Kathryn Astbury of The SpaceStation discusses working in the digital industry
In light of our #ThemeOfTheMonth being “Digital” for April, we chatted to digital expert and marketing manager of The SpaceStation, Kathryn Astbury, about digital advertising. The SpaceStation is South Africa’s leading Digital Solutions agency. As one of the most influential and formidable digital advertising sales houses on the continent, The SpaceStation executes world-class, multi-platform digital media solutions across more than 40 premium websites, mobile sites and apps, from leading brands at Media24, 24.com and MultiChoice.
Kathryn Astbury, Marketing Manager of The SpaceStation
- Why is Digital Advertising so important to you?
Digital Advertising gives marketers and advertisers much more data compared to traditional media, and as a result, a deeper level of understanding of consumer behaviour. It means that campaigns are much more geared towards what is relevant for consumers, which means they add value. We are no longer talking at clients, but we are listening to what they want and delivering exactly that.
- As SA’s leading Digital Media Sales company, how are you able to successfully tailor each advertising solution to your each of your clients?
The SpaceStation has unrivalled access to three very important things:
- Campaign data (which allows us to tailor make our campaigns)
- The 24.com network (which offers a wide range of audience profiles)
- Innovative tech (we are very often first-to-market with pioneering advertising solutions which means we often have tools at our finger tips that other media owners don’t.)
Utilising these 3 core pillars we are able to help our clients identify what their business problems are, and tailor make an advertising solution to assist them.
- In saying that, what are the advantages of tailor made advertising solutions for each client and what are the difficulties?
The benefit is most definitely that advertisers messaging is relevant to the customer which means they pay more attention. You are serving them advertising about what interests them in a place that they are most engaged with. The difficulty, which we see more as an opportunity, is that the industry (and the tech) is evolving and growing incredibly rapidly and we absolutely have to remain ahead of the curve.
- What is your most popular service that you offer to your clients? Why do you think it is the most popular?
Because of the rapidly evolving industry this changes often. At the moment, native campaigns that involved native advertising or native content are very popular because brands see the value of being authentic. Programmatic is also growing in leaps and bounds – it’s an incredibly powerful tool. So much so that we will soon be rolling out a combination of the two – native advertising sold programmatically.
- How do you keep up with the continuous change in global trends in order to remain ahead of your competitors and to provide valuable services to your clients?
We have a very strong team of industry leaders and exceptionally talented and passionate people. Digital is their life and they spend an extraordinary amount of time researching, learning, upskilling and adapting. I think anyone who works in digital just has to – or they will be left behind.
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