Download - CES 2014 Key Insights for Agencies by Peter Bray, Director of Digital at Saatchi & Saatchi New York

T H E L O V E M A R K S C O M P A N Y

January 23rd, 2013

CES 2014 Key Insights for Agencies

Created by Peter BrayDirector of Digital Saatchi & Saatchi New York

@peterbray

OVERVIEW

CES 2014 conducted a number of parallel sessions in addition to the main conference.

This document is a summary of 6 key insights that I have synthesized as a result.

These opportunities are not focused on the technology in the show, rather it is a summation specifically designed for agencies.

Some of these points may already be well known depending on where the agency sits on the digital knowledge curve.

KEY INSIGHT 1: SHOP AND AWE

Today we are being more than watched. We are being tracked, profiled, shackled and aggregated. Sometimes we passively engage with this new connected world, sometimes we choose to wear a device that shares our information


What Is It?

Either way, data is being collected that can enhance our lives. And ecommerce, together with display advertising is doing just this. As we become a unique set of numbers in the data universe, we are being exposed to LESS campaigns each day, but more messages from the same campaigns based on our profiles.


Ecommerce campaigns now blast creative messaging within a very strict, controlled timeframe, with as much frequency and reach as possible, based on our behavior.


Successful ecommerce brands now utilize a Shop and Awe approach, where a unique user is targeted so that their past behavior determines messages that are displayed to them in the future, in as many instances as possible. It is all at once, but selective.


1. Digital creative will need to have more dynamic data elements inside them.

2. Creative campaigns need to consider tweaked creative across all channels.

3. Retargeting needs to be part of every digital media buy, together with time sensitive messaging.

4. Wearables and other “Internet of Things” devices should be experimented with as devices for targeted push messaging.


What It Means for Agencies

KEY INSIGHT 2: PERSONALIZED CURATION

The greatest source of knowledge ever known to humankind is at our fingertips. Yet most consumers only go to the same 4 – 6 websites per day.


What Is It?

But these websites are encasing more and more information from an ever increasing variety of sources as content and syndication deals become more widespread.


There is war going on: the battle for clicks. Unfortunately due to short term thinking, quality appears to be a casualty.


Therefore, with increased volume and more widespread content there is a need for content curation. Publishers can deal with this in a number of ways, either through self selection or profiling.


Irrespective of the method, the concept of one version of a content page is soon to be dead as design catches up with data. Instead, one content page becomes millions of a versions of a page as it is personalized through a set of preferences.


Content will be more relevant as a result of personalized curation, and the easier publishers and advertisers can make this curation process, the greater the stickiness of the customer experience.


1. A la carte content items need to be created for every campaign.

2. Syndication will rise, but brands will need to be bold to avoid the ensuing clutter.

3. Campaign content must offer value for the consumers as the primary driver.



KEY INSIGHT 3: THE RISE OF NATIVE ADS

Great digital advertising does not interrupt, it integrates. And great advertising is above all contextual. Native advertising combines non invasive integration with context to create messages that enhance a consumers experience on a web site.


What Is It?

Now sites like Yahoo can assist in the creation of campaigns on its magazine portal that make the experience of being on the site better, while conveying the advertisers message.


Banner ads will stay have there place on websites that are not content rich or need widespread awareness, but engagement will be driven by native ads. With native ads often comes native ad formats, which also provides opportunities to reach out to consumers in innovative ways, especially important as people get more and more banner blindness.


1. Native formats will mean more production required

2. Creative agencies will need to work more with publishers directly

3. Publishers will eventually form their own in house creative teams

4. More large advertisers will become publishers e.g. RedBull



KEY INSIGHT 4: BYE ARCHETYPE, HI NEOMONADIK

We are all zeros and ones in the connected world, but we need to acknowledge we are all different sequences.


What Is It?

Carl Jung’s notion of archetypes, which he coopted as a means to cut through the clutter of the “creative consciousness,” was useful as a time saving device where a set of patterns was “close enough” to ascribe to all character types.


However, with the rise of data, advertisers are retrospectively examine every unique individuals behavior, without having to resort to archaic constructs (archaic in the ancient sense). There is also value in forward projections of behavior.


We must now recognize every consumer as a person: a person that lives in a messy, imperfect world that we can help guide them through by adding value in tune with their own belief systems.


No more 25 – 40 white urban dwelling mom of 3. Now is the time to embrace the Neomonadik, the new individual, complete with their own unique set of desires, beliefs and behaviors.


1. Planning based on archetypes should be avoided, inward facing brand personas will still work.

2. Develop a planning process to deal with the infinite segmentation of the Neomonadiks that maintains efficiencies.

3. Though big data is superb for past behavior, be aware of the inherent issues it has for predicting future behavior.

4. All creative agencies need to be on top of data analysis, either in house or in partnership.



KEY INSIGHT 5: THINK 90/10

Always on, rapid response, newsrooms, all terms that abound in digital advertising, in particular social. With the rush to get to the online party, it seems many people have forgotten the directions.


What Is It?

Digital campaigns and their social offspring have often been schizophrenic and lacking substance – all sizzle and no sausage. So much focus has been on ensuring that every tweet, every comment, can be reacted to in an agile away, that often we have lost the bearing on the campaign’s compass.


It is time to redress that balance, especially in light of the data that is now presented to us. It is time to step back and ensure our foundations are solid.


Many digital campaigns are now sold in as 50% planned, 50% reactive. Given the poor return on investment on most particularly social endeavors, the investment split should be radically altered to that 90% of budget is focused on planning and prepared creative, and 10% on reactive responses.


Even large social platforms like Facebook are now touting the need to have social elements far more campaign focused. The mass of data now available cannot be refuted.


1. Readjust budgets away from reactive tactics to approximately 10% of total budget.

2. Reassign resources to planning and canned content.

3. Continue to focus on return on investment for social activities, with a watching brief on all metrics.



KEY INSIGHT 6: VISIBLE STORYBUILDING

Storytelling is by definition a one way endeavor. One person conveys, the other receives. Traditionally all media was largely one way.


What Is It?

Over time, consumer were able to join in the narrative within strict confines, whether it be the Johnny Carson show, through to The Price Is Right, through to The Real World and reality TV.


With the rise of the digital age, one thing persists: people gravitate towards great stories.


But now, consumers expect to have voice in shaping those stories, and the stories of the brands they interact with. This is the new age storytelling.


The majority no longer needs to be silent. Digital has allowed an individuals voice to be heard, via product reviews, forums, chat or anyone of a myriad of channels.


But being heard is no longer enough. Brands now need to embrace the consumer voice and design around a two way conversation that never ends. The brand values must always be maintained and the course should rarely veer from the primary business objectives, but successful brands will now allow consumers to help build their brand story.


It is not about decision through committee.

Storybuilding is predicated on understanding that the messaging in brand campaigns for will be ripped apart and scrutinized in a continuing cycle, creating an ever evolving story that is built by brands and consumers together.


1. There needs to be emphasis on showing the actions on the part of a brand as a result of feedback – make it visible.

2. Agencies need to continue to be the trusted advisors of clients ensuring that loud voices do not disproportionately effect campaign direction.

3. Stories are more important than ever.



1. Shop and Awe: Focused, intense, targeted messaging.

2. Personalized Curation: Consumers control their content

3. The Rise of Native Ads: Integrated value add content

4. Bye Archetype, Hi Neomonadiks: Rethink planning

5. Think 90:10: Reapportion budgets to be less reactive

6. Visible Storybuilding: Listening is not enough

IN SUMMARY

6 Key Trends/Opportunities

Director of Digital, Saatchi & Saatchi New York

[email protected]

Twitter: @peterbray

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/peterbraynyc

THANKYOU

Peter Bray

mailto:[email protected]

Download - CES 2014 Key Insights for Agencies by Peter Bray, Director of Digital at Saatchi & Saatchi New York

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