David Sable talks digital past, present and future at Inc. magazine HQ

Google and Inc. Magazine sponsored “The future of digital marketing: strategies you need to succeed,” on December 5, 2014 at the Inc. headquarters located in the World Trade Center. Inc. senior writer Christine Lagorio-Chafkin interviewed David Sable about his experiences in marketing and business.

David Sable is a longtime advertising executive who sees digital as a way to enhance our lives, not supplant them.

“Digital is everything, but not everything is digital,” is Sable’s mantra. While his crystal ball on the future of marketing is admittedly “cloudy,” he is clear that digital puts an increased importance on making live experiences better.

Contrary to his titled talk, Sable didn’t come to spew strategies. You can look to his blog for specifics. Sable is the Global CEO of Young & Rubicam, an entrepreneur and investor that has been in the marketing industry since the 70s. He thinks the ad world was late to innovate with technology, but they’re trying to make up for it now – for better or for worse.

Sable has the knowledge of an advertising historian and talks about today’s digital revolution through the lens of an ad exec that has seen it all. He debunked digital hype and reminded the audience that it is not all about what’s on our phones, even though it seems like it is.

2014 was the year of “people beginning to understand that we live in the real world,” he said. Sable believes the biggest mistake is in thinking the experience should be on the phone. Instead it should be about creating an easy way to take that experience offline.

“Analysts 10 to 15 years ago said retail was going to die,” Sable said, quipping that analysts are always wrong. “They said there’d be no more restaurants or movies. We’d do nothing that required us to leave our home.”

This year’s most highly valued digital startups are not loved, downloaded and discussed just for their digital interface, but more for their concept, which encourages us to act contrary to analysts’ predictions.

Sable used startup glasses company Warby Parker as an example of a company that truly combines real and digital. They started solely online. Their business model involves sending users five pairs of glasses to customers to try on, an idea that came from customers’ requests to see and try on the product.

“They thought, ‘Wow look at the experience they have when they try glasses on with friends around,” Sable said. That’s not new, he said. Humans have an innate desire for in-person, tactile and social experiences.

Sable said he predicted Warby Parker would open stores because they would face inventory shortages. Sure enough, they opened their retail space in 2013 and have opened more this year, for that reason. These physical stores also help with marketing, reinforcing the brand and adding to the overall experience.

Even though we’re in the year of the face to face, Sable said it doesn’t mean that digital marketing is a bad thing.

“It’s awesome,” he said. “It means we need to think about marketing in a bigger sense. How does digital impact what they do?”

Companies have come to Sable with misguided interpretations of what an Internet presence does. He’s heard from Fortune 500 companies, “We’re on YouTube,” “We need to get on Facebook,” or, better yet, “Make me a viral.”

Being on social media because it’s newish does not a company innovative, he said. It isn’t just about getting on social, but how you make an impact there.

Read the rest on Office Lease Center’s blog: http://bit.ly/1zDEgw5.

GOTHAMEDIA panel discussion: Is print dead?

I’ve been blogging a lot lately, but I was a journalist first! I’ve written for several newspapers in NY and my college state, Delaware. So I really enjoyed hearing some big personalities from the industry battle this one out. Of course, I think both print and digital are valuable to readers – I read hard copies of magazines and books and I also find news on the Internet. But the bigger question is whether they are valuable from an economic standpoint.

Is print dead? A group of experienced media professionals tried to answer this question at a Gotham Media event at the Frankfurt Kurnit Klein + Selz PC law office last week. They agree print advertising revenue is declining, but the industry is still alive. The more contentious point was how to sustain the traditional magazine and newspaper industries.

It’s difficult to get a good sense of the pulse of these businesses. The magazine industry is at a 1.5 billion gross audience as of September 2014, up from 1.3 billion last year, according to the Association of Magazine Media. Martin Nisenholtz, founder of New York Times Digital, said their audience has expanded internationally.

The rise in numbers results from a larger digital audience. Mobile web use has risen 90% and more users are watching video and reading magazine digital editions.

With the movement toward digital, companies are trying to figure out the economics of their industry. According to Jonathan Knee, Senior Advisor at Evercore Partners and Co-Director at Columbia University School of Business’ Media Program, newspapers have 20% margins, which is good, but not as good as the glory days of 40% margins. It’s no longer enough to completely satisfy Wall Street.

Many longtime companies think the solution is to split up print and digital. Publicly traded companies Tribune Co., EW Scripps, Gannett and Journal Communications all had some type of division in the past few months.

Read the rest at Office Lease Center’s blog: http://bit.ly/1EbBwqK