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The final interview in the series is with Peter Steele, Founder of Antarctica Digital

What vertical does Antarctica Digital serve?
We’ve chosen to focus our efforts on helping agencies expand their client outreach. As a company, we used to take on numerous direct clients but their needs tended towards requiring a great deal of creative work to be done and we found that their biggest need was, in fact, the need for an experienced agency serving them. Now, our approach is more like a partnership than a simple contracting role. Our agency clients have access to our broad capabilities and we work with them to increase their online marketing capabilities by offering a suite of interactive marketing solutions covering over a dozen unique touch points. More specifically, we specialize in the delivery, measurement and optimization of Lead Nurturing, Marketing Automation and Marketing Intelligence.
Any highlights for Antarctica Digital in 2007 that really shaped your business?
The most obvious and influential trend in 2007 was, of course, the rise and dominance of social networks and social influence marketing. Social networking is really turning the traditional marketing funnel on its head and Web 2.0’s success as a marketing platform is now highly dependent on its ability to capture strong metrics in order to truly leverage the customer lifecycle and demonstrate meaningful Return on Marketing Investment.
The fact that social networking rose so fast is just another example of why the industry needs to stay on its toes. That’s why, regardless of the marketing options available, the one area that will remain consistently important is measurement. However, agencies ability to measure is not growing at as fast a pace as the industry at large. In fact, according to the website Marketing Interactions, a new survey of 3,000 global marketers has concluded that marketing effectiveness has reached an all-time low. Those surveyed said that “65% of their marketing spend had no discernible effect on consumer behaviour in 2007.” According to the article, “of the 55% of marketers who track their spending, 80% do so manually, spending hours gathering and analyzing data.. which seems a shame given the marketing automation systems available that can help you accomplish many of those tasks with a much higher degree of efficiency and a variety of insights unavailable otherwise.”

In 2008, we know that it won’t be just about the data. It’s about improving effectiveness and relevancy. It’s about knowing what percentage of your marketing efforts are working, and ensuring they work repeatedly to convert prospects into customers, and customers into long-term client relationships.

Will relationship management continue to grow in 2008?
Antarctica Digital was recently named one of the top twenty-five private BC companies positioned to capitalize on growth in the information technology sector in 2008 so there is definitely an industry-wide confidence that relationship management and our technology, in particular, is positioned for growth.
The need to drive leads, nurture relationships and measure success will only increase as the marketplace becomes more competitive and demand for accountability and demonstrable ROI will continue to be a driving force behind the growth of relationship management and of Antarctica Digital in 2008.

What can we expect from Antarctica Digital in 2008?
Our goal is to be the technology engine powering agencies’ marketing efforts, driving the results up into a fully integrated dashboard showing trends across customer segments, highlighting growth areas, and demonstrating exactly how every marketing dollar they spend translates into a meaningful Return on Marketing Investment for their brands. Our agency clients have continue to have access to our broad capabilities and we will work with them to increase their online marketing capabilities by offering a suite of interactive marketing solutions ranging from custom web development to over a dozen unique touch points such as email, contests, coupons, and surveys.
We anticipate unprecedented growth in 2008 and we’re excited about continuing our market leadership by always staying one-step ahead of the market to ensure that our customers are able to offer innovative, leading-edge and results-oriented marketing solutions.

Categories: Features
Tags: , Antarctica Digital