Lean into Change: Four Steps to Sustainable Advertising Innovation
Marketing has become increasingly complex at a time when binge-watching consumers are avoiding ads all together; what’s a media planner to do?
Advertising is dead. All hail advertising!
So incredibly far from dead… We are in arguably the most exciting and dynamic time in the history of the much observed ad industry. It’s true that what we do for a living is not simple nor for the faint of heart, but there has never been as much creativity in our business as today.
While advertising creativity of yesteryear may best have been associated with clever jingles and heartwarming TV spots, today’s marketing creativity includes the clever use of data and the sometimes blurred lines between advertising and “content” — but it surely does work. Today, marketers know well (or much better) which 50 percent of their ad spend is driving the most sales, generating the greatest product trial or opening new accounts.
And, if you stick to the timeless fundamentals, you can still bring an audience to tears to endear them to a brand, or strategically pull those same people through the marketing purchase funnel toward trial and brand loyalty.
Everyone is an Expert
Of course, everyone is an expert on the ad business. We all have our favorite ads from the Super Bowl or YouTube; yet, consumers everywhere believe they are skipping ads. Your friends will ask you why you went into the ad business because they can’t recall a single ad they have seen in the last month.
Advertising’s Arms Race
The naysayers have a point of course – that marketers and their agencies have come under fire in recent years – and for good reason. It is harder and harder to break through the clutter and help your clients be heard. Our challenges begin with distracted consumers viewing more than 1,000 ad impressions a day, creating “ad blindness” and building fatigue and even marketing avoidance altogether. These avoidance efforts by consumers have created an advertising arms race – fueled most recently by “smart data” and “native advertising” that appears as content on our TV’s, tablets and mobile phones.
However, if you stick to the basics… you can create advertising and marketing that consumers will embrace, while driving new sales and loyalty among existing consumers.
Consider these four critical steps to driving sustainable innovation:
1. Stay ahead of the trends, and don’t fall for the hysteria.
Notable trends over the past six years:
• 2010: Facebook goes mainstream (for marketers)
• 2011: Twitter follows faster… (for consumers, then marketers)
• 2012: “Mobile First” strategies take root, finally
• 2013: Programmatic (automated, data driven) media buying gains credibility
• 2014: Marketing as “editorial content” (native advertising) hits nearly all mainstream content creators
• 2015: Wearables and the Internet of Things, fueled by Apple’s new entrant (Apple watch)
Each of these trends has proven to be critical to marketing as we know it – but how long did it take marketers to embrace each one? In 2011, marketers were still trying to make sense of how to market on Facebook, and Twitter seemed like white noise at the time. Even today, many brands don’t have a legitimate social presence and even more have poor mobile user experiences for their customers. In many business categories, marketers such as these would already be in peril of losing business and customer loyalty.
With each new year, marketers must decipher which trends are worth embracing and which are passing fads. What’s more important to understand is:
a) How does this new approach/technique/tool help me accomplish my marketing and/or brand goals?
b) Will my target audience embrace this movement or ignore it? Aka, if they care about it – maybe I should too.
2. Understand what you are REALLY trying to accomplish.
Having a clear understanding the objective of your advertising, marketing or media efforts may seem an obvious consideration, but you would be amazed how many well-intentioned marketers focus on the fire-drill before them and forget the consumer’s frame of mind. For example, you must answer:
Where is your brand in ITS journey? Perhaps better said, what pressure is it facing from the market? Porter’s Five Forces are always good to reference when considering what your client’s priorities should be: New category entrants? Pricing pressure from suppliers or consumers? New substitutes for your product? Fierce competition to deal with? Each impacts the other and invariably would impact your advertising objectives (as much as your client’s overall marketing objectives).
Where is your TYPICAL customer in their journey (life stage)? Once you’ve considered your market situation, then you must take a hard look at your consumer to understand your priorities. When considering marketing to an audience always consider what their experience is with your brand. If they’ve never heard of you, clearly generating brand and/or product awareness is your priority. In contrast, if you have a familiar brand and a new product, perhaps trial is more important (e.g. a test drive).
What is it you believe your client needs your help to do first?
• Generate awareness – Are you introducing a brand, a particular skew, a new feature, or just keeping your brand top of mind?
• Build engagement – by generating consumer excitement via a direct interaction with them (contests, polls, etc.)
• Drive sales – through retailers or direct via your client’s website, with promotion or everyday low pricing
Each phase of the customer journey requires a completely different advertising approach and success is measured differently for each stage. The typical stages of Awareness, Consideration, Trial, Purchase and Loyalty are all crucial but, as any current marketer can tell you, are no longer linear.
Essentially, in today’s digital- and mobile-first world, consumers tend to shift between these tried and true phases like never before. Understanding your customer is at the heart of the solution.
3. Focus on the consumer, always.
For decades, advertising media planners have placed the consumer at the center of their media mix decisions. From observation to understanding and eventually to insight, the media planner must truly appreciate their target audience before they can recommend how to allocate the tens of millions of marketing dollars the typical planner manages.
Typical tools used to dig in to understand:
• Secondary research can answer the most common questions such as: What car might this audience drive? Or do they chew gum and vote republican?
• Primary research can help you dig into specific questions, which may not already be available: Which toppings do they prefer on a pizza? Do they prefer leather interiors in their cars?
• Social listening can help you understand how a particular target interacts with each other – and how they feel about your brand today.
• Ethnographic research takes you into the home to see how your consumer truly interacts with technology and how they really use your product. (Do they really wash, rinse and repeat?)
• More: http://bit.ly/1yGrkHv
Answering questions like these will help you find and connect with them in new and creative ways.
4. Stick to the basics.
Interestingly, the core tenants of great news reporting have also served the media and marketing world fairly well through an unprecedented amount of change. Answering the questions Who, What, When, Where, Why and How Much have helped create remarkably well grounded, yet fundamentally innovation-friendly advertisements, media plans and marketing plans.
The fundamental questions:
• Who …am I targeting?
• What …message or offer should I serve them (in order to maximize relevancy)?
• When …should I serve the message (time of day, or even lifestage)?
• Where …are they right now and where are they going? (region: warm vs. cold, zip code: affluence level, location: competitive proximity, your store, in transit at an airport, etc.)?
• Why …should you serve an ad to this person? Aka – what data or intelligence do you have that validates your advertising recommendation?
• How much …should I spend? Aka –
- How valuable is this consumer to me? And given today’s programmatic/biddable media marketplace, how much am I willing to pay to buy THIS COOKIE at this point in time?
- How many ads have we ALREADY served this user? (frequency//wear out)
Conclusion
In the coming months and years, consumers will embrace all manner of wearable technologies, 3D printers, along with smart refrigerators, toasters, and blenders and of course phones which ensure they are both healthier and more punctual than ever. These advances are both thrilling and scary to the average consumer and yet the rate of change within our ad industry is no less fast paced and daunting from both within and without.
It’s for that reason that advertising and media executives are guiding and helping marketers of all sizes and categories embrace change daily. At Maxus Global Media, our motto is that we “LEAN INTO CHANGE”. As both the youngest and fastest growing global media network for the past five years (2009 – 2014, RECMA) we have encountered and embraced every new technology and data source in stride.
If you dig deep into the data available to you it will become clear how you should communicate with your client’s customers. What you say, where you say it, how often and in what style – are all the basics of developing smarter, yet innovative media and marketing plans. With the right foundation, the most innovative technologies and programs can play a critical role. Dig in, and enjoy.
Jonathan Adams is chief digital officer, North America, for Maxus Global Media (a unit of GroupM & WPP). Jonathan will architect the digital direction for the company and its clients as well as oversee the company’s digital team and integrated digital media offering. Over his 20+ year career in media, he has also held senior digital roles at iCrossing, Digitas, and OgilvyOne. He’s managed a wide variety of clients including: DIRECTV, LEGO, Delta Air Lines, Post Foods, Equifax, Mead Johnson Nutrition, Kraft Foods, Bristol-Myers Squibb, IBM and Kimberly-Clark.
Next: “Emotional fulfillment, not technology, will be the stand-out offering of a winning brand” by Kevin Roberts, CEO Worldwide, Saatchi & Saatchi