• Tuesday, April 30, 2024
businessday logo

BusinessDay

The year ahead for media agencies

businessday-icon

Another year is over, and what a great one 2014 was for the media industry. Without doubt, it was one of the most dynamic and exciting for many years: the rise of programmatic marketing, the data management platform (DMP) becoming a reality and some of the best creatively driven media work being produced that we have ever seen.

And now we head into another year full of anticipation and enthusiasm. There’s lots going on, lots to think about and lots to do. The media agencies are at the forefront of fundamental shifts in the marketing industry, and companies that embrace these changes with open arms will succeed.

While there are many things to focus on in 2015, here are what I think the key priorities will be.

It’s all about content

The importance of creating engaging content has never been so great. Every minute, 100 new hours of video are uploaded to YouTube, 216,000 photos are shared on Instagram, there are 41,000 new Facebook posts and 278,000 new Tweets. And let’s not forget the thousands of hours of brilliant TV, radio, film, magazine articles and books. Our love affair with content shows no signs of abating as we now share a staggering 27 million pieces of it every day.

Read also: Cabinet delay: Media agencies fear effect on companies’ marketing budgets

As for content marketing, searches are up 450 percent since 2011, and 78 percent of chief marketing officers say content is the future of our industry, with more than half indicating that they will increase their investment in content for 2014 and beyond.

But what do we mean by content? At Omnicom Media Group UK, we define content as something you choose to engage with and that rewards you with something of value – whether that’s entertainment, knowledge or utility.

At Drum (OMG’s content arm), we have developed a clear guide to creating content that encourages people to get engaged. Key pointers are:

•Be a part of what interests people.

•Have a clearly defined role for content.

•Mean more to fewer.

•Be true to your brand.

•Think about distribution from the start.

•Leverage talent and their fans.

•Consumers need to be actors as well as the audience.

•Act at the speed of culture.

•Collaborate to create.

•Measure success differently.

We know that content is one of the most effective ways of telling a brand’s story and building a meaningful re­lationship with an audience. Having the skills, people and knowledge to develop and distribute content will be a critical part of our industry’s success.

Leveraging data investment

If both 2013 and 2014 were about investing in our data infrastructure and architecture, 2015 will be about how we leverage the investment we have made to benefit our clients and de­liver even more effective campaigns.

The DMP is now allowing us to deliver more complex models, using more data in a more agile and frequent way.

Focusing on outcomes for our clients’ businesses through the fusion of DMP outputs and programmatic buys will become commonplace. In 2013, 29 percent of the total UK online display market was traded programmatically (£500 million); in 2014, this has been predicted to rise to 46 percent.

And what’s really exciting is that it’s not just digital inventory that will be part of this development but other areas of media such as out-of-home that will form a major part of the future programmatic roadmap.

However, with all the data we now have access to, it’s critical for any media business that we employ teams of experienced data scientists to make sense of the data and develop new data products.

And, finally, leveraging real-time learnings to enable us to deliver real-time content messages through a creative optimisation platform will transform the way we distribute content. An exciting development for all involved.