From The Australian, IAB Australia CEO Paul Fisher is predicting online advertising could reach almost 17% for the full 2009 year, up from 12.5% in 2008. This is based on analysis of the first half calendar year where online grew at 12& against an 8% decline on total media spending in the Australian market.
Paul suggests that this 2% half yearly growth could continue in the first half of 2010, maintaining annual growth of 14% for the full 2010 year. I agree with his sentiment that the migration of Australian advertising to the online medium is the most significant change to the advertising industry in many years.
In New Zealand the growth is more cautious, but equally significant in terms of the structural shift underway. The local industry is awaiting the independent ASA media splits with great interest.
According to a media release put out by Nielsen in Aussie last week, one-third of Australian consumers exposed to an online advertisement are able to recall that advertisement when asked, and 41 percent are able to link the correct brand to an un-branded advertisement, according to new online advertising effectiveness benchmarks released today by market research company Nielsen.
The Nielsen research, developed over three years and based on more than 100,000 Australian respondents, for the first time provides Australian organisations with a set of reliable, local performance benchmarks against which to measure the effectiveness of their online advertising campaigns.
The Nielsen benchmarking research revealed that intention to purchase or use products or services increased by 4.9 percentage points following exposure to an online advertising campaign, and brand sentiment increased by 5.3 points.
Awareness also saw a jump following exposure to an online advertising campaign – top-of-mind awareness jumped 3.1 points while prompted awareness increased by 3.5 points. The likelihood of a consumer recommending a brand following exposure to an online advertising campaign increased by 4.4 percentage points.
“At a time when marketers are seeking to invest their resources where they will gain the most return on their investment, the Nielsen benchmarks provide further evidence of online advertising’s effectiveness. We look forward to even more data being made available from both Nielsen and others, demonstrating to agencies and advertisers how online can offer a significantly more targeted, measurable and effective medium than any other media to reach, engage and influence consumers,” said Paul Fisher, CEO of IAB Australia.
Advertising’s role is often to convince the target market that the company, product or service being promoted will meet their need, be their first choice, the one to buy. A key mantra of my agency career was: “advertising’s job is to get you onto the choice set.”
I’ve been thinking a bit lately about the role of online advertising as a sales channel, versus as an advertising medium. With online now over 20% of local media consumption, the role of online advertising is much more about getting onto the choice set, and building a relationship with a consumer, than a simple action or acquisition, although it can be a highly measurable direct response tool also.
In an online world, marketers have been sold the idea of a medium that’s too sales-focused. None more so than through an ill-fated sales construct called Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA). The concept of CPA asks for much, much more than choice. The advertiser only pays the publisher if the consumer (viewer) undertakes an action or acquisition.
As the sophistication of consumers lifts, expecting a sale (eg for a laptop) off a single web banner is ludicrous. Just getting on the choice set is a tough enough task to ask of your display advertisement! So what about trying to be someone’s second choice then, rather than their first choice? Is that an odd sounding goal?
Well, think of the number of people holding two credit cards? Or two mobile phones? Or an campaign to credit card holders positioning your debit card as their second payment option for EFTPOS & ‘card-not-present’ transactions. If they acquire, and love the debit experience, they’re highly likely to make that card their first choice. But asking for them to switch from debit to credit BEFORE acquiring the card might be a step too far this early in the adoption process.
A great example of the second choice strategy was Rabobank’s award winning positioning as ‘Your significant other bank’. Here’s a reminder of the campaign with some amusing behind the scenes takes.
Being second choice means you’re more likely to become a consumer’s first choice under the right set of circumstances. I’ve been an Audi driver for seven years but recently started considering Subaru as my replacement primary vehicle. I’m looking for a 4WD that can fit a dog in the back and get me offroad. Of course, Audi can cater to my needs but Subaru is getting a good look in. They might even get my business in a head over heart call.
Realistic marketers will know the value of being second choice. I reckon online has a powerful role in positioning brands within consumers’ choice sets. But knowing when it’s right to chase the second place position is critical, or you might just come last.
Got this from Nigel Hammersley via Twitter this morning. Very clever … and stimulating. Worthy of a quick view. Find his post at hammersley’s posterous.
The good news is that New Zealand online advertising is up 6.56% on Q1/09 (Calendar) with total spend calculated at $52.49M.
Spend for a rolling year is at $199.8M bringing online closer to radio and magazines.
Display advertising grew 5.75% in Q2. As a comparison to published television advertising revenue, online display adspend grew 10.5% in the six months to June 2009. This compares with TV which declined 13.3% over the same period.
Whilst all media and creative spend has taken a bit of a hammering over the past year, online is emerging relatively unscathed from the current recessionary period, and future quarters should show a structural change to the media landscape with newspapers and television continuing to be hit particularly hard.
New Zealand’s leading independent agency, Sugar, have a new site. Tight copy and a clean quick load time. Good eating of your own dogfood, guys.
While on the subject of agencies, there have been a few earthquakes in Adland recently. A lot of very big pitches underway and a bunch of change, driven in part by cost-savings, increased expectations of accountability and a big decline in TV revenue. Changes with TVNZ, Westpac (Retail), Nokia (media), ALAC, TV3, etc are creating structural changes in the shape of the local industry and there is still a lot of dust to settle. And finally, good on Jason Wells for finally getting the top Wellington job at Y&R. His leadership and strategic thinking is top notch.
This television commercial appeared in the late 1970’s and helped Kentucky Fried Chicken take the number one spot in this category from Homestead Chicken. I’m not sure the same messaging (or images) would be appropriate in 2009! Please no vegan-spam. Just sit back, turn up the volume and enjoy this nostalgic TVC from my childhood.
The dust is settling on a busy period at Trade Me. Earlier this month we took to the road to share a few stories with over 300 New Zealand marketers and their agency folk.
The Trade Me Revolution Tour showed audiences in Wellington, Auckland and Christchurch the progress of New Zealand’s largest website over the past ten years with CEO Jon Macdonald sharing insights into our passion for speed, ease of use and some measurement tools. Bernard Hickey from Interest.co.nz told us that Kiwis are only interested in mortgages and interest rates, demonstrating these big numbers against the tiny numbers involved in our sharemarket, for example. Trent Mankelow and Mike Pethig shared some techniques and ads that people don’t hate. Finally Geoff Matthews from new-kid-on-the-block site, TaxRefunds.co.nz shared the perfect storm that is driving his traffic and profits sky high in only 7 months.
We were keen to show marketers who are moving online a few tricks and traps to help with their websites and that marketing those sites using a considered combination of Television and Trade Me is effective and recession-busting. We got some challenging questions and a bunch of great responses from attendees. All in all, a huge success.
A few thoughts arising from the series:
* This recession is a biggie. A real biggie. It’s going to take a long time to recover, and recover from.
* Recession is not a time for sitting on hands; simply ‘riding out the recession’ ain’t going to cut it this time around.
* Recession equals restart. And it’s time to hit the restart button. It’s a chance to take stock and regroup.
* Cut out the stuff that either doesn’t work or that you can’t measure.
* It’s a really good time to just do the stuff that works.
I didn’t retell this gem but it still makes sense today as a business analogy, more so now than ever before.
For many marketers the online revolution has been underway for a few years now. For some, it’s only just started. If you would like to see the video and presentation of our five speakers, please email me to mg at trademe dot co dot nz and I’ll send you the link.
From The Australian, IAB Australia CEO Paul Fisher is predicting online advertising could reach almost 17% for the full 2009 year, up from 12.5% in 2008. This is based on analysis of the first half calendar year where online grew at 12& against an 8% decline on total media spending in the Australian market.
