the world of media explained -...

From content to commerce

4How media owners became retailers…and how retailers became media owners:The top innovators

Co-created with:

8Amazon versus Walmart:Do you buy their vision?

9Omnicommerce: What the future of transactions mean for brands

11Analysis:What is Consumer Capital and why is it important?

13Latest media cases: ASOS, Pedigree, Dolce Sport, Centrum

15Last word:The Future Foundation on ‘Big data, big promises’

THE WORLD OF MEDIA EXPLAINED

How media is getting closer to the purchase

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From Content to Commerce page 3

BrandspeakLeader

4 Analysis: Content - Commerce - ContentA look at how media owners became retailers and how retailers became media owners

6 Analysis:Reinventing RetailA snapshot of the presentations delivered by retail brands ASOS and Tesco at The Festival of Media Global

8 Infographic:Amazon vs WalmartWho will come out on top when a bricks and mortar retail giant goes up against the king of online sales?

9 Feature:Mobile moneyWhat the future of transactions means for brands

11 Analysis:Consumer capitalWhat is consumer capital and why is it so important for brands to understand it?

13 ‘The Work’A selection of the best case studies from The Festival of Media Global Awards which address the ‘Content to Commerce‘ theme

15 The Last Word: Big data, big promisesBy Meabh Quoirin, managing director and Jason Mander, head of insight, Future Foundation

www.festivalofmedia.comC Squared Holdings115 Southwark Bridge RoadLondon SE1 0AX, UK+44 (0)20 7367 6990www.csquared.cc

Editor: Martina LaceyContributors: Jenni Baker; Dominic Harrison; Jason Mander; Meabh Quorin; Photini Vrikki Senior designer: Simone SanseverinoDesigner: Laurie Johnston

In 5 years’ time, the amount of money spent online in the developed world will surpass expenditure in physical locations. Bricks and mortar retail transactions are being assisted by recommendation engines, content experiences and social comment. Media owners, retailers and agencies no longer align with the cookie cutter moulds they were once accustomed to fitting into and the impact on the global media industry is seismic.

New players naturally lead to a new set of rules and in the current media landscape content has never been more important. Forget the old cliché that ‘Content is King’, in the new world order if the content your company is producing does not directly result in consumer transactions it is not only a waste of human capital but ad spend as well. Over the past 12 months the amount of money spent on native advertising and content marketing has been a main talking point of media owners and brands alike.

The perils, opportunities and evolution of turning content into commerce was the focal point of The Festival of Media Global 2013 with over 40 speakers from across the media landscape, including ASOS, BuzzFeed, Unilever, Viacom and Visa, coming together under the ‘Content to Commerce’ banner to share how their business is handling the exhilarating transition that the media industry currently finds itself in.

In these pages you will find a selection of the best insights, collated in partnership with the Future Foundation, from this year’s Global Festival. There is no exact recipe for how to turn content into commerce, but this report will get you thinking differently about how your business approaches content as a revenue stream and give you inspiration to try something new. The cookie cutters no longer fit and it’s time for a new recipe – the question is are you brave enough to experiment?

CONTACTS

IN THIS REPORT…

Co-created with

www.futurefoundation.net

From Content to Commerce

CONTENTCOMMERCECONTENT

Attention spans are dwindling and the hunt for new revenue streams in on. Media owners are diversifying their offering into e-commerce and other non-traditional areas in a bid to widen their brand appeal. Content that has garnered marketing buzz, and is watched or read by millions of people around the world is forming the basis of an offer that media owners can drive people to and open up new ways of engaging with consumers.

‘MINT BANTER’MTV’s successful Geordie Shore, a UK spin-off of the US show Jersey Shore, started out as a series documenting a group of clubbing obsessed young people. MTV saw an opportunity to take the show global beyond the TV screen and launch its very own official ad-supported online merchandise shop, the ‘Geordie Store’, where fans can purchase items donning popular phrases used by characters in the show. Its product range spans ‘Bosh’ keyrings, ‘Mint Banter’ smartphone covers and ‘Worldie’ t-shirts.

“The show has over seven million social media followers, the cast have become celebrities in their own right and consequently their language and phrases have become part and parcel of everyday speech,” says MTV UK vice-president of marketing Jo Bacon.

APPEALING TO THE MOST DISCERNING PALETTEEighty-four year old publisher Condé Nast has moved beyond the printed page to launch a series of branded establishments across the globe. Its Vogue Café, GQ Bar and Tatler Club are already established in various locations around the world, including recent launches in Moscow and Dubai, with plans

to continue expansion into other markets – namely Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok, China, Japan, Korea, Turkey, Brazil and Uruguay.

“Vogue and GQ stand for the best in taste, discernment and pleasurable living,” says Condé Nast International chairman Jonathan Newhouse. “Nothing could be more natural than to expand these brands into restaurants where our readers and digital users can experience them in a new and exciting form.”

Traditional publishers, including Forbes and The Atlantic, currently partner with brands to offer new ways of engaging audiences. ‘Brand journalism’ is expected to become a more common topic, as it becomes harder to cut through the noise and connect with customers in interesting and valuable ways.

As the lines between the role of a publisher and a retailer blur, do their traditional definitions still ring true today?

The Oxford Dictionary defines a publisher as ‘a company or person that prepares and issues books, journals, or music for sale’ and a retailer as ‘a person, shop or business that sells goods to the public’. In 2013, those definitions no longer hold. The industry is in the midst of a huge shift whereby media owners are seeking new revenue streams and retailers are constantly finding new and innovative ways to make their own stamp in the media space.

Consumer media habits change fast and traditional media companies have rarely been as quick in predicting such changes. The Festival of Media has scoured the globe to bring you examples of some of the top innovators from the media owner side and retailers who are delving deeper into content.

HOW MEDIA OWNERS BECAME RETAILERS

Vogue Café at the Dubai Mall


Analysis

As more non-media brands explore new ways to break into the media space and seek out innovative ways of blurring the lines between content and commerce, the result is great content that consumers want to interact with and share.

SPACE MAN Send Felix Baumgartner to the edge of space, drop him from a capsule 128,000 feet back to earth and what do you get: more than eight million live concurrent streams on YouTube. Moving beyond sales of fizzy drinks, Red Bull is in the midst of a transition whereby it is transforming into a content company where talking about its brand takes a backseat to creating content that its consumers want to engage with.

BEST NIGHT EVER Online retailer ASOS has taken the blurring of lines between content and commerce to a new level. It recently launched an edition of its ASOS Magazine for mobile, in a bid to expand its international reach and its content-led digital campaign #bestnightever (see p.13) won ‘Campaign of the Year’ at The Festival of Media Global Awards.

SUPERMARKET SWEEPSupermarket publications are nothing new. Many of these magazines are packed with commercially-aligned content – to entice shoppers with recipes in order to help convince them to buy the ingredients from their local supermarket. These are not catalogues, where the focus is exclusively on the products. The purpose of these publications are to inform, entertain, inspire and turn readers into supermarket shoppers.

The fusion of commerce and content has led to ‘omnichannel’ retailers. Luxury men’s online retailer Mr Porter is a key example of the convergence between content and commerce as it is difficult to establish whether Mr Porter is a retailer or a style publisher. “It’s a magazine you can shop from,” says its head of sales and marketing Mario Muttenthaler. This new shift can be dubbed ‘pubtailing’ – a blend of publishing and retailing. Econsultancy chief executive Ashley Friedlein explains: “Many publishers need to sell stuff to fix their broken business models and so need retailing skills. At the same time retailers need to have skills in content, community and social media which publishers are typically better at.”

HOW RETAILERS BECAME MEDIA OWNERS FUTURE FOUNDATION VIEWPOINT

The future definition of a retailerFor some time now, we’ve been used to hearing that “Content is King” and that no price can be put on fans willing to engage in positive forms of ambassadorship. And hence, brands in pursuit of engaged consumer relationships have been striving to become story-tellers and facilitators, providing content which is high in quality, original in outlook and irresistibly fun/exciting/interactive. This is a world in which companies are entertainers just as much as they are advertisers.

Based on the reported success of so many of these campaigns, it seems inevitable that - in the years ahead - we’ll see far more energy being devoted to native-style campaigns designed to stimulate consumer-to-consumer conversations and sharing within branded environments. And the intention running beneath will be clear: the brand will be a prop to delivering greater amounts of social capital for the consumer by allowing them to share details of their status-enhancing exploits, stories and experiences. Brands will facilitate regular attention for us by offering “look at me and my leisure” moments.

In this context, throwing a spotlight on the reasons people have for “following” and “liking” brands on Facebook is extremely illuminating. As we might expect, the most common motivations are promotional in outlook, with entering competitions, gaining access to deals/discounts and being notified about special events all scoring highly. These are all short-term commercial gains which, at a global level, are motivating some 80% of Facebook fans at least some of the time.

But if we move beyond these, we find two thirds falling at least partly into the “brand lovers” category, those people who are following brands for entertaining and interesting content, to support their work in various causes or because they simply love them or believe that they reflect their lifestyle.

Tesco and ASOS produce their own content to keep the dialogue with their consumers going


HOW OFTEN DO YOU GO SHOPPING USING THE FOLLOWING CHANNEL?

Source: PwC 2012 Global Multichannel consumer survey, January 2013

CLICKS & MORTAR

REINVENTING RETAIL

Back in the 1900s, shopping was a lot different: women weren’t allowed to shop alone and the norm was to buy fabrics and make your own clothes. Fast forward to today and we are now presented with an endless amount of items that come in all colours, styles and sizes. The customer experience has changed and so have customer expectations.

ASOS non-executive director and former Selfridges chief executive Peter Williams explained at The Festival of Media Global 2013 how the evolution of retail and the arrival of the internet has forced a generational shift and change in consumer behaviour.

“Consumers have an immediate need for information,” he says. “And the natural inclination for everything is to start on the web.” The arrival of the internet has led to a massive shift in consumer behaviour when it comes to shopping. Customers have the option now to research products online and find out everything they need to know about a product before even entering a physical store. But this makes it more important

than ever for retailers to act on this. “Shop windows have the chance to entice people into the store,” says Williams. “But on the web, unless you’re on page one of Google, you’re nowhere.”

“THE PARADIGM HAS CHANGED FOREVER”The future for retailers, says Williams, will be in re-inventing existing locations. “The paradigm has changed forever. When we return to better economics, retailers are not going to start opening new stores. Existing locations have to reinvent themselves.”

At the end of the day, the consumer is in control. “Consumers expect everything they see in-store to be available online,” he says. There is only one consumer, but multiple delivery points. Those retailers that have all channels covered will be more likely to succeed in today’s fragmented market.

“The consumer is forcing retailers to provide the service and accessibility that they want. The advent of being able to buy anything, anywhere, at anytime is so powerful and retailers have to respond.”

As bricks and mortar retail transactions become revolutionised by the internet, customer expectations are changing and brands must keep apace. We give you insights from The Festival of Media Global 2013 into how retail brands are approaching ‘Content to Commerce’

Bazaars & markets

Retail outlets

Shopping malls

Department stores

Speciality stores and national/

international chains

In-store

Catalogue/ magazine

TV shopping

Online via PC

Online via tablet

Online via mobile

Online via social media

THE EVOLUTION OF ‘MORTAR’ RETAIL

Daily ■Weekly ■

Monthly ■Less than once

a month ■ Never ■

8.2%

1.5% 7.0%

1.1% 2.8%

3.9%

1.7% 6.0%

1.7% 5.0% 8.5% 14.4% 70.4%

1.6%

33.8%

15.0%

14.8%5.8%

22.9%

9.5% 11.0% 71.9%

3.7% 6.5% 12.5%

33.9%

39.1%

75.6%

40.3%

75.7%

22.5%

37.4%

29.9%

1.5%

3.0%


Analysis

Too often, we hear of the imminent demise of bricks-and-mortar retail - the inevitable result, we’re told, of the seemingly unstoppable advance of online commerce. But look a little closer at consumer behaviours and a different future scenario emerges; the most avid online shoppers are also most likely to hit the shops for pleasure. Similarly, the more frequently someone makes a purchase online, the greater their enthusiasm for in-store retail-tainment.

With this in mind, it’s particuarly compelling to find that at The Festival of Media Global, presentations had a consistent emphasis on a future “clicks-and-mortar” retail landscape, one in which both online and in-store shopping co-exist in order to deliver the type of streamlined, multi-channel experience that the consumer craves. By the 2020s we’ll have seen such a degree of channel “fusion” that speaking of online vs offline will seem totally anachronistic. “Showrooming”, for instance, will have transitioned from a largely feared and unknown entity to a mainstream practice; retailers will actively encourage people to test products and gain expert advice in-store before helping them to complete the purchase online.

RETAIL IN THE 10S: A SIGN OF THINGS TO COME

FUTURE FOUNDATION VIEWPOINT

GETTING PERSONAL: YOUR 2023 SHOPPING BASKETThe technology available today has opened up countless opportunities for retailers. In the retail industry, innovation is key, says Tesco.com international director Frans Falize, but it’s important to use technology for good and ensure that consumers take that journey with you.

“It’s great to have innovation and explore but it’s important to make sure that it’s relevant for customers,” says Falize. “You need to take customers on a journey and help them to understand what technology can do for them.”

Falize highlighted three things for retailers to consider: Personalisation, Education and Relevance. “There is not just one consumer, there are billions, with individual needs and preferences.”

Recipe finders

Virtual fitting rooms

Bonobos Guideshops: E-commerce showrooms where you try on items and seek advice before ordering online

Bloomingdale’s: In-store digital sizing booths designed to help customers looking for the perfect fit for a pair of jeans

Slingshot: Put items you see in day-to-day life straight into your existing basket at online stores

Waitrose: Concierge-style welcome desks

Endless aisles

Mobile apps

The shopping trip has been on a journey, from the days of market trading to out-of-town stores, through to online and mobile devices. “Whatever journey the customer takes, the interaction with the brand is the same for the customer – one organisation that offers multiple channels and multiple interaction points,” says Falize.

Looking to the future, it’s not just about online, but multi-channel. Mobile will have an important part to play in the consumer shopping trip, both in and out of the home. The difference for stores, says Falize, will be how people chose to shop in them, meaning that customers can have a vastly different experience, defined and personalised for them.


By the numbers

137M CUSTOMERS/WEEK 100M CUSTOMERS/WEEK

0

10

20

30

40

50

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

500

AMAZON VS WALMARTWho will wear the retail crown when ‘Click & Order’ takes on ‘Bricks & Mortar’?

TOTAL E-COMMERCE $BN REVENUES $BN BRAND VALUE $BN

% OF SALES OUTSIDE THE US

NO. OF EMPLOYEES & NO. OF WAREHOUSES/STORES

REVENUE EARNED PER MINUTE CUSTOMER SERVICE SATISFACTION RATING

Sources: www.forbes.com; www.statisticbrain.com; blog.8thandwalton.com; www.guardian.co.uk; www.wired.com; bits.blogs.nytimes.com; retailindustry.about.com

$118K

51,000 74

46.0% NO. 5$892K

2.2M 4,000+

36.2% NO. 100

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

$61.0bn

$9.0bn

$45.7bn

$62.0bn

$469.0bn $45.7bn

$36.2bn


Brandspeak

THE EVOLUTION OF COMMERCE

Source: Carat Research/OMD Estimates (figures provided by Visa)

Feature

0

20

40

60

80

100

Hours

Percentage

0

20

40

60

80

100

Mobile money

For most of us, buying our morning cup of coffee has been made easier by mobile payments. Take Starbucks for example; gone are the days of fumbling in my pocket for some loose change to get my caffeine kick for the day. Instead, I can simply pull out my smartphone, open the Starbucks app which I’ve already downloaded, scan it and voilà, a grande skinny vanilla latte to go.

Cashless payments are no longer a vision into the crystal ball of the future, but something that is becoming the norm for consumers around the world. Despite the fact that 85% of the world’s retail transactions are still done with paper, cashless payments are becoming a reality. In fact, Gartner research found that global mobile payment transactions exceeded $171.5bn last year, a 62% rise over 2011.

Methods of payment have evolved and the ultimate challenge for brands is to ensure that they are

As commerce evolves, so are the ways in which people consume media and exchange value. The future is omnicommerce, are you ready?

PAST (2000)Physical, Digital

PRESENT (2013)Physical, Digital, Social

THE FUTURE (2020)Omnicommerce

■ Global media consumption/week ■ Percentage of media consumed digitally ■ Percentage of global mobile penetration

60hrs

75hrs

90hrs

15%

67%

90%

99%

80%

12%

What the future of transactions means for brands

providing a safe and simple shopping experience for consumers. This year alone has seen a host of brands coming together in order to address this. Visa and MasterCard, the world’s top two global payments solutions companies, have both unveiled new payment technologies in a bid to propel m-commerce forward – Visa’s PayWave mobile payment app (which is to come pre-loaded on future Samsung smartphones) and MasterCard’s MasterPass service.

Starbucks, ASOS and Dominos have been leading the charge in exploring different ways to handle mobile payments. By partnering with mobile payments start-up Square (see p.10), around 7,000 Starbucks stores across the US have been enabled with Square’s technology to take mobile payments directly from a customer’s smartphone, and using Square’s innovative GPS technology, a Starbucks store can be notified as a customer enters, with their name and photo automatically appearing on the cashier’s screen. ASOS offers mobile customers a seamless payment experience – including the option to pay via Paypal, avoiding customer concerns over entering card details into their mobile phone, while Domino’s simply brings all the features of its online store optimised for mobile devices.


Feature

THE NEW PAYMASTERS

One thing is clear: the world we are transitioning

towards is one in which physical cash is no longer

the king it once was. Cashless payment options are

becoming more and more widespread as barriers to

adoption are overcome and consumers welcome the

convenience, speed and security of making non-cash

payments. Of course, barriers to a future of mobile

money remain, not least the lack of a single mobile

payment standard and the prospect of new wearable

devices forcing entirely new payment options onto the

scene. But whatever form our preferred digital devices

take, when it comes to making digital payments,

security will become the new gold standard. Convincing

consumers that mobile payment options can offer

enhanced convenience, security and closer control over

their money will be key to ensuring that in future, our

money will always be at hand.


CHAMPIONING OMNICOMMERCEBut it’s more than just money. “It’s finding the best way to pay and be paid for everyone, everywhere. It’s a promise of universal acceptance, unsurpassed security, convenience and value.” That’s what Visa chief marketing officer, core products, Kevin Burke said at this year’s The Festival of Media Global. He outlined how this, Visa’s promise to its customers, is what will guide payments into the future.

Commerce has evolved (see chart p.9) into what Visa calls ‘omnicommerce’, which the brand defines as “a total convergence of commerce across physical, digital and social dimensions that provides a

consumer-centric, intelligent, seamless experience for consumers”.

Omnicommerce, says Burke, will redefine the consumer payment experience in three ways:

1. PEOPLE POWEREDAccording to eMarketer, there will be 1.85 billion users of social networks by

2014, therefore brands must embrace the fact that people are becoming more connected, influential and powerful thanks to their connected devices. Online reviews and social media recommendations from friends are motivating consumers to take action.

“We as marketers need to embrace that there has been a huge shift in power and it now sits in the hands of consumers,” says Burke. Brands need to respond to this and shape consumers into advocates.

2. INTELLIGENT COMMUNICATIONS“Consumers are leveraging more data than ever before and they expect merchants and banks to keep pace,” says Burke. More than 620 million mobile search queries are performed globally on a daily basis, according to the most recent ‘Motorola Shopping Survey’ and Capgemini found that 73% of global shoppers would rather use their smartphone in store than deal with a sales assistant.

The rise in “showrooming” behaviour (visiting stores to test products and buying them later elsewhere) presents a major opportunity for brands to engage with consumers via their mobile and turn browsers into buyers while still in-store.

3. SEAMLESS EXPERIENCEBy 2016, there will be an estimated 450 million m-payment users in the world, according to Gartner. Consumers are looking for simplification when making transactions. “There is a higher demand for integration across devices,” says Burke. “If it can’t work there, it can’t work anywhere else.”

“IT’S FINDING THE BEST WAYS TO PAY AND BE PAID FOR

EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE. IT’S A PROMISE OF

UNIVSERSAL ACCEPTANCE, UNSURPASSED SECURITY,

CONVENIENCE AND VALUE”

Square www.squareup.comFounded: 2009 San Francisco, USCredit card reader applications for iPhone, Android and iPad devices – Square Register enables merchants to

take payments via smartphones; and Square Wallet links a credit or debit card to a user’s smartphone in order to make payments.

Bitcoin www.bitcoin.orgFounded: 2009, founder unknownAn internet protocol and open-source software platform that offers a new, completely digital and decentralised

currency called bitcoins (BTC), that can be accepted as an alternative payment for goods and services. Consumers are able to send and receive unlimited amounts of money anywhere in the world at any time.

iZettle www.izettle.comFounded: 2010 Stockholm, SwedenSocial payments company iZettle offers services for both person-to-person and business-to-consumer commerce. Its

services include a smartphone and tablet app and a mini chip-card reader that allows anyone to take secure card payments anytime, anywhere.


Data mining

CONSUMER CAPITALSimilar to the American Gold Rush of the 1940s, brands are embarking on a mission to gather as much data on their consumers as possible. Future Foundation’s managing director Meabh Quoirin warns that miners should beware...

WHAT IS IT?Since 2000, the rapid growth of big data collected from online activities has allowed businesses to analyse and use consumers’ data in order to increase their sales. This expansion of consumer intelligence relied heavily on the passivity and ignorance of consumers, who had limited control over the flow of their online information.

However, in the new era of the post-NSA revelations in the US, and global new regulatory data protection regimes, industry initiatives are handing greater control to consumers to police their own online information. The advances of online security anticipate a future where online data will benefit firstly the consumers and then the industry.

WHY SHOULD YOU CARE?Mining big data is one of the most precious resources for businesses that are after their consumers’ digital footsteps. However, just because we can use big data it doesn’t mean that we should. Businesses need to provide clear guidelines on the reasons they want their consumers’ data, what it will be used for, and clearly indicate the means through which they will responsibly acquire and handle it.

Preserving the trust afforded to brands by the consumers must be of utmost importance since for the time being there is no way for consumers to own the data or even bind the data with their right to be forgotten. No matter how well brands seek to surprise and delight consumers with personalised offers, mistakes will be made and complete loyalty is just as unlikely. Even the most brand loyal consumers will move to the next brand once the deals stop. Brands are now facing the real and possible danger that consumers will kill off the benefits of big data unless brands can take them into less formulaic, data-driven waters.

Source for all:

page 12 From Content to Commerce

Data mining

BRAND AND CONSUMER RELATIONSHIP

connect with brands because they love and identify with them

would consider giving companies access to information about their past purchases in exchange for discounts

social networkers are now following up to 10 brands online

follow brands to get discounts/alerts on deals

66% (2 in 3)

46%

1 in 3

80%

FIVE THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

THE ANSWER IS: CONVERSATION

19% (1 in 5) have tried to co-create content with brands

86% (4 in 5) are inclined to try co-creation if it’s done properly

48% want to show their ability and be recognised for skills

1) Data: odds are against the brands2) Promotion: serendipity costs, brands should avoid being intrusive3) Communications: it’s all about the consumers, they own the narrative4) People: give consumers the space to elevate their voice and be recognised5) Capital: comes through conversation, a deeper meaningful exchange

67% worry about their online past

65% have set up restrictions to limit who can see their profile page

86% would prefer to hold their own personal information and exchange it for services when they choose

DATA: PRIVACY VS THE INTERNET

CONSUMER CAPITAL: THE OVERKILL?

Low

Now 3 yrs 5 yrs 10 yrs

Medium

High

Intensity

Pace

58%45%

30%

like it when posts are liked

want to be seen as that bit different from others

want to stand out from crowd

RECOGNITION


Campaign spotlight

In addition to being The Festival of Media Global’s 2013 ‘Campaign of the Year’, ASOS’ #bestnightever lead a number of campaigns in the Awards this year that highlighted the greater significance that content is playing in brand strategy.

ASOS is one of the fastest growing online fashion retailers in the world. In December 2012, Carat was briefed by ASOS to deliver a media plan that would help the brand continue its impressive growth over the cluttered Christmas period. Carat launched the entire Christmas season clothing range by creating three unique music videos featuring Azealia Banks and Ellie Goulding who have their own distinctive social following on both sides of the Atlantic and had new singles to promote in the build up to Christmas.

By using a technology that enabled users to click and instantly buy the featured items in the music videos, all digital platforms turned into ASOS shops. Carat optimised the content’s performance in real-time and generated $7m of incremental sales, delivering ASOS’ best sales results ever. In addition to the technology innovations, the campaign succeeded because it was treated as a direct response campaign. By merging media and sales data the team was able to optimise the sales that each of the videos was generating across different platforms and for different products in real-time. Once users had watched a specific video the team was able to test and re-target them with relevant promotional messaging.

The music videos went on to achieve seven million YouTube views and increased sales of the featured products in the three weeks leading up to Christmas.

ASOS #bestnighteverBrand:

ASOS Category:

Accessories/clothing/footwear

Region: US, UK, Australia, Germany, France

Date: Oct-Dec 2012

Agencies: Carat

Media channels: Digital, online


One would be forgiven for mistaking a modern marketer’s job spec with that of a Hollywood movie producer’s. Brands everywhere are breaking new ground by becoming entertainers and storytellers in their own right, with marcoms in markets the world over embracing the proposition that Content is King – that the surest route to consumers’ commercial attention is through creating high-quality, engaging content carefully crafted for the various environments – digital or analogue, social or solitary – which contemporary consumers inhabit.

With the ASOS #bestnightever we see at play here not only a well-produced and stylish visual display imbued with celebrity appeal but a solid understanding of how entertaining content is consumed by the ASOS target demographic; millennial women on both sides of the Atlantic live Multi-Screen Lives, fully expectant of cross-platform functionality and interactivity. Clear too is the brand’s acknowledgement that great content truly comes alive when it is shared, pinned or posted in consumers’ native social spaces.

The campaign’s target demographic is one heavily invested in the trend we call Performative Leisure, displaying a strong tendency to share quality content with networks in the pursuit of peer recognition. Indeed, it is over three-quarters of US female millennials who get a buzz when people “acknowledge” their activity on social networking sites.

Finally, by creating a shop-able music video, ASOS provided a neat and engaging digital solution to its lack of physical retail stores, offering Cash-Conscious Consumers – keen to preview purchases whenever possible – an engaging way of seeing the ranges in real-life motion.

Content played a central role in many of the campaigns entered into The Festival of Media Global Awards this year. Here is a pick of the best.


Case studies

Shelter dogs rule. That has been the Pedigree message of the past decade as the brand encourages people to adopt shelter dogs and supports pet shelters through its Pedigree Foundation. On hearing that a 2012 Broadway revival of ‘Annie the Musical’ was in the works, Pedigree saw an opportunity to search for a shelter dog to play the next Sandy, Annie’s also-orphaned four-legged friend. The process would show how a consistent diet, some training and a lot of love could take the chosen dog from shelter to stage. The dog’s journey and transformation was documented in a 30-minute, behind-the-scenes TV special, ‘Annie’s Search for Sandy’. The show reinforced positive messages about adoption, while publicising the Pedigree brand’s support of shelter dogs and the Feeding Project. The ‘See the Show, Help a Dog’ programme raised over $450,000 for the Pedigree Foundation.

After only two years on air, Dolce Sport secured a major coup in 2012 by sharing coverage of the London Olympics with national broadcaster TVR. Viewers of gymnastics, basketball, handball and football competitions would need to sign up to Dolce Sport. The Games were a golden opportunity to showcase the quality of the broadcaster’s coverage, the presenters and its HD content. To create extra excitement, Dolce Sport presented a new kind of hero – Florin, a blind man who gathered an army of Romanian followers as he cycled to London by tandem. At the end of four weeks, Romanians had experienced Florin’s journey via daily videos, blogs and social media. Through this unique campaign, Dolce Sport captured the imagination of not just one nation but two, and Florin was supported by the British Embassy in Bucharest and the Romanian Embassy in London.

In need of a point of difference from other vitamin pills looking and claiming the same, Centrum created a gripping reality TV show to dramatise its ‘Living life at 100%’ product claim. Centrum recognised that Emergency Service Workers need their bodies in tip-top shape more than the average person and knew that their stories could offer riveting emotional content. But in order to also drive audience involvement, the team wanted viewers to contribute by selecting, through voting, the crew that would win additional funds from Centrum. Centrum Guardians was then created based on the most compelling stories. In this way Centrum’s reality drama maximised local community engagement and made Centrum the hero of daily vitamins. This was critical to Centrum’s vast success, as it allowed the ‘local heroes’ to be celebrated in the areas and communities in which they serve.

See beyond limits

From Shelter to stage

Centrum Guardians

Brand: Pedigree

Category: Pet Care Region:

US Date:

July-Dec 2012 Agencies:

Starcom MediaVest Media channels:

Digital, online, sponsorship, TV

Brand: Dolce Sport

Category: Publishing & Broadcasting

Region: Romania

Date: July-Aug 2012

Agencies: Webstyler

Media channels: Experiential, digital,

events, online, TV

Brand: Centrum

Category: Pharmaceutical/

Healthcare Region:

South Africa Date:

July-Sept 2012 Agencies:

MediaCom Media channels: TV, sponsorship

Brandspeak

page 15 From Content to Commerce

The last word

Big data, big promisesBy Meabh Quoirin, managing director and Jason Mander, head of insight, Future Foundation

1. nVision Research | Base: 5,000 online respondents aged 16+, GB, 2013

Inevitably, the years ahead will see more brands turning to content-led strategies as a way to drive engagement and, ultimately, commerce.

But as content does indeed become king, cutting through the increasing levels of branded noise inside social spaces will become progressively harder. And it’s here that many see Big Data making one of its major contributions, driving the personalisation of campaigns and delivering bespoke experiences for customers.

We, consumers, want all this; Brands which can remind us what we’re interested in, which know what we want before we do – all thanks to the power of the algorithm and a dedicated permission-based marketing and media effort.

But not so fast. There’s a fine line. For consumers, the idea of actively trading personal

data for benefits is still pretty new. And largely untested. This won’t remain the case for long, though, and early enthusiasm could be replaced quite quickly with a sense of overkill. As more brands climb aboard the Big Data bandwagon, a degree of consumer fatigue seems guaranteed.

But there’s another reason why we at Future Foundation believe that hyper individual encounters, especially online, might unnerve us: we don’t actually want to be individuals. What we want is for our individualism to be managed. Individualism, it turns out, is something of a social norm. Something that we believe we should strive for and that we want others to see in us. That means we want conversations and content which are personal but not overly so – individualised but not so much that we feel exposed.

INDIVIDUALISM VS COLLECTIVISMWe all know that social norms exert a powerful role in our lives. But as we explore in our new book – ‘The Big Lie’ – they are stronger than ever. With cyberspace magnifying our need to be recognised and accepted by others, a constant search for online validation and approval is underway.

But the present level of sharing – or rather, over-sharing – is unlikely to continue. In its place, we can expect the emergence of a more measured form – of only sharing the more interesting things and to more intimate groups of people.

More, beyond creating an impression of ourselves as funny or slightly quirky, we simply don’t want to be too controversial or different.

UNIQUE BELONGINGThis apparent contradiction is tackled by one of our book’s chapters, ‘Power of Me, Value of We’. Of course we want to develop and display individualistic behaviours. But we want collectivism that bit more. As consumers, we sense we’re supposed to be individualistic; only 20% of people say that they don’t want to be just that little bit different in the way they express themselves. 1 And yet, almost 1 in 2 people

in Britain say that they don’t want to stand out from the crowd. It’s just too uncomfortably conspicuous. Subtle assertion is the more palatable route. Individualism, then, is a social norm. The even more powerful

truth is our need to be not too different. The need to uniquely belong.

BIG CONVERSATIONSSo how will we share in the future? How will we want brands to make us feel special? How will we validate our tastes, both publicly and privately? How will we feel if every brand we speak to predicts every purchase we’ll ever make and every video we’ll ever want to watch?

We certainly see a bright future in the notion of Community Conversations – platforms that unite people around common interests but with scope for individual expression. We also expect further momentum behind the Considered Curation trend – a much more thoughtful approach to selecting the platforms where we engage and share material.

Ultimately, we believe in Collective Individualism, a concept at the very heart of the Big Lie where we stand up just enough to be counted – but as part of our favourite crowd.

For Big Data and content-led campaigns to live up to their promise, they will have to appeal to the crowd. Marketing and media could commit to that.

Puma and

Sneakerpedia

have created

platforms where

consumers

can express

individual

style within

communities

of like-minded

individuals

the world of media explained -...

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