JWT PLANNING TOOLS 142 Digital Ecosystem Tool
What is the main purpose of this tool?
The Digital Ecosystem tool enables planners to understand how their brand’s activity works across channels and is connected across the entire customer journey in the most effective way.
It also helps planners to identify potential gaps in the campaign architecture and rectify these prior to the start of any new activity.
Where in the process should this tool be used?
This is a tool for the Make stage of the Worldmade process. It is best used once the initial big digital idea(s) has been conceptualised and approved. It helps define how those digital ideas will be supported within the wider communications architecture.
This tool is related to another tool, the Channel & Technology plan. It is more detailed and comes later in the process, and helps determine how the whole communications programme works together.
How does this tool work?
The Digital Ecosystem tool starts with another tool, the Consumer’s Buying System. If you haven’t already done this at the Discovery stage, you need to do it now. Please look it up on the Worldmade Planning Tools website on myjwt.com.
The Digital Ecosystem tool uses two axes to map the ecosystem.
The first of these is the Consumer’s Buying System. The second is the simple distinction between Paid (bought on- and off-line advertising, sponsorships), Owned (websites, apps, owned events and in-store/
point of purchase) and Earned Media (word of mouth, shared content, comments, user-generated content).
TRIGGER CONSIDER SEARCH CHOOSE BUY EXPERIENCE DIGITAL ECOSYSTEM TOOL
PAID
OWNED
EARNED
FIG. 45
Between these two dimensions you need to map your activity, and most importantly, how the activity joins up. The arrows between the pieces of activity are the crucial element.
The arrows between activity ensure that you are building a system – that there is a flow from one piece of activity to another and that that activity helps move the participants across the different stages of the Consumer’s Buying System.
How to use this tool?
Start with the Consumer’s Buying System as the organising framework for ecosytem planning. If you don’t already have one
you will need to build one.
The blank template is here:
1. Map all your planned digital activity along the customer journey across earned, owned and paid categories.
This may be simple or, if you have a complex activation with multiple phases across different platforms, it may be very complicated.
The thinking you may not have done already is to map the activity against the stages of the Consumer’s Buying System.
Please note that some elements, such as a major website or facebook page will function across multiple stages of the Consumer’s Buying System.You can see this in the Brand USA example overleaf with
2. After the digital activity, map any planned off-line activity which should drive on-line (eg TV ad with facebook URL) or any off-line behaviour that will be the outcome of on-line activity (eg. on-line brochure request) into the journey.
3. Work out the participant flow through the ecosystem and show them with arrows between the different activities.
This phase is the most important.
It is how participants flow from one activity to another.
It is important to remember that in most cases there may be several
TRIGGER CONSIDER SEARCH CHOOSE BUY EXPERIENCE
PAID
OWNED
EARNED
FIG. 46
JWT PLANNING TOOLS 144
ecosystem. They are unlikely to all follow the same route.
4. When you have mapped your activity and the flows between them you will have your draft ecosystem.
It may be great first time. Or it may not. What you may find is that some of your activity does not join up; there may be gaps. Or we may not be clinching the deal in terms of purchase or experience.
All the activity may be at the Trigger/Consider phases. If this
isn’t a deliberate choice you will most probably have to plan and create some more activity to fill the gaps and to help complete the ecosystem. These may be small fixes (for example some extra banners or elements on a website) or major changes (eg. a post-purchase loyalty scheme).
This is where the Ecosystem Tool is most useful. Have we designed a complete ecosystem or just a few elements of one? Good digital ideas are an ecosystem that flows across the Consumer’s Buying System.
Examples
The J&J Muppets Band-Aid app is a recent initiative from New York that has a fairly straightforward ecosystem.
The new augmented reality app was supported through PR and social media including an on-line film hosted on youtube and facebook.
TRIGGER CONSIDER SEARCH CHOOSE BUY EXPERIENCE J&J BAND-AID MUPPETS AR APP
PAID
The social coverage, accelerated with paid PR is intended to drive product purchase and app downloads. The Buying System for this product is not the same as for regular Band-Aid. The aim is for news of the Augmented Reality kids plasters to act as the trigger for purchase rather than having an accident or running out. Therefore the Buying System is focused on the Trigger, Choose, Buy and Experience stages, whilst Search is limited since the product is available in the regular Band-Aid distribution points.
Brand USA:
The Brand USA ecosystem is much more complex, which fits with such a large and multi-layered campaign. The core elements to note are the mix of paid activity, including TV, on-line advertising and
Paid search. Also the ‘loyalty loop’ using owned and social media to ensure that post-purchase people become more likely to purchase another holiday to the USA. Finally, the discoveramerica.com website plays a vital role across much of the buying system.
TRIGGER CONSIDER SEARCH CHOOSE BUY EXPERIENCE BRAND USA LAUNCH CAMPAIGN
PAID
– Campaign-related
– Co-Op related
US press coverage Social advocates
DiscoverAmerica.com – Explore 250 Experience
– Download Song
– Build Suitcase
– Co-Op offers
FIG. 49
JWT PLANNING TOOLS 146
NOTES
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Digital Ecosystem Tool
WASTEFUL 02 before. People alre
ady kn
This thing is inte resting a
participate with it. They will feel rew
arded because of that, and it will enhance your brand.
07 INNOVATIVE
do great things for the brand.
WORLD CLASS
09
This competes with the very best things in the world. People are participating
with it in many ways. It will make the brand, client and us famous.
WORLD BE 10 ATING
This sets a new standard for brands.
It’s something people have never seen before and will reinvent how the world interacts with the brand.