What you need to know about Australia’s changing media landscape

Australians multi-task whilst watching TV: Various studies show our eyes are no longer glued just on TV but on two or more other devices simultaneously. This new behaviour is what’s causing brands, advertisers and other stakeholders to change priorities in terms of ad spending.

In the September 2014 report of the Commercial Economic Advisory Service of Australia (CEASA), it was revealed that digital advertising took 37% of the total $6.2 billion advertising market spend in Australia for the first six months of 2014. Meanwhile, free-to-air (FTA) TV is fixed at 27% whilst the remaining slice of the pie was split between all the other advertising media.

Now that subscription video on demand (SVOD) services like Netflix are here, we are expecting TV and cable viewership to further decline – it may not be drastic, but it will surely happen one way or the other. The increasing number of commercials in between TV shows is what’s driving viewers to SVOD where there are fewer ads. TV is just no longer the ‘place to be’ for brands and advertisers looking to reach big audiences.

So if you are looking to build brand awareness through advertising, here’s what you need to know about our changing media landscape:

• Mobile ad spending to hit $US101.37 billion in 2016 and will become the biggest digital ad market worldwide. (Source: eMarketer). This, of course, has to do with the soaring number of consumers adopting mobile devices, currently sitting at about 2-3 devices per person. This makes mobile advertising a no-brainer. To get your mobile edge, you can send time-sensitive service alerts and notifications, create seasonal engagement programs (e.g. holiday specials, weekly offers), deliver coupons via SMS, use QR codes, deliver targeted messages using geo-location data, use in-app advertising, experiment with call-only ads, and so on. It’s really important to invest in a mobile responsive design for your website to make this work. And also, don’t forget to offer mobile payment options.

• Social media advertising, together with mobile advertising, is among the top priorities this year of marketers globally including Australia. (Source: 2015 State of Marketing Report from Salesforce). Social media is where your potential customers are spending a lot of their time. This makes social media advertising a real, tangible driver of leads and sales. Create more social ads like sponsored posts, display ads, sponsored InMail, and so on. Take advantage of their targeting features for more efficiency in advertising. Other strategies you can use are to beta test your paid social ads, rotate ads frequently, use small samples to A/B test your social ads, and make sure you are tracking your results.

• 70% of marketers recently surveyed are spending 10% to 50% of their online ad budget on retargeting and 69% planning to increase that figure over the next months. (Source: AdRoll). Add to this the fact that 74% of marketers believe retargeting campaigns have increased their online conversions, and 55% have seen an increase in mobile conversions. Retargeting works because you are putting your brand and offer to people who have previously signified interest in your business. It influences purchase decisions and optimises sales conversion. So how can you drive top of mind awareness with people actively looking for your products and services? You can do search retargeting (searched for your business keywords) and site targeting (visited your website). AdRoll (the leading supplier of retargeting media across social media) recommends that advertisers should pay attention to the different retargeting time windows for every product. Example, people shopping for travel should be retargeted immediately whilst people shopping for luxury goods should be retargeted later.

• Around 70% of people working in the CBD of Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane have noticed public transport advertising in the last week, including ads inside or on the side of buses, trains, ferries and trams, at stations, on platforms or in shelters. Around 65% of Adelaide’s CBD workers and 60% of Perth’s reported seeing public transport ads in the past week. (Source: Roy Morgan, released 10 March 2015). This tells us outdoor or out-of-home advertising is still effective, especially if combined with other forms of advertising like a TVC or social media advertising. Warc suggests an outdoor campaign can be significantly boosted by linking the creative displayed to the trigger moments of a TV commercial or video pre-roll. This, they say, increases consumers’ long-term memory measure by an average of 42%.

Keep these figures in mind when you’re planning for your next marketing move. But don’t think traditional advertising is dead – not at all. It still serves it purpose, albeit not in the way it used to be and the trend is that audiences are moving away from commercial TV. What brands and advertisers need to do to succeed in this ever-changing landscape is to tweak their budgets and follow where their customers are hanging out. Plan carefully to get the best return on your investment.

Since starting her outsourced national marketing consultancy Marketing Angels in 2000, Michelle Gamble has helped hundreds of SMEs get smarter marketing. Michelle helps businesses find more effective ways to grow their brands and businesses.