Should digital lead the brief

Should Digital Lead the Brief? Peter Haslett Ipsos ASI, Head of Digital Strategy, Western Europe

What turns me on about the digital age, what excited me personally, is that you have closed the gap between dreaming and doing.

”

“

– Bono

You see, it used to be that if you wanted to make a record of a song, you needed a studio and a producer. Now, you need a laptop.

SHOULD DIGITAL LEAD THE BRIEF?

2

Is it the digital medium or the digital mindset that is more important? We think it is the mindset that helps brands to better develop and nurture relationships with its (potential) customers.

Yes, ‘Digital’ is increasingly integrated into peoples’ lives, especially as technologies like TV, mobile, tablets and computers continue to converge.

And, we have all read the ‘headlines’ about how digital has changed, and continues to rapidly change, the marketing landscape. Media fragmentation is leading to a challenging battle for the attention of an ‘always-on’ consumer, who now has, greater control over how they engage with brands.

And yes, digital is on every marketers’ radar, and investment in digital advertising is rising in comparison to other media: this trend is expected to continue.

2014 17

2013 17.6

2012 18.7

2011 20

2010 21.3

8

8.4

8.9

9.4

9.9

40

40.3

40.3

40.24

39.9

7

6.9

7

7.2

7.2

7

6.8

6.9

6.8

6.7

21

19.4

17.6

15.9

14.4

Newspapers Television

Outdoor

Magazines Radio

InternetCinema

Source: Zenith Optimedia

Share of Total Ad Spend by Media(% of total)

2010-2014


3

We have even seen the extreme where a brand budgets their entire advertising spend against digital. But does this foreshadow a “new normal” where digital media should be the lead for the creative brief? Should advertisers be focusing on creating their digital ads first before focusing on ads for other mediums?

For some brands, the right strategic decision might be to push digital to lead the brief. For others, however, it really may not be appropriate. The reality is that the new marketing landscape, or the “new normal”, is both consumer-centric and multi-media (not just digital). As John Hallward, President of Research Evolution, recently noted, “focus the advertising on the need-states in each consumer’s life in which the brand wishes to come to mind. Then establish the link between this need-state and your brand”. So, the new normal is about recognizing that consumers “want it all”...where and when they want it. They want experiences – to be engaged, to be entertained, to be involved. But they want it (and can have it) on their terms.

In our opinion, focusing on the digital medium above other mediums to ensure consumers get what they want is a wayward approach. We shouldn’t be asking ourselves which mediums work, but which Big Idea works. Because at their best Big Ideas are consumer centric and inspirational. With this in hand, you have the creative fuel to build a brand across all media, including digital.


4

But digital definitely facilitates interactions between people and brands, and with the right Big Idea consumers will be more willing to share content related to your brand that they have interacted with. For instance, retransmission did not start with the advent of digital age. People have been sharing experiences and opinions about brands and advertising since there were brands and advertising. Our database analysis continues to demonstrate the impact of Word of Mouth (WoM) as an important form of retransmission, and is, in fact, the most powerful driver of desired behaviour and attitudes.

However, digital has exponentially increased the ability for one person to speak to many, and for one (or many) to interact directly with brands and branded content. And, digital facilitates consumer-brand connections (should this be desirable)! The brands that forge the fresh and relevant connections (links) from one experience to another (without creating roadblocks or avoidance) should succeed.

Email

Cinema

Direct Mail

Digital adsCouponPosters

Average Recall (%)0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%

Ave

rage

Per

cent

ile R

ank

(%)

Most Importantin Campaign

Product TPs removedand all other

Touchpoints re-percented to 100%

High Recall,but Low ImpactPe

rcen

tile

Rank

is o

n Pu

rcha

se In

tent

or A

vera

ge E

quity

Sample

Magazine Transit Promotion

In-Store/Island DisplayNews Item/PR (Earned)

Television

P. o. Sale

Flyer

W o Mouth

Website VisitationNewspaper

BillboardRadio

Event Sponsorship

Recall X ImpactThis is an averaging of many different campaigns. It is a generalized summary of how each TP works.


5

That all said the “Digital Mindset” is indeed critical for the development of the creative brief in this new marketing landscape. Full stop.

With everything we do, we should be engineering

”“

– Bud Caddell, Deutsch LA

the best path to the next experience.


6

So What is the “Digital Mindset”?It is not really about digital the medium per say, or about the spend for the medium. It does not presuppose a superiority of any one medium to deliver on brand objectives.

It is easily rooted in the following – Digital embraces the reality of a Pull World:

But what does this mean? What are the implications for the planning process and the development of the creative brief? Fundamentally it means marketers must focus on the relationship they have with their consumers and on how they can leverage these relationships to influence others with what digital clearly facilitates - interaction and retransmission.

PULL WORLD

Fosters Communities of Consumers

Dialogue

Engagement

Transparent Communications

Co-Created with Consumers

Brand Stewardship


7

First, start by enabling a RelationshipTo succeed within the “new normal” brands need to be in ongoing relationships with people, and their consumers. But despite having more options to create direct one-to-one connections with consumers, many brands have yet to move beyond simply having Facebook page, or a Twitter feed where they continue to simply push messaging, just in a different space. This will not succeed longer term.

Passionate and interactive brand-consumer relationships definitely do exist across the digital medium. But there is significant evidence that brands might simply be speaking to the converted. Many people simply do not engage directly with brands in this way, and this includes the people who are “hooked” or impacted by and perhaps even advocate a great creative idea pushed through the most traditional of channels (of which, digital display is one for the purposes of this argument), but simply do not want to engage online any further. These people cannot be forgotten.

Evangelists

Like

Shar

eFo

llow

Com

men

tCr

eate

Fans Mainstream

Depth ofparticipation

Scale ofparticipation


8

To enable relationships with a broader set of consumers, brands should leverage what fans or evangelist are doing in broader reach mediums to excite and engage consumers who can then aspire to “live vicariously through the experiences of others”. Because consumers are increasingly seeking experiences, even if it is to share in the experiences of others.

This means that brands need to ensure they are also working to reach and impact other users, as well as potential users. To this end, in addition to broader reach mediums, there is a need to manage “social proof” - messages that gain power as a result of being retransmitted by someone known and trusted. Social proof, as earned media, is broader than incremental reach because of the potential impact on consumers’ brand associations and perceptions. Remember, perception is reality.

It also means that brands should listen, learn, and leverage the insights and connections that come from our most intimate interactive relationships. We can certainly work to ensure those most intimately engaged are indeed valuable evangelists (advocates retransmitting) for your brand. But we must also work collectively to create and leverage connections to facilitate and better manage interaction, when, where and how the consumer wants it.

Don’t underestimate the power of paid for media to invite, document and publicise

people’s participation to a wider audience.”

“ – Martin Wiegel, Head of Planning, W+K, Amsterdam


9

Then Nurture that Relationship And, as we stated earlier, digital has been called a “bridge” to the next experience.

The key to nurturing relationships is to identify and customize community connections and then let them build organically. It requires brands to be immediate, in the moment and in the know. It also means that brands provide ongoing value to consumers’ experiences, perhaps their lives. And the content is always fresh. It is a long-term commitment on the part of brands, but it should result in a long-term relationship with consumers.

A home grown UK success, Innocent (www.innocentdrinks.co.uk), started by selling juice at a music festival. Over the course of the weekend, the founders asked music festival goers to vote to determine if they should quit their current jobs and start making juice full time, or continue with their “day jobs”. At the end of the festival, attendees voted overwhelmingly in the career change. And Innocent never went back on its human approach to connecting with and listening to consumers as they developed new products, new knitting patterns for their juices, and new community initiatives. The result – they were named the #1 brand on the Headstream Social Brands 100 list for 2012.

content was boring

posts too frequent

content not relevant

content was repetitive

only liked for one time offer

35%

31%

30%

28%

26%

Source: Ipsos ASI - Social Media U&A Survey July 2012

Why did you unlike or unfollow?


10

Case in pointHave you noticed the Nike tagline lately? It is not “Just do it”, and it hasn’t been for a while. It has evolved to “Game On, World” for Nike+. Nike+ started as a simple “app” to track runs but has resulted in so much more. Nike+ has connected a digital community globally. But it reaches beyond the digital community to inspire everyone to “Find Your Greatness and Make it Count”. Game on.

– Paul Adams, Global Head of Brand Design at Facebook”

“Our challenge is that a lot of people think of TV, print and billboards, and try to apply

that to Facebook

Evian is extending the “Roller Babies” phenomenon, and its brand’s youthful vitality, into a global effort. Together with their brand advocates they are trying to create the longest music video ever called Let’s Baby Dance (http://www.letsbabydance.evian.com/). They are currently at 9h54m45s and counting.

Dell leverages the ripple effect resulting from enabling organic discussion about product development and improvement through IdeaStorm - a powerful fuel for the organization to do more. Starbucks has taken its coffee shop conversation out of the store and to mystarbucksidea.force.com to build better coffee shops.

What is common to the examples above is that each brand understood the importance of building and nurturing relationships with people within the implementation of their brand’s Big Idea. They also recognized the value of leveraging those relationships across media and touchpoints cohesively and consistently as a means to engage a broader audience.


11

About Ipsos ASIIpsos ASI is a leading global research agency specializing in advertising and brand communications. Offering state-of-the art research solutions that employ measures predictive of in-market performance, our research helps clients build stronger brands.

Our areas of expertise include all aspects of advertising development and in-market evaluation across traditional and emerging media. Ipsos ASI’s goal is to help clients deliver the right message at the right time across the right media to deliver the best return for their brand.

The Ipsos ASI team of brand and communications research experts is a global community of specialists who are passionate about advertising. From concept development to production, from final execution and into post-implementation performance, we help inform client decisions at every stage of the process.

To learn more about Ipsos ASI, visit www.ipsos.com/asi

For more information, please contact:Leah McTiernan Vice President, Ipsos ASI [email protected]

Copyright ©2012 Ipsos Corporation. All rights reserved. 1 2 - 0 9 - 0 6

Business

Should digital lead the brief