BEST PRACTICE
Goodbye Marketing Siloes , Hello Collaborative Results !
Jill Robb , Digital Marketing Director at Origin Digital , working in partnership with ASG & Partners .
e hear the buzzwords ‘ digital transformation ’ and ‘ digital
Wdisruption ’ on almost a daily basis , and yet nowhere is this more evident than in marketing , PR and advertising .
Origin Digital is traditionally a digital business , built from the foundations of web development and digital marketing .
Specialising in these areas means that we know our craft well and we stay abreast of the daily changes that occur in the digital landscape . Yet we are also acutely aware that for us to provide the most value to our clients , digital cannot exist in a silo , however tempting it might be to fence off budgets for ‘ marketing ’ and ‘ digital ’.
Call it digital transformation or call it a way of life , but people now conduct their lives , absorb media and engage with brands through multiple channels .
QUOTABLEQUOTE
When was the last day that you only listened to the radio and didn ’ t access the internet or use your phone ? Consumers using multiple screens / channels is a trend that has been building for a few years and is nothing new .
Marketing needs to adapt accordingly
The rise of mobile has transformed how we are building websites and targeting our marketing campaigns . In fact , the rise of mobile and of ‘ connectedness ’ has led to the rise of the informed and educated consumer who demands relevant and personalised marketing and who will quickly dismiss brands for not being ‘ smart ’.
Why is it then that brands still seem to approach marketing and advertising in separate silos ? One brief for outofhome , another for radio , another for digital and no ‘ smarts ’ connecting the channels ? And what about your overall strategy ?
Your customer wants to see only ‘ smart ’ targeted marketing to facilitate them in engaging with your brand on their channel of choice . You may have heard of the rise of developments designed to shift the power from advertisers back to the customer , such as ad blocking technologies .
These caused a storm amongst heavy users of digital advertising when they were first announced , with many claiming that their advertising campaigns would be decimated . In my view however , if you are using smart , targeted advertising which is relevant to the person seeing it they shouldn ’ t block your ads !
When was the last day that you only listened to the radio and didn ’ t access the internet or use your phone ? Consumers using multiple screens / channels is a trend that has been building for a few years and is nothing new .
And therein lies the challenge for both agencies and marketers : how to conduct targeted advertising with smart , personalised marketing across multiple channels and platforms .
Origin ’ s partnership with ASG has allowed us to explore an agency solution to this challenge . ASG has taken the view that the best way to keep ahead of digital developments is by partnering with experts in their field – in this case , for digital expertise , it ’ s us .
Equally , we recognise that we aren ’ t specialists in traditional advertising / PR , so by working closely together with ASG in a strategic way , we can take a fully integrated approach which takes account of all aspects of the marketing mix , online and offline , measures the impact of the combined approach and provides consistency across all channels . It ’ s an approach which has resulted in a genuine surge in campaign success .
The Origin Digital Partnership with ASG provides our joint clients with more rounded strategies and a combined team who can pull together previously disparate elements into an integrated approach that their customers immediately recognise and engage with across multiple channels : it ’ s just modern day marketing but very few other agencies are taking this joinedup approach .
The challenge for inhouse marketers still exists however and they are facing the same seismic shiftin marketing disciplines , with roles seemingly everincreasing to incorporate mobile , social media , search engine marketing … and so it goes on !
As a result of this shift and in response to client demands for a solution to help them keep on top of all of these changes , Origin Digital has just launched Mindworks digital training , based in the Training Suite at Origin Digital offices in Holywood .
Mindworks is different from a most other digital training out there . It does not provide theory based courses .
Instead what we want to do is to provide the practical , handson and insightsbased learnings to provide answers to the questions that we are constantly asked by marketers and business owners , to help them become more effective in digital marketing and communications . We assist them to break down their own siloes in their approach .
We realise that there are many academic and professional bodies out there with whom you can gain digital qualifications , but what we also realise is that these qualifications and courses teach the theory but don ’ t provide Managers with handson experience or use of the tools that they need in their everyday roles .
By providing marketers with this alternative , practical type of training , we are arming them with an arsenal of insights , data and knowledge of tools to deliver crosschannel campaigns and a deep understanding of the true impacts of their campaigns online and offline .
They leave the training with tools and techniques they ’ ll be able to use straight away .
This collaborative approach to marketing and communications between specialists in offline and online is a model that ASG and Origin Digital have been quietly working together on for some time now and with a number of joint clients ’ campaigns delivering hugely successful results , experience is proving that the approach is really working .
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