Interesting piece here by Sean Hargrave on Media Post about Paddy Power being the first winner in the World Cup, by linking up with ITV and providing snapshots of key goals.
In summary:
"digital moves the game along from shouting about how great you are to truly understanding the customer and being useful. [my italics]"
It is true that digital -- when done in the grown up way -- is about more than shouting, it's about understanding and utility.
When I first started building sites and other digital communications, I remember our mantra 'if it's not easier than what it's replacing, it just won't be used.'
But the digital world shouldn't pat itself on the back too much -- it's not the first marketing channel to talk about usefulness, just the most recent.
Take PR at its core. It's not just fluffy parties and puff pieces (though of course that exists). And when done correctly, it's also not "shouting about how great you are" to a journalist and hoping they'll believe you and write something.
At its best, it combines an understanding of the customer (aka, 'public') and how to relate your client's offering to their need.
For example: take a national chicken farmers association (yep, a real client). Did they simply send out press releases saying "Chicken is great, eat it!!!!!" and hope for the best? No, they used customer research to understand most people know that already -- what they want to know is how to cook it, and cook it differently, so they're not eating the same 'chipper chicken' every night.
So we had recipes, contests, chicken tours... you get the picture. Not earth shattering or super groundbreaking. But useful. And pre-digital.
Fancy that.
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