Rick Bakas on Effective Digital Marketing

“The rise of the social web and app culture forced the ad world to adapt or to die.” – Rick Bakas

The times have changed and the digital era is turning the Internet as a central medium for marketing. For Rick Bakas, this tactic is essential. Bakas Media, which was started in 2010, was not only to work with clients on social branding needs but also to assist with developing tools and emerging social sites (or apps) through advisory roles or investing. Ultimately, allowing them to own the channels as well as using them for clients needs.

What is Bakas Media doing different to beat the crowd and stay ahead of technology? Their main focus is mobile 24/7. “Everything we do is designed for the mobile experience,” said Rick Bakas. “Desktop, second.”

Something new in the digital landscape that he believes to be notable is video commerce. This is the notion of using video content in order to promote, sell and support commercial products on the Internet. “They embed a store into a viral video, and wherever the video goes, the store goes with it,” he said. “It makes my job a lot more fun when I add that tool into the mix.” According to Bakas, this slowly merging idea will soon be the next big thing. “Nobody has caught on to it yet,” he said. “But I’m seeing conversion rates as high as 7.2% for sales and lead gen for clients and companies using video commerce.”

The advertising world is certainly shifting since the way people communicate is changing. “The rise of the social web and app culture forced the ad world to adapt or to die,” said Bakas. What it really comes down to is that these digital marketing agencies need to know what they’re doing. The companies succeeding are the ones that know how to execute, how to bill clients and how to deliver what the clients want.