Culture – understanding what’s happening in the wider world, across popular culture and how brands are building cultural relevance.
(Identified through a range of tool and sources but in the case of Havas, powered by a new tool in development that combines social insight from our global Sprinklr partnership, organic search volume and qualitative intelligence from our parent company Vivendi) Category – understanding how the category communicates, the conventions and codes of message and medium. Exploring what to lean in to and what to resist. (Specifically within a media pitch this is where we understand share of market and share of voice as well as channels and touchpoints that are preferred within the category) Brand – understanding the brand’s ‘best self’, knowing what’s special and needs to be leveraged for the most meaningful brand building. (An analysis of the brand’s expression in media will include not just paid media but examining all touchpoints – owned, shared and earned (OSEP analysis) to reveal opportunities where we can invest more or less.) Consumer* – understanding current and potential consumers for this brand Exploring consumer needs and desires, attitudes and journeys. Within this phase we would include a Meaningful Brand deep dive. Described below. (Many tools will be used for this analysis including 1st, 2nd and 3rd party data, a Connect study to understand core touchpoints and eventually, qualitative consideration of consumer needs….) Meaningful Brand Lens – Our Meaningful Brand Lens is an analysis of a brand using our proprietary methodology, tested and evolved over 10 years. While the major Meaningful Brands study is an ongoing and evolving analysis across markets and categories, our Meaningful Brand Lens is a custom approach for a dedicated client need.Our research first seeks to understand the specific nuances within the category. To understand what matters to your customers – what benefits to prioritize, and how best to deliver against the functional, personal or collective needs of consumers. We then benchmark brands against these attributes, which give us a unique insight into the specific strategies that need to be deployed to drive engagement, conversion and growth.We explore 3 dimensions of the consumer relationship with this brand and category. In each case we explore consumer ‘expectation’ vs the current brand ‘delivery’ which opens up a gap analysis to see where we need to deliver for a specific target audience. While the questions in the survey will be customized for this specific category, brand and time period, the framework or methodology is consistent and allows us to build benchmarks of behavior and expectation over time. Fake news and fake views are problematic and certainly not ‘meaningful’ in any sense. As a result, we set high standards for how we ensure safety within electronically traded media. The idea of meaningful media in many ways is at its most valuable when it comes to programmatic. Not only should our standards of delivery, viewability and avoiding bot traffic be high, we should think about how we set best in class standards overall. Think about white labelling or private marketplaces – these in effect are about qualifying some media as more meaningful – choosing which environments we believe are safer and more valuable. We can expand this – we recently heard that a major global FMCG client is creating private marketplaces that are solely delivering traffic to media brands that support or represent diversity in some sense. Surely an example of a client focused on ‘meaningful’ media that matters – a direct quote from the client: “Where marketers buy media matters.” When we look at digital media decision making, we take a similar approach. There are all kinds of decisions that go into which digital media partner we’ll spend a client’s money with. How qualified and engaged is this audience? Is this part of their daily routine or just a clickbait trail they stumbled upon. The factors that go into how we decide on where to spend money are broad. They include quantitative metrics like number of targeted impressions to be delivered but we also look at past campaign performance of course. Beyond that, we use metrics that indicate great context, look at editorial tone, how a partner users audience data, the social resonance of content from a site and explore an overall user experience. There are more than 16 data types that go into 1 decision, exploring connection, context and content – the tenets of a great Media Experience. Beyond this, we’re working on a range of new decision frameworks, for all channels, that reflect ways in which we invest in ‘meaningful media’, all of which ladder up to a great Media Experience. We believe that an agency now needs to deliver more than a media plan, which is two dimensional and focuses purely to reach and frequency. Media is a 3D experience and so a media plan is multi-dimensional too. (At present, every team, country, client is making digital decisions differently. The development of what we are calling the Meaningful Decision Matrix is simply an effort to provide consistency of decision making around the network. Our ‘lens’ on those decisions is Meaningful Media) In terms of video and television, we measure what we call a ‘Meaningful Rating Point’ – beyond a traditional GRP, the MRP takes into account qualitative and quantitative factors – not just how big the audience is or even how targeted, but how engaged the audience is – how much does this TV show get talked about in social media? Is it a solo viewing experience or is it watched with friends? Do you watch it ‘every so often’ or tune in every week or binge watch? These are indicators that the show is not just seen by a big audience but that the audience is really engaged – this media matters to them. Would you rather advertise in a show that’s just big or a s how that’s big and people really love? (In the USA, we now use MRP as standard and are developing a tool to automate the process in Q1 2019. As we complete this, we will work with other markets to customize. In essence, the MRP is a process of decision making – choosing the most valuable TV that will work hardest, at the best price, for our target audience. We can ‘brand’ the process in each market MRP as we hone the technique) Whether our media experts are planning towards frequency goals or high quality placements, decisions are still being made about specific targets, channels and partners. Mx and an understanding of meaningful media remains important. Even when a plan just needs maximum frequency, there are steps that require choosing between different partners or different ad servers. Understanding the media that matters to the audience will still determine WHERE and when that frequency is best delivered. We’ve been looking at Meaningful Media and building planning processes and tools that help optimize towards a great [Mx] for around 6 months. In that time, we’ve proven in one of our largest markets (USA) that taking this approach, in one of the most invested channels (TV) has driven nearly 10% improvement in ROAS for a major client in the travel sector. As we continue to roll out new products that help us understand and invest in the most meaningful media and build a great [Mx] for a given target audience, we learn more and build a deeper catalogue of benchmarks. Inherently, we see both effectiveness improvements and efficiencies: in principle, we see that investing in the most meaningful media can be more effective, and as we hone our understanding, wastage is removed from the system – whether buying direct or via automation, we can be more valuably targeted in where and how we invest for our clients. Building the right Mx means focusing on the relationship between the right target audience and the media that matters to them. Mx is also a factor of an agency culture driven by data – connecting the right audience to the media that matters to them. The three tenets – Connection, Context and Content are powered by a number of tools that help us make key decisions. As of February 2019 we are developing the detail of exactly how the process for a great Mx works, and how we present it (the old flow chart is pretty two dimensional – we’re working on how we modernize and make it fit for modern purpose). More detail will come through Q2 and Q3 so that we can roll this process out to all markets and across all clients. Some old rules remain true. Choosing the right target and reach/frequency planning. Delivering the ad, ensuring it’s audible and visible and, whenever possible, has the attention of the audience remains the core of media. It has been neglected in the digital era and certainly we need to return to basics and make sure enough people see our message enough times. Making the connection today also means a more detailed and data centric approach to buying placements and attention. As you’ve read by now, we feel that all impressions are not created equal, all GRPs are not the same. Our proprietary research shows us that some media brands, some channels, some contexts are intrinsically more meaningful (more impactful) than others. Each decision we make in building the right Mx has to take into account a deeper understanding of context – beyond brand safety, where are the media moments that matter to influence a consumer? We understand that not all clients want the media agency to make creative and messaging decisions, but in our role, we’re close to the consumer and we often see their responses in real time. Expect to see our recommendation – a good Mx – include detail on formats, themes and messages. We even operate at Havas within Villages so see first-hand how message and media work together. As a result of our research into Meaningful Media, we no longer deal in media plans. At Havas Media, we provide our clients with a Media Experience – Mx. Media Experience (Mx) is our proprietary media planning process, an update to the craft of media planning in a digital age. Just like Ux is important when you plan a digital experience from a brand, or the client might talk about the full ‘Cx’ (customer experience), Mx hones in on how we should think about how consumers experience the brand specifically through media. Mx allows us to invest in the media that matters most to a specific target audience, the meaningful media. Over a six month period, we spent a lot of time exploring the ways in which real audiences and consumers respond to media. We looked at different channels – from audio to video to text; we looked at different genres – from news to music; and even specific media brands – from CNN to Spotify, Le Monde to Pinterest. From all these, we saw trends, many ways that media can impact, but these three modes – trust, engagement and influence, time and again became the most significant ways in which media moves an audience. If we really understand audiences, real people, real consumers, then we should know what media matters to them. Meaningful media holds an audiences’ trust and attention – which of course is important to us! We believe that media planning needs to evolve to harness this insight – too often media planners focus only on how big an audience is or conversely how “qualified” small segments are, not whether that audience is really paying attention or ready and willing to receive a brand message. The business of media planning has increasingly been using audience data to be more targeted, but just because we can target a potential consumer with our message, doesn’t mean we always should: Their attention is valuable, and our resources are scarce. An understanding of what media is meaningful helps us recognize that not all impressions are created equal, not all GRPs are the same, so we can be more efficient, more effective with which impressions or GRPs we choose to buy. When we start to think about media in terms of where we plan and buy advertising on behalf of clients, perhaps it helps to understand where the experience is NOT meaningful… …like when ads are too interruptive, There are all kinds of places, spaces and times when people just don’t want to be advertised at. So, let’s avoid that, or at least think about the balance between our goals, and the audience experience. (Sometimes we might need to interrupt them , but think about it…!) Think like a viewer: if you’re watching a 30 minute show from an online streaming service and see the SAME ad from the SAME insurance company SIX times in that 30 minutes, does that frequency REALLY make your brand memorable, or is it just annoying…? In several cases, our clients have begun to recognize that in our rush towards efficiency and highly targeted digital spending, we may have neglected to think about whether that ad experience is really of value – a good experience – for the audience, their consumer… “In many parts of business, efficiency and effectiveness are fairly closely related; in manufacturing, logistics or in the more mechanistic business disciplines, the pursuit of efficiency is valuable. In marketing, however, not so much. Marketing is one of those complex fields of human activity, like military strategy or sex, where efficiency and effectiveness are poorly correlated.” https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/advertising-crisis-its-not-doesnt-work/1523689 Based on our experience, on our data, we see that advertising that appears in meaningful media gets more attention from a target audience and is therefore more effective at driving changes in how they think, feel and behave. Attention is scarce. Consumers are often watching multiple screens at once, they’re listening passively, they’re chatting to friends not looking at that billboard, they’re even actively blocking advertising: Finding truly engaged audiences that are open to hearing from brands is increasingly difficult. An audience who are truly paying attention to the podcast, the show, the app or the site, are more likely to notice an ad: That’s because advertising space we buy within media that matters to the audience is noticed – so it can be more memorable, moving, informative or impactful. We’ve begun to prove this and continue to find more evidence as we invest this way on behalf of our clients. Furthermore, investing in Meaningful Media can also create a halo effect on the brand – association is important and being seen in the right places is something we all aspire to – so should your brand. We all know that brand safety is a concern – if we know being seen near content that’s ‘bad’ can be bad for our brand, it follows that being near the best content can be good for our brand. Here’s what Mark Ritson had to say on this topic, writing about the 2019 Superbowl for Marketing Week in the UK: “Compare a Super Bowl ad with feeble Facebook ads, which were being touted as an alternative this weekend, and you begin to see how TV might just be worth the ridiculous premium. It’s not just 110 million people, it’s 110 million people being served 100% of pixels of the ad, full screen, full volume, to multiple people, who are concentrating on the screen, looking forward to the content, then talking about it afterwards.” https://www.marketingweek.com/2019/02/04/mark-ritson-5m-super-bowl-ads-make-sense/ At Havas our company mission is to make a meaningful difference to the brands, businesses and lives of the people we work with. In terms of media, we’d define ‘meaningful’ quite specifically: We consider media meaningful when it is truly engaging, trusted and, often, influential. Look at it this way – as an audience, reader, viewer or consumer of media, there’s some media you just love – great podcasts, a favorite TV show, a website you check out whenever you have a break or an app that you just can’t live without. At Havas, we call this Meaningful Media or ‘media that matters’. We’re all surrounded by media every day, lots of it just doesn’t matter to us. As an agency, we’re constantly searching for the spaces, places and times that people really notice and care about. Meaningful media is trusted, engaging and influential – audiences think, feel or do something because they were exposed to it. We’ve been gathering examples of Meaningful Media from our employees. If you visit our thought leadership space at meaningfulmedia.havas.com you can see articles tagged #MyMeaningfulMedia to give a clearer picture of what we mean. A book is available that consolidates these stories to share with clients in meetings or pitches if it helps. Ad blocking continues to rise; Ad fraud threatens digital delivery; Consumers are shifting towards ad-free, subscription services; Clients are turning their attention back to the top of the funnel, asking us to re-balance and make sure we don’t do ‘digital only’ when the funnel still needs filling. The promises of ever increasing digital spend are not always fulfilled – we must manage old and new, traditional and digital, media planning craft with insightful data for decision making. All these factors mean we need to re-think our role as a client partner, a partner they lean on to drive growth and value from investment in media and audiences. Understanding Meaningful Media means understanding the audiences we can turn into consumers – knowing the media that matters most to them, because then we’ll see where they are paying most attention, and may be ready for us to reach real eyes, ears and minds with our message at their most receptive.What is the overall strategy process at Havas?
How do you approach and manage ‘Meaningful Media’ when ads are served programmatically?
How do we make great decisions for good Mx in digital buying?
In video, how do decisions contribute to great Mx?
If a client cares about frequency and less about quality of impact – how does Meaningful Media and Mx help?
Is there an empirical proof-point for Meaningful Media?
What are the processes and inputs to creating an Mx?
What are the elements of the Mx equation?
Connection – The right target, at the right scale.
Context – The best environment, that makes sense to the audience.
Content – The format and message that drives commerce.
How does all this inform how we actually build a media plan?
Mx = Connection x Context x Content
Why do we qualify ‘meaningful media’ as trusted, engaging and influential?
Why is the notion of Meaningful Media important?
What’s not meaningful?
when they invade consumer privacy,
when an ad is just not relevant to the viewer,
when it appears somewhere that’s just not appropriate,
when someone is constantly re-targeted after they already bought the product…Why does ‘meaningful media’ make a difference in terms of advertising?
How can media be meaningful?
What’s the context for Meaningful Media and why does it matter?
Glossary
| Meaningful Media | Media that for a specific target audience is their most trusted, engaging and influential. |
| Media That Matters | Media that a specific audience actually cares about – every audience is bombarded by messages, screens, all kinds of media and advertising every day. Most of it passes unnoticed, some really makes a difference. |
| [Mx] | Media Experience, bolder than a media plan, Mx is a proprietary Havas way of planning and buying media for a client. |
| MRP | A Meaningful Rating Point is a unique metric that we use at Havas to evaluate video investment. A GRP is only measuring the scale and volume of audience while an MRP measures qualitative as well as quantitative audience factors. |
| MDM | The Meaningful Digital Matrix is a standard, consistent set of metrics we consider before buying any digital media. |
