A more connected and complex world
Everyone knows the world is more connected and complex than ever, but just to prove the point (and perhaps make myself appear more erudite at the same time) I thought I’d have a poke about on Google and see if the Internet would offer up some eye-catching stats. It didn’t disappoint. Here are a just a few:
- Media consumption per week per UK adult in the year 2001: 54 hours
- Media consumption per week per UK adult in the year 2018: 91 hours
- Number of connected devices in the world today: 23 billion
- Expected number of connected devices in the world in 2025: 75 billion
- Number of Google searches a person does to help them buy a car: 900
- Number of Google searches a person does to help them buy confectionery: 20
- The number of different products for sale on Amazon UK: 375 million
Boom time for disrupters
Connectivity and complexity are the parents of disruption, or so the story goes. Which is why, we’re told, agile and innovative businesses are springing up left, right and centre, outmanoeuvring dinosaurs and scaling faster than ever. What are the stats to back this up?
- Total number of businesses in the UK in 2001: 3.5 million
- Total number of businesses in the UK in 2017: 5.7 million
- Average number of new UK start-ups per year between 2001 and 2012: 260 thousand
- Average number of new UK start-ups per year between 2013 and 2017: 375 thousand
- Average number of European trademark applications per year between 2001 and 2012: 71 thousand
- Average number of European trademark applications per year between 2013 and 2017: 114 thousand
The flip side
Of course there’s a flip side to this — the destructive half of the creative/destruction narrative. It says the Old Guard spot the opportunities too late, fumble about in the fog for a bit before stepping off the cliff. Gloomy stats to illustrate? Here we go…
- Average annual UK company failures between 2001 and 2015: 237 thousand
- Average annual UK company failures between 2016 and 2017: 343 thousand
- Number of top 20 S&P companies from the year 2000 that are still in the top 20: three
- Number of S&P 500 companies that are expected to still be S&P 500 companies in 2028: 248
The less obvious success stories
So is that it then? New companies with disruptive business models thrive, while established businesses struggle then die? No, that’s not it. They might not grab the headlines, but there are plenty of old-school businesses that are not just surviving, but thriving. Here are a few that have caught my eye of late:
- Greggs: like for like sales up 5% (07/18)
- RHS: income up 16% to £95.9m (2018)
- Bayern Munich: Pre tax profits up 22% (2017)
- Primark: Profits leap 15% (2018)
- The FA: Invest a record £126m into game (2017)
The secret sauce
So if it’s not ‘disruptive business = life of Riley; established business = doomed to failure’, is there a different blueprint for success? Things are rarely that straightforward. But today’s winners do have something in common. They all prioritise and are brilliant at owned media — the media they own and control to build direct relationships with customers.
Creating customer gravity
Following an owned strategy works because it frees its proponents from the tyranny of omni-channel marketing dogma: the one that demands ‘thou must engage every customer on every channel at every moment’. Omni-channel thinking is madness. It can’t work. You can’t be everywhere and if you try you’ll do it badly.
Owned media provides a better, less exhausting alternative that says give customers content and experiences that matter on the channels that matter and your brand will develop ‘gravitational pull’ drawing in new customers that create even greater energy and attraction.
How Wonderly helps
Of course just doing owned media is only half the battle, you’ve also got to do it well. This is why we created Wonderly – a new breed of full service agency focused on helping clients be brilliant at owned media. We start by helping them throw out omni-channel thinking and embrace a new way: the Wonderly Way. It goes like this:
- Discover what your biggest fans love about your brand, and the beliefs that bind them together
- Use this insight to create experiences that forge ever-stronger connections with and between your fans.
- Do it consistently to inspire trust and loyalty and to mobilise a community of advocates, attracting new customers and creating even greater gravity
To find out more about the ‘Less obvious success stories’ read Ed’s blog ‘5 brands nailing owned media‘.