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Comms Room Channel reached out to award-winning marketer Antonia Vann to talk about the intricacies of corporate communications today.
Antonia is a senior marketer with more than ten years of experience strategically planning, managing and developing multi-channel campaigns for retail, arts, entertainment, huge events, destination brands, the government and corporate services.
As the General Manager of Marketing and Communications at Museums Victoria, Antonia is responsible for forming the brand & marketing strategy for Museums Victoria. She heads the delivery of all marketing and communications activity across above-the-line and below-the-line channels, ultimately driving visitation and revenue across the entire portfolio and enhancing the organisation’s reputation.
Below, Antonia shares her best marketing practices and advice on shaping a brand people trust.
What have been the most successful marketing and communication strategies for Museums Victoria in the past years?
I think the most successful marketing and communication strategy for Museums Victoria has been the road we’ve taken out of COVID lockdowns, from closure to transition to recovery and now, a thriving new reality.
Lockdown for us was all about maintaining our investment in marketing and communications when it came to budgets and resourcing. While other brands and destinations cut back, with the support of our CEO and board, we continued to invest in activity that would amplify our voice in the market and, therefore, market share when we reopened.
In our transition phase, the majority of our marketing and communication efforts focused on nurturing existing relationships with our known, local audiences (and, of course, our loyal members and subscribers) to get people back through the doors.
By leveraging our advocates through a strong brand campaign, “Open for everyone, here for you,” we welcomed visitors back in; positioning Museums Victoria as a voice of trust, a destination that offered safe entertainment and learning opportunities, and of course, driving engagement, positive sentiment and share of voice across all channels.
By adopting a strategically phased, data-led approach to our reopening and transition, we could dive into our recovery phase headfirst, refocusing our efforts on new audience acquisition and building a sustainable path for growth through always-on campaigns and advanced channel planning.
In the wake of COVID lockdowns, our Museums have faced unprecedented recovery and growth – Melbourne Museum has since recorded its highest April General Admissions since 2000, May beckoned the highest total site visitation since 2011. Members heralded the highest number of new memberships to the program in Museums Victoria history and audience reach continued to grow, averaging 14.8 million per month through digital/on-demand content, hybrid and online programming.
Between your past roles in the retail industry and your current job at Museums Victoria, is there any significant difference in how you approach your target audience in the marketing campaigns you launch?
I think the first thing to note is that in every industry and role you have, your target audiences will vary, and so should your approach and adopted tactics.
At Museums Victoria, we’re lucky enough to have an in-house audience insights team who provide us with rich data relating to suggested target audiences, their media consumption, behaviour and key motivators for us to tap into in order to promote each program and exhibition so there’s little ‘rinse and repeat’ when it comes to our tactics and channels.
The key question to always ask yourself prior to tactical targeting is, of course, what’s the outcome I’m seeking to achieve? I think one of the key differences here at Museums Victoria in comparison to my retail-focused roles is our prioritisation of deep audience engagement (through long-form content and storytelling), building advocacy and our focus on diversity and accessibility of our communications; ensuring our messages are inclusive, accessible and relevant.
While commercial success is, of course, a priority, the business really supports and encourages us to build brand equity and promote our purpose as an organisation. As such, how we market ourselves and deliver communications to our audiences is broader than what’s on listings and strong calls to action. It’s about delivering meaningful communications that drive behavioural change for an inspired community and thriving future.
Develop effective corporate communication strategies by joining us in our 8th Corporate Comms Leaders Summit where Antonia will be speaking.
What future corporate communication developments do you want to see?
I think COVID lockdowns really highlighted how important corporate communications is, and on the flip side, to many, the cost of poor communication. Although somewhat of a generalisation, I don’t think employee communications and ‘corporate empathy’ for most companies was ever seen as a key priority by executive leadership teams; it was a nice to have. From what I’ve observed, COVID lockdowns really flipped that mindset and changed all pre-existing rules of engagement.
I’d like to see companies build on that, heralding the era of corporate empathy across the board. By employing affective and cognitive empathy coupled with open, authentic transparent communication, delivered in a timely and regular manner, we’ll see an upward trajectory in the wellbeing of staff, their engagement with organisations and as a result, high-performance outcomes that support our global market economy, in particular, innovation and engagement.
Belinda Parmar really shone a light on corporate empathy quite a few years ago. Still, there’s never been a timelier and more relevant period in our lives as corporates to embrace this change.
As an award-winning marketer, what are the essential things corporations should consider to build a brand that people love?
Firstly, as we know, the notion of brand love often gets marketers hot under the collar and it comes down to your definition of love and its context in a transactional marketplace. So, on brand love in general, I’m with Helen Edwards – it’s more about feeling an “emotional something” towards your brand.
To me, the essentials are as follows:
Know yourself in relation to the market
Firstly, corporations need to know themselves inside out before others connect emotionally with them. What’s your brand purpose? What makes you unique and distinct? And of course, audience centricity should lead this discussion– what do your customers/visitors need and want and what role can you play in fulfilling their emotional and rational needs?
Once you know yourself and can articulate this to others, you’re in a better position to tap into customer emotions that we know have a powerful effect on decision-making processes.
Invest in brand building
Secondly, you really need to invest in brand building from a marketing and communications standpoint – brand saliency does play a vital part; if customers don’t know about you and what you’re about, why should they care? While product-led campaigns and activations have their place within the mix and drive short-term sales and results, corporations have to maintain a strong focus and share of wallet on building long-term brand equity to maintain strong top-of-mind awareness, a distinct brand image and subsequent market share.
Don’t underestimate the importance of trust
As they say in normal human relationships, if we can’t trust, we can’t love. When people choose brands, it’s often because of the trust they have for the product/experience to deliver favourable rational and emotional outcomes to them. There are exceptions where consumers love a brand but no longer buy the brand due to a lack of trust, but that to me, just highlights how important the effect of trust really is in driving growth. And trust isn’t just about ability and dependability e.g. will it deliver to my expectations, will it keep its promises, will it be reliable, etc.
Trusted brands connect to culture, purpose and society, and moral and ethical trust, societal and environmental trust and personal trust really do resonate emotionally. As a Museum entity, ‘trusted knowledge’ is integral to our mission as a corporation. We’ve seen how much equity this carries in driving a favourable emotional impact and subsequent purchase, loyalty, engagement and advocacy.
Visit also: Jenelle McMinn of Hobsons Bay City Council on maximising reach (commsroom.co)
Jaw de Guzman is the content producer for Comms Room, a knowledge platform and website aimed at assisting the communications industry and its professionals.
