Andrew Challier, Director, Client Relations at Ebiquity spoke at Ad:Tech in October 2014. With the evolution in digital marketing very much on the Ad:Tech agenda, here Andrew looks at the current digital landscape and argues that there's still some growing up to do.

1. THE CURRENT DIGITAL MEDIA LANDSCAPE:
PUBESCENT OR ADOLESCENT?
THE TRANSITION TO DIGITAL ‘ADULTHOOD’
October 2014

2. KEY ISSUES: THE TRANSITION TO DIGITAL ‘ADULTHOOD’
The continued themes of conference agendas and
marketing trade press could easily convince us that the
digital age has completely and irrevocably left the old
(traditional media) world behind.
We’re told “The future is digital”
But..
For this to be true, we really have to suspend our critical
faculties. We could argue that “The future is digital…but
the present isn’t”
Some examples…
The future’s bright, but…

3. KEY ISSUES: THE TRANSITION TO DIGITAL ‘ADULTHOOD’
Some examples…
Newspaper circulation in China
is actually increasing.

4. KEY ISSUES: THE TRANSITION TO DIGITAL ‘ADULTHOOD’
85% of UK TV viewers still watch
TV ‘live’.
Some examples…

5. KEY ISSUES: THE TRANSITION TO DIGITAL ‘ADULTHOOD’
Some examples…
In the US, offline retail sales
still outnumber their online
cousins roughly 10:1.

6. KEY ISSUES: THE TRANSITION TO DIGITAL ‘ADULTHOOD’
So what are marketers actually struggling with?
In short, an interim, hybrid environment; a
stage of evolution we might term, if not
digital ‘pubescence’, certainly digital
‘adolescence’.
And anyone who knows or has been the
parent of a pubescent or adolescent child,
managing the behaviour – simply knowing
what to say or do – can be an almost
unfathomable challenge.
How marketers set themselves up for the
future and transition to digital ‘adulthood’
and ‘maturity’ will depend on how they
deal with the following three key issues…

7. ISSUE 1
Data: Too much?
For most marketers, there is
no shortage of data. In fact it’s
the opposite: too much data.
Collected from too many
disparate systems, which don’t
talk to each other and from
which it’s hard to work out
what’s working and what is
not.

8. Marketers need to be much more
active in defining the vision and
tactics necessary to drive structure
from their vast - but often
fragmented and unstructured - data
set(s) in order to provide the most
relevant content to consumers
across all key touchpoints; whether
Web, Mobile Apps, Mobile Sites,
Email, Display or POS
ISSUE 1 continued…
Data: Creating structure

9. ISSUE 1 continued…
Data: Sharing
Ensure the customer data that marketers
collate (and own) is properly shepherded.
In the past, no self-respecting marketer
would have considered sharing the
innermost secrets of their customer
databases with a third party agency and,
potentially, their competitors.
And yet this is effectively happening
everyday with programmatic buying of
digital media: it will be up to marketers to
alert their own businesses to assess the
possible threat this poses and, once again,
help those business determine the strategy
to control it.

10. Accountability Measurement: The revolution
Marketing accountability is also
undergoing a revolution. Byron
Sharp’s ‘medieval medicine’ analogy
(to describe the ways in which
marketing has been assessed in the
past) conceals a dismal – and maybe
terminal - prognosis for marketers
who are unwilling or unable to
embrace true accountability and
who remain attached to what he
describes as outdated and incorrect
marketing orthodoxy.
ISSUE 2

11. ISSUE 2 continued…
Accountability Measurement: ROI
We are fast approaching a time (we
aren’t quite there yet) when the true
value of a brand can be measured,
and the causative factors behind
brand and business performance
properly identified.
This moves marketers far beyond a
simple ROI justification of media
investment. Instead, it creates an
imperative for marketers to be more
questioning of what they measure. In
the future, “Measure what matters,
not just what you can” will be a
marketing mantra.

12. Accountability Measurement: TV vs. Digital
Current concerns about the lack of
transparency in programmatic buying of
digital display (or Real Time Bidding) are
set to pale into insignificance when the
TV market replicates the digital model.
It may be 5 years away, but it is coming:
at which point, the data ownership
challenges outlined earlier acquire
added significance.
ISSUE 2 continued…

13. ISSUE 3
Organisational Structure: What’s new?
Debating just how many Marketing Ps there
are today seems a popular game within the
marketing community.
The reality is that Product, Place, Price and
Promotion still pass the stress test, and most
of the new Ps are merely subsets of one or
other.
What is new and different is the organisational
interdependency that modern marketing
requires, and which doesn’t exist in so many
businesses.

14. Organisational Structure: Brand Guardians
With consumer access to so much
comparative data for products and
prices, along with a social media
feedback loop with the power to
coronate or crucify, the role of
marketer as ‘guardian of the brand’
in all its guises should be in the
ascendant.
ISSUE 3 continued…

15. ISSUE 3 continued…
Organisational Structure: A true CMO
Businesses need to understand that
a CMO who is only really the Chief
Media Officer is always going to be
one or two steps behind the savvy
consumer: and marketers who can
persuade their businesses of the
need for marketing to play a decisive
role in all 4 P’s will be the vanguard
CMOs of the future.

16. KEY ISSUES: THE TRANSITION TO DIGITAL ‘ADULTHOOD’
About us
About Ebiquity
Ebiquity are independent marketing performance specialists.
We enable brands across the world to make better informed
decisions to improve their brands and business performance
across integrated communications channels.
Market Intelligence
Monitoring and insight to provide the competitor intelligence
necessary for effective comms planning.
Media Value Measurement
Research and analytics to improve the impact of activity on
core performance metrics.
Marketing Performance Optimization
Proprietary tools and services to hold agencies to account
and improve transparency and media performance.
About the author
Andrew Challier is Director, Client Relations at
Ebiquity and joined the business in 2007. He
previously held Director level positions at Marks
& Spencer, Verdict Research and Ninah
Consulting. With a pedigree encompassing
both client-side and consultancy experience,
and having spent many years advising clients
on Marketing Effectiveness issues, Andrew
brings a results-orientated and client-focused
perspective to the challenge of helping
businesses make better marketing decisions.
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