Markerters embrace new content production plans amid COVID-19, Dentsu report
Dentsu International has shared its latest report “2021: The Year of Brand Consistency, Efficiency and Agility” that looks into how the Pandemic has accelerated Marketers content production plans.
To inform the report, Dentsu conducted a survey across 200 marketing decision-makers in the UK and US to understand the current Marketing climate and how the pandemic had contributed to its changes.
James Morris, Global Head of Content Marketing & Management, dentsu international: “The last few years has seen a revolution in content; from the demands and expectations of the consumer to the advances in technology and process that support new levels of innovation from marketers. When Covid-19 swept the globe in 2020, leaving a lasting impact on all business, marketers turned to action. At dentsu we’ve launched Content Symphony to meet these demands and drive ongoing innovation.”
Using unique insights from the survey, the paper reviews the current content production landscape, and the growing importance of creativity, efficiency and consistency when brand building. It discusses the changing landscape, the consolidation of resources and the limitations on visibility and control with the increased need for speed and relevance when using content to build brands.
The survey found that over three-quarters of marketers have experienced a change in their content production requirements in 2020/21, with a similar proportion recognising the difficulty in responding to cultural events within an effective timeline.
Managing multiple partners (42%) and inconsistent workflows (41%) have been identified as key contributors to inefficiencies, resulting in 85% of marketers seeing a need for a high-quality, creative and centralised solution.
Despite a turbulent year, marketers remain focused on achieving brand consistency (88%) with 84% marketers agreeing that a high-quality, consistent brand experience was essential for sales performance and business growth. Efficiency (62%) has stepped up alongside brand-building (49%) as a top priority.
The fact that 85% of Marketers want to transform their business for the long term comes as no surprise, however the survey indicated that they are set to add transformation to their marketing priorities with 60% looking to streamline their marketing plans, 50% investing in content management platforms and a whopping 84% wanting to leverage content production platforms to improve brand perception.
With many brands facing challenges in complexity of agency resource and outdated processes that hadbuilt up prior to Covid, there is strong agreement that a content solution is required to ensure the priorities of the 2021 marketing climate are met. This is in line with survey results that point to a demand for centralised infrastructure to ensure quality and consistency, supported by AI technologies to deliver scale and speed.
Dentsu’s own solution, Content Symphony, was built to meet this demand. Launched in June 2020, Content Symphony includes over 2,000 skilled artists in over 30 markets. The solution responds to marketers call for flexibility and control, but also provides them and their procurement teams with transparency through live data and reporting on spend and costs.
The Content Symphony offering provides an integrated modular solution and always-on right-on shoring model, with a revolutionary technology ecosystem that aggregates all data from creative, media performance and production performance. This provides automated optimisation across all marketing activities and unified data reporting that enables global visibility, control as well as constantly driving ROI.
Content Symphony is a dentsu International service and solution created by dentsu’s creative, content and production agencies that provides brands with integrated production services, globally enabled by technology and powered by delivery excellence. By integrating right shoring production services with an AI-enabled technology platform, dentsu’s Content Symphony delivers a consistent brand experience at every touchpoint while engaging clients’ audiences with highly personalised, market-relevant content.
