Published by MediaCom South Africa
When Facebook Ads launched over a decade ago, many corporations and small businesses didn’t hesitate to jump on board. Today, there are as many as 60 million active business pages on the platform, but only around 6 million actually made use of the paid advertising feature, even though 75% of businesses say they would use paid advertising to reach potential clients (Source: Brandwatch).
What this shows is that many businesses get excited about digital innovation, but rarely ever continue to invest valuable resources over time. Data and digital technology continue to affect every sector, which means all businesses are under tremendous pressure to innovate. This puts great strain on leaders and managers, since innovation, just like strategy, starts at the top and is historically difficult to sustain.
So, where does the problem lie?
The key problem is purpose. Innovation in itself is not a sustainable or a long-term motivator, which means that campaigns will be short-lived or run out of steam if this is the only foundation. Many companies fall into the trap of not identifying a clear media strategy for the platforms beforehand, which is the long-term guidance brands need.
This is why the question every brand should ask themselves when it comes to innovation is: Are you using innovation with a key driver or purpose, or are you innovating just for the sake of innovation?
Innovate with purpose
When innovation is filling a need gap, solving a problem, or enhancing an experience, it becomes an innovation that is tangible and real. If you are looking at leveraging individual technological (or traditional) media without proper integration and business goals in mind, then you’re likely wasting your media budget. There isn’t much innovation in basing media strategies on features that might seem ‘gimmicky’ to the user.
If instead, you focus your media efforts on the results it creates, then you set yourself up for meaningful innovation. Rather look at the experience your audience will have and what they will ultimately gain from that experience—innovation with purpose. This is where innovation will set your brand apart from the rest.
MediaCom South Africa’s Business Unit Director, Coca-Cola, Brian Muguto says, “In an age where consumers are choosing or discarding brands based on whether or not they share the same beliefs, they are more interested in the value that comes from brand experiences/interactions. That said, brands need to directly translate the value they bring – beyond just products and services - into how they deploy media. Essentially, they need to innovate with purpose.”
The ultimate risk of failure goes down and the potential for true impact goes up if you make purpose the core of innovation. When an organisation can articulate and activate a higher purpose, it has a better opportunity to shape the future of itself and its marketplace. This is especially true for your media strategy.
Back to business
Some may disagree, but creativity isn’t the alpha and omega of an effective and innovative media strategy. While creative concepts and campaigns may require some measure of unique vision and artistic talent, there is another driver that generates more meaningful results. That driver is business results.
The ultimate goal of a business is to grow sales. This doesn’t imply that being creative is bad or unnecessary. In fact, creative-led campaigns can deliver some of the most meaningful results (just look at Nando’s South African campaigns). The main driver behind each and every campaign should still be data-backed results that can be measured. Make sure not to sacrifice effectiveness for creativity. Effective media strategies ensure that your brand messages reach the right audience, at the right time. And defining your message will have a greater impact on your success than the number of features you can integrate into your campaign.
Like many things in media planning, the key differentiator is balance—striking the perfect balance between creative concepts and business results will prove for better results overall. On the other hand, solving real business challenges could be seen as the one true driver in a media strategy. If your innovative use of media is not maximising the impact of the solution then it renders itself useless.
A connected ecosystem
Once a strategic (and innovative) solution has been created, the key still lies in correct and thorough execution. “This needs to be distributed consistently and seamlessly from one touch point to the other -- always moving the customer down the story path so that, ultimately, each experience across screens and off-screen leads to the business goal,” says Brian Muguto.
Sometimes there may be a disconnect between the different media touchpoints; sometimes even between the creative media strategy, its execution, and what the brand goals are. But if the business goal is is the clear end-strategy, there will be no ‘dead-ends’.
It’s almost non-negotiable to incorporate an integrated ecosystem within the media strategy. Just like all Apple devices connect seamlessly with one another, media components need to be systematically connected. Identifying clear objectives and a cohesive direction according to the business results required is the only way to guarantee no ‘dead-ends’. And the only way that this will be achieved is if, as media specialists, we put the consumer first. The very person that will be exposed to the realisation of the strategic business goals.
A disparate media strategy that doesn’t balance creativity and brand objectives end up hurting at the level where it is the most crucial to succeed—communicating to the target audience. End-users need to receive a concise, planned, and well-executed message about the brand from each media-’arm’.
It’s all about the audience
A comprehensive and calculated media strategy can mean the difference between a potential customer and a random individual. Media innovation should come from a clear and concise goal while taking effective business results into account. There is no good reason to ‘pray and spray’ incomprehensive campaigns and communication at a potential audience. This is why balancing creativity and business objectives is not only important, it is imperative if the focus is on your customer, and not simply on the need to call a campaign innovative.
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