It started with circulation and reach, then impressions, engagement, conversion and now attribution. The promise of digital technology is just now becoming fulfilled and it’s having profound and permanent impact on how business – not just media – is done. It is changing how we market, how we message, how we hire and the media we use and consume.
The intelligence and insights that we get from new platforms enables businesses to operate with unheard of agility. That doesn’t just affect what media we buy or what social media platforms we prioritize, but because we can survey and test so easily, it inherently determines the appetite for risk and culture of the organization. (Dopamine hit aside, the fact that we know who exactly is reading this article determines whether we write another article and what that article might be about.)
After decades of promise and years of content marketing evolving into CRM and ABM, the direct channels that brands are establishing with their audiences are manifesting into publisher/broadcaster-grade content enterprises. That’s challenging business models for every media outlet on the planet, and it’s transforming the very concept of earned media and the agencies that facilitate it.
The directness with which brands – DTC and B2B – communicate and interact with audiences is replicated in how brands transact with their audiences, and that seismic shift will have even greater impact on business and technology.
Established brands, especially public companies, challenged to show growth but limited in their capacity to capture additional share, look enviously at the hefty margins of the channel. Services and subscriptions are compelling growth engines and cashflow accelerants for these brands but are only possible if the brand can establish that direct connection with the end-user – initiall via registrations, communications, or an app.
Likewise, channel operators have consolidated, and vertical integration is clearly in their present and future. Initially, it was regional to national consolidation and then industry (i.e.: low voltage, AV, IT, and security). Now, these multi-discipline national channel operators are sourcing some product offshore and offering it to their customers, testing what works and establishing their own brands – all contingent on how effectively and efficiently they can communicate with the end-user. Agile, ambitious and voracious, we’re only seeing the early stages of this development!
In the context of dual, competing shifts, the lines of communication between brand and audience have never been more important. It’s an incredibly exciting and transformative time for businesses like Brand Definition and I am so encouraged at how we’ve evolved! We have the best people in the business thinking (that’s not something every agency person does!) about the business and developing comprehensive, actionable strategies (something almost every agency person says they do but few even contemplate!) that support our clients’ business in meaningful, differentiated, impactful ways!
