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The Future of Work within Advertising

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The Future of Work in Advertising: Key Takeouts

The World Media Group hosted its latest Smart Briefing this week, a discussion around what the future of work looks like for the advertising industry. Chaired by Spriha Srivastava, UK Bureau Chief & International Executive Editor, Insider, the debate covered many of the issues keeping leaders up at night – from balancing new ways of working to how to attract the next generation of talent.

The panel comprised Ally Owen, Founder of ADcademy and the Brixton Finishing School; Alex Wood – Managing Director, Forbes EMEA; and Jim Brown, Founder and Head Coach, Ground + Air. It was clear from the discussion that while some of the new ways of working implemented during the pandemic have had a positive impact on the workforce, there is still work to be done around flexibility, diversity and career development. Here are some of the highlights from the panellists’ conversation. You can watch the full discussion HERE.

The legacy of working from home

The pandemic proved to even the most cynical managers that employees could get just as much done working from home, if not more. Fewer people are now willing to be tied to a 9-5 in-office role, five days a week.

“When we’re hiring for roles and when I’m interviewing candidates,’ Spriha Srivastava noted, “the first question is, ‘How flexible are you?’ People are just no longer willing to go into an office – not five days a week and sometimes not at all.” Brixton Finishing School’s Ally Owen has reaped the benefits of this change in thinking. “We’ve mopped up amazing talent by being flexible,” she said.

Virtual onboarding needs improving

There is a downside though. One of the issues is that we’re not yet good enough at onboarding emerging talent virtually. Jim Brown believes that leaders and managers need to dedicate time to “genuinely contracting with a new member of staff.”

This goes beyond the onboarding process and needs to be specific to the individual: “It’s that personal contract you agree with someone. It’s says: what do you need from me in order to flourish here? Let’s really understand each other. This is what I need from you,” he says. “Be authentic, unapologetic and clear about that, and then manage it through from the day they start”.

The benefits to business

The productivity of the remote workforce does not appear to be an issue. The pandemic was a period of growth for Forbes, and Alex Wood’s team’s productivity didn’t suffer. As an international team, Forbes supported them in travelling back to their home to see their families when they could, and that flexibility has become the norm.

“One of my team members I affectionately refer to as our Madrid correspondent because she just loves Madrid and she likes to work from there,” said Wood. “And why the hell not? This has been really positive for her wellbeing.” By giving people flexibility on the personal side, the business is seeing its own benefits. Team members who choose to spend most of their time in France can meet up with clients who are based there, for example.

Attracting a more diverse workforce

For Owen, the ability to offer a flexible work schedule has allowed her to attract some incredibly talented woman to her team, particularly senior women who, because of family or carer responsibilities, may have been excluded by traditional work structures.

Gender stereotyping still an issue

Nonetheless, gender stereotyping is still apparent. Srivastava moderated a few panels during her maternity leave and was often asked who was looking after her baby. “When I said his dad, there was shock on people’s faces. I’d ask, why are you so shocked? If his dad travelled to work, would you ask him who’s taking care of the baby?” This assumption that the mum is the primary caregiver still exists.

Wood has come across similar issues as a same sex parent. “In a work context, people like to put you in a box,” he said, “A lot of people asked which one of us was going to stay at home.” In fact, Wood and his husband were able to share most of their parental leave, but this is rare. He believes the media industry should be taking the lead on this issue.

How to stay creative

One of the things that Srivastava said she struggled with during isolation was creativity. “When I feel like I’m not able to put my mind into creative ideas, I go for a walk, take a paper and a pen, step away from my laptop, write down notes, and then come back,” she said. The panel had a few of their own hacks to get the creativity flowing.

For Owen, who has an ADHD diagnosis, it’s about leaning into her natural rhythms. “I get up really early and I tend do the creative and the big thinking stuff between 6 and 9am,” she said.

Wood is using the ‘time boxing’ method, blocking out time in his calendar for every single task. He finds Zoom meetings “a suck of your energy” so limits them to two hours and then does something physical.

Find your flow

Brown referenced the science behind Flow, and the Flow Cycle. He describes Flow as that ultimate sense of engagement. “We all know what it feels like when we’re in the zone with something. We’re really focused; the task is at the outer reaches of your capabilities, maybe a bit beyond. Time may stand still, or go really quickly – everything is clicking.”

He says to get into the optimal creative zone, you have to pass through the Flow Cycle, and you can’t short-cut it. The first part of the cycle is Struggle – trying to get into whatever it is you’re doing. “That’s the bit when you’re most likely to check your email or push yourself off-task,” Brown said. It typically takes 12 minutes to go from the Struggle stage to the next phase, Release, before you can get into Flow.

“The Release stage may involve going for a walk or getting your head out of the situation by doing something else before getting into your Flow,” he explained. Taking your mind off the problem is almost always the solution to the problem. “It gives our brain the opportunity to pass learning from conscious to the subconscious mind”. “Then you can get into Flow, always followed by Rest & Recovery (the final part of the cycle)”.

The future of work

The final question for the panel was about what the workplace may look like in 5-10 years’ time. Owen thinks there’s going to be a schism. Employers that are flexible, inclusive and optimise talent will become “like beacons that people want to work at.

“They’ll attract the best people with disabilities; the best people who are older. They’ll get the best talent because they are open to all talent. And then you’ll have employers who want to do things the traditional way – they won’t be optimising talent and they’ll be getting the same people they’ve always got,” she said.

Brown thinks we are going to see a workforce spanning four generations and all the arguments and opportunities that creates. He thinks that despite the post-lockdown enthusiasm for flexible working, it’s going to be a rocky road.

“Everybody can see the opportunities flexible working brings and they know how to navigate that with more measurability around outcomes,” he said. “The problem is that as soon as we realise we can squeeze five days into four, greedy business owners will wonder what they could do if they had five days a week and I think the yo-yo between these two states will continue.”

Nonetheless, our panellists agreed that the flexibility we now enjoy is making for a more successful workplace – for both employees and employers. For more insights into the future of work in advertising, watch the full discussion HERE.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

The State of (Dis) Union – Insights from the WEF in Davos

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]A panel comprising the World Media Group’s top international journalists gathered in London earlier this week to report back on what went on behind closed doors at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos. Chaired by Jonathan Birdwell, Interim Global head and Regional head of Europe, Middle East and Africa, Economist Impact, speakers included Suzanne Lynch, Chief Brussels Correspondent, POLITICO Europe; Jeremy Kahn, Senior Writer, Fortune; Ayesha Javed, Senior Editor, TIME; and Dharshini David, Global Trade Correspondent, BBC News.

The goal of the session was to provide the audience who didn’t attend Davos with ‘finger on the pulse’ insights into the conversations that took place around business and the economy.

Click here to watch the full discussion and hear the panel’s point of view on the following:

  • The economic climate – recession or no recession?
  • The outlook for the Ukraine war
  • Tech and innovation – the development of Chat GPT and AI
  • The Net Zero transition – are we still on track?
  • Crypto – what is its current standing?
  • Does Davos give a platform for countries with questionable human rights standards?
  • Diversity and profile – is Davos still relevant?

Setting the scene, Suzanne Lynch described Davos as a very ordinary little town in the middle of Switzerland, transformed to the centre of power once a year. Journalists have unfettered access to corporate and political leaders with the boundaries removed as everyone’s ferried around the town together in little cars.

The theme for this year was ‘Co-operation in a fragmented world’. Birdwell asked members of the panel whether that resonated or what their own takeaway headline would be.

According to Jeremy Kahn, there’s still not a lot of cooperation going on. “I think there’s a lot of people talking about the need for cooperation. And yet, this kind of acknowledgement that they are geopolitics coming into play and borders going up between countries, and a lot of highlighting of the difficulty of cooperation given the current environment.

“Governments are competing with each other, both for things like semiconductor production that is considered of geostrategic importance, but also even in clean energy. There’s quite a lot of competition between states about who’s going to offer what subsidies to what companies to get them there. All that was happening even though the highlight was supposed to be about how we all cooperate and work together on some of these problems.”

Although that may be true of the public discussions, Dharshini David believes that what’s going on behind closed doors is more positive. “When you talk to some of the corporate leaders who were there you realise it’s a bit like COP 27 – that when we talk about cooperation, what really matters is what’s going on in those rooms that are tucked away; the things that we don’t really see or hear when we’re there.

“And that progress is being made at that sort of granular level with corporate leaders from different countries coming together or meeting senior government ministers and saying we need to work together on this. That makes me quite hopeful for things that are being achieved at Davos, and also what could be translated into the year ahead.”

Ayesha Javed agrees that it remains a place to network where important conversations happen. “The networking and the closed-door conversation are really where it is most useful,” she says. “I heard Keir Starmer saying on a podcast that he would rather be in Davos than Westminster because he felt the conversations were much more productive!”

Is the WEF in Davos still a key facilitator in driving important discussions around business and the economy? Watch the full video here and decide for yourself.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

The Year Ahead in Media and Marketing World Media Group members discuss the priorities for 2023

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The Year Ahead in Media and Marketing
World Media Group members discuss the priorities for 2023

By Belinda Barker, Chief Executive of the World Media Group

When I sat down this time last year to write about 2022, things were looking up for marketers. Coming out of Covid, consumers were spending the money they’d saved during lockdown and a sense of normality had returned. Fast forward to February when news of Russia’s war in Ukraine hit and it appeared our optimism was short-lived.

After a summer of political unrest, we’re on the brink of another recession. So, what does all that mean for media and marketing? I asked World Media Group members how they think the current economic climate will affect our priorities in the year ahead.  To read the whole article click HERE[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Are marketers doing enough to encourage sustainability? Belinda Barker

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The desire to become a more purpose-driven business is one of the positive trends to emerge from the pandemic and brands are becoming increasingly more progressive in their outlook. Last week’s Advertising Week Europe had a whole track dedicated to Purpose & Practice, and while purpose can encompass many things, it’s clear that in today’s climate, any purpose-driven business strategy must have sustainability high on the agenda.

The World Media Group’s members have been covering climate change and sustainability for years and continue to play a critical role in holding companies to account as organisations chase Net Zero ambitions. While ‘Profit, People and Planet’ is high on the agenda at board level, the question is, how is the media and marketing industry doing overall, and can we do more to effect change?

To read the full article published on Mediatel click HERE[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

What is the currency of truth? by Gordana Buccisano, EVP Global Client Transformation, Havas Media Group and Non-Executive Chair of the World Media Group

Gordana Buccisano, EVP global client transformation, Havas Media Group and Chair of the World Media Group explains the importance of trust in the relationship between publisher, brand and consumer

In a world where we’re constantly bombarded by communication, sifting through the millions of data points to decipher what’s true and meaningful would be practically impossible without the interventions of reputable media sources. But having a free press is a luxury that we’ve taken for granted – that is, until recently.

To read the full article published by Mediatel, click HERE

 

Making Content-Driven Marketing that People care About

Alex Delamain of The Economist and World Media Group explains how partnering with respected journalistic brands can deliver engagement, not just reach.

As SVP, global client partner at The Economist and president of the World Media Group, Alex Delamain’s role sits at the point of convergence between clients with marketing goals and a suite of respected media brands. As a result, she’s used to the balancing act required to create content-driven campaigns that audiences engage with meaningful ideas.
 
To dig into how she views best practice in this area, click on the link below:

Gordana Buccisano – My vision as new Chair of the World Media Group: plan for the future but prepare for the now

As I take over the reins as Chair of the World Media Group, an alliance of leading international media organisations, my first task is a challenging one: to help formulate our three-year strategy to promote the values of trusted and renowned journalism and celebrate excellence in international advertising. In the current climate with the effect Covid-19 is having on the marketing, media and publishing worlds, planning for next month is difficult enough, so how can we possibly anticipate what the next three years have in store?

Setting the goal to create a three-year strategy is ambitious but it’s important to have a long-term vision. When I work with clients in my agency role, there’s naturally a tendency to first fix the short-term challenges they’re facing, and that analysis of what is not working today is critical input into what we need to focus on next. However, it’s essential to project further and to understand what we need to achieve long-term, beyond Covid.

The key to doing that effectively is to continuously review the relevancy of the strategy and ask ourselves whether it’s in sync with the market and consumer realities. That’s dependent on so many factors – what’s happening around the world with the pandemic, with politics, how that affects consumers and how it affects World Media Group members. Our purpose is to create a platform that gives our members a voice to address the challenges they face. That requires a visionary strategy, but one that also has flexibility and adaptability at its heart, so that we stay relevant and accurate in these ever-changing times.

Whichever side of the marketing ecosystem we belong to, agencies, publishers and clients are all facing the same challenge: how do we add value and create meaningful and true connections with consumers? People are craving truthful, relevant content – and that’s a real opportunity for reputable media brands. The World Media Group can make a difference by reimagining our agenda and aligning it with what we stand for – truthful and trusted media – connecting journalistic integrity with what’s happening in the world and showing it through the lens of the consumer.

Part of my role will be to help the World Media Group connect with more agencies, clients and ultimately more consumers through our calendar of knowledge-sharing and thought leadership activities. This year has taught us some invaluable lessons: as an organisation we’ve moved away from in-person events (via workshops, live briefings, our annual WMA awards) to a one hundred percent virtual calendar.

Lockdown forced us to move our live Smart Briefings series, which brings together industry leaders to discuss the hottest topics impacting the media, advertising and marketing sectors, to a virtual format. It turned out to be a great success with more than a thousand people signing up for the webinars. When you compare that to an in-person event, which might have capacity for say 100 people, you can immediately see the benefit in terms of both reach and awareness.

It’s also forced us to think smarter. Like all brands, one of our biggest challenges has been staying front of mind during Covid, so we’ve had to think about different ways to share the World Media Group’s collective knowledge and keep connected with our audience. We recently launched our own podcast, ‘The Media Navigators’, a platform for key industry influencers to talk about the burning issues impacting their sector. We’ve covered topics such as AI, Sustainability, Events, Brand Safety, Audience Engagement, Diversity, Audio, 5G and Newsroom Development.

As part of the strategic planning, we’re evaluating all of the World Media Group’s efforts this year to identify where we’ve found new and better ways of doing things. I don’t believe any of us will go back to working in the same way we did pre-Covid; even when restrictions are lifted, the World Media Group is likely to continue with a mix of live and virtual events, for example, as it allows us to engage with larger audiences.

Having an agile mindset and the ability to adjust to the threat of a global pandemic has opened us up to experimentation, which in turn has driven innovation. It’s with this pioneering spirit that I embrace the role of Chair and approach our three-year strategy with the knowledge that it must also include flexibility, scenario planning and the opportunity to pivot in response to whatever 2021 and beyond decides to throw at us.

Interview taken from: https://newdigitalage.co/2020/11/05/plan-for-the-future-but-prepare-for-the-now/

Moat Analysis shows Trusted Media continues to deliver increased engagement and viewability for advertisers during Covid-19

New analysis released today by the World Media Group (WMG), a strategic alliance of the world’s premium media brands, confirms that advertising campaigns viewed within a trusted editorial environment are yielding significantly better results for attention and viewability than the industry standard.

Analysis from Moat by Oracle Data Cloud shows that premium digital inventory running across WMG’s brands in Q1 2020 outperformed Moat’s benchmarks for that same period by up to 73%, as further detailed below.

The analysis measured the quality of engagement delivered by WMG brands across Display Desktop, Mobile Web and Video Desktop during 1st January 2020 – 31st March 2020.

Display Desktop: Display ads viewed on desktop across WMG inventory achieved an Active Page Dwell Time of 68 seconds, 35% higher than the industry average according to Moat’s benchmark for Q1 2020. Engagement exceeded Moat’s benchmark for the same period by 73% with an average In-View Time of 50 seconds.

Mobile Display: WMG inventory also performed well on mobile encouraging 10% more interactions (Universal Touch Rate) than Moat’s benchmark. Active Page Dwell Time was 47 seconds, 13% higher than the benchmark for mobile. Engagement exceeded Moat’s benchmarks for the same period by 56%, with an average In-View Time of 26 seconds.

Video Desktop*: Desktop videos viewed across WMG inventory achieved 15% above Moat’s benchmarks for engagement based on In-View Time. Consumer attention to videos was also strong, with Audible and Visible Complete Rates coming in 56% higher than the Moat Q1 2020 benchmarks, and the Human Audible & Fully On-Screen for Half of Duration Rate (with a 15 second cap) 35% higher than the Moat benchmarks for the same period.

“The Moat data covers the first quarter of the year when we were starting to learn more about the global impact of COVID-19,” said Damian Douglas, Managing Director EMEA, Time and Vice President of the World Media Group. “We know that titles in the World Media Group’s portfolio experienced an increase in both user numbers and engagement during this time as consumers looked for content from trusted editorial sources. Moat’s analysis confirms that high levels of engagement were also attained in advertising across WMG titles, demonstrating once again that audiences are more responsive to advertising when it’s presented within a high quality editorial environment.”

The Moat data is based on analysing desktop, mobile and video advertising campaigns running in Q1 2020 across the following WMG brands: The Atlantic, Bloomberg Media Group, The Economist, Forbes, Fortune, National Geographic, Reuters, TIME, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.

The results from the Moat analysis are as follows:

 

Measure/Benchmark World Media Group Lift compared to Moat Q1 2020 Benchmarks
Display Desktop Active Page Dwell Time (secs) 68s +35%
Display Desktop In-view Time (secs) 50s +73%
Mobile Web Universal Touch Rate 13% +10%
Mobile Web Active Page Dwell Time (secs) 47s +13%
Mobile Web In-View Time (secs) 26s +56%
Video Desktop In-View Time 19s +15%*
Video Desktop Audible and Visible Complete Rate 36% +56%*
Human Audible and Fully On-screen for Half of Duration Rate 37% +35%*


*Desktop video numbers are based on nine WMG publishers that had video inventory monitored by Moat during Q1 2020 and therefore represent a smaller sample than on the other platforms.

About Oracle Data Cloud
Oracle Data Cloud helps marketers use data to capture consumer attention and drive results. Used by 199 of AdAge’s 200 largest advertisers, our Audience, Context and Measurement solutions extend across the top media platforms and a global footprint of more than 100 countries. We give marketers the data and tools needed to help them in every stage of the marketing journey, from audience planning to pre-bid brand safety, contextual relevance, viewability confirmation, fraud protection, and ROI measurement. Oracle Data Cloud combines the leading technologies and talent from Oracle’s acquisitions of AddThis, BlueKai, Crosswise, Datalogix, Grapeshot, and Moat.

About Oracle
The Oracle Cloud offers a complete suite of integrated applications for Sales, Service, Marketing, Human Resources, Finance, Supply Chain and Manufacturing, plus Highly Automated and Secure Generation 2 Infrastructure featuring the Oracle Autonomous Database. For more information about Oracle (NYSE: ORCL), please visit us at www.oracle.com.

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Why content marketers must look beyond traditional KPIs

When audiences are likely to judge a campaign based on factors such as interest, tone, integrity, accuracy, relevance and credibility when deciding whether to engage or not, are traditional KPIs such as ‘engagement’ and ‘time spent with content’ still relevant?  Alex Delamain, President of the World Media Group and SVP, Head of Client Services, EMEA at The Economist highlights this important subject.

To read this article published in MediaSector please click HERE