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Digital Marketing: Focus On Results
StumbleUponTo counter the myths about digital marketing and communications AKQA have penned a set of principles illuminating how to approach digital strategy. Here, the first of their '10 Commandments' explores why we should focus on results...
To counter some of the myths about digital marketing and
communications AKQA have penned a set of principles to guide and
help illuminate how to approach digital strategy. Any great and
successful communication has a great and clear strategy behind
it. To really exploit the digital medium it is vital to have an
understanding of how to use it.
The 10 Commandments Of Digital Marketing Strategy will
attempt to answer some of the thorny strategy questions facing
the digital marketer...
By Saher Sidhom, AKQA
[Register and post your own comments
on this article below...]
Or have your say on the 10 Commandments of Digital Strategy
blog
1: FOCUS ON RESULTS
Digital has a lot to offer
The versatility of the medium is immense. It can build brands,
deliver response and create continuous dialogue with audiences.
Although, to really exploit digital a clear definition of
marketing objectives must be articulated the role for digital
within the mix will need to be outlined. Finally, as with all
marketing activity, it is the return on investment that should
be set from the start. This is critical as activities should
build value for brands in one of two key ways equity and money.
By a thorough understanding of the nature of the investment and
the value it generates brands can exploit the opportunities to
leverage the economic value and the brand equity of the
activity.
Define objectives
Digital has, typically, been used as a direct response medium,
although the attitude is shifting albeit slowly. Early adopters
such as motor companies, travel and finance have used digital
with objectives ranging from brand building to sampling.
Motoring companies, for example, have used online films to
showcase and engage with their audiences at the same time as
entertaining them. BMW films will go down in history as a
pioneer in this area with its selection of films (www.bmwfilms.com) showcasing the brand the
site enjoyed high reach amongst BMW’s fans, but that was 6 years
ago. Today brands such as Audi forsake T.V. for online launches,
although pioneers in brand building are not the only ones,
FMCG’s are waking up to the engagement potential, sampling and
trial opportunities that their brands can offer by utilising
digital.
Peperami used digital (www.goneabitnoodles.co.uk/) exceptionally
well to create an engaging and motivating experience where the
brand combined its subversive personality with the viral
potential of the medium. The campaign extended the reach of the
main campaign with upwards of half a million people viewing the
virals (and topping the Sun’s viral chart). This amplified the
new product launch and on hard measures the factory had to work
over time to keep up with demand. Proving the combination of
digital and offline is one of the most effective ways of
exploiting a campaign media mix.
For any successful online campaign the success is dependant on
clear objectives. Online’s ability to deliver on a variety of
marketing objectives means that setting objectives should be
forethought not an afterthought in planning. It really is about
having a return on objective mindset not the direct response
mentality built on short term ROI.
The following are some objectives which have been successfully
used for digital campaigns at AKQA :
• Increase awareness: online is a high reach mass medium that
has people’s attention when no other media does for example
while at work during the day.
• Drive sales: it is a cost effective acquisition channel where
campaigns can be optimised on the go.
• Influence purchase intent: you can distribute samples and
drive sales in distribution channels for example by giving
e-vouchers to be redeemed in online retailers.
• Re-evaluation: you can provide more information about the
product/service/brand. Continue educating, this can be done
beyond advertising on banners but by building applications,
services and sites to continue brand dialogue.
• Search: Search is a key part of digital campaigns as it is
usually one of the first stops for people online, you can scoop
up awareness from ATL activity or other brand activity online by
ensuring that people can find you when online.
• Sign-post other media: digital can continue the story online
and interact with the consumers delivering greater depth for
offline activities.
In order to set the right objectives brand owners need to
consider the communication challenge and the opportunity for
using digital and the role it plays in the marketing mix.
Define role for digital
As outlined above digital advertising is not about whether to
create some banner ads or just be content with a search
strategy. The portfolio of tools to engage people online is
varied for example: content creation in the form of podcasting,
dialogue in the form of e-mail programmes and signposting in the
form of search programmes. But it is vital that a clear role for
digital in the mix needs to be identified. Typically the role
for digital is to support ATL campaigns but that’s just
scratching the surface, digital can be used intelligently and
deliver better results if its virtues are exploited.
The virtues of digital are information, interaction, dialogue,
personalisation advocacy and loyalty. Some of the roles can
be:
• Brands build through experience, involvement and interaction.
Online is particularly good at leveraging halo effects from
online brand building into response when compared to offline in
some categories. For example in the automotive sector the halo
effect of brand can be up to 15% increase on response:
Brand effect on sales offline:+9%
Brand effect on sales online: +15%
This is purely based on online brand advertising in the
automotive category.
• Support an ATL campaign with online advertising or online
experiences, some US studies show that by adding digital media
effectiveness can increase by up to 35%.
• Hub an event to drive online sampling and other response based
activities. The Flora Family Marathon (www.florafamilymarathon.com/) was a digital
initiative that was centralised in the digital domain and
delivered engagement with the brand for over four month through
the sign up, training and running processes and over 100k
participants.
• Capitalise on viral characteristics of the medium. A recent
viral campaign for the launch of XBOX 360 (www.origenxbox360.com/) has taken the web and
the gaming community by storm, where digital was the only
marketing activity taking place before the actual launch. The
progress of the viral effect can be demonstrated in the simple
statistics: results on Google for the search terms ‘origen 360’
in the first week were 10’000, in the second week 400’000, today
Google returns over 800’000 results for the same term.
• Explore the potential of e-mail: Heinz (www.Heinzoffer.com) found that redemption
rates on its e-vouchers delivered via e-mail were up to 52% this
is way above average for comparable offline activities.
• Reach when other media cannot reach or reach audiences that
otherwise cannot be reached: Kit Kat wanted to own an online
property and it did with an inspired placement in MSN’s instant
messenger where it was able to reach office workers at a time
when there is relevance for the brand property of breaks and
where other media are not traditionally consumed. There was an
un-expectedly high click through from the simple brand campaign
on instant messenger which is used by some 1.5m people in the
UK.
Define results
Successful online advertising campaigns have clear objectives
and a well defined role for digital in the communication mix.
However, it is ultimately through understanding what successes
can be achieved in digital that value can be extracted from the
activity, naturally this is also dependant on the initial
objectives.
Digital can deliver value in two main ways:
• Brand Equity: through loyalty, advocacy &
involvement
o Increased loyalty: programmes and promotions that capture data
and deliver personalised dialogue.
o Advocacy: positive endorsements and viral effects can push the
reputation of brands well above the effects of traditional
advertising, this is pure reputation.
o Involvement: campaign sites and creative rich media formats
are proven to build the experience.
• Money: through savings or the creation & acceleration
of revenue streams
o Savings: digital can provide huge savings through optimising
traditional advertising mixes, content creation where digital
assets can be re-deployed and re-distributed, optimising
campaigns through live in flight research, provide support and
service applications cheaply.
o New revenue streams: digital advertising can also open up
mobile content streams and revenues drive online sales and link
online offers to store sales.
In summary; the principles outlined are simple but require a
complete focus on the desired result. To genuinely exploit
digital a clear definition of the objectives of the overall
campaigns, the role of digital in the mix and true understanding
of the economic and equity contribution of any marketing
activity. The message is simple at this point there is a wealth
of ways that digital can deliver value to brands.
Blog
Feel free to start and join a debate around digital advertising
strategy in this dedicated blog: http://10commandmentsofdigitalstrategy.blogspot.com/
Previous articles
AKQA's Introduction to the 10
Commandments
AKQA Rundown of the 10 Commandments
About AKQA:
AKQA is a global interactive agency that uses innovative ideas
and technology to deliver results for the world's leading
brands. They were named Creativity Magazine's first ever
Interative Agency of the Year in 2006 and have been twice
recognised as 'most respected agency' by New Media Age.
Their global staff of over 350 people is based in five offices
across San Francisco, New York, Washington DC, London and
Singapore. www.akqa.com
The University of Westminster is a charity and a company limited by guarantee.
Reg. No: 977818 England. Reg. Office: 309 Regent Street, London W1B 2UW
© 2008 New Media Knowledge.
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