Tag Archives: aimia

Web designer role evolves, pushing into digital publishing

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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.”

 

 

AIMIA announces Reactive’s Tim O’Neill as new national president

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Digital industry body AIMIA has appointed Tim O’Neill of digital agency Reactive as its new national president.

O’Neill will replace Peter Bray of agency Sputnik in the role, after Bray relocated to New York in late January.

O’Neill said of his appointment: “I’m pleased to step up my involvement with AIMIA to the role of national president, and to continue to see AIMIA play a significant role in the ever-changing digital industry.

“We will continue to do this by providing outstanding services to our members, such as training, events, promotional opportunities, research and development, and trend insights, to ensure that our members continue to benefit from emerging digital opportunities in the broader business community.”

AIMIA CEO John Butterworth added: “Tim has already made a considerable contribution to AIMIA over a number of years and we are looking forward to seeing his drive and energy applied to his new role as AIMIA National President. Tim has developed a wealth of digital experience across multiple continents, and we know he will bring insights to the team to allow continued growth for our members and the sector at large.”

The AIMIA National Board is also comprised of Mark Bamford of Tresscox Lawyers, Karson Stimson of WeAreDigital, Simon Goodrich of Portable, Dale Cohen of BigPond, Annette Dockerty of Smart Services CRC, Jared Smith of Individual Member, Malcolm Alder of KPMG and Rob Leach of BBC.

 

Mobile advertising draws more eyeballs but engagement remains stagnant

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Mobile advertising is becoming more pervasive in the minds of phone owners, with around one in two now claiming to have noticed it, but the proportion who have engaged with mobile advertising has not increased in the last year, according to a study.

The eighth ‘Australian Mobile Phone Lifestyle Index’, conducted by researcher Complete the Picture Consulting and industry body AIMIA, found that while the noticeability of mobile advertising had increased, only 54% of mobile phone owners had engaged with, or opened the link of, an ad.

The study, which polled a sample of 1784 people ‘broadly in line’ with the 18–75 year old national population, looked at awareness and engagement with a number of advertising and message formats delivered via mobile.

Director of Complete the Picture Consulting, Dr Marisa Maio Mackay, wasn’t surprised that engagement levels were roughly the same as last year. “We’re seeing the market consolidate this year,” Maio Mackay says. “New people are being exposed to the advertising but they’re still trialling it, so that dilutes some of the figures.”

“Next year we should see it increase again, as another wave users come through and people become more comfortable with it.”

The number of mobile users who had seen or engaged with mobile advertising was strikingly similar across the different type of ad units. Each type has been encountered by around one in two of the sample, with search and banner ads the most commonly stumbled upon and vouchers or coupons the least widely noticed. Search ads were the most likely to be engaged with upon being seen and vouchers or coupons the least likely.

aimia mobile

Maio Mackay adds that trust will be the crucial element in enticing more users to engage with mobile advertising. “When there’s a trusted brand behind it that facilitates trust and will increase engagement… but the brand will have to do some hand holding and walk with the consumers to develop that trust.”

The study also found that smartphone penetration could be higher than widely believed, at 76% – even higher than the lofty figure of 68% reported recently by Frost & Sullivan. While Maio Mackay admits the sample may skew towards residents of metropolitan areas and is reliant of self-reported phone ownership, the profile of participants is broadly in line with the ABS’ socio-demographic profile and RDA Research’s geoTribes, making the findings representative of mobile phone owners aged 18 to 75 years.

Tablet penetration was also found to be higher than all previous reports at 38% of the mobile phone owning population aged 18 to 75 years. Maio Mackay says tablets ownership is growing rapidly, far quicker than smartphone penetration did, and forecasts that 50% will own one by December 2012 and 71% by mid-2013, based on stated purchase intent.

 

Social State of Origin: Interstate social media rivalries

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Marketers have been warned to tailor their social media strategies to the location they’re targeting, with new data revealing social networking behaviour varies from State to State.

While Facebook is used almost universally by all social network users, Twitter is barely used at all in some States, while LinkedIn and Google+ proved surprisingly popular in certain parts of the country, according to the Yellow Social Media Report published by Sensis and AIMIA.

Commenting on the results, CEO of AIMIA, John Butterworth, counsels brands against adopting a one-size-fits-all approach for the different markets they operate in, advocating a more localised approach.

“It sounds like a lot of work, but you could argue that if you really want to crack this, that’s what you’ve got to do,” Butterworth says. “I’m hoping we will start to see more and more getting away from a centralised one-size fits all approach and start to make use of behaviours at the local level.”

The study, conducted with a nationally representative sample of 1016 Australians, found that 62% of the national population are social network users, a statistic that swells to 70% in Victoria and 71% in the Northern Territory.

Usage patterns and the sites used were found to differ across the country. Twitter is most popular in the ACT, where its reach is one-quarter of the population. The micro-blogging network also experiences strong usage in NSW and Victoria, but has very few members in Western Australia and Tasmania.

LinkedIn use is most prevalent in the New South Wales and Victoria, where around one in four and one in five respectively are members of the service. Elsewhere in the country, membership to the business networking site does not exceed 8% of the population.

Google+ has achieved a reach of 8% of the national population, since its launch last year, and is most popular in Tasmania and the ACT. Facebook is the only social network to achieve universal uptake, with near 100% usage in each State.

The study also found that 68% of social media users read online reviews before purchasing and that they read an average number of five reviews before making a purchasing decision. Butterworth says the influence of online reviews works for both online and offline retailers, making social commerce equally important to both groups. “The results go a long way to demonstrate the power of social media in terms of influencing behaviour… whether you’ve got an online capability or not, social media is very important.”

 

Retailers hamstrung by lack of online experience

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Four in five Australian retailers plan to spend more on developing their online strategy in the next three years, but they may be hampered by internal culture and resourcing barriers according to a new report.

The Australian Interactive Media Industry Association’s (AIMIA) ‘Online Retailing Insights’ study found the majority of retailers will invest increasing resources into staffing, supply chain and marketing their online businesses in the next three years to compete with global businesses.

But the findings, released annually in conjunction with the Australian Centre for Retail Studies, show that while retailers want to invest in digital and online strategies, they’re using staff with bricks-and-mortar retail experience in their attempt to do so. The report highlights issues with internal resourcing and culture barriers as factors hampering more rapid and successful implementation of online goals.

Rob Wong, chair of the AIMIA Retail Industry Group and managing director of CC Media iNC Network says forward-thinking retailers were looking to meet this challenge by recruiting new staff with the required experience.

“Savvy retailers are looking to recruit multi-channel directors and managers, and create cross functional teams to grow their online business and presence,” Wong says. “Email marketing, SEO and online catalogues are considered to be the most important tools for advertising and promotion in 2012/13.”

In moving towards an omni-channnel strategy, some are creating stand-alone units within the organisation while most keep the new online unit within the marketing team, the study found. This is expected to shift as more retailers manage their online strategy across multiple departments.

Online strategy is driven primarily by senior management, with an abundance of external resources being used – 26% of retailers rely on agencies, and 31% use external technical support.

Online stores are fast becoming top performing stores for retailers, with leading multichannel retailers measuring the success of their traditional retail stores relative to their online store. However, not every retailer understands the share of business going through their online store, with 33% of operators with 100+ stores unaware of how much online sales contribute to their total sales revenue.

 

A quarter of SMBs have no social media strategy: Sensis

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Small to medium businesses are still behind the eight ball when it comes to reaching consumers on social media, according to a report from Sensis and AIMIA.

The ‘2012 Yellow Social Media Report’, which surveyed 800 consumers and 1950 businesses, found that just 27% of small and 34% of medium businesses are harnessing the power of social media. While the numbers appear low, they represent an increase in social media activity for both groups over the past year, with participation rates up by around 10% each, and an increase in spend of $1360 for small and $10,420 for medium businesses.

Despite the increased activity, many still lack a concerted social media strategy, and most fail to measure ROI. A quarter of SMBs have no strategy and only 28% of small and 24% of medium businesses measure their ROI on their social media programs.

Commenting on the report, group manager, emerging business and innovation at Sensis, Simon Betschel says SMBs need to make more informed decisions about how to use social media to engage with consumers. “It’s clear there are huge opportunities for brands to connect with both current and potential customers, but businesses must be tactical in their use of these channels to ensure that their investment in this area contributes to their business both in the online world, as well as offline.”

It appears the intention is to do just that – 88% of small and 86% of medium businesses intend to invest the same amount or greater in 2013. The tactics chosen for their efforts need review, according to the report, which found that SMBs currently fail to provide the sort of information consumers look for when they use social media.

Consumers most commonly seek out giveaways and discounts from businesses and brands on social media, but only 34% of small and 27% of medium businesses offer these incentives to consumers on their social media sites. Instead SMBs most commonly encourage consumers to make online comments, ratings or reviews in order to generate word of mouth and engagement with their brands.

“The research indicates businesses are focused on establishing, maintaining and updating their social media presence rather than driving people to it,” Betschel adds. “Social media plays a critical role in marketing and reputation management, one that is being underestimated by many brands and businesses.

“There is a clear opportunity to build consumer relationships and sales through social media, however, businesses need to understand more about how and when to connect with their followers. SMBs and marketers need to respect how people view and value their social media interactions. The top reasons people use social media remain to catch up with friends and family, to share photos or videos, and to coordinate social events, however, approximately one in five are also using social media for commercial purposes, to follow their favourite brands, access special offers and make purchases.”

 

Retail channel priority: change or…

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The recent AIMIA retail study has given a great insight to the rest of the marketing and media world, on just how polarised the retail sector is in Australia in terms of attitudes towards digital and online media. There are clearly two camps – the red and the blue. In the blue corner are those that know the power of the online space in the purchase cycle and have already committed to the channel, therefore trying to fiercely protect their strategies to get an edge on their competitors. In the red corner are those that have no idea where to start and are too embarrassed to even discuss it – let alone start actioning it.

It’s crunch time for many of our favourite retailers as we lead into the busy Christmas period and it’s no surprise that in recent times there are a select few retailers really embracing digital, having witnessed a significant uplifts in sales – not just as an ecommerce channel but more importantly communicating to their consumers where they are to drive them in-store. Let’s face it, with people spending more time online than on TV each week (Nielsen Technology Report 2010) digital channels such as computers, laptops, mobile phones, iPads, in-store kiosks and the like are all part of the new process consumers go through before purchasing in-store.

To think that with all of the evidence, case studies, reports, research and business logic that indicates that online needs to be a significant part of the marketing mix to increase pre-disposition to purchase, sales intention and driving people in-store to purchase… it defies logic why retailers aren’t moving budgets.

Unfortunately with the shift in consumer eyeballs and purchasing patterns it has left many of our retail marketing teams left in their wake and there’s no doubt it’s unsettled them. They’ve been used to knowing exactly what press ad, TV buy or radio mix would lead to what uplift in sales and all of a sudden their guess is as good as anyone’s as they look to try and work out what the optimum mix is when putting digital into their budgets.

Unfortunately with the recent GFC, the decline in sales growth and limited marketing budgets, our retail marketers have been spooked. Fear is driving their decisions (or lack of decisions) which is leaving them buying similar media mixes as they have been for years, and sometimes decades. With 83% of AIMIA retailer respondents saying they will increase their online marketing spend, let’s just hope for their sake that it’s realistic, because a 20% increase in budget coming from a base of 250k a year isn’t going to affect a media market where competitors are spending millions upon millions of dollars in the space. It still baffles me that with such a mature audience online, some retailers are still cap in hand in market asking for ‘freebies’ to help them get off the ground, I’d like to see Channel Nine’s response to asking for a free prime time spot as an international retailer looks to open in Australia, wanting to see if TV works here.

It’ll be interesting to watch the next 12 months unfold as we continue to talk, work with and educate retailers on just how powerful online can be as a part of a multi-channel marketing mix. I just wonder if we’ll be speaking to the same people in 12 months if they’re in the red corner.

Predicted 83% increase in online retail budgets

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According to research from AIMIA Retail Industry Group, most retailers in Australia will be forced to develop an online sales arm in the next three years.

The research found that Australians are looking to online offerings in order to find the best deal in the market. Robert Wong CEO of CCMedia and chairman of AIMIA’s Retail Industry Group explains:

“There is no question that traditional media such as press still reaches a lot of people on a daily basis, but there are simply more eyeballs to be found online.”

The research predicts an increase in online advertising expenditure for 2011, with 83% of retailers expected to increase their online budgets. To support this finding, a 2010 Nielsen Technology Study found that Australians spend more time online than watching television and consumers are finding websites as a way of sourcing up-to-date information on specials and deals.

Companies interviewed agreed that email marketing (67%), SEO techniques (57%) and online catalogues (47%) were the top online priorities for their organisations over the next 12 months.

Wong said that the amount of people browsing online cannot be ignored by marketing managers. Even if retailers don’t develop an online sales arm, they will need “a strong online advertising presence to ensure their messages about offers and deals are put up against the emerging clearance houses and discount coupon businesses to maintain market share”.

AIMIA’s research involved qualitative interviews with 21 of Australia’s top retailers, followed by a broad sample quantitative study with 128 major retail businesses.

Whos who in the zoo: AIMIA

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The Australian Interactive Media Industry Association (AIMIA) has elected a new national president, Simon Goodrich.

Goodrich is the managing director of Portable and formerly president of AIMIA Victoria.

“The next few years will see digital become more prevalent in our daily lives, the roll out of high speed broadband and the continued adoption of digital services by all facets of business. I am keen to see AIMIA play a part in this and provide greater opportunities for our members to participate in this growing economy,” said Goodrich.

The appointment comes after former president Guy Gadney stood down.

“AIMIA runs the longest-standing digital media awards in the world, runs the most events of any digital media organisation in Australia, and has the best and most engaged group of members I have ever met.  It has been a privilege to work with AIMIA CEO John Butterworth and the Board to build up AIMIA.  I am confident that Simon has exactly the sort of energy that’s needed to take AIMIA to the next level,” said Gadney.

Australian Business Community versus Free Web Analytics

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There was a gasp from the gallery! The result was not at all what the industry pundits had expected. In the case of the Australian Business Community versus Free Web Analytics, the jury had weighed up the pros and cons, considered the evidence and made their surprising decision: Free Web Analytics was guilty as charged of the crime of grossly overstating the benefit of its services and leading Australian businesses astray.


In his judgement, the Chief Justice of the High Online Court explained that the common perception that Google Analytics was the most widely used measuring vehicle for online performance for web sites in Australia simply did not stand up to a scrutiny of the facts. “This miscarriage of justice is a travesty and should be exposed for all to see. Sure, many companies use Google Analytics, and why shouldn’t they?” he said.  “After all, it is presented as a ‘free’ service, but the fact is that the majority of leading web sites in this country actually use paid analytics services. Businesses need to know this otherwise they are basing major decisions on incorrect assumptions.”


In presenting the case for the Australian Business Community, we reviewed a group of websites crowned as ‘leaders’ by two of our nation’s most recent studies: The Amber Awards, The Australian Interactive Media Industry Association Awards, and the HitWise Online Performance Awards presented on 24 March 2009.  Of all the Amber Award winners, more than 2/3 (66%) use a paid analytics service, while the Hitwise Awards showed that more than 50% of the winners using a paid analytics service.


Not surprising is that many of these leading web sites also use Google Analytics, as well as a paid analytics service. Furthermore, the most commonly used paid analytics services were the top recognised international vendors (in alphabetical order) Coremetrics, Omniture and WebTrends.



A closer look at the award winning web sites revealed a trend that, in general, the more creative sites and those primarily outsourced to web development and advertising companies had a higher tendency to use the free services, while the websites that were maintained in-house were overseen by tightly managed and dedicated web marketing teams.
 


This leads us to two questions:


  1. Why are the top sites paying for web analytics?

  2. Who is perpetuating the myth that Google Analytics is all a good business needs?
 


Companies pay for web analytics for a myriad of reasons but the most commonly heard include:


  • The depth of reporting from free tools does not match the more advanced paid services
  • The ownership of the data is important – larger and more successful organisations tend to place a real value on owning the information about their marketing channels

  • The need for information reliability and security, which generally comes from a formal Service Level Agreement, can only be provided by a paid service

  • Technical support and training from the vendor is important

  • Free software does not equal $0 total cost of ownership, and

  • Analytics can be complex and many leading companies are looking for a business partnership, not just a vendor.



So, who benefits from promoting the simplicity of a ‘free’ service?   The vendors like Google provide analytics as a tool to help promote the expansion of their primary product (because a common outcome is that you buy more Adwords), as do Yahoo!, who also have a ‘free’ service to help promote their online services. In addition to these guys, the main promoters of the free services seem to be advertising agencies and web developers. For many agencies it an easy way to create the impression that they’re measuring the results of campaigns and can also be part of their revenue stream. For web developers, many of whom know no better, it is a quick solution for their customer needs.
 


What to learn from this landmark case? The primary takeaway is that most of the major and more successful websites in Australia use paid analytics tools to drive programs of continuous improvement through their online marketing programs.   Free tools are a good place to start but the really successful players value their results and invest in solutions to measure their growth and drive change. 
 


“This is my personal blog.  The views expressed here are my own and do not represent those of my employer, Coremetrics.”

AIMIA launches retail group

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Australian Interactive Media Industry Association (AIMIA) has announced the creation of the Retail Sector Industry Group (RIG).

RIG’s statement of intention is to act as an education and connection vehicle between retailers and Australia’s interactive industry.

“Victoria is very strong in retail, so I am very pleased we are leading the charge in helping to educate the retail industry regarding the opportunities of e-tail and interactive media” said Simon Goodrich, president of AIMIA Victoria Chapter.

Speaking on the growth online media consumption and the opportunities this presents, Robert Wong, CEO of CC Media who will chair the group, said:

“To date however, retailers have been slow to invest online. According to our research the main reason is retailers simply need more understanding about how to use online for retail marketing outcomes. It’s fair to say retailers mostly think of online primarily as a sales channel, where its real power and money saving capabilities are in using online as an advertising medium. Retail is the single biggest advertising sector at $3.9 billion (including catalogues) and has the potential to be the biggest online marketing category if retailers and suppliers develop a better understanding of what online strategies work for retailers.”

The RIG has already undertaken the following projects:

  • A national retail online marketing/etail benchmarking study
  • Sourcing of international online retail case studies and data for members
  • Regular education and networking event program for 2009/10
  • Supplier directory, and
  • Senior management discussion luncheons

AIMIA finds changing mobile habits

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An Australian Interactive Media Industry Association (AIMIA) study has found Australians non-voice/text mobile use is growing rapidly.

The report, ‘2009 Australian Mobile Phone Lifestyle Index’, revealed 77% of respondents use their mobile phone for a purpose apart from texting and/or voice. The report suggests that once a service is trialled, it becomes integrated into normal usage:

  • 61% of those that used MMS, used MMS at least once a month
  • 62% of those that used email, used email at least once a month with almost 42% of these respondents using email daily
  • 37% of those that used video calling, used video calling at least once a month, and
  • 85% of those that used social networking, used social networking at least once a month, with 46% of these respondents using it at least once a day.

The study found market share remained consistent year-on-year for Nokia (47%) who is trailed by Sony at 12%, Samsung was third place at 11%. For the first time, Apple entered the report at 9% share.

Carrier satisfaction was high, said the report, with 90% of respondents satisfied with the service provided by their carrier. The cost of accessing data is the area in which most respondents were dissatisfied (51%), with just under a third saying their plan included a data allowance and only 43% had more than 50 megabytes allowance.

The report claims the Australian market is growing up in terms of knowledge and understanding of mobile phones and mobile services, with 63% of respondents revealing they had a 3G or 3.5G handset. Further to that point, 71% said they had used their mobile phone to access information and entertainment content at some point in the last 12 months. As for mobile ecommerce, 25% had used their handset for banking in the past year and 19% had used it to make payments in the last 12 months.

“Despite the global economic uncertainty of the past 12 months, the uptake of mobile services in Australia has not only survived but has grown in spite of it. Mobile phone services have now truly entrenched themselves as a commodity in the lives of many Australians,” said Dr Marisa Mackay, report author and director of m.Net.