By Darren Gilbert

We asked a handful of South African digital marketing experts and agencies what they view as the biggest issue facing the industry today and what can be done to fix them.

Not enough diversity in the industry

While Miles Murphy, founder and CEO of Liquorice DigitasLBi, believes there are a number of issues facing the digital marketing industry, one of the biggest is the lack of diversity.

“Historically, the advertising industry hasn’t been great in terms of its record around diversity,” he says. “The digital industry is even less diverse, I think. Agencies really need to put extra effort into ensuring they are growing and training the future kids in this space.”

One way of doing that is through an internship programme, which Liquorice DigitasLBi has in place.

“We have put a lot of effort into making sure we have a strong intern programme aimed at previously disadvantaged kids and then growing them in the industry,” he adds.

A lack of permission marketing

Looking at the digital marketing industry on a global scale, Cavalry Media’s Roxana Bouwer believes the biggest problem comes down to what she terms as the lack of “permission marketing” - where customers explicitly agree in advance to receive marketing information.

“There’s a scarcity of audience attention,” she says. “Marketing should be highly specific, personal and relevant, and seen only by people who want to receive your message.”

As for how to address this issue, Bouwer believes it is simple: stop marketing to the masses.

“Find your niche and give them what they want in such a way that you’re building connections while cutting through the bombarding noise of others’ fishing-with-dynamite marketing tactics,” she adds. “Ask permission, approach your audience with integrity and never forget: they don’t owe you a single thing.”

Keeping up with your consumer

For Paula Hulley, MD at Gloo@Ogilvy Cape Town, it is critical that, in today’s world, brands keep pace with consumers.

“In the almost immediate future, the consumer is going to be in a driverless car; enjoying a fully automated shopping experience; searching via voice activation for the latest innovation in skin care - possibly using an innovation that is based on a home collected DNA test and, in our further future, 3D printed in her own home,” says Hulley.

The challenge is to “work pro-actively” with the new channels that are present today, including understanding and harnessing artificial intelligence, which is already around in the form of machine learning and the like.

Ogilvy has a proposed solution in their own Consumer Innovation Lab.

“We use it to work directly with consumers and applied technology (like Amazon Alexa, Facebook chatbots, and Google VR) in a consumer-first strategic process that drives service and user-centred design.”

Digital’s ability to reach large audiences

The potential to reach large audiences as well as the infinite possibilities in terms of design and roll out of projects is one of the industry’s biggest opportunities, believes the Edge Digital team. However, they also see it as one of the biggest problems facing the industry.     

“The nature of digital and the way in which it is constantly growing and changing has opened a world of possibilities for digital and content marketers and their clients. However, this scale and the speed in which the market has developed has also resulted in a lack of measurement and understanding of the possibilities and objectives,” they say.

This means that with past campaigns not meeting the expectations of client’s, many are what Edge Digital describe as “nervous to spend time and money on digital”.

“Ultimately, digital is immensely measurable,” they say. “It is its strongest asset, and if more time is spent with a client to increase their understanding of the value offering and possible objectives available on digital, there can be no disappointing results.”

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