Why Citizen Relations Is Using Digital Solutions to Boost the Power of Earned Media
In February, global communications agency Citizen Relations announced the expansion of its global digital capabilities. Led by chief digital officer Crystalyn Stuart-Loayza, the agency calls its new brand of digital ‘dComm3’, which brings together a growing team of technical experts across strategy, activation and intelligence, embedding digital across the way earned programs are built, executed and measured.
Seeking to ultimately bridge brands into what’s next in web3, dComm3 will be boosting Citizen’s earned-first approach with the power of digital, and strengthened, integrated service - enabling the agency to influence audiences more effectively with greater degrees of personalisation, performance, and dynamic content to better connect marketing, sales and data.
LBB’s Josh Neufeldt sat down with Crystalyn, to learn more about this new approach, what it means for Citizen, and how brands should be readying themselves for web3 shifts.
LBB> In the past few years, the digital landscape has been rapidly changing. As such, where are we in 2023, and what does your appointment mean for Citizen Relations?
Crystalyn> Citizen Relations has been delivering digitally-enabled ideas for a long time. As our clients look for more fulsome, integrated digital solutions, now is the perfect time to double down on supercharging the power of earned media with the firepower of a new breed of digital communications. While this practice isn’t focused on web3, it is web-next ready and we’re helping clients make changes that benefit customers today, while readying for the shifting behaviours of tomorrow.
LBB> The cost of investing in digital infrastructure can be quite expensive. Do you think this is a worthwhile investment for Canadian brands and agencies to pursue? And what made this the right choice for Citizen?
Crystalyn> While this isn’t a web3-focused practice, we do believe that earned-led agencies are in the best position to help brands ready themselves for web-next trends and shifts. Although the tech is still very unstable, we are seeing and helping our clients address some of what’s happening as this next web decade unfolds. And while some may not fully embrace the changes of web3, we believe there are three important consumer behaviour shifts that require a brand’s attention and adaption: communities, experiences and value exchange.
For example, we’re helping clients address the changing dynamics of communities, and the move to more niche, topical and emerging community platforms. We’re also leading our clients into web3-forward digital experiences that include extended reality and modern AI integration. And, we’re helping clients understand the changing dynamics of value exchange, and how to work more effectively with commerce, exchange, and the next generation of creators online.
LBB> Part of the reason behind the creation of dComm3 is to boost earned with the power of digital. What does this look like, and what does this new approach allow for that wasn’t previously possible?
Crystalyn> Thank you for this question! Citizen Relations is outstanding at making conversations count, and there are so many ways we can use digital/data/automation and emerging tech to:
- Better understand, map and evaluate conversations. We’re doing this with our measurement, modelling and earned analytics practice.
- Better leverage conversation to drive new shades of performance. We’re building this into our content performance, modern search and reputation practice.
- Better join, facilitate or support community conversations through our digital/social influence and community practices.
That’s a summary which best outlines our approach in these areas with key services that are brand new and really innovative.
LBB> The press release mentioned that next gen solutions brands need to be web3 ready. What makes now such a pivotal time, and is this something all brands and advertisers should attempt to replicate immediately?
Crystalyn> We don’t believe brands should be looking for a web3 strategy, but instead, readying themselves for web3 shifts by providing solutions to modern customer needs. In layman's terms, we recommend first looking at consumer behaviour (your own consumers and target audiences) to better understand where unmet needs exist. For example, doing a conversation map to show where people are looking for solutions online, or evaluating user intent in search to help determine where we could better show up based on new behaviours. From there, we recommend evaluating the wide array of new communities, tech and offerings to help test modern digital solutions to user challenges. Web-next ideas have what all great ideas provide - something of value to real citizens. That remains unchanged.
LBB> The release also mentioned new content performance and effectiveness models to help gauge key information. What do these look like, how will they work, and what insights are you hoping to gain from them?
Crystalyn> Here are several different impact models we’ve been building and leveraging:
- Content effectiveness: If you make no other change this year, start measuring the effectiveness of content by variable. If your influencer content includes a product or a CTA, does it perform better? If we include a real person, does it change the outcomes? We’ve built a content effectiveness algorithm that allows us to do better briefing, track outcomes, and shift campaign results in a programmatic way.
- Earned SEO: If you haven’t already realised, search behaviours are changing for the first time in decades. Gen z users leverage platforms like TikTok and Instagram for search more than Google. Voice search has become something our kids do. An earned, off-page search can drive significant value for a brand, capturing a share of search and driving inbound links. Let's get a baseline of search performance and measure against it in earned.
- Earned attribution and econometrics: The real nerds amongst us know that buzzy, earned-led campaigns don’t just drive headlines and impressions; they can drive demand. We are briefing against demand and building tagging infrastructures to show the value of earned well beyond standard attribution. YES! That’s ahead!
LBB> Beyond this, what kind of research will you be doing? How will you go about executing it, and are there any specific results you’re expecting to find?
Crystalyn> We have totally reimagined and centralised our tech stack to incorporate a mix of really important third party research and platforms, and we’ll be pairing it with some custom data layering to create a conversation intelligence system that is going to be game-changing. Our insights and intelligence team also sits within the digital practice, so we can work together to create gorgeous, automated data sets that give our analysts more time for insights and conversation mapping.
We’re also working on some proprietary integrations of AI tech to generate our own IP. More to come!
LBB> The benefits of this new system are already in practice with Citizen’s work alongside Molson Coors. What have you done, and how has this new model enabled you to achieve results you wouldn’t have previously been able to attain?
Crystalyn> We’ve been fortunate enough to be integrated into about 70% of Citizen’s current book for business and supporting teams - across all regions - with innovative solutions, data-driven inputs and measurement, and ideas that are digitally enabled.
Some big innovations this year (not all for Molson/Coors) include:
- Integrating search and off-page search optimisation into our influencer programs!
- Developing a new ‘big-girl’ model of influence that incorporates full-funnel, long-tail results. This model combines search optimised, brand equity driven content on durable platforms like Pinterest, YouTube, and online blogs, with ephemeral content on Meta/TikTok, and a sequential advertising model paired with long-term modern affiliate offers to create a supercharged, next-gen influencer program! Can’t wait to show you more of this as we bring these year-long programs to market.
- A new ecosystem design approach to launch strategy. We call this ‘launch alchemy’ - incorporating communities/demographics into the launch approach, and thinking about the full customer lifecycle.
- Introducing bold new approaches to community engagement that include personas, virtual influencers, and amazing ways for brands to incentivise and own more first-party data.
LBB> What are the biggest challenges about working in the web3 space, and how are you planning to overcome them?
Crystalyn> Web3 is a broad term that’s been cast very widely over the past several years. To clarify, Citizen believes that when consumer behaviour begins to catch up to advancements in technology, we see the changing of a web chapter taking place. Remember when we first started synchronous communication in social media? It changed the way humans connected, interacted and learned. We believe web3 shifts in AI, XR and anonymity are going to be substantial drivers of new opportunities for brands, and moreover, for humans, as we look ahead to a new generation of web users. We’re going to help them move towards this by following, forecasting and evolving with consumer behaviour in a way that continually drives results for brands!
LBB> As a PR agency, does the way you use the web3 space differ from say, a traditional advertising agency? And if so, how?
Crystalyn> When a new decade of the web emerges, the most exciting thing is the possibilities which follow. What will humans adopt, and what will they reject? How will people evolve around the tech, and how will the tech evolve to match human behaviour? This is, perhaps, the most exciting time in the history of the web, and we are ready for the opportunities it poses.
Tactically, as an earned-led firm, we’re bullish on community evolution. People are going back to anonymous, topical-centred conversations and things like organic community are returning in a way that is truly exciting for communicators and brands. Woo hoo!
LBB> Is there anything you’d like to add?
Crystalyn> Thank you for the chance to discuss this! Our practice is rooted in the idea of showing, rather than telling. So, I am very much looking forward to inviting you to our June client events where we’ll be working together to show how these transformative solutions are driving Citizen’s brand partners forward.
