New Media for Older Brands

The biggest mistake that old brands make in adopting new media is to treat it like old media – buying attention in the form of display advertising and PPC and treating SEO as another channel you can simply buy into, without an overall digital commitment.  

For brands that are living in networks, the idea of ‘which brand values to maintain ..’ seems archaic. The fact is that whether a brand decides to embrace digital or not – their customers are already connected, the brand already has a footprint and its value will be decided by this network, with or without the brand’s input.

Understanding the networks where your brand is being talked about should be the first step. The role a brand already plays and how it is being discussed and perceived should provide the basis for an engagement strategy. Search data can also provide a lot of insight into the online demand for your brand.

Entry point actions should include:

- Utilising PPC to market directly to existing customers

- Paid search can also help to dis-intermediate existing delivery networks e.g. growing trend of ‘old’ travel brands sell direct now via search not via travel agencies

- Leverage existing links in order to rank more highly in NSO

- Leverage existing content

Potential issues might include:

- Complex legacy content management systems can inhibit the flexibility of traditional brands

- New contenders often have more agile organisational designs whereby marketing/PR and IT are closely aligned – this must be addressed in the old brand

- The open minded mindset of newer companies can sometimes be more in-line with today’s consumers expectations; e.g. a start-up may be designed to exploit the potential of social media.

At iCrossing, we are dataholics, meaning we tend to stay away from the build it and they will come approach, preferring a more agile approach driven by the data. This means setting up the right measurement framework to be able to continually monitor and react quickly. This is particularly important for an old brand without a digital history.