ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT CONTEXT FOR YOUR MARKETING?

It's 2020. I'm sure you have changed your marketing since 2010. After all the iPad only arrived in 2010 and the iPhone in 2007. Netflix took off with House of Cards, and Amazon Prime followed shortly afterwards. The Amazon Echo was launched in 2014, but are now flying out the door alongside the Google Home. Voice is going to grow in the 2020s as it is fitted in cars. SO the context of media consumption has changed out of all recognition.

Marketing is no longer driven by mass media, it is targeted to individuals through the use of data. And so the context of the marketing has become a lot more important to understand.

It used to be that the content of publishers and broadcasters was the context, and it was relatively easy to know where people were seeing your marketing.

If it was on TV they were at home in the living room. Radio was heard in the car, at work and at home during the day. Newspapers were read while commuting, during the tea break, or at home in the evening. While driving, walking or waiting for a bus you would see posters.

Now the world has changed completely. People watch telly on the bus, with downloaded films or programmes. They look at their social media in cafes, walking, talking, in front of the telly, in bed, up mountains and down valleys. Radio is in-ear entertainment, with headphones in the car or on the bus.

But the common theme is that it is now an individual's choice. You are not asking anyone for permission to do exactly what you want where you want it. Families can sit in a living room watching five different things on five different devices. They can choose from an international array of content.

So what does that mean for your marketing?

You have to start thinking about the different contexts that might apply to those seeing your content. Are people the same going to work as coming home? Are they likely to buy at the beginning of the week or the end? What else are they likely to spend their limited available money on? And above all, are they interested in what you have to say as against their choice to watch what they want?

Are you thinking about their age? Their location? Their relationships? What are their interests and can you contextualise your content to meet them?

So when you are planning your marketing, think long and hard about context, how your product or service fits into it, and when you are briefing your creative team, challenge them to think about the context too.