The ad campaign includes national TV, cinema, lift ‘wraps’, radio, OOH, print and digital executions, while artistic interpretations of the A3 will be projected onto the back of the historic George Street warehouses during the Vivid Ideas festival in Sydney.

The projections will be visible to people walking between Camp Cove to the Museum of Contemporary Arts at The Rocks.

“The locally developed headline ‘Ahead of its class’ is a confident statement on the positioning of both the Audi A3, paying homage to our launch and continued development of the premium compact segment, and also to the Audi brand ethos – Vorsprung durch Technik,” says Audi general marketing manager, Kevin Goult.

“This campaign also sees us making the most of the largest out-of-home buy the company has ever purchased, with eye-catching billboards and clever media placements like our elevator wraps and consecutive street panels that allow us to promote the high level of quality on both the car’s exterior and interior, and standard features like leather upholstery, automatic climate control and multi media interface with touchpad, a full colour slimline pop-up screen and integrated radio,” Goult says.

The A3 has more than 2.7 million customers worldwide since it launched in 2007 and almost 18,000 Australian customers have owned the A3 since it was first launched.

The image was the brainchild of two of the coffee shops’ owners and was originally printed on stickers and then shared on social media, but was soon removed in response to the social media frenzy. One of the owners responsible for the ad campaign, Charl Laubscher told Marketing mag he was completely surprised at the reaction the poster has garnered.

“We’ve done everything we can to address the feedback we’ve received. We took the post down hours later, posted up a public apology for causing any offence, and provided an email address so that anyone who had questions or comments on the issue could address us directly,” he says.

“We then went on to contact some of the more vocal individuals who seemed to have taken particular issue with what we’d done, as we felt an honest conversation is always going to be the best way to resolve disputes. We’ve also been in touch with the local business association (with whom we’ve been getting along with really well) to make sure any complaints or concern have been dealt with, and asked them to contact us directly if any issues arise in the future.”

One particularly disgruntled social media user even created a now disabled Twitter account, which featured doctored images of the cafe’s original artwork, which Laubscher says he finds the most surprising about the whole ordeal. And at time of publication it appears the cafe has since deleted its own Facebook page plus its website.

“I suppose what surprises us most is when people won’t accept any sort of apology, or contact us directly about the issue,” he says.

“I wonder, if they’re so offended by the issue, and by people seeing it, why they would continue to post it up everywhere?”

Laubscher says the cafe appears to be unaffected by the ordeal so far, and has actually had some positives come out of this with the cafe’s loyal customers offering “some pretty amazing support”, but Laubscher knows they’re not quite off the hook yet.

“It’s hard to say what will happen in the long run,” he says.

Patricio De Matteis, managing director, Accenture Interactive Asia Pacific says irrespective of the type of media spend CMOs engage in, whether it be real-time bidding, convergence buys, performance buys or even direct buys, analytics are still essential in driving smarter digital purchases.

“Analytics allows for independent verification that the ads purchased ran accordingly; assists marketing teams to assess buy performance; has the ability to influence changes to forthcoming strategies and; assists companies in revising their media buying parameters therefore improving targeting and efficiency,” he says.

De Matteis, is also adamant that acquiring and retaining customer sales should remain at the top of the CMO priority list. “Today’s consumer has more control than ever before. They’re savvier, sceptical of traditional marketing methods and have greater access to products and services via the internet. Within this climate, it is becoming much more difficult to reach them and to measure marketing interactions,” he adds.

“Companies must evolve their marketing strategies to remain relevant to their customer.  Ideally, businesses will restructure the organisation to work horizontally to deliver seamless and relevant customer experiences across all points of interaction. This delivery of a consistent customer experience is essential to survival in the global marketplace.”

Investing in data analytics to improve understanding of changing consumer needs is something that CMOs should begin to invest in, which will in turn help them ultimately succeed with their customers.

This was made obvious in the Accenture 2012 CMO Insights Survey where nearly half of all CMOs said that in order to help retain and grow their customer base they will spend more on managing customer data, 40% will increase budget spend on web analytics and 39% will spend more on marketing analytics.

De Matteis says the marketing function of CMOs must undergo a dramatic overhaul in the next five years if it is to stay on top of evolving consumer behaviour.

Some of the significant changes he expects to see include:

- The rise of digital – as previously highlighted, businesses lack confidence in their digital capabilities and are realising the need for increased digitalisation. For this reason, we predict that everything digital – including budgets, social media and dedicated digital employees – will continue to rise.

- Investing in big data and analytics – CMOs have recognised the importance of analytics in understanding consumer intent. We therefore expect marketers to increase their spend in areas such as managing customer data, web analytics and marketing analytics.

Independent Sydney agency The Works is the recipient courtesy of its launch of its Jim Beam’s Devil’s Cut campaign. Awarded the Bronze Global Effie at a ceremony held in New York yesterday morning, just nine entries were shortlisted and The Works was the only agency from Australasia to make the finals.

It was recognised alongside its international agency partners StrawberryFrog in the US and Germany’s Jung von Matt.

The Works produced spot  has been so effective it has been used in key markets including the US and according to Paul Swann, creative partner at The Works, “It doesn’t get much better”.

“Winning an award that recognises the effectiveness of the advertising we produce… that’s the name of the game after all. What’s even better is that our work has not only delivered for Jim Beam locally but it has done the business internationally as recognised with this Global Effie.”

The 2013 Global Effie Awards were decided by top communications executives from across the world at judging events held in Singapore, Mexico, London and New York.

With Swann believing that the campaign is a win for creativity over boardroom politics, the award takes on extra significance.

“Clients are increasingly buying into our model of ‘Creatives on the forefront’ where the idea generators are more accountable and involved in their business and the layers of bureaucracy are stripped away. This award shows that it works,” he says.

In January The Works was handed the global account for Jim Beam along with StrawberryFrog and Jung von Matt following a pitch involving several international agency networks. The three agencies have formed a joint venture partnership called FutureWorks to manage the business with the brand’s first global campaign set to roll out later this year.

Having undergone a total rebranding after parent company Cypress Lakes Group Ltd entered into an exclusive partnership with The Biggest Loser producer Shine Australia, the Golden Door Health Retreat is the ideal fit. As one of the pioneers of the Australian health and wellness industry, 2013 marks The Golden Door Health Retreat’s 20^th year of operation.

As Australia stares down one of the largest health epidemics to face the nation, general health and wellbeing is a topical point of interest, as Andrew MacDonald, general manager of The Biggest Loser Retreat informs.

“… as we begin a new chapter, we look forward to utilising our knowledge and expertise in a more concentrated capacity to focus intently on what is a very real and serious health issue currently affecting over 60% of everyday Australians who are overweight or obese,” he says.

Nick Love, managing director of Shine 360 – Shine Australia’s rights and brand management arm agrees: “We are thrilled to partner with The Golden Door to bring The Biggest Loser brand and its philosophies to life in a real and accessible way for Australians. The Golden Door and The Biggest Loser share a common approach to healthy living and wellbeing, and pride themselves on making a positive and ongoing difference to peoples’ lives.”

Similar to the show itself, The Biggest Loser Retreat offers guests a tailored weight-loss program reflective of achieving lasting body fat loss. Key philosophies of movement, food, coaching and education are all included in the treatment.

“We are passionate about helping everyday Australians to turn their lives around; this is a life-changing experience that should be considered as a first step before pursuing irreversible surgery or embarking on an unhealthy eating regime,” says Dr Cris Beer, The Biggest Loser Retreat’s official doctor and expert in nutrition and health.

People can register their interest to attend now, while bookings for The Biggest Loser Retreat by Golden Door Australia can be made online from June.

Empowered by the ability to research, learn and compare online, buyers are increasingly resistant to push-based marketing approaches, triggering a shift from outbound- to inbound-dominated marketing. A hot topic in marketing circles over the past few years, inbound will break through the line this year, fuelling the use of social media, content marketing and PR as bait to attract buyers.

This in turn sparks another shift: the move from real-world contact to cyber interaction. For the first time the balance of spend in B2B looks set to tip to the side of digital marketing over traditional techniques.

Faced with this chain reaction of shifts, B2B marketers are stuck between realising the buyer is in control and adapting their tactics accordingly. A host of challenges prevent marketers from closing the gap between realisation and execution, as they grapple with problems old and new. However, Green Hat’s ‘B2B Marketing Outlook Australia 2013’, drawn from a survey of around 300 marketers, shows good news on the horizon.

Budget relief is on the way

The budget restrictions that have plagued the industry look set to relax this year (see Figure 1). Firms increasing their spend will outnumber those cutting back by three to one.

Marketing departments are also growing, says managing director at Green Hat, Andrew Haussegger. “The vast majority still have fewer than five team members, but we’re finding that a lot more companies are increasing the size of their teams to five and above… budget on salary is going up.”

While this elicits a sigh of relief in many, working with scarcity and deploying funds wisely will continue to be a necessity for marketers. David Redhill, chief marketing officer at Deloitte, believes budgets are being redirected and more closely managed in concert with other forms of business development. Spend intentions display a clear channeling of funds away from traditional demand generation, forecast to drop by eight% from a high of 36% two years ago, to digital marketing, which looks set to jump three% on last year.

Closing the gap on the buyer revolution

The era of the buyer is upon us, according to Chris Fell, managing director of inbound marketing specialists g2m Solutions. “A big sea change is occurring, underpinning a lot of the changes that are coming in marketing,” Fell says. “Marketers are struggling to figure out how to adapt to the new world that they’re faced with. There is a gap between realising the buyer is in control and changing the tactics and tools in the process.”

But the gap is starting to close. Marketers are realising they’re not the trusted source they once were. In such a climate, ideas are the new currency, says Redhill, noting buyers are increasingly looking past marketing to their industries’ opinion leaders. “When we talk about providers, we’re not talking about the sales and marketing people, because they don’t believe us – it’s the subject matter experts within our business.

Marketers plan to respond to this power shift by adopting inbound marketing in greater numbers than ever before. Last year, 42% said they spent more on outbound than inbound marketing, while only 22% spent more on inbound. This year, 35% will spend more on inbound, while only 31% will do the reverse, shifting the balance in favour of pull-based marketing tactics for the first time.

“Inbound marketing has broken through the line in the plans and intentions of marketers,” Haussegger says, pointing to a knock-on effect for social media, content marketing and public relations. One dollar in every seven will be spent on content marketing this year, Green Hat’s research reveals. Much of this will be deployed online.

The increased focus on inbound triggers another big shift for 2013: marketers channeling even great spend towards digital. The balance is expected to shift in digital’s favour for the first time by next year, if it hasn’t already. Anecdotally, the growth in spend planned for websites, online advertising, social media, SEO and SEM, as well as content marketing and lead management (see Figure 2), points to digital eclipsing traditional this year, Haussegger estimates.

“By next year, based on the trends we’ve seen over the last couple of years, we are certain more will be spent on digital… buyers are online and so the marketers are looking for them online.”

The number one digital tactic marketers will look to invest in during 2013 is websites; with 77% planning to increase spend on this asset. As technology improves, marketers are making websites an interactive place for people to visit, Fell notes. “Blogging, downloading stuff, testimonials, webinars, watching video – people are starting to use websites for places to go to interact with the organisation,” he says.

More B2B organisations are now creating and publishing social media content than aren’t, with incidence set to jump from 34% last year to 52% this year. “They’re either dipping their toe, ankle, knee or the rest of their body in social media,” Haussegger explains, “and the total inbound advocates are fully up to their necks.” Smaller, nimbler organisations are leading the way. “Some of the larger organisations are often more challenged around the rules dictating how they can actually apply their content in social media,” he adds. Only 17% are yet to have any involvement in social media.

Uncertainty over return appears to be holding the others back, Fell believes. “Some are, therefore, hesitant to jump in and commit large amounts of time and money to it.” Green Hat’s research supports Fell’s assertion, with only one in eight of the opinion that their investment to date has been worthwhile.

LinkedIn remains the most used – 82% tap its rich source of information on professionals – while 69% use Twitter (which Fell sees as an untapped force for lead generation), 66% are on Facebook, and others, including Google Plus, remain a blip on the radar. Content is being posted to YouTube by 54% and on industry blogs by 41%.

Being involved in LinkedIn is a no-brainer according to Kimon Lycos, founder of B2B agency Mihell and Lycos. “In terms of lead generation, in terms of sales performance, in terms of brand building, it’s unrivalled,” he says. There’s general agreement that marketers got their heads around LinkedIn in 2012, taking it beyond recruitment into lead generation and brand building territory.

On Facebook, opinions are mixed. Some believe it’s not a place for most B2B brands, while others think it’s a potential gold mine. Lycos sees it as the equivalent of looking at family pictures on a desk. “You’re able to get a snapshot of what their personal interests are, and then you can build rapport based on that. I think it’s also got great relevance with recruitment and demonstrating and displaying a company’s culture.”

Mobile

Coming in at number five on the priority list for digital tactics this year is mobile enablement, pointing to the market finally getting serious about mobile sites.

Lycos thinks there is a great niche for mobile catalogues and content marketing. “Conferences and events could make much better use of this technology to add more value to their events. I’d like to see stuff like match-making, so I could share the type of people I’m interested in meeting and be matched up with those people.”

Where does that leave ‘traditional’ marketing?

With buyers having migrated online, traditional techniques are failing, Haussegger believes. Once big-ticket marketing ploys are being cut back or, in some cases, stopped altogether.

Tradeshows and conferences, a mainstay of the B2B world, are also reducing in relevance according to Marketing’s sources, an assertion reflected in the data. There’s a belief bigger, longer events are no longer attracting top-level decision-makers, sparking a movement towards smaller, more personalised events.

B2B marketing is about effecting an introduction between a human salesperson a buyer, Fell says, pointing out events are still a strong tactic. Redhill sees events moving to those of greater value: “Seminars, report launches and private briefings are certainly eclipsing hospitality and feel-good event spend.”

Not all traditional disciplines are set to decline, however. Reflecting the shift to inbound, PR has stepped up to the top position for planned traditional marketing spend. Growth in PR is expected to come most strongly from SMBs.

Speed bumps and the road ahead 

Automation is the word on every marketer’s lips, with back-office procedures, such as integration with sales or CRM, proving the most troublesome over the past year. Rolled together, 60% of automation challenges selected by respondents reside in the back office, compared to 40% in front.

Automating lead nurturing and management was nominated as the most pressing challenge over the past year. The research found that one in every 12 dollars spent in 2013 will go to addressing this goal.

The age-old challenge of measuring ROI followed close behind, with the disconnect between marketing and sales one of the major factors clouding measurement. Marketers are unsure if sales follow up on around half of leads generated.

When it comes to using data to target buyers with relevance and context, it is still early days, Haussegger says, “But some marketers are on the road towards making one-to-one marketing a reality.”

“You need a lot of content to tailor to the different stages of the funnel,” Fell points out. “The journey takes a long time in B2B, and therefore you have to give them different tidbits at each stage, to accelerate them through the sales funnel, towards being qualified leads that you can then centre.” Interpreting and acting on the reams of data being collected is a further challenge, complicating the progress towards a one-to- one marketing model.

On the whole, however, Redhill thinks marketers are becoming increasingly sophisticated. “Better use of social media, better use of thought leadership and better use of data, they are all intertwined. I’ve seen increasing alignment of social media presence outside the business with brand objectives and use of data in the marketing formula, increasingly organically, so [there’s a] continuous feedback loop.”

With buyers now in control, marketers need to be more agile – ready to respond with what the buyer wants when they want it. “It used to be that business- to-business businesses are sort of like the aircraft carriers of the marketing world,” Redhill concludes. “It takes a long time to check and adjust, to get the market feedback, feed it into the sales model and adjust and change it.” In the era of the buyer, however, B2B marketing is quickly becoming a more agile craft.

Having sat in the Breakfast Show chair as its outspoken host since 2002, recording 82 consecutive ratings victories, Jones’ latest contract will see the recently-turned 72-year-old run the show until June 2015.

MRN Executive Chairman, Russell Tate, explained that the Macquarie Radio Network Board and its shareholders were confident with the decision as ”Alan is without doubt the most successful and influential broadcaster in the country” and is “sounding better now than ever” with the potential to go beyond the two years.

“He is fit and is still working as hard as he ever has… this contract gives us the right, if he chooses to continue beyond June 2015, to ensure he does so with 2GB,” he says.

The news comes on the back of a successful period for 2GB, with the station recording a 1.5% increase in overall share to 14.7%, positioning the station over 5% ahead of 702 and 9% ahead of 2UE.

Alan Jones improved 1.3 to 17.0% to again take the #1 position decisively hence simplifying the Macquarie Radio Network Board decision.

Each year, the ‘so-called Oscars’ of the advertising world chooses its media innovator, and the figure who has shaped the industry the most in that time and for 2013 the choice was easy.

“YouTube has become a global phenomenon under Salar’s leadership,” says Phillip Thomas, CEO of Cannes Lions. “The statistics say it all: more than one billion unique users a month watch more than six billion hours of video.”

Thomas also admitting that the one-time svp, video at Google who was responsible for creating the super-earning AdWords has since 2009 expanded YouTube into a global broadcast platform, recently launching its first paid channels.

Kamangar’s YouTube has also been lauded for launching TrueView, the advertising format whereby advertisers only pay for ads watched. There has been a doubling of the number of advertisers using it in the last year.

Kamangar receives the prestigious award June 19, during the 60th annual Cannes Lions festival.

The study commissioned by Retail Safari, part of the global CPM group, outlines the growing phenomenon of local and personalised marketing in a rapidly evolving and channel-saturated retail landscape.

ACRS research director Dr Sean Sands says the implications of companies developing stronger engagement within local communities is clear.

“Localisation is no longer just about customising creative messages and running a few local promotions, but has to integrate and involve all channels and touch points. It encompasses everything from strategy, pricing and merchandising to field teams, websites and media planning,”

“Fundamentally there needs to be a paradigm shift in the way marketers develop strategies for acquisition and sales,” he explains.

Some of the key outcomes of the study indicate that by centralising the strategic and operational development of localised marketing activities, organisations can expect significant cost savings while improving brand integrity and overall sales performance.

However, the benefits of thinking local also come with some barriers to developing a more locally focused approach – a key one being access to suitably skilled resources, understanding of local market dynamics, segmentation challenges and the high cost of Australian media.

Gingkai Tan, managing director of Retail Safari, believes the research validated the focus on driving local market penetration across multiple channels.

“This is not just an Australian phenomenon,” he says, “we are seeing our international businesses moving in the same direction, driven by the demands of the market and our clients.”

“The challenge for retailers and manufacturers today is clearly one of cost – how to manage national or global scale and resource availability with local market realities and profit opportunities”.

World Nutella Day was created in 2007 when Rosso, an American blogger living in Italy, thought there should be a day dedicated to Nutella each year. She runs dedicated social media channels about the day, and the event attracts participants from across the globe.

Rosso wrote the following in a blog on the World Nutella Day website after receiving the injunction: “The cease-and-desist letter was a bit of a surprise and a disappointment, as over the years I’ve had contact and positive experiences with several employees of Ferrero, SpA, and with their public relations and brand strategy consultants,” she writes.

A short while after Rosso made the legal action public to the thousands of World Nutella Day fans, Ferro SpA seemed to have had a change of heart, releasing this statement:

“Positive direct contact between Ferrero and Sara Rosso, owner of the non-official Nutella fan page World Nutella Day, has brought an end to the case. Ferrero would like to express to Sara Rosso its sincere gratitude for her passion for Nutella, gratitude which is extended to all fans of the World Nutella Day. The case arose from a routine brand defence procedure that was activated as a result of some misuse of the Nutella brand on the fan page. Ferrero is pleased to announce that today, after contacting Sara Rosso and finding together the appropriate solutions, it immediately stopped the previous action. Ferrero considers itself fortunate to have such devoted and loyal fans of its Nutella spread, like Sara Rosso.”

Rosso was completely taken aback from the actions of Ferrero SpA, concluding on her website, “There have been songs sung about it, short films created for it, poems written for it, recipes tested for it, and photos taken for it. The cease-and-desist letter was a bit of a surprise and a disappointment, as over the years I’ve had contact and positive experiences with several employees of Ferrero SpA, and with their public relations and brand strategy consultants.”

World Nutella Day is still expected to run on February 5 next year as planned.