The recession in 2009 took a toll on many sectors of the economy, and B2B was no exception. B2B publishers were buffeted particularly hard by a drop in advertising spending and several, including Penton Media and Questex, filed for bankruptcy (although Penton recently emerged after a quick reorganization).

Even though ad spending is heading toward a solid recovery in 2010, the recession may have lingering effects. According to a study released this week by Outsell, B2B mobile ad spending will actually contract 38% this year (and that’s after growing by 5% in 2009 in a down economy).

“This is the first year that it’s negative,” report author and Outsell VP Chuck Richard told ClickZ. He attributed the decline to a “first year post-recession effect” but also noted that long sales cycles and the relative unimportance of geographic proximity in purchasing decisions reduce the impact of wireless campaigns.

On the other hand, Outsell’s Chuck Richard did suggest that the decline in B2B mobile ad spending was more of a temporary blip than a permanent condition. And other research firms have predicted a positive trajectory for B2B and mobile. Forrester recently issued a forecast showing four-fold spending growth over the next five years.

It is the case that no business is going to buy a $1 million ERP implementation, for instance, on the basis of a mobile banner ad. Of course, the same can be said about consumers and luxury cars, for example.

Mobile isn’t always the platform where the transaction ultimately takes place,  but in the case of highly considered purchases, mobile can be highly effective at driving awareness, consideration and intent, even in a B2B context. Microsoft, for one, got good results from a B2B mobile campaign for its SharePoint server, and the likelihood is high that more businesses will begin to use mobile for similar ends.

We recently spoke with Jami Lawrence, associate director of mobile marketing at Publicis Modem & Dialog. Here’s a clip from the full interview on eMarketer Total Access, in which Lawrence discusses best practices for developing a mobile application strategy that can strengthen the relationship between brands and target consumers. (Read more…)

We recently spoke with Chris Epple, senior manager of media strategy at PepsiCo, about the company’s Propel brand of low-calorie flavored water. Here’s a clip from the full interview about the brand’s new mobile app, and how along with product enhancements and various promotions, Pepsi is working to streamline the lives of busy female shoppers (and sell more Propel). (Read more…)

We often discuss the demise of print in tandem with the rise of digital media. But for retailers, printed materials, like catalogs, for instance, can still have a significant impact on the behavior of online shoppers.

We recently chatted with Coy Clement of clementDirect, a consulting firm specializing in catalog/multichannel direct marketing strategy, whose clients include Procter & Gamble, Hewlett-Packard and J. Crew, among others. Here’s a clip from the full interview on eMarketer Total Access, where Mr. Clement sheds some insights on catalogs as a marketing tool and how retailers should follow customers’ channel shopping preferences: (Read more…)

As part of our preparation for the recently released report, “How Moms and Retailers Interact Online,” Senior Analyst Jeffrey Grau spoke with Maria Bailey, CEO of BSM Media, about how moms shop online and use social media to share opinions. She also discussed how brands are successfully engaging moms on sites such as Facebook, Twitter and mom-centric online communities. Here’s a clip from the full interview, available on eMarketer Total Access. (Read more…)

We recently spoke with Brian Cooper, the creative director of UK digital agency Dare. Here’s a snippet from the full interview, in which Cooper chats about Dare’s approach to marketing in a digital age, and the agency’s recent work for Vodafone. (Read more…)

We recently spoke with Tina Sharkey, the Chairman and Global President of BabyCenter, a Johnson & Johnson company and online community reaching millions of expectant and new moms. She spoke about how motherhood changes a woman’s shopping habits and purchase criteria, and how women use mom-centric online communities to get personalized advice on baby products and brands. Here’s a clip from the full interview: (Read more…)

We recently spoke with Aliza Freud, the founder and CEO of SheSpeaks, about how marketers succeed at engaging moms with social media as well as some of the marketing mistakes they make. A snippet from the full interview available to eMarketer Total Access subscribers: (Read more…)

According to Nielsen, 12% of US Super Bowl viewers multitasked by browsing the Web during the game last year. The top site visited was Facebook, and nearly one-third of multitaskers visited some kind of member community—for more than 16 minutes on average. Just as multitaskers post status updates and tweets about their favorite shows, when Super Bowl time comes they chatter about their favorite ads.

What created the most buzz in this year’s Super Bowl? Twitter employee Kevin Weil posted a fascinating minute-by-minute breakdown yesterday of Twitter updates mentioning brands during the game. It’s definitely worth a look.

The first @DoritosUSA ad at marker C caused the largest per-minute volume of commercial-related tweets — for the minute following the ad, related tweets were 19% of all tweets we saw, eclipsing even the chatter around the Super Bowl itself for a brief period. The second half began with a bang as @TheSaints recovered a surprise onside kick, and for the next minute 44% of all worldwide tweets were about football. Chatter around brands had meanwhile dropped to much lower levels until @Google’s Parisian Love commercial sparked viewers once more.

The tens of thousands of tweets at stake during the Super Bowl can mean an earned-media coup for brands—if viewers find the creative worth talking about. The new eMarketer Insight Brief, “What You Need to Know About Earned Media,” explains how good content is critical to getting consumers to spread marketers’ messages for them. Making ads easily shareable helps too—and this year YouTube has added to its Super Bowl Ad Blitz voting site hooks to share spots on Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. Controversy can boost chatter as well. After the game, Audi crept up BrandBowl’s Twitter monitoring scoreboard as users disagreed on whether the “Green Police” had an eco-friendly message.

But earned media is ultimately in the control of consumers, and marketers with unappealing content might find themselves the target of a Twitter #advertisingfail hashtag. Twitter users were unimpressed with GoDaddy’s efforts this year, and Dockers, which included an online call to action in its commercial, was unprepared for Super Bowl levels of traffic to its contest site.

More advice from “What You Need to Know About Earned Media” on boosting earned-media exposure:

• Give people good content, especially content they can personalize and send on to their friends. The better the content, the more likely they will be to share it.
• Good creative that resonates with viewers will help spur social sharing and online discussion.

• Actively enable sharing by adding distribution buttons on Facebook, Twitter and other sites.
• Provide a contest or other incentives to encourage people to pass messages along.

“What You Need to Know About Earned Media” is part of a series of eMarketer Insight Briefs focused on social media marketing. Available exclusively to Total Access subscribers, the seven briefs, along with a PowerPoint slideshow, answer the most common and most pressing questions that businesses have about social media marketing.

Total Access subscribers, log in and view the Insight Briefs now. Learn more about an eMarketer Total Access subscription today.

If you accept that your company needs to be involved in social media—as most marketers do—then it’s important to figure out where social media fits within your organization.

Tempting as it might be to compartmentalize social media, most companies find that it gets assimilated into various functional teams, including marketing and communications, sales, customer service, human resources, IT and executive management. Firms from Ford Motor Co. to Dunkin’ Donuts to Hewlett-Packard describe social media as a cross-organizational discipline that touches a wide range of functions.

Best Buy, for example, encouraged hundreds of employees to engage with customers who have questions about the company and its products through Twitter. Dubbed Twelpforce, the feed not only deals with customer service issues that arise through social media, but also functions as marketing vehicle, resulting in tweets like this:

While some businesses, like Best Buy or HP, have attempted to integrate social media across the organization, that doesn’t mean that there shouldn’t be a dedicated social media department, or at least an individual in charge of the company’s overall social presence. This is essential, particularly at larger companies with complex structures. This person or team needs to work closely with other departments that participate in the social media effort. Promotion and customer service on Twitter is good, but disseminating information learned from Twitter across the organization to drive results is better. See this recent article from our newsletter for more on measuring ROI on social efforts.

In my recently published report, “Where Does Social Media Fit Within an Organization?,” I discuss in detail how different companies have weaved social media into the corporate fabric and demonstrated success at a variety of levels. A key takeaway:

More and more opportunities will present themselves for companies to use social channels to increase their business. The landscape will change rapidly, so tactics that might have seemed irrelevant in 2009 might be on the table in 2010 or 2011. Stay tuned as social channels evolve and be creative in how they are used within an organization.

Total Access subscribers, log in and view the Insight Briefs now. Learn more about an eMarketer Total Access subscription today.