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Key Takeouts: Trend and insights from WMG Content Creatives

The World Media Group hosted its annual Agency Advisory Board this week, where a group of senior agency executives shared best practice and discussed the topics affecting the media  industry.

This year’s session began with a discussion about Creative Solutions with a panel of experts from three of the World Media Group members’ Content Studios. Ibs Ajayi, Global Head of Films at Economist Impact; Helen Collerton, Content Strategy Lead at Create, CNN International’s Brand Studio; and Katya Ionova, Head of Creative Strategy and Global Brand Partnerships at Business Insider discussed the topics and trends they are currently seeing in the market. Here are some key takeouts from the conversation.

Increased use of data

There’s been a big shift in understanding of audiences as quality media brands benefit from more insight into their first-party data. Creatives and Strategists are increasingly required to analyse the data to strengthen their creative campaigns and find white space for content.

At CNN’s Create studio, for example, the ability to work with global data from a variety of different markets has provided a much deeper understanding of which specific products are performing better in different territories. At Economist Impact, data is analysed in real-time to optimise live programmes, and user behaviour data is continuously evaluated to inform everything from design to content enhancements.

Multi-platform campaigns to reflect the customer journey

A deeper understanding of the customer journey is changing the way creative campaigns are conceptualised because publishers know that viewers won’t interact with every single touchpoint of the campaign.

Publishers that were traditionally linear have had to adapt in response to this. Seventy-five percent of CNN’s campaigns, for example, are now multi-platform, which reflects a bigger trend of brands putting marketing budget across multiple platforms, not just linear and TV, where viewing habits have become less predictable.

“Ten years ago, we would devise a beautiful joined up, cascading campaign hero film, and cut-down social content, and we would consider it all as a single narrative,” says Collerton. “Now that we can see people are interacting with a single piece of content, it’s changing the way that we provide concepts for those assets because all the messaging needs to land in every single individual piece.”

A return to longer-form storytelling

According to Ionova, long-form content is “no longer scary,” even for a digital-first media owner like Business Insider, as audiences increasingly embrace premium, in-depth content. They are seeing a shift towards longer-form content across both their website and social platforms, particularly on YouTube, a key video distribution platform for Business Insider. Data indicates that 50 percent of views now come from Connected TV (CTV), suggesting their audience is watching both short-form and long-form content on a big screen

Ajayi also highlighted a similar trend at Economist Impact, referencing ‘The Childcare Initiative Dividend’, a 16-minute film created as part of a research-driven campaign that demonstrated the economic gains countries could achieve by investing in childcare. 

Keep commercial content brief

When it comes to clearly commercial content, however, Collerton believes it’s best kept to 60 to 90 seconds or less. “Everything that we do is led by human stories, but the actual narrative is often very brand focused,” she says. ”We have to offer a huge amount of value to our audiences to maintain their attention because we are openly, honestly commercial content”.

CNN is doing some behavioural work with its C-suite audience data to find out how a decision is made, which will help to inform the optimal length and duration of content. “We’re looking at the levers we need to pull in terms of head versus heart, rational versus emotional, but also what the pathway of that decision might look like on our platform and how long it will take,” Collerton says. They now have examples of how long it takes, on average, for a C-suite leader to make a decision, meaning they can shape a campaign based on the touch points they’ve seen for this audience.

Convincing B2B to be human

Ionova has seen a growing demand for human-centric storytelling, mirroring findings from Business Insider research where 87% of readers strongly prefer person-first narratives. This trend is gaining momentum in B2B campaigns, as 84.2% of Business Insider’s audience confirms that technology, business, and innovation content centered on human experiences is more impactful and memorable.

However, convincing some B2B clients that they should be more human-centric can be challenging, Collertion says, because they are less familiar with making that type of content. A B2B firm selling insurance can tell a very human story of how it affects people’s lives, but Collerton says she finds clients often “feel uncomfortable to enter what they see as consumer space”.

Trending topics

According to Ajayi, sustainability remains a popular topic to come through Economist Impact briefs, along with AI. Rather than jumping on popular bandwagons, however, he stresses the importance of  “being authentic and looking within your organisation to see what issues align within your brand’s values.” Collerton noted that every brand seems to be far more aware of their purpose these days.

Ionova observes that sustainability has become a baseline expectation for brands, making it harder to stand out with generic messaging. She encourages brands to differentiate themselves through niche and impactful initiatives, highlighting female and youth empowerment as underserved areas that offer unique storytelling opportunities.

Collaboration and quality media

One of our audience members asked for advice on scaling a campaign so that it works across multiple media outlets yet avoids disparate messaging or diluting the tone of voice that might come from creating a bespoke campaign with one specific outlet.

The panel agreed that all of their brands (and, more broadly, all of the World Media Group member brands) are willing to work in collaboration with other media partners, as long as it’s clear from the outset of the campaign what each publisher’s role is. The creative panel cited examples of collaborative campaigns that played to the strengths of each individual outlet, and importantly, sat within the context of quality trusted journalism.

The Editors’ Perspective – What’s really happening with AI?

6 things you need to know about generative AI

The World Media Group hosted its latest Smart Briefing yesterday with a panel of AI experts distilling the reality from the hype. Chaired by Economist Impact’s Emma Winchurch-Beale, the panel included Jeremy Kahn, AI Editor at Fortune, Elena Corchero, Director of Emerging Tech and Innovation at Dow Jones Live, and Hugh Langley, Senior Correspondent at Business Insider. Below is the discussion video and our key take outs from the event.

1.   Cool demos – but not worth paying for yet

Insider’s Hugh Langley said it felt like there had been 500 hype cycles since the arrival of Chat GPT 18 months ago, and that would continue as the models got better. However, it’s still not clear what generative AI’s consumer proposition will be for Large Language Models (LLMs). Langley paraphrased Sam Altman, founder of OpenAI’s description of Chat GPT as a ‘cool demo, bad product’. “I think what we’re going to see with these tools is that they’re cool to play with, but not yet necessarily turning into things people are going to pay money for,” Langley says.

Langley believes we’ll start to see a more specific focus on use cases such as medicine for LLMs in the future. He said we’re also likely to see an increase in AI Agents automating processes and taking away the leg work for companies. An Agent could be used to track invoices, for example, with a minimal amount of human supervision, or an AI Travel Agent could save time building an itinerary.

2.   Chat GPT still the leading model for businesses

Fortune’s Jeremy Kahn referenced a recent survey from the venture capital firm A16z, that asked 2,000 businesses about their adoption of generative AI and the models they were using. “It turned out that lots of people are playing around with lots of different models and different methodologies. But very few people actually have anything in full production,” he said.

Anything that is in full production is almost exclusively using Open AI’s GPT4 API. That may be because people are most comfortable with it as the first to market, but Kahn says it’s also still the most capable model available. “That reliability is important in enterprise use cases where being 86% accurate as opposed to 79% accurate actually makes a difference in deployment,” he says.

The vast majority of models currently in production are in employee-facing applications, not in customer or consumer-facing applications, which Kahn puts down to two things. Firstly, there’s the question of whether it’s reliable enough to be customer-facing. Secondly, the cost versus the return on investment. “These models are still very expensive to use,” he says. “People haven’t quite figured out how this is really going to be worth it.”

3.   Big tech companies are winning out over start-ups

The cost is one of the problems facing start-ups. Those in the Open Source world are giving away their model for free in the hope that people will build on it. But just because you get the model for free, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to save you money. ”It costs a start-up a tremendous amount to build an API and it’s not clear what their business model is so the large tech companies seem to be the big winners here,” Kahn says. Rather than investing in building AI themselves, he is noticing many organisations are waiting to see what companies like Microsoft or Salesforce create.

Despite some narratives that suggest that some of the big tech companies like Google are behind the curve on generative AI, Langley thinks they will catch up fast because they have the scale, infrastructure and brainpower to win in this space.

4.    Think of AI as a layer you can add to anything

The clients that Elena Corchero works with at Dow Jones Live are enthusiastic about the potential for AI and have embraced it in the same way they have other technologies such as the Metaverse, NFT, AR and VR. Rather than it being simply the ‘next shiny thing’ however, Elena sees generative AI as the key to propelling these other technologies to the next level.

“It’s a layer that you can add to absolutely anything, so all the investment in other technologies had not been in vain,” she says, as illustrated by the Dow Jones project Sustainable Horizons.  This new method of immersive storytelling demonstrates how AI can create a more sustainable world. The experience is developed using generative AI with human supervision for the script, the audio, the music, the imagery, the animation and the environments within the 3D world. It’s a brilliant example of how all the technologies come together under the layer of AI.

Kahn talked about how AI is being used in this way with self-driving cars. By layering LLM testing on top of a foundation model, the AI can explain what it’s doing while it’s driving. “It can talk through the logic of what it’s trying to do – ‘I see a pedestrian here, therefore, we’re going to apply the brakes,’” Kahn explained. This acts as a debugging technology for engineers building the systems.

It also works for financial analysis tools. Kahn cited an example of a CEO asking how to save 10 million on a budget in the next quarter. Seconds later, the AI had generated suggestions of the areas it was possible to make cuts in.

5.    It’s only as good as the human controlling it

Although all our panel agreed that generative AI technology is world-changing, we shouldn’t worry about it stealing our jobs (yet). Chatbots are only as good as the search prompts you give them and much of what AI can do is flawed without human intervention. That said, employers have a responsibility to consider how they support the workforce and help people to navigate this uncertainty.

“The reality is that generative AI is going to empower people; we need to upskill them on how to use these APIs and to understand where it can fail and the flaws to look out for,” Corchero says. “We need to focus on enhancing all capabilities, but also safeguarding collective values, which is the human alignment that is missing from generative AI.”

6.   Heightened vigilance and rigorous fact-checking required

The final topic centred around how to combat disinformation and misinformation, particularly in an election year. The rise of unintentional misinformation stemming from the proliferation of AI-generated content, combined with intentional disinformation, such as deep fakes, is presenting serious challenges to newsrooms.

Although some standards and legislation are in place, there is still a long way to go. “While the industry seems to be coalescing around the C2PA standard, it’s not perfect and can be manipulated,” Kahn says. Likewise, watermarks can be removed and audio content can be difficult to authenticate.

As journalists grapple with the task of distinguishing between genuine stories and fabricated or manipulated content, our panel agreed that it requires heightened vigilance and rigorous fact-checking procedures for newsrooms.

However, Corchero says this also presents an opportunity “for trusted media brands to distinguish themselves as impartial sources of truth, and to regain public trust. Now more than ever, it’s going to be very important to support people by providing that.”

Find out more about the World Media Group’s events programme or sign up to our next Smart Briefing here.

The Future of Travel Marketing – Key Takeouts

The Future of Travel Marketing: Key Takeouts

​​With the travel industry in flux over the last few years, it’s been a challenging time for travel brands and advertisers. The editorial excellence at the heart of the World Media Group member brands is made possible by advertising, and many of those advertisers are targeting travellers – and particularly affluent travellers. In the lead-in to this year’s World Travel Market, we were keen to get a sense of what the Future of Travel Marketing holds for brands and advertisers and what’s driving consumer decision-making.

In a panel chaired by Samantha Adams, VP of advertising sales for BBC studios, we invited three travel experts – Heledd Owen, Director of Marketing, Tourism & Business at Cymru Wales / the Welsh Government; Pat Riddell, editor of National Geographic Traveller magazine; and Max Askwith, Global Innovation Partner at Dentsu International – to share the facts and stats that travel marketers need to take note of. We highly recommend watching the full discussion above, but here are some of the key takeouts:

  1. Revenge travel: seize the day

Dentsu’s global consumer survey, based on a sample of 420k people in 70 countries around the world, shows there’s a stabilisation of demand for domestic vs international travel globally meaning we’re back to pre-pandemic levels. Max Askwith talked about the rise in ‘revenge travel’ – people making up for lost time – as well as an increase in work-cations – trips that combine travel with work.

NatGeo Traveller’s Pat Riddell described how pent-up demand has transformed into a ‘seize the day’ attitude towards treating oneself with a focus on experiences – the more unique the better. Trips that might have been considered ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ are now once-every-few-years.

  1. Emotions more powerful than facts

There’s been a significant shift with people saying they lean more towards feelings than facts when choosing a holiday. This is good news for marketers who can be more ambitious and embrace longer formats, videos and personal stories to connect on a human level. So where are people going? Sierra Leone and Madagascar are listed on National Geographic Traveller’s ‘Cool List 2024’, as is Wales!

  1. A rise in responsible tourism

As more countries who are at risk from climate change and biodiversity loss are limiting their intake of tourists, we’ll see travellers starting to take an active part in regeneration schemes to put less of a strain on destinations.

Consumers are becoming increasingly concerned about who they spend their money with, and we’re likely to see more platforms that allow travellers to filter and compare destinations based on their regenerative and community values. We’re also seeing an increase in demand for more sustainable forms of travel such as rail, reflected by the recent Eurostar-Thalys merger, connecting France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and the UK through one network; and Amtrak’s investment in the US. Luxury rail travel is also a burgeoning market.

  1. Members-only travel experiences

As data and technology becomes more advanced, we’re likely to see a proliferation of members-only travel services to cater to the specific needs of smaller subsets of consumer segments and identities, allowing for more hyper-personalised propositions and benefits. Technology will be used to provide efficiencies in processes and we’re likely to see more chat bots filling basic travel needs such as Concierge services. However human interaction remains important to traveller and expertise will still be required to for skilled services – having the top sommelier talking to guests in real-life, for example.

  1. The future is entertaining

What does the future of travel marketing look like? Marketers are increasingly tapping into the power of entertainment to tell interesting stories, as demonstrated by Heledd Owen’s Grand Prix award-winning ‘Wales to the World’ campaign. According to our experts, we can expect to see more bespoke marketing messages for different, niche strands – for example, dogs are a hugely segment for travel marketers to consider! Who knew?

Trends show that consumers have greater expectations from the companies their dealing with. That includes a desire for responsible marketing that supports the local communities in the locations that are being advertised.

And how long will it be until we’re all going to space for our holidays? There’s talk of supersonic planes to cut down the flight times to Australia and the first space hotel is slated to open in 2025. Meanwhile, commercial space travel is already happening – companies like Space Perspective are offering journeys to the edge of space, but their angle is less about space being the ‘destination’ and more about seeing Earth from space and it being the spark for positively changing the world on your return.

From what we’ve heard from our experts, the future of travel marketing looks exciting. It’s a far cry from the doom and gloom of the Covid years, with plenty of opportunity for travel marketers to get creative. But the perhaps the legacy of the pandemic is that, rather than travel being a strain on the environment, clever marketing campaigns can help consumers to make travel choices that make the world a better place.

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Key Takeouts: WMG Post-Cannes Wrap Up

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The World Media Group hosted a post-Cannes wrap event last night at The Adelphi in London, giving the audience a taste of what went on at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity this year. The panel, chaired by Hannah Last, Sales Director UK at The Economist, included Mark Bembridge, CEO Smartology; Arif Durrani, Director, Reuters Global Content Studio; Massimo Marioni, Europe News Editor, Fortune; and Shula Sinclair, CSO, MSIX & Partners.

Last began by asking the panel to describe the event for those in the audience who had never been. Durrani, who has been going to Cannes since 2009, has watched the event evolve from its film festival roots to incorporate Media, meaning media planning and strategy and media owners to PR and Adtech. “Adtech has grown each year since then to become a much bigger part of the equation,” he says. “They own the marina, all the yachts; the money is there.”

Although official figures suggest there are about 10,000 paying delegates, Durrani suspects that you can times that by four once you account for all the unofficial visitors enjoying fringe events along the Croisette throughout the course of the week.

This year’s highlights

Marioni, ranked the Spotify concerts high on his list, but more importantly, Cannes gave him the opportunity to talk to “high-ranking Google executives” about the development dangers and issues around generative AI. While Fortune doesn’t report on Cannes itself, the event generates plenty of content and affords Marioni unparalleled access to top executives through panels, meetings and lunches.

Commercially important

For Smartology CEO; Mark Bembridge, Cannes is a serious business. “We’ve had more meetings than ever this year. It’s commercially important to us. You get all the key decision makers in one place and it’s an opportunity to sit down and thrash out real deals,” he says.

Sinclair agrees. “From an agency perspective, we talk about looking for inspiration from the best creative work, but make no mistake, we’re making deals.” Does she feel the festival’s moved too far from its creative routes? “It’s moved with the times,” she says. While Sinclair admits it’s quite a fractious relationship between creativity and new technologies like generative AI, she believes it’s all part of the essential ecosystem. Don’t assume that creativity is separate from business, she says.

The hot topic – generative AI

Every year, there’s a buzz around a new theme and this year, it was generative AI. Last asked the panel whether they thought the hype was justified.

Marioni doesn’t believe it’s been overhyped. While there remain lots of questions around how we use it responsibly, he believes it will be transformative for the industry and could reframe what intelligence or creativity is.

Bembridge believes AI’s still got a long way to evolve, but will do so quickly because of the huge uptake. One of the challenges, however, is scale – there aren’t enough people to programme and build the models required for it to move as quickly as we might like.

In the meantime, many marketers are using it in its current form. Reuters’ Content Studio is using programmes like ChatGPT for content and strategy ideation, for example, tapping into what Durrani describes as “Google search on steroids’. They are also working with a new Beta version of Photoshop that incorporates a new feature called Generative Fill that allows you to add to existing images using AI, allowing you to create credible mocks for pitches in seconds.

Other themes for 2023

Moving away from AI, Last asked the panel about their creative highlights. One of the highlights for her, she said, was seeing Apple win Creative Brand of the Year –surprisingly for the first time.

Sinclair cited Dove’s Grand Prix Award-winning ‘Turn Your Back ‘campaign encouraging people to turn their back on a TikTok filter, which she said felt “really defiant”. Sinclair also highlighted a clever, emotive use of Metaverse technology in Tuvalu’s campaign, ‘The Last Digital Nation’, which won a Titanium prize. The sinking island is being recreated in the Metaverse to preserve its history and culture before it finally disappears.

Marioni referred to Mastercard’s Priceless campaign, now in its 25th year. “LinkedIn told me an interesting anecdote – the data Mastercard had at the time was pointing them away from using the campaign,” he said. “But despite the data, the people in the room felt there was something about the line that could resonate. And they were right, so there’s hope for everyone!”

“At the core of every powerful idea there’s an innate human universal truth,” says Sinclair. “When I see that, the jealousy I feel is the mark of a brilliant campaign!”

More than just a jolly

With Cannes often being viewed from the outside as a ‘jolly’, Last asked the panel how they justified it to their bosses. Everyone agreed that if it wasn’t great fun, it wouldn’t attract the high-ranking attendees, from stars like Kevin Hart and, last year, Ryan Reynolds, to the senior executives from the industry’s most successful companies.

“It’s difficult from both a sustainability point of view and from a work justification point of view but it does deliver,” says Marioni

Bembridge agrees: “There are two parts – the deal-making and the networking. It’s the one touchpoint in the year where you meet people you haven’t seen for a while in real life. You share something together as an industry and that keeps those relationships going throughout the year.”

The Croisette and The Gutter

Part of the lure of Cannes is who you might meet walking down the Croisette. Sadly, this year, roadworks dominated the main thoroughfare, which, according to Durrani, was a major detraction. “It wasn’t just a terrible aesthetic, it actually changed the experience because it removed the serendipity of bumping into friends, colleagues, speakers and stars when you’re walking up and down the strip. That’s a big plus of Cannes and unfortunately it was totally prevented this year,” he said.

Thankfully, the roadworks didn’t stop people gathering in Cannes’ famous Gutter Bar, a small corner bar outside the Martinez Hotel but where hundreds spill out into the street in the early hours of each morning. Sinclair’s advice is to avoid The Gutter at all costs, but while Durrani understands the sentiment, he does see the reason it exists: “Cannes is increasingly restrictive – in the evening it’s all private dinners, wristbands and VIP groups. If you’ve just won an award, or have spent the day pitching clients, the Gutter is the one place where everyone can go to celebrate or just catchup.”

One final piece of advice

Finally, Last asked the panel to suggest their one tip for anyone attending for the first-time next year.

Bembridge says organisation is key: “Get really organised and really prep because there’s so many great things going on and so little time. Really organise your time well.”

Sinclair agrees but suggests giving yourself some flexibility: Plan but don’t be too rigid. Let serendipity happen. Running into people you haven’t seen for 20 years can open up an opportunity that you may never have expected.”

Prioritising is essential, according to Marioni: “Plan, prioritise, be open to possibilities, and remember, there are lots of invites but not everything’s going to be beneficial.”

Durrani’s advice? “Take advantage of the fact that there are so many different marketing and tech disciplines as inspiration for true creativity. It’s when you can mash 3 or 4 ideas, trends or connections together and come out with something completely different where the magic happens in terms of creative thinking. Cannes is great for that.”

You can watch the video of the WMG’s Cannes panel on what Generative AI means for trust and truth in marketing here.

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Has ESG changed the way that we do marketing?

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]At this year’s CIM Financial Services Marketing Leaders’ Summit, Alison Harbert, Marketing Director, Investec was joined by Nicky Owen, Head of Strategic Sustainability Marketing at Standard Chartered and Santosh Sethumadhavan, ex Global Head of B2B Marketing Programmes at HSBC for a discussion about how the rise of ESG and ESG marketing has changed marketers’ content and marketing strategies. Here are five key takes out based on the panellists’ broad-ranging experience of sustainability marketing,

  1. Sustainability comes from the top-down

    Sustainability is more than just a campaign and can no longer sit within the remit of the marketing department. In the early stages, when Santosh Sethumadhavan started leading the charge for sustainability marketing at HSBC, he was surprised that what started out as an ad campaign soon became a marketing strategy, and then very quickly developed into a business strategy that unexpectedly galvanised the entire company.

“It required the whole organisation to come together, right from the top down, everyone to be on the same page, everyone to say the same things, everyone to understand and see the goals the same way,” he said. He views success in terms of how they started the sustainability conversation across the organisation about what was right and what was good.

This led to buy-in on a global scale at HSBC – from marketing teams to heads of business to CEO-level. It stripped away some of the confusion around sustainability and highlighted why customers needed the programme, so that by the time the marketing campaign launched, everyone within the organisation was aligned.

  1. Define common goals on a global level 

    For many large financial institutions, one of the challenges is ensuring that the sustainability conversation is relevant, wherever a local business is based. What we might consider urgent in London, for example, is perhaps not urgent in Mexico. Sethumadhavan says there needs to be a weighing scale of how people want to be involved with the subject and how much money they want to put behind it.

In the western world, although there’s a risk involved, sustainability is an opportunity and is seen as the right thing to do. When the conversation comes up in the developing parts of the world, however, Sethumadhavan points out that because cultures are not yet in the same place, it’s often seen as the ‘western tax’ imposed on countries like India and China to curtail their activity.

“There needs to be an open conversation about what level everyone needs to be at right now. Is there a varying level? What’s the definition of corporate responsibility around this? What do businesses need to achieve in the next five to 10 years in order to make a real difference?” he says.

Owen echoes Sethumadhavan’s sentiments. “At Standard Chartered, many of our markets are in the developing parts of the world where climate change and social inequalities are front and centre, and are impacting them more.” She says having conversations with colleagues in many regions, from Kazakhstan to Tanzania Nepal to Vietnam, has made her question her own biases around how she views sustainability. “I am having my perspective challenged,” she says. In financial services particularly, where money flows around the world, Owen says it’s important to think about where people are being disproportionately impacted and what difference can be made there.

  1. Everyone is responsible 

    In her new role as Head of Strategic Sustainability Marketing for Standard Chartered, an organisation of 85,000 people, Owen points out that sustainability doesn’t sit in a track or silo. She says everybody has a responsibility, and in fact most people have an interest professionally or personally, which means conversations and collaborations are happening across all divisions of the business – from the front office and commercial side to the back office, legal and HR.

“I feel like I’m sitting in the beating heart of the bank, which is a really privileged position to be, not just because of how you can influence your colleagues, but also influencing various different stakeholders.” Her role takes her far beyond the typical marketing remit of client and customer; Owen has to take into account challenges from NGOs, regulators, ratings agencies and colleagues. She stresses how essential it is to listen to all the different perspectives, and then try to find common ground.

  1. Keep an open mind 

    Sethumadhavan agrees that keeping an open mind is important. He adds that you also need to be open to criticism. While HSBC has strong convictions about their position on carbon, it is countered by the reality of what’s happening in certain markets where ‘shutting the tap off’ on carbon isn’t straight forward.

According to Sethumadhavan, it would desolate certain communities because the companies there aren’t at a point where they can pivot 100 percent. Instead, he believes financial institutions like HSBC can help by supporting clients’ transition: “Answers will be found through conversation and over time. Yes, we need to act with urgency, but we still need to take in everyone’s views,” he says.

  1. Greenwashing: don’t mislead by omission 

    Both panellists agreed that it’s important to have organisations such as the ASA scrutinising companies to put a stop to greenwashing. Owen considers the HSBC ASA ruling a landmark moment that forced everyone to start to acknowledge that it’s not only what you’re saying that is important, but also what you’re not saying. Even if what you communicate is true and can be proven, if there isn’t a holistic picture across an organisation, it can still be perceived to be misleading by omission.

For Owen, that means ensuring everything is joined up – understanding that you can’t do something in one country that seems counter to what’s acceptable in another. It requires keeping a global view whilst at the same time having very different global standards and ensuring no one undermines the brand. Given how challenging it can be to get the points across in an advertising headline, she suggests content marketing can be a better way for organisations to communicate a fuller sustainability story.

Sethumadhavan’s final piece of advice to ensure your brand stands up to scrutiny is to get brutally fresh eyes on any initiative to surface the sort of questions the Ad watchdogs may ask. In his case, employees from HSBC’s graduate programme and the younger members of the team interrogated management about the details of certain initiatives. “They were so open-eyed and so naive; they didn’t have any fear. In a room full of 40 people, they would say what was on their mind – it’s good to have honest folks in the room to call you on your BS.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Masterclass: How to create an award-winning content campaign

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Masterclass: How to create an award-winning content campaign

This year’s masterclass in storytelling brought together a panel of representatives from the BBC, De Beers and National Geographic to provide insight into what goes into making an award-winning content campaign. Each panellist presented their case study, followed by a Q&A session with the audience.

Journey To Ithaca

Alex Beard, a content strategist at BBC Storyworks, began by presenting Hyundai’s ‘Journey To Ithaca’, the winner of this year’s WMA for Social Good. Hyundai approached the BBC to help them publicise their sponsorship of Healthy Seas, an initiative which focuses on cleaning up abandoned ghost gear from the world’s oceans. The goal was to promote the NGO’s work, while showcasing the repurposing of plastic waste in their new Ioniq5 EV.

Okavango Eternal

Chris O’Neill, Senior Manager, Global Brand Partnerships, National Geographic and Letitia Weeks, Brand Manager, Sustainability, De Beers Group presented ‘Okavango Eternal’, winner of the WMA Brand and Media Partnership category. Since 2015, the National Geographic Okavango Wilderness Project has been working to help secure permanent, sustainable protection for the Okavango Basin. In 2021, De Beers joined the National Geographic Society, providing support and funding to expand and accelerate the work already underway.

The session was chaired by Rachael Adams, Senior Manager, Commercial Content, Reuters, who grilled the panellists about their respective campaigns, and took questions from the live audience. Here are their top three pieces of advice for creating an award-winning content marketing campaign:

  1. Authenticity – what gives you the right to tell your story?

For both campaigns, it was essential to tell the stories in a way that was authentic and true to each brand’s values. As part of the motor industry, which is not generally known for its sustainability or social good credentials, Hyundai were keen to change the narrative. They wanted to reinforce their commitment to driving change at an industrial level and to create a circular economy.

Instead of making the story about the Hyundai brand, their sponsorship of the Healthy Seas initiative allowed them to tell a genuine story of sustainability. Focusing on the ocean clean-up around the island of Ithaca, the story was one of redemption. From environmental disaster to actionable solutions, ending with visible progress and a message of positivity. In order to tell this story authentically, the brand presence had to be minimal. Nonetheless, the connection to Hyundai – ghost nets cleaned up from the ocean and broken down into the material that goes into their cars – was powerful.

De Beers and National Geographic are partnering to help address one of the most critical conservation challenges in Africa: protecting the near-pristine source waters of the Okavango Delta. Located in northern Botswana, the Okavango Delta is one of Africa’s richest places for biodiversity and home to the world’s largest remaining elephant population as well as lions, cheetahs, wild dogs, and hundreds of species of birds.

National Geographic has been joined by De Beers — which has worked with the people of Botswana for over 50 years including through their commitment to Building Forever on education, healthcare, livelihoods, and wildlife conservation — to help secure protection for the Okavango Delta’s headwaters.

It is through these shared commitments, and Nat Geo’s mission to illuminate and protect the wonders of our world, that both organisations have been able to connect authentically with global audiences to tell the tale of this incredible programme.

Top tip: “Ask yourself and your clients: do you have the authority to tell your story? Are there others who you can approach to better tell the story for you?” – Alex Beard, Content Strategist, BBC Storyworks

  1. Trust – choose a partner that reinforces your credibility.

The right partner will encourage the client to tell the story in the best possible way. The client must trust the media partner to tell it effectively, even if that means their own brand is not centre stage. The brand gains credibility from the target audience’s existing trust in the media partner.

Partnering with BBC to produce ‘Journey to Ithaca’, Hyundai benefited from the corporation’s high editorial standard, which requires all claims to be substantiated and demonstrated with the same rigour in commercial productions as in its news and editorial arms. The film was also the BBC’s first piece of short-form content to receive an Albert for sustainably production, adding authority to Hyundai’s desire to change the narrative around sustainability.

According to De Beers’ Letitia Weeks, trust goes both ways. She said having an 18-month preparation period before the start of the Okavango project gave them “the time to prove to National Geographic that we are serious about what we are saying and to build that trust.”

Together, both organisations have been able to leverage collective resources to scale efforts for long-term sustainable protection, working in close collaboration with National Geographic Explorers and hand-in-hand with communities throughout the Okavango.

That, paired with National Geographic’s cast of storytellers, multi-content platforms and vast archive of content, provided a robust framework to explain what the end goal was and demonstrate how they were going to get there together.

Top tip: “Get other voices in a piece, as it’s very much about telling both sides of the story and being balanced. Present it in an editorial or a newsy kind of way, so that it’s of interest to your audience.” – Rachael Adams, Senior Manager, Commercial Content, Reuters

  1. Proof – demonstrate the actual impact of your project

In response to an audience question about greenwashing, the panel discussed the importance of moving away from pledges and promises. Instead, our experts recommended using proof points to demonstrate that a project is more than just a marketing tactic. The Hyundai film was built on factual, quantitative truth that was very tangible to its audience. The National Geographic De Beers project is a five-year partnership, that requires deep engagement with its audience over the longer-term, only possible by showing genuine impact.

The panel were keen to point out that the lessons learned from their case studies apply to both B2C and B2B campaigns in every industry, and not just for big budget creative campaigns. They agreed the key is to find your authentic voice and work out what you have the authority to say. You can then engage your audience by showcasing proof points in a wide variety of compelling ways. Whether that’s an interactive timeline of your company’s history or vox pops of people who add interest to your story, if you are leading with something you have a genuine right to have a stance on, there will be an interesting story to tell.

Top tip: “Audiences can see through corporate narrative. What are you doing and what are those proof points that audiences can quite clearly see when they’re engaging with that content?” – Chris O’Neill, Senior Manager, Global Brand Partnerships, National Geographic

To find out more about why trust and authenticity must be at the heart of any content campaign, head to the World Media Group’s Creative Vault. You can read the full case studies for ‘Journey To Ithaca’, and ‘Okavango Eternal’ along with all our other award-winning entries.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

The State of the (Dis) Union: Editors’ Perspective

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]After years of geo-political, social and economic unrest, it’s time to take stock. But how do we rise above the discord to build a positive future? That’s the question we posed to our panel of top international journalists at the World Media Group’s latest Smart Briefing. Chaired by Spriha Srivastava, International Executive Editor, Insider, Inc., our guests included William Booth, Bureau Chief, The Washington Post; Faisal Islam, Economics Editor, BBC News; and Jeremy Kahn, Senior Writer, Fortune.

Changes in the post-pandemic world

Srivastava began by asking the panel what they thought the biggest changes had been to the world since the pandemic. The Washington Post’s Booth said the Covid crisis had demonstrated just how unpredictable the world is. “I felt the pandemic would be six to 12 weeks. I thought there would be a booming economy after it was over with so much pent-up desire for products and travel,” he said. Now, with questions around how long military action in Ukraine will continue, a new UK prime minister on the horizon, and the ongoing effects of economic recovery, the future is even more unclear.

Faisal Islam, BBC News’ Economics Editor, believes what’s happening now is the result of multiple overlapping crises with some common causes – the post-pandemic situation, the Russian-Ukraine conflict causing the energy crisis; market crises as a result of debt and rising global interest rates; and a potential resurgence of the unresolved Eurozone crisis. He says the contradiction of public and private high debts, which would normally be dealt with by lowering interest rates, and speculation, which requires high interest rates, is causing stagflation.

Signs of a recession are showing across multiple sectors, including tech. According to Jeremy Kahn, Senior Writer, Fortune, the big US tech companies are doing all their planning based around the idea of a deep recession, reflected through hiring practices and, in some cases, lay-offs. “I think they feel that there’s going to be this substantial downturn, and that’s what they’re preparing for it,” he said. “Certainly, the foot is off the accelerator in terms of any venture investment.”

Srivastava asked Booth whether we were heading for a recession here in the UK. “The government needs to get inflation under control and get the economy going, but one of the biggest issues is the profound labour shortage,” he said. While Britain wants to manufacture again, it’s lacking the workforce required to do. This becomes a huge problem when globalisation is no longer working the way it should do.

The move away from globalisation

Kahn says that globalisation has been forced to take a large step back compared to the pre-pandemic days: “When you see what’s happening with Ukraine, it has only reinforced that there’s a decoupling in the world. It’s not just one world. Yes, there’s still trade but it’s becoming much more balkanised.”

The reality of this can be seen through Booth’s anecdote about the fate of the UK fish and chips industry. During research for a story, he realised there has been rash of fish and chip shops closing as a result of the various crises. “Energy prices are killing them,” Booth says. “They get all their fish from Russian trawlers and the British government is about to slap a 35% tariff on Russia and white fish. Cod and Haddock aren’t available in the English Channel; British fisheries, despite Brexit, aren’t very productive and don’t produce the fish that goes into fish and chips.”

Added to that are issues with sunflower oil coming from Ukraine, and Indonesia blocking palm oil exports prioritising their own domestic consumption. Booth expects these domino effects to have an impact for months or years to come until we sort out a new economic world order.

He suggests one solution may be a return to a more regional economic alliance model, similar to the NAFTA, agreement, which joined the United States, Canada and Mexico. The UK version of that, he suggests, would be the UK plus Europe, Eastern Europe, and some of northern Africa, where each region would specialise in producing a specific commercial output to trade with the others.

The commitment to net zero

When Srivastava opened up questions to the audience, one of the areas of interest around the environment and, in the wake of the current economic and political issues, whether the commitment to net zero had fallen to the bottom of the agenda? Booth said he felt the COP26 commitment to go completely net zero in some economies in such a short space of time was incredible. He said its success, however, was sure to be affected by the economy. “Watch what happens when the price of gasoline goes up five cents a gallon in the United States, then see how good Joe Biden’s word is – or Boris Johnson’s,” he says. “It’s easy to make promises, but whether countries hold towards the vision will be a major story of the next decade or two. It has to start happening and you can do it all in the last week.

A sliver of optimism for the future

So, is there any hope on the horizon? That was the question from another audience member. According to Islam, there’s going to be a big wave of investment, some of it likely to be strategically supported by government. In the UK, which Islam says is not even in the top 20 on the league table of robot density in manufacturing, he sees a huge opportunity for investment.

Booth is also optimistic and points to the advent of the RNA vaccine as a “mini minor medical miracle,” referring to the relatively unproven technology that was used, and how it delivers a template for future medical innovation. “Remarkable techno change will happen where we least expect it and we’re not in such a bad place,” he says.

Islam believes that the current wave of defence spending, could be revolutionary for Europe: “If all of this money that’s now going to defence as a result of Putin can be channelled in the same way it was in Silicon Valley to help the economy, that’s pretty interesting stuff,” he said.

Kahn agrees that there’s a chance for “tremendous investment” in the area of defence, and to help with the issue of labour shortages. “There’s the potential for automation and robotics to accelerate but it takes a lot of money, and it takes time. It won’t solve this problem within a year, but if we come back in 10 years’ time, it might be that the fish fryers aren’t there because it’s all been done by robots,” he said.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Key Takeouts: Advertising Week: Purpose and Profit: What It Takes to Deliver Both

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The World Media Group hosted a lively discussion at Advertising Week Europe yesterday around how Purpose can drive business transformation and profits. Duncan Chater, Managing Director, Europe at Bloomberg Media chaired a panel featuring Sue Unerman, Chief Transformation Officer, MediaCom; John Rudaizky, Partner, Global Brand and Marketing, EY; and Louisa Harris, Head of Sustainability and Systems Change, Brandpie.

Chater opened up the conversation by pointing out that while purpose-driven business had been a hot trend to emerge from the pandemic, inflation and energy price rises have recently risen to levels most consumers have not faced before. The discussion centred around how can companies navigate these uncharted waters to deliver continued profit with Purpose. Here are some of the takeouts from the World Media Group’s panel.

  1. In the current climate, sustainability needs to be a consideration of any purposeful business plan. While Purpose isn’t just about sustainability, context is important, and this generation is responsible for making the necessary changes before it’s too late. For a business to have a vital purpose, everyone who’s contributing to it needs to acknowledge that. If a business doesn’t operate in that context, it’s very difficult to get Purpose right.
  2. Organisations need to stop focussing on the competition and how to dominate the marketplace. Instead, we need to acknowledge there are big challenges that we must all face and share. The greatest success may come from moving from a competitive advantage to being a trailblazer and opening up sources to allow for radical collaboration.
  3. A brand is, what a brand does, and Purpose is about what the business does. Any business strategy must be purpose-driven, connecting to your total stakeholder ecosystem. Whether that’s around a D&I strategy or sustainability, your business will be impeded, if you don’t deliver on these things. This is not about conforming to regulations; it’s about seizing new opportunities. Profit will come from doing the right thing in business, not from a sense of compromise.
  4. In 2021, 87% of UK FTSE 350 companies had a Purpose statement in their annual report yet only 9% of them measure their progress against that purpose statement. There needs to be a more integrated conversation between a commercial brand and its sustainability strategy to ensure that short term returns are measured and balanced with the issues the brand is aligned with.
  5. It’s important that, as an industry, we push back against any brands that are telling stories but aren’t living the reality. Partnering with media owners who can represent the groups you are trying to advertise to, and creating content in collaboration with experts who represent your target audience, can make all the difference between making an ad and providing authentic content that delivers real value.
  6. The World Media Group brands need to be held accountable because we have the power to influence people through our audiences and have a responsibility to convey the story of the way we want the world to be. Advertising has always had the privilege of leading the world through the imagery it sets; when it comes to Purpose, we have the opportunity as organisations, and as an industry, to make a real difference.

The full session is available on demand here for Advertising Week Europe attendees.

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Marketing’s carbon footprint can’t be ignored

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The World Media Group brought together brand leaders and industry experts last week to discuss the key challenges and opportunities around sustainability – and specifically, marketing’s carbon footprint. Jemima Villanueva, Executive Director EMEA, The Atlantic, chaired the panel, which included Anna Lungley, Chief Sustainability Officer Dentsu; Solitaire Townsend, Chief Solutionist & Co-Founder, Futerra; and Rachael Adams, Senior Manager, Commercial Content, Reuters.

The event prompted a lively discussion showcasing many different viewpoints around subject such as:

  • The way everyone can make a 5% difference immediately!
  • Why we don’t need to reinvent the wheel when measurement already exists. But how do we get more marketers on board to implement it?
  • Which is more important – concentrating on measurement or helping clients to pivot to focus on behavioural change?
  • The innovative solutions that clever brands are creating to change human and societal behavioural for the better.
  • How to avoid greenwashing when communicating about sustainability credentials.

While some of our panel agreed to disagree on specific points, everyone believed that, as an industry, we need to do more. As well as sharing their own experiences, the panellists highlighted some fantastic resources available to help marketers with their sustainability journey.[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”Hear from our panellists” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_video link=”https://youtu.be/rJAzxrxgp_8″ title=”ANNA LUNGLEY, CHIEF SUSTAINABILITY OFFICER, DENTSU”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_video link=”https://youtu.be/v7VKsnymEPg” title=”RACHAEL ADAMS, SENIOR MANAGER, COMMERCIAL CONTENT, REUTERS”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_video link=”https://youtu.be/WjSksHevSyk” title=”SOLITAIRE TOWNSEND CHIEF SOLUTIONIST & CO-FOUNDER, FUTERRA”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

The Top 5 Issues that keep senior brand marketers up at night

The Top 5 Issues that keep senior brand marketers up at night

Our newly formed Brand Advisory Board came together for a thought-provoking session this week. The group comprises key influencers in high-level leadership roles covering industry sectors such as energy, finance, luxury & lifestyle, technology and travel. Before the session, we asked each person to share what they felt were the main pain points brands are experiencing so that we could better understand how the World Media Group can support them. Here, in no particular order, are the top 5 issues currently keeping senior brand marketers up at night:

  1. More opportunities, fewer resources

The pressure and tension of having an increasing number of channels to evaluate while having to contend with less budget and fewer staff.

  • Data and targeting uncertainties

The lack of accuracy around third-party data and the need to understand more about what the cookie-less future may look like.

  • Developing creative content

A desire to bring back some of the creativity that’s been lost in the recent chase for clicks and numbers.

  • Brand vs performance marketing

The battle for budget between short-term campaigns that generate immediate leads and quick ROI, versus longer-term brand building.

  • Benchmarking and measurement around content in traditional media

Redefining benchmarks and best practice around branded content within trusted media brand environments to demonstrate the clear benefits over social media and digital-only platforms.

The World Media Group is looking forward to working closely with our Brand Advisory Board members over the next year to tackle some of these issues, and we’ll provide actionable insight into many of the topics above here on the website.