In my house I have a telephone. This in itself is nothing exceptional. However I have recently discovered that this telephone has a “feature” that is probably the most pointless, ludicrous, spectacular waste of development in the history of telephones.
The phone rings and if I’m not in it goes to answer phone. The other day I happened to be doing something and only reached the phone towards the end of someone leaving a message. The person leaving the message concluded their request for me to call back and then something very odd happened. Upon them hanging up, the answer phone said, “Thanks for calling!” For whose benefit is this pearl of automated wisdom, because the person who they graciously thanked had already hung up and one would assume that, as a general rule, the person for whom the message was left, is not in. Therefore someone has spent time, effort and money developing a piece of electronic wizardry for no one’s benefit, that no one will ever hear. This was some poor developer’s time that would have been better spent counting the hairs on the back of his hands. Poor bloke.
But my telephone isn’t alone in it’s pointlessness. Yes, my in-laws have one that does the same. But expanding outside of domestic telephones and looking around the world of branded content, the way so many brands engage with consumers is very much, “Thanks for calling!” I look around at brands marketing themselves both above and below the line with the most expensive campaigns and think “So what?” It’s the wrong stuff in the wrong place at the wrong time for the wrong people in the wrong mindset.
You see the problem is that there is a fantastic opportunity out there in the digital world, right now, today; so why are so many big brands (and small ones for that matter!) still not embracing online video? You see, consumers aren’t just expecting to find video on a brand’s website or at a digital point of sale, they’re positively demanding it! And the fact is that, unlike many other traditional means of advertising, it is targeted, relevant to the audience you want to sell to, when they want to buy it, in your controlled environment, adding something to the experience of engaging with the brand, completely trackable and increasing data pools; and most importantly, directly driving and increasing sales! As they say, what’s not to like about that??
I can only assume that people are taking time to move forward in this space as they may realise they need digital content and know what they want to achieve with it but don’t have the knowledge to make the right content. Often agencies don’t have the in-house digital video experience to be able to help.
But we’re not just talking about “how to pump up a tyre or cook a lasagne” here, digital content can be editorially rich, narrative, engaging with the demand-driven audiences who are seeking out mass-niche subject matters that they are passionate about, seeking out through a distribution network of on-brand portals and other targeted distribution outlets. The brand in this case becomes the publisher, giving an audience the content they want to watch, something to take away from it, whilst reinforcing the brand through subtle integration throughout the content.
So a well thought out strategy through concept development, production and distribution is imperative with a strong vision on what a brand wants to commercially achieve from developing their digital content strategy, ensuring that content isn’t created that is wrong time, wrong place, without a message or delivered at a point when noone is still connected to hear it.
“Thanks for calling!”
Richard Jukes
Managing Director, Ground Up Media (GUM)