Alex Jena looks at how smart online entrepreneurs are changing the face of marketing
As Dubai’s government continues to push forward with its ambitious Expo 2020 plans to create a ‘smart city’ and ‘digital economy’ we have seen a huge increase in the attention and investment given to start-ups. This has fostered a growing entrepreneurial spirit in the region, spurred on by a social media generation that has changed the face of marketing forever.
Historically, marketing was simply about finding your customer and relentlessly shoving a message down their throats. Then came the Internet of Things, where brands really had to consider the unyielding power of an 18-year-old with a keyboard who could publicly shame your product and then tweet, share and post about it to thousands of other end users.
Digital and social media habits and the continued sophistication of mobile and screen technology have paved the way for an upgrade of two complementary factors in a brand’s ecosystem; where we once spoke of the message and the medium, we’re now using the labels of the content and the experience.
The two elements can work in harmony as they aim to help or entertain us. But critically, unlike traditional channels, content and experiences almost feel alive. They have a pulse and are constantly evolving with the monthly changes in the platform features, memes, devices and even paid-for marketing capabilities of our friends at Facebook and YouTube.
The vital ingredient in capitalising on this phenomenon is pace. And pace is what start-ups, with their relentlessly impatient entrepreneurial spirit and tolerance of risk, excel in. They have built a complex web of business, technology and creative connections to ensure they are set up to both fail and to learn from their mistakes quickly. It is this network of young founders, hackers and entrepreneurs who are starting to become a critical ally in solving clients’ increasingly complex business challenges in smarter, leaner ways that leave even the most dexterous adland types clutching their status reports in admiration.
The phrase ‘If you’re not a start-up, you’re a turnaround’ has become immortalised in the marketing world as brands and marketers seek to build long-term relationships with their customers. With shrinking budgets stretched across more and more touchpoints in a brand’s ecosystem, marketers and agencies alike are turning to the tech giants of tomorrow to counter their marketing woes.
Start-up models are disrupting conventional marketing tactics. Here are some examples:
Spark – an offshoot of Vizeum that works with the tech community to harness advances in technology for the benefit of its clients – launched a fascinating campaign with BMW. The BMW UK team is used to briefs about driving traffic to car dealerships, but for the launch of the i3 electric car range it was tasked to deliver information about the car much earlier in the decision-making process for a relatively unconventional and new product. Led by the media agency, a pitch process was initiated and invited around five technology and messaging companies to submit their ideas. The winner was DigitalGenius, a company that created semantic automated intelligence software which enabled consumers to text any questions about the car and receive immediate intelligent answers. Furthermore, the technology was integrated within the official nationwide campaign, thus demonstrating how a technologically-driven solution can be amplified to help meet a business challenge at scale when planned within a total ecosystem. All this in six months and for a lower cost than a print shoot.
When you scratch the surface it becomes clear that we are spoilt rotten with products and services. By opening your marketing strategy – and carefully considered budget – to the people behind these technologies, you may find that they have a trick or two up their sleeves to answer your brand’s challenge.
For example, Dashroad in the UAE is a connected car platform that combines a USB dongle with real time analytics to give motorists access to driving stats such as average speed, common areas of hard acceleration/braking, hours driven etc. Vital information for an insurance company that might want to target low risk drivers or charge higher premiums for bad drivers.
Metaphorio in Jordan is an online collaboration platform designed by video producers for video producers. It features an online production workflow that combines project management, collaboration and content management tools in one place – perfect for the fast-paced turnaround nature of video content that clients demand.
Finally, The Wellness Log in Egypt is a digital platform for creating and managing health and fitness programs. The service enables industry professionals to deliver online content and to customise programs to users, plus they have both B2B and B2C offerings.
Clearly, there is a lot of talent out there equipped with prototypes or earlier concepts that could be applied to live briefs. In this way, the communications industry has a new wealth of resources to meet the speed and dynamism required from today’s marketing teams in the pursuit of keeping up with technological and user trends. We, as marketers, need only embrace and encourage start-ups in order to reap the rewards.
Alex Jena is had of business development at Dentsu Aegis Network