Marketers Beware: For Better and Worse, Everything Communicates!

When you see social media commentary explaining that quotadvertisingquot these days has to compete with brand influencer messages on TikTok just remember it39s all advertising even if it39s competing with itselfLevels of control vary across communication channels the influence a press officer has over what finally appears is clearly less than with a paidfor communication whether that appears via an ad or an influencer but levels of influence aside what a company says about itself in any shape or form says something about the companyI39ve never really understood how come so many nonmarketers don39t get this Maybe it39s because those at the top still see marketing as something nice to have something to be proud of something to show off about but not something that has much to do with the real business of businessEverything communicates There will always be odd occasions rogue employees or whatever but companies are far too often seriously inconsistent in the messages they put out there Even when they have 100 control over the message as with paidfor adsTake far too many ads on social media Not only are they dire but they39re disliked and avoided wherever possible by those they39re supposed to reachIt39s as if creative teams don39t really understand how to get the most from these media forms I almost typed quotnew media formsquot except that they are in no way new In the same way that print ads rarely work well on OOH sites so traditional ads are just wrong for social mediaIf everything communicates then as much care should be taken over a paidfor message on social media with how staff address customers and with retail layouts and displays as with a TV spot It certainly looks as if that isn39t the caseIt39s as if in the large agencies social media is today39s radio Chuck the brief to the junior team noone cares It was wrong it is wrongOutside of paidfor communications even CEOs seem unaware that what they say and how they behave can undermine the carefully constructed edifice of their company39s reputation And that can influence not just a few survey numbers but also their shareprice and the opinions of their investors and stakeholdersAs Mark Borkowski put it in a piece in The Guardian referencing an unseemly Twitter row between the CEOs of Just Eat and Uber quotTwitter is perfect for renegades mavericks and disruptor brands It39s much harder for wellestablished brands with solid reputations if something goes wrong for them they risk damage to their hardearned brandquotIf a lowly manager messed up operationally at Just Eat or Uber you can be sure something would be said and indeed done Hands and quite possibly necks would be wrung pearls grasped internal reviews commissionedBut something that undermines the company39s reputation Far too often that39s seen as less of an issue which is the opposite of the truthEven CEOs need to appreciate the power of media communications to influence those things they care about Marketing isn39t pink and fluffy but business criticalIf everything communicates then we should do our best to plan everything to measure what we can and to have some idea of how things work individually and collectivelyThat involves introducing a system of crossmedia thinking that goes a lot farther than the measurement initiative being driven by the WFA and ISBA Both the WFA and ISBA are well aware that what they39re doing is only a start albeit an important oneWe should all be aware of that and keep our eyes firmly on the prize of creating a way of thinking within which all forms of communication are considered assessed and where practical measuredEverything communicates We just need to understand howClick the social buttons to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Marketers Beware: For Better and Worse, Everything Communicates!

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Brian Jacobs

We Are the Outliers - By Jack Myers

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Marketers Beware: For Better and Worse, Everything Communicates!

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