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Inaugural Inclusion & Trust in Media Survey 2022

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The World Media Group (WMG) together with The Third Culture and the Brixton Finishing School would like you to participate in our first-ever industry survey on Inclusion & Trust on the commercial side of the media industry. If you work in the advertising industry, on the client or brand side, in a media agency, a creative agency, or at a media company or if you are thinking of a career in the sector, we would like to hear from you.

Our goal is to better understand culture, diversity and inclusion in general and then specifically how that impacts on the WMG member organisations compared with other media companies.

We want to use the survey results to provide us with an idea of how we might be performing in driving inclusion and trust and we would like to set benchmarks for the future.

The survey is being conducted in accordance with UK GDPR, the Equality Act 2010 and the Data Protection Act 2018. Responses are anonymous and will be treated as aggregates and used for research purposes by World Media Group board members to drive positive action in the area of diversity and inclusion.

There is a link to an external site at the end of the survey where you can enter a lucky draw to win a £100 Amazon voucher as a thank you for filling in this survey in accordance with the World Media Group Privacy Policy. Data will not be stored or used other than for the purposes of the lucky draw and will be deleted after the draw.

This survey is being conducted with the help of The Third Culture, a management consultancy that is focused on the area of organisational culture, diversity and inclusion.

Brixton Finishing School is an award-winning employment programme that offers a range of free online and in-person courses designed to upskill and support the employment of talent from underrepresented backgrounds.

Thank you for your support.  To take part in the survey click HERE[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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.

 

New Survey into Content-driven Marketing Shows Engagement Metrics are Still Viewed as Less Important than Traditional Brand Measures

A new survey from the World Media Group (a strategic alliance of the world’s leading media brands) into content-led marketing shows that, although marketers are most likely to be using content-driven campaigns for brand engagement, they are not using engagement metrics as their primary KPIs. The survey questioned key influencers across advertisers, agencies, media brands and consultants.

It was carried out by the World Media Group (whose members include The Atlantic, Bloomberg Media Group, The Economist, Forbes, Fortune, National Geographic, Reuters, The New York Times, Time, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post) to provide context for its World Media Awards for cross-border, cross-channel content campaigns which close for entry on 7th February 2019. Its findings demonstrate that 49% of all respondents believe ‘brand engagement’ is content’s key strength (rising to 60% for advertisers), significantly higher than ‘changing perceptions’ at 28% and ‘building awareness at 17%’.

Content campaigns are being evaluated using traditional ad measurements: However, despite this it appears that marketers across the board are not yet focused on evaluating content campaigns against engagement metrics and are still favouring more traditional brand measures as KPIs. Twenty-six percent of respondents cite increased brand awareness as the main KPI they used to measure their most recent campaign, followed by measuring shifts in brand perception (25%). The first engagement metric comes in third with ‘time spent with content’ being used by 20% of respondents as their main KPI.

Content-led advertising set for continued growth: The good news is that content-driven marketing will continue its ascendancy, with 78% of respondents(and 85% of agencies) believing it will grow over the next two years, 18% feeling that it will stabilise and only 5% that it will decline. Agencies may have been later to market in developing their own brand studios and so are looking to drive more growth in the area but are going to have to work much harder as the market becomes increasingly cluttered. Overall, a whopping 45% of respondents said that >50% of the campaigns they work on are now content-driven.

Getting the environment/platform right is biggest contributor to a campaign’s success: Seventy-one percent of respondents scored story as the most important factor when creating a content-led campaign, followed by authenticity (62%) and creative execution (38%). However, when drilled further on what factors contribute most to a campaign’s success once the story has been created, 66% of respondents said that matching the environment/platform to the audience is the single biggest contributor. The second highest scoring factor was brand alignment, meaning that the content has to make sense for the brand or product. Third on the list was ‘content with rich legs’, whereby content is ‘evergreen’ and so stays relevant for a long time.

Short form video is biggest trend but VR/AR the most exciting: The strongest trend for content over the next 12 months is the use of short form videos, with 69% of respondents predicting they will be using them more. This is likely to be in a bid to improve completion rates but will be challenging for agencies and media brands tasked with building compelling and engaging stories in under 60 seconds – and some say this tackles consumer engagement the wrong way, with more informative and entertaining content being a better solution.Looking at other trends, 58% predict the use of more editorial style content and 56% expect to increase their use of social media posts.

When asked for the content marketing trend that most excites them, VR (virtual reality)/AR (augmented reality) received the highest number of mentions, followed by audio/podcast/voice-related content and the opportunities afforded by personalisation, strategy and data.

A credible editorial environment is key: However, the excitement around visualisation techniques like VR appears to be ahead of reality. When asked about the factors to look for when selecting a lead media partner, their ability to offer VR came last, only named by just under 3% of respondents. In fact, top of the list at 72% was provision of a credible editorial environment, followed by quality of audience engagement at 65% and audience profile at 63%.

Alex Delamain, newly appointed President of the World Media Group and SVP, Head of Client Sales and Services at The Economist, says,“The fact that advertisers and agencies expect investment in content-driven marketing to grow reflects our own experience at the World Media Awards where we have seen a rise in the number and quality of entries we receive every year. But what is really interesting is that they are recognising the impact of quality journalism on content campaigns. This sentiment matches independent research carried out by Moat last year which confirmed that readers display higher attention levels when viewing content within a trusted editorial environment.”

Who’s to blame when content campaigns go wrong?: While the World Media Awards are looking for entries from campaigns that are at the pinnacle of content-led, cross-border campaigns, at the other end of the scale it is interesting to look at who is seen to be at fault when campaigns fail to deliver. It seems that in this case everyone blames everyone else. For advertisers the blame lies predominantly in failings with the creative (32%). However, agencies blame poor strategy (30%) and lack of media support (22%), while media brands see the fault also lying in poor strategy (37%) or being given a bad brief (21%).

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Media contact:
Susan Perolls at Loudmouth PR: T 020 7274 0925, M 07904 236060, E susanp@loudmouthpr.co.uk

About the research: The World Media Group carried out the online survey from 5th November to 5th December. There was a total of 176 responders, with 86% from Europe and the remaining 14% from the USA/Canada, Australasia, Africa and the Middle East. Respondents were key influencers with 48% from agencies, 37% from media brand studios, 13% were advertisers and 3% were consultants.

About the World Media Group: It is a strategic alliance of the world’s leading publications which incorporates The Atlantic, Bloomberg Media Group, The Economist, Forbes, Fortune, National Geographic, Reuters, The New York Times, Time, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and associate members: Moat,Smartology and The Smithsonian. Its aim is to promote award-winning journalism and the role of international media. Visit www.world-media-group.com for further information.