This post is written by Morris Sim, CEO & Co-founder, Circos Brand Karma.
Morris Sim at WIT Middle East
At WIT Middle East a few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of moderating a panel of digital marketing experts: Angel Lorente Paramo, Global Head of Digital Marketing, Ecommerce, Qatar Airways,Sumathi Ramanathan, Regional General Manager, Asia Pac & Mid East, Visit Britain, Jitendra Jain, Regional Director of Marketing, Middle East, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Stewart Smith, Director, Middle East, Sojern, and Terry Kane, Head of Auto, Finance, Telco & Travel, Facebook.
Here are the five major takeaways from that session that I think are relevant globally.
Content is King – Over the last few years there’s been a lot of focus on distribution, and early adopters of new distribution channels have profited handsomely. However, with constant M&A consolidations in the travel tech sector, niche booking channels are no longer a best-kept secret. Hence brands that don’t want to be price-driven have to get creative to stay top of mind across channels. That creativity results in branded content – but this type of content creation isn’t like it was in 2010. For example, Marriott’s Travel Brilliantly Virtual Reality booths for prospective customers and agents has gained a lot of attention; #GetTeleported is due to make an appearance at ATM in early May. Also, Pudong Kerry Hotel made a micro-movie based on a Grimm Brothers’ fairytale to showcase its wedding facilities, and subsequent bookings from offline (Wedding Expo), mobile (WeChat) and online (Weibo, sh.daoxila.com — a wedding website) gave the hotel an estimated 50x ROI 1 month after the movie ‘premiere.’
Community is Queen – Once a brand has content, then what? Hopefully, your content is shared. According to Terry, travel is Facebook’s largest vertical, with 42% of people sharing travel content. Starwood has already tapped into the sharing mentality by opening its website to include guest generated reviews and Instagram photos alongside its own brand content. According to Jitendra, “We see things we haven’t seen ourselves by giving advocates a platform to share.” Sumathi took this further, into co-creation of her brand: Visit Britain ran a campaign that encouraged Chinese consumers to give 101 attractions a Chinese name. The ‘GREAT names for GREAT Britain’ campaign has already generated names like Da Ben Zhong for Big Ben, and Curly Fu for Benedict Cumberbatch. A brand’s community gives further airtime to branded content – each member is capable of influencing their network of family, friends, and colleagues. This type of influencer marketing favors small cluster conversations; traditional influencer marketing centers on personalities with a large following. Whatever the type, without community support, great content is lonely like a King without his Queen.
‘Multi’ – I was struck by how multi a brand needs to be to succeed in digital marketing. All on the panel agreed that one of the challenges is to be multi-platform, multi-channel, and multi-modal. Mobile doubles as an online mode as well as the bridge from offline to online (e.g. via QR codes). Angel said that it was ‘very difficult to find millennials in print or radio,’ hence Qatar invested a lot in this space. Jitendra felt that content marketing on mobile has finally tipped, and Terry agreed, adding that Facebook Messenger is going to be an open platform enabling people to ‘book, pay, and keep in touch.’ With multi-everything, it gets harder to attribute bookings to a particular source. Stewart asked, ‘How do you measure conversion across devices and screens?’ And no one had an answer, except everyone agreed that the volume of data contained valuable insights. I have a feeling that the abundance of multi will lead to the meta era – where aggregators of multi will be the critical intermediaries to make sense of it all.
Social is a DNA – Social media has moved from a sideshow onto center stage in digital marketing. But the panelists feel that it is going further: into the heart and soul of a brand’s organization. Discussions of recent crisis management by airlines quickly revealed ones that had social ingrained in its DNA (e.g. AirAsia, Germanwings) and ones that had not. The ‘social’ in social media is shifting from its second meaning (needing to have companionship) to incorporate its first meaning (relating to society or its organization). Jitendra said, ‘The level of transparency is unparalleled,’ which means social media has become a pivotal factor in humanizing (or de-humanizing) a brand. Angel added, ‘For risk management to be done properly – we don’t do that in marketing, it’s part of the organization’s discipline.’ This ups the ante for CEOs and COOs to understand Social is a DNA – and quickly.
Pace of Change – This final point was introduced by Sumathi, who said “Snapchat is a leading platform now, but six months ago it was non-existent.” Terry also said, “Stop focusing on digital marketing; digital IS marketing now.” Stewart noted a lot of technologies at play, going in and out of practice, which means that an organization fundamentally has to be agile in adopting the new ‘new thing’ even when it’s not necessarily proven. New technologies inevitably lead to new consumer behaviors, which then lead to new business models that could potentially disrupt an existing business. But I see a silver lining in this, particularly for young people who are digital natives: if they can grasp the fundamentals of marketing, they’ll probably have a better batting average to lead their brands into the new frontier, time and time again. Why? Because they have the home field advantage.
But for now, to get by before everything changes, repeat the mantra: Content is King, Community is Queen, and Commerce is their Royal Offspring.
Note: Morris Sim will be speaking at WIT Indonesia, April 30. See programme here.
• Featured image credit (Between the Lions): fanpop
