By NDA columnist Tom Ollerton, founder, Automated Creative
Joe Harper is the Ecommerce Marketing Manager for Western Europe at the Kellogg Company, where he’s transitioned from working in social media: as he puts it, “from sports betting (working at Bet365) to cereal and from social to ecommerce.” With his top marketing tip, he’s focusing on how many deliverables there are for businesses beyond just the simple ROI (return on investment).
Although short and long term financial return on investment is essential for any business, Joe thinks that too often, brands make a mistake by focusing solely on the financial ROI with their initiatives (especially in marketing and social communications).
Within the digital world specifically, there is a wealth of opportunity for engaging with consumers that cannot be quantified. Delivering great quality content and engagement with your target audience yields dividends through enhancing the brand’s visibility, the loyalty of the customer base, and so much more.
Taking it one level further, there is scope for businesses to look at making processes more efficient and streamlining the way the create content, whether that’s in social channels or just in general in a variety of media. For example, looking at Kellogg’s and taking the image of a beautiful bowl of cereal on the table: how can this be used across all channels and how can Kellogg’s maximise their investment and share creative and wealth throughout the business?
Looking at this type of efficiency and synergy has led Joe to rate the usability of user generated content within a brand’s comms strategy. Although this is not a new concept, Joe doesn’t believe that big businesses have capitalised enough on the potential that UGC holds for creating a relatable link to consumers. Since user content is fresh and genuine, it’s easy to use in building bridges with the target market. There’s a time and a place for considered, laboured content that comes out of marketing departments such as print ads and billboards, but UGC can stand alongside these in social channels and really enhance the brand.
Listen to the podcast to hear about Joe’s advice to students, his predictions on the future of marketing and more marketing tips here.
The Shiny New Object podcast is a production of Automated Creative, an adtech platform that turns brands’ media impressions into marketing intelligence. Find out more at www.automatedcreative.net
