The latest digital trends in customer publishing

So, what are they? Our experts tell us in the first part of their round table Q & A session...

Mike Burgess Digital Development Director:  The customer publishing industry is more important than ever for brands. As brands question old models of advertising, engagement rather than interruption is key as a means of creating business growth. New platforms offer new ways of engaging an audience. Key among these is the web, the growth of mobile and the tablet market. More and more online retailers are integrating content propositions in their ecommerce sites. New Look Daily is one of these and we have witnessed the use of content increasing basket sizes, sales and repeat visits.

As mobile commerce sites grow then content can play a part too. Not just apps which offer a highly controlled and rich experience but lack reach, but also mobile web which has a huge reach but the content proposition needs to be more snappy and focused. The rise of the tablet is significant too and a platform where brand and retail editorial properties are giving traditional media owners a run for their money. Our ‘Generation I’ survey for example shows that brands like Tesco and Net-a-Porter have greater traction than Good Housekeeping and Vogue or Glamour.  There is a real opportunity on tablet for brands to become media owner with rich, socially connected and shoppable, magazine-like properties.

Rui Teimao Digital Strategist: The biggest trend is channel creep.  Where customer publishers would traditionally focus on single channel (print magazine), or perhaps print magazine/DM/POS, digital has brought an ever shifting landscape of channels from web (in particular web content hubs), email, social media, mobile apps, tablet apps and experiential – all of which are relevant to clients’ objectives.  And the natural response to this trend should be to take a step back and create a single view of content objectives, then mapping those to channels.

At the planning end, diving deeper into customer data to define requirements, audiences, content propositions, and then using that data to segment and personalise the comms is a trend that we are seeing delivering results that exceed benchmarks. 

At the other end of the process, the rich metrics digital delivers makes deep analysis, tuning and refining of comms and campaigns an integral part of the process.  The ability to do more of what works and fix what doesn’t, and the resultant positive impact on ROI is attractive to both agency and client.

Of course the other trend is “delivering more for less” - something I’m sure everyone in the industry has heard over the last year.

Dave Castell Head of Digital: Socially curated magazines and socially curated apps are also gaining popularity, which we are developing solutions for. Another trend is Videofication – moving image replacing / augmenting print and having the production ethic of a ‘traditional’ TV production company with the knowledge of how to monetise and market digitally. (Check out www.beinghenry.com as an amazing example of ‘branded’ interactive film / storytelling, driven by an automotive brand – Land Rover)

Physical interactivity – i.e. QR codes and potentially more importantly digital watermarking, we see as an exciting area. Connected TV is an area we are also pushing hard in. E-paper is on the horizon too, a potential game changer, though technology is unproven currently. One of the key trends we are seeing, and coaching clients through the big idea of the transition from CUSTOMER to FAN, mirroring the move from paid to owned / earned media.

Sean King, CEO, Seven: Content is now a boardroom issue, clients are now looking towards us at very senior levels to help them develop and deliver cross-platform content strategies. The big trend is that they are turning to us to help them maximise the owned media opportunity.

Clients also see that there needs to be a consistent and coherent tone of voice when creating content. Clients now get the fact that in the new world it is not just about earned and bought media, there are three types of media: bought media (where media agencies buy space from media owners); owned media (clients’ own websites, magazines, apps, etc); and earned media (Facebook, Twitter, and content distributed/published on other platforms because it’s good and relevant). It’s also evident that the marketing agency landscape is also set for significant change on the back of this shift, as everyone tries to own the content space.  In recent months the trade press has seen a plethora of clients launching their own media channels - eg. Procter & Gamble is launching a free monthly digital beauty magazine to promote interest in its beauty portfolio or Tescos launching its own ad-funded TV show.

This trend of shifting client spend into owned media, which naturally becomes earned media, is set to accelerate as the ROI outperforms that of traditional media buying. There will always be a place for bought media, it will always have a key role in marketing campaigns, however, the client as media owner is here to stay and the winning agencies will be the ones best able to help clients navigate this brave new world and maximise and monetise all channels, deliver the strategy as well as implement it. That’s a big ask for the other agencies – above, below or through the line. Brands will work directly with agencies such as Seven to create their own media across all platforms, and therefore will not require a middle man, making the future of media agencies bleak. For a strategic content agency like Seven it’s what we do and have been doing for the past 20 years. It’s going to be an exciting time for us and challenging time for a lot of other agency disciplines, so watch this space.

In the brave new world of ‘owned’ and ‘earned media’ the key to success for brands is to make sure they have ‘a single view of content’. By seeing the world through the eyes of the customer it’s easy to see how such a view leads to a much more on brand and consistent experience. The real benefits come from seeing how content interacts across all platforms from print (yes, that’s right print is still very much alive), web, email, video, social and apps; it’s all about driving efficiency and understanding how to get the best out of every channel, minimising duplication (ie costs) and maximising impact. It also makes the client’s life so much easier working with one agency to deliver the whole range of content, which is potentially another huge cost saving in terms of time/resources required on the client side. Our work with New Look is a great example of this in action.  The New Look team at Seven develop fantastic content that appears in the customer magazine.  We also develop content for their online hub NL Daily and work with them to drive fan sign up on Facebook, recently having hit the 1million mark.

The client as media owner trend is only going to accelerate which makes the single view even more critical. Then we come to the whole idea of monetising content either through commercial revenues (good old fashioned advertising), sponsorship, product sales, app revenues, copy sales, exploiting data, reducing media spend and search costs on Google, etc. etc. the list goes on. Of course I have a vested interest here. As an agency that creates, manages and monetises content we are perfectly placed to help clients make sure not only that they have a single view of content, but also that they ensure they distribute it across as many platforms as possible while maximising every revenue opportunity that this model can deliver.

It seems that clients of all sizes have figured out that a winning content strategy is now business critical rather than just something that sits in the marketing department. Not only is it (content in all its forms – print, web, email, video, mobile, apps) taking an ever increasing share of client spend and therefore senior management focus, but it is now also seen as a revenue stream in its own right. When it’s done well, whether a printed magazine like Sainsbury's Magazine, and iPad magazine like PROJECT, an email or building a Facebook group like our for New Look, clients can monetise it.