitter: right now I feel like its really launching itself. I have held back for a little while simply because not many people have been there & it still lacks viewers and users but it is for sure at the top of my wants list - its quick, easy, takes not time, informative... and removes the time restraints that many of us have when blogging - I can post a quick link or a one liner & for me that is great.

As for clients using it, well, I hope to get them on board in near future. At this stage it is essentially collegues or other digital savvy folk like us :)! So add me if you will MichaelTrenerry as Im keen to hear everything we do in here when blogging in micro format. For clients the ability to track what people are saying in Twitter is vital - Its now so much easier to funnel your issues into Twitter so for powerful brands who are using all the tracking tools - thumbs up! I am hoping to work with clients in the Nordics though on their social media strategies and twitting will be just a small part of the overall package!

I also today downloaded TweetDeck: Really streamlined and easier to divide your inbox, messages, groups and so on: Twitter should keep things simple but perhaps make it easier to divide things into categories E.g. news, digital, personal etc... But check it out - TweetDeck is cool...

But what about you? What Twitter client are you using?

Time for new pitching models?

2008-06-13T08:21:00Z

I have talked about this quite a bit in the recent months. The need for new revenue models with our clients is vital to our success, most especially in digital work due to the layers of work required and different aspects of the process that we can charge for e.g. strategy, planning/buying, ad serving, tracking, creative, project management etc…

Traditionally in big local and global pitches, the client has been more prominently interested in prices that the agency can deliver. While the client will highlight the major importance of creativity and in more recent days, being "digitally lead", more often thatn not they select the large global agency that offers the best price cuts in buying media - also applicable here are resources within the agency, ability to deliver on time etc...! Price is off-course most applicable, when the client is focusing on traditional medias such as Television & Print.

The pitching process I believe though is shifting in favor, in some cases, towards the more dynamic creative agencies that are truly lead by innovative ideas. I am not only talking about digital though, innovation comes from any media including for example digital, interactive outdoor & television. The creative pitch is starting to shift towards innovation and, the ideas are focusing on completely integrated concepts that have a clear defined path for the brand outlining the effects of the different revenue models and why they are there. It is not so vital to display TV 2.2% & Digital 7% for example... this is already a bit old really isn't it? Well off-course, maybe it depends on the client - but what about the shift towards behavioral buying, performance based models centered around leads & ROI... We could go into a whole discussion about different revenue models but then perhaps we'd be giving our secrets away eh?

Here in Helsinki, a few global accounts have gone from the big global agencies to newer style startups with far more innovative ideas - ideas that don't evolve purely around the masses, but rather creative ideas that are creatively modeled and in turn, new revenue models arise & the agencies make good on their return. Big agencies simply charge for their buying fee & maybe "consultancy" for strategies etc... - Common guys... get with the times and get more creative!

YouTube - Content creators can now make money.... Or can they?

2008-06-11T08:25:00Z

So we all know Google is tryinig to figure out how to monetize Youtube.

Well, while the latest idea to let content creators sell their own ads seems like a good idea, I think Goolge needs to get a little realistic if the rumours are true!

Professional content producers, wth ad sales teams & the full mothy are now able to sell video avertising on their YouTube channels. That includes the click-to-expand overlays that run across the bottom of YouTube videos and display units on the page that hosts the video player. The revenue is split between the content creator and YouTube, just as it would be if YouTube sold the ads.

However, if we dig deep seems there are a few rumours going around that YouTube is requiring that these ads sell for at least a $15 CPM, which is ultimately a lot less than the going rate for professional content. Content producers wishing to peddle their own ad space must commit to sell at least $10,000 — $4500 of which would go to Google — per campaign. At a rate of $15 CPM, that totals 666,667 impressions, a standard that only 44 videos from YouTube's partner program met last month.

Seems rather steep don't you think?

Marketing Effectiveness at an "All Time Low"

2008-06-10T09:39:00Z

Found this nice little article about how Marketers worldwide believe that 65% of their marketing spend had no detectable effect on consumers in 2007. Marketing wastage is at its highest in more developed economies such as the US, UK, the EU and Australia. 3,000 marketing professionals across the globe were questioned as to the efficacy of different marketing tools. The responses suggest that their efforts reached an all-time low in perceived effectiveness - mainly for lack of accurate feedback.

Fournaise Marketing Group tracks both offline and online marketing effectiveness, capturing millions of pieces of data every week. The report's findings reveal…

- 65% of all marketing spend in 2007 had no effect on consumers.
- Estimated wastage rates varied from 45% for business-to-business marketers, through to 65% for business-to-consumer.
- Just one in ten of respondents have automated systems in place to track the effectiveness of their spend.
- Of the 55% of marketers who do track the results of their spending, 80% do so manually, spending hours capturing, compiling and analysing data.
- Questioned on strategy, 70% of marketers believe that short-term revenue-boosting and lead-generation campaigns are more important than long-term intangible brand building (15%). A clear indication that marketers are under pressure more than ever before to generate results.
- Tracking marketing effectiveness topped the 2008 wish lists of 35% of marketers, and made the top three for 70%.

To me this makes alot of sense, we need to track everything, we need to understand our clients objectives and how we are going to reach them... The above outlines that 55% of marketers dont track the results of their sending... So how the hell are we spending so much within the media & ad landscape. Are our clients not interested in ROI? Wow... we have so many tools & so much knowledge of this so I hope we are doing something about it :)!