DNA marketing: it’s in the blood
A new type of dynamic marketing that travels with us is set to revolutionise advertising, writes ITV’s Gary Knight.
The connected consumer is now a standard industry term – our on and offline worlds have merged and we expect to be reached at multiple touchpoints, on devices we have quickly and seamlessly integrated into our work and personal lives.
We know, of course, that social media has transformed the way we live, the dominance of the mobile phone and tablet has fundamentally altered how we consume news, play games, talk to each other and work.
We also know that premium TV content never left town and remains one of the nation’s most popular pastimes.
So, why then is there still very little connected marketing? High impact, creative campaigns must be delivered across the whole distribution spectrum to be truly effective.
As connected consumers, we are active in different ways on many channels, so why isn’t advertising right there with us in the same way?
The biggest challenge is the many iterations marketers think they need for those diverse channels, and the spend they think goes along with it. It wasn’t so long ago that brands used the same rationale as a reason not to be present in social media.
My fear is that the ad business is still treating some of the major components, i.e content, technology and data, as though they are a series of isolated islands.
If brands are to win millions of hearts as well as reaching millions of eyeballs, then they must not pass up on the golden opportunity to link the consumer life ecosystem that surrounds us.
ITV’s new short form offering, ITV AdVentures, has been specifically created to address the creative challenges that a connected universe continues to present.
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We use a product suite that is talent-led, utilises ITV show extensions and includes stand alone digital projects. This allows us to link up with existing brand activities and enhance the audience contact and participation points with the wider campaign.
ITV’s recent Suzuki campaign is a powerful example of what a creative, connected campaign of the future could look like – combining talent (Ant and Dec), sponsorship (Saturday Night Takeaway), the ITV brand, digital distribution, a full scale TV campaign, short form content, in-dealership activation, plus competitions and a Suzuki experiential roadshow.
The anecdotal results of this campaign are already proving to be highly positive.
Each of the campaign elements made perfect sense from a brand perspective, they echoed and enhanced the proposition – it lived differently on each platform, but the brand messages stayed the same.
However, it was the connectedness of the campaign, coupled with a fantastic central creative idea that gave it its power.
Connected marketing is about to make way for DNA marketing – marketing that travels with us, is everywhere we are, and is dynamic and live. This is the next big revolution in advertising.
We, as consumers have different sides to our personalities and engage with different platforms in different ways. Advertisers need to be right there with us, connected on all touchpoints with the most creative campaigns and the best stories told in the most relevant way.
Gary Knight is commercial content director at ITV