Why digital needs to be at the heart of communication planning

October 22nd, 2012 by Taryn Casey

Are you a marketer who really 'gets' digital but works in an environment that doesn't? Or are you a lucky marketer who has been charged with developing and driving a digital approach from scratch? If you are either carry on to read Part 1 of a 2 part series on integrated planning  in the digital era.

 

Many large companies are in the throes of re-invigorating their  approach to communications planning. An approach that should have at its core the understanding that their existing ways of working and current briefing practices no longer reflect the communications landscape that consumers live in, or indeed the way branded communications  is consumed in that environment.

Recently, I read Anthony Young's Brand Media Strategy which speaks about finding inspiration in the digital world and the value in adopting core digital marketing principles to help shape new thinking. Some digital best practices that should be applied across  communication process are:
 

• Consumer targeting: digital media allows a granularity in approach to consumer targeting, which in turn allows for a more precise allocation of spend by consumer subset or by context and the subsequent ability to cut waste in advertising. Creative applications need to leverage this level of granular access to consumers, by matching the creative messaging to its environment. If content is King, context is the Prince in waiting.

• ROI: the rise in popularity of interactive media has been driven in part by the fact that we can now establish metrics and track performance at the outset of campaigns. Used along side softer analog metrics such as brand measures and ad awareness allows marketeers to have a more dimensional view of how a brand is performing.

• Integration: to develop effective online campaigns, digital best practice demands the integration of all subsets of services such as insight, search, media and creative from the outset - to work together to deliver a powerfully integrated campaign idea (not just the implementation of it). This logically should extend to ATL, BTL and experiential planning.

• Real time optimization: the new thinking that digital advocates is that marketing communications can, and should, be tested, tweaked and reapplied in real time using insights and metrics as an evolving process.

• Participation and involvement: the technologies inherent in the digital landscape allow marketeers to engage consumers in the truest sense and so marketers should seek out opportunities for their brands  to really deliver creative ways to involve, entertain and be useful in the lives of our consumers.

In the second post of this series, I'll bang on about beautifully expand on this new communications planning approach, along with ideas on how marketers can make this happen in their own organisation.

Until then....