Viewpoint - Nick Gibbs-McNeil

Nick Gibbs-McNeil has a particular interest in the kids’ space and the film industry and is publisher/editor at Kidzcoolit.com and youthgottit.com.

Media darlings?

Before the pandemic there were always challenges, but by and large, the toy and media markets had a symbiotic relationship and were relatively successful – and profitable. Then came Covid – and in so many respects, everything changed.

During this period, we were all locked inside our houses and many of us were furloughed, which meant that we had more time on our hands than ever. So, what did we do? We took to every form of social media available, to give us some form of contact with the outside world. As a result, a new generation of media professionals was born – the Instagram/ TikTok Content Creators.

I’m not going to start Content Creator bashing - I’m close friends with the majority of the big names in the UK, and there are some very talented and creative youngsters within that group. However, purely from a marketing perspective, the current overuse of Content Creators doesn’t feel like it’s working quite as well as many people would have us believe.

Initially, as we started to emerge from our Covid caves, everything was fine. But four years on, many companies are still marketing and approaching PR in exactly the same way they did during the pandemic, and arguably the ratio of marketing investment to conversion of sales just doesn’t seem to be adding up as it once did.

Why might this be the case? You’ve been pumping thousands of pounds into a TikTok Campaign rather than traditional media, as you might have done five years ago. Theoretically, your products are being seen by millions of followers, yet for some reason you hardly sell any product. The big question is - how many of those numbers that you’re buying for your campaigns are actually UK punters?

Media owners have to be transparent with the numbers we can deliver. There are strict rules in the UK across all of these forms of media – magazines, websites, radio, TV and outdoor. Not being clear with a client (to the best of our ability) would simply be professional suicide.

But is this the case with some modern media platforms? I’ve read that only 1.4 - 1.6% of the global TikTok numbers are based in the UK. So, when you see a report on a marketing campaign – does that mean that in certain cases, only 1.4% of the reach figures you’re being promised are UK-based?

It is important to point out that it is possible for users to specifically target the UK with their content. However, they would need to pay to mainly focus on UK punters - how many of the Content Creators you work with actually do this? When they send you over their reach for a campaign, are they just sending you their total worldwide figures for your spreadsheet? If a significant proportion of the numbers you are handed are likely to be overseas viewers, that’s not going to impact UK sales.

If you are working directly with TikTok or Instagram, they will have access to a system that guarantees the UK numbers you need for your campaign. But if you’re working with a Creator who simply has a presence on either TikTok or Instagram, that is a very different story. To guarantee that the majority of their views are UK based, they would have to pay to target the UK.

I’m not saying that TikTok, Instagram and other leading social media platforms aren’t valuable additions to the marketing mix - they are very powerful marketing tools if used in the correct way. All I would suggest is that when your PR, marketing team or agency gives you the final spread sheet for any campaign, it might be worth asking how many of the Content Creators you worked with actually pay to target their content towards the UK. If they didn’t, it is possible that only a fraction of the numbers on the spreadsheet are potential UK customers?

As for the Content Creators themselves – I wonder if their talents are being utilised to maximum effect. So many of them are far better than just ‘turn up and look pretty on a media board’. But they need proper guidance from industry professionals so they can take care of the media landscape long after my generation has retired. Right now, many of them are simply regurgitating press releases and doing what they’re told to do by marketeers. Surely that’s not what genuine, authentic media voices should be, and I do feel that’s at the root of many of the problems in this business today.

There are some genuinely talented people out there. However, many are raw diamonds, without the full media training and experience that others –including people like myself - have been so blessed to gain over the years. Surely this expertise shouldn’t be discounted in favour of what might just be vanity metrics...