I was reminded of these and other tall tales recently after picking up the excellent, highly acclaimed work of Tom Friedman titled “The World is Flat.” (Full disclosure: I have not mentioned it to my Mom because she might take offense and accuse me of calling her a liar).

The book is actually six years old but it is now in “version 3.0” as Friedman continues to evolve the content, which focuses on the 21^st century trend of globalization. Friedman picked the title, which is a metaphor for viewing the world as a level playing field relative to what I have conveniently called the “four Cs” – commerce, computing, collaboration and communication.  One could argue there are other aspects too, but why ruin the alliteration?  One thing is indisputable – in a flat world, all competitors have an equal opportunity to disrupt existing businesses. In a flat world, time zones become irrelevant. Anyone can become a business partner, a customer, a collaborator.

While reading the book and admittedly I am snacking on it bit by bit, a few personal and professional experiences struck me as interesting, if not ironic.

One recent Saturday morning I was struggling mightily to install a new high speed wireless router at home. I spent the better part of two hours talking to tech support reps to fix the problem.  They were both based in India and at one point, one rep from Verizon was on my cell phone talking to the rep from Linksys on my home phone.  Together we finally fixed the problem. Certainly it was more convenient than scheduling a time with my local computer fix it guy and the “telephone guy.” And cheaper too – the “flat” fee was $10.

Two weeks later, from our BluePoint world headquarters office in Lexington, Mass., we had quite a morning:

8 am  – conference call with the CEO of a client in Noida, India

9:30 am – call with new client in London

10 am – call with client and its marketing team in Marseille, France

11 am – call with new business prospect in London

4 pm – email from new business prospect in Bangalore

A few years ago, this really would not have been something we could have envisioned: a truly global client base. When I described this scenario to my son that night, he asked me, “Dad, why are they doing business with your company from so far away?” My answer was simple: “because they can.”

My takeaway on all of this – I guess the world is flat. Both ways.

We reached out to mostly New England-based marketing and general business executives at a variety of companies, and about half of our respondents were from B2B companies. We asked a variety of questions to learn more about what kinds of marketing techniques were successful during a down economy – and what didn’t work so well.

Marketing Goals & Challenges
Of no surprise, the most important marketing goals in 2009 were achieving revenue goals (at 75%), improving reputation in the market (70%) and winning competitive deals (68%). Interestingly, despite the surge in all things social media this past year, establishing a social media presence ranked in as least important (only 19% felt this was an important goal in 2009).

We then asked which of these goals was the most challenging to achieve. Again, not surprisingly, achieving revenue goals proved the most difficult, with 90% of respondents saying it was “very challenging” or “somewhat challenging” to accomplish in 2009. Proving ROI and building awareness through media coverage came in a distant second and third respectively, with 38% and 35% saying these were very challenging to achieve.

Additional data to share about 2009 marketing activities:

• 60% have been held more accountable for marketing spend and results by their executive team/board
• 48% reduced their spend on print/broadcast advertising, while 48% remained the same (or arguably, didn’t spend and money on this to begin with)
• 60% relied more heavily on earned media (PR, etc.) than paid media (advertising, etc.)
• 48% sought to form co-marketing partnerships to leverage reduced budgets

Lead Generation, Branding & Awareness
Over half (52%)of the respondents said they focused less on hard-to-measure branding and awareness programs and more on measurable lead generation programs in 2009. In terms of what was effective, respondents said email marketing was the number one most effective lead generation method (80%), followed by PR (56%), telemarketing and social media (both at 24%). Least effective lead generation sources? Analyst relations, broadcast advertising and print advertising all came in highest, at 36% each.

There was a similar story to be told when it came to branding and awareness methods. Again, email and PR ranked high, at 68% and 56% respectively, followed by social media marketing at 36%. Least effective was direct mail (52%), analyst relations (40%) and broadcast advertising (40%).

Social Media
Although not a priority in 2009, establishing a social media presence was one of the few activities that respondents said was easy to achieve, and 64% did increase their focus on social media and viral marketing techniques last year. Arguably, this is due to the little-to-no cost of social media marketing and ease of getting started. It looks like companies will be exploring social media even further in 2010 – nearly 30% plan to hire staff focused on social media this year.

When asked what social networks generated viable leads in 2009, 64% said LinkedIn, followed by twitter at 32% and facebook at only 8%. Nearly one-quarter of respondents didn’t receive any leads via social networks. Marketers also rely most on LinkedIn for business-related social networking (72%) and least on twitter (8%).

Hiring & Outsourcing Plans
The good news is that as we head into our second month of the New Year, things are looking up for marketers. Nearly half (48%) plan to hire marketing staff in 2010, predominately in the areas of website/SEO, lead generation, PR and social media.

Over half (56%) already work with a PR firm, advertising agency or other outside marketing resource. Of the 44% that don’t, 24% would consider it in 2010.

For more information regarding this survey, please refer to this press release.

Have a question, comment or want to know more about the survey? Leave us a comment or ask via twitter @BluePointMktg.

– Posted by Melissa Coyle

FarmVille surpassed 80 million monthly users (Mashable’s Pete Cashmore provides some stats)

Google’s Buzz broadcasts kids’ conversations (good read on the topic by Charlene Li)

According to MarketingVox, Comverse is set to release an app combining social marketing and facial recognition software .  Can we say “creeeeeeepy”?

I’m sure all of these folks are hoping for a double elimination ruling to keep them in the game, but the artistic minds at Boston.com got it right with their first break. A collection of fantastic Vancouver 2010 shots … There are still ways to share intense emotion, unity and awe without the need for any words at all.

Special thanks to my pool lingo resource!

—posted by Erica Camilo

I would never have pushed for a shakeout, a changing of the guard, a complete overhaul of my professional routine, but my colleague said it best in a previous post:  “You can’t always get what you want … you get what you need.” Different topic? Yes. Complete truth? Absolutely.

I recently had my first baby [insert loud applause], and I will just get it out there: He is the cutest kid I’ve ever seen. Seriously, he is the absolute most adorable baby ever. Don’t believe me? Think I’m just a proud new mom? Here, judge for yourself.

So now that we agree that I have a beautiful baby boy … let’s get back to the meat of the matter (Oh, how I missed using food terminology!). Spending three months focusing on my family also helped me put things into perspective (I swear I aged 20 years overnight) for my team and for my clients. I’m hoping to bring a fresh point of view to everything I do and to challenge myself to avoid relying only on the tried and true. Change is good. 

I’m excited to be back on board at BluePoint . I will be taking on new roles on existing client accounts and/or joining new ones. Based on my excitement about all of the possibilities in the months ahead, I got what I need. It’s a thrill – the challenge of learning new industries, building new relationships, developing new strategies. I’m a big fan of continual growth and sometimes you need to shake things up a bit. Let the learning begin!

—posted by Erica Camilo