The Ebola outbreak was a truly horrible occurrence. It wreaked havoc across the world, claiming thousands of lives in Africa and elsewhere. But through the pain and chaos, my attention was drawn to a relatively low-tech, creatively driven campaign by the BBC in Africa, which served as a reminder of the changing nature of the marketing landscape, and as an example of how marketers can tap into these trends to truly make a difference.
The BBC’s Whatsapp campaign – a public health information campaign which used a combination of strong visuals and text messaging to educate Western African populations about Ebola – saw the BBC employ unique creative methods in order to tap into a highly diverse African population across a range of low-tech platforms.
When I read about the campaign, it immediately struck me as a genius example of content and distribution platforms coming together to create something brilliant, something which was able to reach a massive population of people through a strategic process which clearly had both content and technology in mind from the outset. More than anything it showed me that, in our modern media landscape where data and technology are the buzzwords du jour, a tailored content strategy is more important than ever.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s take a step back for a moment …
A lot of agencies and media publishers commonly brag about their ability to assimilate art and science as part of their marketing efforts. They boast about their use of technology and creative to reach the holy grail of ‘right message, to the right person, at the right time.’ People have been making these claims for decades. But companies haven’t been able to truly deliver on this promise until recently, at least with any kind of scale.
As automated processes become common practice, agencies are increasingly able to focus more on customer motivations and to explore how the messaging and platform can effectively influence that. The expansion of programmatic into traditional channels such as out of home and TV will only place more pressure on media agencies to truly understand the messaging hierarchy and the need for smart content strategies.
In order to execute a strategy with the audience in mind, we are inherently reliant on insights and data. This has sometimes meant that data and technology become the focus, with media leading the strategic process and content strategy entering at a later stage. However, it is my belief that the best marketers are leading a fundamental shift, where increasingly the types of content and messaging will determine the formats and technology we use. Data and insight mining will always be important but as our screens get smaller and our conversations become global both brands and publishers will need to focus on quality content and smarter customer strategies in order to truly resonate and engage.
This brings me to the BBC’s use of Whatsapp during the Ebola outbreak. In order to distribute educational real-time information in Western Africa they had to consider limitations with media penetration and literacy. In other words, there was a need to share content on various levels: visually, using various languages in the form of audio and, with basic text updates for less sophisticated smartphones.
A certain type of content was needed to effectively reach and impact the audience, and it was this content which drove the choice of platform and technology. While WhatsApp also happens to be the highest used chat platform in Western Africa, this case study nevertheless demonstrates how even large media organisations are considering the needs of the audience when it comes to content, and how technology can act in a supportive fashion.
I was always a firm believer in the idea that “Good content can overcome bad distribution, but good distribution can’t overcome bad content.” The BBC example, while a wee bit extreme, has slightly changed my view on this. Perhaps good content can’t overcome bad distribution. Perhaps the assimilation of art and science are integral to the future of our communications. With that said I stand by the argument that good distribution can’t overcome bad content, which is why I believe working with brands to create original and inspiring content is key for success in 2015.
By Emma Matthews
Director, digital strategy and content
Atomic 212