Key Take Outs – Media Innovation

Harnessing Media Innovation to Drive Businesses Growth

The media industry has talked about innovating for years but it took a global crisis to teach us an important lesson: urgency spurs innovation. So how can we keep the flames of innovation burning as we return to ‘normal’? The World Media Group invited a panel of experts to share their experiences around how innovation has shaped their businesses.

The panel was chaired by Gordana Buccisano, EVP, Managing Director, Global Clients Transformation, Havas Media Group, who began by asking whether some of the biggest technology trends of the pandemic are here to stay.

Don’t predict the future based on the past

Liam Brennan, Global Director of Innovation, MediaCom, is concerned that brands will blindly latch on to the successful trends of last year without thinking about their own business focus. “So much innovation is just fluffy. It gets you lots of PR, but if you’re not improving the business bottom line, then it’s a waste of time,” he said.

While trends like streaming, e-commerce and gaming certainly grew during the pandemic, Brennan pointed out they were not new technologies, and became a digitalisation of existing behaviours. Rather than brands jumping on these trends, Brennan hopes it will be a wakeup call, forcing them to pay more attention to what’s bubbling under the surface. “The brands that succeeded in 2020 and in the first half of 2021 weren’t necessarily brands that threw everything out the window in mid-March and then pivoted into these three areas. They were brands that were prepared for this because they’d been trialling things beforehand and learning how they worked.”

Survival, speed and solidarity

When the FT had to reinvent its Live events business as a virtual offering almost overnight, Leyla Boulton, Development Editor, FT Live, and Senior Editor, Financial Times, said “the three S’s” were key: survival, speed, and solidarity. Showing the world that FT Live was still a valid business required a speedy response. The solidarity came from the FT’s culture of pulling together in an emergency and thinking entrepreneurially. They quickly procured a digital platform and invited the FT’s chief economics commentator, Martin Wolf, to host a test event, which generated a respectable 6,000 registrations.

Six week’s later, the FT Live’s Global Boardroom launched with 120 speakers over three days, generating 52,000 registrations – double the total number of attendees at FT events for the whole of 2019! The FT plans to hold its first hybrid event on September 4th, with the return of the FT Weekend Festival to Kenwood House in London and online, allowing it to retain the global audience it attracted during the pandemic.

From zero to hero

For Kevin Young, Head of Audience at The Economist, innovation has centred around transforming The Economist’s “traditional” media approach to a digital-first strategy. Following a complete overhaul of The Economist’s social media platforms, Young initiated a new focus on Instagram, which has become a “shop window” for the visual journalism previously only accessible to readers of The Economist’s print magazine.

The Economist’s Instagram account now has 5.5 million users, with two thirds aged between 18 to 34. Of all the media brand’s social channels, Instagram is the biggest generator of subscriptions, having gone from delivering zero website referrals per month two years ago to delivering one million today.

During the pandemic, Young standardised the way the global social media team worked, democratising processes to ensure that if someone fell ill, the team could still operate without compromising its outputs. They began crowdsourcing content from all over The Economist encouraging picture editors, data journalists and video producers to showcase their work to this vast new audience.

The strategy clearly worked: The Economist won ‘Best Use of Social Media’ at the International News Media Association awards.

Recognising which trends are important

According to Jean Ellen Cowgill, GM of Bloomberg QuickTake and Global Head of Strategy and Business Development, innovation stems from identifying the trends that are happening around your business. QuickTake, Bloomberg’s streaming news channel, began in 2017 in response to audiences going to Twitter first when news broke. With the initial wave of concern around fake news on Twitter, Bloomberg recognised it could offer trusted quality content in those moments.

More recently, Bloomberg recognised the shift away from cable and traditional broadcast towards streaming, and saw QuickTake as an opportunity to address the needs of a new generation of business leaders. QuickTake launched as a full 24/7 streaming channel during the pandemic, producing longer form video content, including documentary series, and available across various streaming platforms.

“Once you recognise the trends happening under your feet, you can start to talk about how, as a business, you’re going to address them,” said Cowgill, but it’s important to make sure you have staff responsible for “tackling those trends and marshalling the traditional divisions within the business to go after those new opportunities.”

And they have to be the right opportunities for your business. Young said he was initially questioned about why The Economist wasn’t on Clubhouse. “It’s easy to be swayed by the latest thing – to try to innovate and adapt to everything, but it’s really important to stick to business goals. Our business goals are to drive referrals and to drive subscriptions, and on some platforms that’s difficult because the platforms don’t want you to leave.”

Experimentation drives innovation

For Jarrod Dicker, VP Commercial, The Washington Post, experimentation is essential to innovation. “When Jeff Bezos bought The Washington Post back in 2013, we started to think about how we could leverage the reputation of such a strong technology founder to build more opportunities outside of traditional revenue streams for journalism,” he said. They started experimenting with ways to better equip the newsroom and soon realised it made sense to build their own technology.

What started as an experimental project has become Arc Publishing, a massive SAAS business which enables 1500+ brands and publishers globally to tell better stories and reach broader audiences without investing in software teams themselves. More recently, the Washington Post has built commercial tools to help publishers drive more revenue, including a model that will compete with Facebook and other programmatic marketplaces.

Dicker sees The Washington Post as the beta lab for innovation. “It’s an amazing breeding ground to test new concepts, whether that’s products, new ways to make money, or new tools and services. Everything happens in that sandbox. We’ll test products out and often they will continue to exist and drive The Washington Post business, but sometimes they’ll be more effective being licenced out to marketers or local news organisations. The Washington Post is the core; we rapidly innovate there, and then we fly it out.”

Setting innovation KPIs

So how do you measure innovation? According to Dicker, innovation KPIs should be based on how many ideas went live. “You should set goals for that, whether that’s two a month or four a month, or six a month. Being able to actually put these things out there in the market should be the number one goal that innovation teams are measured against.”

Wrapping up the webinar, Damian Douglas, MD EMEA, TIME and President of the World Media Group echoed the panel’s sentiments around the importance of innovation in understanding and preparing for the future. He signed off with a warning: “Unless you have a culture that steps into innovation and looks for signals in data that allow your brand to go to certain area, you will stay routed in the past while audiences shift dynamically around you.”

Five obvious-not-obvious lessons for more effective content marketing – from the world’s experts

Over the past five years, the World Media Awards have gathered and celebrated the very best international, content-led marketing campaigns – benchmarking the best work by global brands and tracking the increasing levels of creativity and effectiveness. As we head towards the deadline [20 May] for this year’s Awards and prepare for the judging, we’ve been asking our 2021 Jury what they believe are the essential ingredients for great content marketing.

1. Start with the consumer insight

This might seem to be obvious, but as Katharine Swarney, head of marketing communications for Nissan France says, “Start from a customer insight or truth to make sure you connect with your audience. Knowing your audience will also guide all media decisions”. Our Jury co-chair, Fabio Mancone, chief branding officer for Lombard Odier Group, adds that insights need to be about more than the consumer to be of real value – it’s also about where the brand can connect. As he says, “Successful content strategy connects customer value with business value. It starts with deep audience understanding, in having empathy, and connecting with passion points and interests”.

2. Develop a meaningful narrative

What do we mean by a “meaningful narrative”? Ruby Wight, creative lead for campaigns and partnerships at Burberry defines this as “An underlying story that resonates with the audience and the world they live in today”. Matthew Wellington, global investment director for The Financial Times agrees that it’s all about connections – and he’s also clear on what it’s not, “Advertising cannot be dictatorial; shouting at people doesn’t work. Content advertising offers a space for companies to showcase what makes them special – what unique benefits and advantages they bring to the audiences they intend to reach”. Our jury’s advice is to focus on this narrative first, and the content medium second. Denise Burrell Stinson, head of Brand Studio for The Washington Post says, “Sometimes people get stuck on using cutting-edge creative formats like 360 visuals or video just for the sake of using them, when another approach would have worked. But if you stick to a story-first approach, I believe you increase your chance at success”.

3. Get the right balance between the unexpected and the “on brand”

79% of those who responded to The World Media Group’s Future of Content Marketing survey in 2020 believed that investment in content marketing would continue to grow – and despite all the challenges of the past year, 23% of the advertisers who responded to our 2021 survey were increasing investment. So even if you have a meaningful narrative, how do you ensure it stands out from the crowd? Ruby Wight believes that to achieve that cut-through, you need “An execution that feels different from what is conventional in the category, something that feels unexpected and new.” Katharine Swarney urges advertisers and their creative teams to approach the brief with an open mind, adding that, “Some of the best content I have ever done came from creative proposals that seemed completely crazy at first but through development went on to become outstanding campaigns”. But just as Denise emphasised story over format, our jury would stress that crazy-for-crazy’s sake is not going to give you that cut-through on its own – Katharine added that, “you need to be authentic about your brand values and not try to act like a brand you are not”.

4. Add value for your audience

It’s all about making those connections between the audience’s interests and needs and where your brand can add value. “Adding value to a consumer’s life is key; treating your audience with respect; surrounding them but not in a way that feels forced; being clear what problem you are solving” all add up to the right approach, according to Elliot Moss, partner and director for business development at Mishcon de Reya. A number of our jury stressed the value of context – as Fabio Mancone put it, your storytelling should “seamlessly fit into the spaces the audience comes into contact with it”. If you can get the balance right between delivering the unexpected, embedding this in authenticity, and offering real value, then you should achieve your ultimate objective which should be, according to Ruby Wight, to start a conversation, “When your audience sees this content they should want to forward it to a friend, immediately!”

5. Ensure the whole team understand the objectives!

Being clear on your objectives before you start is our final tip – content marketing can raise brand awareness, change brand perceptions, stimulate purchase, reinforce brand loyalty…. And each objective requires a different approach. Denise Burrell stresses that the whole team [client, agency, media owner] need to be on the same page, “All people on a creative team should embark on their projects with a clear understanding of KPIs and what their piece is meant to achieve. Is it shifting audience sentiment, or raising awareness of an important event?”.

I’ll leave the last words to our Jury co-chair, “Successful content strategy connects customer value with business value. It starts with deep audience understanding, in having empathy, and connecting with passion points and interests. It then finds a credible role for the brand that adds genuine value to your audience’s life whilst at the same time, tells the brand story in a way that drives outcomes for the business.”

If you feel you have achieved that over the past year, then we’d love to hear from you! Find out more about how to enter the World Media Awards HERE.

Cookie-Pocalypse: Will the death of third-party cookies kill digital advertising?

With Google Chrome set to pull the plug on third-party cookies in January 2022, marketers will soon lose the primary tech system that tracks identity across the web, opening up huge questions about the future of digital advertising. The World Media Group invited a panel of experts to discuss what losing access to third-party data means to the industry, and how marketers and publishers can prepare themselves to benefit from this significant shift in how we use personal data.

The panel was chaired by Emily Roberts, Programmatic Trading Manager, BBC Global News, who set the scene by reminding the audience about the difference between first-party cookies – those that only share data back to the owners of the website you’re visiting at the time – and third-party cookies, which track your browsing habits to create a profile that is then used to target you with advertising based on your interests.

While other browsers have already undergone similar policy changes, Google Chrome’s 70% market share means the impact of third-party cookie removal will be far greater. While Roberts described it as “privacy milestone” for website users, she warned that if the industry doesn’t have a working alternative in place, publishers are likely to see huge drops in revenue.

Paul Coffey, Director of Platforms, Partnerships & Privacy, Google EMEA, said the changes are part of a long-term evolution of the online advertising ecosystem in response to consumer expectations. He said that 70% of users feel they are being tracked by advertisers, technology providers or other companies almost all the time, and over 80% feel that the potential risks they face from data collection outweigh the benefits.

Chrome’s commitment to phase out third-party cookies is a reflection of this and the broader changes happening in the industry, but Coffey explained there are plans in place to support advertisers, agencies, publishers and marketers, such as Google’s ‘Privacy Sandbox,” an industry-supported initiative to create privacy-led advertising solutions. Google is also pioneering an initiative called ‘Floc’ – Federation learning of cohorts, which anonymises individual data to create large groups of audience cohorts for advertisers.

Find the right partnerships

Elizabeth Brennan is Head of Advertiser Strategy at Permutive, an audience platform that enables premium advertisers and publishers to plan, build and activate cohorts while keeping everyone’s data safe. Brennan referenced a Permutive-commissioned study by Forrester Consulting, which shows that, as of March 2021, 41% of advertisers rely exclusively on third-party data for targeting and measurement. With potentially just nine months left to find a new solution, Brennan says brands must “wean themselves off third-party data” and future-proof their strategies. She suggested one way to do this is to form strategic alliances with publishers to take advantage of their audience insights and wealth of actionable first-party data.

Jay Glogovsky, Executive Director, Revenue Analytics and Operations, at The New York Times, agrees. The media brand has embraced the change, meeting its goal of removing all third-party cookies by the end of FY 2021, and, according to Glogovsky, without sacrificing any insights in their move to a purely first-party strategy. He stresses that advertisers need to have close relationships with their trusted premium publishers, who can be part of the solution. “We’re brilliant technologists and we’re going to solve this and be able to create products and experiences for our readers that embrace this first-party model,” he said.

Respect your consumers

It is those readers, and consumers in general, who stand to benefit from the changes to data regulations in the long run. As Ratul Shah, Head of Product Marketing, SAP Customer Data Solutions, pointed out, privacy regulations such as GDPR came as a result of what consumers have been asking for, for a long time. He believes brands need to respect consumers and allow them to feel in control of the relationship. “It all comes down to the customer experience, knowing who your customer is and how they want to be treated. And the only way to do that is through a trusted relationship, giving them transparency over why you’re collecting their data and why you need it. And, of course, control over how you’re using it.”

Shah believes that marketers who adopt that point and have the technology base to help them to create that relationship – to turn people from anonymous to known – will drive advocacy amongst customers by giving them what they want: “a trusted relationship with the brands they’re doing business with, ads that mean something to them, and experiences that keep them coming back for more.”

Balance contextual targeting

It’s estimated that the third-party data market is currently worth $19 billion a year. A poll during the webinar suggested that 56% of the audience expects that money to be reinvested into first party data strategies, while 31% said it would go to contextual targeting and 13% to direct partnerships.

Roberts asked the panel if the changes to third party data would mean more people would focus on contextual targeting. Erin Laughlin, Director of AdTech Products and Services at Dow Jones, (parent company of The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s MarketWatch, Mansion Global and Financial News) said that brands still want to target people, not just on the content they consume, but who they are. Dow Jones isn’t reliant on contextual targeting, but it has leveraged its digital community of three million members to create its own unique contextual product called DJ Thematic that is performing up to three times better than the average industry benchmark.

The product is able to target people based on their job title, their job industry and their job function because of the value exchange Dow Jones delivers: “Our readers are providing that information to us today because they know that they’re getting access to this premium content that’s helping them make really important business and financial decisions,” Laughlin said. When publishers can provide that sort of value exchange, they can go beyond typical contextual targeting to provide a far more sophisticated solution.

For publishers who don’t have high subscriptions or login rates, however, Permutive’s Brennan points out that contextual targeting offers an opportunity to reach beyond the known portions of the web. It allows advertisers to drive scale through their digital marketing strategies while respecting the data that they have access to, and, as such, it’s still a valid element of a diversified advertising strategy.

Commenting on the results of the audience poll and the redistribution of funds to first-party data, Brennan agreed with the majority of the audience, saying that “advertisers and publishers who really want to thrive, in the short term and long into the future, need to move towards privacy and make investment in world-class data, privacy collection analysis and activation infrastructure.”

Embrace the opportunity for positive change

As the discussion came to a close, Roberts asked each panellist to offer one piece of advice for the audience to take away.

For Glogovsky, it comes down to respect: “Privacy is an opportunity and it doesn’t sacrifice performance or insights – it actually enables innovation. My recommendation around that would be to communicate and experiment. Have conversations with your partners; have them internally with your stakeholders, and don’t be afraid to experiment. Lot of publishers are going about this differently, as are advertisers and agencies; I’m not saying any one of them is right. The only thing that I will say is respecting privacy is the right solution. So, however you go about doing that, I encourage you to experiment and communicate, so we can get this right as an industry as a whole.”

Brennan’s advice is all about preparation: “Really review how much first-party data you have now, what collection practices you have in place, understand the gaps that are there, and build strategies in order to address them. That could be through partnerships or better internal ways of working.” She views this as an “incredible opportunity” to maximise the value of first-party data but says that “understanding where the pockets of value are, and how you should be activating” against them is key.

Coffey’s advice is similar: “Whether you’re an advertiser or a publisher you need to think about what your value exchange is, and, once you’ve got that consented data, think about how you’re going to leverage it; how are you going to use the platforms? Don’t think of this as an imposition by platforms; this is really an industry-wide dialogue and discussion about how we work in lockstep to reflect user and regulator expectations.”

Laughlin views this as an opportunity to embrace change: “The death of third-party cookies does not mean the death of your digital advertising strategy. What it’s doing is essentially accelerating the first-party roadmaps of publishers and platforms in a way that we’ve never seen before. It’s providing insights and solutions that we would have never seen if we were still reliant on third-party cookies. So, get excited about this change, embrace it.”

Finally, Shah says, “A marketer’s job is to know who the customer is, to help drive the experiences that they want, and this new opportunity allows us to connect the dots inside of our organisations; to have new conversations. Marketers can sit across the table from privacy professionals to redefine what it really means to build a customer-first experience, not just within your organisation but across the ecosystem.”

It may be the death of the third-party cookie, but Shah would like re-name it “the rebirth of new customer experiences.” Whether you’re an advertiser, a publisher or platform, that’s something we can all get excited about.

Survey shows increased focus on ‘Social Good’ amongst brands after the pandemic

80% of advertisers are committed to an ESG strategy or UN Sustainable Development Goals 

The World Media Group, a strategic alliance of the world’s leading media brands, today released its annual report: What’s Next for Content-Led Marketing? The survey, which questioned key influencers across advertisers, agencies, media brands and consultancies, explored the impact of the pandemic on advertising and how brands will adapt their storytelling after a particularly challenging year.

Increased focus on Social Good

It appears the crises of 2020 have led brands to reconsider their approach to Social Good and how it fits into their creative strategy and content-led communication. Eighty four percent of all respondents believe that it is now more important and more effective for brands to align themselves with social issues and messaging. This is reflected in the fact that 80% of advertisers said their organisation is committed to working towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals and / or actively pursuing an ESG [Environmental-Social-Governance] focused strategy.

Almost two thirds (63%) of media owner, agency, and consultant respondents said they were seeing an increase in demand for creative solutions that communicate the client’s approach to meeting ESG goals. Fifty three percent of advertisers are leading with their ESG strategy in marketing communications to consumers, whilst 24% plan to. Seventy one percent of advertisers believe that brands which are able to lead with credible and authentic storytelling related to ESG issues have a competitive advantage.

However, respondents were quick to caveat that brand authenticity was essential when communicating around ESG issues, and that simply jumping on a hot topic or trend was no longer acceptable. Instead, ‘proof points of real-world actions’ are required to demonstrate that it is not just a marketing tactic.  

An authoritative and trusted environment for storytelling

When sharing their opinions on how brands, media owners and agency teams can add impact and effectiveness to storytelling around these issues, two thirds of all respondents (67%) believe that using the voice of experts is an important factor. Sixty two percent believe that storytelling should be positioned within an authoritative journalistic environment, and this number increases to 71% amongst media owners, agencies, and consultants.

When asked about the best platforms to invest in when sharing or amplifying brand storytelling in 2021, all respondents agreed that the three key areas for investment would be the brand’s own channels, trusted digital media channels and paid social media channels. 

Commenting on the survey, Damian Douglas, President of the World Media Group and Managing Director, EMEA at TIME, said, “The pandemic has given us all the opportunity to consider what’s important and consumers are looking for brands that are aligned with their own values. When an organisation has a credible ESG story to tell, content-led communications in the right media environment can help influence genuine social change – but it has to be authentic. Consumers are no longer willing to accept empty gestures.”    

Audio predicted to be a key content trend

When asked to predict the most exciting trends in content-led marketing over the next two years, the most frequently cited response was the continued growth of podcasts and audio formats. Respondents also expected the legacy of the pandemic to drive an increase in online brand activations. Finally, there was a divergence of opinion around “humanifying” marketing, with some respondents suggesting a need to make it more personal, while others favoured a trend towards AI-generated content.

The research was carried out by the World Media Group, whose members include The Atlantic, BBC Global News, Bloomberg Media Group, Business Insider, The Economist, The Financial Times, Forbes, Fortune, National Geographic, Reuters, The New York Times Company, Time, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, to provide context for the World Media Awards for cross-border, cross-channel content campaigns, which close for entry on 20th May 2021. The full report can be downloaded here.

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Media contact:

Charlotte Panther
07834431206
charlottepantherpr@gmail.com

About the research: The World Media Group carried out the online survey between 11 January and 19 February 2021 to advertisers, media owners, and agencies with international communication remits. 325 responses were received, with 80% of delegates having worked on content-led campaigns designed to target multiple countries and with global responsibility.

About The World Media Group
The World Media Group is a strategic alliance of leading international media organisations that connects brands with highly engaged, influential audiences in the context of trusted and renowned journalism. Its members include The Atlantic, BBC Global News, Bloomberg Media Group, Business Insider, The Economist, The Financial Times, Forbes, Fortune, National Geographic, Reuters, The New York Times Company, Time, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and associate members: Moat and Smithsonian.

 

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

 

Sustainability: From Pledges to Progress – Key Take Outs

With sustainability high on the agenda for many businesses, particularly in light of COP26, the United Nations Climate Change Conference in November, the World Media Group invited a panel of sustainability transformation experts to discuss how businesses make the move from talking about sustainability to undertaking concrete action. The panel was chaired by Katya Ionova, Creative Director, Business Insider, who began by asking each representative to explain the role of sustainability communications in their business.

Sofia Lotto Persio, Assistant Editor at Forbes explained that although Forbes has been covering sustainability issues for a while, it has been siloed across different channels such as business, finance or lifestyle, which hasn’t necessarily presented the whole picture. “It’s something that needs a holistic approach and needs players from all industries to get involved in, to share knowledge, share awareness and best practices,” she said. To this end, Forbes is launching a sustainability channel next month, with a more intersectional approach to coverage.

Enabling change throughout the supply chain

For Santosh Sethumadhavan, Interim Global Head of Communications, B2B, at HSBC, communications play a role in dismissing the growing narrative that businesses are part of the problem. Describing HSBC’s “Business plan for the planet”, an initiative that promotes the idea that business can be part of the sustainability solution rather than the problem, Sethumadhavan said most businesses “want to make the change, but they just don’t know how to get started and they need help.” HSBC is committing between 750 billion and $1 trillion over the next nine years to drive sustainable transitions, supporting its clients, and, importantly, their supply chains, to thrive in a low carbon economy.

Turning to Devapriyo Das, Senior Communications Advisor, Market Communications and Sustainability at Ørsted, Ionova asked him how the company came to be one of the most interesting examples of sustainability transformation. Ørsted has reduced its carbon emissions by 87 percent over the past 14 years. In 2020, the company generated 90 percent of its energy from renewable offshore, onshore wind and solar sources. They are on their way to being carbon neutral by 2025 and net zero by 2040. “Becoming sustainable is not just about changing your own business, but about changing the partners you work with and the impact you have on the globe,” he said. This means tackling the difficult challenge of decarbonising heavy industries like steel and fuel for transportation, but he believes that increasing demand will put pressure on innovators to come up with the right, low carbon solutions.

The same applies to a business such as Capgemini, which works with companies across many different sectors, including finance and energy. In the race for net zero, Emmanuel Lochon, Chief Marketing Officer, Capgemini Invent, said having a very clear action plan and measurable steps towards the next objective was essential. Research and insight into the evolution of sustainability, from energy to mobility to the circular economy, forms the basis of Capgemini’s communications strategy. Lochon cited a recent example of an actionable project that Capgemini Invent developed for the Gates Foundation, which identified 55 high-impact, climate technology projects that can help Europe meet the 2025 net zero emission targets. He said they are continuously researching how sustainability is evolving so that they can offer clients implementation support to put their own sustainability strategies in place.

Avoiding greenwashing

Ionova’s next question to the panel was how to avoid the label of “greenwashing.” According to Sethumadhavan, the problem arises when companies stand up and shout about how sustainable they are without any real transition. It can’t just be the marketing team pushing a company’s sustainability merits. “It needs a strong leadership commitment and collaboration across the organisation to make this a reality. It truly happens when the organisation comes together and recognises sustainability as a priority, then the whole organisation mobilises in that direction,” he said. “Without that, it becomes a hollow promise and maybe just another nice marketing campaign.”

According to Ørsted’s Das, maintaining credible consistent communication, sticking to the facts and putting it into context is key. “We take great pains to show how much we have actually reduced in terms of emissions, but also how we are contributing to an accelerated build out of green energy. And I think as much as numbers can be tedious and facts can be very heavy, we need them to support our story.”

Lotto Persio said that one of the biggest issues she comes up against when covering sustainability initiatives for Forbes is a lack of actionable evidence. “The press release will say, we’ve decided to create this goal and we’ll be carbon neutral by 2030. But it’s always lacking in the details as to how they’re doing it. Explaining the mechanism as to how these actions happens is very important in our coverage.” She also warns against developing initiatives that may create a catchy headline but don’t actually align with what the business is about, or its goals.

Expectations for COP26

As the topic turned to COP26, Lochon pointed out that this too should not be viewed as a marketing opportunity but as a chance to make a difference. “It’s not about sponsoring the event,” he said. For Capgemini Invent “it’s about taking part in it, taking the floor and sharing, insights in front of a panel of decision makers. It’s a very concrete and very direct way of involving ourselves.”

Continuing with the theme of concrete action, Das said the one message he would like people to take away from COP26, and particularly for some of the emerging economies, is “that green energy is now cheaper than fossil fuels in two thirds of the world’s countries. There is simply no economic reason not to act on the climate crisis,” he said. He felt that there was a lot of momentum to make sure COP26 was a success, and, with the new administration in the US, there was the potential to really kickstart the action needed for change.

Lotto Persio agreed that President Biden’s decision to re-join the Paris Agreement was not only hugely symbolic but also opens up the sustainability conversation in the US again, putting decarbonisation at the top of the agenda. “With some leadership in this topic again, I think the message will be more powerful and will echo to normal people,” she said. However, she urged companies to think about the context, framework and relevancy of any communication they were planning for COP26, as it was unlikely to filter down to the general public.

The celebration of transition

Ending with a question from the audience, Ionova asked Sethumadhavan how the media and marketing industry could credibly focus on messaging around sustainability when also faced with the physical carbon cost of the internet, which if it were a country, would be the sixth largest carbon emitter on a planet. Sethumadhavan replied that the internet is no different from steel or any other resource and “needs to be held to equally high standards as any other company.” However, with the goalposts constantly moving, Sethumadhavan believes we need to be mindful about the “celebration of transition”. If a company, or sectors like the internet, start making transitions towards being more sustainable, if we as marketers and advertisers try and find even small steps that can quantify and make some kind of meaningful impact, I think we should celebrate those things,” he said.

Wrapping up the discussion on a positive note, Sethumadhavan said that HSBC was seeing interesting ideas coming out of really small businesses around the world that showed real hope for the future. “I might be one of the few optimistic people about this but the kind of changes we’re seeing bode well for the future. People are making real change happen and really, there’s a lot to look forward to.”

Profile on Damian Douglas, Managing Director EMEA, Time and President of The World Media Group

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Social Media Portal (SMP) interviewed Damian Douglas, Managing Director, EMEA at Time and newly elected President of The World Media Group about publishing, marketing, digital transformation and more.  Please click on the link HERE to read the full article.  It makes for a very interesting read![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

The 2021 World Media Awards for International Content-Driven Advertising are Now Open for Entry

TIME’s Damian Douglas Confirmed as the New World Media Group President

London, Thursday 28th January, 2021: The 2021 World Media Awards (WMAs) have opened for entry today, offering nine categories to recognise the best in cross platform, cross border, content-driven advertising. This year includes a new award for Social Good, which recognises the potential for brands to combine storytelling with corporate action to influence social change around issues such as sustainability, the environment, poverty, and diversity and inclusion.

Hosted by the World Media Group, a strategic alliance of global publishers that promotes award-winning journalism and the role of international media, the WMAs are now in their sixth year. Leading the World Media Group this year are Damian Douglas, Managing Director EMEA at TIME, who takes on the role of President, and Gordana Buccisano, EVP Global Client Transformation, Havas Media Group, the WMG’s Non-Executive Chair. They will be supported by two Vice Presidents, Emma Winchurch-Beale, International Sales Director at The Washington Post, and James Davies, Strategic Account Director, at Thomson Reuters.

The WMAs are the only awards to celebrate the collaboration between brands, agencies and media partners to create powerful international content campaigns, and are free to enter*. In addition to presenting awards to category winners on the night, the WMAs amplify the winning entries in a worldwide advertising campaign valued at more than €650k. The winners’ ad campaign runs across the World Media Group’s leading international media brands comprising The Atlantic, BBC Global News, Bloomberg Media Group, Business Insider, The Economist, The Financial Times, Forbes, Fortune, National Geographic, Reuters, The New York Times, Time, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.

“Every year, the WMAs demonstrate the power of international content-driven advertising to tell stories across channels and borders,” said Damian Douglas, President of the World Media Group and Managing Director, EMEA, at TIME. “2020 has given rise to the more socially conscious consumer and we believe brands have a crucial role to play in this new values-led world. We’re delighted to be adding a new category for ‘Social Good’ this year and I look forward to seeing how brands are using content to influence social change.”

Last year’s winning entries included Grand Prix winners, Sonos, along with Astana International Financial Centre, Electronic Arts, Levi’s, Samsung, Tech Mahindra, Tourism Australia and Volkswagen.

How to enter: Entry to the WMAs at https://worldmedia.awardsplatform.com/ is free to advertisers and agencies although entrants are invited to make a voluntary donation to Reporters Without Borders.  Advertisers and media owners and their media, PR and creative agencies can enter all categories. Campaigns must have intentionally targeted audiences in at least three countries and 75% of activity needs to have been implemented between January 2020 and March 2021. There is no requirement for campaigns to have run in any of the World Media Group brands. The closing date for entries is 20th May 2021.

Judging: To reflect the importance of collaboration in creating successful international, content-driven advertising campaigns, the independent jury is made up of heavy-weight judges from brands, agencies and media owners. You can find out more about this year’s judges here.

Categories: This year there are nine Award categories open for general entry, along with the Content Leadership & Innovation award, which invites nominations from WMG members. The jury will select the Grand Prix from amongst the category winners, as follows:

  • Automotive
  • Brand & Media Owner Partnership
  • Corporate Influencer
  • Financial Services
  • Lifestyle & Luxury
  • Media & Entertainment
  • Technology & Telecoms
  • Travel & Tourism
  • Social Good

Awards event: The winners will be announced at an exclusive live ceremony (or a virtual event, should Covid restrictions necessitate it) on Thursday 9th September 2021. Shortlisted entrants will receive two free tickets to join the celebration as guests of the World Media Group, and additional tickets will be available for purchase.

*Awards cost £195 per entry for non-member media owners.

Five learnings from lockdown to carry into 2021

On Thursday, World Media Group members came together for our annual Think Tank, a lively event that offers members the opportunity to ask top international editors about their predictions for the year ahead. Unable to meet in our usual festive venue, the last gathering of the year predictively happened on Zoom!

The event was chaired by Dan Stewart, International Editor of TIME who was joined by Tom Standage, Deputy Editor, The Economist, Susan Goldberg, Editor in Chief, National Geographic and Katherine Dunn, Associate Editor, Fortune Magazine.

In a year like no other, we asked members to share any positive learnings from 2020 that they planned to carry with them into 2021. Five key themes emerged:

1. Work smarter

According to Daniela Stawinoga-Carrington, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, 2020 has been about “focusing on what is truly important both personally and professionally.” We were all forced to rethink our priorities, adapting to the challenges of remote working, often while juggling family responsibilities. Now that we know we can all work from home and still be as productive, we can use that flexibility to benefit our work/life balance. Samantha Adams, BBC Global News, says she’ll continue to “work smarter, with less commuting and do more checking in with my network.” Robbie McCawley, Electronic Arts, has honed his video conferencing communication skills. His key learning is to “use fewer words and more simple language to get to my point across quicker.”

2. Support mental health

2020 has opened up the conversation around mental health, allowing people the permission to talk openly about how they are feeling and to receive any support they need. Everyone agreed that mental health must remain front of mind as we head into the new year. “Talking about mental health, checking whether colleagues, friends and family are ok, and caring for each other is something we need to hold onto for 2021,” said Mark Rose, BP. His other advice for improving your mental health? Stay off Twitter!

3. Use technology for good

Although we’ve been forced to spend more time in front of our screens this year, there’s clearly an upside – from reducing our carbon footprint to re-establishing relationships with friends and colleagues. Rob Alexander, Headland Consultancy, plans to “continue to embrace meeting technology to connect with friends and clients around the world and reduce my flying carbon footprint.” Sital Banerjee agrees that he’ll continue using technology to connect with his network and peers more regularly in 2021.

The innovation and adoption of new technology has impressed Darren Plimmer, Fundamental Media: “It’s been great collaborating so easily with colleagues globally despite being stuck in the spare room at home. The Zoom pub quiz, however, can remain in 2020!”

4. Have faith in trusted media

While trust in the media has taken a downturn in past years, the Covid crisis saw consumers returning to quality media outlets for accurate information and advice. This has been reflected in an increase in subscriptions across many of the World Media Group brands Jemima Villanueva, The Atlantic, would like to see “the increase in demand for trusted quality news sources and a willingness to pay for it” continue on into 2021.

Katya Ionova, Business Insider, agrees that one of the key outtakes for her has been a notable change in “the real value of trusted news sources,” and she hopes to see this reflected in reports such as Edelman’s Trust Barometer next year.

5. Encourage community spirit

2020 has inspired empathy, a deeper sense of community and a willingness to look out for others on both a personal and profession level. “People seem to have looked outward more this year, caring more about things beyond their patch,” said Alison Harbert, Investec. “Let’s hope for more of that in 2021!

Jack Dyson, SAP, agreed: One positive outcome is a greater focus on corporate purpose and appreciation for community over individual. Not just in Covid and climate change, but also inclusion and equality, education…and being a better neighbour!”

This sense of greater purpose was reflected in the editors’ predictions for the year ahead, where a large part of the discussion centred around 2021 being the turning point in the debate and action on climate change. While there was some negativity about the effect individuals and companies could have without governments taking on the bigger emissions issues such as agriculture and steelmaking, there was a definite sense that positive momentum is growing. As Fortunes’ Katherine Dunn put it: “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good – just start.” Wise words for all of us as we endeavour to carry the many positive learnings from the Covid crisis into 2021.

CIM Financial Services Marketing Leaders’ Summit 2020 Round Up

Leading editors discuss the trends affecting the financial sector at the CIM Financial Services Marketing Leaders’ Summit 2020

The World Media Group was delighted to support the CIM’s Financial Services Marketing Leaders’ Summit this week. Four of the world’s leading financial editors from the US, Asia and Europe attended a panel to discuss the key trends affecting the economy, for a virtual audience of senior global marketers from the financial services sector. The panel was moderated by Francesco Guerrera, Head of International, Barron’s Group.

 Vaccine “transformative” for the economy

 Guerrera’s first question to Faisal Islam, Economics Editor, BBC News, was about the significance of the announcement confirming a Covid vaccine was ready for rollout in the UK. Islam described the news as “transformative for the economy.” He said it would stop the negative, self-fulfilling spiral of expecting things to be worse, planning for them to be worse, and therefore having fewer jobs and fewer investments.

He highlighted two areas for caution: Firstly, people may be more careful about social distancing over the next few months, potentially affecting the retail and hospitality sectors. Secondly, any scientific setbacks would have a negative effect on asset values, house prices and stock.

Persuading people to take the vaccine is crucial to its success. The extent to which the vaccine is mandated for various activities, such as travel will have an impact.

Jason Karaian, Editor, DealBook at The New York Times, highlighted the effect a vaccination passport, dovetailed with testing, could have on business: “You might need that to go into the office,” he said. “Potentially there are some privacy issues, but the pressure to get vaccinated or tested to prove that you are immune is something that I know boardrooms are dealing with.”

Moving to James Kynge, Global China Editor at the Financial Times and Editor of the “Tech Scroll Asia” Newsletter, Guerrera asked what the impact had been in China.

Kynge explained that while China had been blamed by the US and European countries at the start of pandemic, it was now in a position to win back some of the kudos it had lost. With four vaccines rolled out very quickly, he said the Chinese economy was “roaring back”. Kynge said China was taking steps to “ameliorate the huge haemorrhage it has suffered in terms of its international image,” by delivering vaccines and helping with the debt problems of countries in Africa for example.

 The impact of the Biden administration

Turning to the US election, Guerrera asked The New York Times’ Karaian about the effect that new roles within the administration may have on business. Karaian said that Biden was trying to strike a difficult balance between capitalism and socialism and was unlikely to “tap full Wall Street types for official roles”. For large banks or businesses, that raises the question of who they can lobby. However, a more controlled, coherent messaging strategy with fewer leaks, may “make it easier for businesses to get their head around the new administration,” he said.

On the prospect of a stimulus package, Karaian said that while most people believed it was needed, it was “bogged down in partisan gridlock” and was likely to be issued under Executive Order, after Biden’s inauguration.

The battle for banking

 Introducing Julie Santoriello Chariell, a Senior Analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence covering the Fintech and Payments sector, Guerrera asked about her predictions for this rapidly growing sector.

One of the themes for 2021 will be around the “battle for banking” Santoriello Chariell said, as many “‘non-banks” added more banking services to their apps. She had observed a shift to non-traditional banking during the pandemic with people looking for more ways to pay online, and an increase in digital debit card services.

Santoriello Chariell described four key “non-bank” groups: The first is challenger banks, such Transferwise, Monzo, Revolut, Chime and Varo, which are beginning to chip away at traditional banking. The second, and the group Santoriello Chariell is most excited about, is Wallet providers, such as PayPal, Square’s Cash App and the hardware-based Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay. Originally free, peer-to-peer payment services, they are now being monetised through debit cards, credit cards, Bill Pay and, significantly, direct deposit. “If a user starts to use direct deposit of their payroll into their Wallet, that starts to become a primary account,” she said.

The third group are the new lenders, such as “buy now, pay later” app Klarna. Tied in with debit cards, these apps, which allow users to spread the payment for an item over a several instalments, are popular with millennials and Gen Z.

The final group is big tech – Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon, who Santoriello Chariell said are more inclined to partner with traditional banks. “This could be a nice way for the big banks to catch up digitally to reach a younger audience, and to be able to really harness the power of big data,” she said.

 The challenges of economic reporting during Covid

 Guerrera asked the panel to share some insight into the challenges they had experienced while reporting on the financial sector during the coronavirus crisis.

Islam talked about the importance of finding the right balance between aggressive accountability journalism and the public service aspect of the BBC, particularly in a crisis. He recalled being able to communicate the extraordinary news about the UK’s unprecedented fiscal intervention to pay the wages of millions of workers during the pandemic, following an unusually open exchange with the Bank of England Governor. Holding the government accountable at the beginning of the crisis and asking difficult questions was essential to the BBC’s credibility, he said.

For Karaian one of the big differences at The New York Times has been a move to more live journalism, constantly updating briefings on certain topics and tackling the disinformation related to the election and the vaccines. “Getting into the mode of putting things up quickly and then filling them out, and having lots of different formats, not just the 1500-word story that comes out in print, is not necessarily unusual for digital media, but it’s been a fairly major revolution inside these virtual walls,” he said.

A large part of Kynge’s role at the Financial Times is investigative journalism, which relies on sources. He says the pandemic has been disastrous: “You not only miss the face-to-face contact, the whispers over lunch, but you also miss that vital aspect – the serendipity of a natural conversation, where they let something slip that they didn’t intend to. That type of interaction, which is so vital for journalists, just doesn’t happen in this type of format.”

The same holds true for Santoriello Chariell, who says body language is key when she meets CEOs and CFOs in person: “The words can be really clear, direct and all buttoned up, but the body language can tell you something else.”

The economic impact of ESG

The final question to the panel was about the trend towards ESG and its economic impact. Santoriello Chariell said that strong interest around ESG from the investment community had prompted Bloomberg Intelligence to build up its team of ESG analysts and to add ESG to every company primer.

ESG investment is also a huge topic for the Financial Times, but Kynge believes that work needs to be done around clarifying what the definitions mean: “The definitions are extremely vague, it’s very easy for a company to claim that it’s abiding by environmental standards when it’s actually not, and the same is true of social, and of governance,” he said.

Karaian has seen an interesting shift from ESG investors having to “needle” companies to change their behaviour to increased pressure from the government, employees, suppliers and customers, and the idea of stakeholder capitalism versus shareholder capitalism, which is pushing everyone in the same direction.

While government initiatives around ESG may have been put on a back burner during Covid, conversations are still likely to be happening at a company level. Islam says that the pandemic has made the channels of communication between employees and their bosses more fluid, allowing subjects that may have been left unsaid in an office environment to surface digitally. As a result, he believes that employees will have higher expectations of their bosses and their boards when it comes to the issues, like ESG, that matter to them.