How the advertising & communications market changed in 2018 in general and what key issues became remarkable within the industry in Ukraine.

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20/12/2018 by

How the advertising & communications market changed in 2018 in general and what key issues became remarkable within the industry.

The market is changing together with global changes, although global trends do not come to Ukraine as fast as we would wish:

  • new opportunities for mobile communication platforms appear,
  • under the growing role of content marketing, new types of its integration are emerging,
  • digitalization contributes to appearance of a greater number of automated solutions both for the effective launch of advertising messages on communication platforms, and for analyzing of its effectiveness,
  • within availabilities of communication platforms for consumer data collecting, the role of analytical capabilities of a big data by means of AI has also grown, as well as the role of marketers’ competence in the correct interpretation of these data,
  • against the background of “advertising blindness” we continue to observe the trend of personalization in communication,
  • new opportunities for communication in social networks, work with opinion leaders, chat bots, the number of communication channels itself are rapidly growing

… this list could be continued.

The purpose of the changes is to find the most effective opportunities to sell a product / service / idea, so I would summarize and highlight three key industry changes for the business:

– first of all – it is automation of analytical data in order to obtain the maximum possible LTV-indicators (Lifetime Value). LTV is the total profit of a company received from one client for the entire period of cooperation with him/her. Automation occurs due to the implementation of special software solutions that are both quite expensive to be implemented and time-consuming (it requires from 1 to 6 months for its implementation). However, with their help, it became possible to promptly analyze the competitive environment of various categories, groups and subgroups of goods/services as well as to determine not just narrow focus target audiences, but to reduce to a common denominator the situational proposals for those groups, forming a well-timed advertising & communication message and a unique selling proposition. A great deal of automotive solutions proposals have been entering the Ukrainian market making  their choice less obvious (widelly-known Bitrix, integrated bpm online from Terrasoft, Odoo, Zoho, OneBox, Salesforce, Amocrm, Megaplan and many others). According to GFK statistics, presented at one of the business conferences, the impact of a CRM (customer relationships management automated solution) on business processes has been noted as significant by the users from 48% of Ukrainian companies; 43% of companies  slightly increased their sales results by means of a CRM; less than 10% of companies do not use such software in their business. It is easy for the reader to correlate the success in the businesses with the use of a CRM: how many successful brands are there in your market? The correlation is equivalent, isn’t it?

– without demand, there would be no supply: automated solutions came to help businesses because of the changing behavior of consumers. Therefore, the second change is the fact that the consumer becomes even less susceptible to the advertising messages, inasmuch as we continue to observe so-called “advertising blindness”. This change provokes us to use a native advertising content marketing tools in a smarter way. Native advertising is a method of imperceptible integration of an advertising message to the context of an advertising platform; a clever way to draw a veil over the advertising message so that it would be perceived as an indispensable part of the content being viewed by the consumer and would not cause rejection by the target audience. Therefore, native content marketing is becoming increasingly popular and, at the same time, is the most difficult tool for implementation. It includes text content marketing, video, audio, work with opinion leaders, guerilla marketing, content in social networks and instant messengers, etc.

– the third change in the advertising and communications market I would highlight is the ability of marketers to analyze the customer journey: the capability to track key media interaction points relevant for choosing a particular product, adequately estimate its potential, taking into account trends and tendencies. Analytical capabilities of marketers to form targeting advertising offers, develop such offers taking into account a customer journey analysis for focus groups of potential consumers as close as possible to their values and needs is considered to be the obligatory contemporary competence. How much data is collected today by marketers through Google analytics, business managers of social networks, email services, instant messenger services, questionnaires, contests, lotteries, etc. Manual analysis of several parts of databases variety for these purposes is unrealistic to overcome in a short period of time to the timely communication offer. Therefore, automated solutions came to help! Moreover, the trend of personalized offers remains on the horseback and the winner will be the brand that not only gains from well-timed and relevant offers, but also places it in those media where the target group will not be blind and deaf to it. Brand efficiency indexes highly depend on the timely reaction of a situational marketing: awareness, TOM, conversion rate … Leaders of the Ukrainian market actively use these tools and note its effective influence on the sales results.

What has become the most efficient and demanded on the market this year? What formats have been the most remarkable?

Personally for me, the projects of this year that have become noticeable and noteworthy, were based on the following:

  • innovations – the gamification of content using the AR technologies in marketing of “NOVUS” shops “Dinosaurs. Epoch of 3D”, now there is a similar project “WOWbox”on the air at “NOVA POCHTA” company,
  • reputational promotion solutions – a bright case of corporate social responsibility and advertising promotion at the international agricultural company “BASF Agricultural Solutions” that launched the project “Restore with Architect” for restoring of the abandoned architectural monument of the palace and park complex near Sharovka, Kharkiv region.
  • effective marketing mix developed – the use of the brand ambassadors by the company “Sribna Kraїna” in combination with advertising communication 360 ° using a new way of the audio / video content integrating with its further integration into all significant communication platforms relevant to the target audience.

The format of a brand promotion in the portrait of a business leader remains very effective: the owner, CEO, team of professionals, opinion leaders.

WOM (word of mouth) remains one of the most effective and complicated tools. Brand ambassadors, communities of dissatisfied clients significantly expand their influence, therefore, guerilla marketing work approaches remains in demand, so it is important to work them out well.

The effectiveness of the promotion is achieved through high-quality marketing mix, sharpened by targeting advertising messages and aimed at a cascade of conversions into useful action with the final goal – the sale. The main thing is to always remember that any well-planned campaign can be easily broken because of a poor-quality creative. Thus, it is important to keep in mind the industry professionals and do not forget about the importance of A/B testing. ‘Virality’ of creativity is the key to the success of any communication campaign.

What marketing communications formats have become obsolete?

The mono channel approaches in marketing communications that covers one communication channel  does not work.

Sales promotion offers are defined as a mandatory element of communication with the consumer. As soon as a business ceases the marketing offers communication in the current realities of the competitive environment, sales instantly drop.

At the same time, it used to be possible to easily attract a customer’s attention with promotional offers, discounts, credits, but today the mechanisms of offers are quite similar, complicated and entangled so to be effective and visible they should be as simple, honest and transparent as possible. Customer connection to the product is determined via its brand value, not by the price.

There is an opinion that Viber and SMS messaging are not working any more. With highly qualified and well-adjusted work of CRM system, these tools will also work. Here is an example: a Viber promotional message received by a potential client who came to buy not a potato, but a smartphone to a shopping mall and was determined by the automated CRM system at the time of his/her entering the mall will have a relevant influence much higher rather than on a person who was not planning such a purchase. Such technologies are already available, it is important to use them skillfully.

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Original: http://itnews.com.ua/iv/414.html

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