Digital media is impacting our lives as consumers, and more importantly to me, as marketeers like never before. That’s why I find myself in Paris, attending a digital marketing conference, with some of the world’s leading advertising agencies represented. And to be honest, the ad agencies look a bit worried.

The dotcom crash of 2000/2001 didn’t kill digital at all – as we all know. Although the hype helped its downfall at that point, the underlying trends kept on growing, just as all the predictions had indicated. Internet usage has grown year on year, broadband is exploding and on-line shopping is taking a major share of the retail market. And for our business, High Involvement Brand Communications, digital is critical.

We all know our world is much more complex than it’s ever been. Back in the old days branding was really a one way process. Similar in some respects to saturation bombing. You’d employ a fleet of heavy bombers, to bomb your consumer or customer with information about your brand from 30,000 feet. Expensive, not always well targeted, but you knew you were hitting some of the target – some of the time. And it was an extremely one way process.

That world has changed. Consumers today demand a two way relationship – and increasingly they are driving that relationship. Today’s ‘consumer’ and maybe that’s the wrong term because they no longer passively consume, has the power of information at his finger tips and the communication has to be two ways. The future of business is about building relationships. The driver is the internet and importantly the spread of broadband.

Customers not only expect you to have a website, but want to understand what your company is all about, does and stands for within moments of arriving at your site. That’s why we make so many digital films for our clients. They will also seek information about companies and products in a multitude of ways – increasingly search engine and community driven.That’s why media meshing – the integration of on and offline media – will be key.

And so digital is critical to us. So, welcome to Mighty//Mouse, the Digital Media arm of Dowell//Stubbs. Check out our capabilities on the link above, and let me know what you think.