Findlay won silver at Warc’s annual global Admap Prize for his essay titled “Four tips for using TV with social”, available online for a short while, on the overall set topic of how TV and social media should be used to maximum effect.
Kantar 5 Jun 2017
As a result, he’ll attend the gala awards event, now in its sixth year and set to take place during the 64th edition of Cannes Lions taking place in just under two weeks’ time, having shone in the essay contest that encourages and rewards individual excellence in strategic thinking in brand communications – an important aspect of the Cannes Lions, as many of the world’s top brands are re-evaluating how traditional media and new media fit together in the marketing landscape.
I chatted to Findlay about the Admap awards’ entry criteria, how he put his ‘last minute’ essay together and the importance of omni- or multi-channel marketing for the future.
Congratulations! Share the context of Warc’s Admap Awards, the entry criteria and what appealed to you about entering.
Admap is a long-running industry advertising and marketing publication that runs an annual essay competition. This is how they describe it: “The Admap Prize is an essay contest that encourages and rewards individual excellence in strategic thinking in brand communications. Essays are judged by a panel of the industry's foremost thought leaders.”
Anyone can enter so it’s very democratic in that sense, which was part of the appeal. I don’t spend most of my day dealing with television or traditional marketing research, however, I realised that much of the work that we had done on measuring social media, especially during massive campaign ‘events’ such as the annual Super Bowl Sunday in the US and Christmas retailers’ advert season in the UK, meant that I had inadvertently gained a wealth of knowledge in this area. Given the openness of the award criteria, I thought I would try my luck and it looks like it paid off!
Congratulations @ArtsUnknown @motherny winner of this year's #AdmapPrize along with our Kyle Findlay ������������ pic.twitter.com/15bT7nRmYe From my perspective, multi-channel is the future and the ‘now’. None of the large, international brands that I’ve worked with or measured would ever consider spending all that money on a television campaign, without also working out how to create and shepherd their content through an environment that is receptive to said content in order to maximise its possible effect. Marketing is more organic, interactive and complex than it used to be and you’d be doing your content a disservice if you did not consider how it would interact with other channels.That’s for sure! Talk us through how you put your silver-winning paper together on the entry theme of ‘TV and social media should be used to maximum effect’?
To be honest, I wrote it at the last minute. A colleague brought the awards to my attention the weekend before the closing deadline. I had most of the thoughts already bouncing around in my head given our past work in this area so it was just a case of synthesising it into a brief article, which I did on the Sunday night before the deadline. I almost didn’t write it up but I thought it was a bit like the Lotto – you have to be in it to win it.Let us in on the importance of omni- or multi-channel marketing for the future.
Do you predict the demise of traditional TV broadcasting as digital channels become more popular?
Now we’re stepping a bit out of my area of expertise. I’m not sure that I’m qualified to comment on this area, but I will anyway! I think there will be need for television as a public good, especially in South Africa, for a long time to come and it is still a particularly important marketing channel. Perhaps we will see the SABC evolve with the time by similarly moving over to digital, asynchronous content delivery methods.
Interesting. Will you be attending the prize ceremony during Cannes Lions later in June? If so, what are you most looking forward to from your time there?
I will be attending the Admap prize ceremony but not the overall festival prize ceremony. The last time I was in Cannes I was a bright-eyed, 18-year-old backpacker with barely a cent to my name in a very expensive city. This time it should be very different as a corporate traveller! I really have no idea what to expect in Cannes Lions week but I’ll only be around for a day or two before moving on to meetings in other parts of Europe.
Hopefully in that time I’ll just stumble into a crazy, decadent industry party that just happens to be spilling out on to the road!
I have every faith that Findlay will do just that. All award-winning essays are published in the June edition of Admap magazine and the essay winners will be presented with their awards at an Admap event set for Wednesday, 21 June, which will focus on “the marriage of TV and social” as part of a brand’s overarching marketing strategy. Click here to register to attend the event if you’ll be in Cannes at the time – it’s a free one.
Click here for more on Findlay, here for more on the Warc AdMap prize and keep an eye on our Cannes Lions special section for all the latest updates.
