Retailers: Start taking your mobile infrastructure seriously

by Shaun Dobbin ON 14 May 2013

Think long-term investment when it comes to your mobile strategy, Shaun Dobbin urges, noting that mobile works wonders… if it’s done properly.

Over 54% of Australians own a smartphone and just over 22 million Australians own some sort of mobile device. It’s now almost critical for businesses to ensure they are accessible over multiple mobile channels.

But is your retail business ready for this investment?

It’s time to take a step back and have a look at your digital infrastructure – is it second rate? Did you choose a cheaper system because you felt it would be better to invest money into a more tried, tested and traditional marketing strategy? If the answer is yes, then we need to have a frank discussion.

Too often I see retailers regret the fact that they didn’t spend that little bit more money and go for a higher quality digital infrastructure. Now they’ve realised mobile is the place for businesses to be and all of a sudden we have some problems.

Many organisations made the decision long ago to not put in a serious investment when it came to creating and building a digital product or service.

Today, as a mobile marketing solutions agency, we are seeing so many retailers and businesses coming to us for help with mobile, but having to delay the initiative due to some serious issues with the current infrastructure.

Instead of updating the system, however, sometimes we see organisations that are forcing their prior systems to be used, due to having neither the time nor the inclination to treat it as important for creating the best customer experience. Because of this, retailers are failing to deliver on great experiences for customers – experiences that their competitors can and will deliver better.

It’s now time for retailers to start thinking of mobile as one of their core marketing channels. Many retailers make the mistake of thinking that mobile is a one-off, short-term campaign that is going to deliver fast results in a cheap and easy fashion.

So who holds the mobile mantle in your business? Every business needs someone to take ownership and start to champion mobile internally to deliver the best customer experiences.

Mobile is a fantastic way to target on-the-go consumers and ensure a brand is visible, no matter what the target market is doing or what device they are using.

It’s not a quick fix, however. Mobile can be a slow burn and it must be considered a long-term investment – one that will be critical for business success in the upcoming years.

Take eBay for example; it is extremely successful in the mobile space and it’s because it put its money into investing in mobile early. It understood the shift that smartphones were going to provoke in consumers and began to prepare its business to accommodate this shift.

Obviously not everyone can be eBay, and not all retailers have a massive budget for marketing, but the point is that the mobile device is becoming the central control system in consumers’ lives. Many consumers would prefer to leave their wallet at home than their smartphone. It’s a very, very powerful tool.

I understand it is human nature to stick with what you know and it’s a common mistake made at board level to go with the status quo, because it’s what’s been done previously and it works. It’s so easy to think, ‘But what if it doesn’t work? How about we just stick with what we know has worked before, like our brochures?’

The problem with this mentality is consumer behaviour is changing so quickly that what has worked today, or last week, just may not have the same effect tomorrow and businesses need to keep up with these behaviours or risk being left behind.

There have been numerous reports created that show the high increase of ROI in mobile. It works, but you need to give it the attention it needs to execute an appropriate strategy. Don’t just put in money for mobile marketing – make it a core part of your business.

For those of you who are deciding to move into the mobile space, but may be worried about cost or the quality of your dedicated web infrastructure, I suggest moving your system into the cloud. There has been a massive shift over the last two to three years from dedicated infrastructure to organisations moving into the cloud, and it’s of great benefit to any organisation that takes mobile marketing seriously.

The cloud, when configured in line with best practices, allows your server system to scale infinitely-able to handle major increases in traffic during peak times. This is something that could have been avoided by the retailers involved in the Christmas Click Frenzy fiasco had they leveraged industry best practices. In case of a service disruption to a data centre, the cloud provides services that are across many regions to avoid downtime.

This is something that couldn’t have been achieved four years ago, but, more importantly, it could never have been achieved at the cost benefit that you can get now. For smaller businesses that are looking to invest but feel as though they can’t compete with the big retailers, this is the beauty of cloud computing.

Gone are the days where you had to create and build up a dedicated infrastructure and agree to a lengthy contract. Now even the smallest business can get started for as little as a couple of hundred dollars a month and this has really levelled the playing field.

The greatest characteristic of cloud computing infrastructure means it can expand as your business expands. Retailers don’t need to have million-dollar budgets anymore to set up a great customer experience online and on mobile.

So please, if you are seriously interested in investing in mobile and are dedicated to creating the best customer buying experience possible, then invest in a quality infrastructure, put together a serious mobile budget and strategy, and begin working with mobile as one of your core marketing strategies.

News Limited moves to metered paywall

by Marketing ON 9 May 2013

News Limited has announced the launch of a new digital subscription service for The Daily Telegraph and Herald Sun called news+.

The metered paywall includes the integration of content from FOX SPORTS with News’ masthead sports content and an enhanced ability to serve local audiences with targeted content, which meets specific interests and needs.

The new subscription service will come into effect on May 16, with The Daily Telegraph and Herald Sun online to be the first sites to implement new product offers incorporating news+.

Other News Limited publications, AdelaideNow and The Courier-Mail are set to launch online additions in June this year.

New Limited says the new-metered sites will contain up to 20% more content and models will vary slightly across Australia, in accordance with each local market.

News Limited CEO Kim Williams says, “Our new digital subscription service for the Herald Sun and The Daily Telegraph with the exciting addition of news+ marks an important landmark for News Limited as we continue paving the way for commercially sustainable models for quality journalism and digital innovation in Australia.”

“The refreshed sites follow from extensive customer research and user testing. The new designs reflect what our customers tell us they want – they are faster, offer easier and more intuitive navigation, have up to 20% more homepage content than the sites they replace with better presentation and auto-adjustments tailored for a wide range of different digital devices.”

The new digital subscription products will also enhance New Limited’s data capabilities and their new approach will put a heavier focus towards targeted advertising.

IAB announces new CEO: digital and mobile key focus

by Marketing ON 7 May 2013

Former GroupM Interaction regional chief operating officer Alice Manners has been announced chief executive of the Interactive Advertising Bureau Australia.

She takes up the key position after the exit of outgoing CEO Paul Fisher who resigned in 2012 to take up a regional role as head of media for audience measurement firm Nielsen.

After a four-month search, Manners begins work in August, and IAB chair Mark Britt is embracing the change, while looking to leverage her 14-plus years in both local and international digital worlds.

“The online industry has gone through a huge transformation in the past year and with more change ahead, it is perfect that we’ll now have someone of Alice’s calibre and experience heading up our peak trade association for online,” he says.

With the internet set to pass television in 2013 as the country’s biggest medium by advertising spend, Manners explains that, ”Digital will undeniably begin to lead discussions at the top table, and the opportunity to manage IAB Australia’s transition through this growth was one that I could not resist,” she says.

MYOB teams up with Westpac help small business get online

by Marketing ON 30 April 2013

MYOB and Westpac have announced their plans to advance the digital business capabilities of small businesses, with Westpac also also committing to get 100,000 Australian small businesses online.

The ‘Westpac Ready for Business Report’, surveyed 1000 small to medium sized businesses and 1000 Australian consumers and found that of those businesses, 53% did not have a website but 50% of the consumers said they always use the internet to research prior to purchasing a product or service and a further 53% of respondents said they spent more than an hour a week shopping online.

“The results demonstrate a divide between the ‘digital haves’ and the ‘digital have-nots.’ Many businesses without digital tools such as a website and online invoicing and payment capabilities are competitively disadvantaged,” says Westpac general manager, retail banking, Gai McGrath.

The report found that two of the biggest challenges for small to medium businesses getting set up and knowing where to start, indicating a need for additional support.

“The research also found that 53% of small businesses surveyed believe that they have missed out on business opportunities due to not having a website. These figures suggest that a large group of Australian businesses are missing out on a significant amount of money as a consequence,” says McGrath.

To combat this, Westpac in conjunction with MYOB have developed a digital toolkit called ‘Ready for Business’ which offers small to medium businesses an opportunity to grow their business in the digital space. their business, all in one place.

MYOB CEO Tim Reed says the new technology will provide real advantages for these groups of businesses.

“Businesses taking up Ready for Business will be able to build an attractive website, raise invoices, get paid online and integrate this with their business bank account where transactions are automatically fed through to their online accounting. What’s more, they will get help along the journey from MYOB and Westpac experts,” he says.

Infographic: Mad Men mob would be digesting metrics instead of martinis in 2013

by Marketing ON 23 April 2013

Correlating with the latest season of Mad Men, Responsys examines the history of the marketing industry over the six decades since the hit advertising-themed show was fictionally set.

A lot more has changed in that time than the disappearance of boozy lunches and the increasing abundance of females in senior creative and executive roles (wait…)

Put simply, the marketing industry has changed significantly over the 1960s, in some areas more than others.

“Mad Men shows just how fast the marketing industry continues to evolve. These developments didn’t happen by accident; rather they were a response to rapidly changing consumer behaviour and demands,” says Paul Cross, president of Responsys Asia Pacific.

Cross says that, in Australia, marketers are still dealing with this shift, with modern consumers going digital, fast-forwarding through advertising on TV, reading fewer articles in print and heading online for information.

“We’re now in the era of customer-focused, relationship marketing,” says Cross. “Brands need to move away from mass-market, broadcast advertising and harness digital technologies to develop lasting, one-on-one relationships with their customers.”

From the launch of the Xerox fax machine in 1964, the first electronic message in 1971 and the introduction of early telemarketing, it seems the World Wide Web in 1991 was what changed the game completely.

From data analytics experts, revolutionised mobile communications, and the fact that 70% of companies now have a chief marketing technologist as of 2013, things have clearly evolved exponentially for marketers.

“Who knows,” says Cross, “maybe if Don Draper was around today he’d be digesting metrics instead of martinis for lunch!”

Australia leads the way as online shopping passes $1 trillion worldwide

by Marketing ON 16 April 2013

A recent report from eMarketer finds that in 2012, B2C ecommerce passed a trillion dollars US in a single year for the first time. Of this, Australia’s share was US$36.2 billion with in excess of 10 million people, or almost half of the country’s population, turning to the digital world for their shopping needs in 2012.

Spending an average of US$3547 per person, this average expenditure per online buyer is 54% higher than the US and the highest in the world, next to the UK.

eMarketer estimates the average for Australia will grow by 7.2% to more than US$3800 per online buyer this year.

High levels of dissatisfaction with the physical shopping experience continue to be attributed to shoppers’ dissatisfaction with price, availability of brands, service and visual merchandising.

Although online continues to rise, there still remains a high percentage of sales made in stores, yet eMarketer explains that operators of mainstream shopping centres need to strengthen their physical presence while investing online to capitalise on a multifarious market.

The Opera House and Samsung announce three-year partnership

by Marketing ON 16 April 2013

Samsung and the Sydney Opera House have entered into a three-year partnership that will see Samsung as the tourist attraction’s official partner. The multi-million dollar deal will see Samsung become the Opera House’s first official ‘principal partner’ and is set to be the biggest arts sponsorship in Samsung Australia’s history. Samsung will also provide technological support as part of the deal.

“The potential audience for all the Opera House’s incredible work is every Australian in the country. We want to help make this a reality. At Samsung we passionately believe technology can better people’s lives, and bringing the Opera House’s best-in-class arts and education content to more Australians than ever is our ultimate goal with this sponsorship,” says Samsung electronics Australia marketing director, Arno Lenior.

As part of the launch Samsung is ‘handing the Opera House sails over to the public for the first time’ giving the public the opportunity to submit photos that will be projected onto the sails of the Opera House the night of the launch on 23 April, transforming the Opera House sails into a ‘portrait of this country and its people’.The launch of the new partnership will coincide with the launch of Samsung’s new Galaxy S4 device.

Sydney Opera House CEO, Louise Herron says of the deal, “The partnership is in every sense about the next generation of the Opera House. It is our mission to welcome, engage and inspire people through the quality, breadth and ambition of what we offer. I am thrilled that on the eve of our 40^th anniversary in October, Samsung, a leading international brand which shares our focus on creativity, excellence and innovation, has partnered with us to enhance people’s experiences of the Opera House and to help us cater to new generations of visitors through new generations of technology.”

Web designer role evolves, pushing into digital publishing

by Marketing ON 15 April 2013

The times they are a-changing for web designers, according to results of a survey by digital industry body AIMIA and Adobe. The ‘Web Design Survey’ found web designers are expecting a large increase in mobile development, particularly video and apps, as well as an increase in integrated and interactive advertising across all platforms, and growth in HTML5. Many also predicted that design and programming will become more interchangeable and the use of cloud apps will increase.

Web designers from the digital publishing, interactive design and content for mobile disciplines were asked how their roles were changing over the past year. 95% of those surveyed felt their roles had changed, many saying they were expected to take on new areas of work like digital publishing, interactive design and content for mobile platforms.

The survey also found:

25% of respondents noticed an increase in time spent working on websites optimised for mobile,
62% said they’ve seen an increase in demand to create interactive advertising for digital publications,
77% of respondents stated that between 70 to 100% of their design work is for online use,
89% use online services such as Dropbox, and 37% use paid services, and
51% of web designers surveyed said their organisations engage with social media at least once a day.

AIMIA CEO John Butterworth says web designers are having to increase their skill set in alignment with an increase in mobile content development.

“These survey results demonstrate how the ever-changing digital industry is requiring web designers to broaden their skill sets to meet new demands within their roles,” he says.

“The results saw respondents name HTML5 and CSS3 as skills to develop over the next 12 months which reaffirmed an increase in demand for interactive design and mobile content development.”

Centralised media focus brings major rejig at Fairfax

by Marketing ON 4 April 2013

The latest reshuffle to hit Fairfax is led by the creation of a new national sales team which will represent all publications previously managed within Metro Media, Financial Review Group, Fairfax Regional Media and Agricultural Media.

Fairfax’s latest move has again been motivated by the ever-evolving new media landscape with agencies looking well beyond traditional means to turn more dollar.

The multi-pronged new team will take charge of metropolitan publications including The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Canberra Times; Business publications including The Financial Review, BRW and Smart Investor; Rural and regional publications including more than 200 mastheads.

It includes display advertising in Fairfax’s classified and transactional businesses with Domain, MyCareer, RSVP and Stayz, with other Fairfax brands such as Daily Life, Drive, Essential Baby, Good Food and The Vine all being covered.

Fairfax chief executive Greg Hywood says of the overhaul: “Fairfax has an enviable set of advertising clients. In many cases, our deep relationships with these clients span multiple Fairfax divisions, functions and brands [so] consolidating these relationships will allow us to work in true partnership and make the most of Fairfax’s large, diverse and valuable audiences.”

Meanwhile, local and direct sales for regional publications will continue to operate independently of the National Sales Team, and the Fairfax Radio Sales team will remain within the Fairfax Radio division.

Fairfax digital gun Ed Harrison has been promoted to lead the National Sales Team as Group Sales Director, reporting to newly appointed Managing Director, Australian Publishing Media, Allen Williams. But on the flipside, Metro Media chief executive Jack Matthews and Regional publishing head Allan Browne depart the company.

The management structure of the National Sales Team will be broadcast late April.

Actually, Australian ad spend dropped in 2012, says Carat

by Marketing ON 26 March 2013

Publishing its first forecasts for worldwide advertising expenditure in 2014, as well as revisions on 2012 and 2013 figures, Carat has forecast Australian advertising spend to achieve positive growth this year and next, but has downgraded Australia’s 2012 figures from positive 1.0% to negative 1.1%.

Australian ad spend in 2013 is expected to achieve 1.5% growth, a downward revision from 2.0% made at the previous forecast in August last year. And in its first look at 2014, Carat sees the Australian market maintaining modest growth of 1.4% in the positive.

Based on data received from 57 markets around the world, Carat predicts further positive momentum for global advertising expenditure in 2014, increasing by 5.0%, while the latest 2013 forecast is for 3.7% growth.

Digital advertising is expected to reach a share of 20% globally by next year, which is increasing on average 2% each year, with digital advertising already the dominant medium in the UK, the Netherlands and Sweden.

Even Western Europe, following two consecutive years of decline, is likely to return to growth as it benefits from the increase in multi-platform opportunities and the resulting increase in digital spend, Carat says.

From a global perspective, growth in advertising spend continues to be led by two of the original BRIC economies of Russia and Brazil who are forecast to continue delivering double digit growth in 2014. Russia will be boosted by the Winter Olympic Games and Brazil from the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Why are marketing budgets going digital?

by Mark Cameron ON 25 March 2013

The way marketing budgets are being spent has changed a lot recently. Recent issues of marketing and advertising trade magazines are consistently highlighting that the advertising industry is in the midst of major disruption. The thematic trend in these types articles are backed up by an Econsultancy report which shows that 71% of businesses world-wide are planning on increasing their spend on digital marketing this year.

So what’s going on? Why is the marketing industry increasingly going digital?

The article ‘Marketing is dead‘ published on the Harvard Business Review website in August last year provides some insight. It cites research showing that 73% of CEOs think that “CMOs lack business credibility and the ability to generate sufficient business growth” and 77% of the same CEOs have “had it with all the talk about brand equity that can’t be linked to actual firm equity or any other recognised financial metric.” These damning statistics suggest that in the current post-GFC world the traditional ‘soft’ metrics so often used to justify marketing spend are failing to deliver. Business leaders want each dollar spent on marketing to be linked back to sales figures. Business leaders are attracted to digital marketing, and social media as these channels excel in these areas. Every activity can be measured, in real time, down to a single click.

Another, far more important factor is that the consumer is driving real change in the market, forcing brands to interact in new ways. Social media and the consumption of content through digital channels have now reached near ubiquity. While this will not spell the end of TV, radio and newspapers, digital is capturing an increasingly larger proportion of market share. Furthermore today’s consumer is sophisticated. When she wants something, she wants it personalised, and she wants it right away. Only the online environment can meet these kinds of demands.

The final part of the puzzle is that businesses simply do not have the skills required to keep up with the pace of change and are looking to invest. A 2012 IBM study, ‘Fast track to the future, The 2012 IBM Tech Trends Report‘, found that across the four technology areas it explored – mobile, business analytics, cloud and social business – only one in ten organisations had all the skills it needed. Within each area, roughly one-quarter reported major skill gaps and 60% or more reported moderate to major shortfalls. An integrated approach digital marketing would address all of these areas so it makes sense to invest wisely.

With all of this budget upheaval the one thing that can be guaranteed is that the marketing industry is going through a major disruption. When it emerges from this phase it will permanently altered – and this is a really big deal. As the famous management author Peter Drucker said, “Business has only two basic functions: marketing and innovation.”

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Samsung confirms new smartwatch is in the works

by Marketing ON 21 March 2013

Hot on the heels of speculation that Apple is developing a smartwatch, Samsung confirmed reports that it too is preparing a connected wristwatch, probably under the Galaxy brand.

“We’ve been preparing the watch product for so long,” Lee Young Hee, executive VP of Samsung’s mobile business, told Bloomberg during an interview in Seoul. “We are working very hard to get ready for it. We are preparing products for the future, and the watch is definitely one of them,” he added.

The Samsung executive was coy about giving out details on the upcoming smartwatch functionality, including how much it would cost or when it will be available to buy. However, a ‘source with direct knowledge’ quoted by Reuters claims the smart wristwatch will perform many tasks of a smartphone.

Samsung’s acknowledgement gives credence to images posted in February on a South Korean message board, which purportedly show the interface of the smartwatch.

The images indicate the device would be called the Galaxy Altius, with features such as a clock, music player, maps, and an email client. It apparently runs on a customised version of Android, like the rest of the Samsung Galaxy devices line.

Although the Galaxy Altius would not be first smartwatch from Samsung, the timing of the new product confirmation is peculiar. Last month, the New York Times and Bloomberg reported that Apple has a team of around 100 engineers and product designers working on a smartwatch that would have some iPhone and iPad functionality, which they suggested means this development is beyond the experimentation project. As usual, Apple did not confirm the reports.

Samsung’s smartwatch history

Samsung has been working on smartwatches for over a decade, and has some patents dating back to 2003 on some designs, as UnwiredReview points out. (The image at the top of this story is the Samsung Proximo concept smartwatch from 2009 by Joahn Loekito.) However, none of the models were particularly successful. So it will be interesting to see whether Samsung will wait for Apple to release a smartwatch first before unveiling its own model – if Apple actually releases such a device.

Perhaps this year would be the year when wearable tech will become mainstream. Aside from Samsung and Apple’s wrist wear, Google is also finalising its Glass connected eye wear, and we have seen quasi-popular smartwatch examples from the likes of the Kickstarter-founded Pebble, which shipped some 25,000 units so far.

With Daniel Ionescu of TechHive and Macworld.