New Media, New Opportunities: Jackie Lyons, Havas Media Group

da India Fizer , AdForum

Havas Media Group
Media Buying / Planning
New York, Stati Uniti
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Jackie Lyons
Head of Planning Havas Media Group
 

In our continuing series of interviews on new media in advertising, we spoke with Havas Media Group's Head of Planning, Jackie Lyons, on the role of the social platform and the flexibility in utilizing omni-channel engagement.

 

The rise of social media platforms has made them key to brand recognition. In what ways does your agency utilize social media to inform/engage your audience and how do you see that evolving?

The most important thing to unpack when thinking about social media is the role of the social platform in the first place. Different platforms play different roles in people’s lives. The mindset someone is in when they are on LinkedIn is quite different to the mindset they are in when scrolling through TikTok, so you need to account for these differences in the media plan.

Each platform has its own unique strengths. We will first establish if we are trying to drive a brand metric, or something lower funnel like lead generation. All platforms walk the line between brand and performance, but Meta typically drives good lower funnel outcomes, and clients are leaning more and more towards newer platforms like TikTok to deliver brand fame and cultural resonance.

When it comes to brand building, different platforms offer different benefits; Snapchat is brilliant at delivering engagement through emerging tech like AR, Twitter has some super smart video formats and Instagram is great for discovery content.

 

How has the pandemic affected the way consumers use social media and which platform is the most relevant to your agency?

The pandemic has resurfaced and developed people’s passions in many ways and social platforms are a great way to reflect this behavior. The idea of community or tribes is having a resurgence and platforms like Pinterest, which exude positivity and allow communities to build around passions, are perfectly placed to answer that consumer need. Pinterest is one of the few platforms that seems to buck the anti-screen time trend for this reason. TikTok is also fueled by users’ interests so is another great way to engage around individual territories.

 

To what degree does the innovative use of media by agencies and companies shape the way new media evolves? (eg: interactive campaigns)

In social media, what is new news today is often old news tomorrow, so agencies have to stay on top of the digital trends that will make a difference to our clients’ businesses. Ultimately innovation and tech should facilitate the user experience rather than be gimmicky, whether it is upper funnel or lower funnel activity at play. The sweet spot is when an audience finds tactics like interaction mechanics meaningful and beneficial to their lives, and a brand can facilitate this.

 

How do you utilize data analytics to create more engaging campaigns?

Because of walled gardens in social media, data opportunities are often determined by the degree to which our clients have pixels implemented on platforms. We can learn much more about a campaign’s effectiveness in this way. Performance clients will often use tactics like custom audiences to optimize relevant comms at a lower funnel level.

Nowadays algorithms bear the heavy lifting of asset optimization in real time. At Havas Media Group, we have a tool that help us to establish the criteria that are driving the most effective outcomes in our digital media post campaign, like clicks to site, for example. We share any learnings we can glean with our creative agency partners so that next time the content can work even harder.

The opportunity for data can sometimes be found at the planning stage. We have great relationships with many of the social platforms and are increasingly trying to include them in more upstream conversations which allows us to use their data to inform entire media experiences rather than just individual social campaigns.

 

What contemporary forms of new media are you planning on using to reach audiences?

The stats show that gaming is still one of the biggest opportunities in new media with no sign of slowing down. Usage numbers are enormous for both mobile and console gaming. A recent WARC report (What’s working in gaming, Sep 21) suggests that 25% of Gen Z’s time is spent gaming compared with 15% watching broadcast TV. On the flip side, Baby Boomers watch more TV, with 35% of time spent, but still spend a huge 10% of their time gaming. The pandemic has massively accelerated the role gaming plays in people’s lives. Clients can easily access this medium with smart video planning, which also allows for digital OOH copy to be pulled through into in-game worlds, and of course can offer a full immersive brand experience depending on what is right for the client and brand challenge.