Every day seems to bring a new catastrophic or controversial news
crisis that charges the atmosphere. While we cannot control these events, we
can control how we respond and navigate through them. Placing advertising that is
sensitive to the program content through addressable is a way to demonstrate greater
sensitivity as well as protect the brands’ reputation.
I sat down with Shereta Williams, President, Videa and talked with her
about the risk to brands in this changeable environment and what companies can
do to navigate the shoals.
Charlene Weisler: What would you
say is the biggest risk to brands at this time?
Shereta Williams: The biggest risk comes in lacking the agility
necessary to respond to the event at hand. If you don’t have the means to
respond to a major event that everyone is talking about, you’re risking the
possibility of automatically being seen by the general public as associating with
the negative aspects of that given event. One wrong message, whether on social
media, in a blog post or otherwise, can impact your brand in the blink of an
eye.
Weisler: What are the biggest challenges
that brands face today?
Williams: Brands are facing the challenge of not being able to adjust their
current campaigns that may be negative considering current events, to something
more positive. Social media is a perfect example of that and Twitter is an
especially challenging channel. One wrong hashtag, or even one wrong “favorite,”
can turn your consumers against you. Further to that, going back to a “business
as usual” attitude too soon turns people off and can be seen as making light of
the tragedy after the fact.
Weisler: Are there any
opportunities for brands or steps that they can take in responding to news
crisis cycles?
Williams: Don’t be silent. You don’t want to make too much noise,
resulting in one of your messages being misconstrued but you also don’t want to
sit back and say nothing. Take a stand for what you believe in and craft a message
around that belief that doesn’t alienate one person or group. Also, align your
marketing and communications efforts so that you can quickly adjust your
message in light of current events. They can also take advantage of the
opportunity to help in a very visible way. For example, AirBnB’s response
during Hurricane Harvey was a perfect marketing moment to both let people know
they were making homes available for free and to showcase their compassion by
doing so.
Weisler: How can
programmatic buying of media assist brands in maintaining their integrity?
Williams: Data. It’s all about
the proper use of quality data, measurement, and analytics. As consumer data
sets become richer – beyond just typical household demographics – brands will
be able to utilize those metrics in more compelling, possibly safer ways. At
Videa, for instance, we use cross-indexing of data from Nielsen and comScore.
Those are not complete sets of psychographics, obviously, but they are
foundational data that still drive the bulk of automated selling and buying. Because
of the speed of today’s news and media, brands and agencies will always have to
be on-guard to some degree with messaging at the ready for when emergencies or
incidents occur. Programmatic offers an expedient way to market when a quick response is required,
and when paired with intelligent use of data, can be a very powerful way to
promote goodwill for your brand.
Weisler: How can brands get in
front of these news crises?
Williams: It’s all about planning ahead. Unfortunately, crises are
happening all the time. While brands can’t necessarily predict the future, you
can craft a narrative for possible scenarios that speaks to your core values so
that when the crisis hits, you can adjust that same narrative to be relative to
the topic at hand. Ensuring that is communicated across your entire company
from marketing to IT is just as important as the narrative itself – you don’t
want one person affecting the entire integrity of the brand.
Weisler: Looking ahead to 2020,
where do you see the role of media, of programmatic TV and of advertising?
Williams: We are seeing, from the programmatic TV perspective, an
increased awareness and adoption of this technology to drive results and
maximize engagement. There is momentum from both the buy-side and sell-sides
for an easier, more transparent way to buy and sell TV advertising – less of a
walled garden approach. We believe, over the next few years, there will also be
a stronger movement and embrace of establishing a set of common guidelines and
open standards across the industry. We expect there to be more examples of data
sharing and transparent fee structures across platforms, and more openness, in
terms of technical platform integrations and how business transactions take
place.
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