By Stephanie Freeman

As marketing, media and advertising professionals, we’re trained to hunt for new opportunities. We’re taught that successful marketers stay on top of the latest news and in touch with their audience. We are continually optimizing, adapting, and pivoting – doing everything it takes to be effective, relevant, and innovative. So, it’s no surprise that we get hyped up about the potential of new technology.

The downside of a culture centred around seizing opportunities is that it’s easy to view new technology as a quick fix for brand challenges. Critics call this “Marketing FOMO” or “Shiny Object Syndrome” – the industry’s tendency to jump onto new things (those shiny objects) and then, just as quickly, move on to the next innovation once the hype cycle shifts. We’ve seen the rise and fall of many shiny objects: in 2022, it was the metaverse; in 2021, NFTs took the spotlight; in the ’10s, it was Pokémon GO; and the list goes on.

The reality is that not all technology aligns with a brand’s strategy, and making the wrong investments takes up valuable resources, and can delay brand growth. Like any decision in media planning, we need to be selective with our limited resources and budget to get the best possible results.

When used properly, new technology enables great work and makes innovative ideas possible. To determine whether a new tech opportunity is right for your media mix, start with strategic rigour to understand the opportunity and what it might deliver:

Identify who’s using or discussing the technology

Innovative technology is usually used by specific types of people before it’s broadly adopted. Analyze adoption and conversations to determine if your target audience is actively engaged with the technology or if they’re paying attention to what’s happening with it. Once you know that your target audience is invested, it’s time to think more seriously about the opportunity.

Objectives first, then address growth obstacles

Every effective plan starts with a clear goal. Begin by outlining your marketing and communication objectives to identify the biggest gaps for achieving growth. It could be an awareness gap or a specific segment showing preference for your competitors. Pinpointing these gaps will help you to focus your innovation efforts by allowing you to ideate on how the new technology can help you to narrow those gaps – while also providing a framework for measuring success accordingly.

Decide how innovation fits into your overall plan

A well-defined budget framework serves as protection from “Shiny Object Syndrome.” Start the process by building from the bottom up, assessing how much budget is required to cover the fundamentals in your media plan, then, knowing that your bases are covered, determine what percentage of the budget could be dedicated to tests and innovation. Armed with clear objectives, an understanding of what’s needed for growth, and a possible budget, you can then start ideating on how to leverage the technology as the platform for your idea.

Ideate around human needs

Rather than ideating around the technology itself, take a step back and look at your target audience and their challenges. What current issues are they facing? What’s holding them back from buying more from your brand? And what problems are they turning to this new technology to solve? Recognizing that all technology is designed as a solution to an imagined human need or problem can help you narrow down where your brand can help.

Create a smart measurement plan that demonstrates success

Once you have developed a smart idea that is a strategic fit, the next step is to create an even smarter measurement plan based on your objectives. This will help you sell your innovation to financial-minded stakeholders, report on the growth you’re looking for, and get the accolades you deserve afterward. New technology can be tricky to measure, so turn to your media vendors and data partners to understand your options before defining how to report on success. You might need to get creative, but you’ll ideally be able to show a direct link from media KPIs to business objectives.

Sometimes, you might come up with a brilliant idea before going through this rigour. In those cases, you can backtrack. The process will help you understand if the idea is the right fit and how to further develop the idea to meet the established objectives. Creativity is messy, but strategy serves as a guiding force, enabling us to channel our efforts, saying yes to the right ideas and no to the wrong ones. This approach will save our always-limited resources for the initiatives with the greatest potential to make a significant impact on the growth of our brands.

Stephanie Freeman is a group account director, strategy at Initiative