Digital tightens its grip
So digital came along and blew away the old ways of doing things; stretched budgets and challenged marketers to come out of the bunker and get on board. Trouble is, the certainties of a world where things were fairly stable for a longish period have been replaced by the ever-changing, fast-moving, constantly evolving creative and distributive environment.
Data crashes around at a bewildering rate, there are social media networks springing up like weeds and the kids are savvier than ever.
If we can cut a way through the vast amount of chatter, this is an opportunity to steer a true course using content as it’s always been used by marketers to tell a story about a brand.
Content creation – copy, music, photography, film – still relies on creativity, vision, energy. But the tools for making content, like Go Pros, After Effects, Quad Copters (in the video production industry), have changed and are expanding what we can produce in a pulse tingling way.
But it’s the distribution of content that has turned it all on its head.
Once unleashed into the networks content operates and impacts differently than before the rise and rise of digital, because its potential to reach a global audience is real and that audience can interact in a way that was unimaginable two decades ago.
So where does this leave brand marketing? As Kevin Gibbons outlines in his great article: coming up with the story, sticking to task once the narrative is started, planning its distribution and working with talented specialists, both to produce content and to seed it, with great measurement tools in place to track its course is the way to go.
Good luck to us all in 2014!