WHERE HAVE ALL THE BRAVE BRANDS GONE? KIM DOUGLAS

WHERE HAVE ALL THE BRAVE BRANDS GONE? KIM DOUGLAS

What do Robin Williams, the World Cup, and Ebola all have in common? They were Google s three most searched terms in 2014. Not a single for-profit brand found itself in the top ten because of its marketing campaigns. Wondering why? Well, it might surprise some marketers to discover that consumers are not likely to go to the Internet for advertising. Brands and agencies that are committed to finding ways to enter their consumers always-on worlds have a special sort of bravery. They see in new technologies and media a call to step away from the familiarity of trusted messaging and media strategies, and to start experimenting with new, non-traditional marketing initiatives that thrive in the digital environment. Responding to that challenge means that they must welcome digital s unique opportunities versus simply repurposing existing assets from traditional channels. Brands that treat the Internet like a traditional advertising medium often irritate, rather than engage, people. As with the launching of any new medium, the first instinct is to adapt current media successes to the new channel. This horseless carriage thinking is why we still find YouTube pre-rolls (reformulated TV commercials) and banner ads (reformulated print ads) all over the Internet. But brands are slow to admit that these placements do not always work as well as they had hoped. Accepting disappointing returns on time, creative, energy, and media investments is not the brave course to follow. In a recent study of online ad viewership, over 50 percent of viewers across all age brackets found both targeted and non-targeted ads to be equally intrusive. Also noteworthy, the survey revealed that only 10 percent of respondents believe that online video advertising (despite its ease in audience targeting) is actually tailored to them correctly. 1 These numbers aren t new. Statistics and insights like these have been readily available for brands to digest and apply for some time now, yet adaptation to the changed environment has been slow. Perhaps this is because brands are overwhelmed by the barrage of digital opportunities; they ve gone from running print and broadcast campaigns to maintaining multiple social, digital, live streaming, print, and broadcast messages (often for the same budget). Often then, it seems that brand managers find themselves coping by becoming managers of agencies, rather than acting as marketing entrepreneurs pursuing clear visions of their brands futures. Brave brands see in new technologies and media a call to step away from the familiarity of trusted messaging and media strategies, and to start experimenting with new, non-traditional marketing initiatives that thrive in the digital environment. 1 PR Newswire. Younger Viewers Find Targeted Ads More Invasive Than Older Viewers. http://www.prnews wire.com/news-releases/younger-viewers-find-targeted-ads-more-invasive-than-older-viewers-267164601.html.

Power to the people Unfortunately for marketers, consumers have increasingly more control over how, when, and even if they see an advertisement online. A few clicks is all it takes to skip a YouTube pre-roll, hide a sponsored post on Facebook, or choose to pay for ad-free streaming. In short, digital audiences are not captive (and they know it), and they have the power to opt in and out of interruptive messaging. Consequently, brands that fail to meet one or another of the consumer s need states are struggling to make tried and tested offline advertising principles work in new, and very different, digital environments. Four consumer need states In our experience, there are four predominant needs that drive consumers to the web: information, service, entertainment, and social interaction. INFORMATION Google it! Information gathering is the highest rated category of people s time on the web. 91% go online to research 89% go online to remain informed 82% go online to educate themselves 2 ENTERTAINMENT Just for the fun of it. 84% of those surveyed claim to use the web primarily for entertainment, explaining why, every 60 seconds of every day: YouTube adds 72 hours of new videos 3 Instagram users upload 48,600 photos 4 And 15,000 tracks are downloaded from itunes 5 SERVICE Can I do it online? This is probably the consumer request heard most frequently by brands. Consumers expect: To perform offline functions online Brands to provide any service any time of day SOCIAL INTERACTION Making connections. Consumers look to the web to socialize, express themselves, and advocate personal belief systems. On a global scale, there are two-thirds as many active social media accounts (2.08 billion) as there are active Internet users (3.01 billion people). 6 2 Ruder Finn. RF Intent Index. http://www.intentindex.com/. Updated quarterly, accessed May 15, 2015. 3,4 Mashable. Internet Users Send 204 Million Emails Per Minute. http://mashable.com/2014/04/23/data-online- every-minute/. 5 Apple. itunes Store Sets New Record with 25 Billion Songs Sold. https://www.apple.com/sg/pr/library/2013/ 02/06iTunes-Store-Sets-New-Record-with-25-Billion-Songs-Sold.html. 6 We Are Social. Digital, Social & Mobile Worldwide in 2015. http://wearesocial.net/blog/2015/01/digital-social- mobile-worldwide-2015/.

So, what does a courageous brand look like? To be brave, brands need to re-evaluate their roles in both the online and offline lives of their consumers, a step often involving accepting difficult truths. Core organizational structures and the traditional funding practices of marketing are being challenged at the same time as demands for results are increasing. It s akin to changing the wheels while the car is moving, and it requires that brands become more flexible with their roles. Brave brands should envision how digital technology can facilitate always-on story systems, creating an optimal range of roles in consumers experiences. For instance, if your business relies on selling products, it is worth considering how your digital experience can provide a service layer that serves another need state. And vice versa. If you offer a service, think about what products can bolster that service to deliver scale and growth. Brave brands have removed their fingers from the triggers of purely traditional advertising scatterguns. They have embraced consumers newfound powers and have taken the time to understand need states before engaging consumers in a dialogue. Nike, for example, has repeatedly revolutionized its original brand offering over the past five years, shifting from ads to hardware and now to apps. Initially focused on producing ads about sportswear (as well as sponsorship), Nike started by building the Nike+ FuelBand, its proprietary hardware that directly provides consumers with relevant information about themselves. And as wearable devices continue to proliferate, Nike has now pivoted again toward software creation apps that live on other brands hardware to enhance its digital platform and engage its customers. With the launch of the Apple Watch, the Motorola Moto 360, and many others, Nike has an opportunity to put its brand on the wrists and in the real lives of aspiring and serious runners alike. Similarly, Spotify challenged Apple in music streaming by offering a music product more deeply founded upon the sharing economy, and capitalizing on social network integration, peer recommendations, and a freemium on-ramp monetization model. It has become a one-stop shop for listening to, sorting, and sharing music across devices, besting Apple s itunes in terms of revenue for some record labels at least in its European home market. 7 Focusing on a different need state, Red Bull has reimagined modern media practices by avoiding paid-for interruption entirely and moving into the production of entertainment itself. The brand has become a major producer of content through initiatives such as Red Bull Rampage, Red Bull Stratos, and regular live experiences that generate tremendous digital activity and engagement. 7 Macrumors. Spotify Approaching 10M Paying Users, Revenue May Soon Surpass itunes in Europe. http://www.macrumors.com/2014/04/25/spotify-10-million-europe-itunes/.

Both Samsung and Cheerios found social media success with quick-witted (and subsequently viral) responses to the 2014 Oscar Awards and 2015 Super Bowl. The Samsung ad a photo by Oscar host, Ellen DeGeneres had twelve A-list stars in it and leveraged the event s real-time audience to generate 3.3 million retweets and 2 million favorites. It also briefly crashed Twitter s servers. The photo was taken by a device made by Samsung (the main sponsor that year) and they claimed it was unplanned. Cheerios also cleverly chose a real-time moment to promote its trademark product: When New England s Malcolm Butler picked off a pass by Russell Wilson at the goal line to seal a win in the 2015 Super Bowl game for the Patriots. At that moment, Cheerios tweeted an image of its renowned cereal (shaped like an O ), along with the caption Everyone's mouth right now. Both Samsung and Cheerios accomplished their marketing not through traditional ads, but rather by being ready to seize a momentary opportunity during live cultural events and appealing to consumers delight in social interaction. All of these brands have found success by identifying a gap and inserting themselves authentically into consumers online conversations. FIGURE01 Lufthansa s Travel Companion platform built for the Apple Watch and for the iphone and ipad is a great example of digital technology facilitating always-on Story Systems. The watch app, in particular, is a seamless, hands-free way of providing upcoming flight information such as the terminal, boarding time or seat number.

Five points for creating a brave brand Brands and their agencies should approach the Internet holistically. The process of creating an effective online presence shouldn t be seen merely as a list of tasks or channels that have to be checked off. UNDERSTAND CONSUMERS NEEDS 1Most paramount is to genuinely understand the needs of the consumer. Over the past decade, we ve seen the refinement and application of many new methods of consumer research. The first step for a brave brand is to develop a rich understanding of its consumers met and un-met needs, attitudes, and behaviors. For this, brave brands use a mix of online and offline methods, including instrumented intelligence (directly measured activity on smartphones and in physical spaces), ethnography techniques, instant online surveys and focus groups, and many other methods. RETHINK YOUR BRAND S OFFERINGS THINK PLATFORMS, NOT ADS 3Investing in new digital platforms requires a different timeline than traditional media spend. It took Nike five years to build the different elements of the Nike+ digital platform connecting wristbands, an owned online platform, social network functionality, and thirdparty hardware and sensors. These types of opportunities in digital require a multiyear vision and ongoing investment. Digital platforms typically live on for months or years, making it no trivial thing to shut down the products, services, and communities that people love. Successful Storyscapes have long-term visions that deliver on a wider brand purpose, and their business case. 2Your brand s products and/or services should acknowledge consumer needs. If those are not being met, rethink your brand s strategy the center should be around the consumer. Indeed, a great brand will build a world around the consumer, ensuring that all touchpoints are interconnected to create a seamless experience. At SapientNitro, we call this our Storyscaping approach.

DO SOMETHING SIGNIFICANTLY DIFFERENT 4Do not be satisfied with a 2 percent increment here or a 3 percent growth spurt there. Creating a great brand via the Internet is not solely about technology, platforms, or software. Instead, commit to a different relationship with your consumers online and beyond. Brave brands combine consumer insight with strategy to rethink how and where the firm can best compete and then support that positioning with investment not only in traditional media, but also in technology, new product development, and digital modernization. TEST, LEARN, AND ADAPT 5The greatest lesson of successful online branding is to be immensely agile. Test, learn, and build organizational changes around this new way of behaving. Use every step and misstep to guide your company forward, and consistently strive to be ahead of your brand s sector. Otherwise, despite the transformations, your brand will find itself struggling to keep up. Conclusion Traditional advertising has been called selling through yelling, and one of the reasons why brands struggle is because they continue to focus on pushing messages out. Today, making an impact requires a relationship with pull. This approach strengthens brands connections with their consumers and the benefits it can bring; loyalty, relevance, and engagement are the rewards for those brands brave enough to reduce their traditional message out approaches. In the age of the interconnected, brave brands need to be acutely empathetic with their consumers a timeless concept in new contexts. Brands with a successful and welcomed digital presence understand how their products are integrated into people s lives and are taking critical risks to evolve their ways in. More so, they are aware of digital s current role and the future role that it could play in enhancing consumers experiences and interactions.

Kim Douglas Vice President, Managing Director, SapientNitro Singapore & Hong Kong kdouglas@sapient.com Kim has spent some 20 years in advertising agencies and has been the MD for the last 5 years. His primary focus today is growing our business across APAC out of the region s HQ in Singapore. INSIGHTS WHERE TECHNOLOGY & STORY MEET The Insights publication features the marketing intelligence, trend forecasts, and innovative recommendations of boundary-breaking thought leaders. The SapientNitro Insights app brings that provocative collection now in its digital form to your on-the-go fingertips. Download the full report at sapientnitro.com/insights and, for additional interactive and related content, download the SapientNitro Insights app. SapientNitro, part of Publicis.Sapient, is a new breed of agency redefining storytelling for an always-on world. We re changing the way our clients engage today s connected consumers by uniquely creating integrated, immersive stories across brand communications, digital engagement, and omnichannel commerce. We call it our Storyscaping approach, where art and imagination meet the power and scale of systems thinking. SapientNitro s unique combination of creative, brand, and technology expertise results in one global team collaborating across disciplines, perspectives, and continents to create game-changing success for our Global 1000 clients, such as Chrysler, Citi, The Coca-Cola Company, Lufthansa, Target, and Vodafone, in thirty-one cities across The Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. For more information, visit www.sapientnitro.com. SapientNitro and Storyscaping are registered service marks of Sapient Corporation. COPYRIGHT 2015 SAPIENT CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.