New Hearst UK CSO takes aim at ‘corrupt’ digital ecosystem
Hearst UK’s new chief strategy officer, Robert Ffitch, has called on the magazine industry to make more of its trusted brand-building capabilities as an increasing amount of media spend pours into a digital ecosystem “riddled” with issues.
Speaking at Magnetic’s annual Spark event on Wednesday, Ffitch, who has been in the newly-created role for just three weeks, said: “The issue is the digital ecosystem is fundamentally corrupt and fraudulent, generally speaking around the world, and yet 65% of media money is spent in the digital environment and 34% is spent on Facebook and Google.
“But it is still riddled with a lot of issues – measurement issues, extremist content issues, fake news issues, viewability issues, robotic issues…It’s quite depressing.”
Digital is currently helping to fuel the growth in global advertising, according to the latest adspend forecasts from Zenith; however, over the last year the ad industry has witnessed a spate of serious brand safety issues which saw ads placed alongside extremist content on YouTube, as well as a series of high-profile measurement blunders from Facebook, and a rise in online ad fraud.
In response, GroupM, the investment arm of WPP, said advertisers have increased their brand safety and accountability expectations and were taking “a more measured view toward digital.” The problem even resulted, back in July, in a downgraded ad forecast, with growth in the pure-play internet category revised down by -4%.
Ffitch – previously director of advertising revenue at Telegraph Media Group – said short-termism is also an area of concern, as financial pressures often lure marketers away from investing in the areas of media that will help make brands more trusted in the long-term.
“One of the big issues in our industry at the moment is lack of investment in the emotional side of a brand and I think that’s why some brand health metrics are starting to slow down generally speaking – because brands are not looking further ahead at trying to connect with people emotionally and tell stories that make you feel good; they’re much more short-term and transactional,” Ffitch said.
“Brands need to somehow come out of that mentality and start looking to invest behind those emotional aspects in what makes a brand attractive and trusted.”
The challenge here, Ffitch says, is that a lot of the digital space is being bought programmatically where context and quality of environment often takes a back seat.
“As an industry we’ve got to address that and put a value back on the branded environment and the trust and the context we sit in,” he said.
“I think we will get there but I don’t think we’ve seen enough evidence to suggest it’s turning that quickly yet.”
The most recent Consumer ABC results for magazines show a general decline in print circulations – except for in some specialist areas – with some industry experts suggesting the move to digital, for many publishers, is not happening quickly enough to match the shift in consumer behaviour.
However, commenting on the latest circulation figures, Mark Jackson, MD of media agency MC&C, said magazines continue to be an effective way to reach niche consumer groups as they have a loyal and engaged audience following.
“We can see this in the fact that Home Interest: Gardening has grown 4.6% and Leisure Interest has grown 6%. [Magazines] therefore remain an effective method of talking to a desired audience as part of a considered media mix,” Jackson said.
“It is vital that brands consider a cross-channel approach to their media spend, so as to not miss the opportunity to reach key and engaged audiences in a format familiar to them.”
Hearst UK publishes titles including Elle, Good Housekeeping, Cosmopolitan, Esquire and Runner’s World