As part of the Connection Strategy work I do at Huge, I've written a few documents that outline my point of view on how brands can engage people more effectively. This particular doc got a lot of traction when I wrote the first version several years ago, so i figured I'd share it. I've updated the charts to reflect most recent data. My background in comms planning and media helps provide some context for this approach - which proposes a theory that scaled communication, if planned properly by integrated teams, can come from highly creative, high-touch consumer experiences instead of replying on the conventional paid commercial advertising approach. This approach is now viable thanks to a few emergent factors:
Technology has fundamentally shifted the media landscape, and our behavior within it. The demographic composition of the country is changing - with that, consumer attitudes, values and behaviors are evolving, and our relationships with brands are deepening; the age of the customer. Audiences are also outsmarting agencies and brands: filtering, avoiding, and blocking brand advertising. This means advertising reach, scale and impression tonnage are becoming less relevant - suggesting that conventional advertising is no longer the effective marketing lever it once was. Moreover, people are now willing to participate with brands via genuine, opt-in, high-touch experiences, made possible thanks to adoption of technology, bandwidth ubiquity and connected data. Such experiences become marketing assets in and of themselves, amplified by communication, replacing commercial ad-tonnage.
To achieve this type of work, you need truly integrated disciplines that can build for the entire ecosystem; from products, technology, editorial, production, experiences, data, measurement and so on. If you're interested in doing this type of work, or if you'd like me to do a talk, then drop me an email.
4. ‘Push’ marketing as we know it, exists largely because of TV.
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
% total time spent with media18+.
TV
MOBILE
DESK/LAPTOP
RADIO
NEWSPAPERS
MAGAZINES
Source: eMarketer
| mwaghorn@hugeinc.com
5. Yet this approach is becoming increasingly ineffective.
$72.7bn
US TV ad spend in 2017, a
third of all US paid media.
85%
Of people skip pre-roll ads after
the first five-seconds.
Of people recall less than five ads
they’ve seen in the past week.
68%
Source: PWC, ORC international 2016, Mediapost
| mwaghorn@hugeinc.com
7. But that was back in 1999.
Source Box Office Mojo, SNL Kagan, John Landgraf, KPCB, Forbes
| mwaghorn@hugeinc.com
8. We’ve reached an inflection point.
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
TV Radio Print Other Digital
US share of average time spent with major media 2011 - 2016
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Source: eMarketer
| mwaghorn@hugeinc.com
9. And digital ‘push’ advertising has a serious problem.
| mwaghorn@hugeinc.com
10. The industry is beginning to take notice.
It’s time to grow up,
it’s time for action.
There’s no good aspect to [ads], and
anything they are doing now is
hurting the user experience and the
value of brands.
Digital tools have arisen that do what
advertising does, only better. The ad
model has begun to fray.
| mwaghorn@hugeinc.com
11. Meanwhile, US population demographics are shifting.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
2014 2028 2036 2050
Projected population by generation
Source: US CENSUS 2014, FUNG global 2017
Millions
SILENT
BOOMER
GEN X
MILLENIAL
GENZ
| mwaghorn@hugeinc.com
12. We are connecting to the world around us in new ways.
We’re now willing and able to connect with
brands in ways that go beyond the
purchase of their base products & services.
Technology connects us together in the
‘anticipated future memory’ - the
experiencing self and the remembering self.
We are connected to individual influencers
who are steadily replacing conventional
publishers as lifestyle authorities.
| mwaghorn@hugeinc.com
13. We’re moving into the “Attention Economy”.
Neural plasticity.
Building new neural pathways to meet the needs of digital literacy over
traditional literacy. Trading in memory functions and attention span to
support information overload and multi-tasking;
Bombarded with up to 3,000 brand impressions a day, human
attention has become the limiting factor in our
consumption of information.
Attention scarcity.
| mwaghorn@hugeinc.com
14. “If you don’t add
value to people’s lives,
I don’t really give two
shits about your
advertising.”
Will.I.am
| mwaghorn@hugeinc.com
15. Digital
distinction will
soon dissolve.
As media & technology
become more intimate,
brands can now become
active participants in our
lives.
Technology permeating
our world.
| mwaghorn@hugeinc.com
18. Dietrich Mateschitz.
“It’s about philosophy
and how to look upon
the world, rather than
pure marketing for
consumer goods”
| mwaghorn@hugeinc.com
19. Jumbo Wild
1% for the planet.
“Build the best product, cause no
unnecessary harm, use business to
inspire and implement solutions to
the environmental crisis.”
Patagonia.
| mwaghorn@hugeinc.com
20. It’s about experiences, designed
simply to engage people in the brand’s
philosophy, not to drive direct revenue.
| mwaghorn@hugeinc.com
21. Common ingredients of Experience Advertising.
1. Sensorial.
2. Shareable.
3. Participatory.
4. Useful.
| mwaghorn@hugeinc.com
28. Achieving credible scale through Experience Advertising.
Brand Story Experience
Bona fide
Propagation
Paid amplification
• Sensorial
• Shareable
• Participatory
• Useful
Redistributed via digital
ecosystem, gaining cultural
momentum in the process.
Paid media used to connect
with new audiences, achieving
incremental scale.
| mwaghorn@hugeinc.com
29. How ExpAd differs from the traditional approach.
Brand Story Experience
Bona fide
propagation
Paid amplification
Brand Story Ads Paid amplification
Experience Advertising
Tradition Advertising
| mwaghorn@hugeinc.com
30. Flipping the ad-model.
Genuine, participatory experience
rooted in their brand story that
doesn’t feel like advertising.
Powered by technology and
leveraging predictable social media
behavior.
Amplified to scale through paid.
Example: Coca-Cola, global.
| mwaghorn@hugeinc.com
31. Summary.
1. Technology has fundamentally shifted both the media landscape and human behavior.
2. The demographic composition of the country is changing.
3. Consumer attitudes, values and behaviors are evolving.
4. Our relationships with brands are deepening: the age of the customer.
5. Audiences are outsmarting agencies and brands: filtering, avoiding, blocking.
6. Advertising reach, scale and impression tonnage are becoming less relevant.
7. Conventional advertising is no longer the effective marketing lever it once was.
8. People now enjoy brands via genuine, opt-in, high-touch experiences.
9. Exceptional experiences are made possible thanks to today’s technology.
10.These experiences become marketing assets, amplified by communication, replacing commercial ad-tonnage.
| mwaghorn@hugeinc.com