Why the future is owned first
Only brands that adapt to the marketing-savvy, connected consumer will stand a chance in the digital age, says Mark Howley, managing director of ZenithOptimedia.
Historically, the TV spot has dominated media plans, leading to a reductive thinking: “how can we reduce brand meaning down to its most singular expression?” But in the digital age this approach no longer works as well.
Brand building is far more fluid online; it’s faster and the conversation never ends thanks to an always on consumer. So how can marketers navigate this more complex online ecosystem? The answer is to turn to owned assets and place these at the forefront of a communications strategy in order to drive earned media.
Today’s consumer is marketing-savvy and therefore harder to engage. More demanding, this consumer has access to multiple devices and is in control of where and when they choose to interact with brands. In other words, they do not want to be ‘sold-to’ or ‘spoken-at’.
An owned first approach does not mean the TV ad or paid-for media is dead, it just means starting out from a different place.”
Brands need to adapt, placing user experience at the heart of communications and offer an equal-value exchange. This could be through providing relevant discounts for their favourite music gigs or giving beauty tips through a YouTube channel.
An example of this value exchange concept is ‘The Vanish Tip Exchange’. Typically, the FMCG sector relies heavily on above-the-line advertising; Vanish took a different approach when it re-launched its website.
The brand identified that when looking for stain remover, consumers see tackling the stain as the only priority when searching online. After acknowledging that users may not have immediate access to their product, Vanish created genuinely useful and shareable content on different stain types, hosted on a microsite.
The campaign sought to grow an opt-in audience, choosing social media to build a community for sharing stain removal tips: ‘The Vanish Tip Exchange’. To turn the tables, the best content went on to be used in paid-media and above-the-line advertising. In this way, Vanish advertises its owned assets, rather than its product. This shift in approach has resulted in a 30 per cent increase in market penetration only a year after launch.
‘The Vanish Tip Exchange’ shows how brand building hinges on the brand becoming useful to the consumer. In becoming a useful brand, the consumer is far more likely to be compelled to engage and share content among like-minded peers.
We can see big brands that have done this well, with the likes of Amazon and Google being built from the ground-up without abstract concepts or advertising. While owned assets are important to engaging consumers, where does this leave paid-for media in the digital world?
We can already see many big-brands leading the way in terms of an owned first approach.”
An owned first approach does not mean the TV ad or paid-for media is dead, it just means starting out from a different place. Paid-for advertising serves an important part of media planning, but brands need to consider how they are distributing spend across owned, earned and paid to get the best return on investment.
By starting with owned media, it’s possible to build an authentic voice and create useful and entertaining content, but this needs to be layered with paid-media to amplify owned assets and drive earned media. For example, with social media sites such as Facebook, increasingly becoming a ‘pay to play’ space, paid-media is still necessary to driving engagement among online communities.
The difference comes though, not in terms of prioritisation but where brands start their media strategy. Rather than putting paid media behind search engines, the focus instead should be on allocating budget to channels such as CRO and SEO to power branded content that adds value to the user experience.
For example, making high-quality websites, Tumblr and YouTube content and ensuring the functionality, structure and design are favoured by search engines to improve conversion rates and encourage the sharing of content across the web.
We can already see many big-brands leading the way in terms of an owned first approach. Websites are becoming increasingly content driven and personalised, thanks to the rich data available. This is a great start, but the industry needs a shift in mindset to reframe roles and priorities and how we build brands in the digital age.
There are still barriers to adoption and it requires smarter thinking, a move away from the traditional brief and different channel planning. But through placing the consumer at the heart of the story and starting from owned, brands can ensure they are better equipped to engage today’s consumers, driving earned media and therefore, a better ROI