
Digital marketing is taking off across the U.S., and now that’s a problem for companies like Comcast.
In 2016, Comcast lost more than $300 million in digital marketing spending.
That’s because the company didn’t invest enough in the kind of digital marketing that leads to higher retention, increased engagement and increased brand awareness.
Comcast lost money because it had no marketing plan and didn’t understand the benefits of using social media to reach a broader audience.
“We needed to invest in our digital strategy to reach our target customers and build brand loyalty and engagement, and we didn’t,” said Comcast COO Brad Lander.
Comcast spent more than a billion dollars on digital marketing in 2017, but that’s on top of the millions it spent on traditional marketing in the past five years.
And the problem is that Comcast’s digital strategy was not focused on reaching customers.
It was focusing on building brand loyalty.
“It’s hard to say exactly why we didn, but it was probably not the right strategy to be in the digital space,” said Lander, adding that he would have preferred to invest more in traditional marketing and to invest on its own.
Comcast’s marketing and marketing operations are now spending more on digital and mobile marketing than in the entire company.
Comcast is also focusing on growing its business in mobile first and building out its digital platform to increase brand awareness and engagement.
“This year we launched a brand new digital platform that will deliver content to our customers on a new and more efficient way than before,” said Steve Stalock, Comcast’s executive vice president of digital.
“Our digital team is using technology that makes it easier for customers to reach us.
This is a new platform that has been designed to help Comcast reach our customers in a way that they can actually experience and use.
And we are taking advantage of the opportunity and building the platform that is right for us and our customers.”
Comcast is already seeing results.
In 2017, Comcast reported a $10.4 billion operating loss and saw revenue decline 9 percent to $1.6 billion.
Comcast has already lost billions on its digital marketing investments, and now its looking to repeat the success of 2016.
“What I see is a lot of people are saying that it’s not really digital anymore, it’s a social media thing,” Lander said.
“I see that a lot.”
Lander also said that the digital platform is being used by more companies than it was in the last five years and said that Comcast is using it as part of its strategy to build loyalty and engage customers.
Comcast launched a $500 million initiative in 2016 that was designed to grow digital advertising.
Lander expects that program to grow to $2 billion in 2019.