Branded content is made by specialised agencies such as Truly Madly and The ViralFever ( TVF ). Most advertisers still consider TV as a premium medium and will not pay even a fraction of the TV spends for online video production. Some online videos may hit a sixer. They go viral too. They are much more effective than TV Commercials. Branded content is a whole new animal. It may work for a certain market community or genre, and may not work for the other. In content marketing, brief is not sacrosanct. The production may deviate from the brief. Key online content creators would charge a couple of years ago around Rs. 5 lac for a video. The price has now risen to Rs. 25 lac per video. The top players reap high margins because the production cost has not increased much. These creators are not motivated by money alone. An advertiser must pitch the brand relevance to them. They can then pitch ideas for you.
Month: March 2016
Co-bots : Collaborative Robots
On the shop floor, new workers have been introduced — they are collaborative robots called in short co-bots. These machines are designed to work with humans and assist them in a variety of tasks. They are used in automative, food processing, electronics, metals and machining and pharma industries. Co-bots have been an invention from the R & D labs of Universal Robots, a Danish robot manufacturer. Bajaj in India uses co-bots for different applications — deburring, vision application, bolt tightening, sealant application, machine tending, welding etc. There is an intuitive software to mechanise robots, and even the most inexperienced user can quickly grasp the basics of programming and set waypoints by simply moving the robot into position. J & J introduced robot technology in its shampoo production line to rid the workers of repetitive tasks. Robotics will be applied extensively in warehousing networks. Universal Robots is targeting the SME sector. Co-bots are being used universally for multiple purposes — photo shoots,bartending and even physiotherapy. They are used even in robotic kitchens.
Design Thinking
Design Thinking has one purpose — to make the market simplified, by going to the first order of innovation. Design Thinking always moves from the first-order and proceeds to second and third order. It is to be seen how to make the human mind to go to the first-order. You have to prepare the design mind. Generally, in product design, we start designing from the current state, which could be third state, or fourth or fifth. The efficiency that could come when it starts from the first-order will not be visible.
There are four stages of Design Thinking. The first stage is to understanding better. You can do so by observing patterns, connecting the dots and unearthing the blind spots. The second stage is to apply the Desirability. The third stage is to assess technological Feasibility. The fourth stage is to see the Viability. This is going back to Standford Model of Ideo. After examining whether the product has desirability, feasibility and viability, it is to be seen at what price point it can be given and at what performance level. Here onwards, the business design space begins. It is to be seen what is the mystery in the market place. This mystery is to be convereted into heuristics. That is to be converted into algorithm. Mystry, Heuristics and Algorithm are the three vertical pillars of design.
The design has five elements:
- Right Skills
- Right expertise
- Right perspectives
- Right ideas
- You align them together.
There is an emotional layer on the design along with the skill layer. The emotional layer has five frictional forces — doubt, conflict, anger, fear and ego.
Design Thinking cannot be a dated concept anytime. It does not have a shelf-life. It is a way of life.
Design Thinking has three dimensions, one — the desirability or the end-user dimension, the feasibility or the engineering technology dimension, the viability which is the economic or value dimension.
Changing Role of Brand Managers
Brand managers used to do marketing budget allocation. Traditional methodologies such as marketing mix modelling and digital attribution depended on the analysis of historical data to understand the drivers of ROI. This learning was used to make better decisions for the next quarter.
These days the channels have expanded . Consumer behaviour, competitive strategies and marketing spends of competitors are in a state of flux. It is difficult to keep track of this dynamic marketing environment for a brand manager. Online media buying avails of programmatic. Similar approaches are being tried in the areas of market budget allocation. That improves the result significantly.
Big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning ( ML ) are the game changers. The role of the brand manager has changed in the last five years. There are more channels of distribution. Decisions are to be made at a faster pace. In brand marketing, AI and ML have acquired a bigger role. They have automated decisions. In future instead of the analytical skills, the brand managers will focus on creative side . Data driven decision will be made by AI and ML-enabled machines.
Moving from Traditional to the New World
Advertising was a mad world, and the business was entrusted to mad men. Of late, advertising is shifting to maths men. Big Blue has built Interactive Experience the world’s largest digital agency. Deloitte has set up Deloitte Digital and Accenture has started Accenture Interactive. Sapient has entered the digital arena. A single click provides the brand experience that has been promoted meticulously through brand story in mass media. There has to be a consistency between what is being promoted and the brand experience on the digital media.
Tech firms bring their capability in analysis and insights. They can guide the company in new product development. They can be true marketing partners to the CEOs. Tech firms formerly used to hire engineers and MBAs, but these days they hire designers. Design thinking is the in-thing. Tech firms in ad business just do not rely on intuition. They rely more on science.
It does not mean the death of the large agencies, but it means the death of the working style of the large agencies.
Still the tech giants are not the first port of call for marketing solutions. However, things are changing very fast.
Digital agencies are dealing with CMOs and CFOs. They use technology to understand and discover user preferences and then deliver the right level of experience.
In design thinking the approach is not piecemeal but holistic. There could be a new way of discovering a problem and finding its solution. In selling diapers, you can use the whole processers of conception, delivery and growing up of the baby. In this process of rearing up the child, you may need diapers, wipes and gripe water. The foundation is big data which is analysed to understand the problem.
Video Marketing
Digital customer is connected. It has led to the changes the way digital marketing is handled. As usual customers are not interested in the hard sell. They would like to know how far that works for them. Video marketing is a tool to achieve this. To break the clutter, the customer is inclined to press the play button. This trend of video marketing is of recent origin. Business to business marketing used video to attract the audience and to distinguish the message. In 2015, Facebook played over eight billion videos. Internet traffic in future is going to stream videos increasingly. Video enhances the journey of the customer. It is not plain advertising but is storytelling. Videos should be convincing. They should be kept short and suggest the steps which ultimately lead to action. While scrolling the feed, videos now auto play without the audio. Therefore, the initial visuals must be attention grabbing. Videos based on emotions have a more lasting impact on the consumers. The campaigns are becoming participative.