The marketing and media world are rushing to get to market first with engagement metrics – or at least talk about them. But how is that playing out on the ground, and are brands ready? “Before you can go to market and thump the table and expect clients to buy to engagement, you need to be really clear about … the proof that engagement can deliver better results for brands,” says Foxtel Media’s Customer Engagement Director, Toby Dewar. Westpac brand, media and ad chief Jenny Melhuish says the bank is testing engagement and attention-based campaigns but agrees the metrics are yet to catch up with prevailing market sentiment. “The CPM metric is a rational one… we need to believe in the robustness of a metric, and currently, we don’t have a robust metric.” Either way, Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Anthony Gregorio says the creative is vital, whatever metrics people use: “If no-one is paying attention to your message, then it doesn’t really matter how good the media buy is.” See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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‘Before you thump the table and expect clients to buy engagement you need to prove it delivers better results’, says Foxtel; Westpac brand chief Jenny Melhuish agrees, but the bank is testing the water

Professor Mark Ritson was right all along: “90 per cent of marketers fail to brief agencies effectively, and their failures begin with a total lack of strategy.” The headline findings of the Better Briefs Project and its research spanning 1,700 marketers and agencies make for grim reading. Marketers don’t even realise their briefs are mostly duds, yet agencies are “screaming for objectives”, according to report co-creators, strategists Pieter-Paul von Weiler and Matt Davies. Unless things improve, marketer tenures – and marketing and advertising’s standing within boardrooms – will continue to decline. But there are some very simple fixes. Applying them promises to repair the marketer-agency disconnect – and deliver advertising that moves the needle.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The $200bn black hole: Marketers wasting a third of budgets by giving agencies crap briefs, don’t even know their strategy is non-existent; here’s the proof and how to fix it

How a marketer’s budget is set is often doomed to fail, Pet Circle CMO Jon Wild says. Typically, it stems from a business’s growth target. “There’s an arbitrary increase to marketing spend and you’re told to go hit the target. Typically, you fall short in the first quarter, and it’s death by a thousand cuts for the remainder of the year.” That method is “set up for failure”, he says. Rather, growth should be function of the whole company – with marketing being one factor – working towards those targets. Budgets and spend is the last of eight steps detailed in a new book from Atomic212’s James Dixon and Claire Fenner on how to build an Effective Media System. “The place we want to get to is where we know for every dollar we spend on media, what we’re going to get back out,” Dixon says. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Marketers ‘set up for failure’ by arbitrary growth targets and short-term budget boosts, but building a scientific model can get C-suite buy in

10 ViacomCBS will headline its 2022 Upfronts by touting its credentials as a more diverse, full-service broadcaster with room to grow and a big hitting content slate straight out of the gates. I’m a Celebrity starts on January 3, with Survivor and MasterChef hot on its heels. After that, “you’re into that pattern of big franchises all year,” says Chief Content Officer Beverley McGarvey. “It’s about consistency, maintaining big brands, but also adding some fresh content and fresh shows.” The network is investing heavily in streaming service Paramount+, which McGarvey admits is “a hungry beast that you need to feed with lots of new shows all the time”. Key to the new 10ViacomCBS offering is its full suite: “Paramount+, 10Play, MTV, Nickelodeon… we don’t run those businesses separately,” Jarrod Villani, Chief Operating and Commercial Officer, says. “Bev and I have oversight over all of those businesses.” See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

10 ViacomCBS’s Upfronts preview: I’m a Celebrity, Survivor, MasterChef, the streaming shift from primetime ratings to lifetime engagement and ‘feeding the hungry beast’

Dell tops US$94 billion in revenues, but it had been in a perpetual street fight on pricing for years and was losing margin with brand health metrics flatlining. With a new premium push it went large on brand, inviting Australia’s publishers to pitch their ideas. Around 150 publishers turned up, the response blowing away marketing boss Arjun Dueskar. Opting to go with 10ViacomCBS and MediaCom, the results have been “phenomenal” with double-digit growth continuing quarter on quarter since the start of 2020 and brand metrics rocketing. Now marketing is getting all the plaudits – and board backing to go harder on brand investment.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Apple turned-over: How Dell pulled out of price wars to go premium with a massive brand push, smashed sales and made a hero of marketing in the process

The QR code was once the daggy tech no-one wanted - but it’s now back, and even David “Kochie” Koch’s 87-year-old mother is using them. Five years of e-commerce development has been squeezed into the past 18 months, and Aussies haven’t been able to spend their money in lockdowns. “The economy is going to come out with a vengeance,” Koch, the host of Seven’s Sunrise and Pinstripe Media chair, says. People have money and they want to spend it. Forward bookings with Seven are “extraordinary”, Chief Revenue Officer Kurt Burnette says. “71 per cent of connected TV viewers use their mobile to look up related content… the time between being inspired and purchasing is shrinking,” he says. “All of these trends that are happening are making this the perfect storm.” Coles CMO Lisa Ronson says e-commerce sales have soared – and they don’t expect them to slow. Brands that aren’t ready will be left behind. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

‘Perfect storm’ of tech, e-commerce and household savings growth means brands are about to hit pay dirt, say Coles CMO Lisa Ronson, Seven’s David Koch, Kurt Burnette

The second and final episode in our two-part series breaks down five of the six recommendations in the ACCC report to the Federal government on the Digital Advertising Services inquiry – the first recommendation was covered in Part 1 yesterday. On the mics again today for the follow up are Peter Leonard, Professor of Practice at UNSW Business School, advisor at law firm Gilbert + Tobin and principal of Data Strategies; Gai Le Roy, CEO at the IAB; Dan Stinton, Managing Director at The Guardian Australia and Kristiaan Kroon, Chief Investment Officer at OMG. Buckle in because as our experts say in this two-part series, apathy won’t work for the industry this time. It's no time to ignore the regulators.    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Part 2: Cheat’s guide to the ACCC’s final Digital Advertising Services report - the six recommendations unpacked

Avoid reading another 200 page ACCC probe with this two-part series on the regulator’s final recommendations to the Federal Government from the Digital Advertising Services Inquiry. Google is squarely in the spotlight but as our panel of industry experts warn, what the ACCC is doing to Google is an early signal for broader industry. In today’s heavyweight line-up: Peter Leonard, Professor of Practice at UNSW Business School, advisor at law firm Gilbert + Tobin and Principal at Data Strategies; Dan Stinton, Managing Director at The Guardian Australia; Gai Le Roy, CEO at the IAB and Kristiaan Kroon, Chief Investment Officer at OMG.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Part 1: Cheats guide to the ACCC’s final Digital Advertising Services Inquiry - everything explained for marketers, agencies, media and tech

Consider a few stats: The Discovery Channel, Turbo, TLC and Animal Planet are having their best ratings years – ever. Back catalogue episodes are booming: Video on-demand consumption of Friends is up 103 per cent. Fifty-six per cent of people have watched more food and cooking shows, and 70 per cent of them said they would keep watching more post-lockdowns. New viewing habits are here to stay. Brands with environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals can tap into this by targeting ads to those audiences. “If someone is going to sit down and watch an hour-long documentary on conservation, then they must be interested in that space,” Rebecca Kent, Discovery’s Senior Vice President of Transformation, says. “There’s lots of opportunity, I’m not seeing us capturing it yet.” Tim Christlieb, BBC Studios’ Director of Branded Services, says the era of a hidden sustainability web page are over. Meanwhile, when we’re all on video calls, all we can talk about is what we’re watching, Foxtel Media’s Daniella Serhan says. “We’re making it really easy for… brands to a part of that conversation.” See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Australian brands are behind on ESG messaging, but post-Covid TV viewing habits, and booming back catalogues, make for a fast – and sustainable – solution

When Covid hit, BWS went all out to help local suppliers, which already battered by floods and bush fires, faced risk of extinction. BWS ditched its pre-Covid plan and campaign went all out for localism, launching a competition for independent brewers, distillers and winemakers to get stocked across its 1,400 stores, creating a marketing template for local suppliers to lift and getting locals to vote for the brands stores would stock. The new plan “smashed it,” according to Head of Marketing Vanessa Rowed. The retailer had been hoping for a 5 per cent sales increase, but hit 20 per cent, delivering the “highest ROI of any campaign we’ve run”, according to Carat’s Bianca Falloon. As states plot routes out of lockdown, Rowed thinks localism is here to stay. Meanwhile, she says local brands can help solve the supply chain crunch looming large over Australia’s Christmas retail – and says the Covid “sprint” has permanently changed BWS’ marketing strategy.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Walking the talk: BWS’ top marketer on how going all out for local booze brands lifted sales 20%, permanently changed its marketing strategy

John Wild, the Chief Marketing Officer for Pet Circle, invites his CFO to creative pitches and hires analysts with better data coding skills than the finance team. Why? So they can understand his job and buy into the creative messaging. “It’s incumbent on you to make [CFOs] your friend,” he says. “Make marketing look and smell very much like a financial output. Suddenly, when it comes to cutting costs, you’re not cutting costs, you’re cutting growth, you’re cutting customers, you’re cutting revenue.” Nicole McInnes, Director of Marketing at WW (formerly Weight Watchers), says she used to have “dark weeks” when she worked at eHarmony – when the time came to review media spend. “There is still a lot of misunderstanding in non-marketing executives on the effectiveness of some channels because they don’t have that data,” she says. Too many marketers don’t understand the basics of media and how to demonstrate media’s value, Atomic212’s James Dixon and Claire Fenner say. So much so, they’ve written a book – quite literally – on the topic. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

‘I invite my CFO to creative pitches’: Pet Circle CMO John Wild says hiring analysts, using data bridges destructive divide between finance and marketing, protects budgets

SiteMinder is likely the biggest Australian tech company you’ve never heard of. The $1.1billion hotel booking system unicorn is headed for an IPO – so that will likely change. But what must also shift is Australia’s attitude to B2B marketing as the boring, rational sibling to B2C, says CMO Mark Renshaw. It’s where the smart money is headed, Renshaw reckons, and can teach FMCG marketers everything they need to know about going direct-to-consumer. Meanwhile, the former Leo Burnett Chief Digital Officer says in-housing is where it’s at – and that media and marketing guns can get a far “deeper” business education sitting within brand teams than agencies. He’s bucking the holdco consolidation model and working with specialists instead, and thinks ANZ’s top talent need no longer head oversees to pick up experience with global giants; the local tech scene provides far more opportunity to drive change than taking instructions from global HQ.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Attitude adjuster: IPO-bound Australian unicorn SiteMinder CMO plots growth surge as travel rebounds, but says brands, agencies have B2B marketing – and in-housing – all wrong

Most publishers are winding down print operations. David Jones is ramping up – since launching a print magazine five years ago it has seen consistent double-digit growth across each of its digital channels. “The customer is overwhelmed with choice,” David Jones Marketing Communications General Manager Georgia Hack says. So the retailer decided to curate and repurpose its existing branded content into print. “Yes, it is a printed magazine, but it also is a blog on our website. It's a pillar in our email content strategy. It's a pillar on social.” And it’s delivering. News Corp’s Managing Director of Commercial Content, Mike Connaghan, says the need for content can be draining. “All marketers face a chasm of content creation,” he said. “They need the content to fill those channels.” Naturally, News has a solution: David Jones works with its content agency Medium Rare, whose group content director Nick Smith says the secret to branded content success comes down to treating the consumer like a human being. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

David Jones launched a print mag – and it drove double-digit growth across all its digital channels. Now it’s moving more marketing budget

Launched by a former stockbroker and Booktopia’s CTO, Australian fintech Superhero has ripped up the start-up playbook and powered to massive growth off the back of out of home and TV. “To create big impact and really reach scale, brand awareness and credibility, fast... digital just is not going to get you there,” says marketing lead Rachel Hopping. With CommSec and the big four banks worried, she and Hardhat’s Dan Monheit are planning the retail investment and superannuation management platform’s next major push. With 12m Australian trading virgins to target, the plan is to go large – with an IPO more than likely.     See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

‘Digital is just not going to get you there’: How fintech Superhero binned the start-up playbook, went large on TV and OOH, smashed growth targets – and is only just getting started

Australia’s streaming market is already crowded. There are only so many people who can sign up to Netflix, Stan, Prime, Binge, Kayo and the rest. That’s before you get to affordability issues – and the audiences for advertisers have been dwindling. Enter AVOD: advertising-based video on demand, where users pay less (or nothing) to see fewer ads. “It will allow people to really target their audience in a way they’ve never been able to do before,” says Foxtel board director Mark Kaner. Foxtel Media CEO, Mark Frain, forecasts ad-supported streaming platforms will come to Australia “pretty quickly”. The future, he says, is lower ad loads – viewers won’t stomach 16 minutes per hour – but more innovation. Thirty second, 10 second, and even shorter ads are paying dividends in the US. Now the Australian market has to prepare for launch – and the return of eyeballs. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Foxtel: ‘SVOD will replace Pay TV, AVOD will replace linear TV’; Australia must prepare now for the advertising-based video streaming boom taking off in the US – because it’s about to land

A weekly wrap of the “must-know” developments in Marketing, Media, Agency and Technology for leaders and emerging leaders in the industry. Veteran industry journalist and Mi3 Executive Editor Paul McIntyre talks each week with guest marketers who are in the know on what matters at the nexus of marketing, agencies, media and technology. Powered mostly by Human Intelligence (HI).

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