DraftFCB | 2010 Agency of the Year

Social Media in Times of Crisis

// October 26th, 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

If there was any doubt about the increasing popularity and power of social media in New Zealand, that would have been quickly dispelled by the sheer volumes of communications carried on social networking sites in the hours and days following the Canterbury Earthquake.

The Nielsen Company reports that:

• 27,034 comments were posted on social networking sites and message boards in the six days after the first Christchurch earthquake struck
• Twitter received the highest overall volume of posts to a public forum, with 7,206 comments related to the disaster
• 8,170 posts were uploaded to local New Zealand message boards and forums, including Trade Me Message Boards (61%), Old School Forums (3%), Geekzone Forums (3%), Oh Baby Forums (2%) and PC World forums (2%)
• Hashtags were widely used to associate posts on Twitter with the earthquake, especially #eqnz (1,741 posts), as well as #christchurch (355 posts) and #christchurchquake (183 posts)

New Zealanders also made heavy use of video sites such as YouTube, dailymotion.com and Vimeo; and photo sharing sites such as Flickr to upload videos and images of the damage left by the earthquake.

As consumers turn to social media for news and information, authorities also need to ensure that they are making full use of these tools to keep the public informed and aware.

Offshore, more and more organisations tasked with protecting public health and safety are upskilling themselves and increasing their resources in social media.

The Expert Round Table on Social Media and Risk Communication during Times of Crisis last year prepared a useful guideline on the strategic challenges and opportunities to be faced. Amongst the tips cited:

• Prepare ahead of time, even when it means initiating a cultural shift. You need to allow your people room to grow into social media.
• Get feedback from users in the community.
• Tap into all available resources. Do you have a large group of volunteers available to you? Consider training some of them as social media ambassadors.
• Keep messages brief and pertinent. People are not really reading, they are scanning.
• Make sure you can receive public input. Monitor the social networks and respond to comments as required. Remember that social media is all about conversations.
• Integrate. Use social media to repeat and reinforce what’s being said through traditional channels – but remember it is a completely different channel with different consumer relationships and expectations involved.
• Have a Plan B. What if (as was the case for at least part of Canterbury) phone lines are down and the internet is unavailable?
• Focus on people when formulating your communication plan. Networks of people will get work done, even when there is no electricity.

And finally, be aware of the three main barriers to adopting social media:

(a)   leadership buy-in;

(b)   maintaining the programme

(c)     IT/access issues

New Zealand by the numbers

// October 26th, 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

• 70%: share of TV advertising dollars aimed at 25-54s and 18-49s; cited by Mediaworks TV as a primary factor in repositioning TV3 and FOUR to target these demographics
• 1,033,180: number of Kiwis over 30 who now have Facebook accounts
• 82%: percentage of those buying a new car who research it on Trade Me (Nielsen Online Automotive Search Report 2009)
• 16%: increase in gross media revenues for the outdoor media industry in Q3 2010 (vs Q3 2009), according to OMANZ
• 52%: percentage of Kiwis who have cut back on eating out in cafes and restaurants because of the economic downturn (September 2010)
• $20 million: R&D funding designated for “non-food manufacturing innovation” from November 1
• 47: the number of extra minutes we now spend listening to the radio each week, according the T2 2010 Radio Survey Results
• 419,945: number of NZ households with Freeview as at 30 June 2010
• $2.8 billion: earnings generated by the screen industry in 2009, according to Statistics NZ
• 34%: number of us who say they absolutely intend to save more going forward (September 2010)
• 21: number of years since our third television channel arrived in New Zealand

iPad Learnings for Advertisers

// October 26th, 2010 // No Comments » // Media

The iPad has been out for a few months now, and life as we know it has been completely transformed (or something like that). Anyway, now we’re starting to see some real data squeeze its way past the hype, particularly in terms of advertising within iPad newspaper and magazine applications.

US publisher Condé Nast, which was the first magazine publisher to offer digital magazines (GQ, Vanity Fair, Wired and Glamour) on the iPhone and iPad, last week released key insights based on over 100 hours of one-on-one interviews and more than 5,000 in-app surveys.

They’re not Early Adopters after all:

According to Scott McDonald of Condé Nast, the company was surprised to find that many iPad users surveyed were not the typical tech “early adopter” or familiar with Apple products and their navigation conventions, which has very important implications for application interface design, both for editorial content and for advertisements. iPad content creators should provide clear navigation instructions and icons (and not rely on users to guess how to find their way around).

Advertising Best Practice:

Condé Nast recommends five best practice guidelines for creating advertising that will engage and resonate with the iPad user:

1. Take advantage of this new medium’s functionality: Users responded positively to the additional functionality of the iPad. Therefore advertisers that included compelling and unique experiences, that were self contained and exclusive to the environment, were liked more than those that did not. Increased opportunities for engagement including video, photo galleries and links to websites are recommended.

2. Provide clear instructions on how to engage with your app: As many surveyed were not familiar with iPad navigation, ads that included clear calls to action and cues on how to engage the creative were more effective. Icons should be clearly visible and intuitive and state whether more content or additional functionality can be found. [We’re seeing too many examples of inconsistent and counter-intuitive user navigation on the iPad, because applications are created by so many different designers, each with their own perspective on “how things should be done”. There’s a clear and pressing need for industry standards in such matters.]

3. Supply additional information but avoid repurposing creative assets used for other media: Users enjoyed advertisements that provided something new and useful. Including detailed product info and how-to’s are recommended; however re-purposing video or creative used for other mediums is not regarded as a wise move.

4. Tell a story: The most remembered ads contained narratives. The iPad’s ability to showcase various forms of media offers a unique opportunity for telling a brand’s story. However, it was discovered that users became bored when the same advertisement was used repeatedly throughout a single application.

5. Lead them down the purchase funnel: Brands that enabled a user to directly access and purchase the featured product fared better than companies who offered homepage links alone. But do remember, because of compatibility issues, not to use Flash (at least not on the sections of your website that iPad users are likely to explore).

Advertising created for the iPad isn’t just web advertising on a larger canvas; nor is it print advertising with links. It’s a new form – and we’ve still got some serious learning to do before we’re ready for prime time.

Goodbye Analogue Television, Hello 4G Mobile

// October 26th, 2010 // No Comments » // Media

Last month the NZ Government finally announced a switch off date for analogue television. The service will be switched off progressively nationwide between September 2012 and late 2013.

For the estimated 70% of New Zealanders who currently have either Sky or Freeview, the switch off will be largely irrelevant (except where it fuels the need for replacing those second and third TV sets in the household with digital-capable receivers).

Hidden in the noise of the announcement, however, is the news that the radio spectrum thus released is expected to be used for 4G mobile technologies – a development that’s as significant in the mobile space as the rollout of fibre throughout New Zealand is for fixed-line fast broadband.

Although 4G is still in development, with competing technologies vying for supremacy, the basic 4G specification calls for mobile broadband speeds of between 100Mbps and 1Gbps — anywhere from fifty to five hundred times faster than today’s 3G mobile data offerings.

As more and more of our computing moves mobile (the iPad just the most recent example), the need for 4G will become ever more pressing. The just-announced switchoff date, significantly earlier than previously expected, represents a welcome starting point for ultrafast mobile broadband.

iSKY

// October 26th, 2010 // No Comments » // Media

Sky Television, which staged a well-publicised withdrawal from internet-delivered television (IPTV) some time ago, is heading back online with a comprehensive offering under the iSky brand.

That Sky would return to IPTV was never in doubt – the paycaster has been signing up local internet rights to its content for years. But any return was unlikely until Sky resolved the key issue –bandwidth. Video uses up a lot of bits and bytes; as a result, Sky’s online subscribers quickly found themselves burning through the monthly data allocations they’d purchased from their Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

Telecom and TiVo helped pave the way for Sky’s eventual return, by entering into an exclusive arrangement whereby TiVo’s broadband-based content could be downloaded by Telecom’s internet customers without being counted towards their monthly data cap. The deal helped set a useful precedent – and also created a fertile climate amongst some of Telecom’s ISP competitors who were not happy to be excluded from the TiVo deal.

So now Sky is back, partnering with ISPs Vodafone, Orcon, Slingshot, Farmside, Woosh and Xnet to offer unmetered content that won’t count towards consumers’ monthly data allowance.

What’s on offer?

In the first phase of the iSky rollout, due in the next few weeks, Sky is planning to offer three sports and two news channels streamed live online, along with catchup television for nearly all of Sky’s Basic channels plus Prime. The iSky package will also include a Sports Highlights and a Movies catchup channel, as well as a steadily growing library of movies, documentaries and TV series available for rent.

Initially the iSky service will only be available to Sky subscribers, and the content available will mirror the channels to which they already subscribe. In due course non-Sky-subscribers should be able to purchase iSky access, but that’s still some time away.

Apart from the advertising coursing its way through the live streams of news and sport, marketers will be able to purchase video pre-rolls before specific programme replays, along with the usual collection of banners on the iSky.co.nz website.

iSky in this latest incarnation is evolutionary rather than revolutionary, perhaps; but that’s fairly inevitable until the long-awaited arrival of ultra-fast broadband allows for a far greater range of possibilities than today’s technology affords us.

The Changes Ahead In Local Television

// October 26th, 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

Last week Mediaworks TV used its New Season Launch for 2011 to announce the repositioning of its two primary free-to-air channels.

TV3 is to undergo a mini-makeover, aging along with its audience and moving from a designated 18-49 target to a 25-54 demographic. It’s a minor change in emphasis that isn’t expected to have a major impact on TV3’s scheduling, at least not in the short term.

More spectacularly, however, C4 is to abandon its 15-39 roots, shed its musical pretensions and emerge as a mainstream entertainment channel focused on TV3’s old 18-49 demographic. To highlight this revamp, C4 will become FOUR.

Why the change? As infamous bank robber Willie Sutton used to say (when asked why he robbed banks), “because that’s where the money is”. 70% of advertiser dollars are aimed at the older demographics – which really provides all the motivation a commercial broadcaster should need.

Of course, it’s one thing to affix a demographic label to a channel – and quite a different challenge to actually attract those audiences. Despite the best efforts of those who brand channels, audiences have shown themselves notoriously fickle – they watch programmes, not channels. To change your audiences you need to change your programmes – which, in this case, means transferring some already popular programmes from TV3 to the channel formerly known as C4.

The rebadged FOUR will inherit “America’s Next Top Model” and all-new episodes of “The Simpsons” from its Mediaworks TV stablemate; and will add in new mainstream shows that in earlier times would have been destined for TV3 instead.

Amongst the newcomers slated to make their debut on FOUR:

(more…)

Effectiveness We’d Like to See

// October 12th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Uncategorized

Our everyday lives could be much more effective if we had:

7 An effective method of calculating the true cost of political campaign promises before casting our votes

6 Some better way of determining how much hot water remains before we start that shower

5 A mobile phone application that could read the calories on that label and tell us not to buy it

4 A means of assessing our chances of getting that new job (based on who else has applied and what the employer is looking for) before we bothered applying

3 Some sort of hostility meter on cars, to warn us how their occupants will feel if we queue-jump

2 A toothpaste tube that actually wants to empty completely rather than force us into RSI-inducing contortions

1 A speech-censorship delay mechanism, so that we can reconsider what we’re saying before we say it and get ourselves into career-threatening trouble

What PAYE can teach us about Behaviour Change

// October 12th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Uncategorized

PAYE was introduced by His Majesty’s Government to the UK during the Second World War, as tax rates were increased and the number of British citizens required to pay tax grew from ten million to fourteen million.

The initial purpose of PAYE was to improve funding for the war effort (“Finance is the fourth arm of defence” said Chancellor Sir John Simon at the time) and to create a more efficient tax collection system given the growth in taxpayer numbers.

The consequence, however, was an improvement in both collection and compliance, as taxation at source switched the burden from tax authorities (collect taxes once or twice a year) to taxpayers (claim refunds if tax is overpaid).

Similar dynamics can be observed in other sectors. US retail pharmacy and healthcare corporation CVS Caremark conducts ongoing research into how behavioural economics impacts health care. In one study, company researchers found that when consumers are offered automatic prescription refills rather than just a reminder than their prescription is due for renewal, they are twice as likely to choose the automatic option.

Kiwisaver is another example, where more than 1.5 million Kiwis have savings collected at source on their behalf. A million of us have actively opted in; a further five hundred thousand were automatically enrolled under the scheme’s provisions.

Compulsion or automatic enrolment can be effective methods of changing consumer outcomes whilst avoiding the need for direct behaviour change — but to get consumers to behave differently requires other tactics.

A texting strategy reported in the Wall Street Journal (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125763106050136207.html) demonstrates one method which has proven effective: simply texting people and reminding them to save money increased their savings-account balances by 6%.

Dartmouth College economists conducted their study in the Philippines, Peru and Bolivia, where they teamed with local banks to send reminders to people who had recently opened a savings account.

The banks sent several different types of messages. Those that used negative language to stress the consequences of not saving money saw little change in customers’ savings rates.

But those that mentioned customers’ specific goals did. When reminders touted incentives offered by the bank for consistent deposits, bank savings increased by almost 16%.

The introduction of PAYE in the UK was palatable as a means of supporting the war effort; and Kiwisaver was deemed acceptable in New Zealand as a means of overcoming our poor savings habits. Similarly, the more direct behavioural change brought about by texting only works when it is directly linked to consumer self-interest.