The Nature of the Digital Beast

In trying to pin down my thoughts on the job I'm about to take up, I noted out briefly how I see this tricky digital beast and its applications...

Digital as a communications channel that is offers more accountability, more accurate targeting and better value for money than traditional advertising, all sound (and popularly lauded), if rather bland, reasons for brands to use it in their marketing strategy.

Yet the advent of digital has the capacity for changing marketing much more profoundly. Previously, all marketing has been a one-way process, the consumer only present as an audience or, at best, sat in front of the one-way mirrors of research agencies. The opportunities offered by digital go way beyond just being another platform for a brand to commence another monologue. It presents a massive opportunity for creating broader and stronger relationships with customers.

Digital is unlike any other media; democratic, inconsistent and powerful but most importantly it is rapidly growing in popularity, ubiquity and size. This growth means that it is in a constant state of development, heading in a myriad of different directions at a dozen different speeds. This presents a big opportunity for us as advertisers; it gives us a huge degree of freedom when it comes to communicating with its customers beyond traditional methods. Social networking, mobile technology, and any other number of innovations in digital technology all offer their own unique advantages for brands. NikeID, Apple iTunes and BBC iPlayer are all old, well worn examples of innovative marketing tools that go beyond traditional digital banner advertising and branded facebook groups. It seems that to really succeed in digital, marketers need to not just adopt technology and methods they need to be at the forefront of their creation.

Google’s massive project to catalogue and open up the world’s information exemplifies another major point related to digital marketing: we are getting smart. We can log onto the Adbusters website and explore a brand’s dirty secrets; use product search engines to tell us where we can find a product for the cheapest price; and reading a friend’s opinions about a brand on his blog is more persuasive than a drumming gorilla. Brands have to acknowledge this and start to communicate more intelligently and openly to manage their relationship with their customers.

Change, the prospect of it, the pre-empting of it, the creation of it, is personally the most attractive aspect of a career in marketing. Advertising and marketing reacts to cultural, sociological and technological changes far more rapidly than any other industry. Indeed, good marketing pre-empts and creates change rather than just reacting to it. Digital is the area that is changing the fastest and offering the most exciting new opportunities for doing genuinely creative and innovative work and as a result is beginning not just to change marketing but to empower it.



top pic: darklorddisco bottom pic: mothmilk