Dan Thwaites, Planning Partner at Crayon, explains why marketers have to adapt to a world where consumers are 'always-on'
Whilst there is wide-scale acceptance that consumers have radically changed in the way they shop, many businesses still persist in using old-style marketing practices. A new study we released confirms that consumers have changed for good, and that it's about time that marketers did too. With 62 per cent of UK consumers leaving their mobiles switched on whilst they are asleep and 82 per cent staying connected when they're on holiday, 'always-on' behaviour has already moved into the mainstream.
We also see the apparently inexorable rise in social media (more than 500 million active users on Facebook and counting) driving more interaction, more of the time. The rise of the mobile device (60 per cent of the world's population own a mobile phone) and with over three billion apps downloaded, yields yet more modes and moments of interaction. This in turn raises new challenges for marketers as they need to be more timely, responsive and relevant in order to meet the increasing expectations of their audience. But here's the point: much of the marketing communications is still planned in an old-school start-stop fashion, which puts marketers rather at odds with the audiences they are trying to reach.
Always-on Insight
Businesses are having to make decisions at an ever-increasing pace; and many are finding that their insight just can't keep up. The periodic, lengthy research programmes that were the staple of their eyes and ears on the market are now struggling to produce insights at the required speed. This can result in decisions that are either made without appropriate insight, or that are delayed.
Businesses need a continuous stream of real time insight shared beyond the marketing team, into the very heart of the business. We see a move from removed, discrete and slow research and insight into something close, continuous and multi-channel that mirrors their new behaviour.
In order for agencies to ensure always-on insight for brands, they must innovate. Firstly, developing new research methodologies that involve their clients in the insight discovery process, rather than being hidden behind one-way glass. But it doesn't end at the research group. Brands need to work out how to involve their audiences in the whole process of what they do. And whilst speed is of the essence, rigour is still vital if the business is to base its decisions on a sound footing, which is where the whole analysis process needs reworking. The problem with most analytics is that it just takes too long. People can't wait three weeks for the results. They need to be evaluating the campaign whilst it's live, addressing any issues and continually optimising the targeting, messages and channels.
Businesses need to re-assess the tools and systems they have, to make sure that their analysis is as always-on as their audiences. But as important as the tools, are the people who use them. We speak to a lot of clients who have highly sophisticated systems but are still struggling to get the insights they need. Often the answer is as much about training and augmenting the teams themselves as it is about the technology.
Always-on Ideas
It's a tough time for brands, when active audiences have so many opportunities to do something else. It's never been more likely that marketing is ignored, that audiences get distracted or simply that they just do nothing. The creative challenge is to devise strategies and ideas that will get brands close to their audiences.
It's hard enough to get people's attention these days, but the real challenge is to keep it, all the way through to the consumer taking some sort of action - which in most, but by no means all, cases involves buying something. To do this, they must create ideas that can adapt and react to the consumer. Gone are the days when you can put a campaign to bed creatively and forget about it. The creative department has to work closely and continually with the planners, analysts and account teams to build, adapt and flex the idea, to make sure it's going to have ongoing appeal to the audience.
Always-on Measurement
The traditional measurement approaches are struggling to keep up, too. The formal end of campaign evaluation is still the mainstay of many marketers' management information. But whilst a useful tool for looking back, it is not proving an effective tool for moving at speed.
Whilst advancing technology will help this process - real time reporting and dynamic management information - it's only a small part of the answer. The real change is in how clients and their partners work together. With more fragmented marketing and ever-more sophisticated measurement tools, it's all too easy for 'analysis paralysis' to set in. In these cases, ironically, the desire to move more quickly can actually seize up the whole marketing team and sometimes the whole business, too.
The clients we work with want real-time, easy to use metrics to help them make fast decisions. We have to stay close to their business, and they have to keep close to the work we're doing for them. To remain effective, clients and agencies have to work together faster, and more collaboratively, than ever before. The challenge for brands is not to simply measure and analyse in real time, but to be able to react decisively and coherently to what they discover. And for that, a new way of working is as important as the tools and technology they employ.
Always-on Relationships
The rise of our always-on audience reveals some alarming cracks in the traditional way brands approach their marketing. If brands are going to stay close to their audiences, then they are going to have to think about always-on relationships - how they can interest, involve and ultimately transact with their customers.
If marketers are to do this successfully, then they will need to foster their own always-on relationships with their partners, as well as within their organisations. They must be able to gather, find and share insights in an effective and rapid manner. It's also important that they act upon those insights and are able to evaluate and optimize the work in real time as well as share what they're learning.
Going into a year of much publicised austerity, where staff and marketing budgets are likely to remain on the frugal side, a fresh option starts to emerge. Rather than stretching their existing ways of working (and themselves) to breaking point, marketers might consider how they could revise them. Could fostering more collaborative ways of working drive radical change for them as well as their audiences in the always-on environment?
Dan Thwaites, Planning Partner, Crayon