At a time when big is best, small often takes a back seat. That may not be the case moving forward though – micro content is on the way up and it’s not that hard to understand why if you take a broader look at how the industry now creates content and how audiences are getting engaged with it.
That’s not to say the days of mass ‘macro’ content are coming to an end – on the contrary, I expect to see the audiences engaged with what we call ‘tentpole’ television-produced content getting bigger and bigger in the future. The one thing that will certainly change is the screen they consume this content, but the tentpole content that mass-reach broadcasters build their programming around will grow to heights we have not yet seen – live sport, peak time scripted drama and formats like The Voice, Got Talent and Masterchef – all proven ratings winners.
At the other end of the scale, there is a massive growing demand for personalized niche content – content that can be quickly consumed on the go, doesn’t require endless scrolling to find something of interest and content that can be multi-packaged across different platforms for different audience dynamics.
Advertisers and consumers are both the winners in micro content when it’s done right – consumers get what they actually want, when they want it, in bite-sized chunks and without a heap of other content (noise) that they are not looking for. Advertisers get a more engaged and open consumer that actually wants to have a conversation with that advertiser (or advertiser as publisher) because the advertiser is delivering value and utility to them.
Across GroupM’s agency content businesses that are housed within MEC, Mindshare, Mediacom and Maxus, we are seeing a growing demand from advertisers looking to get into this space that reaches a small but highly targeted group of consumers – either by creating their own VOD platforms, automated marketing programs, personalized content hubs or niche publishing platforms – there has never been so much interest from brands. It’s all being driven by technology and data. Technology is drastically reducing barriers to entry and costs and also enabling more effective distribution via platforms like Plista. Data on the other hand is helping brands and their agencies to understand the final consumer (across the full data spectrum) and what drives their buying habits like never before.
When I first started in marketing 15 years ago it was all about mass – how to reach as many consumers as you could for as little money as possible. Some brands still want to do that but for many others it’s all micro marketing. They would much rather reach 1,000 highly targeted consumers that will all go and do something because of the message you have just delivered them. And it’s not just about first-time buyers, much of what micro marketing seeks to deliver is repeat consumption, up-selling additional products and services and driving recommendations so that a brand can reach friends and family members that share the same specific interests. This is also opening up a range of direct and e-commerce sales channels that many brands had never looked at before because they were so focused on mass retail channels.
When I sit down with brands, it’s not a choice between macro or micro content – for most it’s about how to best use both to reach your desired target audience in the most cost efficient and effective way possible. This is not a trend – trends come and go. Micro marketing is here to stay and it will evolve further and grow to mass heights in a very short time.
About the author: Josh Black is the CEO for GroupM Content across the Asia Pacific region. He was previously based in Manila but has recently relocated to Hong Kong to steer the Group’s content business from the Asia Pacific headquarters of GroupM.
This article was first published on the May-June 2015 Issue of adobo magazine.
