Challenging digital’s Paid, Owned and Earned model

Presented at Content 360 Conference, SingaporeApril, 2015

http://www.marketing-interactive.com/content360/sg/

Digital Marketing, a bedfellow of technology, has been through its own Hype Cycle: huge expectations from Clicks, Social, Apps … followed by plummeting towards the reality that tech toys need to work harder to deliver business objectives. And then, a gentle ascent towards digital efficiency through repeatable models.Gartner Hype Cycle: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp

Paid

Owned

The most popular model of Paid Owned and Earned says – Pay for some content, get huge amounts of free Earned content, and drive traffic to your Owned assets. This is a framework was relevant a year ago, but even today, is being offered up like a magic pill to marketers.

That model of POE in 2015, is as much a reality as a Hoverboard is in 2015.The movie ‘Back To The Future’ promised fantastic Hoverboards as a way of life – in 2015 – but the real ones we have today are pretty grounded, literally! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSheVhmcYLA

PaidEarned

& Paid

Owned &

Paid

90

9

1

I believe the POE model is actually Paid, Paid & Paid (PPP) model. You pay to reach content to the 90, if the content is good enough (this is often serendipity), 9 will create earned media, and 1 will find their way to your owned assets. And at every step of the way, there is a component of Paid that filters through.

PUBLISHING

PEOPLEAllow me to explain: this image is at once exciting to us marketers, & frightening to the human in us. It reveals both the attractiveness of digital content, and the behavioural changes it causes. In the recent 8-12 months, seismic shifts have taken place in the world of content Publishing, and to People as consumers of content. Understanding these changes will explain why we now have to do business with a PPP model.

The magnitude of content online is escaping quantification. We’re creating new words – Petabytes, Exabytes & eventually Zettabytes – to define the data-size of text, videos, the billions of selfies & memes published online. In the open web, this content is splayed across the internet – each website with its own domain, to be browsed at one’s own pace. The open web is wide and allows for whattevabytes of content to exist comfortably – much like spread out American suburbia.

PUBLISHING

But in the past 2 years, ‘The Four Horsemen’* have gained incredible control over the open web. Just think about it: Google defines how you find answers to questions, Facebook defines what you discover socially, the size of your iPhone screen defines how you view your content and Amazon, in the developed world, defines what you buy.These four admirable behemoths have constricted the sprawling open web into a narrow pipe through which massive amounts of content must flow. In real-estate terms, American suburbia has become high-density Hong Kong.*Credit Scott Galloway https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCvwCcEP74Q

Exabytes of content, with the potential to reach billions of people – but – within limited inventory! This is the classic story of high-demand & low-supply reconciling themselves into a seller’s market. Sellers who need to patiently explain to us marketers why we need to pay for the magic pill that was once free.Making us wish that the rent, was heaven sent…(just stretching that real estate analogy!).

The influence of the Digital 1%, will continue to dominate the Digital 99%, being as they are, the most efficient conduits to our consumers. We can see this happening already as News publishers begin to redefine their ecosystems and their very business model. If they’re so deeply integrated into Facebook, would BBC need it’s own .com? Should you buy ad space in bbc.com if no one’s going there?

Meanwhile, in an effort to be discovered by people, advertising has gone more native than ever, embedding itself as Branded Content within the ‘news’. Native Advertising or Branded Content have worked very well in the most part – but there are indications we may need to work towards more authentic models of content discovery.Last Week Tonight with John Oliver https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_F5GxCwizc

And absolutely none of this branded content is Earned or Owned or free… it will take a respectable chunk of the overall Paid digital media budget.And so it is, that Paid content behind Google and Facebook, Paid content behind native advertising (which in turn is discovered on Google & Facebook), transform POE into PPP!

Meanwhile, what’s happening to People? They’re hungry for content, alright! So hungry that they would sign away their first-born* for free Wi-Fi to access content. *social experiment with fake Wi-Fi T&Cs that no one reads! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plT5989P1v4

PEOPLE

Mirroring the narrow inventory available online, peoples’ attention spans are narrowing too. There’s just too much content and too little mind space. We’ve all heard about it: we are the Twitter generation with patience for no more than 140 characters.

People do engage actively with brands online, enough to create that magic pill of free, earned content. More often than not, it is a trivial meme or a clever spoof of the brand that gets the most laughs, or traction. A few weeks ago, heavy floods in Bangkok affected Tops supermarket (pic far left). That picture was transformed into amusing memes by consumers, and went viral on Line Messenger. It takes a bold brand to turn this free, no-control content into an advantage as Tops did, by offering discount coupons to it’s Line Messenger group!http://bangkok.coconuts.co/2015/03/25/internet-overflows-flood-memes

When it comes to sharing brand content organically, Unruly metrics show we must expect it to be below 10%. Even Super Bowl quality content is shared at approx. 5% (i.e. 5 shares from every 100 views)https://unruly.co/insight/#whitepapers

When people do share content, the Earned media effect typically has a short shelf life. People are hungry for content – if they like it, they talk about it, but very quickly move on to the next interesting story. Warhol’s comment on fame is true for digital content too!https://unruly.co/insight/#whitepapers

Growth in market share comes by increasing popularity… by gaining many more buyers (of all types), most of whom are light consumers buying the brand only occasionally.

Eventually, the people who grow our brands are the 90 we reach with paid media and good content, so we convert them into more 9s and 1s.

Paid

Earned & Paid

Owned & Paid

90

9

1

In a largely Paid, Paid & Paid world, how should we plan for Content? How do we decide what kind of content sits under which silo?

Begin with people at the center

We have to begin with the people brands serve. People who have feelings, who like to talk and who want to know more.

PAY for the heart

EARN talkability(pay for some of it)

OWN rational stories(pay for all of it)

I propose a POE content framework that begins at the heart. Pay heavily for content that appeals to the seat of human emotion, Earn talkability when people begin to talk about the things you made them feel, and Own the rational stories & explanations that people will come looking for, when they want to know more about you.

This is a simple model that follows typical human behavior. When exposed to compelling video content, the first thing viewers did was to talk to someone about it. The second thing they did was to seek more information. So follow the trail of the emotional heart, the talkative mouth and finally, the rational brain.https://unruly.co/insight/#whitepapers

$$$Pay for the Heart: Content – blockbuster, epic type storytelling that appeals to emotions | Asset type – Video | Paid Media – heavy investment | Timing – ideally 1-3 campaigns per year

CONTENT ASSET INVESTMENT TIMING

$$$

$

Earn Talkability & Pay for some PR: Content – consumer generated conversations, memes, that get shared | Asset type – Hashtag to anchor all conversations | Paid Media – small, to promote positive conversations| Timing –campaign #tag & always on #tag

CONTENT ASSET INVESTMENT TIMING

$$$

$$

$

Own rational stories & Pay for Search: Content – search strategy, search ad units | Asset type – destination page e.g. website or YT channel| Paid Media – moderate towards Search | Timing – always on

CONTENT ASSET INVESTMENT TIMING

#epicsplitVolvo Trucks example:Van Damme video appeals to the heart (or funny bone, if you may).People love it, talk about it, few create inspired content anchored around #epicsplit. End game? Get those in the market for a Volvo, to learn more about the engineering behind every Volvo truck – by watching very rational & technical videos on the dual-clutch technology.https://www.youtube.com/user/VolvoTrucks?hl=en-GB&gl=SG

#ayoindonesiabisa

Clear Indonesia example:Pay for the soccer- passion of Indonesian men.Earn their talkability through conversations around encouraging Indonesian soccer players anchored on the #tag.End game? Get young Indonesian men to consider Clear men’s range of shampoos by Owning brand salience & rational stories of the shampoo.http://www.clear.co.id/

Knorr example:Pay for the emotional story of the Flavour of Home.Earn talkability when women have conversations about how they love their mum’s cooking.End game? Inspire women to cook delicious Knorr-based recipes http://www.knorr.com.ph/

#lutongnanay

And just as the dust settles on that, Digital Marketing has entered the next phase of the hype cycle, what with wearables and messaging driving massive expectations on what they can do for brands.

But we’re approaching these new technologies with maturity now. We know it’s a mostly PPP world and programmatic buying platforms are already preparing the battlefield for inventory on a 2-inch screen.

10M Private Messages

Line Pay

And Messaging looks promising, given the paths WeChat and Line have carved out, and Facebook’s act of unbundling FB Messenger. Sir Paul McCartney recently sampled his latest track on multiple platforms, only to get the largest reach on Line Messenger!

In summary: a lot has changed since Apple’s 1984 Macintosh ad, but much has remained just the same. Stunning creative and efficient paid media, still create maximum impact. 1984 was an ‘insanely great’ piece of content, backed with clever paid media at the Super Bowl (and contrary to myth, further airings). This is also one of those rare, serendipitous examples of the magic pill of free earned media. For here we are, some 30 years later, still talking about it.

Thank you for your time! I hope you’ve found this point of point of view as interesting as I found it enjoyable to present. It is an incredibly exciting time for digital marketing, and we’re at the brink of the next explosion in innovation. Here’s to the exchange of more ideas and opinions on how digital is changing the world! Triveni Rajagopal.