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More Than Just an Ego Boost: Awards Can Be a Serious Benchmark for the Industry

It’s awards season again and as the headlines from the Golden Globes, Oscars and Brits begin to fade, the spotlight is on an array of awards across the marketing industry. When we founded the World Media Awards, now in its fourth year, I felt there was a genuine need for a platform to celebrate the world’s best content-driven, cross-border advertising campaigns. Of course, the marketing and media industry is full of cynics and I’ve often had to stand my ground when detractors suggest that awards shows are nothing more than an excuse for ego-stroking and back-patting.

Being recognised for your achievements should be celebrated, whatever sector you happen to be in. Winning an award is good for business on a number of levels – it can boost employees’ morale knowing that they’ve contributed to something that has been acknowledged as exemplary work. It can raise awareness for your company, increase credibility and give you that competitive edge. But perhaps most importantly, award shows provide a benchmark to compare the performance of companies within any given industry. They praise the success of innovators, disruptors, those pushing the boundaries – and they deliver a standard for everyone to work towards.

As such, we are delighted that the World Media Awards have been included as one of the recently announced WARC Media 100 Rankings, alongside a number of other high profile award shows, including Adweek Media Plan of the Year, Cannes Lions, D&AD, Festival of Media, I-COM Data Creativity Awards, Internationalist Awards, M&M Awards, MMA Smarties and the WARC Media Awards.

The WARC Media 100 media rankings (the successor to the Gunn Report) are decided upon by a group of senior planners, strategists and media executives and they provide an unbiased standard for commercial creativity and media excellence.Based on the results of what are considered to be the most important advertising competitions around the world, the rankings allow agencies and brands to track and benchmark their performance against their peers in areas of creativity, effectiveness and media.

According to WARC’s David Tiltman, the award shows will be reviewed annually to ensure that the ones analysed for these rankings remain relevant, and reflect the opinion of the industry. So, not only is the WARC Media 100 a valuable tool for agencies and brands, it also keeps us, the award show producers, on our toes. If we’re upholding our end of the bargain and providing a platform that contributes to essential standard setting and measurement within the industry, perhaps even the most cynical marketer will admit that Awards Shows are more than just an ego-boosting jolly.

 

Interview with Brodie Reid

Brodie Reid, Global Manager for Brand & Content for Tourism New Zealand, will be joining our panel of esteemed jurors for the 2019 World Media Awards. We caught up with her to discuss the top trends in content-driven advertising.

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

BR: We’re all here for one reason. To create work that really works. Awards like these are the perfect way to celebrate the work and strategies that have been successful to overcome complex business problems in a truly creative way. That’s why it’s so important that we recognise them and celebrate them, giving inspiration to other organisations to do the same. 

WMA: For brands in the travel and tourism sector, what are the particular challenges when targeting an international or cross-border audience?

BR: There’s the obvious challenges like language and comprehension of message, but for me, the very tricky challenge is finding a truth or insight that is relevant globally and making sure it’s something that’s going to really hit the consumer on an emotional level. Those truths are very hard to find on an international level. 

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

BR: I think people have higher expectations and demand to be entertained now more than ever. This has given brands the opportunity to take advantage of the fact that people are carrying a screen around in their hands 24/7, and therefore serve them with content-led entertainment in a way they couldn’t before.

WMA: 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]

BR: It’s ultimately the combination of all of these factors that make a piece of content truly spectacular and engaging (story, relevance, length, media partner etc) but it’s important to be clear that without a compelling insight that drives the story you won’t connect with your audience in the way that you hope to. 

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

BR: For me, it has to be something that creates an emotional connection with the audience. That could be any emotion (not just tears!), but when you make content that makes someone feel something then you automatically set yourself apart from the competition and create a connection with that person. And it’s that desire that ultimately drives someone to act. 

WMA: How do you balance planning and implementation of cross-border campaigns between “local” and “head” office?

BR: We take a global view of the macro trends happening in the industry and then apply a local lens to how to tap into what’s relevant and specific for that market. This then applies to how we produce and implement campaigns, so a global core creative concept that is then adapted locally to meet the local consumer needs and business objective set out by that market. It’s a very collaborative process with a lot of communication along the way to make sure we’re making content that is going to work in each market, but still have global scale. 

Don’t forget to check out the categories for 2019 and how to enter the awards.

Interview with Isabelle Lefebvre

We asked Isabelle Lefebvre, Managing Director Global Clients for Zenith Paris, what she considered to be the key factors for success in an international content-led marketing campaign. Isabelle will join us as a juror for the World Media Awards 2019.

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

IF: International advertising strategies are much more challenging to develop – the level of expectations is much higher. An international campaign is not allowed to fail, as its impact (and therefore the risk) is much higher.

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

IF: I am hoping to discover entries where my peers  – using media, digital and data – have challenged the status quo and traditional agency roles, to deconstruct and rebuild a whole communication strategy.

WMA: For brands in the luxury, lifestyle and fashion sectors, what are the particular challenges when targeting an international or cross-border audience?

IF: Luxury, by essence, provides a personalised experience for customers. Therefore, the challenge for digital media is the seamless integration into this pre-existing brand experience, being respectful of the privacy of the consumer.

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

IF: I would hope to see quantified ROI and business results, so rarely available in this sector.

WMA: What do you think are the most important factors to consider when creating content-led advertising?

IF: For me, it would be alignment with the brand purpose.

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

IF: Understand what consumer needs first – to be entertained, to be useful or to learn something new?

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

IF: Time spent with content, engagement, capacity to capture more volatile audiences (Millennials) with a volume sufficient to be retargeted at a later stage.

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

IF: What’s your brand purpose?

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

IF: Invest in a content audit in key markets before, and start early.

WMA: What distinguishes the “international” target audience from “domestic” audiences – and how granular can you be in your targeting?

IF: Planning for an international audience requires you to ask yourself three questions: who are we targeting and also where; and where is the budget funding from?

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

IF: Their capacity to understand the client business challenges and their flexibility.

Don’t forget to check out the categories for 2019 and how to enter the awards.

Interview with Alison Tyrrell

We caught up with Alison Tyrrell, Head of Content (Marketing & Media) for Spark Foundry, and one of the jurors for the World Media Awards, to discuss what she was looking for in award entries and challenges facing international content-led advertising strategies.

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

AT: In all industries, disciplines and philosophies we lean on the great to help accelerate our learning.

Throughout my career awards have helped inspire my thinking and visually show me where the bar is now set.

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

AT: I will be looking for out-of-the-box thinking. Something that demonstrates they found an alternative and different route to solving their challenge – as quite often solutions (whilst possibly effective) can be lazy and lazy doesn’t shift the standard we set.

WMA: For brands in the financial and corporate sectors, what are the particular challenges when targeting an international or cross-border audience?

AT: Common challenges would be illusive and time poor HNWI audiences. There is very little data and insight on this audience which makes partnering with the right publishers key.

Other challenges include, travel patterns – this audience move around a lot.

Additionally, Utilities and banking are not sexy and generally not trusted – this is another major challenge to overcome in a heavily red-taped industry.

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

AT: Intelligent data-led solutions to find the audience and deliver value-led marketing.

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

AT: A number of factors but mainly that content-led is more value driven. Rather than pushing the brands message out (via typical media advertising), content allows the brand to create more relevance to the lives of the audience.

With such a flurry of adverts, relevance is becoming a stronger way to cut through the noise.

WMA: What do you think are the most important factors to consider when creating content-led advertising?

AT: Relevance and value are key – what is the content doing to add to the lives of the audience or to solve a problem/challenge?

If a brand can nail this, it will make their content connect and build trust.

Media formats and types of content depend on the environment and user behaviour within that environment.

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

AT: Relevant content that helps or educates. Again, formats depend on behaviours/environments.

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

AT: It depends on the media format/content type.

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

AT: What problem/challenge does your brand solve for the audience?

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

AT: Consider the differing cultures, behaviours, trends in each market. Ensure your message and formats remain relevant.

WMA: What distinguishes the “international” target audience from “domestic” audiences – and how granular can you be in your targeting?

AT: When targeting internationally you do need to decide how granular you want to go without risking reach.

Generally a consideration for language, visuals and environments are key.

After this, a consideration of behaviours that fit with the brand message, cultures and interests.

WMA: How do you balance planning and implementation of cross-border campaigns between “local” and “head” office?

AT: Generally planning comes from head office, and is adapted via local – local offices will understand the tweaks needed to messaging and they will understand the environments needed more authentically but still leading back to the core strategy.

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

AT: This depends on the brand objectives but generally;

  • The right reach for your target market.
  • Strong topic authority for your messaging.
  • Flexibility and a solution orientated team (working with ‘no’ people is a bottleneck to progress).
  • Transparency with data.
  • Great project management.

Don’t forget to check out the categories for 2019 and how to enter the awards.

Five success factors for brand-media owner partnerships in content marketing

Choosing the right media owner platform for your content-led advertising campaign is key to success –  respondents to our recent “future of global content marketing” survey cited it as the 4th most important success factor, behind the story, authenticity, and creative execution.  We’ve invited our jurors for the 2019 World Media Awards to outline what they believe every advertiser and agency should look for in a great partnership with your media owner platforms.

In summary, the five key success factors they propose for choosing your media owner partner for global content-led marketing:

  1. A media owner with alignment on brand values
  2. A media owner you trust on brand safety
  3. A media owner with international standing, and local strength
  4. A media owner with a wealth of audience data and insight to inform your strategy
  5. A media owner with the human factor: the team must be flexible and solutions-oriented

And here’s why they say that:

Angela Everitt, Director of Creative Strategy EMEA at the Economist, suggested “brands should look for media partners that align with them on values and goals” in order to partner more effectively and thereby maximise the impact of the campaign. The importance of values was reiterated by several of our judges, with Johanna Krantz, Commercial Director EMEA at Reuters, questioning “Do they align with your brand ethos? Does their content support your brand messaging?” The values of a proposed partner, are undoubtedly an essential aspect to consider, and Jim Piercy, Creative Director for Custom Studios, EMEA/APAC at the Wall Street Journal, took this a step further, saying that beyond anything, what a successful partnership requires is trust: “Brand safety is an increasing concern, and clients need to feel comfortable with their partners and their partner environments.”

Being able to trust your partner also enables you to be confident that your brand image isn’t going to be damaged by the collaboration.

Carine Gailliez, Content and Media Director at the Renault Group, highlighted the importance of the insight that a partner can bring to a campaign, with a strong focus on metrics, saying that above anything it was essential that a partner could provide “data to drive insight, data to understand the mindset of the audience [and] data to think, adapt and activate” the advertising strategy. Richard Stokes concurred with this notion, stating that he was interested in “audience insight, the ability to target discreet and interesting data sets”.

For global content-led marketing, Pierfrancesco Petrosillo, Head of MediaCom Beyond Advertising, valued “the ability to combine an international standing with a local strength,” an idea that Tanya Robinson, Global Brand Director at the National Geographic, echoed when she that one question you should always ask is “what is their footprint in your international campaign and how can you use their distribution to your advantage?”

It is clear that a successful partnership relies on aligned brand values combined with local insight and supported by data, but the human element is also a factor. Alison Tyrell, Head of Content (Marketing and Media) at Spark Foundry, suggested that along with these ideas, you need “flexibility and a solution-orientated team,” before continuing to explain that “working with ‘no’ people is a bottleneck to progress.” Beyond the resources that a partnership can provide, it’s also essential to ensure a conducive working environment where ideas can flow freely.

Brand and media partnerships are an inescapable element of many successful international content-driven campaigns and we aim to celebrate these at the World Media Awards 2019 – with a category specifically for “Best Brand Media Owner Partnership”.   If you think you’ve already cracked it and have a campaign from 2018 that demonstrates how a strong brand-media owner partnership can deliver great results, then we look forward to receiving your entry!

Enter the World Media Awards at www.world-media-group.com/awards by 7 February 2019.

New Survey into Content-driven Marketing Shows Engagement Metrics are Still Viewed as Less Important than Traditional Brand Measures

A new survey from the World Media Group (a strategic alliance of the world’s leading media brands) into content-led marketing shows that, although marketers are most likely to be using content-driven campaigns for brand engagement, they are not using engagement metrics as their primary KPIs. The survey questioned key influencers across advertisers, agencies, media brands and consultants.

It was carried out by the World Media Group (whose members include The Atlantic, Bloomberg Media Group, The Economist, Forbes, Fortune, National Geographic, Reuters, The New York Times, Time, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post) to provide context for its World Media Awards for cross-border, cross-channel content campaigns which close for entry on 7th February 2019. Its findings demonstrate that 49% of all respondents believe ‘brand engagement’ is content’s key strength (rising to 60% for advertisers), significantly higher than ‘changing perceptions’ at 28% and ‘building awareness at 17%’.

Content campaigns are being evaluated using traditional ad measurements: However, despite this it appears that marketers across the board are not yet focused on evaluating content campaigns against engagement metrics and are still favouring more traditional brand measures as KPIs. Twenty-six percent of respondents cite increased brand awareness as the main KPI they used to measure their most recent campaign, followed by measuring shifts in brand perception (25%). The first engagement metric comes in third with ‘time spent with content’ being used by 20% of respondents as their main KPI.

Content-led advertising set for continued growth: The good news is that content-driven marketing will continue its ascendancy, with 78% of respondents(and 85% of agencies) believing it will grow over the next two years, 18% feeling that it will stabilise and only 5% that it will decline. Agencies may have been later to market in developing their own brand studios and so are looking to drive more growth in the area but are going to have to work much harder as the market becomes increasingly cluttered. Overall, a whopping 45% of respondents said that >50% of the campaigns they work on are now content-driven.

Getting the environment/platform right is biggest contributor to a campaign’s success: Seventy-one percent of respondents scored story as the most important factor when creating a content-led campaign, followed by authenticity (62%) and creative execution (38%). However, when drilled further on what factors contribute most to a campaign’s success once the story has been created, 66% of respondents said that matching the environment/platform to the audience is the single biggest contributor. The second highest scoring factor was brand alignment, meaning that the content has to make sense for the brand or product. Third on the list was ‘content with rich legs’, whereby content is ‘evergreen’ and so stays relevant for a long time.

Short form video is biggest trend but VR/AR the most exciting: The strongest trend for content over the next 12 months is the use of short form videos, with 69% of respondents predicting they will be using them more. This is likely to be in a bid to improve completion rates but will be challenging for agencies and media brands tasked with building compelling and engaging stories in under 60 seconds – and some say this tackles consumer engagement the wrong way, with more informative and entertaining content being a better solution.Looking at other trends, 58% predict the use of more editorial style content and 56% expect to increase their use of social media posts.

When asked for the content marketing trend that most excites them, VR (virtual reality)/AR (augmented reality) received the highest number of mentions, followed by audio/podcast/voice-related content and the opportunities afforded by personalisation, strategy and data.

A credible editorial environment is key: However, the excitement around visualisation techniques like VR appears to be ahead of reality. When asked about the factors to look for when selecting a lead media partner, their ability to offer VR came last, only named by just under 3% of respondents. In fact, top of the list at 72% was provision of a credible editorial environment, followed by quality of audience engagement at 65% and audience profile at 63%.

Alex Delamain, newly appointed President of the World Media Group and SVP, Head of Client Sales and Services at The Economist, says,“The fact that advertisers and agencies expect investment in content-driven marketing to grow reflects our own experience at the World Media Awards where we have seen a rise in the number and quality of entries we receive every year. But what is really interesting is that they are recognising the impact of quality journalism on content campaigns. This sentiment matches independent research carried out by Moat last year which confirmed that readers display higher attention levels when viewing content within a trusted editorial environment.”

Who’s to blame when content campaigns go wrong?: While the World Media Awards are looking for entries from campaigns that are at the pinnacle of content-led, cross-border campaigns, at the other end of the scale it is interesting to look at who is seen to be at fault when campaigns fail to deliver. It seems that in this case everyone blames everyone else. For advertisers the blame lies predominantly in failings with the creative (32%). However, agencies blame poor strategy (30%) and lack of media support (22%), while media brands see the fault also lying in poor strategy (37%) or being given a bad brief (21%).

ENDS##
Media contact:
Susan Perolls at Loudmouth PR: T 020 7274 0925, M 07904 236060, E susanp@loudmouthpr.co.uk

About the research: The World Media Group carried out the online survey from 5th November to 5th December. There was a total of 176 responders, with 86% from Europe and the remaining 14% from the USA/Canada, Australasia, Africa and the Middle East. Respondents were key influencers with 48% from agencies, 37% from media brand studios, 13% were advertisers and 3% were consultants.

About the World Media Group: It is a strategic alliance of the world’s leading publications which incorporates The Atlantic, Bloomberg Media Group, The Economist, Forbes, Fortune, National Geographic, Reuters, The New York Times, Time, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and associate members: Moat,Smartology and The Smithsonian. Its aim is to promote award-winning journalism and the role of international media. Visit www.world-media-group.com for further information.

Interview with Iain Jacob

Iain Jacob, Director, Advisor and Investor, was kind enough to share his views on content-led advertising and international strategy before he joins us for the judging of the World Media Awards 2019.

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

IJ: In a world increasingly driven by technology and automation, smart thinking and ideas are more important than ever if you are to really engage people.

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

IJ: I hope to see entries that combine media, technology and creativity to answer a client’s toughest business challenges.

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

IJ: Great advertising has always been about creating great content that works in every context; retail, CRM, advertising. In today’s digitally driven environment there is a greater need than ever to create content that works at every stage of the consumer journey to build a full brand experience.

WMA: What do you think are the most important factors to consider when creating content-led advertising?

IJ: Today content is a much-abused word that often leads to commoditised, dull work simply designed to fill a space. Content that fails to inspire and motivate its audience is simply exhausting, at best ignored, at worst creating a poor reputation.

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

IJ: Content-driven advertising should be measured in exactly the same way as any communication ie what outcomes has it delivered, either short-term engagement or long-term brand building.

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

IJ: How will this distinctively answer a human need that the brand can satisfy?

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

IJ: The great benefit of digital is the ability to be truly customer-centric in everything a brand does. Today brands should be ready to create multiple content variations that allow them to really deliver to specific consumer needs. Personalisation at scale.

WMA: What distinguishes the “international” target audience from “domestic” audiences – and how granular can you be in your targeting?

IJ: Nobody is ‘international’ or ‘domestic’ in today’s world. This is about targeting a mindset – and it is context that delivers mindset. In a world short of trust, context is coming back as a critical component of media thinking.

Don’t forget to check out the categories for 2019 and how to enter the awards.

Interview with Thibaut Portal

Thibaut Portal, Global Media Hub Leader for Pernod Ricard, discussed his thoughts on the future of content-led marketing ahead of his involvement with the World Media Awards 2019 as one of our jurors.

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

TP: Getting inspired, sharing great ideas, telling stories and rewarding the hard work of individuals are the most exciting part of our industry.

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

TP: Ideas or strategies that directly impact in a tangible way the business of a company by opening new business streams.

WMA: For brands in the luxury, lifestyle & fashion sector, what are the particular challenges when targeting an international or cross-border audience?

TP: It is a pure global to local challenge: being able to inspire globally and at the same time engage locally, with consumers having different behaviours, life codes, usages and perceptions.

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

TP: Excellence in consumer journey management.

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

TP: Consumers are increasingly looking for meaningful communication and content. Brands are requested to have a “social” role and meaning. Content tells stories and consumers want to hear stories.

WMA: What do you think are the most important factors to consider when creating content-led advertising?

TP: The most important factor is the added value provided to the consumer, ie. Answering the question: Is my content bringing something useful for my consumer?

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

TP: Authenticity and transparency. Commitment and action.

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

TP: Its resonance among consumers: this can be approached and measure through social listening.

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

TP: The question would “What is your consumer insight?”

Too often this question is not well covered nor thought through.

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

TP: Make sure your content brings value to your consumers.

WMA: How do you balance planning and implementation of cross-border campaigns between “local” and “head” office?

TP: Head office enables to consolidate and bring coherency across many activated markets. Local is fine-tuning and adapting strategies, in close contact with local activations/commercial and sales plans.

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

TP: Local relevancy and local cultural fit. Diversity of teams.

Interview with Tanya Robinson

Tanya Robinson, Global Brand Director at the National Geographic will join us on the jury for the World Media Awards 2019, and ahead of this, we asked her what she consider to be the core challenges and opportunities facing international content-driven advertising.

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

TR: It’s important to recognise pan-regional campaigns with great strategies that showcase well thought of, insightful and purpose-driven initiatives. These then help create benchmarks for other campaigns or partnerships to aspire towards.

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

TR: Entries that make you sit back and think – that gives you an ‘AHA!’ moment since they’re unique and well-researched.

WMA: For brands in the automotive sector, what are the particular challenges when targeting an international or cross-border audience?

TR: This is just a cluttered market with all automotives now talking about being electric.

It’s important to understand what the key USP is, what the main challenge is and if the brand strategy helps solve the challenge in a deep, engaging way.

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

TR: Gone are the day of just 1 message driven piece of communication … now we need to story tell, to immerse the audience in a visually appealing process to take them to the final stage of communication. This doesn’t just immerse the consumer – this helps them understand the what, why and how, thereby building excitement for the brand and engagement for the communication message.

WMA: What do you think are the most important factors to consider when creating content-led advertising?

TR: – The story ( purposeful, strategic, immersive)

        – The audience you’re speaking to (if you don’t understand the target audience your message is lost

       – The platform you’re telling the story on which then dictates the length

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

TR: Understanding your consumer.

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

TR: The engagement levels.

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

TR: What is the KPI of this content partnership? What does success look like to you?

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

TR: Know your objectives. Understand your insights. Engage your audience. Flesh out the content and let it deliver.

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

TR: What is their footprint in your international campaign? How can you use their distribution to your advantage? Do both brands align in terms of target audience? How relevant and recognised are they to embark on this journey with you?  

Don’t forget to check out the categories for 2019 and how to enter the awards.

Interview with Johanna Krantz

We asked Johanna Krantz, Commercial Director of the EMEA region for Reuters, what trends she had seen in content-led advertising before she joins us as a jury member for the World Media Awards 2019.

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

JK: I’d like to see smaller, maybe more niche/vertical (B2B) agencies/clients enter and showcase their ideas and executions as they’d be different to the larger, perhaps more money rich, B2C campaigns we see regularly.

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

JK: To get an overall message across cultures effectively, i.e. a message that resonates internationally, not just in one market. It needs a human aspect or an emotional pull…

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

JK: Coming back to the above, it needs a human aspect, where it’s connecting people rather than just selling a brand (solution or service).

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

JK: I believe people want more from their experiences, not just being sold something. They want to learn, gain something for the cost of their attention. Most people don’t mind if the ad/content is sponsored so long as they get something from it.

WMA: What do you think are the most important factors to consider when creating content-led advertising?

JK: If you have the right media partner, you will get relevance and most likely the best type of content resonating with the user.

Story-telling is a buzzword at the moment but it IS important, and mainly so because people demand it as they want more and more from their experiences. Once they relate with the story (if it’s genuine), they’ll connect with the brand.

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

JK: A human pull, or a political stance; current examples are Iceland (palm oils/orangutans) and Nike (Colin Kaepernick).

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

JK: Social listening, search, site traffic.

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

JK: To think ‘big,’ and not on a message or idea that is too local, and most importantly to research the markets in detail. What sets the markets/regions apart? What pulls them together?

WMA: What distinguishes the “international” target audience from “domestic” audiences – and how granular can you be in your targeting?

JK: This depends on the markets and the sectors/industries involved. Technically, you can be as granular as you want, but does it make sense to do so in terms of messaging? Again, this depends on the messaging.

WMA: How do you balance planning and implementation of cross-border campaigns between “local” and “head” office?

JK: The locals should have substantial input on differences and peculiarities, but it needs to be pulled together by HQ who have a fuller overview and a “heads up” approach as opposed to a more penetrative or specialised view.

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

JK: DO they align with your brand ethos? Does their content support your brand messaging? Have they got previous and successful experiences?

Don’t forget to check out the categories for 2019 and how to enter the awards.