The Subservient Marketer

Greetings from snowy Utah.

I thought I’d head out here and get some skiing in before the masses arrived for the Christmas holidays.

Fortunately, I arrived just in time for old man winter to really kick into gear in the Wasatch mountains.

Deer Valley, where I skied yesterday, got about 17 inches of new white stuff in the prior 24 hours, and 17 in Alta (where I hope to be skiing today, weather permitting).

But no amount of snow has slowed the winter holiday shopping season, with comScore reporting that online holiday spending is approaching $20B, a steady 3 percent increase over this time last year.

But Tiger Woods won’t be receiving any gifts from consulting firm Accenture, which ended its six-year marketing relationship on Sunday.

According to a New York Times story, Accenture said in a statement that Woods was “no longer the best representative” for its advertising.

“Go on.  Be a Tiger.”  Just no longer do it on behalf of Accenture.

Interesting.  Just the other day in the Salt Lake City airport, I distinctly remember seeing a big ol’ ad for Accenture, featuring a picture of Tiger: “The road to high performance isn’t always paved,” said the tagline.

To which the obvious rejoinder is now: “Sometimes it runs straight into a fire hydrant.” (This courtesy of James Surowiecki’s fine column on Woods’ downfall in the December 21 & 28 edition of The New Yorker.)

So there is a price to be paid for all that philandering, after all.

While we wait for the next Tiger sponsorship  domino to fall, congrats go out to Crispin Porter & Bogusky for being named “Agency of the Decade by Ad Age.

That Subservient Chicken, still one of my all time faves, was the brainchild of Crispin on behalf of Burger King.

I paid a visit to the site this morning — give me a break, I’m on vacation…I have nothing better to do! — and instructed the Subservient Chicken to “Dance the Funky Chicken,” and Mr. Chicken got right to it.  And a fine dance it was.

But not all clients are so lucky to have a Crispin on their roster.

If your regular old boring interactive marketing hasn’t worked for you in 2009, it’s okay, help is on its way!

Here’s why: 2010 is the year that social media really takes root and has bottom-line impact on your business results.

Really.

Seriously.

I’m not kidding!

A new study from the CMO Club and BazaarVoice (who have a significantly vested interest in the blossoming of social media marketing, and whose technology IBM has been piloting) reveals that nearly two-thirds of chief marketing officers plan to increase social media budgets in the next year.

Spending?  On what?

I thought social media was free!  That’s what I keep hearing when I ask my executives for budget to do social media!

All kidding aside, the Online Media Daily article indicates that in 2010, CMOs expect social initiatives to directly impact their bottom lines, without exception.

The article goes on: As a result, the metrics they track for social campaigns will shift from Web-centric benchmarks like traffic, page views, and “fans,” to ones linked more directly to their overall business like conversions and average order value, along with sales.”

You know, kind of how they measure the full impact of their print and broadcast advertising initiatives today — you know, Mad Men style.

Ahem.

To wit, all I can say is, don’t throw the social media baby out with the bathwater.

Though the indisputable fact that the market is a conversation may not be enough to warrant your precious marketing dollars without a solid ROI, remember that that conversation can impact your business interests far and wide, and all without you ever having spent a dime.

Go on.  Just ask Tiger.