“Tech Brands Have To Use More Channels, More Savvily, Than Ever Before”

(MENAFN- PRovoke) LONDON - technology brands are shifting their marketing and communications focus as they begin to emerge from a tough global market that has lasted for the past few years, according to Richard Fogg, CEO of leading B2B tech PR and marketing consultancy CCGroup.

“We're in a market that's running very lean,” he told PRovoke Media.“Clients have had budgets and teams tightened and that's proving quite challenging. Obviously a lot of macroeconomic things have affected the tech industry over the past couple of years, and we're starting to see a bit more of shift towards cautious optimism, but there has been quite substantive change in the work that clients are asking us to do.”

Fogg said the priorities for tech marketing teams have started to change:“We did some research recently among tech marketers to understand the direction of travel. Two years ago it was about through-the-funnel marketing, with brand and comms at the top, then integrating social, content marketing and account-based marketing. What seems to have happened since is a reduction in focus on the brand and comms side of things, with KPIs in tech business all around short term lead generation.

“What's interesting is that when you look at the expectations of tech marketers now, we're seeing a rebalancing, with increased interest and intended spend around communications, but content marketing and lead generation are not going away.

“With digital marketing, you can see an immediate response, rather than brand work, which takes time to build. However, because companies have been arguably underinvesting in brand and comms, they now don't have the brand profile that helps with the middle and bottom of the funnel. This is backed up by our market reports looking at fintech, cybersecurity and telecoms: to be successful with buying audiences, tech companies have to use more channels, more savvily, than ever before.”

Fogg's comments come as CCGroup has been chosen to lead PR activity for the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), a non-profit organisation that develops globally-applicable standards for information and communication technologies (ICT) used for mobile, fixed, radio, broadcast, converged and internet technologies.

CCGroup's programme aims to champion ETSI's role in standards across the telecoms and IT technology sector – including its global perspective in advancing efforts across cybersecurity, quantum and AI – through messaging, thought leadership and increasing the organisation's involvement in industry discussions.

Fogg told PRovoke Media:“What's really important in terms of technology communications is to have a viewpoint across its entire value chain. Standards are effectively the start of the value chain. If you look at telecoms – the most mature part of our business – we are working with trade associations, which are really important in bringing together operators and making sure various initiatives to grow the industry are happening all around the world.

“Further down the stack, we have clients that sit in network and tech equipment areas, all the way through to mobile operator EE and work for BT and private networks. For us, ETSI is an important bookend, as it allows us to understand how standards are made, implemented and integrated into network technology and services.”

ETSI chief marketing officer Anthony Brand said:“We are excited to be working with CCGroup to celebrate ETSI's role in standards and the importance of both European and worldwide collaboration. Global efforts are paramount to solving standardisation challenges, and we are confident that CCGroup's expertise will help us highlight this.”

The account will be led by CCGroup head of connectivity Chloe Pope, who added:“We're proud to be working with a leading standards body like ETSI. Standards are critical to the future development of technologies, especially as we enter a new era of networks that support advancements of AI, quantum and cybersecurity. Global standardisation efforts are essential as the future of technology becomes borderless. We're excited to put the spotlight on ETSI and the important role it is playing within the worldwide technology industry.”

On his predictions for the year ahead in the tech sector, Fogg said:“It's been a difficult couple of years, and it's still a tight market, but there is definitely more investment in a broader range of channels and content. I'm optimistic but realistic - I'm not predicting massive market growth in the next six months.”

MENAFN02122024000219011063ID1108946402