lead- generation

5
Winter 2007 W elcome to the Winter 2007 edition of Huson News. Looking back on 2007, it has certainly been an interesting and eventful year. We have seen many exciting new partnerships and product launches, and an accelerated growth to digital media. We welcomed 8 new employees into the company between our UK, New York, and California offices, and more than 70 new clients started working with us. The planning season is as busy as ever, and things are looking promising for 2008 with our media partners more equipped than ever before to manage client direction into online, lead-generation, events and research as well as print. We examine in this issue how lead-generation continues to be a growing focus for our clients, as well as the importance of balancing branding alongside the need to create demand. We hope you enjoy this latest edition of Huson News, and would like to thank all of you who gave us feedback on the last edition. Once again, we welcome any comments or questions. Best wishes from all of us at Huson for a happy holiday season and prosperous New Year. L ead-generation seems to be the “Holy Grail” for many technol- ogy vendors today. Huson International Media has been busy working on dozens of solutions for our clients, in response to this intense demand. We now have a full section on our website dedicated to the topic (www.husonusa.com/lead-generation.html), and our sales teams are in daily discussions with Electronics and IT clients urgently looking to get leads from international markets. Our solutions? Well, they range from web seminars, to live events, to white paper hosting with many of our publishing partners offer- ing tremendous solution packages. For example, in Germany, CMP- WEKA offers guaranteed lead-generation packages in multiple formats including print plus telemarketing, white paper downloading, or web seminars. In the print-plus-telemarketing solution, you get the advan- tage of branding and image building in German editions of Network Computing, CRN, or Information Week and then specify the type of leads you want (such as Enterprise IT decision-makers with a need for a specific networking application). CMP-WEKA will find them for you with telemarketing, in multiples of 25 qualified leads, depending on the package you buy. Another example, our Chinese partner ChinaECNet (www. eccn.com) is Asia- Pacific’s leader since 1999 in web seminars aimed at the Electronics Design Engineer, and carried out 180 in 2007. Typical lead-generation is 500-2000 leads, for only $8,000. They also offer many other options including sponsoring a government-approved training course (typically at least 1,000 leads, for $16,000), live events (300-500 attendees plus usually at least 1,000 more viewing from live broadcast on the web) and, of course, white paper hosting. It’s important to realize that lead-generation is not the same the world over. For example, a web seminar program which works in other countries will likely be doomed to failure in Japan, where culturally it is unacceptable to be at your desk watching a web seminar, since it may not be regarded as “real work”. Another cultural difference is the difficulty of getting your target audience to fill out registration for gated content in some European markets. There are two primary reasons for this. Firstly, there is sometimes a belief that, if the content is valid for them, they should not have to jump through hoops to get it. Secondly, in some countries, there is a cultural sensitivity to privacy and data, and Lead-Generation The Holy Grailof Tech Marketing ...in some countries, there is a cultural sensitivity to privacy and data, and strong data-protection laws. continued page 5

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Winter 2007

Welcome to the Winter 2007 edition of Huson News. Looking back on 2007, it has certainly

been an interesting and eventful year. We have seen many exciting new partnerships and product launches, and an accelerated growth to digital media. We welcomed 8 new employees into the company between our UK, New York, and California offices, and more than 70 new clients started working with us.

The planning season is as busy as ever, and things are looking promising for 2008 with our media partners more equipped than ever before to manage client direction into online, lead-generation, events and research as well as print. We examine in this issue how lead-generation continues to be a growing focus for our clients, as well as the importance of balancing branding alongside the need to create demand.

We hope you enjoy this latest edition of Huson News, and would like to thank all of you who gave us feedback on the last edition. Once again, we welcome any comments or questions.

Best wishes from all of us at Huson for a happy holiday season and prosperous New Year.

Lead-generation seems to be the “Holy Grail” for many technol-ogy vendors today. Huson International Media has been busy working on dozens of solutions for our clients, in response

to this intense demand. We now have a full section on our website dedicated to the topic (www.husonusa.com/lead-generation.html), and our sales teams are in daily discussions with Electronics and IT clients urgently looking to get leads from international markets.

Our solutions? Well, they range from web seminars, to live events, to white paper hosting with many of our publishing partners offer-ing tremendous solution packages. For example, in Germany, CMP-WEKA offers guaranteed lead-generation packages in multiple formats including print plus telemarketing, white paper downloading, or web seminars. In the print-plus-telemarketing solution, you get the advan-tage of branding and image building in German editions of Network Computing, CRN, or Information Week and then specify the type of leads you want (such as Enterprise IT decision-makers with a need for a specific networking application). CMP-WEKA will find them for you with telemarketing, in multiples of 25 qualified leads, depending on the package you buy.

Another example, our Chinese partner ChinaECNet (www.eccn.com) is Asia-Pacific’s leader since 1999 in web seminars aimed at the Electronics Design Engineer, and carried out 180 in 2007. Typical lead-generation is 500-2000 leads, for only $8,000. They also offer many other options including sponsoring a government-approved training course (typically at least 1,000 leads, for $16,000), live events (300-500 attendees plus usually at least 1,000 more viewing from live broadcast on the web) and, of course, white paper hosting.

It’s important to realize that lead-generation is not the same the world over. For example, a web seminar program which works in other countries will likely be doomed to failure in Japan, where culturally it is unacceptable to be at your desk watching a web seminar, since it may not be regarded as “real work”. Another cultural difference is the difficulty of getting your target audience to fill out registration for gated content in some European markets. There are two primary reasons for this. Firstly, there is sometimes a belief that, if the content is valid for them, they should not have to jump through hoops to get it. Secondly, in some countries, there is a cultural sensitivity to privacy and data, and

Lead-GenerationThe “Holy Grail” of Tech Marketing

...in some countries, there is a cultural sensitivity to privacy and data, and strong data-protection laws.

“”

continued page 5

Having shown the lead-generation capabilities that Huson can bring to bear, we should examine the current

trend of focus on lead-generation, and the corresponding reduced focus on print adver-tising and branding. Ok, we get it, things are changing. However, it is Huson’s view that the pendulum is swinging too far and too fast away from marketing basics.

Yes, tremendous brands have been created online in the last 5-10 years; everything from Yahoo and Google to eBay and Ama-zon. But, for every one of those, there are thousands of failures and companies that would love to be a big brand name, but are not. Also, the key difference between an Amazon and most technology vendors is that Amazon’s actual business model is online, whereas most technology vendors are essen-tially bricks and mortar companies.

Marketing budgets are usually 2-5% of corporate revenue, but sales budgets are fre-quently 10-12%. At the same time, market-ing budgets are being drained of their ability to brand the company because of the increas-ing requirement to spend marketing budget on sales lead generation programs. Huson’s view is that more of the sales budget should be diverted to the marketing department to aid this, instead of marketing budgets remaining static and therefore dangerously multi-tasked.

We have seen many corporate print market-ing budgets whittled down or disappearing altogether, yet there is little evidence to sug-gest that readership is down in publications, even if advertisers are placing less print space than they used to. The evidence is

that users have simply increased their media usage. In addition to reading publications, the audience is using the web for informa-tion gathering; perhaps replacing what they used to do such as call a supplier, send in a bingo-card inquiry, or trawl through a trade directory of suppliers. Most technical users still prefer to read their technical information such as in-depth technical articles offline, in quality magazines. The same applies for

C-level decision-makers. Balanced against that, the immediate “I need it now” informa-tion is readily available on the web. A recent BtBOnline webcast co-sponsored by CMP polled technology marketing decision-mak-ers. They were asked:

BrandingTrends vs. Market Reality

...engage with your

potential clients in the

way they want to be en-

gaged, and at the time

and venue that they are

receptive to your

marketing message.

We have some early headlines just in from the German Electronics Industry readership survey LA

ELFA – which is now in its fourth survey year (every 2 years since 2001). The survey is conducted by the IFAK Institute with scientific/statistical analysis and overview of the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. There were 4,500 interviews con-ducted, and the survey also has the support of the two main German electronics industry organizations ZWEI and FBDi.

Key information is as follows:

~ The number of decision-makers in the electronics industry has increased by 3.5% from 260,200 in 2005, to 269,400 today.

~ 97% of these decision-makers are using the internet to find out about new products, and 76% use the internet for industry sector information.

~ 88% do not even look at English-language trade journals, reinforcing the need to promote in German to this market, not in pan-European publications.

~ Elektronik is the leading title for reach-ing the Design Engineer in Germany with 81,930 design engineer readership every issue (a 17.5% increase vs 2005).

~ Chief technical publication rivals Elek-tronik Praxis and Design & Elektronik are at 47,880 and 55,340 respectively – also increasing vs 2005.

Overall, a highly interesting trend is that, although the internet has become all-per-vasive and usage almost at 100%, the fact is that the leading trade journals have all actually increased their usefulness to Design Engineers and are being read by even more of them. There is significantly more information in the actual study, and Huson will be happy to email you more information and a detailed summary of the study. In addition, there is an online media planning tool MDS which you can use to submit trial media plans and establish the most effective media plan to reach your specific target audience. Please contact [email protected] for more information.

LA ELFA 07/08

0

20000

40000

60000

80000

100000

20,000

0

40,000

60,000

80,000

100,000

Elektronik D & E E. Praxis E. InformationenDesign Engineer Readership, technical trade press, Germany. Source LA ELFA 2005 and 2007

2005 2007

2

continued page 3

continued from page 2

Branding

Originally hired as an Account

Manager in 1997, April began

representing the IT/Communica-

tions portfolio and was soon promoted to

Sales Manager of the portfolio’s sales team.

April left Huson to ride the dotcom wave

in November 1999. One start-up crash,

two children and six years later, we were

thrilled to welcome April back to the Huson

California sales team in 2005 as Senior Ac-

count Manager. April returned to

the IT/Communications portfolio,

and her clients are technology

companies and agencies in Silicon

Valley. Working for Huson in

Silicon Valley has given her the

opportunity to work with many

of the largest tech companies in

the world.

Outside of the office, April is a busy woman.

While raising her daughter Ella and her son

Mateo claims the majority of her hours, she

also raises money for her church and the

children’s schools, and she has written an

early-reader children’s book. Hectic sched-

ule aside, April makes time for the good life

and her colleagues count on her taste for

everything from great sangria recipes to day

spa recommendations.

April’s Sangria Recipe

2 bottles of “Sangria” wine1 Lemon, sliced1 Lime, sliced1 Orange, slicedCup of orange juice1/2 cup of Orange Curacao4 Tablespoons sugar

•••••••

Huson Spotlight

What is the most trusted source of information for IT Decision-mak-ers?

Yet at the same time, the same audience was polled about where did they see the top priority for their marketing in 2008?

See the disconnect?

The research we are seeing strongly suggests that advertisers should continue with their print advertising to maintain contact with these serious users who still read their preferred technical, management, or business publications. This is in addition, of course, to using the web to maintain targeted advertising as well as lead-generation, to catch

that “immediate need” web user. Advertisers who abandon print are ignoring this branding opportunity as well as leaving this valuable medium to competitors who are gaining from a significant increase in their brand equity as a result.

One of our clients, technology media agency Just Media with of-fices in the UK and Silicon Valley, has come up with highly relevant research that shows the performance of awareness campaigns across both print and online. It highlights just how important print remains as a method of communication with technology professionals and c-level executives. The research, which shows return on marketing objective, has been used by the agency and their clients to continue to justify print media in the marketing mix. If you are interested in finding out more please contact Just Media CEO Dick Reed ([email protected]).

In addition, one of our key partners CMP will be releasing their annual Media Engagement Study at the end of November. You can request a copy from Scott Vaughan ([email protected]) their VP of Marketing. This study of nearly 1,000 senior IT professionals will help vendors in the IT sector understand why, where, and when IT decision-makers at different levels, engage with the media, and content, at different points in the decision-making process.

The value and information in these studies and others is clear – en-gage with your potential clients in the way they want to be engaged, and at the time and venue that they are receptive to your marketing message.

Trade magazines 58%Technology websites 25%Vendor’s own websites 8%Search marketing 8%

Lead-generation 40%Thought leadership 33%Branding 26%

3

The Yomiuri ShimbunWe have signed a contract to begin representing the Yomiuri Shimbun within the US. This is the largest newspaper in Japan – and actually the highest-circulated newspaper in the world, with a daily cir-culation of almost 14 million (combined morning and evening editions), and an overall readership of 26 million. Yomiuri

Online is Japan’s most visited newspaper site with more than 294 million page views per month. In addition to the massive consumer audience, Yomiuri also has huge reach into business audiences – the morning edition will reach 466,000 business executives at Board Level or higher, compared to Nikkei Busi-ness Daily (morning edition) at 133,000. (J-Read 2006 national newspaper readership study).

New Ownership for Dutch PC Titles3 publications in Holland (Computer Idee, PC Magazine, and Power Unlimited) have been sold by VNU Holland to HUB Uitgevers, effective November 1st 2007. Huson continues to represent them under the new ownership, and we look forward to working with this new partner. VNU Holland continues to publish the market leading Enterprise and Channel IT suite including CRN Holland, Computable Magazine, Emerce, and sites comput-able.nl and tweakers.nl.

Announcements

PC MagazinPC Magazin Germany has made great strides in its circulation this year. Q3 2007 IVW-audit was 241,753 sold copies – almost 30% higher than the 186,582 of Q1 2007. In addition, PC Magazin actu-ally delivers over 1 million readership per copy (AWA 2007), so that’s real value for marketers.

Green ITBTC UK will launch Green IT magazine in January 2008; the first magazine of its kind in the UK with editorial exclusively devoted to (if you’ll pardon the expres-sion) the hot topic of environmentally aware IT. The circulation is 70,000 IT directors and managers, and Green IT will be an excellent advertising oppor-tunity for companies who are actively

committed to educating the IT Manager about environmental is-sues, and vendors selling eco-friendly IT products and solutions.

“Mr. Elektronik”Long-time Editor in Chief of Elektronik, Europe’s most read biweekly Electronics publication, Gunther Klasche (known in Germany as “Mr Elektronik”) is headed to retirement at the end of this year. Huson would like to add our thanks and recognition of an outstanding career and contribution to the highest standards of quality in technical editorial. Don’t worry, Elektronik remains in safe hands as we transition to new Chief Editor Gerhard Stelzer. He’s ‘only’ been at Elektronik for 12 years so we’re hoping he’ll settle in soon!

Publisher Name ChangesVNU Italy is now Edizioni Fiera Milano SpA, NCom has become Media Provider Denmark, and Uitgeverij Nassau in the Netherlands is now My Business Media.

Staff AnnouncementsCongratulations are in order for several members of the Huson team. David Steifman has been promoted to Eastern Regional Director, taking over from Claudia Guzowski who leaves Huson for the Wall Street Journal on November 30. Also promoted: Jesica Bullrich and Phoebe Klein to Account Managers, Dustin Guzowski to Account Executive, and Michael Andrews to Senior Account Manager. We’re also delighted to welcome new team members Nicole Petersen to our California office as Account Representative, and Elina Kerzhner to our New York office providing account support.

Partner NewsNew Contracts

4

strong data-protection laws. In short, getting contact details from audiences in some European markets is not easy.

Many of our partners around the world do not offer lead-generation solutions, or offer only some of the options that vendors commonly find in the US and UK markets. In many cases, the markets are simply too small (and likely audience has not yet reached critical mass) for the media owner to invest in advanced technologies such as web seminars. In response to this gap in lead-generation programs, Huson has begun work-ing with ON24 (leading supplier of web seminar technology used by virtually all of the US technical publishers, including CMP). We can now offer complete solutions for lead-genera-tion on any site we partner with, in any country. Whether you want white paper hosting with lead–generation in Korea, or a web seminar for audiences in Italy, we can manage the end-to-end solution from translations through hosting, registration, and reporting, as well as the all-important audience generation and traffic driving programs.

continued from page 1

Lead-Generation

You can meet Huson executives at the following Trade Shows around the world.

Jan. 7-10, 2008 CES, Las Vegas USA

Mar. 4-9, 2008 CEBIT, Hannover Germany

Apr. 7-10, 2008 RSA, San Francisco USA

Apr. 14-18, 2008 Embedded Systems Confer-ence, Silicon Valley USA

Apr. 27-May 2, 2008

Interop, Las Vegas USA

May 5-8, 2008 EDS, Las Vegas USA

Nov. 2008 Interop Berlin

Nov. 11-14, 2008 Huson will again be an exhibitor at the world’s prime electronics trade show Electronica, Munich, Germany

Our advice for executing an international lead-generation program:

Choose what you do in each country carefully based on the local cultural preferences.

Explain clearly in the initial marketing message why your content is so compelling that it over-comes any cultural aversion to giving data, and ensure privacy.

Translate all content; not just the initial ad, but also the landing page and the downloadable content, using quality translators that understand the technology.

Our clients are sometimes faced with the nice problem of being overwhelmed by leads, so have all your ducks in a row regarding follow-up. You’ve got 2,000 leads, now what?

Contacts

USA/CaliforniaRalph [email protected] South Bascom Ave., Suite 1000Campbell, CA 95008Tel +1 (408) 879-6666

USA/New YorkDavid [email protected] State Building350 Fifth Ave., Suite 4614New York, NY 10118Tel +1 (212) 268-3344

www.husonmedia.com

UKGerry [email protected] HouseGogmore Lane, ChertseySurrey, KT16 9AP UKTel +44 (0) 1932 564999

Questions and CommentsKristen [email protected] +1 (408) 879-6666

UnsubscribeEd [email protected] +1 (408) 879-6666