Earlier this summer, and easily lost amidst royal wedding hysteria, Facebook's dealings with UK Parliament over the Cambridge Analytica scandal revealed the social media giant would soon allow us to see details of 'all of the ads every advertiser is running on Facebook at the same time.'
Yes, in their bid to be more transparent about who’s doing what on their platforms we’ll be able to view who’s spending what, who they’re targeting and how many people saw the ads. Interesting.
At a similar time, P&G announced they’d be reducing their digital spend by something between 20 and 50 percent. When a global giant like that makes that type of statement, you know that wasteful attempts at hitting the masses are over. Smart targeting is going to be crucial. It may make some interesting benchmarking between companies like P&G and Unilever to see who’s getting biggest bang for their buck through their Facebook activity.
This is a big threat to traditional media agencies. More freely available effectiveness data will surely lead to more brands following P&G’s lead. And whilst much of the savings made will be reinvested inhouse in data and analytics capabilities, there will nevertheless be an increasing appetite to explore more innovative and creative ways of engaging more targeted audiences.
This presents an equal and opposite opportunity for those with an earned mindset – those who have learnt to combine the power of PR with the power of social. More and more, we’re relying on a very identifiable ‘PESO’ Paid, Earned, Shared, Owned – model for PR campaigns that deliver impact.
Anyone can have a big brand idea and activate with a huge media spend. Of course, we don’t all have enormous budgets. A PR-based creative or a strategist who’s been schooled in the often-excruciating ‘story pitch’ to a cynical news editor must prove why a campaign has value to their readers or viewers. And they often only get 10 seconds max to do it. That experience ensures we apply extreme rigour to audience insight to land a story with genuine news value and appeal. In short, we need to be able to answer the classic journalist question: ‘Why would anyone give a damn about this?’
Equally, advances in digital technology means that almost anyone can create a piece of beautifullymade content for social and fire it into the ether for potential engagement but if you combine this craftsmanship through that PR filter and a mindset that is about opening up dialogue online rather than shutting it down, you have very powerful combination.
PR agencies are increasingly starting to encroach on adland’s patch in this manner. W itself recently created award-winning cinema ads for Lynx with Antony Joshua. PR agencies’ collective propensity to turn out advertising-grade work at a lower cost means we are making inroads, and the opportunity is huge.
Another small example. We recently released a digital ad for PG Tips new range of Tasty Decaf tea. Our response to standard PR brief was to actually create an ad. We knew there was the potential to bring a story idea to life Craig Revel-Horwood as the PG Tips ‘Head of Taste’ through a film that didn’t require months of planning meetings, location scouts or a cool director. Instead it was shot in a day and activated through an earned media plan as well as social. It was comparatively low cost and is proving high impact.
In an environment where media budgets are being slashed and marketing investments are being scrutinised for any signs of return, such an approach can be revelatory. If earned players can better demonstrate efficiencies and ROI to marketing directors – something we’re still not good enough at – the traditional ad model is under real threat. Our industry has rightfully and effortfully earned its place at marketing’s top table, something in the air tells me that now is the time for us to make it pay.
Christian Cerisola is head of W North, part of W Communications www.wnorth.co.uk @WCommNorth
