January 15, 2019
Choosing the right media owner platform for your content-led advertising campaign is key to success – respondents to our recent “future of global content marketing” survey cited it as the 4th most important success factor, behind the story, authenticity, and creative execution. We’ve invited our jurors for the 2019 World Media Awards to outline what they believe every advertiser and agency should look for in a great partnership with your media owner platforms.
In summary, the five key success factors they propose for choosing your media owner partner for global content-led marketing:
- A media owner with alignment on brand values
- A media owner you trust on brand safety
- A media owner with international standing, and local strength
- A media owner with a wealth of audience data and insight to inform your strategy
- A media owner with the human factor: the team must be flexible and solutions-oriented
And here’s why they say that:
Angela Everitt, Director of Creative Strategy EMEA at the Economist, suggested “brands should look for media partners that align with them on values and goals” in order to partner more effectively and thereby maximise the impact of the campaign. The importance of values was reiterated by several of our judges, with Johanna Krantz, Commercial Director EMEA at Reuters, questioning “Do they align with your brand ethos? Does their content support your brand messaging?” The values of a proposed partner, are undoubtedly an essential aspect to consider, and Jim Piercy, Creative Director for Custom Studios, EMEA/APAC at the Wall Street Journal, took this a step further, saying that beyond anything, what a successful partnership requires is trust: “Brand safety is an increasing concern, and clients need to feel comfortable with their partners and their partner environments.”
Being able to trust your partner also enables you to be confident that your brand image isn’t going to be damaged by the collaboration.
Carine Gailliez, Content and Media Director at the Renault Group, highlighted the importance of the insight that a partner can bring to a campaign, with a strong focus on metrics, saying that above anything it was essential that a partner could provide “data to drive insight, data to understand the mindset of the audience [and] data to think, adapt and activate” the advertising strategy. Richard Stokes concurred with this notion, stating that he was interested in “audience insight, the ability to target discreet and interesting data sets”.
For global content-led marketing, Pierfrancesco Petrosillo, Head of MediaCom Beyond Advertising, valued “the ability to combine an international standing with a local strength,” an idea that Tanya Robinson, Global Brand Director at the National Geographic, echoed when she that one question you should always ask is “what is their footprint in your international campaign and how can you use their distribution to your advantage?”
It is clear that a successful partnership relies on aligned brand values combined with local insight and supported by data, but the human element is also a factor. Alison Tyrell, Head of Content (Marketing and Media) at Spark Foundry, suggested that along with these ideas, you need “flexibility and a solution-orientated team,” before continuing to explain that “working with ‘no’ people is a bottleneck to progress.” Beyond the resources that a partnership can provide, it’s also essential to ensure a conducive working environment where ideas can flow freely.
Brand and media partnerships are an inescapable element of many successful international content-driven campaigns and we aim to celebrate these at the World Media Awards 2019 – with a category specifically for “Best Brand Media Owner Partnership”. If you think you’ve already cracked it and have a campaign from 2018 that demonstrates how a strong brand-media owner partnership can deliver great results, then we look forward to receiving your entry!
Enter the World Media Awards at www.world-media-group.com/awards by 7 February 2019.