Adtech 2012: “Boring fundamentals find unique life on digital,” says Pete Blackshaw of Nestle

Day 3 of adtech 2012 started with an invigorating session on “Small is the new big: Rethinking digital in a world of smaller, smarter screens” by Pete Blackshaw, global head of digital marketing and social media, Nestle.

Blackshaw started by introducing two main themes of his presentation: 1. The boring basics really matter and; 2. Small is the new big. Elaborating on the first theme, he explained how the essentials of marketing that was built by Nestle with traditional modes of communication at its centre many years ago, are the very pillars on which the company’s digital strategy is also being based. “The essentials of marketing in the traditional sense that include: Searching out and identifying big ideas that are contact neutral and have a potential of sustainable communication; engaging with consumers when they are most ready to receive; and creating an attractive and rewarding brand, find unique life on the digital platform,” explained Blackshaw.

The mainstay of Blackshaw’s presentation was the reasoning that marketers should not treat ‘digital’ as a silo that is separate from offline media. For long term brand building synergies between online and offline media have to be channelized. “In fact digital media helps connect a lot of blocks that have been operating independently,” he explained. “There is convergence between corporate and consumer communications;  marketing and research – asking questions has been an integral part of consumer research and now involves a large part of digital too; product quality and sales and; supply chain and digital – as consumers can now look behind the brand.”

Citing the example of Nescafe India’s “Know Your Neighbor” campaign, Blackshaw illustrated how an integrated campaign built around one ‘Big Idea’ can seamlessly transcend mediums. “What started as a PR campaign went on to tap the print and the television medium and went on to build a strong community on the social media space. “The ‘Know Your Neighbor’ FB page was larger than the global Nescafe page and that says a lot about the social media potential of India,” he said.

Another thing that is soon going to explode in the Indian market is ‘mobile marketing’. The screens are shrinking and increasingly people are connecting onto the Internet, specially the social space, through their phones. “The challenge is for marketers to completely change the way they have been communicating with their audience. We have a tendency to bombard our consumers with a lot of information and the web fuelled this tendency. However, as the screens shrink we need to come up with ways to make our messages simpler and serve the consumers.”