Category: Latest thinking

Gerhard Louw has been with Deutsche Telekom AG at the headquarters in Bonn, Germany for more than 9 years. As Senior Manager, International Media Management & Digital Transformation, he is responsible for steering and coordinating the international media function for the Deutsche Telekom Group across its 13 national telecommunication companies in Europe.

Q: Why should agencies/advertisers enter the World Media Awards?
Gerhard: Awards are always a great opportunity to see the best work. In the case of the World Media Awards it´s more or less the only place where you will see strategy, creativity, media and content all coming together for the biggest brands on the planet. The fact that it the campaigns have to be internationally successful, definitely adds to the challenge! Seeing the best work also means an opportunity to compare how your own work is stacking up. Lastly, it´s also a chance to win an award or two. Try and beat that!

Q: What will you be looking for from the entries?/What will make a winning entry?/What does great branded content look like?
Gerhard: The 2017 entries should show how art & science work together to bring great communication & business results. As a judge I´ll be looking for that difficult-to-describe combination of consumer insights, brand strategy, ideas, creativity, usage of data, media channels and content. All in perfect harmony and in a way that shows the audience reacted with a “yes, yes, we like.” So results to prove the success should definitely not be missing in each and every entry.

Q: Why should advertisers use branded content – what is it best suited to achieve?
Gerhard: Branded content can be a great alternative and/or a great complement to traditionally paid advertising. One thing is clear – it´s definitely not easy to create great content! Branded content works best when it is natural, when it fits. That means it should seamlessly integrate into the environment where it is appearing, it should fit into the style, look and feel of its surroundings and come across to the audience as authentic and credible. And have an impact. That´s quite a list…

Q: Does branded content have to work harder than editorial?
Gerhard: If so, how do you make that happen? No, I don´t believe it should work harder, but just as hard as editorial.

Q: What are the biggest challenges in planning and implementing an international campaign across four or more international borders?
Gerhard: The biggest challenge is balancing everyone´s interests, especially on the advertiser´s side. In the end it comes down to the question of how to balance economies of scale and relevance. On the one hand economies of scale enables advertisers to produce campaigns and content once and then use it over and over again. On the other hand, the content needs to be locally relevant and makes business sense. Efficiency & effectiveness in one go.

Q: How do you balance what needs to be carried out from head office and what needs to be carried out locally in international content campaigns?
Gerhard: There´s no magic or easy answer to this and this will be different from advertiser to advertiser. The best way is to simply try and try again. Involvement of at least a few key markets/countries in the entire process to bring in the local perspectives is a prerequisite for success. For regional or global brands, some degree of control and involvement from the head office is inevitable. The question for each advertiser to solve individually is: how much?

Q: What made you want to pursue a career in media and marketing?
Gerhard: The glamour (okay, it was looooong ago), the fact that we barely wear suits (luckily still relevant) and the fact that we don´t stare at Excel-sheets all day!

Q: Describe your ideal client.
Gerhard: Myself!

Q: Which industry buzzword would you ban?
Gerhard: Programmatic

Q: Where do you see yourself in 10 years’ time?
Gerhard: Still in media & marketing!

Deadline for entries is 16th February 2017 – ENTER NOW

Chris is a senior marketing professional with over 15years experience in the business. With a breadth of knowledge encompassing most aspects of the marketingmix (including Media Planning &  Buying, Communications Planning, Sponsorship, Digital Display, Search, Social, Experiential, Trade & Retail), Chris has a proven track record for building and leading high performing teams, managing agencies and delivering results.

Q: Why should agencies/advertisers enter the World Media Awards?
Chris: Great work deserves to be recognised, and the WMA exist to showcase the best work around the world. If you’re confident in your campaign, put it up against the best !

Q: What will you be looking for from the entries?/What will make a winning entry?/What does great branded content look like?
Chris: Making content that works across multiple markets is hard. Entries that show 1) a collaborative approach, 2) a clear consumer insight, 3) content that engages meaningfully with an audience and 4) in a way that effects a tangible result will definitely do well.

Q: What are the challenges and opportunities of integrating branded content across different platforms – from print to video, from mobile to TV?
Chris: You have to understand the role each channel plays, and ensure that the content is fit for purpose. In other words, what are you trying to achieve, and how can each channel help in achieving that goal ?

Q: What should clients look for in a native advertising/branded content proposal? And what should they look for in the team who will be delivering it?
Chris: There are 3 key elements which clients need to be aware of, and manage appropriately. 1) The client, their brand. What are they trying to achieve, and what messaging do they need to communicate ? 2) The partner/publisher and their brand. This is context which is critical 3) The end consumer and why they should care. The relative importance placed on each element can be dialled up/down, but getting that balance right is what makes the difference. In terms of the team, you need people who are natural collaborators – it’s no good having people who are wedded to their own ideas and ways of working.

Q: What are the biggest challenges in planning and implementing an international campaign across four or more international borders?
Chris: The main thing is relevance. Making one thing relevant to people in multiple geographies is really hard, and most of the time, people end up “adapting” things slightly to try and ensure it’s more relevant for each market. That’s the hardest thing, no question.

Q: How do you balance what needs to be carried out from head office and what needs to be carried out locally in international content campaigns?
Chris: Great question, and this absolutely goes to the heart of the problem facing most international clients. In very broad terms, head office tend to be more concerned with brand-led metrics, and making sure that the campaign properly reflects the brand, whereas local teams tend to be much more commercially focused – basically, how can this thing help us sell more stuff ?The end result can either be arrived at via a positive, collaborative approach where everyone puts aside their own agendas in pursuit of the common good. Or, the budget holder decides ! I’ll let you figure out which is more prevalent !

Q: Summarise yourself in three words.
Chris: Fun. Fair. Flippant.

Q: What made you want to pursue a career in media and marketing?
Chris: I’m old school – I never wanted to pursue a career in media & marketing !

Q: Describe your ideal client.
Chris: Er, me ? Just kidding- they have to have a clear vision & purpose, and an understanding of roles & responsibilities of everyone around them in order to achieve that goal. Still me then..

Q: Name your favourite ever content-driven campaign.
Chris: Probably the BMW series “The Hire” from the early 2000’s starring Clive Owen. Genuinely ahead of its time. And actually, Mercedes did something similar with “Lucky Star” much later starring Benicio del Toro – which was a sort of fake movie trailer. One of my friends didn’t realise it was an ad for Mercedes and was genuinely gutted that it wasn’t a real film !

Q: Who is the best industry speaker you have seen?
Chris: Probably Jon Steel (author of Perfect Pitch) although Sir Martin Sorrell is always impressive too.

Q: Which is your favourite social media platform, and why?
Chris: That’s tough, I use most of them at some point !

Q: Where is your ideal meeting venue?
Chris: A good restaurant !

Q: What is your favourite restaurant?
Chris: J Sheekey.

Q: What is hot in international content marketing, and what is not?
Chris: I think that chasing the latest hot or cool thing is what gets us into trouble a lot of the time…

Q: Which industry buzzword would you ban?
Chris: Any 3 letter acronym you can think of ! Although I’m a big fan of Bullshit Bingo as a good way to make light of the issue…!

Q: Where do you see yourself in 10 years’ time?
Chris: No idea. I don’t plan that far ahead, life’s too short.

Q: Finally, who would play you in a movie of your life?
Chris: Probably David Schwimmer…

Deadline for entries is 16th February 2017 – ENTER NOW

Brazilian born, Anselmo has multi-country working experience that spans over 9-years in Marketing Communications, Creative Content Strategy, New Business Development and Ad Tech disciplines. Currently Anselmo has been instrumental in growing new business for LiquidThread Globally by collaborating in innovative product development, delivering market first product for brands such as Mondelez, Visa, Samsung, P&G, and Lego among others.

Anselmo is fluent in Spanish, English and Portuguese and in the last two years as Creative Content Director. Since he joined LiquidThread in 2014, Anselmo has been able to surpass objectives, increasingcontent activities in the Americas by 40%.

Why should agencies/advertisers enter the World Media Awards?
Anselmo: The WMA is one of the most innovative awards globally. While some could think that the best awards events are the ones with more tradition, those can be more commercial than having the pure spirit of recognition to good work. WMA brings back what an awards ceremony should look like. Entries are carefully analysed through a great selection of talent from all over the world. Agencies and Clients should definitely participate.

What will you be looking for from the entries?What will make a winning entry?What does great branded content look like?
Anselmo: The ability of combing Tech, Data and Innovation to an idea is what sets it apart from just plain idea. The simplicity of a concept should be seen and felt in the first few seconds facing the entry. I will be looking for details that combined makes it an awards winning entry.

Why should advertisers use branded content – what is it best suited to achieve?
Anselmo: Building content is far beyond better than borrowing and that is obvious. The power of being able to build the right content, respecting time and brands’ needs is crucial. The more we fully build, the riskier it becomes, but consequently it brings much higher and valuable results.

Does branded content have to work harder than editorial? If so, how do you make that happen?
Anselmo: Yes, although more fluidly. When the content is branded properly, the brand should not have to speak up, it should be subtle. The gradualism of believing in branded content is not by shocking the audience but emerging them into a story that tells the truth of a brand with a beautiful perspective that can be slowly and silently introduced into a person’s life and beliefs.

Are there any issues around ownership of branded content depending on who authored it? What does this mean in terms of copyrights, who can share it and where you can share it?
Anselmo: There are many ways to organically embed a brand into an existing content. We do need to understand that no content was created without the signature of an author, even if talking about UGC. Brands need to respect the authors of any kind of content. IP is useful but the credits of rights have to be respected.

What are the challenges and opportunities of integrating branded content across different platforms – from print to video, from mobile to TV?
Anselmo: The challenge remains when we try to integrate the content that was not originally sought out to have been amplified on the right platforms. It is messy to believe that a 30 seconds traditional spot could or should become the only and main asset for a full content campaign. The right way to have a uniform and well versatile campaign, platform-wise thinking, is to select the mediums first. The platforms should be selected prior to creating the main ideas and then when the idea is thought out, the platform will have its specific versions respecting its implications and benefits.

Do content-driven communications work better for brands in some industry sectors than others?
Anselmo: Definitely, but the universal truth of content is on its storytelling. When we know how to tell a good story, it doesn’t matter much where and how you tell it.

What should clients look for in a native advertising/branded content proposal? And what should they look for in the team who will be delivering it?
Anselmo: The ability to imagine from a content consumer perspective. When we are on the other side, we create for the other side.

How do you measure the ROI delivered by branded content campaigns? E.g. What KPIs should be measured? Is 2 seconds of video content really enough in terms of viewability?
Anselmo: ROI is measured by how much the audience is engaging, and of course each brand can decide on how much of an engagement metric could define a unit of ROI. Selling is and will always be a brand’s foremost objective. The way to sell has changed. Hard sales or sales with loyalty? Loyalty is what keeps consumers happy, therefore buying more year after year. Loyalty is an adjective of engagement. The more engaged the more loyal the more loyal the more sales, ROI peaks up.As for video viewability, in an era where auto-play is overused, 2 seconds isn’t enough to capture the acceptance or rejection of a content, good or bad. A consumers’ mind cannot assimilate ads from entertainment in matter of two seconds.

What are the biggest challenges in planning and implementing an international campaign across four or more international borders?
Anselmo: After implementing many global campaigns, the biggest challenge is 1. Landing on an idea that fluidly works cross borders and respects consumer’s beliefs and cultural backgrounds equally. 2. Being able to implement the concept on different languages.

How do you balance what needs to be carried out from head office and what needs to be carried out locally in international content campaigns?
Anselmo: The main idea should always become the unchangeable umbrella of a global campaign, locally, it can and should be tropicalized. We should always allow a percentage of flexibility to change the idea and adapt to the local markets. It is crucial that although we allow it to be moulded, that some of the core concept remains intact.

What is the role of media in helping to execute ideas internationally?
Anselmo: Media can amplify the idea giving it a second look and a second chance to adapt to timings and placements that perhaps were not originally planned. Media allow more flexibility on planning and execution for the idea across different markets.

Summarise yourself in three words.
Anselmo: Futuristic Innovative Thinker

What made you want to pursue a career in media and marketing?
Anselmo: The ability of changing life based on what they see naked eyes.

Describe your ideal client.
Anselmo: Myself

Where is your ideal meeting venue?
Anselmo: The Beach

What is your favourite restaurant?
Anselmo: Spot (Sao Paulo, Brazil)

Deadline for entries 16th February 2017 – ENTER NOW

Arif Durrani is the Commercial Editor for Bloomberg Media’s Kinection, the company’s newly formed global content studio. He has been a business journalist for the last two decades and was an established media and technology columnist before joining Bloomberg last year to build its branded content and commercial editorial operation in the region.

He has brought his experience running news desks and video teams for business publishers to content marketing, and in his first year at Bloomberg, Kinection has won six major industry awards for its multimedia content for brands, including the Drum and BIMA Awards in the UK and Telly and MIN awards in the US

Q: Why should agencies/advertisers enter the World Media Awards?
Arif: In a media landscape that continues to evolve and shift at speed, the World Media Awards help to reward excellence, provide inspiration and share best practice among clients, agencies and media owners alike.

Q: What will you be looking for from the entries?/What will make a winning entry?/What does great branded content look like?
Arif: Great ideas, brilliantly executed that have been successful in achieving ambitious and pre-agreed goals.With so many platforms available we should be looking for tailored, compelling content that has proved to be effective, and that hopefully raises the bar for what the sector can achieve.

Q: Why should advertisers use branded content – what is it best suited to achieve?
Arif: Branded content enables brands to engage with potential customers through powerful, constructed narratives – providing more context than traditional advertising and more craft than traditional PR.

Q: Does branded content have to work harder than editorial? If so, how do you make that happen?
Arif: Not harder per se, but everyone working in branded content has to be aware of the value exchange – no one wants to waste their time being sold to without anything in return – content marketing must inform, entertain or move you emotionally – the currency of any great storytelling.

Q: What are the challenges and opportunities of integrating branded content across different platforms – from print to video, from mobile to TV?
Arif: The opportunity is to tell a story more than once, and to adapt the message and its timing so it works best for each medium and the overall campaign. The challenge is in understanding how each platform is used, by whom and when.

Q: Do content-driven communications work better for brands in some industry sectors than others?
Arif: Yes, it is easier for brands with obvious – and universally recognised – links to being able to inform, entertain or emotionally connect – but those that aren’t have to work harder and arguably produce some of the most creative work.

Q: What should clients look for in a native advertising/branded content proposal? And what should they look for in the team who will be delivering it?
Arif: A great idea / compelling story that can live through more than one execution and will undoubtedly support and amplify the brand’s core values. The team need to dedicated, hungry, accountable and preferably experts in their chosen fields. You want to work with people driven to be the best at what they do, obvious perhaps, but without that drive you are left with soulless, faceless content, which simply clogs up the web / TV screens / publications.

Q: How do you measure the ROI delivered by branded content campaigns? E.g. What KPIs should be measured? Is 2 seconds of video content really enough in terms of viewability?
Arif: ROI depends on individual campaign objectives. Let’s talk KPIs: Dwell times and user reactions (whether via social, at an event, or on the phone) continue to be the best ways to gauge any type of success for digital. On TV you have viewing figures along with user reaction, and in print its readership and user reaction.Online, unique user figures and page impressions continue to be standard benchmarks but are too easily manipulated. If a campaign has a direct call to action then it helps. But it’s not enough, and this is an area ripe for innovation. But substantial qualitative and quantitative research is expensive – who pays; the advertiser, the agency or the media owner? And no, two seconds is nowhere near enough to count for anything when it comes to content marketing online.

Q: How difficult is it to find a content marketing idea that can translate across borders?
Arif: Not very difficult at all. Great ideas and strong storytelling transcend cultures and national barriers. I am always struck by the amount people are – at their core – the same the world over. Hopes, aspirations and needs for themselves, family and friends are the same. Great stories have the power to delight, enchant, touch, teach, recall, inspire, motivate, challenge. They help us to understand. Yes, there are cultural differences and knowledge gaps you need to be sensitive to when conveying any message, but the essence of a great story should remain.

Q: What is the role of media in helping to execute ideas internationally?
Arif: International media provide a trusted, reliable, familiar platform for brands to engage with people across borders. They offer an invaluable environment for brands wanting to reach new or specific consumers, or a target audience on the move.

Q: Summarise yourself in three words.
Arif: Committed, Interested, Alive

Q: What made you want to pursue a career in media and marketing?
Arif: The pastries

Q: Describe your ideal client.
Arif: Adventurous, Empathetic, Loaded

Q: Name your favourite ever content-driven campaign.
Arif: Been around the block too many times to start talking about my “favourite ever” anything, but,in December, BBDO New York’s “Evan” digital video for Sandy Hook Promise is breathtakingly brilliant. Its bold, simple and universal narrative of boy meets girl with a spine chilling twist is as powerful and effective a two and a half minutes of storytelling you’re ever likely to see. It uses the medium brilliantly to capture just how easy it is for us all to be caught up in our own daily dramas to miss some fundamental warning signs. Emotive, informative, provocative – tick, tick, tick.

Deadline for entries is 16th February 2017 – ENTER NOW

Alex moved to London from Barcelona thirteen years ago. He is currently the EMEA media lead at Microsoft, for the Cloud business. Alex was previously responsible for Consumer media the UK. Alex experience at Microsoft spans across a wide product portfolio that includes Xbox, Windows, Surface, Office and Azure amongst others. Prior to joining Microsoft Alex worked for two major media agencies, Carat and UM, where he managed a diverse portfolio of clients including Audi, Microsoft, AMD, Motorola and Statoil.

Why should agencies/advertisers enter the World Media Awards?
Alex: It’s important that, as an industry, we continue to put a spotlight on sharing the best in class. Content, alongside Data is one of the two key pillars of our advertising industry. Sharing and recognising good content programs should be at the core of what we do.

What will you be looking for from the entries?/What will make a winning entry?/What does great branded content look like?
Alex: Great branded content needs to be aligned to three core principles: rooted in good insights, flawless activation and it needs to deliver results.

Why should advertisers use branded content – what is it best suited to achieve?
Alex: Does branded content have to work harder than editorial? If so, how do you make that happen?At the core, marketers need to be able to answer the same question a journalist would ask him/herself: why would our audience choose to spend two minutes of their time consuming our content? What’s in it for them? In addition, branded content has an additional task, to be transparent and genuine.

What should clients look for in a native advertising/branded content proposal? And what should they look for in the team who will be delivering it?
Alex: The branded content ‘dream team’ should have a strong strategist that delivers good insights, an ideation lead that delivers unique engaging ideas, a project manager that makes it happen and an analytics team that is able to measure success and learn from it.

What are the biggest challenges in planning and implementing an international campaign across four or more international borders?
Alex: The challenges range from the most strategic reasons (different audience insights and business needs in each country) to the most tactical such as logistics in implementation or budget management across borders.

How do you balance what needs to be carried out from head office and what needs to be carried out locally in international content campaigns?
Alex: It’s key that both global and local teams are passionate about a branded content program before implementation. Those programs that ladder up to the global strategy and also address local business needs will get the most support across teams.

What made you want to pursue a career in media and marketing?
Alex: Media and Technology continue to evolve at a very fast pace which represents a great professional challenge.

What is your favourite restaurant?
Alex: Cicada in London. Da Greco in Barcelona.

Which industry buzzword would you ban?
Alex: FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out)

Deadline to enter is 16th February 2017 – ENTER NOW

Alex has over 20 years media experience having worked at some of the industries biggest and most successful agencies.

He joined Global Solutions as London Managing Director in June 2013. This 150 strong team are responsible for managing our multi-national clients across the EMEA region and are heavily involved in all regional new business opportunities. Global Solutions is a full service team including specialists in strategy, digital, research, analytics and client Servicing.

Why should agencies/advertisers enter the World Media Awards?
Alex: The WMAwards are the leading International awards seeking to recognise cross border, content oriented work. It is the best opportunity we have to judge ourselves against our peers

What will you be looking for from the entries?/What will make a winning entry?/What does great branded content look like?
Alex: A well written story that clearly links the idea to the client’s business challenge. And some results would be nice!

Why should advertisers use branded content – what is it best suited to achieve?
Alex: It provides greater scope than advertising can. Both are useful and powerful but increasingly one needs the other. Branded Content gives a platform to tell a deeper story and to draw consumers in to your brand

What are the challenges and opportunities of integrating branded content across different platforms – from print to video, from mobile to TV?
Alex: The challenge (opportunity) is that each platform and media is consumed differently – short form, long form, lean in, lean back etc – so it is incredibly important to develop content specific to the channel

How difficult is it to reflect the style and quality of a publication with native content – especially when creating international campaigns? Are many advertisers achieving quality journalistic standards?
Alex: Impossible, that’s why successful work is almost always done in collaboration with the publication – no one knows their brand like they do.

Describe your ideal client.
Alex: Challenging, happy to debate, sometimes says thank you

What is your favourite restaurant?
Alex: Villa Bianca, Hampstead

Finally, who would play you in a movie of your life?
Alex: Ben Stiller – tall, Jewish and sometimes wear’s glasses

Deadline for entries 16th February 2017 – ENTER NOW