From a stream to a river?

Webcasting could mean an end to meetings - wherever you are

THERE has been considerable characterising of the current recession, with many claims that it is the worst one to hit these shores since the Great Depression of the 1930s. However, for many businesses, the ongoing economic downturn has presented not one but two significant issues as they grapple with problems of maintaining sales at this time.

Both are bound up in marketing. The first concerns budget, and here there are two very opposing schools of thought. The first – that a recession is exactly the time to up spending on marketing because of the less crowded field – is a laudable strategy that is preached far more than it is practised. In reality, and not surprisingly, many businesses will plump for the second option, choosing to cut spending, pull down the storm shutters and wait for the fiscal hurricane to hopefully pass without causing too much damage.

But, now most businesses are becoming bolder in believing that there are green shoots of recovery to spot out there, a second dilemma comes into play: how are they to market themselves successfully in a much-changed world? The concern is that the rules for driving sales that we took with us into the recession most likely no longer apply as we come out of it. This is because the recession has hastened the collapse of traditional marketing platforms such as advertising.

Confidence is usually the first casualty of an economic slowdown. At first, it was thought that online advertising would take up the cudgels as similar revenues to publishing and broadcasting faltered and stumbled. But this wavering belief has stretched right across the sector, with even Google, the pack leader in this brave new online world, reporting lower-than-expected returns.

It’s perhaps the absence of a clear picture – where to go next – that is of most concern to businesses. They believe they can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and they want to start the running to get there first. But what’s the best way to do it?

In such circumstances, forward-thinking companies will take it upon themselves to devise a strategy unique to their circumstances. Many will hedge their bets and go for a spread of formats, with direct marketing, some PR, a bit of advertising, some online or e-marketing and – maybe, if they’re bold – a foray into social media via Twitter, blogs and sites such as LinkedIn.

However, once the commitment to online marketing is made, again there are a number of ways to go, and you’ll often hear conflicting reports as to their effectiveness. For every person that claims that emarketing campaigns are the quickest way to the recipients’ junk mail folder and their undying enmity, there is a marketer locked in an eternal struggle to overcome these constantly-updated barriers while devising a product that won’t immediately be met with irritation.

Similarly, we hear about businesspeople that have been able to steal a march on competitors through prudent use of social media. But the problem here is that since the stratospheric rise of Google, Microsoft and other technological giants, we have become conditioned to waiting to hear about the next innovation. The latest has to be Facebook, but there are plenty of others that say they have got stinking rich just as easily. We don’t believe them, and we’ve become cynical – or certainly very sceptical – about such claims. The upshot again is that we don’t know.

However, remaining with social media, there’s an interesting contrast between streamed output there and with commercial and corporate webcasting. According to research figures from comScore in January this year, some 80.1% of the UK’s internet audience viewed online video, adding up to a combined 280 million hours of viewed video content, while some 23.5 million viewers here watched over two billion YouTube videos (or 86 per viewer).

But many businesses wonder about how they can access this market – or, perhaps more pertinently, take advantage of this culture shift to steal a march on rivals. What those figures tell us is that most of us are more than happy to use the iPlayer when we get back from work to catch up on missed television, or click through on an email from a friend to watch a video on YouTube that everyone has been talking about.

So why, if everyone is prepared to do this at home, why would any of us shy away from operating in the same way in work? There are immediate benefits. Run something through a webcast, and you are immediately doing away with the need to book a venue (a cost consideration that many businesses have done away with, according to reports from hotels that offer conference facilities). It saves travel time and costs, and there are environmental benefits, too.

Some organisations have moved beyond that. We worked with a local authority that had to make a series of crucial appointments at senior officer level. In what you might call a pre-recruitment exercise, the council ran a webcast event aimed at attracting interested potentials, to help it spot talented candidates and help those that were considering applying by answering questions and laying out the local authority’s ethos. Recruitment is an expensive but necessary business, and webcasting in this instance was able to streamline the process. Other sectors, such as law, are beginning to use live streaming and video on demand to assist in continuous professional development, crucial when  legislation is constantly being updated.

But webcasting’s  real strength lies in communication enhancement. Whether it is within the business or without it, the opportunity to relay a message – so important in marketing – can be grasped. Businesses should benefit from relaying what they have to offer to clients, and what they are striving to achieve to their staff.