• by Kathy Sharpe , July 14, 2003

It's the core quandary. It's the problem that drives the pundits throughout the digital marketing community into wordy, self-absorbed frenzies. Why is selling interactive marketing: ads, web sites, promotional programs - the whole ball of code, so hard?

Some blame the difficulty on the traditional agencies; others with a singular death wish blame it on their clients. Most just moan and whine, whine and moan and pray to the gods at the IAB. Because seemingly, somewhere along the way they were promised that building and selling a completely new and continually evolving medium in a marketplace where billions of dollars and thousands of jobs were at stake would be EASY.

Oops. Surprise. What were they thinking?

Perhaps that the constant evolution of the medium would stop exactly now. Yep, the roar of technological advancement that is a continual proof of the ingenuity of humanity would cease so we could sell banners and skyscrapers. The constant upgrading of software for every product we use would just stop, because we needed to put together a media kit and make sure that what is a fundamentally unique medium could be measured just like every other.

This unending change is obviously frustrating and makes the lives of digital marketers challenging. Equally obvious should be that this evolution is not going to stop. TIVO, wireless and whatever new ad unit is about to be hatched are just today's proof points. The question is how are we going to deal with it?

Try dialing down the volume on announcing every new thing, because for sure that new thing will be will be replaced by the next new thing in about an hour.

Then watch the Consumer's reaction (Remember we actually can see and occasionally hear it) and make judgments accordingly. Imagine we might have actually avoided the explosion of pop-unders and more importantly all the resulting, mind-numbing verbiage.

Stay true to the medium's one sure thing. Nothing about this evolution prevents us from going relentlessly for the results: the data, the brand lift, the responses and the conversions. The capacity of these technologies to deliver data is not going to go away. It will only improve. That is one real constant.

And finally thank our lucky stars that we have the privilege to be a part of it. We are the ones who must always learn something new. And that's really hard, so unless it's a job requirement most people will just stick with the tried and true. We never have that luxury. We get to always look for the next best solutions, instead of relying what's been done before. We don't get to get lazy.

Not that any advertising professional regardless of their discipline of choice really has a chance to be lazy. Acknowledge it! Its not just us poor, digital marketers who have faced the 10th re-write of the media plan or the 12th request for justification of the budget. Or been asked to prove that what we want to do is right, good and will move the product off the shelf. It's happening in agencies and marketing departments everywhere. Great work gets killed. Remarkable ideas are ignored. Brilliant people don't get heard. We are whining about what our more traditional colleagues accepted a while ago- this is hard work.

Instead we act, and after the dotcom bomb its really quite inexcusable, like we are owed the big break. That would be because everyone so enjoyed our unbearable arrogance or just 'cause we are willing to take a risk. Nope, not good enough

Our history as a marketing medium goes back what, seven, arguably eight years.

What's happened in that time has been nothing short of breath-taking. But it also took hard work and it will continue to do so. Every day. The potential is huge, real and will change the industry. And perhaps the biggest challenge, to quote Barry Diller: " Is not screwing it up". The second biggest challenge - oh that's easy - stopping our own incessant whining.

Kathy Sharpe founded Sharpe Partners with more than 15 years of traditional marketing and advertising experience, including six years dedicated to interactive marketing. Before starting Sharpe Partners, as Director of Interactive Marketing at DDB Needham NY, Kathy grew that division from one client, Michelin Tires, to an entire portfolio including Amtrak, Bermuda, Dial Corporation, Digital, EMI, Lockheed Martin, and Mobil.