I have been asked this question by a number of executive-search consultants a number of times. And my answer has always been "what do you mean?"
Does that mean "do you know the CPM and CPA benchmarks for each of the different combinations and permutations of target audiences across Asia Pacific countries versus those globally?"
[No, I honestly don't - and I don't think anybody knows given the millions of possible combinations.]
Does that mean "do you know how to tag, untag, serve ads and make sure that the ads are geo-targeted?"
[No. I was sleeping when some ad-sales executive was explaining how to add a script to an ad.]
Does that mean "do you know how to deploy keywords on Google or Bing or Yahoo, create copy that in two lines that will make people want to click, and then count how many clicks there were?"
[Well, if you have a database of keywords, the demand for these keywords, their value in dollars, and their relationships with certain events - e.g., digital ads, buzz-metrics, seasons, news, campaigns, PR, and other potential non-digital stimuli - plus their success against your objectives of actually selling and not just "acquiring" or "clicking-through" - or any other things that I can use to model which ones could potentially lead to better clicks, using either time-series, statistical/pseudo-econometric, or stochastic modeling - then yes.
If you don't, sorry - I can't help you because you also probably don't know what you're doing.
If you'd like me to create copy - well, again: give me a history of the copies that went well and didn't go well, and why these were different. And perhaps, I can give you something worthwhile. Although you'd probably be better off with someone wittier than me.
If you want me to count, then yes, I can count - but I don't think "counting" is a very exciting thing to do, you see.]
Does that mean "do you know how to create banner ads, rich banner ads, collect data from rich banner ads, deploy Silverlight or Flash using DoubleClick or Atlas?"
[Hmmm. What? You don't need a digital director or a digital manager. You need a technologist - or a messaging executive who specializes in digital design and messaging.]
Does that mean "do you know how to create media plans based on impressions, expected click-through's and acquisitions?"
[Impressions? Oh yeah. But is it still 2009 or 1999?
Expected click-through's and acquisitions? Again. Historical data. Do you have them? Are they stochastic? Are they explainable? Are they trending? Are they random? Data, man, data... do you have them? If you do, then OK, let's see them.
If you don't have them, no - I can't help. And you probably can't help yourself either.]
Does that mean "do you know how to create a great digital strategy?"
[What is a "great digital strategy"?
You see, I only speak in terms of marketing communications strategies that are fact- and evidence-based. I translate numbers into questions and then into stories and then into potential action points - and if in the process there is a role for digital media (which for me includes everything from digital OOH to on-PC to mobile to everything-that-can-be-represented-in-0's-and-1's), then great, there will be a digital component to the strategic plan.
If you think of digital as a silo, a division, a panacea, a cure-all, a magic pill, the RED pill, a silver bullet that operates on its own, sorry. We have fundamental disagreements.]
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What really gets me is when people say, "Oh - you're not digital enough..."
Ehh.
What is "digital enough"?
Just because I know the CPA or CPM benchmark per country per segment per month per demographic group per industry doesn't mean I am already "digital" or a "digital expert".
I can recite from memory the 12 cranial nerves - in the right order and with a short description of what they do. I can also explain to you how the Kreb's Cycle - the process through which oxygen is converted into energy on a cellular level. But would you call me a medical expert? A cellular/molecular biologist?I can find the first- and second-derivatives of logarithmic and exponential functions. I can also show you how to derive the Pythagorean theorem using a cartesian plane. I can also tell you about integration, partial differentiation, and ordinary differential equations. Does that make me a mathematician?
I train at the gym from Wednesdays till Saturdays - and my personal trainer will assert that I am learning my moves and forms quite well. Would you call me a fitness expert?
Knowing CPAs and CPMs and other benchmarks, knowing how to tag an ad, knowing how to select effective keywords, knowing how to read and "analyze" Google Analytics results, knowing how to fill in the "funnel" in Google Analytics... or simply knowing that Google Analytics exist - all these don't make one a "digital expert".
And no, there is no such thing as "digital enough".
There are only people who understand consumers - because they are curious enough to ask questions and seek answers - and who understand how digital media in all its varied, myriad forms figure in their lives alongside the "old", non-digital media.
They may not be "digital enough" - but they will give you a much effective plan that will deliver demand creation, demand realization, revenue generation, and sustainable profitability.
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