Realtime Marketing Prepping for Primetime

NEW YORK, June 9, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Halo Group, a New York-based branding and marketing communications agency, surveyed attendees of the RLTM NY '11 presented by the Realtime Report on June 6, to assess their company's receptivity to creating, implementing and measuring realtime marketing. The "Realtime Marketing Realty Check" survey showed that while realtime marketing is evolving rapidly, marketers still face challenges implementing innovations within their own companies.

The conference highlighted discussions about today's best realtime marketing case studies from brands including McDonald's, Delta, Pepsi and NHL. During his presentation, 'The Future of the Realtime Brand', Shiv Singh of PepsiCo Beverages stated that he believed at least 50% of one's budget should be on realtime marketing efforts.  However when asked in Halo's survey about their current marketing budget, most attendees said their organizations allocated less than a quarter of their budget to realtime, social media or mobile marketing efforts.

"It's no surprise that brands are increasingly utilizing emerging technology in their marketing strategies however it is interesting how organizations continue to oppose allotting a bigger budget for realtime marketing," said Linda Passante, CEO/Co-Founder, The Halo Group. "There are certain realities that are making the adoption of new communication strategies difficult and from this survey we can assume that financial resources play a large role."

The survey identified four key areas marketers need to focus on in order to effectively implement realtime marketing: culture, training, technology and budget. The following are the key findings for each area:

• 1 out 4 respondents described receptivity to innovation in their company as only "baby steps permitted"
• Only 14% of those who answered had a highly developed training program for staff that manages their brands' presence in social media
• Only 25% of survey-takers have a completely mobile-friendly website
• 71% of respondents allocate less than 25% of their budget to realtime marketing efforts

"We look for ways to make Realtime conferences into a playground where we can experiment with emerging tools and platforms to share information, connect with people and build our brands," said Tonia Ries, Founder and Host, The Realtime Report. "The Halo Group's survey focused on realtime marketing efforts, used a realtime marketing tool and provided attendees with realtime results—a perfect example of a brand fully immersing themselves in emerging technology."

About the "Realtime Marketing Realty Check" survey

The Halo Group designed an innovative program that used a QR code to access a mobile survey where respondents where asked 8 multiple-choice questions about realtime marketing. Survey respondents, roughly one-third of registrants, included marketers from top brands, leading entrepreneurs in social media and the industry's best marketing communications partners. The survey was conducted and tabulated in real time using Google documents, with a sampling of the results delivered during the afternoon session of the conference. As an incentive, one lucky survey participant was chosen at random to win an Apple iPad 2.

About The Halo Group

Founded in 1994, The Halo Group is an independent marketing communications and branding agency, specializing in the education, consumer products, travel/tourism and financial industries.  Halo brings together a roundtable of seasoned marketing, branding, creative, traditional, digital and mobile advertising, public relations and social media experts to work with a select group of international clients. Halo has been honored with more than 250 industry awards. For more information, visit online at www.thehalogroup.net or via mobile at thehalogroup.net/mobile/.

About Realtime NY 11

The Realtime Report (formerly known as TWTRCON) is entirely focused on the business use of the social, mobile and realtime web. Its products include The Realtime Conference, a one-day event that features case studies and best practices from leading brands, non-profits and government agencies; and the web site and email newsletter, TheRealtimeReport.com, focused on social media business case studies, statistics and campaigns. The Realtime Report and The Realtime Conference series are produced by Modern Media, a team of people dedicated to driving innovation in the media industry.

Editor Note: For full survey questions and results, please contact Lara Cohn, The Halo Group, 212-643-9700, [email protected]

SOURCE The Halo Group