Achieve “over-the-top” ambitions with marketing that engages

As media companies compete to reach the direct-to-consumer market, they should think and act more like retailers to effectively attract, acquire, engage, and retain their customers.Retailers understand that innovations around social media, mobile technology, and advanced data analytics are now some of the foundation enablers needed to win the future customer. Competitive media companies may need to adapt in the same manner, and those who do this the best will likely win in today’s crowded over-the-top (OTT) services landscape.

• Only 45 percent of the population regularly consumes live TV content. This represents an enormous shift from a traditional, linear TV direct-to-consumer model.
• Nearly 60 percent of people age 14 to 32 spend their TV-viewing time on non-TV devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets, and laptops/desktops).
• There are customers who don’t and never will pay for cable or satellite services to watch TV, as viewership moves to multiple IP enabled devices:
  • 50 percent TV
  • 34 percent Desktop
  • 8 percent Tablet
  • 8 percent Smartphone
    

The customer’s path today is nonlinear and unpredictable. Customers want to choose when, where, and how they “shop” for content and interact with providers.

In my line of business, I’ve noticed OTT service offerings tend to focus on technology first and foremost. But from my experience, that’s only a minimal amount of total costs.And, while OTT providers can spend up to 46 percent of total costs on marketing, they may not be properly managing their ROI. Marketing efforts should be targeted and personalized or they risk being ineffective. Maximizing ROI is realized by gathering, analyzing, and leveraging customer data in order to:

• Understand who your customers are
• Segment your customers by individual interest
• Target your customer communications
• Personalize the customer experience
• Make content recommendations based on the customer’s interest
• Build customer value models to optimize loyalty and retention offers

OTT providers who successfully manage their marketing spend can free up funding for content, and content is king! It is the key differentiator for success, but you can only invest in sought-after content when marketing is done right.

Creating marketing content that allows providers to target and retain customers is equally, if not more, important to the engagement and retention process. For example, one of Deloitte’s clients adopted an automated marketing campaign management solution to reach a global customer base with targeted online and offline marketing messages. In their first effort, they reached 16 times more customers at a quarter of the cost and achieved a 70-percent conversion rate of new user registrations. Why were they so successful? They knew what their target customer base wanted and provided value-rich content to them in an easily accessible, multi-channel, digital format.

The direct-to-consumer model for media companies requires a better understanding of the questions that need to be answered in order to effectively engage with their customers, as well as providing content that piques their interests, thus retaining their loyalty.

Balancing technology, marketing, and customer acquisition spending can be best achieved by combining investments in CRM, content, campaign automation (web, mobile, social, SMS, etc.), and analytics to optimize results. With MarketMix, we can help you eliminate wasteful marketing spend, boost revenues, and lower acquisition costs.

Deloitte Digital’s MarketMix for Media has combined technology from Adobe Marketing Cloud, other third-party services, and industry leading CRM alliances to peel back the layers of customer behavior and address the challenges associated with customer retention.

At Deloitte Digital, our passion is to help our clients imagine, deliver, and run successful direct-to-consumer business models. We are a creative digital consultancy that provides end-to-end capabilities, bringing together all the creative and technology capabilities, business acumen, and industry insight needed to help our clients enable their OTT ambitions. We have a clear view of the digital ecosystem and how it can be used to influence customer behavior. We’ve designed MarketMix for Media with today’s OTT challenges in mind.

Interested in learning how these industry best practices can help influence your business? Continue the conversation with us at Adobe Summit 2017! As a Diamond level sponsor with several industry breakout sessions and a 40 x 40-foot booth located in the middle of the expo hall (Booth #302), we will be hard to miss. Come find us at Adobe Summit, March 20 to 23, at the Venetian in Las Vegas. Until then, learn more about what Deloitte Digital and our alliance has to offer at www.deloittedigital.com/us/alliances/adobe or follow us on Twitter at @DeloitteDIGI_US.

Danny Ledger is a principal and Deloitte Digital MarketMix Leader with Deloitte Consulting LLP. Danny is a key architect and thought leader on digital marketing and content solutions. He works with leaders across an entire organization to bring the best of Deloitte Digital to life by managing high performing teams that produce measurable and sustainable results. His engagements range from developing new and disruptive business models to implementing digital solutions to engage customers across marketing, sales, and service touchpoints.

*Source: SNL Kagan, Deloitte Digital Democracy Survey 2015, 2010 U.S. Census Bureau – Population Division – U.S. Interim Projections 2000-2050