Matthew Willcox on How Context is Everything, Why Context in Important for Media Placement & Selection & How It Affects Consumer Choice


 

If Content is King,  then  ‘Context is Queen'. 

Matthew Willcox argues that context, in its broadest sense, makes a big difference in how people choose. As marketers we fixate on content, and see it as king, because it seems easier for us to control. However, that is an illusion. Context can either nullify or turbocharge content in terms of how it influences choice. Your content is only as good as the context that surrounds it allows it to be. The king isn’t dead, but long live the queen.


Brain is Like a Smartphone

Matthew  discusses Griskevicius’s point that brain is like a smartphone, which  when activated in different apps or modes, performs quite differently. Matthew explains the experiment that when primed into Self-Protection mode by something scary like a clip from The Shining, the brain guides us toward the safety of crowds. When in Mate Acquisition mode, the brain drives us to throw caution to the winds and stand out from the crowd.The idea that different evolutionary subselves impact brain function and behavior has huge implications for marketers because these distinct selves are activated by the priming effect of context.


Marketing & Media Thinking Falls Short 

Matthew argues that when it comes to context, conventional marketing and media thinking fall short in two ways. Matthew argues that the first is the classic approach of matching content and context. For years, the advice the marketers have either given or been given is to put ads that tap into a certain emotion into content that mirrors that emotion. Griskevicius’s work suggests that may sometimes be exactly the wrong approach. Putting an ad for a scary movie in a scary movie or TV show might seem to be a good idea in terms of reaching the right audience at an appropriate time, but that media context could be priming viewers in a way that makes the commercial’s message ineffective. It is better, perhaps, to use that media opportunity to tell them about a feel-good, feel-safe comedy. Or an alarm system for their house.

The second issue that Matthew points out in his book is more systemic, which is our flawed, but understandable, impulse as marketers to see the world as revolving around our brand and our messages. We consider our ad as the most important single thing in affecting consumers’ decisions, and we discount how their preceding experience, whatever it may be, prepares them to respond to our message. 


Transition of Media From Reach Business to Influence Business

Matthew argues that the idea of media as not just a way of reaching, but preparing consumers reveals an opportunity to position advertising messages in a way that is of greater value to businesses and brands. If media owners can move beyond selling media as way to deliver an audience who may be interested in a brand to showing how their content can prime different evolutionary goals, then they transition from the reach business to the influence business. Media context that prepares your target audience to be instinctively open to your message is going to do a lot more for your brand than context that simply matches it.

In a nutshell, what people see before your ad could be as important in influencing their decision as the ad itself. 


Jagged with Jasravee is facilitated by Jasravee Kaur Chandra, Director- Brand Building, Research & Innovation at Master Sun, Consulting Brand of Adiva L Pvt. Ltd. Jasravee has over 20 years experience as a Strategic Brand Builder,Communications Leader and Entrepreneur. 

Please connect with Jasravee on Linkedin at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasravee/


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