{"id":169,"date":"2015-10-15T14:54:28","date_gmt":"2015-10-15T18:54:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tridence.wordpress.com\/?p=169"},"modified":"2015-10-15T14:54:28","modified_gmt":"2015-10-15T18:54:28","slug":"picture-this-marketers-see-the-value-of-visual-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tridence.com\/blog\/picture-this-marketers-see-the-value-of-visual-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Picture This: Marketers See The Value Of Visual Media"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"main-article-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"452x294_visualweb\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cmo.com\/content\/cmo-com\/home\/articles\/2015\/8\/21\/marketers-start-to-see-the-big-picture\/_jcr_content\/image.articles.jpg\/1444843995252.jpg\" alt=\"452x294_visualweb\" \/><\/div>\n<div id=\"body-text\">\n<p class=\"first\">The art of storytelling is changing in the digital age. The growing use of photos, videos, animations, and infographics has altered the way consumers act\u2014and, as a result, the methods that marketers use to create and maintain customer engagement are undergoing a transformation.<\/p>\n<div class=\"highlights\">\n<p>ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Millennials \u201cwant a real and compelling story that avoid marketing jargon and clich\u00e9s.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Only about one-quarter of respondents had a process to aggregate, organize, and manage visual assets used across teams, according to the CMO Council.<\/li>\n<li>The challenge for marketers is to produce content that works across multiple channels and different devices.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re in an interesting period in terms of visual assets. The definition of what is visual and what is required to connect to consumers is undergoing a transformation,\u201d said Liz Miller, senior vice president of marketing for the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council.<\/p>\n<p>To be sure, getting a message across to potential customers is increasingly challenging. Not only is it necessary to develop marketing materials that communicate a concept through pictures and words, it is important to deliver it in the right way for a particular channel and device.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhereas in the past visuals were more the icing on the cake, they are now the cake,\u201d Miller told CMO.com. \u201cA creative team must focus on capturing a person\u2019s attention and leading them through the process in a way that seems natural and intuitive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Added Michael Boland, chief analyst and vice president of content at marketing consulting firm BIA\/Kelsey: \u201cRich media is critical to marketing success.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, the path to progress can prove bumpy. A CMO Council survey in partnership with Libris, \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmocouncil.org\/download-center.php?id=297\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">From Content to Creativity: The Role of Visual Media in Impactful Brand Storytelling<\/a>,\u201d found that while 65% of senior marketing executives said they believe visual assets are core to how their brand story is communicated, only 27% have the ability to aggregate, organize, and manage these assets across marketing and nonmarketing teams\u2014including those outside of the organization.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the use of visual assets is continuing to rise. The study found that senior marketing executives expect the use of video to spike by 79%, infographics by 50%, and illustrations by 41% in the near future.<\/p>\n<p><b>Image Is Everything<br \/>\n<\/b>Although images have always played an important role in marketing and advertising\u2014magazine ads, billboards, television commercials, and other media have served as a mainstay for decades\u2014the nature of imagery is changing due to a number of factors, industry observers said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHigh-quality optics and cameras on smartphones have changed the way people think about imagery,\u201d Boland told CMO.com. At the same time, social media has exploded, and the way consumers create, exchange and view photos, video, and other imagery on small screens or second screens has changed considerably. \u201cPeople are increasingly conditioned to use fewer words and more imagery,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Overlaying all of this are Millennials with a strong distaste for messages and images that look artificial, Boland said. Because they are fluent in using image-based technologies they are more adept at recognizing poorly constructed and more contrived images and messages.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey want a real and compelling story that avoid marketing jargon and clich\u00e9s,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n<p>Steve Gustavson, group creative director at Adobe (CMO.com\u2019s parent company), agreed. \u201cIn order to break through the marketing logjam and capture people\u2019s attention, it\u2019s critical to produce high-quality imagery that is emotionally impactful but have it interplay effectively with copy,\u201d he told CMO.com. \u201cThe marriage of these two things is critical.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What makes the task incredibly difficult is the fact that Millennials\u2014as well as Gen X and, to a lesser extent, Boomers\u2014have increasingly short attention spans and frequently think in 140 characters or less. \u201cThere is an ongoing trend that extends back to USA Today and the MTV generation. There is a need to get to the point faster and in a more entertaining way than in the past,\u201d Boland pointed out. Lead a person down a meandering path or to a dead end, and you have lost them, he added.<\/p>\n<p>U.K.-based digital agency <a href=\"http:\/\/hub.visual.ly\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zabisco<\/a> found that 40% of the consumer market responds better to visual information than plain text. As a result, marketers have shifted content production to include vast quantities of graphics, videos, photography, and illustrations. Infographic production, according to Zabisco, increases by 1% every day. At the same time, consumers are rapidly shifting to viewing content on mobile devices. For example, mobile traffic to YouTube rose from about 6% in 2012 to about 40% in 2014, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/intelligence.businessinsider.com\/welcome?utm_source=House&amp;utm_medium=Edit&amp;utm_term=MVID1213&amp;utm_content=link&amp;utm_campaign=BIIMobile-\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">BI Intelligence<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, many marketing executives are lagging behind. Marketers are often remiss in approaching the \u201cvisual asset dialogue as part of the strategic consumer experience and engagement dialogue,\u201d said Miller, who believes part of the problem lies in the fact that visual assets have historically resided within the domain of creative or agency resources that fall outside an organization. Consequently, the value proposition has fallen off the priority list for CMOs.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, many materials and content created within an organization lands in silos. \u201cThere is no unified approach or messaging,\u201d she said. \u201cAs a result, content and materials often come across as disjointed and confusing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>CMOs and other marketing executives increasingly recognize the challenges. In a <a href=\"http:\/\/ascend2.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/Content-Marketing-Trends-Summary-Report-150310.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 2015 survey conducted by Ascend2<\/a>, 46% of marketing professionals worldwide indicated that videos represented the most effective content, yet 59% said it was the most difficult media to create. Similarly, 43% said infographics were effective, but 34% said they were difficult to produce. In contrast, 24% indicated that photos and illustrations are most effective, and only 8% reported they posed challenges.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cmo.com\/content\/dam\/CMO_Other\/articles\/ascend_info1.jpg\" target=\"new\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cmo.com\/content\/dam\/CMO_Other\/articles\/ascend_info1.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The CMO Council found that, ultimately, the lack of a cogent strategy is common. Only about one-quarter of survey respondents said they had a process in place to aggregate, organize, and manage visual assets used across teams, while about four in 10 said there was no conversation about centralizing these issues due to competing priorities.<\/p>\n<p><b>The Big Picture<br \/>\n<\/b>Transforming the challenge into an opportunity is critical. A starting point, Miller said, is to understand the journey\u2014or, in many cases, the different possible paths\u2014that a target customer takes to arrive at a buying decision and how best to merge pictures and words effectively. In some cases, that might translate to a short video or an infographic that serves as a starting point for a buyer learning about a product. In other cases, these collateral might lead to a white paper or more detailed information.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, \u201cIt\u2019s about taking sometimes incredibly complex concepts and using the right tools to deliver the right experience for the customer,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n<p>Understanding how consumers use devices and consume content is critical, said Kim Smith, vice president of innovation and digital services for North America at Capgemini. Not only is it important to understand overarching trends in devices and form factors, it\u2019s crucial to use analytics tools to understand what types of content works best\u2014where and why\u2014including with different segments and groups. For example, a phablet user may prefer, if not demand, video, while a Kindle user rooted in reading books may veer more toward the written word with supplemental pictures.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless, \u201cIt\u2019s best to assume in today\u2019s environment that the first path to content will be on a mobile device,\u201d Smith told CMO.com. \u201cMarketers should start with a mobile-first approach, particularly with visual content.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s also important to distinguish between B2C and B2B markets, Adobe\u2019s Gustavson said. As a general rule, \u201cA B2B audience is not spending its own money; they\u2019re spending thousands or tens of thousands of dollars\u2014sometimes even millions\u2014of their employer\u2019s money, so they are willing to do more research because they want to be sure they are making the right decision,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>This may translate into the need for detailed white papers, ebooks, and longer marketing videos. \u201cOn the other hand, if I am making a $10 purchase on my own, I may respond to a fairly simple video or image,\u201d Gustavson added. \u201cThere\u2019s no need to spend a lot of time thinking about the purchase.\u201d At the heart of success is understanding what a business offers and what type of content appeals to buyers.<\/p>\n<p>A more modular but coordinated approach is often in order, BIA\/Kelsey\u2019s Boland said. \u201cIt\u2019s often wise to give consumers the choice to navigate through the process the way they feel comfortable,\u201d he said. \u201cIf someone wants to watch a quick video, they can view it. If they want to read a longer white paper, they can download it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Of course, the challenge for marketers is to produce content that works across multiple channels and different devices\u2014while addressing the needs and desires of specific audiences. This means defining choices from the marketing end. \u201cOpportunities exist for those that adopt a flexible approach with modular formatting,\u201d Boland explained. \u201cThe content has to be in context with both the touch point and the audience.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For instance, the imagery and words used to promote a product in a smartphone app might be considerably different than marketing the same item through a mobile browser or a social media service such as Snapchat or Facebook.<\/p>\n<p>The CMO Council survey found that key issues to building a better content ecosystem include expanding marketing budgets to create compelling visual assets, ensuring that investments in resources focus on appropriate allocations at the right level, and developing a better understanding of how various teams spend and how much effort and content is being duplicated or wasted.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, Miller said, CMOs must elevate discussions about visual content to a strategic experience dialogue, build out the technology needed to support robust content creation, and put every dollar to work in a coordinated way. Until these events take place, the report warns \u201cjustifying additional investment\u2014and even the ability to get full ROI out of their current investment in visual assets\u2014is out of reach.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>CMOs must work with CIOs and others to bridge silos and ensure that content isn\u2019t squirrelled away where it cannot be used effectively, Miller added. There\u2019s a growing need for better digital asset management technology and improved storage strategies and solutions. There\u2019s also a pressing need for CMOs to work with different and sometimes nontraditional or nonmarketing groups to better define a strategy, content creation, and how various channels and devices come together.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRight now you have one-third of marketers saying that individual teams are defining and creating their own content,\u201d so CMOs must ask a few questions, she said. <i>Where is everything? Are there untapped points of creativity across the organization that have fallen outside the strategic content marketing dialogue? How do I move to a 360-degree view?<\/i><\/p>\n<p>The bottom line, Boland said, is that visual assets are now a critical component of marketing, and the trend isn\u2019t about to disappear anytime soon. \u201cCMOs must think far more broadly about how to market effectively,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s a need for a well-defined omnichannel strategy, along with an understanding of the relationship between behavior and design.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A deeper technical perspective that taps into technology\u2014increasingly mobile devices\u2014also is needed to deliver an optimal visual experience on Web pages, in apps, in videos, in content and collateral, and within various social media spaces.<\/p>\n<p>Said Boland: \u201cThere is a need to approach marketing content in a very holistic way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>by Samuel Greengard<br \/>\nContributing Writer<br \/>\nCMO.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The art of storytelling is changing in the digital age. The growing use of photos, videos, animations, and infographics has altered the way consumers act\u2014and, as a result, the methods that marketers use to create and maintain customer engagement are undergoing a transformation. ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS: Millennials \u201cwant a real and compelling story that avoid marketing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured"],"acf":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tridence.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tridence.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tridence.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tridence.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tridence.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tridence.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tridence.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tridence.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tridence.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}