In the covetous 2020 era, many traditional publicity agencies have demonstrated urgency in digital content production and have claimed to be creative shops suited for online/e-com. Many of us have continued to ask why this sudden need? Especially when its essence was “creative storytelling” and not always formatted controlled content. To remind readers that, until recently, the best instances of iconic brand work were not format reliant; instead, they relied on storytelling. Let’s have a look at a current example: ‘Dove’ Real Beauty Sketches (2013), which examines the disparity between how others view us and how we perceive ourselves. Gil Zamora, an FBI-trained forensic artist, created two portraits for each victim, one based on her own description and the other based on the observations of a stranger. If the brief had limited the format from the start, this kind of extraordinary innovation might not have worked its magic. The Dove genuine beauty sketches were developed into a 6.35-minute film by Ogilvy US, rather than being crammed into a 5-second YouTube pre-roll or a 30-second TV spot.
Which brings us back to the original question: why aren’t brands investing in creative storytelling, which has historically been a key component of brand engagement? This occurred for a variety of reasons. There was a time when marketing and sales were clearly separated. Both disciplines collaborated, but they each had their own tasks to play, and neither side interfered with the other’s work. Planning, strategy, budget allocations and insight finding were all handled by marketing. Sales staff were concentrating on trade and making sure that orders were being fulfilled. Sales teams provided marketing with their forecasted figures and marketers put their campaign budgets together. Customers’ expectations for services and brands have shifted as a result of Amazonization. The concept depicts a brand as a single platform that allows brands, consumers and e-commerce partners to exchange information. It’s all about data flow and anyone who has purchased on Amazon can attest to the fact, that it is the king of data exploration. This streamlines the brand’s interactions with customers who contact with the company through several retail and e-commerce channels.
Everything that used to be done by sales has now been incorporated into marketing! Even the call centre, which used to report to sales for lead generation and customer service, now reports to marketing in the majority of cases. The costs of automating lead generation processes/campaigns, as well as the budgets for sales leads from sales budgets, are now part of the marketing cost centre. Marketing used to be a top-line activity in accounting books, but these days, the bottom line is increasingly determining what a marketer can accomplish. From launch to trial, Amazonization has shortened the gestation period. Brands are getting straight to the point, much like people who date through online apps: add to cart. Marketers are moving towards bottom-of-funnel marketing in large numbers. This means that budgets are increasingly focused on generating consideration and demand rather than driving brand affiliation, affection and significance.
Most marketers had never been exposed to a hard-core sale before; instead, they planned budgets, maintained brand scores, researched the implications of household data, and backed brands in the marketplace. When it came to predicting sales impact, they may be the cautious fence-sitters. However, they now have a stake in the outcome and the fortunes at the bottom of the funnel are critical.
