Search results for: Category: Interviews 2019

Interview with Christine von Hörde, International Media Management, Audi

Belinda – Why is benchmarking and celebrating great international advertising strategies essential for the success of the industry as a whole?

Christine – Identifying best practice and identifying what makes great great is crucial to foster quality within the entire advertising industry.

Belinda – What is your top tip for creating a winning entry?

Christine – The best advertising often is surprising in its simplicity. 

Belinda – What particular challenges are there in the automotive sector?

Christine – Products become more and more interchangeable; audiences are continuously becoming smarter and less patient, i.e. also less brand loyal. Across all industries, consistently appealing to audiences therefore becomes a bigger task.

Belinda – And what would you consider to be an essential component of a successful campaign in that sector?

Christine – A successful campaign is one that generates impact in terms of company sales and consumers’ minds. To achieve that it is crucial to avoid wasting the audience’s time: relevance is key!  

Belinda – What’s the biggest change you’ve seen in content marketing since the awards began five years ago?”

Christine – Content marketing developed from a niche proposition to an integral part of the marketing mix.

Belinda – What do you think will be the biggest trend in content marketing in 2020?

Christine – From my PoV, personalisation of content along with voice elements will continue to be key areas of innovation.

Belinda – Which new innovation do you think has the potential to have the greatest impact on the consumption of content marketing?

Christine – Both personalisation and voice / audio have strong potential to impact on the consumption of content as both respond to evolving consumer requirements.

Belinda – How is data changing the way you design your content strategy?

Christine – The stronger introduction of data into building strategic responses to consumer needs has been a major shift in the recent past. Apart from upfront insights, continuous data help to eliminate what does not work and focus on what delivers actual value. Data also enable for better individualisation of contents.

Belinda – How can brands use content marketing to align themselves with particular values or topical issues?

Christine – From my PoV, content marketing is the best way to associate a brand with a topic outside of, but right next to its original territory / brand proposition. It takes a strong alignment between brand values and the content topic coupled with the ability to work out a compelling story based on that. Consumers will realise if the story does not work or looks constructed; credibility and a very good fit therefore are not an option.

Belinda – Can you sum up the holy-grail of content-marketing in one sentence?

Christine – I’ll give it a try: “connecting a brand and a relevant topic to derive meaning (for the consumer) & value (for the brand and the content partner) by emphasising the joint purpose in credible, impactful ways.

Belinda – What is the secret to implementing a successful cross-border advertising campaign?

Christine – This is about being aware of cultural differences and looking for what individuals have in common internationally – or should be looking at having in common, i.e. a bigger cause.

Belinda – What’s the key difference between targeting a domestic audience and an international one?

Christine – A domestic audience can be addressed with very specific local flavours. It can even be a very local concern that becomes part of the story. For an international audience, I would opt to look out for bigger, more overarching values to talk about.

Belinda – How can you measure the success of your partnerships during an international campaign?

Christine – The same way measurement would take place on a local base: paid media performance, “buzz” and earned impact along with performance within the own ecosystem – simply aggregated bottom up. [This takes a harmonized ecosystem, so is actually not THAT easy, but worth establishing that]

Belinda – What is the best content marketing campaign you’ve ever seen? And why did it stand out?

Christine – My favourite content marketer still is Nike. They beautifully and consistently tell the story of human empowerment and achieving one’s goals – in all shades of emotions.

After winning the World Media Award for Content Leadership and Innovation 2019, Christine will be joining our esteemed Jury this year. To find out more about our awards and how to enter, visit our How to Enter page to see all of the information you will need to enter.

Interview with Joshua Krichefski, CEO, MediaCom

Belinda – What’s the biggest change you’ve seen in content marketing since the awards began five years ago?”

Josh – First, it’s worth defining Content Marketing as I think it gets misinterpreted far too often. Real Content Marketing can be defined as “creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience.” Ultimately this is akin to an always on publishing model and as such is not something that can be ‘turned on and off like a campaign.’ What that means is that brands doing this properly have had to create very unique infrastructures. So I think the biggest change we’ve seen is those brands that that are embracing proper Content Marketing are really structuring properly to deliver.

Belinda –  What do you think will be the biggest trend in content marketing in 2020?

Josh – Reality is that real Content Marketing isn’t annual ‘trend based.’ Yes, there are winds of change, but these are the same winds of change that impact the entire publishing market. I’m hoping the biggest trend in Content Marketing is that marketers understand the times when it’s a truly useful tool in their arsenal and times when it’s not the answer.

With that in mind, and it’s a broader trend, it’s worth looking at how the many of the originators of Content Marketing – the Direct to Consumer brands like Harrys and Casper – now understand that to kick start a new phase of growth they need to compliment Content Marketing with Broadcast. 

Belinda – Which new innovation do you think has the potential to have the greatest impact on the consumption of content marketing?

Josh – Given a huge amount of Content Marketing is language based I think the recent advances in NLP (natural language processing) has the potential to really help refine content strategy. From understanding topics that will be interesting to optimising language to make content more sticky.  

Belinda – How is data changing the way you design your content strategy?

It’s an obvious thing to say, but data is at the core of any Content Strategy but that many brands miss the requisite data to be able to implement a content marketing approach properly. Yes data is integral when identifying what content you should make but the piece that is often missed is using data for success attribution (because if you can’t do that then you can’t make the case for investment!). As mentioned earlier, it’s no surprise that the brands excelling in this space are Direct to Consumer brands – because they will actually be able to tell you the ROI of Content Marketing and conversely, it’s why so many larger brands fall down in this space – because within their complex communications systems they are unable to unpick the effectiveness of Content Marketing in isolation.   

Belinda – How can brands use content marketing to align themselves with particular values or topical issues?

The core of a good Content Strategy is becoming synonymous with a specific topic. But we shouldn’t let ‘topic’ and ‘topical’ become confused – because a good content strategy needs to be rooted in a topic the brand has the authority to make always on content about and nuanced by topical sentiment. A bad Content approach would be trying to jump on a short term topical bandwagon.  

Belinda – Can you sum up the holy-grail of content-marketing in one sentence?

I’ll do it in one word. Attribution.  

Belinda – What is the secret to implementing a successful cross-border advertising campaign?

  • A central strategy generated with local market input.
  • A central insight and idea that is executed according to local cultural nuances.
  • A simple universal human truth at the heart of the campaign.
  • Share and reapply learnings across markets.

 

Belinda – What’s the key difference between targeting a domestic audience and an international one?

The question to ask are the same whether domestic or multi-market: where is the growth going to come from?  What motivates that audience?   How can we apply that to our brand?   Are there meaningful differences between different groups within the audience?    How does that affect the way we treat them?

Belinda – How can you measure the success of your partnerships during an international campaign?

Whilst media measurement is local to market, success should be determined by long- and short-term business metrics.

So brand tracking against metrics that drive long-term business success, along with sales / share are key metrics.

Belinda –  What is the best content marketing campaign you’ve ever seen? And why did it stand out?

The reality is that Content Marketing can never be looked at from a ‘campaign’ based lens. That’s framing it as something inherently short term – which Content Marketing in its true form isn’t.

And the reality is that as agencies we often have a blind spot when it comes to truly effective content marketing because so much of the best stuff is done by smaller D2C companies really making it pay off for them. For example there is a Direct to Consumer Beer Brand called Beer 52. They have developed a magazine called Ferment Magazine. This isn’t a campaign but a fantastic example of genuine Content Marketing.

Belinda – Why is benchmarking and celebrating great international advertising strategies essential for the success of the industry as a whole?

The world is getting smaller, clients are seeking greater consistency across territories and the opportunities to deliver brilliant international campaigns are growing every year.  It is important for our industry and our craft to be able to publicly identify the best work and to be able to illustrate its impact so we all have a north star to aim for.

Belinda – What is your top tip for creating a winning entry?

  • An insight that is recognisable as a universal human truth;
  • A big idea which makes me wish I’d thought of it myself;
  • Creative media execution that is flexed according to local market nuances.
  • Business success that can be attributed to the media activity.
  • Work that leads the industry into new territory.

Joshua Krichefski is part of our World Media Awards Jury 2020, as our co chair judge. Read more about how to enter, but remember not to forget the top tips here from Joshua! We look forward to reading your entry.

Interview with Christoph Woermann, Managing Director Marketing, Deutsche Bank

Belinda – What particular challenges are there in the Financial Services sector?

Christoph – The Financial Services Sector is rapidly changing due to many new market entrants from the financial technology side including the BigTech firms. As such, margins are under pressure and marketing spend is significantly under scrutiny. At the same time, financial services companies need to constantly demonstrate their evolving value proposition as well as their important role in the new environment which calls for very targeted and differentiated marketing activities.

Belinda – And what would you consider to be an essential component of a successful campaign in that sector?

Christoph – A successful marketing campaign in the financial service sector will show how added value was created for a distinct target group with identifiable benefits in addition to the commercial success of the campaign for the financial service company.

Belinda – What’s the biggest change you’ve seen in content marketing since the awards began five years ago?

Christoph – The digital channel explosion makes it increasingly harder for marketers to be everywhere where their clients are whilst managing limited staff- and budget resources.

Belinda – What do you think will be the biggest trend in content marketing in 2020?

Christoph – In B2B marketing, I see a growing trend for short digestible fact and insights- based information nuggets in form of podcasts, authentic videos (not studio produced) and short articles, all of which can be promoted easily through social sharing.

Belinda – Which new innovation do you think has the potential to have the greatest impact on the consumption of content marketing?

Christoph – Not necessarily new, but programmatic advertising helps drive contextual attention to matching content. Banner ads are dead – long live contextual banner ads.

Belinda – How can brands use content marketing to align themselves with particular values or topical issues?

Christoph – Successful content marketing is closest modelled to an in-person human interaction by being genuine, original, relevant, helpful and naturally aligned to the persona of a brand and its values. Trying to own topics that are in fashion but do not fit the brand persona dilute credibility of content marketing.

Belinda – Can you sum up the holy-grail of content-marketing in one sentence?

Christoph – Give more than you ask for in return

Belinda – What’s the key difference between targeting a domestic audience and an international one?

Christoph – The complexity grows exponentially and with it your need for partners who understand multi-market requirements.

Belinda – How can you measure the success of your partnerships during an international campaign?

Christoph – By agreeing key metrics and frequently holding whistle stops in order to adjust as necessary

Belinda – Why is benchmarking and celebrating great international advertising strategies essential for the success of the industry as a whole?

Christoph – The most important lessons for improving your own marketing are not learnt whilst sitting in the office but by engaging in a continued industry dialogue. Awards play an important role in showcasing industry best practise against defined criteria and judged by practitioners.

Belinda – What is your top tip for creating a winning entry?

Christoph – Mark Twain said: “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead”. The same principle applies to good pitches as it is incredibly hard to condense vast amounts of facts and information into a short summary. However, it is worth doing this because it distils the very essence of the “Why is this pitch special” for the judges who read loads of entries. Data and facts speak volumes.

Christoph is a member of our Jury for the 2020 World Media Awards. To find out more about the awards and the criteria to enter, visit our How To Enter page.

Interview with Katya Ionova, Creative Director, UK & EMEA, Business Insider

Belinda –  What’s the biggest change you’ve seen in content marketing since the awards began five years ago?”

Katya – Tempting to say the rise of audio; however, the rise of stories as a definitive format across Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube has had a more fundamental, habit-forming impact on our content consumption and content efforts from both brands and media. Visually rich, “tap for more” stories have created a new avenue for audience development and engagement, creative expression, and format innovation.

The other areas that have seen a tidal wave of movement are measurement – beyond just views and page views; long-form video – in 2015 the debate was ‘is 90 seconds too long” vs. today’s “is 9 minutes too short’; and yes, the rise of audio and voice products.

Belinda – What do you think will be the biggest trend in content marketing in 2020?

Katya – I would like it to be simplicity. Sometimes it feels like the quest for “never-been-done-before” media-firsts adds layers of complex design, animation, and visual effects to communicate a point that may just as well be shared with a simple meme. Requests for sponsoring or creating branded podcasts will remind us of Groundhog Day. The could-be-big theme of 2020 – the year of big global events and significant anniversaries such as the 50th anniversary of WEF, the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, 2020 Olympics, Expo 2020 Dubai, the US Presidential Elections and more – could be the “eventification” of content. 

Belinda – Which new innovation do you think has the potential to have the greatest impact on the consumption of content marketing?

Katya – Since Gutenberg’s press, the speed of content delivery has been the most critical innovation, which enabled further breakthroughs in content creation and consumption. As you can gauge from numerous B2B and B2C campaigns – 5G is coming. High-speed infrastructure will enable even longer long-form content, faster real-time rendering for content personalization, and more impressive immersive media. 

Belinda – How is data changing the way you design your content strategy?

Katya – Our DMP analyzes and stores user data while prioritizing consumer privacy and eliminating the need for cookies. The deep, first-party behavioral data is used to build more meaningful custom content that accurately reflects consumer preferences. 

Belinda – How can brands use content marketing to align themselves with particular values or topical issues?

Katya – Brand Activism is a topic of much debate and interest at the moment. The companies behind the world’s most powerful brands have enormous resources to champion change. Many have shown support for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, rallied behind movements, invented hashtags, and have taken an active point of view on divisive issues. Content with a cause, however, can quickly be labelled as woke-washing if the brand’s content does match the brand’s business practices. Crucially, the motivation here is what’s important: is the reason to align with topical issues primarily driven by commercial objectives [brand lift, reach etc.] or by an almost altruistic quest to achieve behavioural change beyond the corporate P&L? 

Belinda – Can you sum up the holy-grail of content-marketing in one sentence?

Katya – An audience inspired towards positive action through time well spent with your content.    

Belinda – What is the secret to implementing a successful cross-border advertising campaign?

Katya – More so a key strategic consideration rather than a secret: finding the right partner(s) with proven, cross-border audience engagement capabilities. And that’s what World Media Group members bring to the table: an engaged and willing to be informed audience, already engaged in an intelligent conversation that transcends borders.

Belinda – What’s the key difference between targeting a domestic audience and an international one? 

Katya – Language. And taking time to understand the mindset of an international audience.

Belinda – How can you measure the success of your partnerships during an international campaign? 

Katya – Success metrics vary; however, if measured results share a consistent, positive trajectory across key metrics for all the international markets then the media selection strategy, audience targeting, and core content proposition have been effectively applied and executed.  

Belinda – What is the best content marketing campaign you’ve ever seen? And why did it stand out?

Katya – Best ever, in the history of humanity is the Michelin Guide. The brothers were spot on [just like so many of today’s new media outlets] to focus on the audience passions for food and travel and in the process, developed an [e]commerce lifestyle powerhouse while promoting the premium qualities of the core brand. Most recently, “Bedroom Habitats” from IKEA and NatGeo – irreverent, yet factual and focused on a core human need – a good quality sleep. 

Belinda – Why is benchmarking and celebrating great international advertising strategies essential for the success of the industry as a whole?

Kayta – Life-long learning is now a megatrend. We can all learn from each other, inspire each other, and boost confidence in the times when the industry calls to rethink, re-evaluate and reimage everything galore. Award-winning strategies that prove advertising and media effectiveness on an international scale allow us to take the industry forward and set higher standards collectively.

Belinda – What is your top tip for creating a winning entry?

Katya – Don’t just rely on zeitgeisty buzzwords to make your entry stand out. It is highly likely we’d see quite a few entries with a heavy word count for “authentic,” “data-driven,” “storytelling” with “purpose.” So make the narrative of your entry standout through bravery, humour, and wit. And one small, hopefully useful, test – imagine you are pitching your campaign as a behind the scenes/tell-all documentary to Netflix et al. What would be the logline to pitch the conflict and intrigue of your campaign in just one sentence? A compelling “logline” in the opening paragraph of your award entry will entice the judges to find out more.

Katya Ionova is one of our World Media Award Judges for 2020. Our judges will be looking for content driven campaigns with international influences, to find out more about the World Media Awards and how to enter CLICK HERE 

60 seconds with Cathy Boxall, SVP Brand Entertainment, Story Lab

Belinda – What’s the biggest change you’ve seen in content marketing since the awards began five years ago?”

Cathy – More and more brands are investing in brand entertainment as a ‘must have’ rather than a ‘nice to have’. Our recent DAN CMO survey found that nearly three-quarters (73%) of CMOs see investment in creativity and big ideas as essential to cutting through the noise.

And brand entertainment is challenging the supremacy of traditional interruptive advertising – Marc Pritchard of P&G (a Carat global client) recently spoke on this at length in Cannes. Highlighting the fact that as many as seven out of ten people find ads annoying when they interrupt the entertainment that they watch and highlighting the need for brands to develop new creative partnerships with the worlds of entertainment such as journalism, filmmaking and music.

Belinda –  What do you think will be the biggest trend in content marketing in 2020?

Cathy – Trends in Brand entertainment still to some degree reflect the trends in traditional entertainment such as the importance of audience interactivity. Netflix’s ‘Bandersnatch’ is still held up as a market-leading example of the genre and brands like Tinder and Porsche have been experimenting with this on their own and with partner platforms. It’s a creatively complex and potential expensive route, but I expect to see more brands exploring this space in 2020.

Belinda – How can brands use content marketing to align themselves with particular values or topical issues?

Cathy – Brand entertainment provides a fantastic opportunity for brands to tell stories that are important to their consumers and we know that consumers actively expect brands to create social impact. Example: Vodafone’s recent partnership with Marvel Studios around Captain Marvel that stepped outside of the bounds of a traditional film partnership by featuring real-life female heroes in the content as part of VDF’s goal to support 50 million women by 2025. That said, any brand content programme still needs to be linked to real, measurable action. Modern consumers are hyper alert to potential ‘green-washing’ and any brands who choose to engage in this space need to prove both authenticity and real action.

Cathy Boxall, SVP Brand Entertainment, UK Lab joins the World Media Awards 2020 Judges to discuss the changes and trends that she sees today in content marketing. To find out more about the World Media Awards and how to enter CLICK HERE 

Interview with Robbie McCalwey, Director Global Marketing Strategy, EA

Belinda – What particular challenges are there in the Media & Entertainment sector?

Robbie – Advertising campaigns within Media & Entertainment are seeing an increasing over reliance on personalisation that is probably caused by the fact that most of the industry has become digital. This has created really lazy campaigns that are based on fairly rudimentary data signals instead of true insights. While this type of campaign does deliver efficiency, it’s often at the expense of true brand campaigns and scale, which is causing amazing short-term results that are negatively effecting the long-term health of brands.

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Belinda – What would you consider to be an essential component of a successful campaign in that sector?

Robbie – It’s most important to establish an emotional connection with your audience by telling a compelling story and finding a way to relate to them beyond the features of your products/ services. How you using your content, influencers or partnerships in a way that is both relevant to your brand AND matters to your audience?

Belinda – There’s an increasing trend of brands moving their advertising in-house. What do you think the advertising landscape will look like in five years’ time?

Robbie – There is? I think there was! I’m not sure it’s quite a trend anymore and we are seeing a lot of brands going back to agencies. I think what brands are realizing is that while you need some expertise in-house, an agency gives you perspective of what good really looks like… so you’re not drinking your own Kool-Aid. I think what brands will keep in house is more strategic and creative thinkers who work with an agency team of like-minded thinkers to bounce around ideas. Once a great campaign is locked then the agency will also handle execution because it’s difficult for brands to scale those teams.

Belinda – Which new innovation do you think has the potential to have the greatest impact on the consumption of content marketing?

Robbie – I don’t think there are any new innovations that are currently changing the consumption of marketing. What is most important for marketers is how to be disruptive with what already exists. Streaming is one example of an area that I think there is the potential for further disruption, both by streaming services and brands, but I wouldn’t call that innovation.

Belinda – How is data changing the way you design your content strategy?

Robbie – We’re moving away from over targeting audiences. If you need to make 1000 pieces of content for 1000 different segments then you’re doing something wrong. You look at what brands that have remained successful and they are telling compelling stories that have mass appeal, with some nuances based on ‘culturalizing’ their content for different groups or markets.

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Belinda – How can brands use content marketing to align themselves with particular values or topical issues?

Robbie – Take a look at macro cultural trends. This isn’t an option, it’s something you have to do. Otherwise you are just looking at data without context – which is looking at shadows of people and what they did, not the people themselves. It’s also more important for brands to stand for something than align to a cause. If you do want to align to topical issues or represent causes you definitely can! But your entire company needs to be representative of that cause or you’ll be found out by consumers. For example, if you want to stand up for women’s rights, then are you paying women equally? Does your board have 50% women? All this information will be found out by consumers and if you don’t embody the cause you are marketing then you’re done for.

Belinda – Can you sum up the holy-grail of content-marketing in one sentence?

Robbie – Start with an insight based in human truth.

Belinda – What is the secret to implementing a successful cross-border advertising campaign?

Robbie – You still need a consistent narrative that can stretch across borders. This is becoming more and more important given how quickly messages spread online and how irrelevant location is becoming. Any good idea is based on a clear and actionable strategy and this strategy needs to have the ability to be nuanced locally based on local cultural and audience insights.

Belinda – What’s the key difference between targeting a domestic audience and an international one?

Robbie – If you are going international you need to ensure that you’re not too focused on local execution or insights. You need to consider a broader audience and macro cultural trends. Having worked in the US for a US company for the last few years this is something we are acutely aware of when developing campaigns to ensure we aren’t excluding, offending or confusing our global audience.

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Belinda – How can you measure the success of your partnerships during an international campaign?

Robbie – Our KPIs for a campaign are based on your campaign objective. If this is the same across markets then your KPIs should be the same too. If you have different objectives per market than you should consider if your strategy needs to be reworked for particular markets.

Belinda – What is the best content marketing campaign you’ve ever seen? And why did it stand out?

Robbie – Nike’s Dream Crazy was the best piece of content I saw from last year. The way they consistently executed their story across multiple pieces of content and partners was an example of great storytelling. Unfortunately they also experienced the dangers of representing a cause/ societal topic in diversity, because it was exposed that they were  stopping payments to their female athletes when they got pregnant. This saw the campaign end prematurely and they faced backlash for their misrepresentation.

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Belinda – Why is benchmarking and celebrating great international advertising strategies essential for the success of the industry as a whole?

Robbie – As the world continues to get smaller consistent international campaigns are going to become even more important for brands to tell compelling stories. Executing those international campaigns effectively across multiple markets requires not only great insight and strategy but also deft execution, and so the work should be recognised and judged separately to smaller local campaigns.

Belinda – What is your top tip for creating a winning entry?

Robbie – It’s all about your story. Your campaign was successful based on the story that you told your audience and you need to tell an equally compelling story to the judges on why your campaign mattered.

Robbie McCawley, Director Global Marketing Strategy, Electronic Arts (EA) and World Media Awards 2020 Judge discusses the importance of celebrating the effectiveness of content driven advertising and shares what he’s looking for in award winning entries. To find out more about the World Media Awards and how to enter CLICK HERE 

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.

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.