I have been noticing titles and even open positions for roles that very definitively segments digital (social) from the rest of marketing. Here are just a few on LinkedIn:
- Director of eMarketing
- Interactive Media Director
- VP Social and Digital Media
- Digital Strategy Director
At first thought this sounded OK to me and even encouraging. I am glad organizations are seeing the need and transformation of digital. Then on the other hand the more I thought about it the more it bothered me….
…Why is social/digital being segmented from “traditional” marketing? Marketing is marketing is marketing…right?
The goal here is to connect with a target audience, and the role digital plays in the media mix is something ALL marketing leaders should concern themselves with.
Here is a chart from Flurry that demonstrates the U.S. advertising spending by media and consumer time spent using each media.
If this is gospel then the art of “doing what we did last year” is not such a good idea. Most marketing directors can tell you cost for “traditional” media but have no idea of Facebook Ads CPC for example.
The times are changing and we need to make sure we as marketing directors know digital before marketing moves from:
- marketing = print, outdoor, TV, radio
- digital = social, mobile, web
to
- marketing = print, outdoor, TV, radio, social, mobile, web
This is happening in most industries but it won’t be long before digital is seen as marketing and not a special subset of skills.
– Reed
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