Agora Media Group Innovation Blog

Forrester has a simple yet powerful model for interactive marketing efforts.

Below you find a summary of how each type is defined and what their roles are:

As mentioned on the Forrester blog, it’s best when creating an integral marketing strategy based on these three types of media. Easier said than done, but by creating a clear overview and categorizing current media efforts you will be able to approach and define your strategy more structured.

Besides the roles, benefits and challenges, there are implications and applications of this model from a (meta-) marketing point of view.

Here a list of points to think about and perspectives:

General point of perspective
Approaching strategy by the type of media instead of channel or ROI/Branding tactics, offers new insights which can be used to enhance the marketing efforts.
For instance, ROI objectives can be reached through various media types. Taking this point of perspective is more alligned to your goals and strategy, where these media types are the strategic How part.

B2C2C
Understanding the three media types and how they (inter)relate is important to understand on the transparent and reciprocal Web. The amount B2C expressions are relatively low, but serve as a catalyst for further C2C distribution.
Make use of each the channel’s uniquenesses, in order to be as effective as possible and more importantly, to reach the customer in a way which matches their online behavior.

The Buying Cycle
This brings us to probably the most important implication of this model, the reflection on the Buying Cycle / Funnel.
First of all, Social Media is promoted as a solution for everything, which isn’t. Secondly, it’s not always as cost-effective as companies think it is. Of course, direct channel costs lack, but indirect costs can be high. Think of the time consuming character of social media.

Owned media and Paid media can much more focus on the conversion part of the cycle/funnel, let the earned media be for visibility and the retention/loyalty phases.
Besides the unique advantages of each channel, keep in mind  that they’re symbiotic, Search is a catalyst for further exploration and the networks trigger more searches due to peer recommendations.

Brand
The brand is what the customers think it is. Nowadays it is even more than just that, because customers also want to be a part of the brand, think of co-creation and prosumerism.
Find a balance on media efforts that portrays the companies’ view with those from the customers.
The companies’ views are often centralized on the corporate website, whereas the opinions of customers are scattered throughout the Web.

A difference to keep into account when categorizing currently executed media types.

Devices
Society is becoming more digital ubiquitous, are the Owned media adapted to them if it’s neccesary? Think of the mobile device and tablets.
How are the target groups making use of the mobile device, depending on purpose and need, employ the right media type (right depends on goals as well).

Relevancy
Certain channels are less customizable than others, social channels are a good example how to reach customers very relevant, on the other hand, Owned and Paid media are less flexible and relevant (from the customer point of view).
New technologies in the Search Engine Marketing arena have increased relevancy (remarketing, behavioral targeting etc) which in time will decrease the advertising blindness (16% decrease in clicks Y0Y ’09 & ’10).
Social Media advertising can be more relevant in the eyes of the users but are less conversion focused, because of the lacking buying modus whilst visiting social networks.

Strategy
It comes down to the How and Where in strategy. Keep in mind that in the execution of the strategy, the translation of the How in terms of marketing communications/PR/advertising need to match the Where, where is the target audience present, what is their behavior and cycle?

Each media type adds its unique value to the How and Where.
Be mindful in the tactics, don’t follow your competitors blindly and smaller is better.
Hypersegmentation and targeting will deliver more precise and thus more relevant and qualitative results.

Last but not least, goals have impact in the choice of media type, long-term versus short-term, ROI versus branding and so on.
Effectivity is key in the choice because of the unique advantages of each type in each channel related to the target audience and the products/services.

Would you use this model for your planning?
Which media type is most challenging for you?
Do you make use of the C2C extension in terms of branding?