So, in the last 12 months we’ve seen the GFC pass by, the FIFA world cup come and go for another 4 years, we’re entering into the finals season and the Ashes battle is almost upon us.  Oh and let’s not forget the change in government leadership and the fact that the final of Masterchef gazumped the political debate on television!

Lots of change, lots of action but, in the communications world, the fundamentals remain the same.

A marketer’s goal is still to understand brands and consumers, and work out the most efficient and effective ways to build and sustain a relationship between the two.

More questions are being asked about the success of marketing communications at a campaign level as well as at the boardroom level.  In addition to this, the ongoing proliferation of media channels, the advent of new and innovative digital channels and content distribution providers, have all increased the potential for wastage as well as the greater potential for targeting.

Our mantra “Don’t count the consumers you reach, reach the consumers who count” is more relevant than ever.

The question on most marketer’s lips is “how do I make social media work for my brand as well as my customers”.  Some brands have managed to engage consumers  well, for example the recent Old Spice Twitter campaign, others have failed and been caught out – after all, as David Ogilvy said “the consumer is not a moron”.

As consumers receive more messages through more channels than ever before, they will continue to be more selective, so relevancy is still so important.  Relevancy is driven by a better understanding, fuelled by greater data insights – I don’t just mean more interrogation of the customer database, although this will certainly help deliver the insights, but by collating as much research, consumer behaviour and information available from a multitude of sources.

Not every business has the luxury of a customer or prospect database, but I would recommend that every business should aim to develop one regardless of industry sector.

Another way to increase relevance will be to focus more on testing different strategies and executions and measuring the outcome.

Australia has been criticised for not focussing more effort on testing but we are seeing more clients allocating more funds to learning more with the ultimate ambition to increase effectiveness.

And I can’t comment on the next 12 months in direct marketing without making a huge point about the creative idea.

Driven by insights, demonstrating relevancy, the creative idea has to be delivering to the single most important need that the consumer faces in the context of the communication.  It has to ensure cut through, it has to be surprising and it has to get the consumer to open the envelope, read the email, click through, and ultimately respond to build that dialogue that only direct marketing is capable of building.

Cheers,

Mike

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Tags: DM predictions, mike chuter