Feature: Technology for Marketing & Advertising

Marketers can keep on top of how to make the best use of the internet and new technology in their promotions by attending the Technology for Marketing & Advertising exhibition on February 12 and 13. The show, which gets bigger every year, features over 200 suppliers and specialists in different areas of technology, including online incentives and digital marketing.

The latest technology and trends are explained through 40 seminars covering key themes of the exhibition, such as digital marketing, online advertising and affiliate marketing, database marketing and analytics and customer relationship management.

Topics include email, mobile and viral marketing, multi-channel marketing, optimisation, social networking, affiliate marketing and technology for greener marketing.

There will also be four keynote sessions from leading players in the world of new media, including Google and Oracle. Neil Hughston, director of Saatchi & Saatchi, will discuss how agencies can put digital at the heart of their brand strategy.

He will be followed by Matthew Banks, senior director of solutions consulting at Oracle Corporation, who will examine how marketing can be improved through creative use of data and marketing automation. He will consider how today’s marketing is increasingly a science as well as an art, and how the sheer volume of data available, the array of new customer touch-points, and the agility of new competitors and their offerings make global markets highly unpredictable.

Dan Cobley, director of marketing at Google for the UK, Ireland and Benelux, will present a session on how consumers will reshape the way brands and marketers use the web.

Danny Meadows-Klue, founder of Digital Strategy Consulting, will tackle Web 2.0 and relationship marketing in the age of Facebook. He will look at the shift in thinking about communications with customers and explain why he thinks audiences have tuned out of many traditional advertising channels. He believes that brands have to re-earn the love of their customers, engaging in real two-way dialogues.

“The web needs to be at the heart of the marketing mix, not on the sidelines,” he explains. “Savvy digital customers are demanding new relationships with brands, and suddenly marketing is having to change. The channel mix of five years ago just isn’t cutting it, but for the firms that get it right there’s an instant acceleration in their cut-through, impact and sales. That’s what the new generation of relationship marketing is all about.”

Visitor numbers to Technology for Marketing have increased so much year-on-year that organiser CMP Information has moved it from Olympia to the larger London venue of Earls Court 2. With longer opening hours than previous years, it takes place from 9.30am to 6pm on February 12 and from 9.30am to 5.30pm on February 13.

Exhibitors include Corporate Rewards, SAS, Capscan, CommuniGator, Bigmouthmedia, Alterian, Your Amigo, IPT, Unica, Sage, Infor, Aprimo and Sales Promotion magazine. Trade associations represented include the Institute of Sales Promotion and the Direct Marketing Association.

For a full list of exhibitors and details of all the seminars and events taking place, go to www.t-f-m.co.uk.

Google University

Google is one of the most powerful forces in marketing in the UK. It has a 43 per cent share of UK adspend online, mainly through sponsored searches, so it will have a significant presence at this year’s exhibition.

As well as a keynote seminar session from Dan Cobley, director of marketing at Google for the UK, Ireland and Benelux, the show features the Google University, which offers marketers guidance on growing business online.

It will be running sessions focusing on the acquisition, conversion and retention of customers. On both days, there will be a basic session from 10am to 11am and a masterclass from 1.15pm to 2.15pm. Every attendee will receive £50 of AdWords vouchers, a goody bag and educational information.

Speakers from Google will be Rob Kiely, relationship manager for healthcare, and Rachel Coate, relationship manager for retail.

Visitors can register in advance at www.t-f-m.co.uk.

Digital marketing seminars

A new feature of this year’s exhibition is free digital marketing seminars delivered by the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM).

They will cover the latest techniques and innovations in marketing strategy, implementation and analysis with a focus on e-marketing, online and digital communications.

There is a programme of four seminars, which runs on both days of the show. The first, from 9.45am to 10.15am, is on using search engines and directories, led by Graham Hansell, who has worked on and pioneered search engine optimisation (SEO) since 1996.

From 10.30am to 11am is a session covering the integration of digital communications with traditional channels, with Nick Baggott, who is managing director of Navigate Consulting and formerly group client services director at Chemistry.

In the afternoon, from 1.15pm to 1.45pm, strategies for e-marketing will be covered by Jim Kent, whose roles include programme director of the executive postgraduate diploma of marketing at the CIM. Then, from 2pm to 2.30pm, Nick Baggott is back with a seminar on unleashing potential through digital marketing.

The sessions can be booked online at www.t-f-m.co.uk.