Search results for: Month: October 2018

Interview with Alex Wood, Europe Editor at Forbes

Q&A with Alex Wood, Europe Editor of Forbes and also a judge for the World Media Awards which are now open for entries UNTIL 7TH FEBRUARY 2019. You can enter here.

Q: Why do you think it’s important to benchmark and celebrate great international advertising strategies?

Alex: Advertising is part of our everyday lives and living in the digital world we inhabit today, there have never been more creative options out there for marketers to access. Awards like these offer us the opportunity to celebrate the risk-takers and forward thinkers in the industry.

Q: As a Judge, what are you hoping to see in the entries to the World Media Awards?

Alex: Personally, I’m hoping to see campaigns that touch consumers emotionally through strong storytelling as well as innovative uses of new technology.

Q: For brands in the telecoms and technology sector, what are the particular challenges  when targeting an international or cross-border audience?

Alex: 2018 has challenged consumer trust and confidence in technology. We used to live in a world where technology was seen as an unquestionable a force for good, and now things couldn’t be more different. Data and privacy lie at the heart of this and with GDPR and the proposed changes in the US, balancing the needs for smart targeted campaigns against rapidly changing consumer expectations of privacy across difference countries is one of the biggest challenges.

Q: For entries in this category, are there any particular elements you would expect to see in a winning entry?

Alex: I would expect to see careful consideration of both cultural and regulatory differences between target consumers from different regions.

Q: Why do think there has been a growth in content-led advertising communications?

Alex: Storytelling is an inherent part of human nature and is almost as old as our species itself. Content-led campaigns are a natural response to a world where many of us feel overwhelmed with messages throughout our days.

I see the growth in content-led strategies as a positive move for the industry that brings us back to heart of good advertising – telling a compelling story.

Q: What do you think are the most important factors to consider when creating content-led advertising? [eg: story, relevance, length of content, type of content, media partner]

Alex: For me context is key. Brands need to respect and understand that consumers want different types of experience on different devices at different times of day to suit their natural schedule.

Also – from my experience of both running my own media business and now working for a global brand like Forbes, brands need to work with a partner that understands their audience and will guide them to produce the most compelling and engaging content.

Q: What do you think is the key to truly engaging content?

Alex: The key to truly engaging content is understanding your audience and touching them on a genuinely human level. I love it when brands produce genuinely useful content that is so insightful and entertaining that users share it just like any piece of editorial – for me that’s the sweet spot.

Q: How do you measure success when it comes to content-driven advertising?

Alex: For me it is dwell time and sharing. I see many other brands spending significant amounts of budget on promoting sponsored content through third party platforms. I believe if you get the content right – you shouldn’t need to promote further.

Q: What is the killer question an agency / media owner should ask a client to ensure that their content brief is fit for purpose?

Alex: “What do you want the consumer to feel after consuming this content?”

Q: What advice would you give a brand about to embark on a branded content campaign that needs to work in multiple countries or regions?

Alex: Instruct a partner with genuine on-the-ground local expertise. Don’t recycle and rehash content across regions even if they speak the same language.

Q: What do you need to look for in your media partner[s] when planning an international content-driven advertising strategy?

Alex: Instruct a partner with a genuine global reach with local offices and expertise. Hiring freelancers in different regions is not enough.

Truth to power: Adtech has to stand up for journalism

The future of the press is in doubt. If you need an example of just how powerful fake news has become, remember August, when even seasoned journalists accepted at face value a spoof campaign ironically titled “Don’t believe every tweet”, featuring bogus quotes from Twitter’s chief executive Jack Dorsey.

The changes in journalism have not gone unnoticed by governments. At the risk of sounding flippant, journalism must be truly in crisis when politicians acknowledge that they need to support quality reporting to maintain democracy.

But that’s what we’ve been seeing – culture secretary Jeremy Wright has said he would not rule out a tech tax for Google and Facebook to fund public interest journalism. That’s similar to what the News Media Association, a newspaper trade body, has called for, suggesting that the duopoly pay a licence fee to publishers when their content is used.

But governments can only go so far. And with trust in societal and political institutions on the decline, we need good journalism more than ever.

This is a particular concern for the adtech industry – without media brands, we wouldn’t exist. However much advertisers talk about creativity, people don’t subscribe to The Economist for its advertising.

We all know that, while media consumption is in flux, the press is and always has been part of a much larger cultural ecosystem. It’s not something that exists in isolation.

Those of us in media and advertising implicitly know that quality media outlets can charge a premium for their advertising, but now there’s explicit evidence that context matters. Research by World Media Group, the body representing top media brands, shows that great journalism boosts ad performance (full disclosure: I sit on its board as an associate member).

Quality media placements also solve advertiser headaches around ongoing brand safety challenges. While savvy marketing officers have always been wary about where their brand appears, social media has opened up a whole new world of risks.

As a sector, our grubby supply chain has chipped away at the revenue received by news brands. It’s too easy to say it’s their fault for not reacting fast enough. That sounds like victim blaming. We’ve not helped them by acting like the school bully and eating their lunch, leaving only crumbs behind.

The bottom line is that the way the industry has reacted to the rise of the tech giants will have cost journalist jobs. Right now, journalism is under threat. In the UK, there are 6,000 fewer journalists than there were a decade ago, and newspaper revenue has more than halved.

The UK government is so concerned that in March it launched the Caincross Review, to explore what protection is needed to ensure the future viability of the industry.

Advertisers too need to stand up for a free press. If we want the privilege of decrying the latest abuse of power, in business or politics, we need to fund those who uncover it for us.

Quality journalism is not cheap, it’s not free, and it’s a public service that isn’t funded by the state. As it’s crucial for democracy, we must fight for it. If we care about fairness, we need professional journalists.

Published in CityAM 22/10/2018

By Mark Bembridge

Mark Bembridge is chief executive of ad tech firm Smartology.

Diversity & Inclusion Breakfast Briefing

19th October 2018

The World Media Group hosted an engaging and informative breakfast briefing featuring:

  • Manisha Mehrotra, Diversity & Inclusion Manager,Bloomberg
  • Jan Gooding, Global Inclusion Director, Aviva
  • Karen Fraser MBE,Head of Credos, Advertising Association
  • Mark Runacus,Founding Partner, Wax/On
  • Fiona Daniel, Head of Diversity & Inclusion, HSBC UK

Issues discussed included:

What is the business case for improving Diversity & Inclusion within media/advertising industry?  

  • A business with a strong Diversity & Inclusion strategy will have a more productive and engaged work force.   
  • The outcomes of a diverse and inclusive culture can have a powerful effect on a company’s ability to innovate and therefore a stronger performance on their bottom line.

 

What trends are you seeing across organisations when it comes to Diversity & Inclusion?

  • To improve inclusion you need a holistic approach, isolated programmes will be less effective.  Focus on attraction, retention and promotion throughout the organisation, and try to avoid token siloed efforts.
  • To make significant cultural shifts takes time, it will take years not months to make real change, for example Group M has had a diverse agenda for 8yrs.

 

How do you get beyond political correctness and have honest conversations?

  • It helps to focus on inclusivity and diversity; you need to have both to have an innovative and creative environment.  Remember inclusivity is about ALL of us and diversity is about valuing the differences we all bring.  Avoid focusing on silo issues e.g. it is as important to talk about BAME issues with non-BAME groups.
  • Encourage inclusive leadership = active listening, informed empathy, open sharing and allocate time and resources to allow business leaders to focus on inclusivity.

 

What are the day-to-day challenges of improving D&I?

  • Inactivity is a real challenge.  Because it takes commitment, time and effort to have an inclusive work force, the resources required can be a deterrent.  It is easy to make excuses ie only xxx applied for the role, however we believe it is up to all of us to attract and retain a diverse staff.  It is in everyone’s best interest to create a culture that values diversity and leverages diversity as a core strength. 

 

What steps can be taken to ensure that employees/teams recruit, retain and promote inclusively?

  • Recruitment at the graduate stage is less problematic but progression is a challenge.  
  • It is important that within any organisation that there are relevant role models.  
  • Examples of effective initiatives are: offering free role model training, offering equal parental leave, make hiring and hierarchy policy clear, open and honest.
  • There are specific issues at both ends of the age spectrum – only 5% of people are over 50 in the ad industry and less than 2% are women over 50. As a maturing society that represents a significant skills gap.  At the younger end of the spectrum, while lots of effort has been made there is no joined up planning and there is a significant drop out rate.  When speaking about generations in the workplace we have to ensure that we include all generations and actively connect across generations. 

 

For a little more insight:

Watch (only 2mins): https://vimeo.com/238463684

Read: Why I am no longer talking to white people about race? By Reni Eddo-Lodge

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