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INTERNATIONAL
MARCOMMS INSIGHTS FROM EBIQUITY
Inside: Navigating the media market in 2016
Marcomms and tech round-up for 2016
The five factors that blight online advertising
Soapbox: media investment in 2016
Trends in marketing procurement
Focus on: media in Southeast Asia
50 years of Australian alcohol advertising
Agency contracts and auditing in Asia
Issue No.22: Q1 2016
GLOBAL MARCOMMS
COVER STORY
Navigating the media market in 2016 – the key destinations for advertisers Ebiquity’s Chief Strategy Officer, Nick Manning, draws on the wisdom of Ebiquity CEOs around the world to identify the issues advertisers need to act on in 2016.
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e can predict anything except the future, so the ironic saying has it. Given the current state of flux in the marketing, advertising, and media industry, accurate forecasts for 2016 could defy even the most prescient of crystal balls. With the explosion in consumer choice thanks to digital, and especially through mobile devices, the marketing industry has more moving and interconnected parts than the most complex Swiss watch. The era of multichannel marketing has arrived, with its attendant opportunities and obstacles. Rarely has there been a more vibrant but challenging time in the marketing industry, with uncharted territory for everyone involved. For advertisers in particular there has never been more uncertainty, requiring careful navigation and the help of the right advisors. Here we attempt to set out the key issues facing the world’s advertisers in what promises to be a dynamic and complex year ahead.
Nick Manning is Chief Strategy Officer at Ebiquity
Data management The first big talking point is the management of data: big, medium, or small. The survey we conducted in 2015 with the CMO Council identified this as the number one preoccupation of today’s Chief Marketing Officers, and this will become more pronounced yet in 2016. The right kind of data, accurately marshaled with the appropriate tools, now affects every aspect of a brand owner’s product and marketing activity, so having the right data management strategy is vital. Tracking customer journeys, capturing customer profiles, and having the right analytics tools are critical. But, as marketers discover daily, these issues are easier to talk about than achieve. A good starting point for every brand owner is to develop a data management strategy which covers all aspects of data capture, storage, analytics, and usage. What’s more, the strategy also needs to include frequently overlooked hygiene factors of technology evaluation, data ownership, control, access, measurement, and audit rights. This is especially true as data ownership and control matters so much for advertisers, given the primary role of data in driving marketing. Someone has to manage these less sexy needs, and it’s often the role of procurement to sort these matters out behind the scenes, leaving the marketing teams to concentrate
on driving revenue. Procurement is currently in the spotlight, after PepsiCo disbanded its marketing procurement function altogether. At its best, procurement plays an increasingly important role in bringing order and discipline to a chaotic world, and this is likely only to increase. We also expect the insourcing model to continue to be adopted in 2016 for data strategy and management. Data Management Platforms will increasingly drive multiple channels, and brand owners will need more and better independent advice and technology implementation to manage complex, multichannel ‘tech stacks.’ The trend will continue toward increased personalization at scale, and audience targeting via programmatic delivery. Relevance undoubtedly improves the performance of marketing of all kinds, so brand owners will seek content-led solutions in all channels to enhance user experience, improve conversions, and maximize ROI. Better user experience is becoming a hot topic, indeed. The trending buzz phrase of late 2015 was ad blocking, as people aim to shut out unwanted and intrusive messaging. Recent studies report that 15 percent of people in the US have installed ad blockers: to date more on desktop than mobile devices. Their motivation for this is complex, but retargeting seems to have played a role.
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User experience The reality is that advertising can get in the way of the content people really want to see, and can also lead to slower downloads, higher data charges, and compromised battery life. We now live in a mobile world, after all. People don’t want to feel that their chosen content has been infiltrated and there’s not enough native inventory to support the number of brands that rely on advertising. Ad blocking could jeopardize the future of publishing groups who rely on advertising, and the whole advertising world relies on great content from strong publishers. This will be a key debate in 2016 and not just for publishers. In fact, 2016 should be the year of reappraisal of online advertising, full stop. And not just because of ad blocking, although it is a symptom of a wider problem and has been partly caused by other inefficiencies in the online advertising ecosystem. The truth is that too little of an advertiser’s money reaches publishers to fund content: Typically, only 40 percent reaches the content provider, according to our studies with the World Federation of Advertisers. To supplement their meager income from digital platforms, publishers have to pepper their pages with different kinds of messaging, such as ‘clickbait’ and other forms of bought-in content, and they have to accommodate whatever money they can get, sometimes at the expense of editorial independence. This is a vicious spiral where too much money is being diverted into ad tech charges, mark-ups, and rebates. If more of the budget reached the publisher, they could improve the user experience. This wouldn’t eliminate ad blocking entirely, but it would certainly help.
Re-evaluating online advertising The reappraisal of online advertising has to address the other much discussed but unresolved inefficiencies of poor viewability, mass fraud, and lack of control over brand appearance. With only 15–20 cents in the dollar reaching some advertisers’ target audiences after costs and appearance issues, 2016 should see many advertisers drawing the line at this massive wastage and aiming to reinvest in other channels – and not just other media. So we expect to see brand owners demanding much greater transparency of performance
View more insights at blog.ebiquity.com
in online advertising, with systematic and continuous tracking of performance for even the most basic KPIs, such as audience delivery. There is currently a gaping reporting gap in the market. One prediction that we can be sure of in 2016 is that there will be fewer media agency reviews. The ‘mediapalooza’ of last year has not produced the sea change in the industry that is arguably needed. In many instances, advertisers will simply have exchanged one media agency network for another (or kept the incumbent) at lower cost, but without the desired material advance in service delivery or digital effectiveness and efficiency. One outcome of 2015’s unprecedented set of reviews, however, is that advertisers are becoming increasingly reluctant to entrust their agencies with the keys to the safe. Data ownership and control has become even more crucial for brand owners as the media market becomes less financially transparent and the border between buyers and sellers becomes fuzzier. Trust will become a more valuable commodity, especially as more advertisers probe more deeply into the inner workings of the media markets. As the media groups increasingly become media sellers, more advertisers will question these groups’ ability to plan objectively, and they may look elsewhere. One bolder prediction for 2016 is that a new type of agency will begin to emerge, chrysalislike, to address advertiser needs. In a world where content and channel solutions require a joined up, integrated, and solutions-neutral approach, brand owners will want partners who can deliver their needs across multiple platforms, driven by data analytics. This won’t be an advertising agency or a media agency: It will be a marketing communications agency that is comfortable and capable across the content and channels spectrum, and knows how to use data to inform its recommendations and not just report after the event.
The future? Finally, multichannel marketing must drive the ‘attribution’ agenda. And if there is one prediction we can be absolutely sure of, it is that brand owners will seek a real understanding of what’s working, how, and – that most elusive of goals – why. But there will
also be a dawning realization that just looking at attribution in digital is an imperfect view when so many (and often better) influences drive website traffic.
Attribution Today’s brand owners live in a complex, dynamic world where the old boundaries of advertising and direct have merged, where ads and media have become content and channels, and the role of agencies has changed. 2016 will be another year of change, and it won’t be augmented reality, artificial intelligence, or the Internet of Things that keep advertisers awake at night. As ever, it will be, ‘How do I navigate my way through this sea of uncertainty to deliver better business results, now and into the future?’ And they will look to a new breed of advisors to help them answer this evergreen question.
“At its best, procurement plays an increasingly important role in bringing order and discipline to a chaotic world, and this is likely only to increase.”
AGENCY CONTRACTS
ASK AN EXPERT
Audits require depth of knowledge, not just ability to audit David Brocklehurst, MD – Asia-Pacific for FirmDecisions, argues that auditors need local market and industry knowledge, not just formal skills.
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any people talk about Asia as if it were a single country. But, in reality, Asia is a sprawling continent blending cultures, languages, religions, currencies, technology, and extremes of wealth and poverty. We’ve been conducting media and creative agency audits across the region for approaching 20 years. So while it’s important that we know how ad agency finance departments work, it’s to our clients’ advantage that we know what to expect from each market’s business culture. Some of the business critical nuggets we’ve picked up over the years include:
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In Taiwan, there are monthly volume bonuses, not just annual. In several countries, some vendors offer discounts for early payment, although advertisers are not always told this. In South Korea, clients act as Principal in the relationship with vendors. In China, some vendors pay Agency Volume Bonuses (AVBs) quarterly, whereas agencies credit clients only annually. In Australia, media credits arise because clients are billed what was booked. This isn’t necessarily what the vendor bills. In Thailand, some outdoor vendors offer ‘off invoice’ discounts. In Japan, agencies often provide a Target Audience Rating Point (TARP1) replenishment scheme, which guarantees planned TARPs, sometimes at agency expense and often offset by retaining AVBs.
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In the Philippines, advertisers usually pay vendors direct, after agencies have reconciled and approved payment. Agencies use a variety of financial systems including BCC, TSS, Pegasus, Adept, and SAP.
It’s this kind of differentiated, country-specific knowledge that separates the experts from the also-rans of compliance auditing. This is why we find it perplexing that several large agency groups routinely tell their clients that they only allow one of the Big Four accounting firms to conduct financial compliance audits – firms often lacking the footprint and sensitivity to build and deploy this depth of local knowledge and expertise. From the perspective of good corporate governance, it’s definitely not best practice for the very agencies involved in transacting media to influence the choice of the firm that audits their work. The choice of auditor should
“From the perspective of good corporate governance, it’s definitely not best practice for the very agencies involved in transacting media to influence the choice of the firm that audits their work.”
A TARP is defined as the proportion of a specific target audience viewing a program, as planned
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David Brocklehurst is MD – Asia-Pacific for FirmDecisions
rest with clients, and of course this could be one of the Big Four. But, the selection should come from a pool of all independent audit firms, including specialists. As the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers (ISBA) says, in answer to the question ‘Who should perform the audit?’:
An audit should be performed by a competent and independent company … Given the complexity of the relationship, the use of a specialist auditor is recommended and the client should always retain the right to determine the choice of auditor. So, when it’s time to renew agency contracts, advertisers should be alert to the terms of the ‘Right to Audit’ clause, and ensure that their choices aren’t limited by agency preferences.
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MEDIA
FOCUS ON: Ten considerations for media in Myanmar Myanmar, previously known as Burma, is home to 56m people from over 100 ethnic groups, half of whom are under 24. Sanny Manduapessy, Ebiquity’s Head of Data Analytics for Southeast Asia, gives the lowdown on a media industry experiencing major change.
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V is dominant, but hard to build reach
Despite penetration of TV into 60 percent of households, it accounts for 70 percent of advertising spend. TV is fragmented, with 7 major free-to-air channels and 50+ digital, satellite, and pay TV channels. Audience figures cover only six major cities; they do not yet capture rural/communal viewing. Often this means advertisers reach less than half their measured target audience.
Mobile phone boom Increased affordability means internet and mobile phone penetration are increasing rapidly. Mobile penetration is currently 42 percent, and internet penetration grew from 1 percent in January 2014 to 9 percent in November 2015. Social media is expected to explode. Media deregulation is anticipated after the handover of power in April 2016 following the recent election. Ensure your agency is monitoring and capitalizing on these potential changes.
Manual system TV Audience Measurement is still largely based on a diary system. People meter technology is unsupported because of inconsistent electricity supply and lack of widespread broadband connectivity. There’s limited automation of reports and agency buying tools compared with established markets, so it’s critical to understand what data is available and to put clear reporting calendars in place.
View more insights at blog.ebiquity.com
Money talks
Global best practice
Everything is traded in cash in Myanmar, preferably US dollars. Buyers can buy directly from the networks or via agents. These layers may result in increased paid commissions. Clients need to understand this risk and the importance to agencies of being paid promptly.
With increasing foreign investment, the market is starting to welcome international experience. Not all agencies are exposed to global best practice, so it’s critical your agency is networked with other markets.
Being local matters Through government intervention to protect local interests, international advertisers are charged a premium. Ensure you understand these differences and the different levels of tax.
Innovation is vital With half the population under 24, and 60 percent of those living in rural areas, strategy to target consumers must reflect local market conditions. As elsewhere in the world with large, non-urban populations, brand activation campaigns work well in rural areas.
Dramas are popular Dramas – particularly Korean dramas – are the top-rating programs in Myanmar. Thai dramas have become more popular in the last year. With the increase of domestic confidence, a resurgence in local programming is expected.
Local values should be respected Myanmar is a Buddhist society. Religion impacts lifestyle and should be taken into account in consumer behavior and media. This needs to be considered when using international creative, as what is acceptable internationally may not work in Myanmar.
Talent is scarce Media talent is scarce in Myanmar. International experience is valuable, but local expertise is a must. Having a strategy to attract and retain talent will pay dividends.
“TV Audience Measurement is still largely based on a diary system. People meter technology is unsupported because of inconsistent electricity supply and lack of widespread broadband internet connectivity.” Sanny Manduapessy is Ebiquity’s Head of Data Analytics for Southeast Asia
DIGITAL
ASK AN EXPERT
The five factors that blight online advertising Measuring the effectiveness and efficiency of advertising performance online has very different dynamics and characteristics compared with traditional media. Laetitia Zinetti Diard, Strategy Development Director at Ebiquity, identifies five factors that blight online advertising, and outlines a new approach for ensuring online display delivers significant and meaningful return on investment.
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nline advertising is complex, fragmented, and sprawling. It offers millions of opportunities to reach billions of consumers directly, across multiple technologies and platforms.
“Almost two-thirds of all online ads aren’t delivered to the correct target consumer.”
Digital advertising is also characterized by many more links in the transactional chain between the advertiser and the publisher than traditional advertising, including media agencies, automated trading desks (ATDs), and demand and supply side trading platforms (DSPs and SSPs) transacting media programmatically through real-time bidding (RTB). As a consequence, online advertising has more terminology and TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) than traditional: more opportunities for marketers trying to keep up with technological advances to get lost in a fog of jargon. And, paradoxically, while digital advertising generates vastly more data than traditional, it is, at the same time, the least transparent of all forms of commercial communication. This complexity and lack of transparency prevents brands from getting clarity on both performance and spend. Put simply, many advertisers do not know who they are reaching, where, and how, or at what cost. This is very much to their disadvantage, as the margins for online advertising are significantly higher than for offline, and the multiple links in the chain each attract a small proportion of spend. In this brave new world of digital, there are the five factors that blight online advertising – five issues advertisers need to address directly
if they’re going to get value from their online marketing spend.
1.Salami sliced budgets The increased number of links – also known as businesses – in the chain between advertiser and publisher means there are more opportunities for value to be eroded before any commercial communication ever appears. Figures from the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), confirmed by Ebiquity’s own research, show that typically only 40 percent of an advertiser’s budget actually reaches online publishers. Put another way, charges and rebates – unknown to and unseen by the advertiser – are leading to as much as 60 percent value erosion of total ad spend.
2.Poor targeting Unlike other channels, digital advertising is transacted on the basis of impressions. Advertisers buy space on a cost per thousand (CPM) impressions basis, not based on the actual audiences they will reach. Many advertisers rarely see complete audience data, and the wealth of information potentially available to them from both media owners and agencies is not properly leveraged for precise targeting.
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“By pulling all available data together into the same place, advertisers can make sense of online performance for the first time.”
It’s fair to say that, in digital, there’s no going after ‘mums with kids’ or ‘urban young men’; no successful targeting by demographic groupings. Almost two-thirds of all online ads aren’t delivered to the correct target consumer. What’s more, with over 60 percent of computers and tablets shared, cookies often end up showing the wrong ad to the wrong individual – in the wrong region, of the wrong age group, and the wrong gender.
3.Non-human traffic Advertisers pay for impressions irrespective of whether the right target is reached or not, or whether the impressions are real or not. The truth is, many online ads are ‘viewed’ automatically by bots and not by real people. Bots click up impressions, but fail to deliver an actual human audience with buying power. Fraudulent traffic hijacks publishers’ inventory, serving ads to no one. According to the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), this is estimated to cost $7.5bn annually in the US, representing 11 percent of all online display advertising. The ANA also estimates that 22 percent of online video viewing is non-human, while, separately, Unilever has calculated that it is losing 29 percent of its advertising volume to non-human traffic. Again, for an ecosystem so rich in data and potential accountability, online display is failing advertisers.
View more insights at blog.ebiquity.com
4.Viewability As many as half of all online ads are nonviewable according to the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), and yet most advertisers pay for all impressions, whatever their true viewability status. Moreover, the criteria for actual viewability are set incredibly low online. The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) deems an ad to be viewable provided 50 percent of the ad’s surface (total pixels or picture elements) is viewable for one second. For video content, the IAB stipulates just two seconds. Quite how outrageously low online viewability standards are currently – and particularly in comparison with those set for TV – was lampooned recently by the Fox TV network in an ad campaign, fronted by actor and producer Rob Lowe.
5.Brand safety Finally comes brand safety. For many brands – for instance R-rated or 15/18 certificate movies, PEGI-16 and 18 video games, and alcoholic drinks – it’s vital that ads appear in age-appropriate and content-appropriate environments. Yet it is common knowledge that ads for alcoholic drinks often appear on websites targeting teens or mothers to be. It’s not that advertisers are encouraging their media agencies and myriad intermediaries to openly flout the self-regulatory proscription of targeting these audiences. Rather, ads are served in inappropriate properties thanks to
algorithms automating ad serving and the complex chain of companies between brands and publishers. Because advertisers are being poorly served by the current ecosystem, we are currently in the process of developing OPTix, a data aggregation platform and consultancy service that brings together all relevant data sets to measure, benchmark, and optimize online advertising performance. These data sets include impressions delivered against plan, audience delivery, viewability/brand safety/ geolocation scoring, and both actual CPMs and True CPMs. By pulling all available data together into the same place, advertisers can make sense of online performance for the first time – understanding where ads are actually being served, who sees them, how often, and how this compares to plan. By demystifying the consequences of the different links in the transactional chain, advertisers can identify inefficiencies and drive genuine performance enhancements for online display. In a fragmented market characterized by both rapidly evolving technology and almost uncontrolled scale increases in automated, programmatic media buying, advertisers are being sold short. With half of all ads not actually displayed and a third of all traffic fraudulent or fake, it’s time advertisers fought back. While the issues – or the theory behind them – may be understood by many brand custodians, the scale of the problem is not. It is only through an independent measurement platform that brands can take control of online advertising, driving accountability and transparency in a world that has been opaque and served by vested self-interest for too long. With an increasing share of advertising dollars heading online, tracking matters like never before to drive campaign performance, not to mention cost and performance benchmarking.
Laetitia Zinetti is Strategy Development Director at Ebiquity
PROCUREMENT
SPOTLIGHT ON:
Three big trends in marketing procurement FirmDecisions and Ebiquity were co-chairs of the recent Procurecon event held in Nashville, bringing together 150 marketing procurement professionals from the world’s biggest brands. Vivek Radia, MD North America of FirmDecisions, and Neil Capobianco, MD of Ebiquity’s US Media Practice, report back.
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rocurecon’s Marketing Procurement conference is a fabulous event: a genuinely peer-led audience, large enough to warrant a centralized event, but sufficiently approachable for real dialogue and relationships to form. The critical importance of transparency and trust pervaded the conference, particularly in the more measurable sphere of digital media. The three major trends we took away from Procurecon were:
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Agility is crucial. Targeting sounds great, but remains mysterious. Agency Black Box offerings are growing.
Agility For some years, talk has been focused on the cataclysmic changes that are happening in marketing. These are largely driven by shifting demographics, coupled with newer, more fragmented media options including digital and social. A decade ago, these mediums were nascent and brands dabbled in them; today, they command nearly half of media budgets. The speed of these media and associated consumer behavior changes has CMOs racing to keep up.
Immediately before Procurecon, PepsiCo announced that it had eliminated its marketing procurement function, citing a need for greater speed. This decision – driven by a desire to inject genuine agility into the company’s marketing – is radical and antithetical to most of the market. It set the context for a debate in which the old watchwords of ‘change’ and ‘fragmentation’ focused on understanding the market, while ‘agility’ and ‘pivoting’ emerged as the new action-oriented buzzwords. As more brands participate in newer trading methods, the conference consensus was that procurement’s role is ever more important. Yet they, too, must move faster.
“As more brands participate in newer trading methods, procurement’s role is ever more important. Yet they, too, must move faster.”
Procurement professionals realize that the need for ‘agility’ is leading the marketers they advise into increasingly opaque media trading models that promise better consumer targeting. The challenge of addressing potentially thornier questions about media buys also demands greater speed and technological toolsets. If procurement is too slow, they risk alienating their marketing counterparts – and potentially more PepsiCostyle decisions. So the new conundrum is for procurement to solve marketing’s problems faster and know where to be open to newer ways of procuring media and marketing services.
Targeted buying Brands are grappling with reaching consumers over video platforms, mobile devices with newer ad formats, and a host of other challenges including ad blocking. Procurement and marketers alike are attracted to the promise of connecting targeted media to consumers and thus solving John Wanamaker’s age-old question about marketing ROI. But is it working? While available media inventory has nearly doubled over the past decade, these newer, digital environments present their own challenges. First, a WFA/Ebiquity study revealed that nearly 25 percent of typical programmatic
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media buys go to data fees to enhance targeting. Yet further inspection reveals that the technology is not fully mature. Brands audited using Ebiquity’s technology toolkit find their ads appear in rather inappropriate places, to the wrong audiences, and even in the wrong geographic location. A deeper dive shows that many of these advertisements are not actually seen by people, if they’re viewable at all. Between false internet traffic, intentional software techniques, or a lack of viewability, over half of the ads are never seen at all. While this may not be the fault of the agencies, it is clearly a significant issue that needs independent resolution. As agencies trade nearly all of their programmatic buying as Principal, they are not a fully independent party here.
Black Box media trading As agencies and procurement have danced through cost-saving exercises over the past decade, agency profits have risen. Some of this is certainly driven by an increased scope for the agencies – taking on more labor-intensive digital work and data-related assignments. What has grown noticeably is the status of the agency trading as Principal, which requires advertisers to forego transparency. What was once a game of creating mass awareness is now focused on delivering sales, achieving savings metrics, and driving tighter ROI. So more barter media is purchased – more digital media programmatically – and agencies are launching exchanges for local TV, with some other television areas likely to follow. Non-transparent transactions have changed the nature of advertiser/agency relationships. On the one hand they behave as the advertiser’s agent; on the other, the trust of an agency has been compromised by the agency’s status as Principal. While they may be doing
View more insights at blog.ebiquity.com
what other media networks do, a conflict of interest arises from an agency’s duty to act as a fiduciary agent in most cases. As a bare minimum, procurement must keep tabs on this conflict and ensure that all Principal buys are proven and measured. Procurement’s role should accelerate in this fast-paced, hard-totrack tech game.
As media trading continues to evolve, an independent viewpoint is critical to answer the following questions for advertisers:
While agencies clearly want to retain their new-found role of Principal, there is a new mandate for procurement. Clear contractual parameters need to be spelled out and understood, and procurement can help drive that clarity.
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The role of independent marketing auditors is also growing in importance. Auditing is no longer just about ensuring advertisers get great value. There is now also a dimension where auditors need to help advertisers understand if they are actually getting any value at all.
It is only by answering these questions independently and authoritatively that marketers can have restored faith in their agencies. What Procurecon Nashville clearly showed was that marketing procurement has a critical role to play in returning transparency to what has become an increasingly murky world.
“Procurement and marketers alike are attracted to the promise of connecting targeted media to consumers and thus solving John Wanamaker’s ageold question about marketing ROI.”
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Is my media mix truly correct? Are we optimized for our marketplace and performance in our owned media (e.g., company websites and social channels)? When measuring media value, do we have the right tools in place to know if our ads are actually even seen? Does our contract clearly spell out what you can audit and what you cannot?
Vivek Radia is MD North America of FirmDecisions
Neil Capobianco is MD of Ebiquity’s US Media Practice
ADVERTISING
FEATURE
50 years of Australian alcohol advertising The cultural awakening Australia has experienced over recent decades has been revolutionary. The young country began its journey as an innocent land, struggling to understand how it fitted into the global village, always a little disconnected and out of touch, mostly down to distance.
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ver the years, Australia has grown out of its awkward early teens into a diverse, adult nation, full of different people, cultures, and ideas. One of the best ways to reflect that journey is through the lens of advertising, under the adage of art imitating life. Aaron Rigby, Head of Client Service at Ebiquity Australia, takes a look at how alcohol brands and their stories have evolved hand in hand with the country.
The 1960s were turbulent, with the hippie movement popular. The Australian Aboriginal population was – finally – included in population counts. Prime Minister Robert Menzies declared war on Vietnam but later resigned. Harold Holt, second PM of the decade, disappeared while swimming in Portsea, Victoria. His body was never recovered.
notice. The Opera House, Australia’s bestknown landmark, was opened by the Queen, marking the country as an international brand. Professional sport came to the fore, with the controversial introduction of World Series Cricket. Sydney held its first Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras.
TV in Australia was establishing itself in the 1960s, after launching in 1956, and with it TV advertising. Alcohol advertising was innocent and totally non-sexualized. Most brand messaging was functional, with minimal brand building through aspiration. The decade was best noted for the launch of VB’s ‘Matter of fact I’ve got it now’ campaign, which the brand still runs 55 years later.
The 1970s brought on a cultural shift in Australia, and the world started to take
Politically, the Whitlam government was sacked by the governor general: the only time a sitting PM has been sacked. Tobacco advertising was officially banned on TV and radio.
Alcohol advertising in the 1970s started to evolve into its current form. Sport became a major part of the male-dominated beer campaign strategy, with a focus on cricket. The ad jingle spread across all categories, and clearly defined category positions started to emerge. Beer focused on sports and the blue collar market, with spirits targeting international aspiration.
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1980s Australia attracted increasing international attention, and was best known for Azaria Chamberlain’s haunting words ‘A dingo’s got my baby!,’ Bob Hawke becoming PM, and Australia winning the America’s Cup.
The new millennium in Australia started with the Sydney Olympics, and with it came an explosion of creativity through movie quality production. We saw the emergence of wine, with the category focused on heritage and storytelling, as well as the spread of ‘Readyto-drinks’ or mixers focusing on humor and partying. The 2000s also saw the dawn of digital as a medium, and with it the opportunity of long formats. Beer advertising exploded in the 2000s with internationally recognized campaigns from Carlton Draught’s ‘The Big Ad’ and Hahn Premium Light.
By the mid-1980s, the different alcohol categories had clear positions, and communicated effectively against them. Beer continued using sports messaging and introduced humor as a key component. Spirits delivered global campaigns, leveraging aspirational messaging. Ads also started to become more sexualized, as society liberalized.
The current decade has seen a turnstile of Prime Ministers. 2010 saw Julia Gillard become Australia’s first female PM, ousting Kevin Rudd. Her tenure was short-lived, however, with Rudd returning the favor in 2013 before losing an election to Tony Abbot. Abbot was then ousted by our incumbent, Malcolm Turnbull.
The 1990s saw Australia become an international tourism destination, and alcohol advertising built on the foundations laid in the 1980s. Beer drifted away from sport, focusing instead on humor. Thanks to a relaxation in content laws, international brands started to use global campaigns locally, giving birth to indepth brand storytelling. What’s more, brands began to use long-term campaign arcs, some of which are still used today.
During this period of political turmoil, alcohol advertising built on the groundwork of the 2000s. Global campaigns now dominate messaging, with immersive campaigns from the likes of Johnnie Walker and Heineken integrating across multiple platforms. Storytelling has become deeper, giving rise to branded content such as Johnnie Walker Blue’s ‘The Gentleman’s Wager,’ rather than individual campaigns. Wine brands have emerged as powerful communicators, with blockbuster heritage-themed campaigns to match the maturing tastes of the Australian marketplace. Looking back at how alcohol advertising has evolved into one of the most successful brand building categories, the most important development has been the emergence of brand storytelling. It has taken many decades
View more insights at blog.ebiquity.com
for megabrands to carve out their niche in the Australian public’s psyche. Building brands takes time, patience, and an understanding of the target audience: ingredients frequently forgotten by many newer brands in today’s environment, often dominated by short-term, tactical advertising. Aaron Rigby is Insights Director of Ebiquity Australia, based in Sydney
MEDIA STRATEGY
SOAPBOX
If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em Ebiquity’s Director of Client Relations, Andrew Challier, takes to his soapbox with a timely rant and an alternative new media idea.
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015 is so last year. After all, we’re well into 2016. New Year’s resolutions have been made and broken, and we’ve budgeted for the latest marketing silver bullet. Who knows, 2016 may even be … finally … after so many false dawns … ‘The Year Of Mobile.’ In other words, it’s most definitely out with last year’s vintage and time to start thinking about how we can increase our percentage investment in digital. Wait a minute. Maybe, just maybe, we should take a reality check. Blindly committing to a notional percentage spend and plowing money into ‘the latest thing’ is not a digital strategy; optimizing the increasingly digital consumer journey deserves better than that. And too many marketing silver bullets in recent years have turned out to be duds. In no particular order, let’s remind ourselves of some of the greatest hopes of recent years, starting with Facebook ‘likes.’ These were set to be the metric of metrics, the slam dunk measure of brand engagement and marketing success. Some CMOs were even bonused on how many likes they could generate. But today they are almost universally derided as meaningless. An Ehrenberg-Bass Institute analysis of Facebook statistics in 2012 showed that, out of 200 top Facebook fan brands, the number showing a level of engagement above 2 percent was precisely … 1. It’s no secret that online display advertising is ravaged by viewability and fraud issues. And it’s not just Ebiquity saying this. In 2014,
Google stated that more than half of the display ads it served on its own and on other sites never actually appeared in view of someone’s screen. It’s also been shown that a third of ad clicks are generated by bots. ‘Ah,’ comes the industry response, ‘wait for programmatic and the benefits of targeting.’ Sorry folks, but it truly is a case of ‘same bread, different basket’ until the issues of viewability and fraud are resolved. It doesn’t get any better when we look at video on demand or VOD. It’s said that VOD delivers incremental reach. Yet an Internet Advertising Bureau sponsored study of UK VOD titled ‘Friends With Benefits’ reported that adding VOD to TV plans increased reach from 78.46 to 78.90 percent in the finance sector, from 89.72 to 89.91 percent in retail, and 87.72 to 87.83 percent in technology. Who needs friends like that with benefits like these? Especially when Google (again) has admitted that 46 percent of video ads served are never seen and, in the UK, our own analysis shows VOD is between two and eight times more expensive than linear TV. This is hugely different from saying digital investment is a waste of time. We all know that digital interactivity has changed consumer path-to-purchase beyond recognition, and the pace of that change can sometimes take us by surprise. In 2004, there were 22 OEM website visits for every 1 car sold in Europe; in 2014, the figure was 91. In fashion/apparel 10–15 percent of all clothing in Europe is bought online (the US figure is higher still), with around 40 percent of that via tablet or mobile phone.
And here lies the heart of the problem: The marvelous facility consumers have with the digital world – seamlessly integrating the physical and the virtual path-to-purchase – has eluded too many marketers and organizational structures. New brands that ‘get it’ have grown quickly without really engaging in the media circus (old or new) at all. Brands such as Tesla and Uber have introduced new twists on established concepts by focusing on product, on service, and on skilful exploitation of the virality of the digital world. But, in reality, there are very few Elon Musks or genius marketers who deliver seismic change. And, no, just sporting a goatee beard and a black rollneck – set off by some funky specs – doesn’t make you a marketing guru (been there, done that). For the rest, it’s the hard yards. Connecting offline with online is the real challenge. Most marketers have to deal with established products in increasingly commoditized sectors. Even pure play digital businesses such as online gambling sites are using broadcast media to drive online traffic as their business models mature. Finding balance is not about allocating a random percentage of money to digital (itself a lazy, catch-all term) or indeed any particular type of media. It’s about proper measurement which isn’t siloed but which looks at the whole picture. Measurement in the round should tell you what works, what doesn’t, what to do more of, and what to stop. It should allow you to ringfence budget for testing new things, because
ISSUE 22 Q1 2016 RESPONSE MAGAZINE FROM EBIQUITY
“Blindly committing to a notional percentage spend and plowing money into ‘the latest thing’ is not a digital strategy; optimizing the increasingly digital consumer journey deserves better than that.” test and control is the right way to determine how much of a ‘new thing’ to put into the budgeting melting pot. Measurement should be done by objective partners (internal or external) because you don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to work out that the CFO will never trust the scoreline if you give Cristiano Ronaldo the referee’s whistle. But who am I kidding? Organizational silos are not going to disappear, marketing isn’t going to be given corporate control of the total customer experience, and the media industry isn’t going to stop hyping the latest thing. What’s more, budgets will continue to migrate in the general direction of what everyone else is doing in a classic case of digital FoMO (Fear of Missing Out). So, on the basis of ‘if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em,’ here’s the world exclusive on the very latest new media concept: I am reliably informed that advertisers should be putting a minimum 10 percent of their budgets into Digital In-toilet Media, or DIM to give it its own acronym. Think about it. Share of eyeballs? Targeting? Reach? Frequency? Based on a hypothesis with no foundation in proven success measurement? All big ticks. And as for ad blocking? Well, I’ll leave that to your imagination.
View more insights at blog.ebiquity.com
Andrew Challier is Ebiquity’s Director of Client Relations
COMMUNICATIONS INSIGHT
FEATURE
2016 – The year of big tech and marketing responsibility As all readers of Response will know, the start of a new year in the marketing world comes with few absolutes. Aside from the fact that Jose Mourinho is likely to star in an ad for Reed.co.uk in the coming months, all eyes in Adland are looking to the future and wondering what will happen in 2016. Martin Broad, Head of Communications Insight at Ebiquity, identifies the big issues for 2016.
A
d blocking: cause or effect?
The ad blocking crisis first became an issue in 2015, but – bad news for advertisers and publishers – it shows no sign of slowing down. The crucial question is: How can advertisers tackle the issue? Saatchi & Saatchi’s Chief Strategy Officer, Richard Huntington, believes the industry itself needs to take more responsibility for the crisis, saying: “People don’t like what we do online. They never consented to pre-rolls, page takeovers, pop-ups … and they never consented to mobile inventory that destroys the user experience of so many mobile sites and applications. If huge numbers of people adopt ad blocking functionality, we will only have ourselves to blame.” Whether it happens organically or not, 2016 needs to be the year the industry takes control of ad blocking, most effectively by creating a consensus with consumers where they agree to and expect to see the advertising they are exposed to. By building this kind of consensus, ad blocking will become a last resort.
Virtual reality comes of age As we predicted this time last year, virtual reality (VR) technology has made big gains in 2015. Brands including Samsung have so far been the earliest adopters, the technology lending itself most readily for use by handset
manufacturers. However, brands elsewhere are beginning to use VR, too, with Corona’s partnership with VR heavyweight Oculus proving that brands outside telecoms are beginning to understand how to use the tech. Indeed, Facebook-owned Oculus is planning a consumer launch for its Oculus Rift VR headset in Q1 2016 (Facebook bought the firm for a cool $2bn in 2014) and, with Sony also getting involved in VR through its own Project Morpheus, VR looks set for a consumer and brand explosion in 2016.
“2016 needs to be the year the industry takes control of ad blocking.” Content generation: a growing concern As the marketing cliché has it, content has always been king. But as the communications landscape diversifies, it is rapidly becoming the Messiah. However, its growing importance means it has been met with some trepidation from the marketing community. Our own research with The CMO Council highlighted that content generation was one of the top five concerns for senior marketers in 2015 – just behind managing customer data and demonstrating ROI, no less.
The challenge of successfully creating and amplifying content will no doubt remain top of marketers’ minds in 2016, but the core challenge will remain the same: how best to distribute content once it has been created, and how to gain traction with audiences once content is in the public domain. Indeed, given the revelation that 72 percent of top marketers would consider using external help to generate content marketing, we can expect to see this sector burgeon this year.
Voice search: an opportunity in SEO When Siri launched four years ago, it was yet another example of Apple’s next gen approach to technology, bringing deeply futuristic innovations to consumers today. With Cortana on Windows and Android’s Google Now, voice search has almost become run of the mill. As the technology continues to advance in sophistication – Microsoft’s Edge browser already includes an advanced version of Cortana as standard, meaning voice search is no longer relegated to mobile only – it will undoubtedly change the way consumers behave, and search, online. What’s more, the latest version of Apple TV has included full Siri search functionality and a Siri button on the new device’s handset, allowing users to ask Siri questions such as ‘Find me TV series like x, featuring actor y, set in era z.’ Although change is often a cause of consternation for marketers, the boost in voice search brings opportunities too. The key
ISSUE 22 Q1 2016 RESPONSE MAGAZINE FROM EBIQUITY
Martin Broad is Head of Communications Insight at Ebiquity
will be thinking harder about how consumers actually use voice search, most notably through the introduction of active questions rather than simple requests. Marketers who invest in question phrases and analyze their long-tail keywords early will be able to reap the rewards, as well as capitalize on ‘less popular’ long-tail keyword purchases while they are still cheap.
Snapchat: the next big social platform With the sheer number of social platforms out there, marketers are constantly looking for ways to cut through the chaff and identify the next social juggernaut. Following in Instagram’s and WhatsApp’s shoes, Snapchat is the latest Silicon Valley darling to have investors swooning. The company was valued at $16bn earlier in the year, 8 months after turning down a $3bn takeover bid by Facebook. Is such a large valuation justified? Why could Snapchat be so valuable to marketers? With over 100 million daily active users (almost all of whom are in the 18–34 demographic), 9000 photos shared per second, and 6 billion daily video views, the stats alone speak for themselves. However, Snapchat’s real strength lies in its capitalization of ephemeral marketing: the ‘less is more’ technique that allows marketers to create communication that is shorter and, crucially, more potent. Media brands including ESPN and Comedy Central are already using Snapchat to tell stories effectively about what they’re up to, using only a fraction of their audience’s time to avoid disturbance.
… and some unforeseen surprises Despite attempts to future-proof marketing operations, 2016 will come with surprises all of its own (the Olympics and US election being just two events bound to upset marketers’ plans). However, much of the coming year will undoubtedly revolve around consumers’ uptake of new technology. On first impressions, this could cause problems for marketers, though with every problem comes a solution. Marketers who closely scrutinize their own operations, and take responsibility around difficult issues will be best placed to succeed in 2016.
View more insights at blog.ebiquity.com
“Following in Instagram’s and WhatsApp’s shoes, Snapchat is the latest Silicon Valley darling to have investors swooning.”
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