Ad:Tech NYC Digital Marketing in 2013

The big two-day event was held in spite of the latest weather developments.  Two big companies gave their thoughts on how data analytics is helping them make the right decisions about their businesses.  Discovery Digital and 1-800 Flowers spoke to an audience about how Facebook has affected their businesses as part of an indication where digital marketing is headed.

 Discovery Digital

The company that owns such networks as Animal Planet, TLC, and others spoke on the value that Facebook has added for their brand at the Ad:Tech NYC conference.  Discovery Digital VP, Matt Crenshaw, talked about the active presence the company has on its Facebook page with around 1,500 posts each month that has garnered around 70 million likes.

The company doesn’t just stop there; it weighs in with solid data to see how this affects the company and what value it has on the bottom line.  The determination for this company is that Facebook fans are the most valuable users who come back more often and engage more with the website.

1-800 Flowers

The purpose is quite different for this company when it engages on Facebook.  It is looking to transform visitors into buyers.  The company uses a feature called AddThis to help fans share the company’s content over Facebook and other platforms to bring in new visitors.

The company needs data to tell it about buyer behavior in real time so that it can make adjustments quickly.  According to Will Ferguson, senior director of online marketing, data the company received was responsible for five times the amount of return with an increase of 100 percent for conversions from visitors to buyers in just a 48-hour timeline.

What this says from two big companies like Discovery Digital and 1-800 Flowers is that sites like Facebook and Twitter have great value for businesses if they can accumulate data to help them focus on the right things to do.

Of course, it wasn’t all work and no play. Data management and Analytics specialists BlueKai made things a bit more entertaining with their industry related Psy spoof:

[Image via flickr]