Owning it: Why owned brand channels are growing in importance

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For years, we have spent time creating sophisticated models to measure the effectiveness of paid advertising. Yet advertising may represent only 30% of brands’ experiences. Last year, the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) effectiveness leadership group turned its attention to owned channels, and Mesh Experience was invited to partner in exploring this territory. We uncovered a vast, fertile landscape for brands.

Beyond desk research, we conducted:

• Interviews with more than 20 industry leaders, spanning a range of brand and agency owners in Europe, the US and Latin America, during May to August 2022
• Analysis of Mesh Experience data, including proprietary data on retail banking and client data on sports betting and retail beauty.

Why are owned channels growing in importance?

Without exception, every industry leader interviewed believed that owned channels would grow in importance. Headwinds and tailwinds are pushing owned channels into the limelight.

One catalyst for the IPA to commission the work is the rise in first-party data. This is the gold rush of our day, accelerated by technology, and allows companies to have direct relationships with customers – an increasing priority given the demise of cookies and increasingly restrictive legislation.

At the same time, modern consumers choose which brands they spend time with and there is declining attention and a proliferation of media channels. Advertising can struggle to cut through. Diageo’s Thebar.com is a strong example of a new owned channel – instead of numerous brand websites in countries around the world, the drinks company has created one digital home where people can be inspired by recipes and purchase.

Seven key findings and implications

1. The debate around owned-channel definition
Most people agreed a brand’s website is owned, but what about a brand’s social media channels? Many felt these were brand-owned – but the real estate is owned by Meta. Emails were usually regarded as owned but, from a customer perspective – when bombarded by them – they can feel like paid advertising. In general, it was felt that owned channels were those controlled by the brand. However, brands can’t control the experience people have with them. The customer might be delighted with their first website interaction and frustrated on a later visit. It is these experiences, which happen in context, that we need to measure.

2. Evolving frameworks
The initialism POEM (paid, owned, earned media) was frequently mentioned as useful to marketers and others in the company for thinking beyond paid advertising, while some preferred OESP (owned, earned, shared and paid). Knowing where a firm is in a journey can help select the most relevant framework to move thinking on.

3. Put creativity and business outcome first
To engage people in a world with declining attention, creativity is vital. DDB North America president and chief executive Justin Thomas-Copeland explained how the agency helps clients find the ‘spaces’ where brands have a right to play. In award-winning work for Coors Light, DDB painted black roofs white, reflecting 85% of sunlight and taking the idea of ‘chilling’ to a different level. Elsewhere, Direct Line Group has embraced agile working and its head of insight, marketing effectiveness and customer experience, Ann Constantine, explained how this enables business outcomes to be the focus, rather than channel, with diverse-skilled teams harnessing their combined creativity. Focus on creativity and put business outcome – not channel – first.

4. Understand which owned channels to build and which to harness
Using owned channels may seem to be lower-cost. However, Andre D’Abreu, head of customer intelligence, research and strategy at Latam Airlines, pointed out that by not monetising the loss of attention, we are not accounting for true value. It may seem low-cost to send out lots of emails, but if open rates decline, you have eroded value. Equally, Diageo’s global marketing effectiveness director Kiel Petersen explained the investment that goes into creating immersive brand homes, such as The Guinness Storehouse in Dublin and the Johnnie Walker House in Edinburgh. Companies should think about what capital expenditure to deploy in the creation of new owned channels and what to harness through operational expenditure.

5. Build measurement ecosystems with the whole experience in mind
In analysis of Mesh Experience data, we discovered that owned channels represented 63% of retail beauty experiences, but only 37% of sports-betting experiences. Having an owned-channel experience had a much greater impact on brand metrics, such as brand consideration and net promoter score, than paid, but paid media still plays a vital role.

We also saw how different owned channels impacted on brand perception. Banking apps, for example, positively impact on perceptions of the brand as reliable and hassle-free, whereas branches impact on fair and friendly perceptions. Purchase had a phenomenal impact on brand consideration, suggesting that it shouldn’t be seen as a ‘sale’, but as a brand-building touchpoint.

6. Think relevance first when it comes to owned channels
With advertising, it is important to engage the person, then provide a relevant message, for the experience to be persuasive. With owned channels, the experience must first be relevant (if the person is interrupted with something irrelevant it will be off-putting), then positive, in order to be persuasive.

7. Consider new metrics
Building owned channels means building for the long term, moving beyond measuring return on investment to brand impact, focusing on the customer-brand relationship. Businesses should consider new key performance indicators, such as share of experience and return on experience, to help focus on investing into the customer experience to generate brand growth.

Owned channels are the next frontier for marketing effectiveness measurement, but not the final one. We see a world beyond channels, a place where these distinctions no longer matter. Businesses that embrace owned channels will lead on this journey.

Fiona Blades is president and chief experience officer at Mesh Experience

This article was first published in the January 2023 issue of Impact.