Communicating in a World of Multiplicity

Picture this: It’s 8 a.m., and you’re starting your commute to work. You pick up a newspaper from the local kiosk and jostle with the crowds heading to the train station. You spend the next 30 minutes of your journey reading up on the latest news and events, your new knowledge restricted to the thoughts and opinions of that single newspaper.

If you’re struggling to picture it in your head, it looks like this:

But that was the past. These days, the scene on the train is more likely to look like this:

The smartphone and tablet now rule the commute. And lunchtime. And first thing in the morning. In fact, our Stories in Motion research found that in China, 66 percent of consumers are turning to their smartphones and other mobile devices to consume content from morning until night — more than any other device or platform. In addition, 81 percent of respondents in the same region picked up their smartphone first thing in the morning, with 73 percent using them during their morning commute.

This shift is arguably more evident here in Hong Kong, where over the past few years, many well-established print media outlets have shuttered their doors after struggling to keep up with the rise of people accessing content digitally. Despite a plethora of free daily newspapers handed out at MTR stations, you are hard-pressed to find anyone whose face isn’t buried in a screen on the way to work. This shift has considerably affected the communications industry, changing the way in which news is both consumed and distributed.

In response to this ever-changing media landscape, it is very important for brands to move their focus from traditional print and instead integrate to online and social media channels to stay connected with target consumers. To emphasize this point, the same Stories in Motion research found that 58 percent of respondents discovered unintentional information about a product on their smartphone, while 49 percent would use their smartphone to share information on a brand’s product.

The motion of stories is impacted by the volume of different platforms and channels that we engage with throughout the day. Brands need to embrace the full ecosystem of channels when it comes to their communications strategy and optimize their owned, earned and paid content to work together to influence every intentional or unintentional moment in the day. Our study found that 38 percent of respondents find their daily news — not on the front page or the BBC — but from instant messaging services like WeChat.

At WE, we apply these same principles to guide our work with our clients.

For example, WE Hong Kong currently works with one of the world’s most famous purveyors of ice cream. We’ve adopted a three-pronged content strategy to launch a variety of ice cream products in the local market, with a core objective in mind: to drive a unified narrative and experience that delivers editorial buzz.

This approach enabled us to deliver a great deal for our client. We drove fan engagement on social platforms, produced positive sales impact and, as a result, the brand remains the No. 1 premium ice cream in Hong Kong.

As our colleague Gordie recently wrote, when it comes to content, we need to give people what they want. Moreover, we need to give it to them where they want it, whether it is in the paper, on their Facebook feed or in the feed of their favorite Instagrammer.

Insights compiled by Damian Pang and Carbo Yu