Over the last week Ad Week 2020 has been hitting our homes and offices with virtual events bringing us marketing, media, technology, and creative industry insights to drive change and hopefully, aid recovery after such a dramatic few months.
Datasine published an interesting piece of research looking at the pressure points facing marketers. They asked 250 people about their challenges for 2020 and there were four areas that stood out.
ROI
Firstly, ROI was high on the agenda with 90% of respondents saying they were not hitting their targets and a big factor in this was either an inability to access the data they want, or to utilise the data they have.
Data
That made data the second biggest challenge with 38% not knowing what the data they have means to their business, and 27% not being able to measure what they want to.
Decision Making
The third was decision making and ensuring you’re making the right ones. How do you measure sentiment? Is content is as important as context? What data can help with these challenges? This is why a lot of marketers are looking at AI for answers with 90% believing it can help them make better decisions. Is AI the silver bullet that can help analyse vast amounts of data, provide faster delivery of campaigns and make better creative decisions?
2020
Finally, the biggest challenge of 2020 has been the year itself with COVID and Black Lives Matter impacting the globe. These uncertain times required marketers to understand their customers better and move quickly to reflect changing moods and aspirations. In some cases, a fear of making the wrong choice resulted in moving slowly and not resonating with consumers.
When Covid hit, a lot of the messaging from brands was the same, “unprecedented times, we are all in this together, we are here for you…” which people quickly saw through as just words. In a social world everyone has a voice and people will challenge these statements.
That’s why brands need to act like people, if you don’t, you’ll be called out. Adidas got it wrong when their CEO, Kasper Rorsted, suggested all stores would stay open during COVID. What followed was a torrent of abuse online from people suggesting “that’s easy for him to say as he’s not going to be on the floor working” and 24 hours later all stores closed. The same happened with Disney when the corporate HQ closed, but Disneyland stayed open.
The opposite is Nike who really got it right as they stood by Colin Kaepernick of the SF 49ers and kept him as an ambassador for the brand when he took a knee for the national anthem in 2016. When the Black Live Matter movement came to the fore Nike had a position with the public that was seen as genuine and committed compared to some others who used it as a vehicle for their brand. They had responded like a person, it felt genuine and natural, and that works.
If you would like a more in depth analysis of these points or we can help with your advertising needs please contact us on hello@urbanmedia.ie.
Bringing your message to new urban audiences.
Source – Datasine
