Category: General

As the world comes to terms with the impact of COVID-19 what does it mean for marketers, agencies and also media owners?

In this Mi3 podcast, listen to the story of how the newsrooms of The Sydney Morning Herald and Nine News have adapted to the new world as they have moved to cover the ongoing situation around COVID-19.

Hear Carat’s CEO Sue Squillace and Nine’s Michael Stephenson talk about the shifts in the ad market, the role of trusted / traditional media channels and how share-of-voice helps define share-of-market.

The coronavirus is an unprecedented global health emergency which has caused a level of economic uncertainty that few, if any of us, have ever seen before. As Hugh Marks wrote last week, these are challenging and unprecedented times for all business leaders regardless of their size or scale.

Our Government and our health experts are doing an outstanding job of managing our country through these uncertain times. However, as we begin to chart a course to recovery, it will be the responsibility of our business leaders and the custodians of our brands to steer Australia back to prosperity.

The good news is that we will come through this time of universal upheaval, and at some point in the future we will reflect on it as a period of great change where innovation and entrepreneurialism thrived. We must also recognise that the natural inclination in times of uncertainty is to retreat. For businesses it often feels like the safer decision is to slow down, to consolidate, to downsize, to cut spending and investment, while for consumers the desire to save and avoid spending is equally natural.

History has proven, and it will again, that those businesses and brands that are willing to look at the world through a different lens, to challenge the status quo or to satisfy a new demand, will once again be the businesses that grow, proposer, and become tomorrow’s household names and remain a part of our lives for the next 100 years.

Let me go back in time for a moment. It was the economic struggles of the 1930s that helped to define Kellogg’s as the market leader in the cereal category. At the time of the Depression, two companies – Kellogg’s and Post – dominated what was then a relatively new market.

During the 1930s, Post went with the “safe”, predictable strategy, reining in expenses and cutting back on advertising. Kellogg’s recognised that building their brand was critical. They doubled their advertising budget, moved aggressively into radio advertising, and heavily promoted their new cereal, Rice Krispies. What was the result? Well by 1933, even as the economy continued to struggle, Kellogg’s business was thriving, profit had risen almost 30 per cent, and it had become what it remains today, the market leader globally. Almost 100 years on, children still wake up each morning with the brand’s “ambassadors”: Snap, Crackle and Pop. So it’s not really surprising that these examples are etched throughout history.

Source: ‘Antique & Vintage Art Prints’, 2020 Period Paper Design

This all seems so obvious, but when times are hard most companies behave more like Post than Kellogg’s. During this global health crisis, many companies in Australia, maybe the one that you are the leader of, will reduce their investment in advertising and wait for the good times to return. Those companies will make fewer acquisitions and invest less in new product development or innovation. Those companies are less likely to see the emerging opportunities, and they won’t be in a position to capitalise on the new demands of Australian consumers as we return to the “new normal”.

History will repeat itself. The McKinsey study of the 1990-91 recession found that companies which remained market leaders or became serious challengers during the downturn were the ones that had increased their mergers and acquisitions activity, their research and development, and their advertising investment, while companies that lost market share had reduced them. It’s why twice as many companies went from being the challenger to the leader as did so in the years before and after.

Why, then, are companies so quick to cut back when trouble hits? The obvious answer is that CEOs, CFOs and marketers become more uncertain. Companies become risk-averse, paralysed by the unknown, and are prone to de-prioritise innovative and entrepreneurial thinking. Uncertainty has always been a part of business, but in an economic downturn it seems to dominate everything. Today, no one is sure how long the lockdowns will last, how consumers will react, whether we’ll go back to the way things were before, or see permanent changes in consumer behaviour.

As marketers, we must recognise that we have a responsibility to stimulate consumer demand. It is now more important than ever that during these times of uncertainty we invest in our brands.

Some local brands are already taking the lead. Carlton & United Breweries have pivoted their business to produce hand sanitiser alongside their strong and powerful alcohol brands. They will donate more than 20,000 litres of hand sanitiser to frontline medical staff as they fight COVID-19 in emergency wards around the country and have also launched “For the Love of Your Local” initiative to help raise money to help save struggling local pubs.

Australians are known for our ability to come together as one during difficult times. It’s part of our DNA. Koala’s current “Support Your Local” campaign, which recognises the exceptional times we are living in and gives us an important message about the importance to “buy local, support local, spend local”, is a fascinating brand campaign. This is not Koala’s core business – in fact the message and the creative is not even remotely connected to their core business. So why are they doing this? Because it’s different, because people don’t expect it from them (or maybe we do now), and because it makes us feel something about them. They are investing in their brand and, funnily enough, next time I need a new mattress I might just think about them.

Source: ‘Doctors and nurses given helping hand during COVID-19 crisis’, 2020 Carlton United Breweries

At Nine, we understand that magnitude of the challenge in front of us. We don’t know exactly how things will turn out, but I do know that as custodians of a great media brand we have a responsibility and an opportunity to lead the way. The more creative we are, the more innovative and entrepreneurial we are, and the more we challenge the way things have always been done will be directly proportional to the speed and magnitude of the economic recovery.

There is opportunity out there and it will be fascinating to see which brands take the lead.   

Michael Stephenson is Nine’s Chief Sales Officer.

Brooke Corte, host of Money News shares her five top tips for small businesses to thrive during this COVID-19 pandemic.

Corte’s five tips include:

Tip 1: Understand your cash position

Tip 2: Understand your expenses

Tip 3: Connect with your suppliers and clients

Tip 4: Adapt or pivot your business

Tip 5: Communicate with your staff

To find out more details on each of her tips, watch the short video.

ThinkTV have put together some useful links to help marketers and agencies in planning and managing their brands successfully through the COVID-19 crisis.

• The Godfathers of Effectiveness, Les Binet and Peter Field, on the importance of maintaining share of voice and financial benefits of long-term brand building
• The H2, 2019 Fact Pack for the latest facts and stats about the who, what, when and how long of TV viewing in Australia
• The VOZ view of Total TV audiences including incremental reach provided by BVOD 
• The Benchmark Series for information on effective video advertising
• Shifting traditional retail store traffic and revenue online in Clickety Boom
• Effie’s analysis of two years of Australia’s most effective campaigns about reach and how it can drive larger brand effects and business impact 
• Articles of interest from around the world on the real-time effects of COVID-19.

Source: ThinkTV.com.au

How we consume content has changed.

The television is ‘smart’.
Your phone is the remote.
Screens come in all shapes and sizes.
On demand content is in demand more than ever before.

So what are Australian audiences consuming?

And how? Let’s look at the facts, figures and
trends for 9Now, Australia’s leading Broadcast
Video on Demand platform.

Download facts here.

Your Brand in Demand

Leverage the power of 9Now to engage with millions of Australians anywhere,anytime, with the leading broadcast video on demand platform.

Premium Content in Demand

Welcome to the complete streaming experience. Audiences demand premium content how and when they want it. Whether live or on-demand, the world of broadcast video streaming has evolved and premium content is king.

9Now has become an unrivalled destination for the biggest locally produced sporting, entertainment, news and lifestyle formats for Australian viewers. From the power of love with Married at First Sight and Love Island to the breakout family hit, Lego Masters.

During this once in a generation opportunity, institutions that clearly define what they mean now to stakeholders will be best positioned to benefit from a recovery.

Hugh Marks, Chief Executive Officer of Nine

These are indeed testing times. Testing times for our families. For our staff and colleagues. And for our businesses. For Nine, it’s caused us to reflect not just on how we position the business to trade through the economic implications of COVID-19, but what it means for us as a business and our role in the community, particularly our news and current affairs services across television, radio, print and digital.

Australians are consuming news and current affairs like I haven’t seen for many years. And they are not just watching, reading or listening. We can see from the metrics that they are deeply engaged with a 20 per cent increase in news consumption across the board year on year.

Of course, this is hardly surprising in the current circumstances but we can also see a much broader shift in the public mood that all institutions, government and private, should really consider how they respond to in the current environment.

If we as an organisation are to be good at anything, it is understanding Australians. If we don’t, our business suffers. And we get measured every day on this metric. And what’s happening now is fascinating.

The public mood is open. They want guidance. Real leadership. They want transparency. They have never liked bullshit but they are now much less cynical. It’s a big shift, and maybe a permanent one. They have a thirst for things that make them feel better about life. More reassured.

As a result, this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity. Not just for us as a business but for all institutions. Because as we move through this crisis and out the other side, which we will, it will be those institutions that are able to truly and clearly define what they mean now to stakeholders that will be best positioned to benefit from a recovery – whether those stakeholders are customers, businesses, the government or indeed the general public.

What is your brand – whether that be a company or a product or a service? What do you want it to stand for? Now – in this world of ours, a world that will be different as we evolve from a succession of crises? And are you telling that story in the right way?

Important questions

Most importantly, is it clear and simple and actionable? Is it something that you’ve taken for granted as not needing to be changed. Have you questioned what this crisis means for your brand – in the long term? It will be well worth the effort and as important as anything else you do as an institution through current events.

Because now is definitely the time of the brand and not the latest thing or deal. Yes, price will always remain very important in the context of constrained budgets but take time to define your brand as something of value, beyond just price or ubiquitous service. These are the businesses that will thrive.

You can see many brands already picking up on this and responding. It’s been great to see. Certainly we’ve had to do a lot of this thinking ourselves. And we continue to do this work. Do we have the tone of our content right – across all of our platforms? What have we been saying to the public about Nine News as a brand, The Australian Financial Review, The Sydney Morning Herald or The Age or 3AW.

And Pedestrian.TV? How has it been tackling this when it, as a brand, speaks to young people who have never experienced an economic shock like the one we are now living through. How did that flow down to our people – including our presenters and journalists? Did we stand for the things that the public rightly demands?

These are the questions we ask of our business and how we communicate to the public. These are the questions our reporters, editors and producers are asking themselves with every story they prepare.

In response, we’ve made several changes. And we will continue to refine the things we do and say. We will need to tell our audiences that and live that as the media brands that are within Nine.

It’s a great challenge – one we talk about all the time, and one we will invest in as we move through current events to beyond.

First appeared in The Australian Financial Review, 23 March 2020.

Nine’s television business has had a successful launch to the year and the momentum will continue with its strong post-Easter slate.

Nine’s Program Director, Hamish Turner, says: “We’ve had a fantastic launch to the 2020 year. The Australian Open coverage was up 15 per cent in terms of raw prime-time numbers and the BVOD audience for the tournament was up 100 per cent. This provided fantastic momentum into the Q1 slate which started with Married at First Sight.”

Married at First Sight continues to deliver exceptional results year after year, with growth across multiple platforms.

“The first episode was up 15 per cent and the BVOD numbers are already at 300,000, a great start to the year,” Turner said.

“The power of MAFS is its cross-platform presence and ability to engage audiences live, through our BVOD platform, as well as by editorial on nine.com.au. It is the number one show of Q1 and is dominating all demos and total people, as well as the BVOD audience.”

Following on from MAFS, Nine will move into its number one family show of 2019, LEGO Masters, with the return of Hamish Blake and The Brickman.

“LEGO Masters is all about creativity and the power of imagination and we’re expecting fantastic numbers for series two as the skill this year goes to a difficult new level,” Turner said.

Another family favourite, The Voice, returns for its ninth season with coaches Kelly Rowland, Delta Goodrem, Guy Sebastian and Boy George all sitting in their red swivel chairs again.

“For the first time we have four returning coaches, along with brand new host Renee Bargh straight from Los Angeles, and co-host Darren McMullen,” Turner said. “This year we’re also featuring the All Stars component again. It was super-successful in 2019 and some big names that you’ve seen in the past are coming back this year. There will also be some surprise tweaks in the format that will continue to engage viewers.”

The explosive drama Informer 3838 also enters the slate in Q2. Turner describes it as a premium two-part drama that is edge-of-your-seat viewing, taking the audience back into the world of Underbelly with returning real characters played by actors like Gyton Grantley and Robert Mammone.

The post-Easter period will see the return of Travel Guides after an incredible third season in 2019 which produced year-on-year growth across all key demographics, as well as BVOD.

“We’ve moved Travel Guides from Q1 to drive better results in Q2 this year,” Turner said. “The team are travelling wide and far once more, from Turkey to the Kimberleys in Western Australia, from South Korea to the Maldives. At its core this program is family viewing with heart and laughs.”

The toughest television challenge on the planet, Ninja Warrior, will add further strength to Nine’s Q2 slate.

“Australian Ninja Warrior is back for its fourth season and the prizemoney this year has jackpotted to $400,000. If our fastest ninja makes it up Mount Midoriyama, he or she will take away a big stash of cash. We’ll see all our returning favourites as well as some fantastic new competitors,” Turner explained.

Nine’s sporting momentum will increase with coverage of the 2020 NRL competition, which promises to deliver an expanded and enhanced cross-platform presence under the new vision of “Your Footy, Your Way”.

“This year we will give you everything you need and everything you want from the NRL – Nine is your one-stop shop,” Turner said. “We are engaging with rugby league where you want it and how you want it, across multiple platforms including TV, publishing, digital and radio.

“Plus, Australia’s number one program of 2019, the State of Origin series, will return in 2020 with three more blockbusters. For the first time we are heading to Adelaide to kick off the series, on June 3, and looking forward to it with great anticipation.”

For more information, contact your Nine sales representative.

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Kia and Uber Eats top marketers reveal their inside thinking on the worth of broadcast sponsorships.

This was first published on Mi3, click below to listen to the audio edition.