Welcome to the Interact Congress Blog. We have invited some leading European guest bloggers to share their observations on interactive marketing and communication skills within the integrated experience. The blog also offers you a first opportunity to interact with your peers.

For more information about the congress, please visit www.interactcongress.eu

Friday, 26 April 2013

The revenge of content in marketing and media

Content has long been treated as a commodity and often the ugly duckling in the online industry. Remember those days where the largest part of website budgets went to design - often based on the eternal ego of the brand - instead of to what really mattered? 

What matters today is the overall customer experience in an integrated way. Even if content marketing is less used in a strict sense than we like to believe, it's clear that content is finally seen as the glue between the brand, the narrative, the consumer, the different channels and the business goals.

What will be the effect on the types of advertising and marketing IAB Europe is all about? Hard to tell. Some predict an integration of what is now known as paid, owned and earned media. Others look at it less from the media perspective and more from the customer journey perspective whereby what used to be B2B marketing concepts become mainstream in consumer marketing.

Connecting the brand, the media and the consumer with content marketing 


You'll have to fight for attention and make sure all touchpoints are consistent. You'll need to focus more than ever on the narrative and proposition of your brand while segmenting and personalizing.

And you'll need to herald a more integrated approach. Content marketing is about all that and about applying the principles of storytelling across the journey, regardless of media and formats. Connecting the brand. And the people within and around it. Add to that social content and the concept of audiences and their audiences, etc.

Will owned, earned and paid media converge? Maybe it's already the case. Just look at tv. But in the online space? My guess is that's it will not be a full convergence. Because trust has become something you need to earn and transparency and openness are very much about trust. Or am I wrong?

Anyway, no matter how you look at it: content starts getting the attention it deserves. Now we just have to get rid of the noise and focus on content that's relevant and leads to results, value, brand engagement and ultimately sales. Check out the slideshare presentation on the convergence of paid, owned and earned media and the dynamic customer experience by Altimeter Group below and read more about content marketing strategy.


Tuesday, 20 March 2012

Social Media: what are they all used for? A fun and simple way to understand them all...

Take a look at the simple, and fun, short presentation on Slideshare that helps to explain what the various Social Media tools are used for in one simple sentence - using the medium of coffee drinking....

Don't miss future postings of Marketing Unleashed, get them when posted by email : click here to sign up. Follow me on twitter @garybembridge

Wednesday, 29 February 2012

Social Media - made simple.

Picture by http://www.flickr.com/photos/aslanmedia_official/
There are so many social media and networking sites, and for many people it can be confusing to know what they are all for - and how people are using them. This posting is an attempt to simplify that for everyone. Hopefully helps, in a slightly amusing way, helps you to understand how and what people are using them for.


I cannot claim entirely that this approach of explaining what social media sites is all my own inspiration, as had seen something like this floating about online and from what I remember (and adding some of my own spin), here is a simple way to illustrate what each of the social media sites floating about are used for.....



  • Twitter: I am drinking a cup of #coffee
  • Facebook: I like drinking coffee
  • Foursquare: This is where I am drinking coffee right now
  • YouTube: Here is a video of me drinking coffee
  • LinkedIn: My skills include drinking coffee
  • Flickr: My photos of people drinking coffee
  • Last FM: I am listening to "One more cup of coffee" by Bob Dylan
  • Pinterest: Here are the brands of coffee I like
  • Slideshare: Here is a presentation about drinking coffee
  • Badoo: Looking to meet a partner of the opposite sex who likes drinking coffee
  • Gaydar: Looking to meet a gay man who likes drinking coffee
  • MeetUp: Join our meeting of coffee drinkers on Thursday
  • WAYN: Places around the world I have drunk coffee

Hope this helps!


Don't miss future postings of Marketing Unleashed, get them when posted by email : click here to sign up. Follow me on twitter @garybembridge

Wednesday, 12 October 2011

The Networked Business of the Future


Recently I presented at the Knowledge Peers event: Technology – transforming growing businesses at the Design Council, Covent Garden, London. A lot of good presentations and discussions with a genuinely interested and intelligent audience asking some probing questions about cloud, social business and the changes required.

My presentation was about how technology has changed companies, the problems they face and the benefits of becoming a more social business internally and externally. It picks up on themes from a couple of previous posts on social business if you fancy checking that out.

More: read a full transcript and also a video of post event snippets.