Martijn Jaartsveld is Strategy Director and MT member at media agency STROOM. He talks about how the frequently awarded agency today not only focuses on media advice, but also thinks intensively with clients about brand growth.
Martijn Jaartsveld is Strategy Director and MT member at media agency STROOM. He talks about how the frequently awarded agency today not only focuses on media advice, but also thinks intensively with clients about brand growth.
Fortunately, the marketing profession is constantly evolving, and STROOM moves with it. To put it bluntly: about ten years ago, it was all about using the right media for the campaign and then a lot of the work was done. It was a matter of using TV for high reach, but that is a lot more complicated now. The role of media agencies has broadened in recent years. The media consumption of the target groups is quite fragmented so a round of prime time will not get you there for ages. Modern media agencies, along with the advertising agency, are the major builders of the brand.
What do you do differently from other agencies?
,,In addition to setting the media strategy, we also provide brand and marketing communications advice which allows us to really build the brand in a triangle with the advertising agency and the client. Our big advantage is that we work with companies that have big local ambitions in the Netherlands and want to grow, while competing media agencies play more of an international game. Companies like Hero Benelux, Engie or Dille & Kamille often have big challenges but comparatively small marketing teams and therefore need good advice. We are therefore much closer to the ball, know the local media landscape very well and know exactly what is needed to grow. Achieving goals requires a lot of sparring and analysis and we are good at that. It's actually very simple: if we understand the client's marketing and communications strategy well, we can make better and more effective media plans.
Why is this advisory function important?
''You used to make money as a media agency by keeping a percentage over media revenue, but that is changing. This had the disadvantage for clients that it was less transparent, and it doesn't actually make sense: media turnover determined the agency income and thus the time you could spend on a client. Now we talk to clients mainly about media and marcom advice based on hourly budgets, and then it all becomes transparent, because you look at the quality of the advice and the time it takes to realize it. The client actually says: do we think it's worth this investment of hours? Fortunately, that is often the case and that is successful.''
Why do you call the combination between specialty and content media and marketing expertise T-shaped?
,,We have many specialists working here with online, TV or radio knowledge, and those same people also think about the brand-level challenges facing clients. They need to know more and more about growing brands so that they can enter into the conversation about what the objectives are, what kind of creative work there is and what media plan goes with it. Of course, having been a client myself for many years, I know how nice it is when you can drive such a plan in the triangle. So the T consists for the vertical part of the media specialty, supplemented by marcom knowledge from the horizontal part.''
So your colleagues need to know all about Byron Sharp's vision?
''Not just Sharp, but from Kahneman in terms of psychology, Binet & Field in terms of efficiency and Kite & Roach in terms of the growth plateau. Certainly communication consultants need to understand how to grow as a brand. These growth strategies are very current; we can look much more closely at what knobs you need to turn to grow. You see that consumers have started using more and more different types of media in the same time. Because of this fragmentation, brand recognition is only becoming more important. I like Byron Sharp's distinctive brand assets that show how important colors, advertisements and sounds are. It's all about recognizability; in six seconds on YouTube, in thirty seconds on TV in a commercial or a snippet of a radio commercial. You only have a short time to get that into people's heads; little nudges to make sure that people think of you every time they have to think of you. That's the big game, and media play a big role in that.''
So you have to get into that head of consumers so that they say at the AH in the store: we'll take that brand with us.
,,That also makes the profession really fun. You don't change corporate tax professionals every year, of course, but five years from now they should be thinking about you. That's different from a can of John West that people throw in their basket every week. The brand plays a central role in that.''
Can you explain that?
,,For a long time our business was mainly about impressions and conversion rates that didn't really say much about the brand. On the other hand, it is also not just about nice stories about image and purpose, but increasingly about 'nudging'; to be continuously present in the media with relevant messages. An always-on strategy for your brand, even on a modest level is essential. The brand is back from never before.''
The brand is important, but surely there are also customers who say: we would like to sell a lot of cans of Cassis?
''Of course we also have performance clients who say: if we put in three tons of media then we want to get 4 tons out of it. That is a different issue than someone who says: I have 2 million for building a brand. It's about looking closely at your category and what Share Of Voice you have within it. Then you know if you can make a difference. In terms of brand building, we often talk about Category Entry Points, CEPs in other words, which is about why you choose a particular brand. With Hero Cassis, do you think about being able to make a mix such as a Camaretto (Cassis with Amaretto), is it about quickly slurping something in between while you're on the phone or a soda after exercise during the day? You can measure those Category Entry Points and adjust your media budget accordingly. That's an example of our advisory function: optimizing the CEPS and the media budget, in order to grow the brand.''
Does such a strategy involve no black box at all?
,,Important is the quality of those CEPs: that is, that you understand why people buy your brand. If you have that understanding in order then it makes the job much easier. What's important is that you have a good understanding of what the brand's problem is, and the ad agency has to have the insight to solve that creatively and distinctively. Take Johnny Walker that wanted to rejuvenate years ago. They were making all hip online videos on YouTube and Instagram with beautiful young people, but it wasn't working. Then they figured out the brand's insight: that you associate whiskey with success. People with success often say, "success is great, but it's never finished. You have to persevere, keep going. In other words, "Keep walking." They then made a wonderful outdoor series where you saw a man (the logo!) keep walking so young people also knew: Johnny Walker is success. So I see the media as the distribution of the brand message.''
Text: BBP Media | Image: Pure Image
This article previously appeared on MarketingTribune