2015: the year of digital recalibration (and déjà vu)

8 Content Marketing and Social

Media Challenges Facing

Brands in 2015

2015: The Year of

Digital Recalibration

2015: The year of digital recalibration kamber.com.au

For the last few years, I’ve developed a trends feature in an

attempt to capture the big things impacting the digital landscape.

This year, I’ve taken a slightly different approach which is less

flashy, but (hopefully) more valuable.

Why?

We are entering the year of digital recalibration.

An introduction…

After five years of infinite growth and innovation (especially due to the social media

explosion), the time has come to take stock, embrace the lessons that have been learnt,

and use them to develop smarter solutions (which will give creative thinking more

chances to shine).

Inside you’ll find: Eight common challenges and questions facing business in 2015. And,

eight answers. I hope you find them useful.

Thanks and have a great year.

Adam Vincenzini

Managing Partner @ Kamber


Considerations*

Pinch of salt

(I’ve attempted to be as specific as possible, but every

business faces its own unique set of challenges)

Objectives are still king

(Content isn’t king, or even prince, if it doesn’t align

with commercial and communication objectives)

Same old?

(Already familiar with a few of these? Great. Hopefully

a couple are ‘new’ to you too)

Submit yours

(Everyone’s perspective is different which is ace. Add

your thoughts about 2015 via the comments function)

*Often referred to as ass covering, and quite fairly too

2015: The year of digital recalibration kamber.com.au Kamber.com.au

1. ‘Always on’ vs. campaigns Getting the balance right still eludes many


‘Always on’ vs. campaign ‘spikes’ • This isn’t unique to 2015, but it has become a lot more apparent of

late

• The big flashy ideas will normally illicit the most emotional responses

from brand guardians, but without a solid ‘always on’ program in

place, campaign ‘spikes’ can be futile

• Taking the hard road, spending a sustained period of time building

authority, and THEN adding the campaign layers is the formula for

success in 2015 and beyond

Invest (properly) in the future NOW and enjoy success with

much more regularity LATER


2. ‘Borrowing' an audience is like great sex But what happens after it’s over?


Buying influence versus building trust • “That beauty vlogger has how many subscribers??!”

• There is nothing wrong with 3rd party publisher collaboration, but it’s

often a short term fix

• If that path is taken, a long term outlook is required – can it be a 2-3

year partnership?

• Expect to see more and more influencer partnerships in 2015,

especially from media buying agencies who are partial to dangling

the ‘reach’ carrot

Collaboration is great, but it shouldn’t be at the expense of

developing channels and audiences you own


3. How much budget should we allocate to content promotion? But we’ve been spending…


How much is too much…or too little? • A very common question I’ve been asked of late has been: “We’re

currently spending X, does that seem right?”

• Without knowledge of context, objectives and benchmarks that

question is impossible to answer

• The simple answer, which isn’t a BAD thing, is that a promotional

spend must be part of your toolkit (but that isn’t breaking news)

• As more is learnt about paid content promotion by businesses of all

shapes and sizes, better decisions will be made

Benchmarking will be preached louder and louder in 2015

(and rightly so)


4. We still don’t know what good looks like Trust remains an issue


But we were told… • Now this IS a trend

• An uplift in agency reviews are occurring as brands question the

impact being delivered by partners that originally came on board in

the early stages of the social media explosion

• ‘Good’ is ultimately defined by the hard and soft metric ‘cocktail’ and

whether or not those targets are being met

• Another way to measure ‘good’ is the quality of output – are you

serving up content that your audience wants?

The ultimate test: If you shut down all of your social media

channels tomorrow, would anyone care?


5. Everybody’s doing it But making content work in the participatory media age isn’t as easy as it sounds


Content is just content, right? • This is probably going to sound very self-serving given the nature of

my agency, but great content ‘ideas’ aren’t enough if the myriad of

other important variables aren’t taken into account

• What does your audience want? What are your competitors talking

about? What unique subject matters do you have the authority and

permission to talk about? What does empirical data tell you?

• Developing content strategies which answer these questions (and

many more) is a skill which is in short supply

Agencies must adapt constantly to remain relevant, but

making content work in the modern landscape over a

sustained period is a challenge…to all


6. Decision time Is it really right for us?


We’ve been at it for a while now… • The participatory media landscape is naturally suited to the three F’s:

Food, fitness and fashion (just ask any Instagram user)

• It doesn’t mean others can’t thrive – technology-based brands are

naturally suited to regular publishing as ‘news’ is never in short

supply

• But, is the social media thing really doing anything beyond placating

senior management? Do other methods of marketing and

communication deliver more impact?

In 2015, we might (and should) see some brands pump the

breaks, instead of hitting the accelerator, which reverses the

recent trend


7. Channel or content? It should be an easy answer


18-35 yr old males are active on… • Just because your audience is active in a particular place, doesn’t

necessarily mean you should be

• The things you can talk about and the content you can produce,

which can add real value, should be the first thing you address

• Then, channels can be considered, but with caution

• If Facebook died tomorrow, would your content strategy seamlessly

adapt to a different environment?

The participatory media environment isn’t going anywhere,

but the places where participation occurs might change.

Content first, channels second. Always.


8. Ready, fire, aim Yes, that is in the right order


Things might change tomorrow… • We operate in the most fluid and fast-paced era ever

• Obsessing about getting your ducks in a row for too long almost

certainly means you’ll never have them ready, something will change

• This is a huge challenge across all business departments, but

especially across the digital disciplines

• Adapting to changes from the platforms and people as they occur is

something that needs to be preached (and accepted) with more

regularity in 2015

Start, test the waters, learn from it, and then roll out with

greater fervor. The longer you wait, the harder it gets.


8. Ready, fire, aim Yes, that is in the right order

Wrapping things up


summary

Trends, challenges, questions…

As mentioned at the start, my hope is that this isn’t another

guest at the echo chamber hotel.

However, I do think that the all challenges addressed and

the questions posed are important ones.

The fact that they aren’t especially earth-shattering

(potentially) adds to their weight – common questions are

common for a reason.

The digital recalibration has begun and could be THE key

theme of 2015.

Kamber is a specialist content marketing and social media agency. We plan, produce, publish and promote digital content that people crave. For more information: Adam Vincenzini Founder and Managing Partner M: +61 428 342 323 E: [email protected] T: @AdamVincenzini

kamber.com.au

mailto:[email protected]

http://twitter.com/adamvincenzini

2015: the year of digital recalibration (and déjà vu)

Social Media

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