Heads and hearts: How tech advances are driving both left and right-brain marketing strategies
In our multi-channel media world, we see a ‘paradox of time online’. People spend more time online (an increase of 100 per cent in just over 10 years) and willingly engage with branded content if it is purposeful and high quality. Meanwhile, we also devour short-form video, churn out snaps and tweets, and demand instant answers on where to go and what to buy.
Fiat VR Experience
Brands are expected to meet demands precisely and relevantly ‘in the moment’, but also to have meaning and a wider purpose. Nowhere is this paradoxical dance between long-term, brand-building, ongoing CRM activity, (associated with our emotional right-brain) and short-term, rational, pinpointed efforts concerned with driving sales (driven by our logical left-brain) more relevant than in the automotive sector’s incredibly complex purchase arrangement.
Take the example of an Alfa Romeo customer, you can’t just hope to engage a 54-year-old driver at the precise moment that he or she can afford a Giulietta – you have to build years of desire, admiration and preference. Marketing has to work at both ends of that funnel, connecting with hearts and minds accordingly throughout more complex buying cycles. And excitingly, advances across the spectrum of consumer-facing tech give us the means to do this now more effectively than ever.
Virtual and visceral reality
Automotive is where some of the most game-changing and jaw-dropping innovation happens. Fantastical car prototypes are always the showstoppers at CES (Consumer Electronics Show), which is fast becoming a de-facto auto futures show.
But can marketing keep up with the pace of change? Driving a car can be a sensual and powerful experience. Each drive brings its own sights, sounds and sensations; even the best-shot billboard or TV spot can’t hope to deliver the visceral thrill of the open road.
But now augmented reality is enabling brands to fire right-brain connections that create meaning, impact and desire. Fiat is just one car maker that has harnessed 360-degree video to deliver a more immersive campaign, using tech to tell the brand’s story and boost awareness.
While still in its relative infancy, VR is already being taken very seriously in the auto world for product development and marketing purposes. The potential for customers to virtually explore and ‘drive’ a fully customised potential purchase is leading some to say that it will replace showrooms, with Jaguar claiming that VR drives additional sales.
Progress in app development, meanwhile, bridges the gap between virtual and real-world experiences, through which lots of sales tend to fall. The Alfa Romeo app is one example, taking users on a journey from rational researching to book a tangible test drive, while also offering a host of personalised features.
Building bonfires, lighting fireworks
While leaps in consumer-facing tech deliver new ways to appeal to the right-hand side of the brain that create immeasurable ‘gut’ feeling – advances in automated, programmatic advertising enable advertisers to appeal to the logical left-brain
Let’s use the auto sector again as an example. For all the hype about car-pooling and ride hailing services, the arrival of new registration plates continues to drive car sales. The latest plate change in March drew more than half a million buyers to the new car market, while registration increased by five per cent in Q1 of 2016.
With the next plate change due in early September, this is a crucial moment to engage drivers - a time of peak consideration.
So when data reveals, just ahead of the new plate release, that somebody is searching for cars. This would be the ideal time to share an appealing finance deal or the latest safety studies. It’s about using data smartly to deliver something useful at the precise moment the consumer needs it. Building on years of ongoing CRM and brand favourability to make that sale.
Embedding a left-brain/right-brain mix into the agency
Of course, it isn’t just car makers that need to appeal to both the logical left-brain and the emotion-driven right-brain at different points along the cycle.
Any brand wanting to build meaningful relationships along with quick attention grabbing wins, will benefit from putting the consumer’s needs and mindsets first. Then embracing the technology that serves them.
The media agency’s role is to help clients navigate change at what is now a time of peak complexity. To achieve this, we have to invite a complementary mix of left-brain and right-brain talent into the agency.
Increasingly, we need people with analytical skills - the data scientists and data planners who can interpret reams of information. But equally, we need to translate this into meaningful action through brilliant and creative ideas.
To communicate effectively to heads and hearts we must value the science and the art of media, embedding both into the very structure of our agencies.
Federico de Nardis is chief executive officer at Maxus EMEA