Last week’s Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) Spring Conference in Norwich was a very positive affair. Whether it was the Spring weather, the green shoots of recovery or the plush surroundings of the John Innes Centre there seemed a mood of optimism around marketing in East Anglia.

And this was backed up by the speakers –Robert Shaw of the Cass Business School outlined how in a more and more complex marketing ecosystem it is time to focus on ideas that add value. Slaying the sacred cows of Brand Awareness, Customer Satisfaction and Brand Loyalty he put forward a new model for analysing, predicting and measuring the impact of ideas.

But the real meat of the day was digital. David German, sales and innovation director of News International talked about new models of advertising that focus on payment by results, learning from the affiliate traffic models of the likes of Amazon. Ducking the question on how proposed News International paywalls will affect his ambitious plans to deliver 10 per cent of total commercial revenues through payment by results within 3 years, he finished by quoting his boss Rupert Murdoch “The business model that relies on advertising only is dead”.

The afternoon saw Ian McKendrick and Mark Peters develop digital further, providing an introduction to what it is, what it can do and how all businesses can benefit. We even got the event video up on YouTube before the end of the day. Entertaining and educational – probably a first for a trip to Norwich for me.