Understanding your client’s advertising needs with Lina Kiriakou

Lina Kyriakou is a “cross-platform professional with vast experience in providing strategic solutions within various brand building disciplines and business verticals” and a “big fan and actor of the Human-Centered approach in Service Design to provide a consistently stellar Customer Experience”. As she states herself, she is also a “proud Co-creator and Business Instructor of the Strategy and Social Media Lab at the Panteion University of Athens”. She has been Project Coordinator for Connective Communications, Account Executive and Account Director for Leo Burnett Athens, Account Supervisor for TBWA/Worldwide, Account Director for Arc Worldwide, Senior Account Director for Rascal and later she became Head of Digital at LoveD, Digital Director at Wedia, Client Service Director at Publicis Hellas S.A. and finally Head of Agency Sales at Think Digital. She has also served as CEO at 2B3D and Whiise. Very recently she founded her own company called Dollphin. She has a multidimensional personality, a practical mind with excellent organizational skills. Her mindset is different from the one of a copywriter and that is what was very interesting, for us, to interview her. Her perspective is different and she takes into consideration different aspects of what makes an advertising campaign effective. She comes to complete the mindset of a traditional copywriter and talks more in-depth about the media factor and how important it is when it comes to an effective communication campaign in general.

Note: This interview was taken in 2019 in the context of a Bachelor thesis on Media Placement & Advertisement under the auspices of Panteion University. The participants had agreed for their names to be public in the qualitative part of the research.

Question No. 1: What are the criteria that an advertising campaign to be created today?

These criteria are based on what the client wants to do. Does the client want to sell? Does the client want to introduce that did not exist before in the market? Does the client just want one more advertisement? Does the client want to create awareness? Maybe a hard sale is what the client is all he needs. All these are so different goals and to be achieved different factors are taken into consideration. Usually, the clients do not know what it is that they want. Someone in Account management has the ultimate task to help them out and understand what they want and what the real goals need to be achieved. Ms. Kyriakou continues by saying that another parameter that plays a catalytic role when creating an advertising campaign is the budget being available. This budget will be usually distributed for content creation and media distribution. You cannot reach everybody for a long period with no budget even if that is what the client wants.

Question No. 2: What is it that a user requires from a medium, to be completely satisfied with it?

I base my answer on what she has observed. I believe that people seem to be more accepting of “grey” types of advertising like placing a product within a movie used by the actors in a series or a movie or in a show in general. The subscription model seems to be In touch with this type of advertising. There is a type of “television” that does not force the viewer to view advertisements. These types of subscription models refer to OTE TV, Nova, Netflix, HBO, and Amazon Prime.

This seems to be the type of entertainment people seek and the media that can support will surely thrive. All in all, people want rich content and easy accessibility to it.

Question No. 3: What opinion do you believe that people have for traditional media?

It is said by many that traditional television will not survive and will be substituted by subscription models like Netflix but do not believe that at all. The models do change but traditional television will find its way to adapt to viewers’ needs. I believe that television as we know it will never really die. The medium has gone through some really hard times but at the moment the cost of placing an advertisement on television is back to where it used to be. This translates to television having a big audience. People still watch television. Shows like Survivor, Power of Love, GNTM, and Master Chef have intensive product placement. There are no advertisements only during the breaks but during the shows themselves.

Of course, the subscription model will evolve. Advertising on television in general is not a one-way road leading to advertisement spots. There are so many ways to communicate something and we can see that when it comes to gaming, companies have advertised their brand through a game scenario. This does cost more but it is extremely effective and it is being done. I invites you to also take into consideration the fact that different generations consume different media. The needs of my niece and the needs of my friends are very different when it comes to content consumption. The opinion of people about media is different among Millennials who are digital natives and different from the generations before them.

Question No. 4: What opinion do you think that people have for new media?

I believe that things can take a very bad turn as well when it comes to the Internet. When numerous pop — advertisements appear and numerous banners are placing the content, someone is trying to consume, the new media can be perceived as well not the best outlet to get entertained and informed as well. Companies and agencies need to think about the people they are trying to appeal to. Companies and agencies should not want to irritate them and if they cannot skip an ad on YouTube they will be irritated for example.

Now, everything is more measurable as well with new technologies and the Internet. With growth hacking and performance marketing, new possibilities are presented to the table. This does not make advertising as we know it useless. It makes it more effective and measurable. With the Internet, you can thrive or fail completely.

If you want to hide something place it on the third page of Google.

Question No. 5: What opinion do you have on integrated communication campaigns?

Integrated campaigns are targeted toward a specific audience and not just everybody. It would be a misconception to think that an integrated communication campaign is used to get your message across to as many target groups as possible without having to think too strategically. An integrated communication campaign is to find your target audience in different places and give them, through these different channels, well-crafted content. This is why very good research is needed beforehand on each medium and in which phase of the consumer’s journey it belongs. Each medium can give a different piece of information, like a puzzle. An integrated communication campaign is the right campaign. I am not all about digital because it is perceived as cheaper than other campaigns. A digital campaign is not as cheap as everybody thinks and it is not effective for many target groups.

Question No. 6: Apart from the efficient media placement of an advertisement, what role does advertisement content play in advertising efficiency?

I believe that content plays a very important role. A very well-crafted media strategy can be scheduled and the channels chosen could be ideal. But if the message is so indifferent and boring that everybody forgets, then the campaign has failed. Content comes first and then comes the media placement.

Question No. 7: Do you believe in the power of advertising content over efficient media placement?

Many campaigns that became “viral”, we think that were projects called in the advertising world a “big idea”. But I would like to debunk that! It is very hard for something to become viral organically and with no big budget. Thinking that something becomes viral just because it was embraced by the people is so far from the truth. Paid publicity through media gets word of mouth started and that needs a good budget to back it up. That buzz to be created is strategically supported by media publicity and a campaign is still not guaranteed that it will become viral. If agencies and companies knew the secret of becoming viral, everything would be viral by now.

Question No 8: When can an advertiser be sure that his/her idea is going to be efficient?

No one can ever be sure of the outcome. Yes, there is performance marketing out there which is based on calculable results and data. This is all though based on a campaign or something already crafted and given to the world to see, interact, and judge. You can see the conversion rate fired up by an activation and based on that you can see what you can keep doing or do better next. But you still do not have the answers beforehand and things change.