Technology transforms the traditional

If one thing is clear at Bastion Effect, it’s that we can’t keep doing things the way we used to and expect the same result.

Technology has changed the game in PR – the shift from bought advertising to owned media, or using your own assets and social media channels – these are all having a powerful influence over the way brands communicate with audiences. And the way we do our jobs at Bastion Effect.

Countless tools are now available to help us get the most out of PR and run campaigns more efficiently and effectively. We now have better ways of finding journalists and influencers, and media opportunities. This means we can be more strategic in the way we work, target journalists better and work more efficiently.

In addition, new media is creating opportunities to target audiences more directly. And it needs to – traditional methods of engaging with people no longer work as well as they used to. Consumers don’t want to be talked at, they respond in better numbers to shared experiences with brands.

This is where synergistic planning comes into play. It’s no longer good enough to simply acknowledge the importance of Paid, Owned and Earned – they need to be both planned and implemented together.

The best practitioners are doing this by effectively leveraging the consumer data that comes from the mobile devices we are all obsessed with. This can help to define the target audience, then craft and create an experience that is valuable from their perspective.

That means no more shotgun approach, or spraying people with advertisements in the hope that they will reach their desired audience at a time when they are receptive. By leveraging the data at our disposal we can adopt a rifle approach that is more targeted and effective, and not necessarily ad driven.

This is what is getting cut-through in today’s fragmented space. How is your brand faring?