The digital age of content and PR

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This is ClientSide, from Fox Agency. 

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Hit it. That’s what I’m talking about. Wait. 

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Okay now. From the beginning. 

Nathan Anibaba: 

Gareth Spence is senior director of digital marketing and public relations at ADVA. He helps companies build global brands and grow new revenue opportunities. He has an in depth knowledge of how to produce compelling and original multimedia content for senior audiences. Gareth Spence, welcome to ClientSide. 

Gareth Spence: 

It’s a pleasure to be here, Nathan. Thank you for inviting me. I’ve got a fresh mug of coffee, I’m and ready to talk PR and marketing. 

Nathan Anibaba: 

Let’s do it. I’m just as pumped and excited as you are. This is going to be all things content, multimedia. And I guess, just the state of the content overload. But before we get into all of that good stuff, let’s talk about your background. Because you’ve got a background in broadcast production from your time at Bloomberg, where you started your career. What perspective did that huge media and news organization give you, and bring to your perspective on the way that PR and marketing and digital content should be created? 

Gareth Spence: 

Well, I have to say that I didn’t really appreciate it at the time. But my early career was the idea of preparation for a role in PR and digital marketing. And it gave me several things, I would say. Firstly, it helped me to understand what journalists need. When you’re being inundated with press releases and pitches all day long, you as a PR professional need to be able to cut through the noise and deliver your message to the journalist in the most succinct and persuasive way possible. Really try to grab their attention, and give them something that they’ll find useful and be able to develop a story on. 

Gareth Spence: 

Secondly, it was content. I worked primarily across TV and radio. And I learned how to produce material all the way from inception through to production, and then onto publication. And this knowledge really is key for my role today. I can pick up a camera and record videos. I can handle editing software. I can use mics and sound desks. And in today’s multimedia age where you need to really actively engage your audience with rich and really varied content, it’s imperative that you know what you’re doing. Especially if you’re trying to get messages out quickly, and really keep costs low. 

Gareth Spence: 

And the third thing I would say, is pressure. When you’re working on live TV and radio, things don’t always go according to plan. Especially, in news. I covered 9/11, the fall of Iraq, presidential elections. And in all of these instances, you need to know how to handle the pressure. You need to be able to respond quickly and effectively. And that’s also true for PR. Especially if you think of crisis communications, or even just general day to day activities. You really need to be able to handle the pressure. Know when to sit back, know when to respond. And behave accordingly. 

Nathan Anibaba: 

So, I’m sure that you would agree that things have sped up a little bit since your early days in Bloomberg. Just the amount of content that we’re exposed to and that both companies and individuals are creating, has exploded. We’re definitely living in what I would say, the content age. There’s never been so much content about. And we say that every four or five years, but it’s true. And it’s getting worse. How do the best companies and the best individuals cut through, when there’s so much noise? And how do they win with content marketing, in this age of content overload? 

Gareth Spence: 

For me one of the best ways to cut through the noise is, to turn your customers into fans. When you build this type of relationship with your customers, then you know that your content is always going to have a better chance of resonating. Just look at some of the big brands that are doing this today. Salesforce for me, is one of the best. People are actively seeking out their material, in addition to waiting for it to actively drop into their channels. 

Gareth Spence: 

And that’s something I really try to aspire to. I think once your customers are fans, then you can really tick a big box and know that people are going to get that content. If you don’t have that type of connection with your customers, then I think you really need to push the content out there and make sure it gets seen. Whether that’s through organic SEO, paid channels, influencers, or any other means that you can tap into. You’ve really just got to battle each day to get that material seen, heard, digested. And then hopefully, start a conversation as well. So it’s a continuing battle I would say, to do that 

Nathan Anibaba: 

One of my favorite quotes from a book that I’m absolutely blanking on now, but it’s to do with how things become popular. I think that might even be the title. It says, content is king but distribution is the kingdom. Meaning that content is obviously important and crucial to have, but it’s distribution really that will make the difference between whether or not your content is actually seen and acted upon or not. Because you can have the best content in the world, but if no one sees it, then what’s the point in creating it? So what I hear you saying there is actually it’s the channels and the distribution that is equally, if not more important, than the content that you’re creating. 

Gareth Spence: 

Without question. Yeah. I think it’s a synergistic relationship between the two. The content’s got to be good in the first place. But then also, the channels clearly have to be established. And you have to be able to present the information to where your audience is. And I think that’s constantly changing. Clearly we’ve seen with TikTok, Instagram, all these visual mediums, that the content never sits still. It always has to evolve. And like you said, that happens every few years. Something comes along, and you need to be seen on that channel. Maybe the next one’s the metaverse. Maybe… My son just got an Oculus for his birthday, a few weeks ago. 

Nathan Anibaba: 

I’m jealous. 

Gareth Spence: 

I thought I would be too, and then I played on it. And I have to say, I struggled a little bit with some of the movement. I was okay on one level if I was just going back and forth. But if I started to drop… If anything played with that up and down motion, then I had to sit down. 

Nathan Anibaba: 

That’s a generational thing. I’m sure he doesn’t have that problem. 

Gareth Spence: 

Not at all. I did feel a bit old when I went on it. And it was like, okay. I need to rest now. This is… But it’ll be interesting to see how that develops, and how brands start to engage in the metaverse. And if it’s something that can be leveraged for a brand. Especially given the demographic of where the metaverse is at the minute, I think we’ll see how that grows. 

Gareth Spence: 

And if it does grow, is it something that people in their mid-forties will be doing a lot of? Or will it remain the realm of very young people and people enmeshed in tech, that play with it? Will it go beyond that? I guess maybe as the form factor of the headsets starts to get smaller, perhaps. Maybe as Apple introduces their headset in possibly a few months, maybe it will change. And it’ll be important to be seen on that platform too. But who knows at this point in time? 

Nathan Anibaba: 

Who Knows? Yeah. One of my favorite quotes is, the future happens really slowly. And then, all at once. And it seemed to be the same for the internet. Where in the early days it was just… It’s a small handful of techies that were communicating with each other and sharing content. And then all of a sudden, it feels as though it’s ubiquitous. In relatively short space of time, you would say. 

Nathan Anibaba: 

So you could argue that a similar thing would happen with the metaverse. But, we digress. Let’s talk a little bit about ADVA, because it’s probably one of the biggest companies that people have never heard of. Tell us a little bit about the company, for those that aren’t familiar. 

Gareth Spence: 

Well, the talk of the metaverse and the internet does tie into ADVA as well. ADVA is a company that makes the internet work, if you will. We produce the software and the hardware that helps to transport data from point A to point B. We’re essentially, the plumbers of the internet. Without companies like us, this conversation wouldn’t be taking place right now. So while most people… I guess people like Facebook, tend to get most of the attention. Zoom, Google clearly. And some of those companies that sit above us. We are there underneath all the while, doing the heavy lifting. Moving that data. 

Nathan Anibaba: 

The middle ware. 

Gareth Spence: 

Oh well, we’re right at the bottom to be truthful. Yeah. So we’re right at the bottom of the stack, when it comes to the internet. So again, I think that’s where that analogy of plumbing comes in. We are the guys that make the pipes work that enable all the good stuff that comes on top of that, that people enjoy on their iPhones and their laptops and their iPads and their headsets. 

Nathan Anibaba: 

Interesting. So you are the reason why my internet’s been running slow. 

Gareth Spence: 

Well, I don’t know if we can take responsibility for that. I think… 

Nathan Anibaba: 

Yeah. So, tell us a little bit about your responsibility and role as senior director of marketing for PR for the company. What are you responsible for? And what of the main growth challenges that you’re experiencing at the moment? 

Gareth Spence: 

My role covers a very broad remit within the company. But essentially, I’m responsible for two areas. In digital marketing, I handle ADVA’s website development, social media, online content. Whether it be videos, podcasts, blogs, or any other areas. And critically, web-to-lead too. So one of the areas that we are focused upon over the past decade or so, is trying to leverage our online platforms to actively drive leads. And in turn, drive revenue. 

Gareth Spence: 

The other side is PR. And you could say, that’s more traditional PR. Focusing upon messaging, journalist relations, media monitoring, competitive analysis. All that kind of stuff. And for me, the two really go hand in hand. They really mix well together. I’m very much a fan of seeing marketing teams being driven by PR and digital. I think it’s key. 

Gareth Spence: 

In regards to growth, recently COVID has been a huge growth factor. There’s been this huge shift in what we all do and where we do it. We’re no longer purely in the offices. We are at home primarily, and that has really changed the shape of residential broadband. So where before we’d come home and we’d be watching Netflix or maybe Skyping with friends, now we are doing everything. We’re Zooming, we’re working. We’re doing all that leisure. The kids have all their online classes. And again, the headsets, the metaverse. All of that is really changing the shape of residential access. Which in turn, is causing problems for service providers. Who in turn, need to develop that part of the network. As you said, you’re suffering at the moment with some slowness. And that could be a reflection of that changing nature of what’s happening in the home. 

Gareth Spence: 

I know things are opening up now, and we’re slowly returning to the office. But I think we have seen a… To use a maybe overused phrase, a paradigm shift in how we do things. And on top of that, there’s tremendous growth in other areas as well. As we said, e-learning. But also in regards to hospitals and such, doing more remote stuff. All needs to travel from A to B. And for ADVA, we’re the people that are making that happen. 

Gareth Spence: 

So how do you transport more data down a fiber optic cable? Or how do you make that data go wirelessly from your phone to a mast, and then onwards to its destination? These are all key questions that have really driven ADVA’s business over the past couple of years, and made Myspace far more interesting as well. Trying to develop campaigns that can promote what we do to the service providers across the globe. And really make sure that we are known as a solution provider that can handle what they need. 

Nathan Anibaba: 

What have you learned over the years, about what it takes to make PR campaigns successful? What are the fundamentals of great PR? 

Gareth Spence: 

Hmm. That’s a great question. For me, I think a good PR campaign always starts with the story. Do you have a good story to tell? If yes, then everything becomes a little easier and things fall into place. I think if you don’t have a good story, then you are clearly in a battle from the get go. And you really need to work hard to find the germ of a story in there. The fundamentals of good PR are also planning and preparation. 

Gareth Spence: 

A good PR campaign takes months to develop. Especially, given the sheer wealth of content that needs to accompany the press release. Before… I think if we go back a few years, much of a PR campaign used to hinge upon the press release and journalist relations. And you’d have to go past the gatekeepers, to get to the audience. But since the collapse of print media, that’s really changed. You talk directly to your customers now. You talk directly to the people that you want to. And as such, a PR campaign has to address that. It needs to have compelling visual elements. The video, webpages, supporting material of all shapes and flavor to be able to get your message across to the audience that you want to communicate with. And so, planning and preparation really are the fundamentals. 

Nathan Anibaba: 

Give us an example either from your time with Bloomberg or ADVA, of a PR campaign that has really outperformed. Or a piece of content that you are really proud of. 

Gareth Spence: 

Sure. There have been many over the years, when I look back at my career. But I think one of the highlights for me and for ADVA, would be our campaign regarding high frequency trading. Or low latency trading, as it was known. And that’s going back to 2011. And it was a different time then. Social media was still in its infancy, and companies were really trying to figure out how to leverage it to their advantage. 

Gareth Spence: 

And I think we were slightly ahead of the game in some of these areas. And in 2011 when this opportunity arose to help companies with this low latency communication between trading floors, I think the biggest one was between New York and Chicago. We had to find ways to seize that opportunity, and really drive revenue. And the way we did that was through LinkedIn. LinkedIn at that time, was still a place where you could have good conversations with interested parties. And the marketing talk wasn’t prolific as it is to day. 

Nathan Anibaba: 

Marketers have come in and ruined it. 

Gareth Spence: 

Well, exactly. In many ways. 

Nathan Anibaba: 

Like they do to most channels. 

Gareth Spence: 

It’s a shame. But at that point in time, we found that there were many LinkedIn groups where people were just talking. They were just trying to find information out. And you were able to go in there, communicate with them. And somewhat with a soft touch, try and introduce who you were and what you did. And how you could help them. And for us, that drove quite a significant chunk of revenue. We went into these groups, we talked to these people. And we were able to lead them through, into… Yeah. Through to our website, through to our CRM tool. And then to nurture the lead, and then to see it become revenue generating. And that was really impressive at the time when you could actually say, okay. We spent X amount of hours on social media, produced some of this content. And here at the end of the day, is the money that it’s generated. 

Gareth Spence: 

And I think that turned on a lot of lights at ADVA, at that point in time. I think perhaps up until then, social media had been seen as a nice to have. Something complimentary that you maybe should be on. But it wasn’t seen as a strategic sales channel. And that changed I think, once we showed that you could leverage it. And you could drive revenue through it. And then we spent the next few years trying to recapture that magic. And we did so, on a few occasions. 

Nathan Anibaba: 

By the way, low latency trading. That might be something that we need to define for the audience. 

Gareth Spence: 

Sure. So it’s really computers talking to each other. And when high frequency trading or low latency trading came about, it was realized as you said, that the fastest communication between the trading floors would win the deal. And that could be worth millions. And so this cottage industry sprang up I guess if you will, around how to transport that data. How to shave those milliseconds from that communication. And there were a few vendors involved in that, and they were all trying to find the fastest way. So part of that… And the initially use case I believe, was Chicago to New York. And it was, how can you get the straightest fiber optic cable from point A to point B? How can you get the data through there as fast as possible, so you can win the deal? And we developed equipment that helped people achieve that. 

Gareth Spence: 

And it was quite a competitive space for a few years. Because people started to try and replicate that on other trading floors, over larger distances. So I think there were also trans-Atlantic as well, from the US to the UK. And I think that there’s some trans-Pacific as well. And it grew and mushroomed out of that initial use case. But from there, the whole idea of low latency has evolved. So if we fast forward to where we are today, and talk of 5G. 5G is very dependent upon low latency to really get the best of it, when we look at private 5G networks. Or for example, if we look at the EE commercials with Kevin Bacon. The one where he is in someone’s home and they switch the flight control tower from… Is it Luton to someone’s house? 

Nathan Anibaba: 

Mm-hmm (affirmative). 

Gareth Spence: 

I forget now, the exact details. 

Nathan Anibaba: 

Mm-hmm (affirmative). 

Gareth Spence: 

But that type of thing is extremely dependent upon low latency. Or for example, when Kevin Bacon is having a shave and it’s being controlled by a robotic arm. So when it comes into things like telemedicine, where you might be able to have remote surgeries where someone is controlling a robotic arm from many miles away. 

Nathan Anibaba: 

Right. 

Gareth Spence: 

That is hugely dependent upon low latency. And also, autonomous vehicles. When we think of the opportunity there, when we can just jump in a car and be driven wherever we want by an autonomous vehicle. Those vehicles need to be able to communicate to each other. So for safety reasons, you know what’s coming at the next junction in the opposite direction. And that level of communication has to be so fast because if it’s not, accidents are going to happen. 

Gareth Spence: 

And that is what people are wrestling with now is, how do you develop these ultra low latency networks where you can really do very futuristic things without any worry of bad things happening? 

Nathan Anibaba: 

Really fascinating. I think… Just to go to your point on the autonomous vehicles. It feels as though from a technology point of view, we’re there. I think regulation is the thing that probably needs to catch up. I don’t know how it looks to you from an insider’s point of view, but that’s how it looks to us. 

Gareth Spence: 

Sure. I think there’s a little way to go there, in regards to maybe proving the technology on a global scale. And then, getting governments to embrace it and champion it. But I think big steps are being taken all the time. And it will be interesting in the next few years, to see how these trials that are happening… I know in the UK and in the US, if they become broader and adopted. I think it’ll be fascinating. 

Gareth Spence: 

From a safety perspective, they must be safer than what we have now. I think if you look at the amount of traffic accidents that take place on a daily basis, you would hope that the autonomous vehicles will really reduce that and make the roads a safer place. But it is all dependent on the networks really. People do focus on the cars a lot. But at the end of the day, the network has to be able to accommodate all of that traffic. 

Nathan Anibaba: 

Let’s go back to PR for a moment. You mentioned the importance of LinkedIn in the early days, to be able to get your message out. It wasn’t a very noisy platform at that time, and you were able to have quite useful conversations with prospects that ultimately turned into customers. What’s changed in the way that you create PR for ADVA? The way you go to market with your storytelling and messaging, over the last few years? 

Gareth Spence: 

Another great question. Thinking about that, I would say that the way we market today is far more engaged on the target audience. I think perhaps sometimes in the past going back a decade or so, sometimes maybe you did focus more on the gatekeepers. Of your messaging of the journalists and such like. But now, you really are laser focused on what your target audience wants. What are the problems that they’re really trying to solve? What do they need to do in their daily business? How can you help them achieve what they want to achieve with your products? And you really need to focus upon that, with each bit of content that you create. And I think that’s what we do far more now, than perhaps we used to in the past. Really focusing on those audiences and the problems that they’re trying to overcome. 

Gareth Spence: 

What remains the same? Some elements of PR remain the same. You do want to be seen in certain publications. You still want to be seen in certain media. And even though that media might have changed and become more pay to play rather than focus purely on the merits of a story, you want to play in that area. There are certain publications that I think everyone wants to be seen in. Whether it be The Guardian or The New York times or The Economist. You’re always trying to deliver messages to these journalists, why you hope they will feature you. 

Gareth Spence: 

And I think that has been the same for many years. And I expect it will continue to. But there are some companies out there, who do bypass that. Who decide that actually, they don’t need to play that game, and they are just going to talk directly to their audience. Quite a few companies now eschew traditional PR program, and really just focus on talking to their customers. And it’s tremendous when that happens in a way, if you think of some of the startups that are able to do that. Or some of the more established players as well. It’s interesting to see how they’ve broken away from traditional models, to really just focus on delivering messages to their customers. 

Nathan Anibaba: 

Final question Gareth, before we let you go. The show is mainly for senior B2B tech marketing leaders. What advice do you have to other senior execs listening to the show, who are looking to increase the awareness or exposure for their brands and their businesses? 

Gareth Spence: 

I would say, focus on your storytellers. Give them what they need, to be able to tell your company’s story. And once you start to do that, you begin on that journey to transform your customers into fans. And once you do that, you’ll see that your marketing force rapidly expands, with your fans selling your products for you. And it’s really transformative I think, when that happens. 

Nathan Anibaba: 

Gareth, great place to end. Thank you for being on ClientSide. 

Gareth Spence: 

Thanks for having me. 

Nathan Anibaba: 

If you’d like to share any comments on this episode or episode of ClientSide, then find us online at fox.agency. If you’d like to appear as a guest on the show, then please email ClientSide at fox.agency. The people that make this show possible are Zoey Woodward, our executive producer. Hannah Teasdale is our podcast executive. Jennifer Brennan is our digital strategist. Supported by Sofia Ravanis and Alice Winterburn, our social and digital experts. I’m Nathan Anibaba. You’ve been listening to ClientSide, from Fox Agency. 

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