In our digital age it’s easy to assume that ‘digital’ is the better solution when communicating with a digitally literate consumer landscape.
Afterall, digital comes with numerous advantages, it ticks the sustainability box, it’s quick, cost-effective, creative and measurable.
But is it always the right solution? Does it work for high end brands? Or is there a right time to invest in something more substantial that has longer lasting impact, cutting-through the crowded digital landscape more effectively?
In this three-part series, we take a deep dive into the pros and cons of digital for the big B2C brands, the pros and cons of print for B2C and how this translates for smaller scale B2C and B2B local players.
Digital for the big brands… the pros
Creativity
Interactive executions are child’s play when using a digital medium. Any contemporary future-gazing business will have an armoury of in-house creatives on tap to help build a dedicated community of loyal customers with punchy digital executions that have the potential to go viral.
Think multi-media campaigns that combine TV with mobile-app notifications, social media / online ad campaigns, email marketing and ambassador endorsement to deliver entertaining hard-hitting creatives that deliver those much sought-after water-cooler moments.
Where time is limited, and you want to engage in an innovative quick-fire interactive way digital really is your best go-to.
A great example of a quick hitting digital execution is this 5 second, super-bowl ad from the team a Duolingo. An innovation from the in-house design team to maximise impact in just 5 seconds, it combines a digital ad with mobile app notifications, to deliver key messaging into the hands of audience members.
Flexibility and omnichannel campaigns
When details change and you need to update or amend information close to a deadline, digital executions can generally be updated and revised with a little bit of design studio time, making digital the most flexible option.
This in turn can help keep costs to a minimum, reducing the expense of reprinting, it also helps eliminate those grammatical errors that sometimes slip through the net, with quick to update digital formats that can be instantly revised.
Utilising digital also provides the best solution for building omnichannel campaigns, that maximise impact.
This is something many forward-thinking brands roll-out with great success, utilising social media platforms and their network of key partners (think TikTok and Shopify) to advertise new products, with direct access to purchase.
With digital, there is also the unique opportunity to recruit and engage a network of brand ambassadors to tell your ‘story’ with content suggestions. It’s a little more-high risk, you won’t have control over the quality, messaging or your brand identity, but if you’re lucky these are the types of campaigns that can go viral.
Creating content suggestions, provides influencers with the freedom to come up with their own creatives to keep followers engaged. It can be a win win from both sides. As a brand, you are being talked about and engaged with, and for the influencer they have fresh content to increase their engagement and follower network.
Marc Jacobs’ has some great examples of this.
Executed well (or sometimes just down to luck) these campaigns go viral, making your brand ‘of the moment’. These can be brilliant cost-effective, measurable campaigns, as-long-as you’re willing to take a risk and have a relaxed approach to brand representation and messaging!
@marcjacobs The Tote Bag, made from scratch by @Nara Smith ♬ original sound - marcjacobs
Measurable metrics and long-term community engagement
When executing a digital campaign – whether an email, paid for social or influencer led viral campaign, you can easily measure the results to get a detailed picture of engagement and ROI, providing the kind of in-depth analysis that is not available from a print campaign.
Digital also provides the forum to engage and network with ‘your’ community, forging strong relationships with key influencers, to build a network of dedicated brand ambassadors hungry for content to keep their followers entertained.
Cost effective
For all digital campaigns (excluding those that include video) there are minimal overheads; no materials or printing costs just the time required from your design team.
Plus, you can easily test a digital campaign across a small ‘test group’, before rolling it out to a wider audience. With measurable metrics available at the touch of a button you can help ensure a digital campaign will deliver exactly what you want it to, before investing too much.
This also stands true, when it comes to social media. Ideas can be developed and seeded through emerging key influencers for minimal investment. And with so much content online, if one idea doesn’t stick, you can rework a concept and try again, and this time with luck you might just tap into the zeitgeist and find yours is the next viral sensation.
The cons?
It’s getting busy out there
The digital landscape is exceptionally crowded, and as past successes illustrate the hero campaigns, those that deliver the best results, are often down to luck rather than a tried and tested method.
It’s very hard for a digital execution to stand out in the busy landscape. And while it can be a cost-effective solution, it won’t necessarily put your products into the right hands or deliver the ROI you want.
There’s also the age-old question of spending power, yes if your product is a fast turnover fashion-led product or service you’ll want to capture the imagination of the trend setting, younger generations, found in mass on digital platforms.
But if yours is a premium product, or professional service and you want to engage a more affluent demographic with high spending power. It’s unlikely they’ll be doom scrolling Instagram or TikTok willing to spend big on an impulsive purchase and in this instance, you’ll want absolute control of how your brand is presented.
This is where digital doesn’t always serve well and where a print or a physical execution can provide everything you need to stand out and showcase your brand values in a controlled way.
Digital campaigns, particularly if adopted by influencers, have the potential to snowball, with your brand values and identity unprotected, leaving you open to a wealth of online content you’re not happy with but can do little about.
The right people can be expensive
Getting the ‘right’ influencers to champion your product is a business and many charge an eye-watering amount to create content.
Authenticity is also critical. Consumers have become savvier and will see through paid for partnerships (plus these are flagged now on most platforms).
Working with emerging influencers can help ease the pressure on your purse strings, but to secure the cut-through you want, with the biggest reach, and better results you may need to need to invest heavily in your ambassador network.
Digital struggles to be premium
Whist high end brands like Marc Jacobs will diversify ranges and utilise different channels to communicate to their segmented target audiences, ultimately it is very hard to communicate high-end luxury through a digital campaign.
Print media is still the go-to when you want to showcase something that is exclusive. A tangible, beautifully produced piece of print, stands head and shoulders above a digital campaign, communicating reliability, trust, tradition and heritage through stand-out design, the weight and texture of paper, beautiful photography and cleverly crafted words.
Print can become a piece of art, it has longevity in a way digital can’t.
Next week we’ll take a more detailed look at the pros and cons of print for B2B brands, including some of the stand-out print campaigns that have lasted the test of time.