360 Marcom - Dark Grey Europe

Online advertising works better with an idea behind it

In the rush to go online a few years ago, as companies realized the internet was rewriting the rules of everything, the instinct was to reach out to specialist digital agencies. Of course, it made sense: this digital stuff was just all too new, all too mind blowing.

But we’ve all grown up a lot since then. Online marketing is no longer a mystery. And actually, it’s not so different to ‘traditional’ marketing after all. In many cases, however, that split between digital and traditional remains. Many companies maintain a twin track approach with different agencies handling their on- and offline activities. The result is expensive: it means employing two sets of ‘experts’. But it is also divisive. Marketing effort is diluted across two (or more) separate delivery channels.

That’s why a 360 Marcom approach is the way to go. A single strong marketing idea or proposition conceived to work seamlessly, consistently across all content. One brief. One creation cost. One message. And a marketing spend made to stretch a lot further.

Content is king – but not just any old content will do

This approach has never been more important. Today, effective content has become the goal of all marketeers – especially in the last twelve months during the Covid lockdowns. According to customerthink.com, 94% of B2B marketers said they had pivoted their content marketing strategy – with 80% of them reporting successful outcomes.

So now the race is on for companies to invest in improved content this year. But the question is: how to make your content different (better, more engaging) than your competitor’s? 90% of B2B marketers believe creativity is the key. They understand that creative content is more valuable than simple product-based advertising as it creates emotional ties – and a strong connection – between clients/prospects and their brand.

Too often, however, B2B marketeers have adopted a ‘box-ticking’ approach to online marketing. What’s needed is a more creative frame of mind to really differentiate them in the marketplace, truly engage prospective customers and generate new opportunities.

Creative marketing is a combination of generating engaging content and using it effectively – or, by definition, creatively. We have to give users a unique experience, that grabs the attention and then produces traceable results.

360: content that works for everything

Having established that content is key, the question becomes: what is the best way to create and distribute that content? Successful 360 campaigns consider the main messages people are interested in, what the call to action is and how and where they want to receive those messages regardless of where they are sitting on the compass at that particular moment in time?

Potential clients are on multiple channels and use them at different times during the day.

Think about the different times of the day and different circumstances when you might check LinkedIn, Google, Facebook or YouTube – as well as reading a physical copy of a trade magazine. The trick for marketeers is to find a way of reaching targets across all of these platforms with a consistent and interesting message while keeping the cost per lead under tight control.

According to Robert Ross, Chief Strategy Advisor at CMI, Content Marketing Institute: “As content marketeers, it’s not enough to just understand how to create blogs, infographics or other social media assets. We need to understand how content operations work at scale. That means understanding technology, governance and how to structure content so that it can be reused, repackaged and leveraged across platforms.”

360 Marcom is a way of doing this. It puts creativity at the heart of content generation and then enables companies to squeeze every last drop of value from that strong, unifying creative idea.

At Dark Grey Europe we’ve done this for many clients. Our work for Axalta, Forbo and Caterpillar (to name just three) combines strong creative with highly targeted executions and strategic placement that has resulted in hugely impressive conversion rates and optimized use of marketing spend.