Martins charges marketers on new digital tools for better outcomes
By Felicia Nwosu & Abimbola Mohammed
Digital technologies have transformed the landscape of consumer behaviour, expectations and communication channels. Therefore businesses are required to adapt not just their marketing strategies but their entire approach to market, while leveraging artificial intelligence and other new digital tools.
This was the position of Stanislaus Martins, Managing Director, West Africa at Aleph Group lnc, as he facilitated at the popular ADVAN Fundamentals of Marketing Series titled: “Marketing Communications in the Digital Age”.
The event, which was virtually held on Friday, April 26, 2024, was organised by the Advertisers Association of Nigeria, ADVAN.
Martins submitted that digital innovation has empowered consumers with choice and voice, noting that this has caused a shift in their demand for transparency, more authenticity and value. He therefore, urged marketers to listen and adapt to enable them offer beyond just products but solutions and experiences that enrich lives and respect the consumer’s intelligence and time.
He said: “Marketing communications in the digital space is one of constant evolution, learning, and adaptation. It’s about balancing the enduring principles of marketing with the innovative possibilities of digital. As marketers, let’s move forward with curiosity, courage, and a commitment to excellence. Despite the growing influence of digital media, the principal role and purpose of marketing communications has not changed drastically over time. The purpose of marketing communications is to engage with target audiences to achieve one (or more) of four functions, whose acronyms are known as the DRIP Model, which simply means to differentiate, reinforce, inform and persuade while and AIDA model stands for awareness, interest, desire and action.”
The digital professional also shared invaluable insights on how the advent of digital technology has revolutionized marketing, ushering in a paradigm shift in the realm of marketing communications
He affirmed that the digital age has introduced a plethora of new media platforms for marketing communications and helped to enhance the jobs of marketing professionals in content personalization, predictive analytics for customer insights, targeting decisions, customer segmentation, programmatic advertising and media buying, improve marketing ROI by optimizing marketing content and timing and many others.
“I think what’s important is the way we use AI. A lot of us are still sitting back and thinking maybe AI is the future, AI is later. But, of course, we see the best time to get into it. A lot of these things that they are doing are going to have implications for most of us here in Nigeria. What our national strategy is trying to do is to ensure that even all our local languages to a large extent, are filled with the language. Any Large Language Model is able to now preserve all our information and we can do more things beyond just sticking to what is available to us. It is also going to develop content, quality AI content using our local languages. If you’re still sitting on the fence, again, you have to do yourself a huge, huge disservice,” he cautioned.
The former Regional Director for SSA at Ad Dynamo by Aleph, explained how marketing communication in the digital age has also affected the popular marketing P’s, transforming the mode of connection, communication, pricing as well as engagement with consumers, but noted that this has not affected the role of marketing.
Martins further maintained that unlike the one-way communication typical of traditional media, digital platforms facilitate interactive and direct engagement between brands and consumers, especially in allowing for real time conversations, feedback, and several others thereby deepening the relations between brands and consumers.
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