Conversation media: The out of the box marketing idea you are looking for

Did you know that the first web banner advertisement for AT&T and launched in 1994? It garnered massive consumer interest and saw a high click-through rate.

In fact, the banner ads stayed as one of the major ways brands reached their users for quite some time.

However, as technology progressed, we witnessed a transition of users from web-based interfaces to mobile devices. It led to the emergence of social media as a prominent channel, followed by mobile marketing, for reaching a growing mobile user base.

The adoption of these latest marketing approaches has helped brands reach more users and on platforms where users spend most of their time. These technological advancements have also helped brands reach users who are already interested in similar products or services.

The domain of marketing has seen significant changes and brands have always been at the forefront of adopting innovative and disruptive technologies.

Brands are often keen on offering their users a unique experience, not just with the product, but also in their brand communication strategy.

Are ads on digital media in line with the user intent?

Digital media is an umbrella term for the communication that happens across multiple platforms like social media, mobile apps, and websites through both mobile and web-based interfaces.

The ads served to a digital media user are a function of her digital footprint; the searches she did on websites, the mobile apps she opened in the recent past, and many more.

While these are good indicators of a user’s recent but past behaviour and interests, these might not be the best ones to specify what a user intends to do in the present, at the moment they are shown an ad.

I might like particular chocolate when an ad for that very confectionery is shown to me. But if I am shown the ad while researching something work-related, I won't be interested and even find it interruptive to some extent.

This highlights the need for better indicators of the real-time user intent in order to make the ad targeting more effective.

The aim of an advertisement is to reach and engage its target user. An engaged user is more likely to buy the product or the service. In order for this to happen, it is crucial that the ad aligns with the user’s job-to-be-done on the platform the ad is placed on.

We define job-to-be-done as the primary purpose of the user on the platform at that moment.

For example, learning could be the job-to-be-done when a user is listening to a business strategy podcast on Spotify.

Similarly, entertainment could be the job-to-be-done when a user is binge-watching on Hotstar.

Now, in the learning context as described above, if a fast-food brand’s ad is served to the user, there would be a gap between what the user intends to do and the message the brand is trying to convey through its ad.

It may lead to high chances of the ad being perceived by the user as an interruption and getting skipped.

This is when brands can benefit from conversation media marketing

The recipe for successful communication is simple. The receiver should clearly understand the sender's message. On chat platforms like Messenger, Telegram, etc. users are open and authentic as they speak their heart out with their friends and family.

This is in huge contrast with digital media, where users are surrounded by the stream of ads, influencer content, memes, etc directed at them, which reduces the probability of their engagement with the brand messaging.

Let’s look at an example to understand this. Say a user is talking about fantasy cricket to a friend over WhatsApp and MPL or Dream11 branded content is shown to him/her. Since the user is thinking and speaking about its product category, there is a high likelihood that he or she will build positive associations with the brand, and will end up buying it.

Isn’t that the final goal of the ad?

Bobble AI is a leading Conversation Media platform that amplifies brands in real-time when their prospect users talk about them across chat applications like WhatsApp, IG chat, Messenger, etc.

There is one more thing that helps conversation media marketing content stand out. Besides being branded, it's most often fun, relatable, and engaging.

It has helped cross-platform brands like ITC, AirAsia, Paytm First Games, Tata Motors, etc. in the past to reinforce their brand messaging hyper-contextually as well as engage their core audience. Write to us at brand.marketing@bobble.ai to know more.