Cracking the Flyer code

(playing on the pun of the DaVinci Code)

by Junice Liew

It’s the million dollar question that some world leading airport advertisers are taking pains to answer - Who are our audiences?

From the CEO packing lightly for a business trip, to the retired couple with CPF savings to spend on a holiday, each individual traveller is unique.

Industry professionals understand that knowing how their audiences’ minds work, which demographic they fall under and how to best communicate with them is the key to successful advertising. But one crucial issue to consider is How well we know each audience segment.

For that fundamental reason EYE embarked on an in-depth study into ‘Flyer profiles’ - looking specifically at flyers’ spending patterns, their openness to advertising, their interests and levels of engagement with various advertising formats.

The Results?

For the first time in Singapore, advertisers can use EYE's information to fine-tune marketing strategies, creating a richer experience for each travel segment.

EYE identified five Flyer profiles as C Suite Executives, Blue Chip Managers, Mid Level Executives, Established Holiday Makers and Keen Adventurers. Each profile is unique and drawn by their lifecycle to different brands - and are prepared to spend big on what matters to them most.

C Suite Executives are high-end travellers. From CEOs to CFOs, they are in the prime of their careers. 82% are career-minded. Advertisers can use this value trigger - C Suites are twice as likely as the average Singaporean to spend on luxury goods.

Blue Chip Managers and Mid Level Executives are respectively second-tier management and tomorrow's leaders. The former travels more than 7 times a year for business and is particularly influenced by advertising around the business lounge area. The latter view the airport as a "pit stop" - a place to get in and get out of to minimise transit time - but will make additional purchases if they've forgotten something.

Established Holiday Makers are over 40 years old and view airport advertising as an information source and are receptive to advertising messages amplified by the relaxed mindset of embarking on a holiday.

For the Keen Adventurer, shopping is the name of the game. They will often treat themselves to something special while waiting for their flight in a similar vein to how they enjoy exploring new countries and cultures.

EYE’s research has opened a window to the distinct behavioural patterns and psychographics of Singapore travellers. Perhaps more importantly, it provides a crucial link for advertisers to understand how Flyers’ airport experiences differ from one another. For example, findings indicate that in Singapore the average business traveller engages with EYE’s airport media 14 times during their typical* journey through Changi Airport while  leisure travellers engages with airport media 8 times.

The closer advertisers get to understanding what makes audiences tick, the more strategic they can be with their messages, which ultimately results in higher impact and engagement.
Sources:

1. Access Testing, Eye Tracking, 2008   *Typical journey - one way trip (departing or arriving journey)

2. Toluna – Online Survey March 2010 (n=305 Travellers through Singapore Changi Airport Last 12 months)

3. Synovate 2009

Junice Liew is Head of Marketing @ EYE Singapore, responsible for growing the brand globally through marketing communication programmes. Her experience spans over a decade in international advertising and Out-of-Home marketing across Asia and Australia, where she was based previously.

NUSS CASE STUDY

Club Membership Marketing – Achieving a Higher ROI

by Dinesh Singh, Sales & Marketing Director, Zo Media

Jenny Ng, Membership Director of NUSS was up to her eyeballs with calls coming in fast and furious, at a rate that had the call centre doing overtime. Even last minute callers submitted their requests up till 11.00pm on closing day of the recent NUSS membership campaign. 

The objective was simple: Increase membership!

A strategic membership marketing team was set up to gain approval of a significant budget to achieve this objective. We’re talking about a budget the management committee had never approved, especially for a one-time marketing initiative. The campaign comprised a short but intense ATL call to action campaign. After making a strong case to the management; it was proposed that the potential ROI would cover costs, plus the club could enjoy a minimum additional 10% return, so it was approved.

Key Ingredients of Success:

1. The campaign addressed a very strong benefit and selling proposition to non-members; the increase in price to $10,000 after the deadline. Hence, if they missed this important deadline, they’d have to part with $6,000 - or a 150% increase in price.

a. The specific deadline created a sense of urgency, increasing the probability of call-ins and conversions.

2. Clear call-to-action driven campaign "Be a member of NUSS – The Premier Graduate Club at $4,000 now or $10,000 later"

a. It had an additional incentive apart from price – Bonus of a HP Laptop and $400 F&B Credits. This incentive increased the rationale and further validated decision making of potential members.

3. A highly targeted media campaign reached PMEBs. Its strategy was strong enough to be seen by at least 70 to 80% of its target audience, a potential reach in excess of 800,000 plus graduates.

4. Strong visuals and clear messaging was emphasized. Executions did not try to oversell too many benefits; this simplified and increased clarity of the communication, making it very easy to understand.

5. Calls that came in during-and-post campaign were attended to by highly trained membership staff, who could immediately address any concerns. A delivery a mechanism for sign-up over the phone was also established.

One could question if the product was the key driver of the success of this campaign.  My argument here is, absolutely, the product in this case; NUSS is a club with excellent facilities and a great reputation, which prides itself in having a very active membership.

In any successful marketing promotion, the product is probably the single most important criteria.  However, without a well-executed campaign, a strong product may not be able to achieve its true potential. 

Was this a creative execution? NO, it was plain vanilla advertising with a compelling message. Greater attention was paid to aligning the business strategy, i.e. the increase in price within a challenging market environment.  Secondly; converting the previously non-transferable membership to a transferable membership increased its retained value and increased positive perception of perceived future value. When management and marketing align, the star in the equation is the sales team - striking in the deals.

Results : The results of this campaign were astonishing :

NUSS generated over 700 new members, with over $2.8Million in membership sales. The advertising campaign included media buys in The Straits Times / Sunday Times, Business Times, Channel News Asia, Asia One, Class 95 & Live 93.8

Total media spend was $250,000 - in terms of ROI, the campaign received an unprecedented 11.2 times or 1120% in committed sales.  This is a remarkable feat by anyone’s standards.  Going forward, the strategy will be to focus on building a secondary value for the transfer market of the membership.What will further increase value is to continue to build on the awareness of this club and capitalize on the current membership to develop more incentives for word of mouth initiatives that could drive further membership sales.

An AdLib Exclusive

Virtually Possible! Triadhot.com online ad agency

Tell me who is not a Netizen these days? With populations across the world literally moving everything online, businesses taking on new faces while offering unique possibilities to consumers are nothing new.

But an online full service advertising agency?

Triadhot.com rewrites the rules of the media industry. The guys behind this revolutionary virtual advertising agency were in town recently and AdLib was granted an exclusive Interview with the founders of triadhot.com, face to face in an informal chat over a hot cuppa of local coffee.  

Editor: The Idea of a virtual advertising agency sounds really refreshing, but how does that stack up to other advertising agency websites that already offer somewhat similar channels and services?

Triadhot.com: Simple, triadhot.com will be the most comprehensive virtual advertising agency as the agency (website) is really an advertising-based interactive portal, and not your usual showcase website that most agencies have. Though online, triadhot.com retains the important elements that clients love – the fun factor and personalized service. In short, we have managed to build a real time advertising agency that is online 24/7 and successfully made triadhot.com ala social networking style.

Editor: Wow!So what are the key differences that marketers can benefit from engaging triadhot.com?

Triadhot.com: Catering to the needs of smaller to medium size brands, we offer significantly lower campaign costs - we add value by passing the savings back to the client. This results in successful campaigns that cost much less as compared to running a campaign through traditional media agencies.

Editor: How does triadhot.com integrate and manage creative directors, brand strategists and account managers from around the world on this virtual platform to design, implement and manage marcom projects?

Triadhot.com: Upon receiving the campaign brief, we identify suitable professionals with domain knowledge specifically skewed towards the client’s industry and then put the team together. It also means sourcing for niche global industry professionals, tapping into talent pools and identifying suitable candidates from independent agencies.

Editor: Amazing! But knowing advertising campaigns can be really time-sensitive, will the difference in GMT affect the workflow and implementation of global campaigns?

Triadhot.com: Usually campaigns are pre-scheduled - we advise clients to stick to deadlines and avoid changes at the eleventh hour. However, such situations are still occuring till this day! We are prepared for such an event - our network of appointed global media offices ensure that all global campaigns are fully synchronized. Should the unforeseen happen, they will be activated to act on the client’s request immediately.

Editor: That is cool! Well, triadhot.com claims on its website that a client is able to monitor the progress of an ongoing campaign. How is this possible in real-time?

Triadhot.com: Clients are given direct control over what is happening at every single stage.The portal offers easy navigation to specific sites such as status of creative work, production schedules, bookings of media buys and every other thing a client needs to know. A client may intervene at any stage should modifications be required and he/she can do literally anything via the portal. Every department is hosted on a progress page where the client can even comment and ‘speak’ to the individual person-in-charge 24/7.

Editor: Why virtual? Surely traditional marketers will still prefer to meet up with their advertising agency. Will this be an obstacle?

Triadhot.com: Definitely. Well, this is, after all, a new concept. Through encouraging traditional businesses to understand how we function, they must be open to new ideas and new ways of doing business. Meeting up may be a real problem at this moment as the team assigned to a client may come from any part of the world!  We are online, so we are everywhere! There is no specific country that we are targeting since the model of our business and concept is virtual and web-based. In short, we are targeting the world! Further to that, brands that we are working with are constantly opening up new markets in countries across contingents; so we will be where our clients are. Once we enter a new market, triadhot.com will grow in that new market.

Editor: Very aspiring. What is triadhot.com’s goal(s), say 5 years’ from today?

Triadhot.com: We want to be established in every market that understands ‘virtual convenience’. Since no advertising agency has done what we’ve done, we hope to be regarded as the pioneer of this concept that will change the media industry.

Editor: Successful formulas are likely to be duplicated by other advertising agencies - is triadhot.com ready for such competition?

Triadhot.com: Well, since we are the first player, we are pretty sure competition will soon follow. However, our portal will be frequently updated, with improvements on the user interface and  ease of use – that’s pretty hard to be duplicated. We have carefully thought out what works and what doesn’t. So we have an unfair advantage over the competition.

Editor: You guys are incredible! Now, here’s a question that’s totally on an unrelated note. David Ogilvy once said; "Advertising is 15% commission, 85% confusion." Going virtual, does the worldwide mandatory 15% agency commission still applies?

Triadhot.com: Of course not. Client only pays for services and media buys rendered by our agency, no other hidden costs involved.

Editor: Oh! That will be revolutionary! So do the four of you agree with David’s quote on the ‘85% confusion’? On agency work, of course.

Triadhot.com: Agreed!

Credit : Allan Lee, Editor (Singapore Media Owners Hub) & Founder (Shutter Journey of Singapore Photography Group)

AdLib and Singapore Media Owners Hub would like to congratulate Triadhot.com on their successful launch into the Singapore advertising market. We wish them continual success in years to come!

A New Era for Interactive Advertising in Singapore

By Nick Fawbert, Managing Partner, Third Space Consulting

The recent release of the first ever IAB Online Advertising Revenue Report in Singapore ushered in a new period of industry growth in more ways than one. Not only is there insight, transparency and accountability that attracts new business investments, but a willingness to collaborate and share best practices to drive forward common goals.

The report itself is straightforward. The IAB and PWC have aggregated data from fifteen of Singapore’s largest Online sales points into a snapshot that reveals the current size of our market and current buying patterns ranging from online disciplines and advertiser industry categories to pricing metrics.

Covering the first half of 2008 through the first half of 2009, it reveals a thriving Online industry growing quickly from a small base. For the full year of 2008, Singapore attracted a healthy investment of S$51.3m, thereafter eclipsed by pulling in S$30.2m for the first half of 2009 alone – a CAGR of almost 20%.

Online’s fierce growth means that we can anticipate the 3.5% share claimed in 2008 to achieve 6% or more when the final figures for 2009 are in. Most industry commentators predict Online’s 2009 share will hover hover around 4%.

Even so, this highlights significant room for growth. The most advanced Online industry is in the UK, where it claims a share approaching 25%.Were the industry to attract similar levels of confidence in Singapore, it would amount to an additional S$300m in local Online advertising revenue: a big carrot for all companies working together through the IAB.

The IAB has set timelines to achieve this goal. It appears that Singapore may be entering a transformative period in online advertising. Whether this transformation follows the explosive growth pattern in the UK (where YOY growth peaked at 136%) or the more steady increase in prominence of the US - it remains to be seen.

Hovering at 30%, Search advertising claims a relatively small share of Online expenditure compared with more developed nations, and Display claims a significantly higher share. Much of the debate over growth will revolve around the relative claims and achievements of these two disciplines.

Looking forward, the IAB sees several key drivers for growth. Optimism is returning amongst advertisers and hence marketing budgets should continue to improve into 2010. With an online population that continues to grow, interactive advertising must claim an increasing proportion of ad spend.

Importantly, the online population should increasingly benefit from faster connection speeds. Internet marketers’ expectations of faster connections and increased ad spend on formats like video advertising should rise as a result. Social media usage is also rising, with 40% of Singaporeans now on Facebook. The ubiquity of social media adds even more life into online usage and creates an environment for more entertaining and engaging advertising. We hope to see the impact of these and other positive trends over the coming months.

How Do You Market A Yester-Year Brand?

By Allan Lee, Vice-President, OOH Media, Gleamedia

 
How many brands can you name that once commanded a strong following from the 1980s & early 1990s? Are these brands still around today? Does OP, Jimmy’Z and Deck Shoes still ring a bell?

Marketers promoting a brand from ‘yesteryears’ face twice the challenge of those marketing ‘today’ brands. Why, you may ask? Most current brands’ objective is to gain immediate market share and advertise itself to new consumers – that’s more or less about it. However, those marketing and reviving an old brand face twice the challenges - marketing to new consumers and renewing relationships with once loyal consumers. 

The latter’s immediate challenge - new media platforms on ‘old dogs’ - usually results in a make or break outcome. Tracking ROI is more difficult for this group.

I had an opportunity recently to chat with a Marketing Director who is marketing a ‘yesteryear-brand’. This FMCG brand was once very popular and I can still remember the TVC aired at every commercial break almost every night without fail. We were sharing about our market positioning - and here’s a little excerpt :

Let’s call this person ‘CK’

AL: So what are you doing to maintain your brand loyalty and gain market share?

CK: We are forced to use social media platforms more often these days, especially Facebook & Twitter.

AL: What about traditional media? Most of your customers are from the retro era, right?

CK: Yes, we still advertise in magazines, but more to ‘keep-in-touch’ with existing customers. I do not foresee inceasing marketshare via print periodicals anymore.

AL: So are you saying new media actually gives your brand more reach today?

CK: Definitely, yes. However, we still use OOH, press and online campaigns to create a more comprehensive campaign to reach out to everyone at the same time.

AL: Speaking of maintaining your older customers, how do you achieve the balance?

CK: Simple. Existing customers give us good returns while a new and younger market (with no brand relationship) is not likely to result in an increase in turnover. I normally skew my campaigns to 70% retention and 30% marketing.

AL: So is that a good formula?

CK: Do you have a better suggestion?

AL: Nope. I’d probably do the same.

CK is the Marketing Director of a FMCG company that has 30+ brands with some dating back to 1979. If you were in your teens during the good ole’ days ( of 1988 to 1998) I can almost guarantee you that you would have owned an item or two from CK’s company brands.

What we need to know about augmented reality

By Raymond Ng, Added Value SAFFRON HILL, Brand Development and Marketing Insight

What Is It? In my own layman's interpretation, it is technology that places virtual information in real time footage. The technology has been around for a while now, but with position-based technology (e.g. GPS) improving so quickly, it has now evolved quite a bit.  And with GPS being incorporated into digital cameras and mobile phones, the length, depth and breadth of the actual technology applied becomes truly amazing.

Some examples can be seen in the recent Winter Olympics where they augmented images of the fastest competitor into the current competitor's run on the luge events. We can also see it at work when they overlaid logos and advertisements on football pitches during matches.

Why is it interesting?

It’s not only very interesting but picking up fast because it is truly ‘every day’.There are applications already available that allow you to point a device (e.g. a camera or mobile phone) to the sky, and it shows you the names of the stars. Another allows you to point it to a car and it shows all its features on screen. You can point to an ad at a bus stop or a billboard and your screen shows detailed product information. Or you point it to a Lego set and it shows a 3D image of a completed toy!

Then, of course, there is its application in travel.The technology can become your tour guide. Point your mobile phone to the Great Wall of China and it gives you its history.  Point to a restaurant and it will show reviews from customers.

What is the potential?

One can only imagine the potential of this technology. We are just touching the tip of the iceberg now. Its application can span from marketing and promotions to advertising, to providing information or directions, entertaining, etc.

Who stands to gain?

This is one of those win-win-win situations.  Consumers win because they get more ‘live’ information, marketers gain because they now have another creative means of reaching their target audience and the advertising industry gains because the potential of this technology in advertising a product or service is just astounding.

Will Research gain from this? Of course!  We can start by helping marketers and ad agencies understand how this technology can be most optimally introduced to consumers.Where are the specific motivations? What about form, format and tone? What information should we provide?And what impact  can we desire?  

This will then give us the 4th Win!