Is advertising heading towards a 'Moneyball' model?

Back in the 90's, to reach a local audience the easy fix was a national TV campaign. Simple. Everyone watched TV.

Move forward to today it's not so simple. Your target local audience may watch TV, but less of it because they're consuming a whole host of other media on other devices. The decision about which platforms to advertise on and which media content to back is now much more complicated.

But has the advertising game fundamentally changed? 

In one way, no. People are still willing to watch ads to access free content. No change there.

In another way, yes. The NBN (National Broadband Network) and associated businesses like Apple and Netflixs are likely to change the game by giving consumers unprecedented access to media content.

But what's really going to change the game is companies like Google, Facebook and Apple use market research and analytics to gain a competitive advantage. The more we consume content through these media sites, the more these companies learn about us and subsequently know how to get our attention. More importantly they can prove it.

The Googles, facebooks and Apples of the world right now have up to the moment, profoundly detailed real time viewer and viewing analytics about our behaviour. As we move closer to a fully digital world, every advertisers will soon be able to know (perhaps for the very first time) who is watching their ads, when, from where and how in real time.

Is this going to be a game changer? Just like the Oakland Athletics baseball team changed baseball with their Moneyball approach to building a winning a team. Just like Oakland, who stopped caring about what players and their girlfriends looked like as long as they got on base, will advertisers stop caring about what their ads look like as long as they get views?

For those who haven't see the movie - here is the trailer (we gave it 4 out 5 stars)

Watermelon and Mint Salad....!

Watermelon and Mint Salad

This salad is a favourite at Stancombe. It is served throughout the summer at our gatherings on the back deck. The fresh, zingy taste of this salad really sets off a BBQ. Fresh ingredients are the key to this salad really zinging.

Serves 8

Ingredients

·       1 small Red Onion

·       2 - 4 Lime (depending on the juiciness – we like to use a lot)

·       1½ kg ripe yet firm Watermelon

·       250 g Feta cheese

·       Fresh Flat-leaf parsley

·       Fresh Mint chopped

·       4 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil

·       100 g pitted Black Olives (optional)

·       Black pepper

Method

1. Peel the red onion and cut into very fine half-moons and put in a small bowl

2. Juice the limes and pour the juice over the onions (Allow to steep for at least 20 minutes)

3. Remove the pips and rind from the watermelon

4. Cut watermelon flesh into large bite-sized chunks (square or triangles)

5. Cut the feta into similar sized pieces and put them both into a large (big enough to get your hands into) bowl.

6. Chop a large bunch of fresh parsley and add to the bowl

7. Chop a large bunch of fresh mint (make sure the stalks are removed) and add to the bowl. It should all be smelling delicious by now

8. Pour the onions, along with the line juice over the ingredients in the bowl.

9. Add the oil and olives (if you choose).

10. Using your hands, gently toss the salad. Be careful not to break the feta and watermelon pieces

11. Add a good grinding of black pepper and taste to see whether the dressing needs more lime or mint

12. Enjoy!

FROM THE AGENCY GARDEN

The team at Stancombe have enjoyed a bumper crop of tomatoes this summer and the cherry tomatoes continue to ripen on the vine (must be all the rain we have had). We don't know about you but we all love the sweet chewiness of roasted tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes offer an extra burst of juiciness. You might like to try this simple recipe using produce from your own summer garden or produce from your local growers market. We have used store bought pastry (We are very busy getting on with the business or research and strategy, after all) but feel free to use home made pastry if you have the time or prefer.

Cherry Tomato & Caramelised Onion Tarte Tartin

2 small tarte tatin’s

Caramelised Onion

Ingredients:

1 small onion, peeled and chopped

2 teaspoons of butter

salt & pepper to taste

Method:

Heat a frying pan over a medium low heat and melt the butter.  Add the onions and seasoning to taste, and cook until golden and soft.

Set aside to cool.

Roasted Cherry tomatoes

Ingredients:

150g of cherry tomatoes, halved

1 teaspoon of olive oil

a pinch of sugar

salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius and line a roasting pan with baking paper.

In a small bowl combine the  cherry tomatoes, olive oil, sugar, salt and pepper and mix to combine.  Spread the tomatoes out on the baking tray cut side up and cook until slightly softened, about 10 minutes.

Set aside to cool.

Tarte Tatin

Ingredients:

1 sheet of puff pastry

a beaten egg

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius

Grease 2 ramekins and trim the pastry to the size of the ramekin.  You will need to cut circles of pastry for each ramekin.

Line the bottom of the ramekin with the cherry tomatoes, cut side down.  Top with half the caramelised onion before topping with the pastry rounds.  Repeat with the other ramekin

Brush with beaten egg and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until looking ready to serve

Garnish the tarte with basil if you have some growing or sprinkle on a a few torn fresh mint leaves if you prefer

Serve with a green salad

Enjoy!

Labour party woes

No one could have escaped the battle for power that has been playing out by our Prime Minister and her Foreign Minister. Putting aside the ‘rights’ and ‘wrongs’ of how our Prime Minister assumed her role, there is much we can learn from the toxic battle. As we have been observing for a while now, this power struggle was bound to be destructive.

There has been a huge cultural shift from ‘me’ culture (back) to ‘we’ culture; that is, the way we are talking to ourselves about who and what we are – the consumer culture around us – is telling us that we are a (functioning) group - a crowd, a team, a choir, a book club, a community, a dance troupe and in this context, a party and a government of the larger group - and we are co-creators of all of these.

Contrast this new ‘we-ness’ with the more individualistic, competitive, ‘me against them’, “it’s all about me” culture of the 80s and 90s (think about Madonna’s video for ‘Material Girl’ or Brett Easton-Ellis’s book ‘American Psycho’ as great cultural examples of “me-ness” and of course, some could say, old style politicians), with significant events of recent times (most noticeable, the GFC) that have played a part in triggering this shift away from “me-ness” cultural values.

At the end of the day, we all need to pull together to survive.

One of the key themes that is shaping the current consumer culture is a strong desire for survival. Most of us recognise that survival is predicated on a large degree of reciprocal altruism where the desire of the individual is less relevant than the benefit for the collective. In response to this, we have shifted again to the three Cs: conversation, collaboration and collective creation.

Leadership battles are not inline with the cultural norms of today. One wonders, how our politicians (regardless of political alliance) can get it so wrong?

Everyone is going pro!

Last Monday night I went to a presentation of the new 2012 range of Fender guitars and amplifiers. I sat in an amphitheatre along with 600 other people and watched a stunning range of gleaming ‘Axes’ and amps put through their paces ... it then occurred to me that not everyone in the audience was a professional musician. In fact, most of the people were probably ‘enthusiasts’. I then remembered my recent visit to a well-heeled middle aged professionals home and seeing a stunning electric Fender guitar on display. Clearly a weekend rocker ... and yet 20 years ago the only people that owned Fender guitars were professional musicians. WHAT'S GOING ON???
Just look at the scores of Pinarello mounted, lycra clad weekend cyclists who might look like part of the Tour De France, but are clearly not paid cyclists!

What's becoming clear is that pro gear is now more accessible to the masses than ever before thanks to the internet and social media. It's easy for anyone to get up to speed on who has the best gear, how much it is and where to get it.

It's not a new strategy - Nike has been doing it for years, that is treating all of it's customers like they are athletes/pros. By doing this, Nike has amassed millions of people of all ages as consumers that can identify with their brand/products that are championed by athletes that perform at highest levels.



But what is new is the higher end, big ticket item categories are now using the same strategy - treating everyone as a pro. In fact, it seems the survival of high value niche products in our contemporary global marketplace is predicated by a brand positioning that is both elite and yet accessible to all with cash or a decent line of credit.

So move over David Bailey, I’ve got myself a new Nikon DSLR

Why do we Blog?

Blogs have often been accused of being just a public forum for self- aggrandisement, and perhaps sometimes rightly so.

But why do businesses take the time and trouble to write blogs and even record their own video blogs?

When a business blogs it talks in an appropriate tone of voice, hopefully in an informed manner to a highly targeted group of individuals about a topic they're interested in and is relevant to them.

And when we do this, we (hopefully) look good and re-affirm the loyalty of those people who have purchased our products in the past and may want to do business with us again. By the same token, we also hope that other people who have similar interests and aspirations will be drawn to our blog and affiliate themselves with the company. Some of the people who read our blog may be purchasing clients, suppliers to our organisation and/or others interested in working for the company (please email us if you are!).

The key benefit of blogging things that interest us, our clients, suppliers and potential employees is that any audience who reads our blog can get a much deeper understanding and sense of who we are, what we are about and how we operate as a business.

From a blog, people can begin to get a sense of the philosophy and values that a company holds important, i.e. does the organisation do interesting work, have original thoughts and ideas, does it have a sense of community, humour and fun?

Interestingly, by also writing a blog on behalf of a company you get to understand more deeply what appropriately reflects the company's style, values and even the ‘morals’ that you work for. As a writer for the In(side) Conversation Stancombe Research & Planning blog, there have been occasions when draft blogs fail to make the blog page. Simply put, the style of the writing or the content did not match the character of the organisation. Just by writing this now, I already have a much better sense of why I am blogging (Yes, this is another interesting point about blogs, they can be rather introspective!)

Sometimes by reading a company blog, team members also get a stronger sense of the organisation that they work for.

Perhaps all of this is self-evident. Perhaps all of this is blindingly obvious! So what do you think?

Is there more to blogging than this? Why do you or your company write blogs?

We would love to hear some thoughts.

CES 2012 - a quick and dirty review

Every year geeks, tech gurus and captains of gadgetery from around the world converge to attend the annual Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas, where manufacturers show-off their latest products and services in an attempt to set the standards and create buzz for the coming year.

It's always good to have a look at what made noise at the show to get a little insight into what's coming this year.

I'm a researcher not a tech expert, so if you want a detailed run down of show please visit www.pcmag.com/ces or http://ces.cnet.com/ - however if you are happy with a quick and dirty review, please read on.

• Smart TV's look like they will soon become the norm: are much like smart phones are today, smart TV's can connect to the net and do pretty much everything in a TV centric way, e.g. download Apps. Google TV is getting some traction, but manufacturers are still yet to find a common platform. Watch out for an Apple Smart TV announcement later in the year. 

• Implication: Once Smart TV's become mainstream, it's either going to get easier or harder to reach your target audience depending on your current digital marketing capabilities 

• Tablets are getting really really cheap: it won't be uncommon to be able to pick up a quality tablet for less than $300 in 2012

• Implication: Once tablets get really cheap, there are going to be millions of these devices sitting on coffee tables, kitchens and probably bathrooms meaning customer facing content (e.g. apps, websites, multi-media, email etc) will need to be tablet, smartphone and PC friendly

• Ultrabooks to become the standard (and cheaper): these new generation laptops are essentially thinner, lighter, bigger and more powerful than the average laptop, i.e. similar size and weight of a tablet with the power of a PC

• Implication: Cheaper quality tools for the new mobile generation workforce (and less shoulder strain)

• Mobile payments to boom: Paypal recorded 4 billion dollars worth of mobile payments in 2011, compare that to only 750 million in 2010 

• Implication: With more and more consumers willing to make paymetns on their mobile, expect more mobile marketing and sales initiatives (i.e. apps) being developed by either new startups or retailers themselves

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

The team at Stancombe wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

We'll see you back here in 2012!!

Making Social Media Work - Joining Up The Dots

Social media exists in the digital ether of the internet and while it is multi faceted it just sits in front of the end user on a computer screen.

Because social media sits on a computer screen it is two-dimensional and it’s life and personality is totally limited by the medium. Social media really comes to life when people step out from behind the monitors and begin to interact with objects and real people.

This interaction was demonstrated to me the other day when for the very first time a group of people who have joined a special interest group met for the very first time. The special interest group was rock climbing and the members of this SIG proposed a meet up at a local indoor climbing wall. A good time was had by all and suddenly the social medium environment became much more robust and meaningful.

It was at this point in time that a light bulb went on in my head and I realised why 7 Eleven have invested so heavily in their facebook page. We have talked about 7 Eleven before here and if we return to their social media page HERE we can see that they are really investing hard in this medium.

7 Eleven are using facebook to resolve customer service issues and also to promote products and specials. A problem resolved creates a happy customer. 

But more importantly, look at those snakes. I really fancy one. 

There is a 7 Eleven just up the road from my office; I’m nipping out to make this social media come alive right now.

I might even participate in the cult of Slurpee too!

Advertising - A Lifetime Return On Investment

Here I am, a late life stage individual in my fifties. I am someone who has been exposed to advertising all my adult life. I have a family and a reasonable job, consequently, I imagine that I have pretty high appeal to advertisers

The other day I was taken to wondering how much advertising I have been subjected to over the years and perhaps more importantly, I was wondering what the value of the total Australian domestic advertising spend directed at me is worth?

The Neo Global 2011 Advertising Forecast report suggests that every person in Australia is annually worth about $600 in advertising spend. So, if I had spent all of my adult life in Australia (only the last 23 years actually) the total index linked spend on just me during my adult life would have been about $A23,400 dollars.

Now my understanding of advertising is that brand loyalty is the holy grail of advertisers. The trial of new and existing products is obviously the first step towards loyalty but after trial we have to repurchase products and services. Eventually and gradually we become loyal consumers.

So the other day I tried to count up the number of products and brands that I am actually loyal to, meaning the brands that I stick with and am like to stay with both now and into the future.

Here is the surprisingly short list of brands that I am currently loyal to:

1. Guinness beer

2. Haviana thongs

3. Levi 501 jeans

4. Fruit of the Loom T shirts

5. Toyota cars

6. Diet Coke

7. Apple computers

8. Apple phones

9. The Google search engine

10. The Google Chrome web browser

11. Google Gmail email software

12. Xerox printers

If we dissect the list above we can see that all of the Google products are less than 10 years old, the iPhone is less than 5 years old and my loyalty to all of the technology products are conditional on them being the very best performers at the present time. You can be sure that if anything better comes along in the technology field (just like iPhones being much better than Nokias) I will drop the product that I currently own when upgrade time comes around and get the better product.

So six out of the twelve products listed above are recently developed, have not been subjected to the lifelong advertising spend that other products have and only have performance based loyalty. In fact, only the products listed from 1 to 6 have any form of real loyalty from me!

Now let's consider some of the other products that I regularly use:

1. The NAB

2. Qantas

3. The Qantas Frequent Flyer scheme

4. Audi cars

5. Optus mobile service

6. American Express credit cards

These are products that have been in my life for a long time, the credit cards and bank arrangements are due to the Qantas Frequent Flyer scheme linked rewards and let me tell you right now, if a better rewards scheme came along I wouldn't hesitate to switch away to a competing product

In short, this is a pretty sad list. Of the 17 products that have an identifiable place in my day to day life only six have any real embedded loyalty.

In my book that's a pretty poor return on a $23,000 life long investment in advertising dollars!

How many products are you loyal to?