Are you watching The Crown, a biographical series on Netflix about the reign of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom? Wrapped within this historical story, there is a marketing lesson to be learned.

Even the most steadfast, traditional “brands”, such as the British Royal family, need constantly to review their messaging – without being blinded by preconceived internal and external beliefs – and to understand how their messaging is being perceived and viewed by the end users, in this case the population of Great Britain.

In developing and interpreting their narrative, “the management team” (Royal and governmental) failed to recognise that the narrative was in need of change and even if those in power knew a change was needed, few within the inner circle would accept that change.

In the end, the change did occur, though it was not a controlled, manageable change but rather a disastrous public confrontation that occurred due to unexpected circumstances—the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.

Internally

The first question you need to ask yourself is: What is your message—not only what is your external messaging but what is your internal messaging and how is your messaging being perceived internally?

Digging deeper

Ask your sales team to analyze their messaging and to explain how their sales message relates to the overall corporate messaging. You may be surprised to discover the answer. My experience indicates that about 80% of your sales team has revised your messaging to make it fit their level of comfort in conveying the message (creating a type of personal imprimatur, if you like) while the 20% of your sales team who are likely the most productive are more closely following your corporate messaging.

Go outside

If you have sales partners, retailers, distributors, and other external outlets, determine how, why, and what they have done to your corporate messaging. Again I think you will be surprised to find out how different your messaging is in the field. For an analogy, think of the kids’ game Telephone, or Chinese Whispers.

Be advised: I am not talking about branding nor your visual icon or “look.” I am talking about your message face to the public, your narrative, your script, your deep corporate soul statement.

Ask yourself

Do a self-analysis. Do you understand your own message? Is your story comprehensible? Does your narrative prepare the reader/viewer/listener for the desired end result? Look back to the first article in this series, “Designing your story based on media and message”, and determine if your story comes across as real or is perceived as a fact-based novel that is being read as a work of fiction. You can see the problem.

Are the various views of your message consistent? If not (as in most cases), determine where they are different and how that difference is hurting/hindering your story.

Once you have determined the real-world execution of your messaging (yes, execution in many ways is the correct word), determine what steps you can, will, or must undertake in order to correct any incorrect flow of words or to revamp the story to match your corporate desires and directives. This may be the easy part. Make sure you also take into consideration that the media selected to deliver your messages plays an important role in the message presentation and believability and, in the end, impacts the believably of your brand, enterprise, or corporation.

Visual words

When you construct messaging, do you see the words you use as direct statements or also as visual, graphic images or icons that relate not only word-based meaning (denotation) but also relay visual imagery (connotation) to add additional value to your wordsmithing?

Need a few examples? For instance, which would you select: sales call, or a profit-based opportunity? Seating plan or office assignment? Start a talk or begin a discussion? Leeching a source or sharing information? The selection and use of the correct words or phrases, visual or not, will positively or negatively impact your messaging.

Using visual wording is a complex and difficult task, since readers/viewers/listeners interpret words in different ways. In fact, many skeptics argue that visual words are make-believe, non-words, words that cannot be defined. Is BOGO now a new icon word that best describes an offer? Maybe. But we now live and purchase in a visual world.

For example, emojis are the first stage in visual wording. These icons allow us to relate quick and simple messaging to fit our needs. But can a tool like emojis work for every corporate enterprise or for every purpose? I think not. For example, I don’t think a smiley face with a halo is going to convince most customers that you have a good product or service to offer.

But words are visions, and visions are becoming more and more important to you to sell your product. So, to help deploy your message, you might want/need to add a few appropriate or clever icons, symbolic terms that are supportive of your message and cannot be miss interpreted.

This link, from Emojipedia, explains how different platforms use emojis instead of words. There are 14 emoji’s that can be used instead of the word happy. There are more than 50 emojis to express confusion. Many are seasonal or event sensitive.

Words can be incorrectly used as well. Think, write and think again – but make sure your message is clear!

Next communiqué: Have you storyboarded your message?

Editor's note: Read the first section here.

- by Thaddeus Kubis

One fact has become indisputable in the last few years: the British population is addicted to digital content. According to research by Adobe into the UK’s content consumption habits, millennials spend an average of 8.5 hours a day reading, watching, creating and engaging with content on their devices.

If this sounds high, it is above the UK average of 6.9 hours, but well below that of the generation below them. According to the research, Generation Z spend a whopping 10.6 hours engaging with online content every single day.

The survey 1,000 UK consumers found that the smartphone is by far the most popular method of content consumption. Millennials spend an average of 5.2 hours a day consuming content on their phones, compared to 5.9 hours for Gen Z.

54% said that they use multiple devices at any one time, with the average being 1.8 devices.

Recent events have made the average content consumer more savvy and cautious. The rise of fake news has made people much more sceptical of the authenticity and quality of the content they consume. 77% reported being more cautious about what they engage with now then they were half a decade ago.

One of the main effects of this has been to make people more likely to engage with content that comes from a trusted source. 58% would share content from friends and family, compared to only 29% for a well-know YouTuber or the 26% that would share from a known brand.

The frequency with which people share has also dropped. 18% of respondents said that they share content daily, while the vast majority (61%) only do so monthly.

Brand opportunities

The research also pointed towards the fact that consumers still responded strongly to branded content as long as it ticks the boxes of being authentic, well designed and relevant. 46% said that content that provides a good experience influences their purchasing decisions, while 24% would share it with their friends.

Bad content, however, can have pronounced negative consequences for brands. Consumers pointed to badly written content (49%), irrelevant (44%) and poorly designed (35%) as their biggest content gripes. 71% said they would not buy from a brand that published this kind of content.

“With the rise of fake news and ‘click-bait’ content, consumers are increasingly looking for engaging content that provides them with an authentic and relevant experience,” John Watton, Senior Marketing Director, Adobe EMEA, said.

“Whether it’s across social, online, blogs, or email communications, branded content has to be well-designed, optimised for the device, and offer a genuine experience that goes beyond selling products. Brands that succeed will drive customer acquisition and loyalty; those that don’t will see customers swipe their screen in search for content that offers them a better experience.”

- by Colm Hebblethwaite

Snapchat has reported quarterly sales and user growth for the first time since going public in March 2017.

The news that the beleaguered social media company had soundly beaten Wall Street’s estimates sent its stock rocketing by over 20% on Tuesday. This was the closest the parent company, Snap, has come to topping its IPO price of $17 since July 2017.

The centrepiece of the positive results was a 72% jump in sales from this time last year to $286 million. This was heralded as a vindication of the decision to transition to an automated ad sales auction in the style of Google and Facebook.

There was also a growth in the number of users, with 8.9 million daily active users coming to the site in the last three months of 2017. Snap reported that consumers were staying longer on the Android version of its app.

Analytics firm FactSet puts the total amount of daily active users at 187 million as of the end of December 2017.

Industry insight

Aaron Goldman, CMO, 4C Insights:

"Snap benefited from some of the seasonality that's expected during the holidays as advertisers heavy up but also saw some new brands come in and test the platform as a place to engage hard-to-reach audiences. In November, Snapchat unveiled a redesign that separated out peer-to-peer interaction and curated/professional content.

“In fact, ad spend through 4C increased 29% in Q4 to close out the first full year of self-serve Snap Ads. This shows current users are happy to spend time leaning back and watching brand-safe videos even with ads interspersed throughout. More original content for Discover will only make the platform even more valuable as a complement to linear television, along with the ability to measure more on the platform.

“It’s time for brands to embrace each of the “social” platforms as unique advertising vehicles.”

Yuval Ben-Itzhak, CEO of Socialbakers:

“Despite growth expectation from analysts and a forecasted record of about $254.8 million in the fourth quarter revenue, Snapchat is still a long way behind its rivals for advertising dollars, Facebook and Instagram in terms of audience size. The lack of reach currently offered by Snapchat, especially outside of North America, remains a limiting factor for marketers looking to leverage the platform’s full potential.

“Despite the improvements made on the platform towards the end of 2017, Snapchat's ad product offerings need to improve to measure up to its competitors. They need to offer improved viewability metrics for marketers if they want to increase their ad revenue and be successful moving forward.

“Currently, having a programmatic access (APIs) to the Snap platform requires special permission from the platform. This means that both marketers and advertisers have no programmatic access to learn about the audience and know what content to create and how to target. Snapchat will face another huge growth barrier in 2018 if they continue to only open its API to a selected number of brands.”

- by Colm Hebblethwaite