Could The Marriage Of Marketing Fundamentals And Digital Technology Be A Happy One?

One of the unintended consequences of the vast river of information flowing through the internet is our increasing tendency to oversimplify things.

Overwhelmed and over stimulated, we scan for the headline and take refuge in channels like Facebook that echo our existing opinions and enable our collective outrage.

This environment tends to breed overly controversialist style debate where people are quick to take up an opposing position.  

In our industry, it tends to manifest in the ‘Traditional Vs Digital’ argument: “TV is dead”; “Traditional advertising doesn’t work”; “Social media is a waste of time”.

‘Traditional Vs Digital’ is an illogical argument for a number of reasons, however what’s most frustrating, is it encourages the kind of binary thinking that either disregards basic marketing fundamentals, or dismisses the potential opportunities that digital channels provide.

With the industry already ducking a few digital hand grenades this year, 2017 just might be the one when marketing theory makes a triumphant return, except this time in tight jeans and with a hipster beard. There is a creeping sense of permissibility, which means we can question some of the digital evangelising that goes on without fear of being branded a luddite, and focus discussion on relevant marketing fundamentals that have become annoyingly unfashionable.

At the same time, it’s impossible not to be excited about the opportunities that technology unlocks. Transferring money across the world through a Messenger bot. Scaling one to one customer communications. Creating immersive experiences that leave a lasting impression.

And then there’s the incredible impact on our way of working. Digital technology both demands and enables us to work differently - to be more nimble and collaborative. Brands that once made decisions through lengthy chains of command, are looking at evolving their structures and processes to enable greater responsiveness.

So instead of this versus that, our focus should be on borrowing the best, most relevant and critically evaluated ways of thinking, working and executing from either side of the imaginary divide.

To use an old Darwinian phrase, we need to be adaptive. Keep what works, question what’s no longer serving us, and explore new modes of thinking with a critical mind.

One thing that hasn’t changed is the potential of creativity. Many memorable campaigns, articles on big data and IPA studies later, genuinely heart stopping creativity is still the most proven way (notice I didn’t say the only way) to build successful brands that sell more.

People are exposed to thousands of messages every day. There are literally hundreds of thousands of brands competing for our attention, which means we need to do everything in our power to build brand salience.

And in an environment where attention is a scarce, we need to do it at speed.

Snapchat ads average a 3 second view. 47% of consumers expect a webpage to load in 2 seconds. Facebook users spend an average of 1.7 seconds with content on mobile. You have 1.5-3 seconds to capture someone with digital outdoor. I’m not suggesting all placements are equal when it comes to worshipping at the altar of attention. Only that no matter what you have to say, you need to do it quickly and make a mark.

Generating some kind of emotional response through creative work that resonates goes a long way towards making our brand easier to remember. The challenge is the limited time we have to forge an impression.

The good news is that our brain is capable of processing information at great speed. And it’s getting faster.

If you’re familiar with behavioural economist Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow, you’ll know that most of our decisions, including the majority of our purchasing ones, are made based on what he famously termed System One thinking – rapid, intuitive decisionmaking without thinking.

Most advertising messages are synthesised by this so called autopilot system. It processes every bit of information perceived by our senses at an estimated rate of 11 million bits per second.

So yes, we need to deliver our messages in seconds. And yes, our messages need to be well branded.

While we should always be striving to steal someone’s attention, it’s getting harder and harder to convince people to spend time with us. We need to maximise our chance of being remembered even if we don’t have someone’s conscious attention.

Because although audiences might scroll or swipe quickly past an image in a Facebook feed, or in a Snapchat story, people are still capable of processing our brand, even if they see it for a just a second.

The trick is making sure it’s recognisable - uniquely identifying to our brand – and seen, heard or experienced enough times. All of which can be aided by context and using formats and functionality that enhance the experience or the message itself.  

If we can expose people frequently enough to our brand, in an impactful, recognisable way, and in seconds, we can reinforce the memory structures (driven by brand building work) that help increase our chances of being accessed in someone’s memory later – hopefully in the moment that matters.

So harness the age-old power of creativity, mix in some marketing science, pay attention to the laws of branding, customise for the channel and use technology and platform functionality in a meaningful way. In other words, be adaptive.