Author: Julie Campbell

In a recent interview, the CEO of major Canadian marketing companies revealed her opinion on the channel.

One of the most renowned independent marketers and communications entrepreneurs in Canada, Arlene Dickinson has shared her views on social media marketing and its associated cost.

She was interviewed by Ernst & Young over video to share her ideas with the other marketers.

According to Dickinson, when comparing the cost of social media marketing with more traditional techniques, she began her answer by pointing out that “it’s really difficult to compare cost.” The reason is that it is very hard to look at a comparison of cost on its own when it comes to any kind of advertising tools, not just this particular type.

Dickinson takes a deeper view of the value of social media marketing beyond what is spent.

She went on to explain that social media marketing can appear to be “much less expensive” when it is compared to more traditional methods. However, she explained that “it’s really about whether or not you’re getting your audience to hear your message and to act on your message.” For that reason, it can be very challenging to look exclusively on the number of dollars put into a specific tool for a specific campaign, because the impact must also be brought into consideration.

Dickinson also explained that this is the case no matter the purpose of the social media marketing or other form of advertising, from attempting to encourage people to take action, purchase something, or to build a brand.

Therefore, Dickinson feels that “just a cost analysis is never the right way to look at it.” Instead the ROI (return on investment) must be examined based on the dollars that have been spent and the size of the budget for that purpose.

This can help to place social media marketing in a new light, as many people have either applauded it for being extremely inexpensive, while at the same time others have booed it because it doesn’t always generate the same results as more traditional methods. The ROI must be the measure of a certain campaign’s success.

Dickinson is the CEO of Venture Communications and is broadly known for her strategic and creative approach which has made the company an international powerhouse with a client list filled with blue chip organizations. She is also the CEO of YouInc.com and Arlene Dickinson Enterprises, and is known for her participation in the award winning television series, Dragons’ Den and The Big Decision, as well as being the author of the book Persuasion – a #1 Best Selling book, and the creator of the Persuasion product line.

The company already owns a number of different online shopping brands and will now be adding this as well.

Shopzilla, Inc., an online and mobile commerce company, has just acquired Zappli, to add to its long list of brands, including Bizrate, TaDa, Beso, Retrevo, among others.

The newly acquired early stage startup has developed a new shopping app for iPhones.

It is a mobile commerce application that is called myShopanion. However, on top of that, it has also included a unique checkout experience that it has called “instaBuy”. That latter feature had been launched last fall. In concept, it can be compared to the one click checkout that is used by Amazon. It also provides a way for smartphone shoppers to provide all of their contact, shipping, and billing information all at once.

This mobile commerce experience proves to be quite convenient for its users.

By making those details accessible by the customer with a single tap, it not only makes a mobile commerce checkout quite convenient for them, but it also avoids patent infringement with Amazon by requiring two clicks, instead of one.

The technology was initially showcased by Zappli in the myShopanion mobile commerce app, which gave consumers the chance to buy from dozens of different big retailers, including everyone from Best Buy to Buy.com, and from Barnes & Noble to Kohl’s, Macy’s, Walmart, and many more.

Bill Glass, the CEO of Shopzilla, explained that his company first saw Zappli in terms of its potential as a strategic partner. However, discussions finally grew to the point that it wasn’t simply a matter about working together, but about much more than that. He said that “Through those meetings, we were very impressed by the significant expertise and cutting-edge technology in the mobile commerce space, which they developed over the last three and half years,” and added that “and those initial partnership conversations led to the acquisition.”

Neither of the companies are revealing the terms of this mobile commerce deal. However, both the team and the investors are saying that it is a well received acquisition which will have the entire Zappli team joining that of Shopzilla.