Shifting attitudes: the case for investing in newsbrands

At Shift 2017 professor Patrick Barwise helped lead a strong case for evidence-based marketing decisions. Can it change the way advertisers view newsbrands? By David Pidgeon.

The pitfalls of short-termism in marketing, non-transparent measurement, and spending client money based on emotions rather than evidence: these were just three of the issues tackled at Newsworks’ Shift 2017 on Wednesday as news publishers sought to occupy safe ground in an increasingly dirty media landscape.

As the industry grapples with issues of trust, mis-measurement, walled gardens, ad fraud, brand safety and viewabilty, Newsworks used the event to flex the sector’s effectiveness muscles while making it clear how advertisers should view newsbrands in a fragmented, problematic and often confusing media market.

Patrick Barwise, emeritus professor of management and marketing at London Business School, was certainly a main draw of the conference and his robust keynote began with a warning against the rise of short-termism in marketing, while trying to unpick the reasons why so many advertisers have switched strategies over the last decade.

“Digital is the latest, most powerful and flexible version of direct marketing,” he said. “Like all direct marketing, one of its strengths is in the ability to measure results – but unlike traditional direct marketing, digital allows for you to test-and-learn very quickly.

“Of course, that’s great given the pressure on marketers to show return on investment. However, the danger is that in order to fend-off the CFO and CEO, you can over-invest in the things…that produce demonstrable short-term results.”
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Barwise, citing the latest IPA effectiveness study, warned that the proportion of adspend going into short-term sales activation over the last six to eight years had increased “beyond the optimum” for building shareholder value.

Meanwhile, newsbrands have long been established as an effective, long-term brand building medium, and as Newsworks has said in the past – via one of the ‘godfathers of effectiveness’ Peter Field – by believing the hype around a uniquely digital future, advertisers are missing out on the potential for impressive effectiveness uplifts.

Emotion vs. evidence

On Wednesday Barwise also suggested that adspend is flowing away from many newsbrands because too many marketers are disregarding the available evidence and are instead following an emotional instinct to invest in the shiny and new.

“There is an emotional argument here,” Barwise said. “A desire not to be left behind. But the aim should be to do what is right for your client, and not simply go for new and shiny things. Be grown up, evidence-based and balanced.”

It was also clear there is a desire to rally agencies and their clients around Procter & Gamble’s chief brand officer, Marc Pritchard, who recently called on the industry to “clean” up digital – from media buying and viewability to ditching the adtech middle men and getting serious about measurement.

It was that final point on measurement that Barwise reserved his strongest language.

“As a neutral observer, I find it outrageous that Facebook and Google are still marking their own homework, and in Facebook’s case repeatedly having to fess-up to miscounting the numbers,” he said, referring to the now infamous incident last year when the social media giant quietly disclosed it had miscalculated video views for more than two years.

For established media 2017 could then be the year in which they are reappraised in light of these problems.

However, the central message, taking into account a range of views from the conference, was not about bashing digital to claw back adspend – newsbrands are a part of the digital ecosystem – rather it was pleading with the industry to simply evaluate the available evidence and use the optimal mix of traditional media and newer platforms.

In short, it was about seeking a fairer spread of adspend – one that will safeguard a rich and varied media landscape that can cater for both short-term sales and longer-term brand building.