News Corp Australia showcased a number of new innovations at its annual D_Coded event.
There were new partnerships, new ways for people to buy, and a new total commerce offering at the company's fifth digital marketing event.
The D_Coded presentation featured a guest speaker. George gave the audience insights into how media, commerce, technology, and marketing are merging into one industry.
George was going to speak at the D_Coded event about the state of the industry.
The D_Coded Total Commerce offering is behind the content and commerce.
A group of people, including LouBarrett, Quentin George, and Pippa Leary.
How did you get involved with News Corp’s D_Coded? What made you say yes to speaking at the event?
I was involved in the beginning of programmatic. We are trying to bring supply and demand together on equal terms in commerce media. McKinsey brings a unique perspective to the work because we look across the whole value chain. We give data to identify opportunities for people on both the supply and demand sides.
When I met these people, I was curious to hear what they had been up to, so I thought I could introduce the topic.
In your speech, you touch on how media, commerce, technology, and marketing are all converging into one area. Can you tell me a bit about what that means?
For the last 100 years, all media was based on impressions. What are you going to do about that? The industry of technology and services is trying to figure that out.
They were the first to connect impressions to sales levels. You begin to realize the power of media once you do that. You wonder if you can do that with everything after you have done that.
The push in the marketplace to get companies and specific retailers with commercial intent data, to be able to either build new businesses, or allow content and media companies to connect their audiences to those sales, has been brought about by this. It creates opportunities for brands, retailers, and media companies.
It sounds like there’s a lot of opportunity there, and quite a lot to dig into that marketers can make the most of.
It has a whiff of inevitability to it, but not everyone is as progressive. There is no denying the value of being able to tie transactions to impressions, even though there is a substantial gap between the premise and the promise.
It’s a bit of a weird time economically, what are some of your thoughts on how the industry is looking at the moment?
There are two types of brands. When times get tough, there are organizations that want to aggressively free up capital so that they can use it when they need it, and they can apply it when they have a certain set of strategies in place. A lot of other brands retreat because there are a lot of clients that look at this from a very opportunistic perspective. If you play offence you can gain share.
Where do you think marketers should be focusing their attention over the next 12 months or so?
The job of the marketer hasn't changed in 100 years but the tools and complexity have increased. It's important for brands to understand what makes their product or service unique. The last 10 or 15 years have seen a lot of focus on media efficiency and Optimisation.
If you were to spend an hour trying to improve the outcome for your campaign, it would be better to spend that time on creative execution. It is a good thing for media that we are getting so good at it now that it is not as bad. I would like to see people take a more balanced view of media marketing.
News Corp.'s code is D.
