From the latest Madison Avenue Journal article in support of Ad:Tech SF...
The internet has been touted as a place where knowledge is power,
data is everything, and where advertising will finally be proven past
Wanamaker's 50/50 proposition. ROI will reign supreme. Finally every
dollar will be accountable for an immediate return.
Of course, much of this is true. We can know more about each
interaction than any other media, and we should use all the information
we can to prove and improve our efforts. But brand strategists are
understanding the need to recognize all factors that cause a purchase.
Not only those that move people to purchase, but also towards purchase.
It's a subtle difference, I know, but an important one as perceived
accountability can overtake the need to increase consumer
identification with your brand. The yet-to-die pop up is enough proof
of that.
In this performance market where metrics reign supreme, it can
become increasingly difficult to move beyond the click, beyond the
ultimate conversion even, and to realize it's not necessarily about the
last touch point, but the culmination of all touch points, controlled
and uncontrolled, permitted or not, to move a customer to purchase.
And in a tomorrow when the banner crutch is removed by increasingly
pervasive ad blocking technology, meaning will be king. Relevancy will
be what matters. We stop just saying that "we are the low price leader" or "we have the best selection" and move on to "we are the brand that people like you buy."
Richard Huntington, Director of Strategy at Saatchi & Saatchi London, said, "It is vital to be interesting. It is merely important to be right."
And nowhere is this more profound than here, the most difficult
place to expose your brand. In this place where you don't matter, where
no one is forced to spend time with you. It's an economy where money is
less important and the more you force interaction, the more the
audience may pull away. Interesting and good are more important
qualities than anything else, and here, the quest for the immediate
return can sometimes harm your chances for long term profitability.
The golden promise of ROI-focused banner buys is that we will move
people at the bottom of the funnel, the mini-minority ready to buy,
through to the purchase, discounting the brand metrics that may have
been moved by each previous interaction between the brand and the
purchaser.
It is in this place that the brand strategist can truly shine.
With more tools than ever before, she can more easily know what the
marketplace believes, what it says when it thinks no one is paying
attention, where the trends are, and what things are the most
important. And while all these tools definitely make the job easier,
it's begun to redefine what branding really means.
A good steward of the brand in the traditional world might mean someone who keeps the messaging "on brand."
It's someone who looks at things like price, promotion, place, people
and product to define what it is exactly. In this new world of
marketing, brand strategists will be advocates for the brand in
different ways. She may stand up for these brand ideals, but more by
becoming conversationalists than stalwarts of a singular position. She
must work harder to listen and encourage other conversation, as well. A
brand is built not just by the things that you are, but how you act in
this marketplace. It's a much more intimate skill.
"Smart marketers will start to measure how many fans their
business page has and how many users their Facebook application has,
for example. They will also get their entire executive team onto
Facebook. Smart marketers will use Facebook ads, events, groups,
business pages and applications to find and communicate with their best
future customers." Mike Volpe, Hubspot
Even so, we increasingly see how brand strategy can directly affect
these ROI metrics. For instance, building a blog or creating a social
media strategy can not only push those branding measurements, it can
also improve simple conversion metrics by strengthening organic search
placements.
"In the US, roughly 80% of internet use (excluding e-mail)
begins with a search. And a majority of business purchasers use the
internet for research before a purchase is made. Blogging gives a
company a lot of content containing a lot of keywords, and, with a lot
of incoming and outbound links, that's SEO gold." Kevin Tomzak Power Up
New media tools can be used to expand not only relevancy, but bring the
brand closer to people in many different places, and in the ways they
feel most comfortable. Sure, the brand may not always look exactly the
same, or say the exact same things, but if these tools are to be
effective in humanizing a brand, they most certainly can't. Engaging
people and interesting brands are formed on the back of layered stories
and the element of surprise. Consistent and dependable are needed
attributes to have, but lack what it takes to make a customer HAVE to
take the risk of telling their friends about their experience.
Just look at what LOST, Heroes or even the Office has created in
their own ways. While the majority of the audience will only engage
with the television show, these networks have also armed their biggest
fans with the tools to watch and re-watch shows online, get to know the
characters better and differently, and understand more deeply the
totality of the story. It doesn't necessarily hurt any of these shows
if the viewer is not all the way involved, but it provides these brand
fans a much tighter connection to the show and community it spurred, as
well as keeps the conversation going not only while the show is
running, but in the slow months. Believe me, it's a valuable
opportunity for these networks.
"The Long Tail audience expects to be communicated with
appropriately based on the tools of the hour. And they'll want to
participate, mash-up and be a part of the conversation. Be prepared to
shorten approval processes, let go of production standards, and press
record." Darryl Ohrt, Brand Flakes for Breakfast
Obviously the entertainment industry plays nicely into the practice
of brand-building on the internet, but many companies seem relegated to
the fact that they are not a charismatic brand. A brand could decide
that they only sell tissues, or soda, or some other product that's less
likely to inflame the passions of the target audience.
But there's the opportunity for us in this new web. And by us, I mean
all advertisers, large and small, now inherently interesting or not. We
have to become content creators on the web with the intent of not only
drawing our customers closer to us, but by going to where they are to
become closer to them. With so many tools, we have more opportunity
than ever before to be branded as real, authentic, emotional, and above
all else, interesting. To be anything less is to not exist in this, the
populist web.
The theme of this years ad:tech San Francisco was "Brand Strategy and the Expanding World of Digital Marketing," which served as somewhat of a guidepost for the content of the talks, but also to highlight the spreading divide that's happening across the digital advertising industry. A quick stroll through exhibitors alley will give you booth after booth of lead generation, affiliate and CPA technology services looking to fulfill your direct response needs, but far less products to make your branding efforts really sing. 
