I registered at Forrester.com two days ago, because I wanted to read “Strategies For Interactive Marketing In A Recession” which was quoted by Mark Hendrickson on TechCrunch on April 26. Yes, I gave Forrester my real phone number during registration. Result: yesterday I was called by Leandro Papone, Associate Account Manager at Forrester Research. Perfect service, I must say!

Leandro asked me about Bemba and wanted to know if Forrester could help us with research. Of course Forrester can help us, but Bemba can’t help Forrester with a big fee. So I asked him whether a fee is the only reason why Forrester will work for a company. Guess what, the answer was “no”. Sometimes an analyst at Forrester carries out research together with a company in return for gaining knowledge. Numerous companies try to get a free consult from Forrester this way.

Let’s get back to the report by Josh Bernoff together with Charlene Li, Christine Spivey Overby, Jeremiah K. Owyang and Shar VanBoskirk, February 6, 2008. Here are pieces of the report that drew my attention regarding Bemba.

Many economists now believe we are in, or approaching, an economic recession. In the last recession, online spending cratered along with the rest of the advertising industry.

Online display ads won’t be hit too hard. In the last recession, much of the online money came from dot-coms and venture funding, a source that rapidly dried up in bad economic times. But the mainstream consumer companies now advertising won’t evaporate so quickly. Instead, brand advertisers seeking cheaper media could turn from TV and print to online video and flash ads. And they’ll shift some dollars into perforance-based display ads.4 Result: Ad pricing will shift toward performance-based ads and away from CPM, but total spending on display ads won’t suffer.

Money will flow toward search. Search marketing is close to where value is delivered. Search pays on clicks, which correspond to prospects doing active research or buying. We think that Google and other search-based firms could actually see prices increase as marketing dollars cut from mass brand advertising begin to low into performance-based search.

Well-designed social applications are effective. Social programs leverage the voice of the customer to get messages carried further than ad impressions. If your message resonates with consumers, their word-of-mouth is a more effective medium than any of the traditional media.

Social applications are cheap. Advertising campaigns often run into millions of dollars. But Facebook pages and blogs are two examples of social programs that you can start for next to nothing. Even more sophisticated programs like a full-blown customer community typically don’t cost more than $50,000 to $300,000 to get going.

Many interactive marketers tell us they’re just “toe-dipping” with social applications. Toe-dipping won’t survive recessionary cost cuts. Instead, concentrate on programs with clear objectives tied to metrics like increased sales conversions, measurable word-of-mouth, or improvements in online buzz.6 For example, Procter & Gamble’s internal math shows that a dollar invested in its BeingGirl.com community is four times as effective as the same dollar spent on television — there’s a program that won’t get cut.

The report shows interesting endnotes that I would love to read. Unfortunately they’re just a little too expensive for a small startup. Maybe I should try my luck with an analyst. I would love to discuss the Bemba strategy with one of the researchers of Forrester!