2021. We’re ready.

Unprecedented, Unpredictable, Difficult, Challenging, Essential, Virus, Uncertain, Social distance, QR Code, Isolate, Teams, Zoom, WFH, Remote, Quarantine, Forecasting, Curve, Recession, Drought, Lockdown, RTW, Vaccine and last and most obviously Pandemic.According to Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com, pandemic has been named word of the year and Oxford Dictionaries has reported a surge in the word by 57,000 per cent making it the most used word in 2020.As we look to 2021, Paykel are putting it out there that the two letters “re” will feature prominently:

Re-covery, Re-flect, Re-stock, Re-focus, Re-gain, Re-address, Re-connect, Re-build,      Re-generate, Re-group, Re-view, Re-sponse, Re-assess, Re-evaluate, Re-imagine,
Re-silient.

For those of us in the ad industry the November SMI figures give us great optimism for recovery: 

After 26 long months of continuous decline, ad agency market spend is up overall YoY by 0.1% (ex digital).  Thanks mostly to the shifted football grand finals, TV grew 15.3%, radio bookings YoY have been solid and are only 4.2% behind, retail outdoor is 12.8% higher in November and there has been good growth at both national papers The Australian and The AFR. Across the social sites, growth in demand on Snapchat, Pinterest, TikTok, Twitter and LinkedIn has resulted in a 4.5% increase in bookings, and TV streaming sites have increased by 25%.

And December is looking strong, with 70% of the value of last December’s ad spend already committed.

2021 is going to continue to deliver challenge and change for agencies and clients alike and the coming year presents opportunities for brands, marketing and agency teams to re–group and re-evaluate the impact of short term, COVID survival response, not only to understand its impact on brand salience, but also understand the significant changes in consumer expectations and behaviours.

Areas of focus our team will be working on with our clients partners:

• The push from consumers for brands to deliver more empathetic, more tailored, more personalised communications – consumers want direct, transparent brand relationships.  Understanding what communication and planning strategies remain relevant, what must be re-planned

• The impact of the consumer shift to online shopping – the NAB Online Retail Sales Index estimates online retail shopping was 41.2% higher in October than the previous 12 months.  Understanding that Ecommerce is set to stay.  Brands now face the challenge of ensuring their name is the first to be punched into search. How do channel choice and mix function synergistically to connect consumers to brand and drive them through the funnel from discovery to research to purchase commitment?

• The increased consumer appetite for all things VOD via TVOD, SVOD, AVOD and BVOD platforms.  How to best leverage video strategies based on the cross platform planning and reporting insights to be gained from VOZ, and how to plan to effectively deliver addressable screen communications at scale with contextual relevance

• The need to re-assess the balance of investment between inside and outside the walled gardens. In Australia the ACCC released an interim of its Digital Platform Services Inquiry in October.  Similar to the US report (where Facebook and Google capture almost two-thirds of all digital ad spend, despite only garnering one-third of the time consumers spend online) they estimated the share of digital ad spend in Australia, finding that Google and Facebook now have more than 80% between them, up from 73% a year before.  Gaining insight on where are consumers really dwelling online and how do brands make meaningful connection and how frequently.

• Understanding the impact of the loss of third party cookies.  Insights into consumer profiling and behavioural targeting will be challenged by the loss of third party cookies in 2022. Third party measurement, analytics, retargeting, site optimisation will all become redundant.  Reviewing how to gain / build first party databases via authentic consumer identification will be a priority throughout 2021 in preparation for 2022.

• Acknowledging the need for collective team agility in the face of ongoing uncertainty. Understanding that marketing and media budgets now need to be geared for swift change – whether it be to embrace a tactical chance, a messaging adjustment, or a channel switch.

Resilient and geared for continuing responsive, collaborative partnerships, We have built up our business and strategic teams with two key appointments:

• Sarah Keith as Managing Director.  Sarah brings over 25 years in experience across media and marketing, across both agency and media.
• Dan Hojnik as Head of Strategy and Planning.  After working in the UK for 7 years, Dan returns to his home country to join Paykel’s team and evolve Paykel’s strategic offering.

Our team is looking forward to taking on our client’s business and brand challenges, working together to understand what the data and tech are saying, to deliver insight based, targeted, relevant and dynamic media solutions.

And finally, in this last edition of Paykel Lens 2020 allows us to throw another couple of ‘re’ words out there: Re-storative & Re-laxing .. let’s throw Strength and Optimism in there too.