NZME going the way of the CD store?
NZME (Traditional Media Publisher in NZ) made headlines this month, with the announcement in a drop of 21% in full-year underlying profit. Sighting the drop in Advertising revenue for the publisher.Are we about to see the next victim to the world of digital disruption, where the small and fast out-manoeuvre the large, is NZME going to be another Kodak or Nokia, this time it's not about the small out-innovating the large, more the failure to follow the audience.Reading the views of international powerhouse ad man Gary V it certainly seems to be the case, and one I can agree on, maybe on a smaller scale, but the shift is indeed happening with NZ brands. It's not a shift to 'digital' advertising, but a change into Facebook and Instagram advertising...
Why..? Who spends time reading newspapers, watching TV and now, there is a decline in people browsing news websites... This spiral of decline is due to the continual shift of the world to new and user-centric systems found in Social Media and on-demand services like Netflix and YouTube for news, entertainment and education.Now, I don't have enough insight into the business of NZME to really have an opinion on their success and failure, shit; I know too well the challenges of shifting the direction of companies. They may well make the shift to a pay-to-view platform; they may move away from the 'Home Page Take Over' style of interruption advertising and move to the current content-based native advertising, they may not and end up in the same sinking ship as the SKY TV Network...What I can comment on is the shift in audience and attention, and the importance of moving your ad spend to where your market is, don't through away your precious ad spend on channels that you have historically advertised on because they are the channels you use or the way you've always done it, the audience has moved. Don't become another CD store, or possibly NZME... Follow the data, follow the trends. As Gary V mentions brands like MVMT and the Founder Jack Kassan with his team are using ad channels like Facebook, YouTube, AdWords and Instagram to exceptional effect, all backed up by relevant and engaging content to their audience via their social media channels and connecting to market Influencers through these social channels.
Not only are they producing rich content, they are supporting this with relevant content based ads and a heavy focus on Influencer partnerships (not just a post but long-term relationships that are matched in values and goals). Fully adopting the new media and channels of advertising and marketing.What can we learn from all of this? There is no revolutionary idea here, no silver bullet and no lighting in a bottle, the idea of following your audience and building content that can be used for ads is not new. Focusing on your end consumer for everything is fundamental, not just for the products and services, but how we engage and communicate with them. So focus that ad and more important, content spend to where the audiences are, stop advertising on platforms that are expensive, low engagement, non-measurable and are losing audiences. Build content and ads that resonate and keep in mind the platforms:
- Google/AdWords, people are looking to solve a problem, find information or purchase
- Facebook/Social, people will discover your content, so inspire them to engage with it.
As always thanks for reading and feel free to comment or drop me an email at tom.reidy@tagtheagency.com if you'd like to chat in person or need any assistance with your social media advertising.For more check out TAG The Agency.