Marketing’s future a digital dilemma

More companies will start creating their own content in 2015, challenging traditional media for the consumer’s attention, PM+A Marketing senior consultant Nick Eggleton has warned.

Speaking at the Curtin University/WestBusiness Outlook Series event on the future of marketing, Mr Eggleton said news- papers in particular would be “competing against everyone” for an audience as brands turned to “owned media” platforms such as blogs and social media to publish their own content.

That warning was quantified last week when the US-based Content Marketing Institute released its 2015 Australian Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends report, based on a survey of 251 business-to-business and business-to-consumer groups.

Content marketing sees brands create and distribute articles and videos which engage their target audience to drive sales.

The study showed 63 per cent of marketers planned to increase their content marketing budget next year. Some 33 per cent of marketers surveyed thought their companies were effective at content marketing, up from 29 per cent last year.

It also showed 86 per cent of companies were using social media (other than blogs), 85 per cent were publishing articles on their website, 83 per cent were using e-newsletters, 72 per cent videos and 68 per cent blogs.

PPR WA managing director Peter Harris said he knew of a US-based public relations company that employed up to 80 journalists to write content for brands which would then be pushed out to both new and old media channels. A similar-sized team was listening to social media for trending topics.

“The reality is that there will be relevance for advertising, that will continue, but ad revenue will continue to drop, ” he said. “People are now into storytelling.”

Lush Digital associate director Sarah Mitchell said “brand journalism”— where brands employ teams of experienced reporters to create content rather than marketers — was “still immature in business” but it was an idea that’s time had come.

“Journalism works differently in a brand, but not a lot different, and I think what brands need to do is look at the newspaper model, ” she said. “Once they start to get some journalistic integrity they will see better results in their marketing. They need an ambassador for the audience.”

It was also a great opportunity for journalists leaving traditional newsrooms, she said.

Jodie Sangster, chief executive of the Association for Data-Driven Marketing and Advertising, said it was necessary to understand the technology behind content to ensure messages cut through.

I think what brands need to do is look at the newspaper model. Once they start to get some journalistic integrity they will see better results in their marketing.
Sarah Mitchell, Lush Digital

You need to empower the people using it (social media) to deliver a company-approved message without waiting for three or four line managers to approve it.
Peter Harris, PPR

If you look at the brands doing it really well, like Qantas Frequent Flyer or Bankwest, they have a very personal approach.
Jodie Sangster, Association for Data-Driven Marketing and Advertising

I like to think that in today’s age technology actually helps. By having digital advertising and having a story to tell about a luxury brand makes perfect sense, especially as the message will be consistent across all markets.
Ian Phau, Curtin University

Burberry went heavily into digital because they went after the ‘Millennial’ market. Now it is such an aspirational brand — and they’ve done that with digital.
Bernadette Jiwa, marketing author

The opportunity is how we start to engage with people beyond just advertising.
Neil Le Febvre, HBF

It used to be easy — you booked your ad space, reached 600,000 people and hoped one per cent of them might react. These days it has to be more sophisticated.
Sandra Brewer, Perceptive Marketing

We’re not reinventing the wheel here. You have to have good communication skills, understand your audience, believe in your brand.
Nick Eggleton, PM A Marketing

The people you have as your counter staff doing face-to-face activity with your customers should be reflective of those in the back-end doing your social media, with the same skills and having the same decision- making abilities.
Susan Parker, The West Australian