Despite its exponential growth, digital media lacks a degree of maturity relative to other, more traditional media. Marketers will either advocate or decry digital media, and the changes it has to the field of marketing.

Tom Doctoroff, CEO at marketing agency JWT Asia Pacific, raises this debate again in his latest book Twitter is Not a Strategy, and in doing so, he points to a single area where digital media and traditional media have offered different results in brand building.

Here, Doctoroff expounds on why prioritizing digital media could have negative effects on a companies brand image, the complementary relationship between mass media and digital media, and the importance of branding in today’s crowded retail space.

What are some the problems that may come with placing more importance on social media and other digital marketing channels as opposed to traditional methods?

I am an advocate of digital communications and digital media because they allow a deeper relationship with the brand that wasn’t possible during the era of so-called traditional marketing. However, there is a danger in prioritizing social and other digital media over other means of top-down communications. By top-down  I mean broadcast and other channels that enable both broad reach and meticulous message craftsmanship.

Focusing only on bottom-up will result in consumer confusion which directly impacts purchase intent and loyalty. More subtly, it encourages transactionalism at the expense of intimacy.

Some feel that mass media is dying, including TV; yet you argue that mass media and digital media complement each other. Can you elaborate?

Different kinds of media reach us for different reasons; and those reason compliment each other.

Analog, or traditional media, shapes our brand preference while most digital media deepens our engagement, and leads to brand loyalty. To avoid confusing consumers, engagement needs to be both authentic and constructed. Marketers must forge a paradigm that allows consumers to participate with brands while at the same time empowers marketers to manage the message and dialog.

As consumers move toward purchasing, direct and digital media should dominate. These media provide more opportunity for engagement—that is, direct interaction with a brand idea and its creative expression. Marketers have more opportunity to trigger behavioral change and increase the probability the consumer will buy a product.

In the book, you mention that engagement ideas should remain medium-neutral. With different channels reaching different audiences, how can brands best achieve this neutrality while also optimizing their marketing messages on different channels?  

It all starts with the brand idea—which defines the relationship between consumers and brand. This relationship is interactive and provides the underpinning for subsequent engagement across different channels. The brand idea is then expressed by creative that invites participation. Don’t invite participation for participation’s sake alone.

Then through the creative platform, we must encourage a person to do something that leads to sales—learn more, buy more, use more, or [advocate] more. Each creative expression of the brand idea should be conceived with a specific behavioral objective in mind.

How important is branding in an era of digital and social media?

Branding has always been central to marketing. I think the rise of digital has unfortunately led to many marketers taking their eye off this ball.  I do believe that the explosion of digital platforms has increased the importance of message consistency. Confusion alienates. Digital media is a double-edged sword.  The risk of disorientation is the flipside of deeper intimacy and engagement when it comes to any media that invites participation.

Originally published in December 2014.

The post Digital Drives Engagement, But Not Necessarily Brand Identity appeared first on DMNews.

“Entertainment is a little wild West right now. These services and technologies are creating all kinds of opportunities for marketers,” notes Michael Kohn, VP of platforms and marketing at streaming platform ViewLift.

Here are some areas of opportunity in entertainment marketing, as well as things marketers should consider when delving into the proverbial limelight.

Increasing fragmentation

The entertainment technology space is nearly as fragmented as the marketing technology industry. For marketers aiming to reach today’s consumers at home, the transient world of entertainment technology may prove just as essential as understanding the ever-evolving world of marketing tech.

“[Entertainment technology] is going to get more fragmented before it consolidates. Consolidation may happen. You see manufacturers baking in Roku functionality in devices, for example. But [marketers] need to be able to reach the audiences they want to talk to,” Kohn explains. “Each of these audiences is looking for a different thing. You’re not going to be able to market to the folks on [Playstation 4] the same as you would a mother of two.”

Podcast: Radio Advertising, Then And Now

The growth of streaming

Video Streaming: Given entertainment’s proximity to social virality, it’s tempting to view social media as a major driver in the current growth of entertainment-related marketing. While social undoubtedly plays a large part in the spread of pop culture, marketers should consider the profound role streaming has had on the entertainment industry, and the catalyst that continues to drive streaming to forefront.

“Price and access to good quality broadband has been a major catalyst in the growth of entertainment,” Kohn says. “Everyone’s bandwidth is increasing, and so are their cable bills. People are looking for more affordable prices, so they’re turning to streaming more and more.”

Audio Streaming: Audio streaming is becoming a more diverse playing field for marketers and advertisers. Services like Pandora, Spotify, and YouTube connect millions of listeners to a more robust collection of music, podcasts, and video content. The podcast industry, given its growth and affinity for niche influencers, also offer opportunities to market to really targeted audiences that show a true interest in a specific vertical.

As voice becomes a more popular channel, there could be new strategies for optimization there. Voice users can trigger streaming services (like requesting Alexa to play a favorite song) on their Amazon Echo or Google Home device.

Related: 4 Things You Should Know About ACR

Ad-supported video on demand

Demand for connected TV (CTV) advertising has surged. Vendors are still working to expand their data collection and ad targeting footprint across households, and through individual viewing habits.

Though subscription-based services such as Netflix have grown synonymous with online video streaming, marketers may want to keep an eye on the growing advertising video-on-demand (AVOD) model. Services like Hulu, are actively bridging the gap between traditional TV and streaming. With time, the AVOD market could grow into a boon for marketers; not least of all for the trove of data inherent in online video streaming.

“[AVOD] is an ever-expanding industry, and the inventory is growing rapidly. In many cases you know where the viewer is, what piece of content they are viewing, time of day, device, all kinds of things,” Kohn explains. “Traditionally, marketers had a general idea about this stuff, but no specifics. Now they do [have them].”

Interactive video, VR, and AR

Interactive online video and augmented reality could prove a viable option for marketers in the coming years.

“Unlike traditional TV, you can now buy video ads that are somewhat interactive. Being able to click into an ad on your TV is a different world,” Kohn says. “Whether an interactive video ad is more effective than a display ad on a homepage is something every individual marketer is going to need to determine.”

AR and VR, though still relatively new emerging trends, are just beginning to be adopted by the mainstream public, brands, and marketing agencies. In retail, brands are using AR to create new in-store experiences. On social media, AR is being applied to make messages pop, and create more cohesive customer service interactions. AR and VR allow marketers to inject entertainment to elevate the campaigns and create new experiences for customers.

The post 4 Top Trends In Entertainment Marketing, From AR, To Audio appeared first on DMNews.

Here, we chat with Jeff Yasuda, co-founder and CEO at Feed.fm, about the merits of using music and playlists as forms of content marketing; ones that can drive surprising results for metrics like time-spent-on-site and engagement.

Note: Sorry for the sound quality on this one, but we wanted to bring you what Jeff has to say.

The post One on One: Jeff Yasuda on Why Music Should Qualify as Content appeared first on DMNews.

OTT (“over-the-top” TV) might look like a dream come true for marketers and advertisers — audiences on a comparable scale to broadcast TV, matched with the ability to address individual consumers directly. And for consumers it would seem to make logical sense, presenting — in theory at least — an à la carte selection of programming, more customizable and likely more affordable than cable bundles.

But that doesn’t mean OTT is everywhere, or has yet taken the market by storm. OTT subscriptions rose 12% between 2014 and 2016, but that doesn’t mean adopters were watching OTT programming all or most of the time.  One commentator has said that “entrenched methods and silos, as well as scale, budget, standardization and measurement limitations, must all be overcome before OTT can really take off.”

That doesn’t stifle excitement about the OTT revolution — certainly not at Roku, the streaming TV pioneers, where a lot is riding on the OTT revolution.  Scott Rosenberg, SVP and general manager of advertising at Roku, conveyed his enthusiasm. — Kim Davis

Perry Simpson: I’m sure you’re feeling good about OTT in general at Roku. What’s got you guys especially excited?

Scott Rosenberg: I think OTT is the future of TV. We live in a world where consumers are much more empowered to watch what they want when they want. By delivering TV over the internet, we give that to them. Our kids will grow up in a world where they don’t deal with live TV outside of big events.

OTT we feel embodies what TV is becoming. The audiences consuming TV OTT are growing. There’s billions of dollars at stake. Cord cutting is on the rise. Cord shaving is on the rise. Then there’s cord-nevers, the millennials who never had a cable subscription.

People spend five hours each day watching TV. To be working on a product that is targeting five hours of personal time for every day is exciting. Our universe is 15 million active accounts, people who streamed in the last 30 days. If you think of us like a cable provider, we’re a top provider. We’re doing over a billion hours of streaming a month. Each user is not only streaming more, they’re doing more with their Roku.

It seems there are a lot more players in the OTT market these days. How has the space changed  following the launch of the latest Xbox and Playstation consoles?

The standalone player market continues to grow significantly. Consumers do use gaming consoles, but Roku has exceeded those platforms in terms of usage. There’s an interesting report from Freewheel, it’s called VMR. If you look at that data, you’ll see the consoles are laggards in terms of OTT players.

I think that’s because the consoles are multipurpose devices. They’re for gaming. You do get some viewership on those platforms, but not on the scale of Roku. The consoles are a factor, but Roku and our competitors are leading the stand alone player market. I do think the market is moving quickly. It is an exciting time to be in this place. I think that’s the number one challenger, to effectuate that change. The price points of these products are also helping. It’s never been easier to get into OTT streaming.

I think consumers are realizing that they can be very satisfied without getting tiered cable plans. Consumers just have a lot more choice than they’ve ever had. [OTT] is also creating a renaissance of sorts on the production side. I think it’s one of the brightest times in memory in the proliferation of quality tv content.

What do you see as the number one challenge facing OTT in the coming months?

If you’re a traditional advertiser, and you spend the majority of your budget on TV, you face the real problem of those TV audiences shrinking. Especially in younger demos. You need to know how to reach that next generation viewer. They’re going to OTT.

Stepping back a bit, do you feel marketers are fully leveraging the OTT market? What can be improved?

We’re at the early stages of a very exciting game here. We’re doing business across multiple platforms. As a portion of budget, OTT is still an emerging media. Yes, marketers can be doing a lot more in OTT. That’s part of our job. Highlighting the benefits of OTT. It’s going very well. We don’t have to work that hard anymore to educate marketers. Four to five years ago there were more hold outs. We really don’t get pushback anymore. The conversation with marketers is not “should you invest in OTT,” it’s “how much and fast should you move your budgets over.” We’re still working hard at wiring up new capabilities. One of the things about OTT is that every ad impression can be measured, like all of digital media. All of the digital things that are possible in mobile and desktop, now we can do that with TV as well.

Any other thoughts about OTT, TV marketing, or the evolution of TV advertising?

It’s such an exciting space and an exciting time. It’s a real revolution in how people are getting TV and accessing content.

The post Talking OTT with Roku appeared first on DMNews.

Here, we discuss the strategy behind a creative-driven agency and the nuances of how marketers are tackling the big digital trends of the day, like video.

The post One on One: Being a Creative-First Agency appeared first on DMNews.

Indeed, the industry has come a long way from extolling the benefits of omnichannel to today’s world, where businesses not only understand the benefits of omnichannel marketing, but are increasingly facing pressure from customers and partners to be omnichannel as a standard.

“Today, omnichannel marketing across all addressable channels and inventory, coupled with identity resolution and machine-powered optimization are table stakes for all media buyers and as a result, enriches the consumer experience,” says Dan Rosenberg, chief strategy officer at MediaMath. Not only does omnichannel execution allow you to manage the frequency of ads… but by adopting a more audience-based approach, marketers will be able to consolidate as many addressable channels as possible to enable one-to-one storytelling and messaging, no matter where a customer is connected.”

There are a few key areas of contention that continue to challenge omnichannel marketing as a concept, and marketers will likely grapple with these for the next few years.

Managing the customer journey

The customer journey is extremely difficult to track these days. It’s harder than ever for marketers to distil the customer journey down into the neat funnels that were once standard to the marketing process. Still, marketers are going to have to figure out how to engage customers across disparate channels as best they can.

“Managing consumer data across channels is a challenge with teams that are historically silo’ed and not incentivized to share data. Marketers need to understand the 360-degree customer journey, so that a marketer can address a given consumer’s concern in the moment,” Rosenberg says.

Privacy

As is the case for practically all digital media, privacy and data ownership will continue to be big concerns for brands doing omnichannel marketing, particularly because of the multiple channels and touchpoints involved.

“As part of privacy, marketers should be good stewards of consumer data, and not advertising too aggressively or invasively with the use of frequency caps. Using frequency caps across channels curb the number of times a consumer sees advertisements from a given marketer on any device,” Rosenberg says.

Fraud

Similar to privacy, marketers doing omnichannel have a vested interest in the advertising industry’s battles with fraud.

“Fraud has been a longstanding issue within advertising where marketers are realizing that fraud is susceptible across all channels including fake bot data, fake social media profiles and not just an ad tech,” Rosenberg says.

There’s little in the way of best practice here, as these are issues that affect all of marketing, not just omnichannel, and the progression of technology advances and exacerbates problems like privacy and tracking the customer journey.

In the end though, omnichannel is well worth the effort.

The post 3 Major Omnichannel Challenges Today appeared first on DMNews.

Whether or not brick-and-mortar retail is truly dying off is debatable. Yes, flagship retailers like Macy’s and JCPenney are shuttering stores around the country, and shopping malls seem to be turning into derelict lots overnight. However, evolving digital technologies like beacons and VR continue to offer retailers new opportunities to bridge the digital-physical gap; not to mention major digital brands breaking into the physical retail space (Amazon’s Whole Foods buy comes to mind).

But make no mistake, retailers face a trying time right now. The question is whether or not these challenges have any ramifications for omnichannel marketing.

“Absolutely. Omnichannel will have an increasingly larger role in furthering consumer engagement and driving sales as consumers demand access to all channels of shopping and with relative ease,” says Dave Dague, EVP of marketing at Infutor, a consumer identity management expert.

By its nature, omnichannel is a holistic melding of all channels, including in-store. This apparent dissolving of the physical retail channel could throw a great wrench into the concept of omnichannel. After All, retailers are perhaps the most affected businesses by omnichannel in the first place. The good news is it seems unlikely that physical retail is as doomed as it seems.

“Shoppers are still motivated to walk into physical stores to touch and feel items, browse and make purchases, exchanges and returns,” Dague says. “Retailers that embrace technologies to ensure an integrated omnichannel approach will continue to thrive.”

It may seem an existential upheaval in some regards, but Amazon’s big play in physical retail is more likely a part of a greater trend of evolution in physical retail. These primarily digital companies stand to elevate the digital aspect of retail in today’s climate, and their forays into the space signal an opportunity for physical retailers to up their omnichannel game.

Amazon made its name by providing some of the best customer experiences available. Bringing that level of commitment to the physical space gives retailers a tangible example to follow. But only if they learn the right lessons, and structure their channel strategy the proper way.

“The critical piece for retailers in utilizing an integrated omnichannel approach is ensuring that their foundational consumer identity data and the linked attribute date is accurate, complete and continuously updated so that every engagement can be personalized,” Dague says. “For physical retailers, combining the rapid availability and accessibility of online inventory with the in-store personalized customer service utilizing an omnichannel approach will be key for building and extending the customer lifecycle.”

The post The Decline of Physical Retail May be an Omnichannel Opportunity appeared first on DMNews.

On the heels of Messenger 2.0’s release in April, as well as the global expansion of the Messenger Ads beta earlier this month, Facebook has released the next major update to its popular Messenger app, Messenger 2.1.

The update brings substantial improvements to several areas of the app, most notably bots, customer experience, and other quality of life changes for marketers and developers.

For bots, Facebook is introducing built-in natural language processing (NLP). This will allow bots to automatically detect user input and asses the meaning of messages accordingly.  The built-in NLP currently recognizes terms and phrases like hello, bye, thanks, dates and times, location, money, phone numbers, emails, and URLs.

Additionally, Facebook introduced its Handover protocol. This protocol allows marketers to create multiple experiences within their bots, and introduces the ability to seamlessly switch from bot-based communications with users to live agents, depending on the complexity of the user’s inquiry. Users perceive this fluid transition as a singular experience, as the handover protocol bounces the conversation back and forth between bot and agent.

In terms of customer experience, 2.1 brings seamless payments, which give customers a one-step process for payment within Messenger’s webview. This is currently in beta, and only available to U.S. customers and businesses.

Businesses will now have access to additional calls-to-action like “Shop Now” and “Get Started,” as well as an extension of the mobile MEssenger SDK to desktop, bringing previously mobile-only features like User ID and sharing to desktop.

Chat extensions (like Spotify’s famous playlist sharing) are rolling out to global pages, the customer API has been updated, and businesses now receive notifications when their bots are in violation of Messenger policies.

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Still, there are examples out there of brands that put in the work and changed their strategy from the ground up —restructuring their entire organization if need be — to position themselves to properly execute an omnichannel strategy. DMN has covered several such stories in the last year.

Here, we’ve gathered several recent DMN articles that either showcase a business that achieved omnichannel success, or highlights trends in marketing that can improve omnichannel for the better.

The post Examining Recent Omnichannel Successes appeared first on DMNews.

The stats are out there, customers want omnichannel experiences, and expect brands to have the ability to connect disparate data from multiple channels to form a single view of them. Companies have labored over their strategies and tech stacks to meet these new customer demands, and publications like DMN have encouraged these efforts. After all, omnichannel is an extension of the greater marketing mandate to elevate the customer experience above everything else, especially in our increasingly digital world.

Yet, even midway through 2017, and on the cusp of the next phase of the internet, omnichannel remains on the to-do list for many marketers. Omnichannel still seems to be a objective; a goal marketers are actively working toward, rather than a reality that businesses are organically structured around. This leads to my big question as a reporter in this space: Who exactly is still chasing omnichannel?

Those older, legacy companies that are still talking about digital transformation? Perhaps it’s the large companies that were too entrenched and too sluggish to adapt to the customer-centric digital world? Maybe it’s the brick-and-mortar retailers that are struggling to find their place in their empowered customers’ lives? The apparent truth is that it’s everyone.

“For years, marketers have been trying to successfully implement omnichannel strategies. But it’s one of those impossible puzzles to crack. Marketers can only continue to improve their understanding of their customer touchpoints,” Jay Stocki, Experian’s SVP of data and product strategy for its Targeting division, said in an email interview.

The reality is that omnichannel appears to be one of those topics that shouldn’t be a topic anymore considering how far digital has advanced, but it’s that constant pace of evolution that seems to be holding marketers back from truly standardizing omnichannel.

There are two main causes of this, according to Jamie Anderson, SVP and CMO at SAP Hybris. One is the stratification of data across multiple platforms. “[It’s] difficult for organizations to create a full picture of the consumer. Without a robust profile for each target consumer, brands are not able to form meaningful relationships and establish a loyal customer-base, Anderson says.

“The second reason is because the consumer’s ability to adopt and adapt new channels of interaction is moving faster than enterprise technologies can keep pace with. The number of channels for consumers to interact with brands on is consistently expanding. With the consumer always one step ahead, brands must continue to invest in omnichannel marketing strategies to effectively reach the customer.”

It seems, the primary roadblock to omnichannel success is, well, all of the channels consumers play in today.  It’s unfortunate that the industry is still struggling with omnichannel marketing. But at least marketers know what’s at stake now, even if widespread omnichannel adoption seems further out of reach than any of us would like.

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