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Nestle China marketer: Awards shows should scrap digital and social categories, keep mobile

Hannelore Grams at Festival of Media Asia

Hannelore Grams at Festival of Media Asia

The head of digital marketing and social media for consumer goods giant Nestle Greater China has said that advertising awards shows should scrap digital and social categories, since all marketing should use these channels now.

Talking to Mumbrella at Festival of Media Asia in Singapore, Beijing-based Hannelore Grams said that brands cannot simply “buy a platform strategy” anymore, as marketing and technology have become so intertwined.

“There’s a lot of talk about the need for a CMO and a CTO to work closer together, and I agree. You cannot just buy a platform strategy anymore.”

Awards shows need to change, she said. “Mobile should still exist as its own category, as a specialism, as not all brands are using mobile yet. But I think the time has come for digital and social categories to go.”

“We should not be calling digital a discipline anymore,” she said. “There cannot be a marketing strategy without digital, because consumers exist in the digital environment, whether they are in-store or in a restaurant.”

“If you were to launch a new brand now, wouldn’t have a digital department. All marketing is digital,” she said.

Grams suggested that innovation could be a new category at awards shows, with the caveat that innovation in marketing should have “utility”.

“I sometimes hate the conversations we tend to have about innovation,” she said. “Innovation needs to be relevant. Advertising agencies, and often marketers such as myself, tend to get swept away by new technology without asking ourselves how it adds to the consumer journey.”

“Just the use of technology alone does not help you,” she said.

Grams was a judge at the Festival of Media Asia Awards, which recognises the best of media thinking in the region.

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