How do you ensure your media strategy is consistent and coherent across different platforms and devices?

In my experience, defining clear, measurable objectives is the cornerstone of a consistent and coherent media strategy across platforms. Start by identifying your primary goal, whether it's increasing brand awareness, driving sales, or engaging with your audience. Tailor these objectives to be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. This approach ensures that regardless of the platform or device, your efforts are aligned, allowing for a unified brand message and experience.

One thing that I find helpful is to identify benchmarks from your category, or those that behave similarly in the same media channels as those you will activate within.

In my experience, cross-platform brand consistency is important in establishing a unified user and customer experience. Style guidelines should be reviewed and updated on a regular interval and should be implemented in all content creation efforts accordingly. Enterprise communities and public-facing pages alike utilize various platforms, both internal and external. The experience of jumping from platform to platform can be jarring and counterintuitive, if they look like disparate units, instead of a cohesive one. Soliciting feedback and input from your stakeholders is vital to determine if these pain points exist, and how best to address them.

Keep all stakeholders aligned on campaign goals, timelines, and messaging. Consistent communication ensures everyone works towards the same objective, and any strategic shifts are immediately understood across teams.

In my opinion, I believe it is also important to define your USP (Unique Story Proposition). When we think about media or media-related campaigns, the underlying tone of each campaign is the story that is being told. Also ask yourself or your team/representation what makes the story and/or message unique for the media? What story can you tell that hasn't been told before? Where does it hold media exclusivity and value/impact? Are there specific topics or insight that you or your organization can share that makes you the expert for the campaign? Sometimes the story alone in the media campaign can drive the most impact.

Have a dedicated media department vs multiple people in different departments responsible for different media channels. Every organization needs a Chief Media Officer (even though that person might be a CMO, CEO, or a marketing manager). Empower your media organization to take charge of all the channels at once, give them the necessary space and resources to innovate, and you'll enjoy both consistent and coherent media output across the board.