In An Interactive World, User Experience IS the Brand

Is it ‘digital marketing’ or ‘interactive marketing’? I am never sure which is better to use, so I use them interchangeably. The confusion is understandable–I guess. The world of digital marketing ushered in the completely new concept of being able to interact with the message being put out by an advertiser. We take it for granted at this point, but ‘clicking’ on an ad’ was a pretty amazingly novel idea a little more than 10 years ago.

Unfortunately, as I have blogged about before, I believe the industry actually may have leaned too far into this novelty. ‘Interaction’ quickly became a tactic to be measured, rather than a part of the strategy to be incorporated. By ‘ponying up’ on the idea that interaction could now be measured, digital advertising may have tied a weight to itself that it is only now learning that it must shed.
 
The truth is that the interactivity (the ability to engage and control our experience) offered by digital media provides advertisers the chance to completely rethink their brand strategy. In a world where interaction is the norm, a user’s brand experience becomes three dimensional. A brand advertiser can now focus on the look and feel of his brand, while also focusing on the core benefits and attributes of his brand, and perhaps more interestingly, on how to create interactive extensions of those benefits and attributes in which to immerse his potential target.

We do ourselves a disservice, however, when we try too hard to make this point. When a digital marketing player starts talking with a brand advertiser about the user experience possibilities, he often becomes so passionate about the picture he is painting that it seems to be a zero sum game, where all advertising dollars would be best spent in the digital (rather than the traditional) realm. The knee jerk reaction to being told that everything you are doing must change, is certainly predictable and it is of little surprise that brand advertisers often end up rejecting the idea that interactivity could assist in the job of brand building.

In order to move forward, we must start thinking more about how digital and interactive media advertising can play a role in the overall brand strategy, and in fact, work to magnify and compliment parts of a campaign that are executed across traditional media. The ‘user experience’ of the brand can begin in one medium and continue in another…one that allows more exploration. In his commentary on MediaPost today, Olof Schybergson, CEO of Fjord, a 10-year-old digital design firm, explores this possible solution to the feud between digital and branding as he lays out a number of points that today’s brand advertiser should ask himself in light of the interactive possibilities. Schybergson also explains:

There are many great examples of integrated campaigns that truly take a user on a useful and enhanced journey with the brand. Companies that are getting this right, often capture user interest or trigger a thought in the offline world, and then engage and provide additional information and buy-in online.

This kind of integrated media campaign is absolutely the path forward. Bringing the digital experience into the planning stages of a cross media campaign will open some important doorways in creating new levels of brand engagement, and therefore brand favorability..and isn’t that what ‘branding’ really means?

The bottom line is, that in an interactive world, user experience is the brand.

Check out http://www.strategyisthenewcreative.com/ for more of our ongoing conversation on the importance of bringing interactive strategy into the creative branding process.






Bridging the (Imaginary) Chasm Between Online And Branding

There seem to be daily additions to the growing call for online advertising (and for display, specifically) to address the gap between how it sells/measures itself and how brands want it to be sold and measured. Today’s call is from an AdExchanger.com update. In an interview, Digitas Executive Vice President, Norman de Greve, addresses some of the hurdles on both sides of the seeming chasm between digital advertising and brand marketers.

Clearly, from one side of the chasm, the digital/interactive online space must begin to wean itself from speaking only in terms of technology, math and metrics. These may be the terms that the industry is used to using in establishing its bone-fides. They are not necessarily the terms in the forefront of the mind of the brand marketer, reviewing the RFP responses, in hopes of finding the silver bullet that will get him/her carried around the room. In describing a campaign metric tracking philosophy that would truly resonate with that side of the divide, de Greve says,

It needs to start by connecting to the metrics marketers are already comfortable with – the general funnel metrics – awareness, favorability, consideration, sales, and loyalty.

But what is the responsibility of those on the brand side? What is the evolution that must come to pass if brand marketers are ever to be satisfied that this upstart medium has the chops to be the game changer it has been promising to be? De Greve describes the varying levels of sophistication between those that are likely to make the jump and those that will have a harder time with the transition.

Some marketers look at display as, “How do I get more impression volume for my ad?” While others are asking, “How do I use display to create deeper experiences and more value for the platform idea I’ve developed?” Those are different levels in the evolution of digital sophistication.

As I mentioned before, this conversation is not happening in a silo. It is simmering across the industry on both sides of the equation. And it is exactly the kind of self- analysis that needs to keep happening for us to get to the promised land where digital is seen as an equal part of the marketing mix and can be understood to magnify the brand goals…not detract from them.


For our part, CPX Interactive continues to start these conversations throughout our ongoing industry roadshow/panel/event/ that we call ‘Strategy is the New Creative’. For more info on the initiative and how you can become part of the conversation, VISIT US HERE.



Does Google’s bullishness bode well for display?

With Google’s purchase of Demand Side Platform, Invite Media, last year it was pretty clear that their ultimate commitment to the display landscape will continue to grow beyond the independantly impressive AdSense platform and their early adexchange landscape acquisition of DoubleClick.


But in the last week two new notifications can be found, leaving no doubt that Google sees the future of online display advertising as vibrant and in play.


1. When speaking at the IAB’s recent ‘The Future of Display ‘ event in NYC, Google VP, Neal Mohan explained to the audience that he believes that display advertising spending will rise from $25 billion in 2010 to $200 billion in as little as ‘a few years.’


and

2. Google bought Supply Side Platform, AdMeld.


Is it me, or is this spring/summer is starting to feel a lot like the same time period in 2007?

Things could be worse ; )

Rebranding for Branding...

Does Online Advertising have a Branding Problem?

10 years ago, in an attempt to establish differentiation from traditional media that seemed to have the market cornered on brand-building, an upstart digital industry ponied up on the deliverables of performance and measurement. As a short term strategic decision that decision seemed like a genuine revelation. Here was a medium, after all, that was designed to be interacted with.

In ways that were impossible when watching a TV spot or driving by a billboard everyday, a user could now indicate his or her favorable perception of an advertisement by actually touching (we called it ‘clicking’) it. With Digital, marketers didn’t have guess at a campaign’s effectiveness. It could now be measured. And in buying into its own hype, the industry seemed to say, ”Leave branding to conventional mediums, but if you want metrics, I’m your guy!”

But 10 years later, in a landscape that has preached the gospel of online scale and metrics from its birth, the future of digital advertising may actually rely, ironically, on its ability to pull off a skillful branding (or re-branding) maneuver….convincing marketers that the industry’s true killer apps are unique brand engagement and brand experience opportunities.

So the question is, “How do we (the industry) turn the corner on how we pitch ourselves when marketers are trained to think of as as an after thought to their core commitment of building brand affinity?” At CPX Interactive, we believe that the only real answer is to start the conversation in as many different venues and in front of as many different audiences as possible.

That is precisely why we have worked to spread the word through our own industry thought leadership panel/event series called Strategy is the New Creative, to push the conversation envelope about what digital is actually capable of.

It is, in fact, a conversation that is getting some traction. We were happy to see the IAB take its own turn at the topic in its recent InnovationDays event. In his coverage of the event, Chris Hosford (of www.btobonline.com) quoted Interactive Advertising Bureau as President-CEO Randall Rothenberg urging advertisers and agencies to “…develop more strategic, creative campaigns for the digital world, to steer digital advertising away from direct response campaigns and toward a branding model.”

The bottom line is that the digital space offer BOTH unparalleled metric measurement AND cutting edge branding opportunities that have barely begun to be realized.

FROM THE VAULT: CPX Interactive on CNBC

Things move so quickly in our industry that it sometimes feels like everything is happening NOW. It is easy to forget that a company like CPX has been slugging it out and helping to define the online advertising landscape for more more than 5 years (and longer than that in other incarnations). Today’s field of ad networks is populated by so many fly-by-nights, looking to make the quick buck at the expense of the industry’s ultimate health, that it is sometimes useful to ‘look back’ and think about which of these players has truly grown up with the space and which are most likely to be around in another 5 years.

Inline with this looking back, today’s video post is an oldie-but-a-goodie. In July of 2007 CPX Interactive was featured in this On The Money piece:

In the Spotlight: CPX Interactive Sr. Programmer Analyst, Ashwin Surajbali

VIDEO: Meet the CPXer: Ashwin Surajbali, CPX Interactive Sr. Programmer Analyst, and find out more about his interests inside and outside the office.

In the Spotlight: CPX Interactive AP Coordinator, Mario Cazeneuve

VIDEO Meet the CPXer: Mario Cazenueve, CPX Interactive AP Coordinator, and find out more about what sparks his interests inside and outside of the office.