The online advertising industry needs to better articulate the concept where the free exchange of ideas on the open Internet must be a mutually beneficial relationship between consumers, content owners as well as advertisers. This is the tension which has confronted our industry since the modern era of interconnectivity started.
The challenge has been explaining how each of the above critical elements, which are required to continue to be part of this healthy symbiotic relationship, are not mutually exclusive:
- Consumers are able to have the transparency as to who has access to their data thanks to data privacy laws, such as the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA).
- Advertisers are able to have the data that they need in order to reach their target audiences, thereby allowing quality local content to be produced and thrive in a healthy and open online advertising environment.
The Consumer’s Role In Online Advertising
Studying consumers’ decision-making process assist advertisers with finding a way to approach those consumers and how to have an effect on their decision-making process. Consumers pass through a process in their decision making, such as the following:
- Problem recognition,
- Information search,
- Evaluation of Alternative,
- Purchase, as well as
- Post-purchase satisfaction or dissatisfaction.
This process shows the behaviour of a consumer while purchasing goods or services. Each of these stages shows a different goal for the customer.
What The Content Owner Does
The content owner is ultimately the person or company who is responsible for the completion of the content. The remaining members of the team, who are ‘Assigned to’ a content item, will likely handle individual production tasks (such as copywriting, editing, creating a graphic, etc.) or be part of the review or – alternatively – the approval process.
The content owner is one of the hardest roles to get someone on the team to play. Traditionally, the assignment of content owner is given to the one who wears the big hat and their calendar is almost always full with other tasks associated with the business. Burdens of new hires, team morale and endless meetings do not offer the time needed to focus on the content strategy.
If you’re lucky enough to have the title of Chief Content Officer in your organisation, then you are probably set to receive the assignment of content owner. If you are not this blessed, then you might need to hand off some responsibility to someone who is next in line to the big cheese.
