There is no such thing as digital marketing

There is only marketing

It astounds me that despite the unquestionable adoption of digital around the world, we still feel obliged to make it a distinct discipline. Surely, we should just universally agree that they really are the same thing — providing information about a product, in an environment in which consumers already reside.

Why do we have such an urge to separate out every element of a campaign into umpteen strategies? Do we really need a campaign strategy, mobile strategy, social media strategy, digital strategy, even an email strategy? Do these not all need to deliver the same overarching objective, the same vision? Yes, the content I hold on Instagram will be different to the content that sits in a TV advert. But should I not be able to instantly tell they are the same brand, with the same identity, personality and purpose. Surely the content should hold equal weighting and integrate seamlessly, so that we have multiple entries into one overall brand presence.

We do not need a collection of strategies, we just need one campaign strategy, of which digital is part, of which mobile and social is part. We’re so intent on enlisting buzzwords into our offerings that we forget that we should be delivering the same thing through digital as we do through non-digital — an exceptional customer experience.

And regardless of the medium, the elements that create this exceptional customer experience are the same in the digital space as they are in traditional channels: strategy (objectives and ecosystem), content (messaging architecture), intelligence (measurement framework) and promotion (traffic generation).

Until we merge digital marketing and marketing, we still miss quite a critical point — it isn't about marketing, it is about customers. I don’t create a customer experience to prove that I use digital; choosing channels based on checklists and content based on channels — i.e. I need to use social media, so I’ll use YouTube and create a video. I create a customer experience to bring value to the customer; choosing content and channels based on the behaviours and needs of customers.

“Digital, it would appear, is sexy, and everyone wants in on the act. In reality, however, digital is old news… The distinction between physical and digital is rapidly becoming irrelevant” — Nigel Hollis

I think the reason we persist to suggest that digital marketing is some magical form isolated from marketing, wild and audacious in its approach is exactly because digital is still perceived as sexy. But it isn't the cool new kid on the block, for many, it’s actually difficult to remember life before digital. It is so ingrained into life, that digital marketing is more aligned to life than traditional marketing. We spend so much time online and undertake so many activities online, that traditional marketing can almost be seen slipping into a traffic generation role.

Volkswagen spent over $3million for the Volkswagen Star Wars Ad to be played during the Superbowl three years ago. 111 million people tuned in for the game — although how many watched the commercials instead of getting a fresh beer or updating their social media status is debatable. For free, they then uploaded the advert onto YouTube, where they could link through to their website, and have had almost 60 million people actively go online and watch that video. Over 32,000 then felt engaged enough to comment.

They almost definitely wouldn't have had such engagement without the TV ad and equally they wouldn't have the longevity, international reach and engagement/sharing of the advert without YouTube. The real beauty comes through the blurring of marketing mediums into experiences.

Experiences are more than just the use of online and offline channels. Customers don’t think ‘ooh, I’m going to engage with Brand X in their store and then separately continue my engagement through my social media page’. They go to stores to buy things they need or want and if during that experience they get something more than ‘have a good day’, they may well express their enjoyment through Twitter. But to consumers these aren't distinct moments played out through distinct channels, it’s just their life. The magic of today’s marketing is in the ‘total’, the sum of our efforts.

Yet despite the importance being in the sum, we still insist on breaking apart marketing into sub-categories simply so people know without doubt that we can deliver digital. When digital marketing spend overtakes traditional marketing, will we re-brand just under half the industry as ‘non-digital marketing’? No, of course not, and hopefully by then we will have already stopped peddling the term ‘digital’ just to sound on-trend.

Even in search terms, ‘digital marketing’ is significantly more sought after than simply ‘marketing’. In paid advertising, despite only 6,600 searches every month in the UK, there is a recommended bid of £8.55 for ‘digital marketing’. ‘Marketing’ earns 22,200 searches every month and can be bought for a measly £1.84. When did marketing become so unfashionable?

We all use digital, we all merge digital with non-digital and we all know that it has been a long time since digital was simply a bolt-on to marketing. So let’s just call it as it is and stop humouring the less digitally inclined by treating it as a special subject…*writes the Digital Strategist*.

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