Author: Saffron Carter

Potato, Potaato – Personalisation, Hyper-Personalisation. How much, and when?

Personalisation is a part of everyday engagement with brands

Personalised engagement with brands continues to grow and in many instances is table stakes:

Live chat & chatbots/ websites / emails / mobile apps / instore interaction/ call centres / social media / AR / click and collect …

All capturing consumer data across all points of contact is where AI is playing an increasingly more involved role in automating Personalisation at scale to deliver to consumers relevant and bespoke communications in real time IE Hyper-Personalised messaging.

How much personalisation does a brand need?  

Personalisation takes captured historical customer data and information such as demographics, purchase history and preferences to send marketing communications:

Dear Customer

Thanks for your recent purchase.  For a further 10% off our hiking wear click here …

Hyper-Personalisation goes beyond leveraging highly specific and customised recommendations or content to each individual based on real-time data analysis and granular user data such as location, time of day/weather, products browsed, page views.

Dear Mike

Seen the forecast for this weekend?  Perfect for putting on those awesome Salomon’s you just bought and getting out there for a hike! We have 25% off camel packs right now… don’t hike thirsty!

As illustrated here from a McKinsey survey (1) consumers expect brands to demonstrate they know them on a personal level:

#image_title

According to Oracle research, emotionally engaged, loyal customers not only spend twice as much as those who are not engaged, but 80% of them will recommend the brand to friends and family. (2)

MiQ-Sapio global consumer survey found that companies that excel at Personalisation have the potential to generate 40% more revenue from those activities than average players (3).

Delivering hyper-personalisation at scale through media is a layered process:

  1. Data collation throughout the customer journey and identifying valuable targets is one layer
  2. Implementing targeting to the right person with the right content at the right time is another layer (media targeting and decisioning)
  3. Ensuring the connections across all data feeds across all channels employed and treating them as a whole to build out in-depth, valuable customer profiles, is another layer.

Digital media tools form part of the suite to help brands build up a holistic customer view.  By employing identified customer data sets and matching to similar people on a larger scale, media decisioning pathways aid in journeying potential customers from awareness to consideration, conversion to retention and advocacy. 

As with hyper-Personalisation, media decisioning requires a customer-first focus, not product, continually connecting data and insights to influence media channel optimization for relevant message delivery.

Hyper-Personalisation where it counts, not as standard

Well-executed hyper-Personalisation can deliver 8x the ROI on marketing spend and lift sales by 10% or more (4)

Knowing when and where current and potential customers are to deliver bespoke content and recommendations is fundamental to driving repeat engagement, building loyalty, enabling ongoing data collection and insights, building stronger customer connection and LTV. 

While Hyper-Personalisation represents a great advance in our ability to target and message to individuals, there is an invisible equation of “benefit to the individual” x “amount of data one is happy for a brand to use”. The key is to effective Hyper-Personalisation is to use it where it counts in the consumer journey. To help an individual overcome a problem by fulfilling an understood need.

No one should hike thirsty!

https://blogs.oracle.com/marketingcloud/why-anemotional-connection-matters-in-loyalty-and-how-to-achieve-it

Gen Z: Consumer, Culture and Communication

Consumer

Born between 1995 and 2012 and defined as the digital-native generation, the Z’s have had the ‘Net at their fingertips their whole lives.  It delivers their information needs, their educational needs: 42% of 16-24yo students rely on TikTok for educational information (1) their entertainment needs, their social needs and even more so, post Covid, their shopping needs.

Recent Voxburner US research indicates that 55% of Gen Z consider buying something after seeing it on TikTok, and a staggering 92% use Instagram (2). Locally in Australia a recent Afterpay survey noted 72% of Gen Z say Insta is their most-used app. (3) Social influencers continue to carry significant sway; 56% of Gen Z reported they are more likely to try a product or service if their favourite online influencer recommends it in a 2022 CGK survey (8).

Culture Connection

However, before jumping onboard the Gen Z social train, it’s important to be aware that garnering brand loyalty and engagement and ultimately, items in basket with Gen Z encompasses a wider range of considerations than any other generation. 

With their culture firmly entrenched within the digital ecosphere and across expansive social networks, Zeds are always and everywhere online.  Their information flow is ceaseless and thus their capacity to assess, review, approve and make purchasing decisions happens at speed.  In a 2022 Commonwealth Bank survey on brand purpose, “Unethical behaviour” was the most-cited reason for a negative Z-consumer experience with a brand, with specific references given to unfair employment practices, online tracking behaviour, and selling products which negatively impact the environment or society at large. CSR and Sustainability expectations of brands continue to dominate amongst the Zeds with 60% of Australian Gen Z’s saying they shop sustainably, compared to 55% of all Australians.  One-third have ditched brands they consider unstainable (3) and Global Web Index data indicates Gen Z is 22% more likely than other generations to unfollow a brand online if they fail to meet their CSR obligations (5).

Walk Your Talk

Gen Z expects their brands and influencers to embody the same values as they do. They expect their brands’ CSR platforms to be honest and undertaken and communicated with transparency, with ecommerce practices – from sourcing to packaging to delivery under scrutiny and are willing to pay more for brands who they see are doing sustainable good (EG: Patagonia pledging 1 percent of sales to support environmental organisations around the world, with a keen focus on sourcing materials ethically).

Communicating with the Zeds

McCrindle research highlights “The visual summary drives higher engagement than the written narrative. Watched on a mobile of course, bite sized, personalized information defines GEN Z”.

And you need to be quick! They have a short attention span – in fact for video it’s 8 seconds.

Only 15% of Gen Z feel represented in the advertising they see (8) and according CKG 82% of Gen Z (US) trust a company more if the images they use in their ads are of actual customers (6).  To authentically engage, Gen Z wants to see representation of normal and diverse people, non-overtly edited, with relatable imagery in everyday moments.  They want communication that feels inclusive, candid, and personal to them.

In a nutshell, reach your Gen Z customer base online via social platforms with short, snappy videos/vlogs and UGC and leverage your UGC across platform for efficiencies. Engage authentic Gen Z influencers to establish relatability and endorse your brand – but background check who you choose.  Gen Z takes time to research, read reviews and recommendations before making purchases both on and off social media sites so it’s important to maintain an ongoing responsive conversation with them.

Why is reaching Gen Z in the right way so vital?

Gen Z comprise one third of the global population and currently hold a collective disposable income of $360billion (Bloomberg 2021) which is predicted to increase seven-fold to $3.2trillion by 2030. 

In Australia, Gen Z represent 18% of the population, IE 4.6m Australians aged 10-24.  According to Afterpay, Gen Z and Millennials currently account for 36% of the total retail spend in Australia. Their share of retail spend will grow to 48% by 2030, as more of Gen Z (currently aged 9-24) enter the workforce.

Establishing credibility by demonstrating your brand values and purpose consistently and in a personalized way will build your kudos with Gen Z.  They want to co-create with brands, borne out by the increasing millions of creator communities across Tik Tok, Instagram and You Tube.  Thus, creating community cohesion, inviting involvement, not being afraid of criticisms, and establishing a clear two-way conversation channel that actively listens will help build love for your brand.  The ‘likes’ button is a powerful and purposeful tap for the Zeds.

3 Gen Z Trends:

  • Work-life Balance:

The rise in the gig economy amongst Gen Z, where free-lancing and short-term contract work fits in with their need for flexibility and to work in a way that facilitates creativity.  However, human interaction is still essential.

  • Ethically Conscious Consumption:

It only takes seconds to search for a person/brand/product’s background online.  Gen Z are more inclined to purchase from sustainable brands – more so than any other generation.  Who made the product, where the product is from and the processes from which it was created are all examined by the Z’s and they’re willing to spend more with brands who take a clear and proper stand on ethical issues and CSR and spread the word.

  • Social Media Transition:

A focus on audio and gaming streaming, plus smaller group social networking. Whilst Tik Tok is now considered critical for reaching Gen Z, they globally consume more audio and gaming content per day than all forms of TV viewing combined (9).  Plus, increased engagement amongst smaller platforms like Reddit, Gas, Geneva, and Fizz indicate preferences in being a part of smaller more connective social groups that offer Gen Z a space to feel welcome and safe.  Note these channels are those with underdeveloped advertising offerings thus offering ecommerce, subscriptions and features are their only revenue drivers.

References:

1 https://mccrindle.com.au/app/uploads/infographics/Education-Future-Infographic-2022.pdf

2 VXB_October_Guide_Guide_to_Social-Media_20221013.pdf (voxburner.com)

3 Afterpay-GenZReport-Single-4.02 (1).pdf https://www.gwi.com/reports/global-trends-among-gen-z

4 Calling Gen Z: how brands can engage with a purpose-driven generation | Marketing Mag

5 https://genhq.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/State-of-Gen-Z-2021-2022-Looking-Ahead.pdf

6 https://afterpay-newsroom.yourcreative.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Afterpay_Web_report_AUS_vF.pdf

7 https://www.gwi.com/reports/gen-z-2022

8 https://lp.warc.com/warc-global-ad-trends-finding-gen-z Oct 2022

CTV Snapshot

Addressable targeted media at scale, the CTV universe is set to continue to expand, with three-quarters of SVOD networks globally planning to introduce ads by 2025.

The convergence of linear and streaming TV means brands and their agencies are being challenged to buy and measure across the entire Total Video ecosystem, engaging with platforms, publishers, devices, data and technology partners.

Holistic measurement systems are evolving to bring meaningful, actionable data to the table.

Meanwhile, audiences are chasing and consuming content, no matter which platform, and on multiple devices.

“TV” has evolved to mean a Total Video – a multi-screen, multi-streaming video ecosystem encompassing:

  • LINEAR TV:  Traditional TV, watched as it’s scheduled.
  • SVOD (Subscription Video On Demand): Streaming services which have a monthly subscription fee eg:  Netflix, Amazon Prime,
  • AVOD (Advertising Video On Demand): streaming video services funded by advertising (eg: Paramount+ / You Tube / Netflix, Binge)
  • BVOD (Broadcast Video On Demand): linear TV channel/content available live or catchup online
  • FAST (Free Ad-supported Streaming TV):  streaming services which offer ad-supported linear and on-demand programming e.g. Pluto, Samsung TV Plus, The Roku Channel
  • CTV (Connected TV): streaming video viewed on a smart TV or a TV connected to the internet, via a streaming device. Anything viewed on TV and streamed via the internet is CTV

Consumers, driven by the need for entertainment and infotainment have become content gluttons, and the streaming platform is not their essential decision point. On average 20% of consumers say they consider watching content on YouTube the same as watching TV[1]. Around 74% of global TV viewers do not care about the device, platform, or technology if they get to watch the TV shows and movies they want[1].  In fact, if anything, the choice has become overwhelming, and they are seeking a more consolidated and personalized experience. 

Key Benefits

A key benefit for brands of CTV advertising is that it runs primarily on first-party data.  All streaming platforms inherently require a log-in, as does opting into a Smart TV or device, as does having a cable or satellite subscription. This means that CTV enables targeting to be more than just a broad demographic overlay.  CTV enables much more granular targeting using addressability, or by targeting custom audiences at scale. And because targeting is sought via first-party log in data, CTV also sidesteps many privacy concerns.

The continuing expansion of streaming ad options means creative opportunities also need to evolve. Brands will no doubt repurpose broadcast creative, but this wastes opportunity to reach and connect and drive greater value through personalization, encompassing targeting that can be geo / audience or genre-based, driving consumers to website to purchase.

CTV’s internet connectivity makes it possible for advertising to be transactional.  Brands can take advantage of tactics such as using a QR code to exploit second-screening behavior. 

Example partnership case study featuring: Land Rover and 7’s SAS Australia.

  • VoZ data clearly illustrated the de-duplicated audience numbers for SAS Australia, highlighted a 21% increase in Total people though BVOD on each episode and a 54% uplift in Ppl 18-39. 
  • Land Rover embraced the context of the program, which delivered engagement – substantiated by Amplified Intelligence attention data and utilized CTV and QR codes to engage in a two-way conversation with their audience.  The campaign achieved results:
    • 0.44% snap rate
    • 22x above snap rate benchmark
    • 532,239 impressions delivered

Harnessing the scale of broadcast and the targeted content addressability are ongoing strategies, with many brands experimenting to find the ideal mix across the streaming platforms.  We believe a further focus must be understanding consumer attention to the content they seek over the platform it is screened upon.  Latest data research indicates addressable TV ads are recalled better and faster due to their personalized targeted creative.  This in turn can deliver against both brand metrics driving longer-term sustained impact and push lower-funnel responsive metrics.

Introduce CTV to your Total TV approach

Currently, less than 10% of CTV campaigns have anything other than broad demographics overlay applied. With Netflix and Binge now AVOD platforms, the CTV universe is set to continue to expand, with three-quarters of SVOD networks globally planning to introduce ads by 2025. This isn’t anticipated to impact platform audience reach.US data shows households are adopting ad-supported streaming services at a faster rate than purely subscription-based options.  Now is good time to investigate available CTV first party data to connect with a more targeted audience and trial ecommerce capabilities.

Sources:

Audience Project: Insights 2020: Traditional TV and Streaming

[1] Viacom CBS: Global Today’s TV Study

Audio Trends Snapshot

Like Video, our Audio eco-system has become a multi-faceted ecosystem encompassing audience lifestyles and delivering information and entertainment when, where and how Australians want it. 

The Infinite Dial/Edison Research (1) 2022 survey revealed just how much Australians embraced audio during the pandemic. In the 2023 survey, both live and online radio maintained a 79% Ppl 12+ listenership I.E. 17m.

  • DAB+ radio saw a 77% YOY increase to 32% of Australians 12+ listening to DAB+ over the course of a week, approximately 7 million people.  40% of those listeners were aged between 12 and 34. 
  • Online listening grew 80%, to an estimated 6 million 12+ Australians enjoying their radio online weekly.
  • Radio continues to be the number one audio source in cars, an indication of the loyalty Australians have for, and the enjoyment they get from their favourite stations and DJs in their daily commute and on car trips.  In-car podcast source listening grew 19% YOY.

The Rise of Podcast continues

43% of Australians listen monthly to podcasts, up 7.5% on 2022. (1)

33% listen weekly with nearly a quarter listening to 4-5 episodes in the week. 

Spotify is the number one podcast service used, followed by YouTube. 

In 2022 in the US YouTube was also the No. 2 most popular place for listening to podcasts.

In 2023 YouTube added podcasts to YouTube Music, and YouTube has now surpassed Spotify as the most used platform by weekly podcast consumers.

46% of active US podcast listeners prefer to watch podcasts as they listen (3). However, video-enabled podcasts currently represent less than 10% of podcast revenues. 

In Australia, Infinite Dial/Edison Research 2023 indicates that of the 17m monthly podcast listeners, 51% listen to podcast with a video component actively watched. 

What does the expanded audio ecosystem offer?

As linear TV reach continues to decline against the under 40’s, there is opportunity to drive increased brand awareness and build stronger consumer engagement via scaling out audio strategies to encompass podcast and streaming services, leveraging new capabilities like Conversational or Keyword Targeting. Key to any podcast investment is to ensure messaging is aligned within contextually relevant podcasts to reach the right people with the right message at scale – IE 3+ podcasts with average frequencies between 2-5 to drive optimal conversion rates. Global podcast ad spend is projected to exceed US$4bn in 2024 (2), with IAB data (3) indicating that there has been a shift towards brand -building in podcast advertising; 61% of ad revenues will go to brand awareness, compared with 48% in 2021.

As YouTube continues to blur the video-audio boundary, brands have opportunity to further leverage this entertainment search engine.  It is an active choice to seek out and choose a podcast and listened to through headphones 90% of the time means audiences are engaged and paying attention … with their ears and now increasingly their eyes.

*Online Audio = Listening to AM/FM/DAB+ Radio stations online and/or listening to audio content only on the internet including podcasts and streaming services.

The Infinite Dial/Edison Research 2022/2023

https://www.mi-3.com.au/10-01-2024/podcast-advertising-set-hit-us4bn-2024-amid-slowing-growth

https://www.insiderintelligence.com/content/iab-data-podcast-strategy-needs-shift-toward-programmatic-audience-based-advertising

Cautious optimism

ian-taylor-B5LGz92kaAM-unsplash

Lockdowns are lifted.  Re-connection and cautious optimism are shining through as we move towards a new year.

Last month Involved Media joined forces with Southern Cross Austereo to conduct Lifting Lockdown: What does 2022 look like in a post lockdown world – a 1,300 nationally represented survey sourced from SCA Communities undertaken with a view to gaining insights about how people are feeling about the next 3, 6 and 12 months coming out of lockdown:

What are people looking forward to the most? And how do the markets differ from each other?

Where is money being spent now and where will it be spent in 2022?

What will flow through to 2022?

Are there specific segments agencies and brands should be aware of when formulating comms strategies in the coming year?

NSW out of lockdown … and straight to the pub and the hairdresser!

Within the first week of lockdown being lifted on 8th November 9% of NSW wanted to go to their hairdresser, but within the month this escalated to 45% + intending to have their shaggy do’s coiffured.

44% of fully vaccinated NSW residents wanted to go out for a drink versus 35% of Victorian residents and 36% of the other states (QLD/SA/WA and TAS), but within the month, pubs and bars could look forward to 70%+ of people wanting to enjoy a drink with their family and friends.

Canvassing purchase intentions across NSW and VIC for the 3-6 months post lockdown release illustrates how much the most lock downed states are looking forward to getting out and about and re-engaging with the normal routines of life and social events versus the other states

Holding onto the intangibles

Asking respondents what they had learnt during lockdown that they wanted to hold onto, the time spent with family and in the home had meaningful impact.

65%+ of both NSW and VIC respondents said they agreed that the lockdowns had caused them to reassess what was important to them:

  • Spending more time with family​
  • Exercise​
  • Walking​
  • Slower lifestyle ​
  • Health ​
  • Working from home​
  • Gardening ​ 

Embracing travel

For travel clients, reassuringly 80% of Australians agree they want to travel more domestically.  They are more cautious about international travel however, with only 10% saying they have already booked an international holiday for the coming months, but 50%+ agreed they do want to do more international travel in 2022, with NSW and VIC respondents 47% more likely to intend to travel overseas in the N12M versus the rest of Australia.  This should impact considerations in 2022 around message content and weighting market to market.

Keeping on keeping fit at home

For health and fitness clients, the message is clear – over 70%+ of NSW and VIC respondents want to continue with their exercising at home, thus maintaining an identity as an adaptive in-home companion in good times and bad is essential across channels that reinforce brand identity with efficient frequency.

Enormous goodwill towards SMEs

One of the most significant insights on intent is the shift in focus to support small/local businesses over the coming months, with 83% of NSW and 81% of VIC and respondents saying it was important to them.

This sentiment is reflected again when querying what respondents wanted to do more or less of 2022:  1 in 4 NSW and 1 in 3 VIC and 1 in 5 rest of AU respondents indicate they want to do LESS online shopping. They also want to less contactless delivery service in 2022.

These sentiments clearly illustrate the keen desire people have to reconnect with their communities and local businesses and would appear to be translating through to the business sector, as the latest Roy Morgan business confidence survey of October saw business confidence recording a significant 16.6pts higher than in October 2020.

For agencies and brands in the SME’s sector this presents an opportunity to re-evaluate and re-weight communications and channel focus in the burgeoning hybrid physical and digital retail world.

The mood is good

Whilst survey respondents are concerned about another wave of the virus and not being able to see family and friends, overall NSW and VIC respondents exiting lockdown in November 2021 are happy, excited, positive and optimistic about being able to get out and about more now and into the future.

As we move into 2022 and witness the ongoing expansion of physical and digital touchpoints available to connect with consumers and understand that channel roles are flexing and pivoting out of their traditional space (eg: brand to performance) it is evident that the communications strategies that harness and scale the post-covid convergent commerce world will be the ones to shine.

The Involved Media team look forward to sharing with our clients and partners our reflections on 2021 and predictions for 2022 and beyond in our upcoming Landscape and Trends series in the new year.

From us all at Involved Media, we wish you and your families a safe, happy and joyous festive season and look forward to welcoming 2022 with open minds and renewed optimism.

Notes on survey methodology:

  • The survey was in field from November 3 – 17th and secured 1,332 respondents from the SCA communities database, with results weighted for metro/regional balance and gender. It should be noted that the database is reflective of the Southern Cross Austereo audience. SCA brands reach approximately 35% of the 10+ population and approximately 41% of the 25-54 population in the five metropolitan markets in Australia, thus it is reasonable to consider results to be a fair representation of the opinions nationally and in each state.
  • These research surveys conducted by Southern Cross Austereo are done so to provide a general understanding of the opinions, interests, and attitudes of the metropolitan and larger regional marketplaces only.

Why advertisers and agencies need to listen up to the podcast boom

Screen Shot 2021-07-15 at 11.25.12 am

Published by Mumbrella

Podcasts do a lot of talking, and now people are talking a lot about them. Podcasting has hit the big time here and globally. As their popularity continues to grow, the ad dollars will follow. This is not exactly new news for consumers, but it does come with its own problems for advertisers and agencies.

In 2020 IAB/PwC estimated that global podcast ad spend was $US800 million and would more than double to $US1.7 billion by 2024, an annual growth rate of nearly 20%.

What’s driving this investment surge? Well, one could certainly attribute the significant increase in content and increased time spent listening, buoyed, of course, by COVID-19. Research by Edison One tells us that 87% of podcast listening is done at home, therefore, uptake in the production of content and listening during 2020 was inevitable.

In 2018, there were around 525,000 podcast shows globally with over 18.5 million episodes. In April this year, there were more than two million and more than 48 million episodes (source: Podcast Insights April 2020).

The 2020 edition of PwC’s local Entertainment & Media Outlook report says the Australian podcast market is growing rapidly, with monthly downloads of 48.7 million in September last year, up from 13.2 million in October 2019. “Australia has some of the highest rates of podcast listening in the world, with podcasts no longer a niche product,” the report says.

Podcast downloads in Australia hit a new record in May, jumping up to 52.2 million, surpassing the previous record set in March of 50 million, and up 4 million from April, as measured by Triton’s Podcast Metrics measurement service.

As a result of this boom, we find ourselves with a Netflix-style conundrum. The plethora of choice presents a new problem for consumers and marketers alike. Where does one start? How does one know what to choose? What is the best podcast?

Of course, there isn’t a “best” podcast. Podcasts, by their very nature, are a one-on-one experience. They’re personal. Apologies for the cliché, but they really are “a lean in, engaged experience”.

Having said that, there are ways to gauge what’s popular and what’s worth listening to. There are charts rankings podcasts that receive the greatest number of downloads by country. Word of mouth is another way to gauge what’s really worth listening to. According to an ABC Podcast Tracking Study in September 2019, word of mouth is the #1 means of discovering new podcasts, followed by recommendations via other podcasts and social media.

What does this mean for advertisers? To my mind, the “best” podcast is one that can provide content alignment with a brand and with enough scale to ensure it achieves reach delivery. It sounds obvious, but it’s a relatively new concept in the world of podcasts.

Great podcasts are ones which can naturally weave brand messaging into their ad breaks without breaking the flow or creating a jarring experience for listeners. Having brand association with a podcast that’s a lean-in experience can, of course, be a good thing for your brand.

Speaking of a lean-in experience, a key reason for advertisers to use podcasts is audience attention. Local research conducted by Nova, Acast and IPSOS for their 2019 Podcast Intelligence Report illustrated that Podcasts drive action:

  • 61% of listeners acted after hearing a podcast commercial message
  • 76% explored looking for more information online either via branded website or search engine
  • 55% shared information about the advertised brand with friends and family in person or online
  • 25% purchased the advertised product and/or used a promotional code

A key question for marketers and agencies is whether podcasts are a must-have on their schedules or something that is still a nice-to-do? The correct answer is the former.

So, I’ll say it again: podcasting has become big business.

But for those of us in agency land, our holistic measurements are barely catching up. Currently, there is no unified measurement of impressions delivery across the podcast sector (oh, for a “total audio” system).

We do have the traditional direct response methods like vanity URLs and coupon codes which are still valid, and brand awareness tracking can be done via recall and lift studies as well as monitoring social channels to see if a podcast campaigns boosts metrics. But that is more laborious than it should be, which can easily turn off clients and agencies.

The good news is that progress is being made in podcast ad attribution. Publishers can add trackable prefixes or connect a real-time impression pixel from a dynamically inserted ad and connect downloads and audio ad impressions to actions on advertisers’ websites. The rise of analytics-rich platforms like Spotify and Acast is also driving better audience intelligence.

The podcast business still has a lot of growth potential and marketers and agencies are catching up, but it looks like we will have to manage without explicit, unified measurement for a little bit longer.

So, the next time you’re with your client, ask them what the best podcast is, or ask them to name what brand is associated with the most recent podcast they heard. Chances are, they will have an answer.

The need for a new approach to work: a Gen Z perspective

Screen Shot 2021-05-05 at 5.09.09 pm

As a 22-year-old in the advertising industry, I hear a lot about a return to the office and read a lot from senior executives about their view of the mood of the workforce. This is all well and good, but as a Gen Z person I feel a young voice is important. If we are going to make real and valuable changes to the way people work, now is the time to do it – and everyone should have a say.

A bit of background about me. I wasn’t always planning on working in the media and advertising world. In fact, I barely considered it. For about 14 years, dancing was my identity. I considered it my career.

My first office experience was in a call centre. It was, of course, solely a means of funding my dance aspirations. Admittedly, my expectations of the corporate world stemmed from watching The Office. I assumed it would be a quiet, perhaps a little dry and drama-free ride, especially compared to the rollercoaster that is the world of dance. Now I know I really never left the amusement park, I just switched rides.

There was certainly no shortage of hijinks or tears when working in a call centre. Although I can’t say I found a passion for the job, I unexpectedly found a comfort in the office environment. Alongside meeting some colourful personalities and realising the plethora of trans-disciplinary skills I’d developed from years of ballet training, I found value in serving others over myself.

Sharing a common goal with my team to create and problem-solve for customers piqued my interest in a new industry that appeared to combine all that I love from the studio and the office – the land of advertising and media. So, two years later, I landed my first role in a media agency among a bunch of highly accomplished and inspiring individuals.

I was offered the role during the pandemic. Industry discussion centred around the future of the physical office and speculation if it would ever be the same again. Working from home, and flexible working conditions, looked to be the new normal. Being young, inexperienced and still a uni student, the thought of working from home was somewhat daunting. How would I learn? How would I make friends?

As I got into the role, my worries and questions became a thing of the past. Looking back, flexibility has proven essential in working and studying simultaneously. I’ve often found myself signing off Outlook at 4:59pm and logging into a Zoom tutorial at 5:00pm, something simply not possible without workplace flexibility. Under this model, uni students can apply for entry-level office roles without the worry of scheduling clashes, and they should feel encouraged to do so. It’s a busy life, but nothing a colour-coded calendar and caffeine can’t fix.

I still choose to primarily work from the office simply because I have so much to learn. I’ve come to appreciate tapping a colleague on the shoulder for help or a quick catch-up and a laugh. Also, the office teaches you things a digital-only environment cannot – how to welcome guests, practice etiquette, debate, discuss, network and bond. Good email skills are not the same as good communication skills!

Flexible work arrangements are a selling point to younger candidates as they appeal to a dynamic and multi-skilled Gen Z. We understand that there are trans-generational differences, that the younger generations no longer have a singular career focus, one ladder to climb (or one rollercoaster to ride, for that matter) but instead can be found leaning towards juggling jobs and lifestyle – to having a side-hustle or two.

It’s a risk to your business if you expect your office environment and your workplace model to operate like we are still in 2019. Young people are demanding flexibility, which is not to be confused with too much freedom. Flexibility can have definition, it can have borders, and it will allow for better, stronger workers. I love the physical office environment and I will continue to go into the office. But I don’t want to be confined to it 9 to 5, Monday to Friday.

Make better-informed marketing decisions with the Involved Planning Hub

iStock-1170678949

Data challenges experienced by most Marketers

Most marketers will agree that one of their biggest challenges when delivering effective marketing efforts is translating data across multiple sources into clear and conclusive outputs to make informed decisions, quickly. Even though we have more data at our fingertips, there is more uncertainty due the silos across brand, agency and media owner data. We need to start breaking down the walls across these silos so that we can be more agile in strategy and execution.

There are two significant challenges that these data silos present for brands and their agencies:

  • Interrelationships across sources aren’t quickly understood: This can lead to making the wrong decisions or being paralysed by uncertainty and making no decisions at all.
  • Variances in report access times across multiple platforms: This can delay the realisation of the right course of action until after it’s too late to make significant impact.

Additionally, the increase in access to data for brands and their agencies means that we are too focused on efficiency (short-term optimisation) and have lost focus on effectiveness (long-term profitability). To deliver sustainable, long-term growth, we need to have a balanced view of both so that efficiency and effectiveness become the yin and yang of our decision making.

Introducing our Marketing Intelligence solution – the Involved Planning Hub!

At Involved Media, our goal is to bring clarity while balancing efficiency and effectiveness. We take the data-crunching off our client’s hands, allowing them to save time and resource on admin. This allows our teams to maximise resources to deliver the best returns possible for every marketing dollar spent.

Our solution is a marketing intelligence platform which sits at the heart of our Involved Planning process. Powered by Datorama, the Involved Planning Hub gives you a single view of the truth across your consumer, category, marketing performance and media delivery data. It is transparent so client’s see what we see and all decisions to evolve strategy and trading are data-driven. This enables us to identify and decipher the most meaningful insights from a plethora of sources.

All this information is linked and visualised across 3 dynamic reporting dashboard solutions within the Involved Planning Hub.

  1. Strategy Hub

    Focuses on your business outcomes and overall performance delivery tracking.

 

  1. Insights hub

    Focuses on consumer and market insight.

  1. Trading hub

    Focuses on media delivery and performance.

How these reporting dashboards benefit your brand

These three hubs are built bespoke to your needs, updated in real-time and work together to enable quicker informed decision making for our planners and partners. The Involved Planning Hub enables us to aggregate and unify data into a rich, interactive and bespoke reporting dashboard to highlight the insights that matter most. At its core, The Hub is powered by connectors that feed in and organise your marketing data to give us the power to extract only what is most important to balance efficiency and effectiveness.

In short, it means our teams can work collaboratively with our client partners to reveal how our strategy is coming to live and achieving the results we stand by. Most importantly, it is completely transparent. You see what we see, and all decisions to evolve strategy and trading approach are driven by data.

Contact us for a live demo and see the Involved Planning Hub in action.

 

To learn more about digital marketing/media visit our digital blog page.

Gain visibility on your consumers post ad exposure

consumer journey ad exposure

Our team are involved in building a seamless digital consumer journey which is attributable from beginning to end. We dedicate time to understand your customer path, website structure and goals in-order to setup a tailored tracking infrastructure.

In short, Involved Media act as an extension of a brand’s marketing team as we collaborate with Advertisers to look beyond post ad view/click to gain a holistic view of campaign success.

Our favourite FREE website tools & tips to get you started:

We have created a checklist of things to consider before going LIVE with digital to get the most out of your media investment. We are data driven humans who can work with you in terms of setting up the below:

  • Ensure your website is mobile-friendly – poor page experience will result in a high bounce rate.
  • Check website speed – a tool we recommend to use is Pagespeed Insights
  • Create bespoke “Thank You” pages to track a successful completion of lead forms or actions you wish to track as a conversion.
  • Google Tag Manager helps automate tag implementation process rather than hard-coding pixels on your website. Click here for more information.
  • Google Analytics we use UTM’s to feed data into this platform and can report on data specific to the campaign. Click here for more information. 
  • Google Analytics goals this enables you to track conversions to better understand conversion rate and ROI. Click here for more information.

Post ad exposure performance metrics

Once the analytical tools are implemented, you gain valuable website data such as:

Site Engagement
    • Number of users who have landed on your site.
    • Pages that gained the most traffic.
    • Number of pages users explored.
    • Dwell time on website.
Conversion
    • Goals.
    • eCommerce.
    • Sales/product performance.

Let the data inform story-telling

“Data are just summaries of thousands of stories – tell a few of those stories to help make the data meaningful” Chip & Dan Heath, Authors of Made to Stick, Switch

Marketers can often feel overwhelmed by the increased amounts of data collected across multiple digital channels. However, storytelling begins at the point of data collection and should be the primary focus as it demonstrates ROI and informs future planning.

Furthermore, to truly paint a picture of success, multi-channel funnels and attribution models such as Multi-Touch Attribution should be part of the story telling which are often forgotten or seen as too complicated.

The Involved Planning Hub, powered x Datorama, enables our team (as well as our clients) to identify and decipher the most meaningful data. Bringing to light rich, snackable campaign insights in real-time to inform optimisations and future strategy.

To further help our partners focus on the data that matters the most, we also offer a seamless reporting dashboard solution which aggregates and simplifies data from multiple sources such as Social, Search, Video and Programmatic.

Summary

Data is at the heart of what we do. Involved Media works with clients to ensure a solid tracking infrastructure is built to access the right data. We then analyse the data based on business goals to heighten current and future performance.

To learn more about digital marketing/media contact us or visit our digital blog page. 

 

Uniting the multigenerational workforce

office

Transgenerational differences always have, and will continue to, exist among us. These differences, however, have become more apparent than ever as the pandemic has completely changed the way we work.

The workplace has, for a long time, existed within the confines of a hierarchical old-world structure. Roots run deep and “that’s just the way it’s done” is a tried-and-true maxim.

Ben Marlow’s recent opinion piece in The Telegraph in the UK (run here by The Australian Financial Review) shines a bright spotlight on the massive generational gap between those as the top and the rest of the workforce. Those at the top – in most cases – are from older generations, my own generation included.

The careers of the older generation have evolved in a traditional working environment, including a ladder which is conquered through promotion-based climbing. As Marlow wrote: “Your career was your life. You kept your head down, worked hard for 50 years, and at the end of it received a carriage clock, a decent pension and the promise of the next 20 years on the golf course.”

Marlow’s article goes on to further expose just how much the gap has widened with the account of ex-KPMG boss Bill Michael telling his employees to “stop moaning” about working conditions via Zoom call, and during a global crisis at that.

Does the older generation still know what’s best, or is the power finally shifting to those on the front line?

As much as I’d like to answer this question, my bias will probably get in the way. A better question, one that I have faced myself with is “Am I a part of the problem?”. The answer, of course, is “I am”.

The workplace buzzword for 2020, which has somewhat bled over into 2021, is flexibility. Countless opinion pieces have been released on the matter and nearly every company I can think of has revamped their, or set up, flexibility policies.
However, the way in which generations view flexibility is blaringly different. This is an ongoing tension point which looks likely to be solved by the impact of COVID-19 on the way we work.

Millennials and even Gen Z have vied for more flexibility in the workplace for years now, and they have directly opposed traditional company structures and policies.

In late 2019, The New York Times published an article called Young People Are Going To Save Us All From Office Life, arguing that while millennials and Gen Z have been called lazy and entitled they could be among the first to understand the proper role of work in life.

The article said “it’s not about jumping up titles, but moving into better work environments… they’re like silent fighters, rewriting policy under the nose of the boomers”. The evidence has all been there, it’s just that by being “silent fighters”: it often takes too long to bring about change.

Cue the pandemic.

The fact of the matter is that there is a global crisis underway that (unfortunately) is not over and has forced us (yes, myself included) in the older generation to better understand the needs of our staff. And is this not the perfect time to do it?
With over a third of the Australian workforce doing their jobs from home last year (according to Roy Morgan) managers and bosses across the country have had to provide a certain level of trust to their employees.

But I’m not here to just sing the new generation’s praises and completely forget about where I came from. The media and advertising industry is, at its core, a creative business. Flexibility can work – we’ve seen that already – but it’s not always the case. Training, face-to-face meetings, brainstorms and retaining a solid chunk of your culture is something that you need your staff in the same building for – plus it’s bloody hard to manage large numbers of people remotely.

Ultimately, the workplace has and still is evolving, but it won’t happen without the understanding of our older generation bosses. The way in which traditional companies are structured means changes comes from the top. All signs point to the need for a retraining and re-education of managers and bosses in order to better understand the new world way of things.

We are forever changed by the pandemic and employers will need to be more cognisant than ever of the needs of their staff. Churn rates are still high and it’s likely that if you don’t listen, you will lose people. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t ask for a bit of old-school, pull up your sleeves, elbow grease in the office and mean it.