By Simi Gill, Digital Account Director
Quantitative, data, numbers, evidence, technology, AI, pixels, tracking, code, targeting, algorithms, systems, processes… If this is a word association exercise, what media channel would you connect these to? I’m going to safely presume digital.
Now how about if I said qualitative, descriptive, informative, storytelling, imaginative, visual, audio, connections, relationships…I’ll also presume here you thought of perhaps TV.
In both instances, you wouldn’t be wrong, but why is it that digital overwhelmingly has the perception that it is hard-wired and overly structured vs the likes of TV, which feels more open and in touch with humans when they’re both just displaying ads on a device with a screen? Traditionally offline is the adopted route for top-of-funnel campaigning. Given its efficiency at achieving mass reach (being a “one to many” medium compared to digital, which is a typical “one to one”), this article is not to take away from the many benefits that offline has and will continue to have for brand. The purpose is simply to show you that digital platforms can be just as much linked to the second batch of words as the first and should be considered a significant part of cross-channel brand planning.