At the moment marketing is more fractured than ever before. So how does a brand rise above all of the noise to achieve truly iconic status?
This is the question at the heart of our series of conversations with Kevin Akeroyd from Oracle Marketing Cloud, and it’s the one that we’ll focus on today. In previous installments of this series we’ve talked about the art and science of great digital marketing, the problem of data overload, the challenge of balancing reach and focus and a whole lot more, but it’s all been leading up to this big question.
BB: You’ve briefly mentioned “iconic brands” in previous conversations. Can you explain a bit more about what sets an iconic brand apart?
KA: Sure. We tend to think of certain brands as “iconic” because they’re well known, but we rarely talk about how they achieve that iconic status. What really sets these brands apart is that they have a core identity that remains consistent across all of their marketing—and that holds true even when marketing is so fractured across so many different channels and devices. These brands become icons because we always know what they stand for.
BB: It sounds a bit like what separates a great politician from the pack.
KA: I think that’s right. A political campaign is ultimately a marketing campaign that comes with the same challenges that today’s leading brands face: How do you reach people in so many different ways, and continue to expand your reach, without losing the essence of what really makes you who you are? How do you embrace the fractured nature of today’s media world without seeming fractured yourself?
BB: This is getting deep.
KA: It can sound that way, but if the questions seem complex, the solutions can be surprisingly straightforward. What I’ve really tried to drive home in these conversations is that, as challenging as this dilemma might appear, we actually have marketing technology at our disposal right now that allows us to bring a sense of cohesion to a campaign. It works because the technology can connect behaviors that take place across a variety of online and offline channels to one unique person. And that’s an art.
BB: And when you can connect behaviors to one person, you can create better content.
KA: I can see you’ve been paying attention. When you can market to one unique person, you can not only create better content, but importantly you can align your content to key inflection points throughout the customer lifecycle. That doesn’t necessarily mean you know what the customers is going to do next, but rather that you’re in a position to react, in real time, to what the customer actually does.
BB: So, is it fair to say that the next step for brands that want to achieve iconic status is to find marketing tools that can bring every different channel onto one platform?
KA: I think that’s fair to say, but it’s important to understand that centralizing everything is really only half of the battle. You have to bring all your data—both online and offline—together to keep your brand identity coherent and to gain meaningful insights that you can act on, but if you can’t react quickly and adapt as new channels emerge, you won’t be able to get the true benefits of the data and will struggle to balance the art and science components we have been discussing. At the end of the day, it’s not about amassing as much data as possible. It’s about being able to identify the data that matters and being able to act on it in the right way.
BB: And that’s why the path to iconic status and expanded reach involves an open framework that lets you turn marketing apps on as you need them.
KA: You don’t even need me. You’ve got it. It’s about getting what you need and going. You’re moving at full speed in ten different directions, but because your data is all in one place and you’re identifying individuals, you’re still creating the great, immersive experiences that are expected of an iconic brand.
BB: That really brings it all back to where our conversation first started—to how marketing has to be more than just a science.
KA: It seems so long ago. But, yes, that really is what it all comes down to. It is amazing to be in marketing right now because there are so many new channels and tools. But advertising isn’t only about algorithms. The best marketing technology doesn’t crowd the art out. It creates space for the art. It allows for a unified vision even as new channels come and go. The brands that don’t get this might still have occasional success across a given channel, but to become a truly iconic brand, you have to make it work at every level. Marketing used to be all about the art. Lately it’s been all about the science. It’s time to finally bring it all together and celebrate the combination, which is one of the reasons why we partnered with your team on this year’s Brand Genius Awards in New York City.
