Using insights to drive your Digital Strategy
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Digital Now Australia Jonathan Sinton's Presentation How well do you know your digital audience? Do you know what they're saying about your product or organisation online? Does your digital strategy hit the mark? TNS will present extracts from a new, landmark study called Digital Life, the largest and most comprehensive review of the global digital consumer ever undertaken. Conducted in 46 countries around the world, the study offers vital insights into what your customers are doing online, why, and what will they do more of in the future. Digital Life introduces a new framework for understanding the different types of consumer archetypes in Australia. TNS will discuss how each archetype behaves differently, what motivates them and how brands have been able to connect more deeply with them. You will also come away with insight into how these digital archetypes align with major Australian and International brands and how you can profile these archetypes within your own category.
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Using insights to drive your Digital Strategy
- 1. Using insights to drive your Digital Strategy Jonathan Sinton, TNS
- 2. Digital LifeTM 1000 interviews per market Markets included: 2008/9 7 Markets 48,000+ interviews in total Markets included: 2010 46 Markets IN CNMX AR BR MA EG SA AE TR PT GR PL RU IT ES EE KR AU JP HK SG ID VN PH TH MY NL SE NO FI DK FR BE AT UK DE LU CA US TZ ZA NG UG IL KE IN CN KRAU SGMY NZ
- 4. Australia in Context Australia is a mature internet market Our internet penetration is one of the highest in the world, in excess of 80% of Australians Subsequently our online audience is comparatively old On Average, Australians spend 18 hours a week online – 12th highest Well developed PC usage, lagging mobile usage Strong usage of email & social media, below average usage of news & multimedia
- 5. 7 Insight Driven Strategies View the World through a digital lens 1 2 Don’t reinvent the wheel 3 Talk to the heart 4 Pick your timing 5 Check who you are crowd sourcing 6Show me the money 7Develop a sixth sense
- 6. Viewing the World through a digital lens
- 7. Illustrative Example Does your traditional segmentation work to target people digitally? Write a blog Log onto twitter Social Network Read direct mail Read a Newspaper Listen to the Radio Watch TV A to B Drivers Power hungry Space & Convenience Experience Seekers Traditional views of segments don’t discriminate on digital behaviour 1 Digital is highly fragmented, meaning audiences are small 2
- 8. Create a Digital Segment Gameboard Digital Segment 6 Digital Segment 5 Digital Segment 4 Digital Segment 3 Digital Segment 2 Digital Segment 1 Illustrative Example
- 9. TNS Digital LifeTM : Our view of the Digital World Functionals Aspirers Networkers Knowledge- Seekers Communicators Influencers
- 10. To me, the internet is a functional tool. I don’t want to express myself and I’m not interested in socialising online 26% Functionals 6% Aspirers 20% Networkers 19% Knowledge- Seekers 10% Communicators 19% Influencers “ ” TNS Digital LifeTM : Our view of the Digital World
- 11. I’m a basic user of the internet, but I aspire to improve my online capabilities. I can see the benefits of the internet but haven’t fully embraced it yet “ ” 26% Functionals 6% Aspirers 20% Networkers 19% Knowledge- Seekers 10% Communicators 19% Influencers TNS Digital LifeTM : Our view of the Digital World
- 12. For me, the internet enhances my relationships, enabling me to connect with people and brands– Facebook is my best friend. I’m highly social online. “ ” 26% Functionals 6% Aspirers 20% Networkers 19% Knowledge- Seekers 10% Communicators 19% Influencers TNS Digital LifeTM : Our view of the Digital World
- 13. I love the internet as it allows me to learn so much. I love researching new things online and the information I find helps me to feel empowered. “ ” 26% Functionals 6% Aspirers 20% Networkers 19% Knowledge- Seekers 10% Communicators 19% Influencers TNS Digital LifeTM : Our view of the Digital World
- 14. I just love talking and expressing myself. I’m highly social, but mainly just with my friends. I’m a big smartphone user and couldn’t live without the internet. “ ” 26% Functionals 6% Aspirers 20% Networkers 19% Knowledge- Seekers 10% Communicators 19% Influencers TNS Digital LifeTM : Our view of the Digital World
- 15. I love to voice my opinion and I want to be seen as a leader. I blog, tweet, socialise and try to get my opinion across whenever I can, even if via my phone. I spend most of my time connected. “ ” 26% Functionals 6% Aspirers 20% Networkers 19% Knowledge- Seekers 10% Communicators 19% Influencers TNS Digital LifeTM : Our view of the Digital World
- 16. A basic profile Females Under 35’s Metro 58 34 78 28 37 44 16 46 50 48 51 79 52 63 57 56 68 76 26% Functionals 6% Aspirers 20% Networkers 19% Knowledge- Seekers 10% Communicators 19% Influencers Australia Data
- 17. Australia is a mature diverse market Functionals Aspirers Networkers Knowledge- Seekers Communicators Influencers The World vs Australia Australia has 26% functionals – twice the global average Australia Global Average
- 19. Behavior in Australia similar to Europe and North America Online (PC & Mobile) Behaviour CA MX MA TR PL IN CN KR AR ZA GR PT VN BR SA RU NL JP AE SE PH HK IL EE TH ES SGMYNO FI DK FR BE AT UK DE LU US KE IT ID TZ UG EG SimilartoAustralia DifferenttoAustralia NG Latin America North America North & West Europe South & East Europe Sub Saharan Africa Middle East & North Africa India China Developed Asia Emerging Asia Behaviour Top 10 CA AR PT FRBE AT UK DE US IT
- 20. Australia is structured similarly to North America and Europe CA MX MA TR PL IN CN KR AR ZA GR PT VN BRSA RU NL JP AE SE PH HK IL EE TH ES SG MY NO FI DK FR BE AT UK DE LU US KE ITID TZ UG EG NG Market Structure SimilartoAustralia DifferenttoAustralia Latin America North America North & West Europe South & East Europe Sub Saharan Africa Middle East & North Africa India China Developed Asia Emerging Asia Behaviour Top 10 CA AR PT FRBE AT UK DE US IT Market Structure Top 10 FR NO DK UKUS NL CA LU BE DE
- 21. What motives Australians, motivates North Americans and Europeans CA MX MA TR PL IN CN KR AR ZA GR PT VN BR SA RU NL JP AE SE PH HK IL EE TH ES SG MY NO FI DK FR BE AT UK DE LU USKE IT ID TZ UGEG NG Digital Motivations SimilartoAustralia DifferenttoAustralia Digital Motivations Top 10 Latin America North America North & West Europe South & East Europe Sub Saharan Africa Middle East & North Africa India China Developed Asia Emerging Asia Behaviour Top 10 CA AR PT FRBE AT UK DE US IT US KR DK THPT IL SG BE JP CA Market Structure Top 10 FR NO DK UKUS NL CA LU BE DE
- 22. Talk to the heart
- 23. “The internet is everywhere, but it is not everywhere in the same way”* ien ang
- 24. Management and Entertain needs dominate, amplified in Australia Australia Global Management Entertainment Connection Reassurance Empowerment Stimulation Knowledgeable, Informed, Under control, On top of things, Effective, Efficient Carefree, Uninhibited, A sense of freedom, Escape, Fun, Pleasure Amused, Entertained Global Data
- 25. Make sure you are planning to fulfill the different needs of consumers An example of how online shopping needs vary Australian Influencers Australian Functionals A sense of freedom Adventurous, independant Stimulated, inspired Reassured, peace of mind Belonging, togetherness Community, part of things A sense of sharing, giving Sociable, friendly Connection Entertainment Stimulation Empowerment ManagementReassurance When shopping online, Influencers seek Community, Functionals seek Entertainment r: 0.04 Australia Data
- 26. Pick your timing
- 27. Not every consumer wants to interact with brands in the same way Attitudes to brand presence in activities 26% Functionals 6% Aspirers 20% Networkers 19% Knowledge- Seekers 10% Communicators 19% Influencers Intrusive Tune out Open Australia Data
- 28. Traditional ‘Digital’ channels still key Australia North America Brand Site Retailer Site Offline WOM Price Comparison sites In store Magazines, newspapers etc Professional Reviews User review (blog/forum) Other online sources Comments in a social network Average of sources used in the decision making process across 29 different product and service categories Australia and North America Data
- 29. Brand Salency Brand Opinion Consideration Purchase Intent Don’t devalue your own website Uplift in scores as a result of exposure to ‘brand’ website Results from 4 brand experiment across Auto & TV categories +6-21% +11-21% +22-289% +4-22%
- 30. Find ways to close the loop 39 Interest in buying direct from brand Interest in buying via facebook store Computers Hardware Home appliances Clothes Mobile Phone (handset) Shoes Cleaning/household products Food Audio visual Cosmetics / facial care products Skin care products Alcoholic Beverages Hair care products Video games Fragrances/ perfume Mobile gadgets Tobacco/ cigarettes Baby care products
- 31. Check who you are crowd sourcing
- 32. The Voyeuristic West % Who are regular content generators Collectivist High Hoftstedt’sCulturalDimension Low CA MX MA TR PL IN CN KR AR ZA GR PT VN AU BR SA RU NL JP AE SE PH HK IL EE TH ES SG MY NO FI DE FR BE AT UK DE LU US KE Australia one of the lowest creators of web content Individualist
- 33. A simple framework for understanding User Generated Content Generators: Amplifiers: Readers: Tweet, Blog, Write More than weekly Comment, Retweet, Forward More than weekly Read User Generated Content More than weekly
- 34. Australians not major consumers of UGC Average Score: More than one week 37 41 46 22 28 31 Generators Amplifiers Readers Global Australia
- 35. User Generated Content coming from 1 Segment 26% Functionals 6% Aspirers 20% Networkers 19% Knowledge- Seekers 10% Communicators 19% Influencers 19% of the Australian market, Influencers, responsible for creating most of the UGC Australia Data Generators Amplifiers Readers
- 37. Australians not big brand socialisers % Linked to brands Timespentconsumingsocialmedia Low Low High HIGH CA MX MA TZ TR PT IN CN INKR AR EG ZA GR PL VN BR SA NG RU NL JP AE UG IT SE PH HK IL ES THSI MY NO FI DK FR BE AT UK DE LU US KE EE 30% of Australians connected to brands in Social Networks AU Global Data
- 38. Show me the money! Brand Attraction (like the brand) Copy Cat (follow friends) Personal Benefit (incentivised) Australia Lowest Country Highest Country KEY Likelihood of encouraging participation in community (%) Australians most likely to respond to incentives Global Data
- 39. The Branded Community Epiphany Percent Connected to brands #ofbrandsconnectedto Functional Aspirers Communicators Knowledge-Seekers Networkers Influencers HighLow Low High Australian segments Connections increase with segment sophistication Australia Data
- 40. And the need for incentivising diminishes with sophistication of userFunctionals Aspirers Networkers Knowledge-seekers Com m unicators Influencers NETT: Personal Benefit NETT: Follow Friends NETT: Brand Attraction 60% of Influencers connect to brands they like Australia Data Reasons for joining brand community
- 41. Local successes Brand Attraction (+ incentives) Incentives (+ brand attraction) Rated as being successful ANZ communities on www.famecount.com
- 43. The web is dead, long live the internet Used Mobile Web Used Apps Australia Rank (Total) 28 27 Australian Rank (Developed markets) 15 11 Used Mobile Web (Past 4 weeks) Used Apps (Past 4 weeks) Australia Australia ranks #28 for mobile web usage (Among users) Lowest Country Highest Country KEY 4 Weekly Usage
- 44. But it’s no longer just for early adopters Past 4 Weeks 6 10 28 20 3125 Mobile Internet usage Every 4 weeks 13 10 27 40 4930 Mobile App usage 26% Functionals 6% Aspirers 20% Networkers 19% Knowledge- Seekers 10% Communicators 19% Influencers Australia Data 4 of 6 Segments becoming mobile
- 45. But keep your options open Share today Share tomorrow iPhone Nokia Other iPhone Nokia Other 26% Functionals 6% Aspirers 20% Networkers 19% Knowledge- Seekers 10% Communicators 19% Influencers Australia Data Fragmentation of Handsets will continue
- 46. Develop a sixth sense Pattie Mae – TED2009 9 Currently use mobile reviews 33 Interest in accessing reviews (if available) Australian data
- 47. 3Key out-takes
- 48. Invest time to understand your audience Use a digital lens to view the market, understand the who, what , why and where.
- 49. Don’t succumb to peer pressure Don’t do something because its cool, do it because its right for your target
- 50. Don’t reinvent the wheel, unless you have to Look beyond our shores for ideas that can be localised and implemented
- 51. 51
Notas do Editor
- Thank you <> There are a lot of familiar faces in the audience from last years dna event – its good to see so many of you back for more. Last year the focus was very much on why it is important to have a digital strategy and what it can do for your business. Based on the registration details for the event today, most of you have fully embraced digital marketing. Hence the focus this year is very much on how to improve what you are doing digitally, and to hopefully offer some insights and ideas that will help you straight away.
- Almost everything I will share with you today has been crafted from a study we have conducted recently, called digital life Those of you who attended dna in 2009 will know we did a substantial programme of work across 2008 and 2009 within the Asian region, looking into the habits and needs of the online population. In 2010 this study expanded to 46 markets around the world. These countries account for 90% of the world’s online population, and we believe it to be the most substantial, robust study of its kind to date.
- I thought it would be useful to start with a quick review of how Australia compares to the other 45 countries in our study, to be able to create some context for how Australians behave. Some key points Australia is a mature internet market Our internet penetration is one of the highest in the world, in excess of 80% of Australians Subsequently, because of this and our aging population, our online audience is comparatively old On Average, Australians spend 18 hours a week online (across both PC and mobile) – which is the 12th highest in the world We have well developed PC usage, but our mobile usage is lagging behind Additionally, whilst Australians are strong users of social media and email, we have below average readership of online news, and slightly below average use of multimedia
- So that gives you a bit of context to Australia, what I’m going to do today is talk through 7 key insights which hopefully will help you in formulating your marketing plans. The amount of insight we have from our Digital Life study is vast, so I can only share a few points with you today, in the time I’ve got. I’ve tried to focus on insights that are topical in Australia today. Please contact me separately if there are points I don’t cover, that you would like to discuss.
- The very first topic today is actually the insight that drove the initial development of the Digital Life project itself. Fundamentally, we need to change the way we view consumers to be able to maximise our understanding of digital behaviour.
- Typically during any comms strategy development, you would be pulling out your segmentation study to understand your target customer better. For some of you, this will give you clear, definable differences in online behaviour, particularly in tech related categories. But what we’ve been finding more and more is that traditional segmentations are not really providing the answers we need to market effectively through digital channels. <click> There is nothing wrong with your segmentation I suspect – it is probably designed to give discriminating differences in category needs and behaviours, not digital media behaviour. And because the internet is so fragmented, often audiences for particular sites or activities are too small to be picked up clearly
- What you need to do is look at digital needs, attitudes and behaviours from a fresh perspective, independent of your category, and then inter-relate these to your category segments on a game board. This creates more sizeable clustered patterns of digital behaviour to target. What you see from this example for instance is that if you were wanting to target experience seekers in the auto category, you would target digital segment 1 in your digital strategy. Now creating these digital segments is not difficult – you can potentially even use your existing segmentation data. Alternatively, of course you can use one we made earlier….
- We have discovered that there are 6 different digital typologies in Australia, ranging from what we call functionals through to influencers These typologies have been created by looking at their online behaviour, their attitudes and importantly, their digital motivations.
- The first of these segments is functionals, representing 26% of the market To them, the internet is a functional tool. They don’t want to express themselves and are not interested in socialising online. They’re not that keen to change their behaviour.
- The second is aspirationals, representing 6% of the market They are a basic user of the internet, but aspire to improve their online capabilities. They can see the benefits of the internet but haven’t fully embraced it yet
- The third is networkers, representing 20% of the market For me, the internet enhances their relationships, enabling them to connect with both people and brands – facebook is their best friend – they are highly social online.
- The fourth is knowledge seekers, representing 19% of the market They love the internet as it allows them to learn so much. They love researching new things online and the information they find helps them to feel empowered.
- The fifth is communicators, representing 10% of the market They just love talking and expressing themselves. They are highly social, but mainly just with their friends. They are big smartphone users and couldn’t live without the internet.
- And finally, the most advanced of our segments, Influencers, representing 19% of the market They love to voice their opinion and want to be seen as a leader. They blog, tweet, socialise and try to get their opinion across whenever they can, even if via their phone. They spend most of their time connected.
- There is a natural hierarchy to these segments, as we’d probably expect There are some simple demographic rules – firstly, networkers are heavily skewed towards females, as we’d expect. <click> And the more savvy segments are younger. In fact, only 16% of Functionals are under 35, yet 79% of influencers are under 35. This extremely important to remember, as many digital initiatives and campaigns are skewing towards the influencer segment, essentially made up of the under 35’s. <click> But its also worth noting that metro audiences are more savvy than rural audiences – an additional argument for the NBN, some might suggest.
- And when we compare segment sizes to the rest of the world, Australia skews towards the lower end of the scale – with more functionals, networkers and knowledge seekers that the global average. This is ultimately a function of our extremely high internet penetration – we have a more demographically diverse, older online audience than most countries in the world, meaning as a whole we tend to skew towards the more basic uses of the web; The implication is that there are quite distinct, different patterns of behaviour, meaning if you are targeting a mass market audience, you need diversity in your strategy. I’ll continue to use this typology framework throughout my presentation today.
- I often get asked, how is Australia different from the rest of the world when it comes to digital behaviour? Which markets are we similar to, what differences in behaviour exist, and so on. So we’ve done a range of analysis to try and answer this question.
- Firstly, we correlated the behaviour of consumers in market around the world. We took the time they spend on a range of digital activities such as social networking, shopping, gaming and so on, across both PC’s and mobiles, and looked for similar patterns of behaviour. What we found was that North Americans and Western Europeans, at the macro level, behave in a similar way to Australians. Chinese, by comparison, behave extremely differently.
- And when we explored the market structure of each country, in terms of segment size and composition, again Australia is extremely similar to North America and Western Europe.
- And finally, we looked into what motivates Australians to go online, social network, shop online and so on, and the similarities to other markets. Again, North America and Western Europe proved to be motivated by similar reasons. The implication is of course that sometimes you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. If your business has had great success with particular digital ideas or approaches in these similar markets, you can assume they can be localised for the Australian market quite easily. There are other factors like the strength of your brands pulling power compared to other markets, and the size of market does play a role in the success of things like crowdsourcing, but fundamentally Australian online behaviour is the same as in these markets. Hopefully this also gives you the ammunition to prove that Australia is different to the rest of Asia, if you are a part of a regional business.
- One of the biggest challenges facing us today is knowing exactly how to connect with different people. It is not just about the overarching activity that the audience does the most or the sites you use to reach them – these are relatively easy to work out. It is about the style, tone and energy of your communication, which can be much harder to determine as they are not obvious from looking at statistics. What you need to do, is understand at a deeper level, what motivates people to do what they do – what motivates people to tweet, to Facebook, to shop online? If you can understand the motivations, it can really help you to understand not just what you should be doing to reach a target, but how you should communicate with them to create engagement.
- What was not explicitly shown from the illustrations I just showed you, was just how different motivations for using the internet can be by market. It was the most discriminating factor we explored. What this means is that in theory, 2 markets can be structured the same, behave the same at the macro level, but have quite different motivations <France Example>
- When we explore what motivates consumers to use the web for a variety of tasks and reasons, there are fundamentally 6 need states fulfilled. Management is the biggest driver and exists in many of the common tasks we complete, beit banking, emailing, shopping and so on. But somewhat surprisingly, entertainment is the second most important need state and exists across a range of common tasks such as research products, shopping, social networking and so on. Both of these top need states are of even greater importance in Australia than they are globally. A simple question to ask yourselves: Are your digital properties helping your customers manage their lives and are they entertaining them along the way?
- And when we look at the segment level for particular activities, the variations in motivations are more extreme. <click> In this example, when shopping online, the Australian functional segment are seeking entertainment and stimulation – they want to be inspired into a purchase <click> Influencers, on the other hand, want to connect with other shoppers, share experiences and be part of a community. They want to make a product decision by consensus Clearly, as a brand or retailer, the way in which you would execute an online retail strategy to fulfil these needs would vary dramatically between the segments. The implication is that through understanding the needs and motivations of the consumer that you are targeting across a range of tasks and activities, you can really develop the digital properties that hit the mark.
- Different people want to receive brand information in different ways. Some don’t mind advertising and branded content across different activities. Some do. Its important to understand where it is ok to talk to your target, and where it is not.
- The way we explore this is to test their willingness to interact with brands during different activities. Some are quite open to interaction during a range of activities, others are more resistant. – Interestingly the influencers – the most digitally savvy segment, are quite resistant to interaction outside of the purchase cycle (probably because of the number of brand messages they get and their love of UGC). Functionals, our most basic user segment, are the most open. The implication is that you should invest more energy where it is likely to be better received. The most important touch points for most brands – in my opinion – are during the purchase cycle. Either in pre-purchase browsing or when shopping. As you can see – it is also the stage where people are most receptive to brand interaction. It is sometimes forgotten about, but is the easiest area for many brands to get ROI from.
- So what we have done is measure the usage of different information sources during the purchase cycle, across 29 different categories in all 46 markets. This chart illustrates the differences between Australia and North America – a similar region to Australia as we’ve already seen. There are a number of key points we should consider. Your website is a crucial source of information and influence. Make sure this gets the attention it deserves. North America has a greater reliance on reviews and retailer sites than Australia, probably because there are more sites and reviews available due to the sheer scale of the market there Australia still has a strong reliance on in store retail, so its important to link the in store experience back to your online experience. There is obviously significant variation by category, as we highlighted at last years dna conference. Any category with ‘globally consistent’ products or services, such as mobile phone handsets, tend to use user generated content more, simply because there is more content available. But really, I believe the key implication from this chart is to remember to focus on the touchpoints that consumers are using during the purchase cycle. And whilst your own website might not be as sexy as your Facebook strategy, the chances are it has the potential to have a significantly greater impact of sales.
- And to demonstrate this point, Google have kindly given me permission to share findings from a series of experiments we conducted earlier this year. We recruited people in the market for a new car or TV and ‘exposed’ them to specific brands sites. We then measured the impact of visitation to the sites and specific pages on brand metrics. All the brands who took part were major international brands and as you can see, exposure to their website had a significant impact across all brand metrics, but in particular consideration. In comparison to the average TV ad, these uplifts are impressive, and really emphasize the importance of investing in your own site.
- But the role of the brand site is potentially changing. First, there is a growing trend of brands in the US building ‘direct to consumer’ models – that is selling products from their website. Brands such as Levi’s, Columbia and Proctor & Gamble have all built online stores to sell to consumers. And there are a few brands doing the same in australia too, including Ferrero who launched their online boutique on Monday to market their premium gifting offering to consumers. <click> And when we explored interest amongst consumers, most have an interest in buying direct from the manufacturers. Clearly interest varies but category, but there is undoubtedly interest for many. Obviously the brand has to provide additional value. For example Apple offer free engraving of iPods, as a way of enticing the purchase. Ultimately it provides an opportunity to close the loop – consumers are probably visiting your site during a purchase decision, so its about finding ways to get an immediate transaction. <click> The second trend we are seeing, is interest in buying through social media. Many brands have made a success of selling via twitter, and now you can now embed an entire store within Facebook. Brands like coke are already selling t-shirts, cups and so on through this channel. Because consumers are spending so much time in social media, it makes sense for brands to try and sell –rather than just influence- here too. In Australia, about 2 in 5 social networkers are interested in buying via facebook. And a new development – last week Facebook announced a service called Facebook deals that will enable brands to push location based deals to consumers via facebook. We should be expecting more opportunities to change the online retail environment in the coming years. Ultimately, what it comes down to is: try to understand your purchase cycle, identify the points of influence, and make every effort to dominate these points.
- At last years dna I touched on the fact that Australia is a voyeuristic market – in that we like to use and read user generated content, but don’t actually create much ourselves.
- I’ve been amazed this year when talking to Australian consumers, the number who have told me how useful they find user reviews – but when you ask them if they write reviews, of course they don’t, and for many its never even crossed their minds to do so. People don’t really think of it as a community that they need to contribute to in return for using it. This is because culturally we are classified as an individualistic nation. In other markets like China or Korea, which are very community centric nations – collectivist nations – user content creation is rife. As you can see from this slide, the more individualist a nation is, the less likely they are to create content for the web – be writing a blog, participating in a forum, writing a review and so on. What’s interesting is that the UK, USA, and Australia sit slightly above this trend line – possibly due to the fact the internet is primarily published in english making it easier for us to contribute. The implication is of course that if you are looking to crowdsource, or create a brand community, it is much harder to get people engaged than it is in other markets, particularly Asia. Additionally, if you are looking to leverage the power of UGC to promote your brand, through asking consumers to write reviews on your site, think about how you can encourage them to do so
- And to demonstrate this in a bit more detail, we use a simple framework of Generators, amplifiers and readers, as detailed here
- When we look at Australia in comparison to the global average, Australia is not just under represented in generating content, but also in amplifying and reading. This intuitively makes sense – if no User Generated Content is being generated, how can you read it and amplify it? Of course some global categories generate higher volumes of UGC, such as mobile handsets, cars as already mentioned. Another exception where we do see a strong amount of UGC being developed is in groups with a particularly strong bond, such as young mums
- And when we drill down to the segment level in Australia, there is really only 1 segment – influencers – Generating the volume of UGC out there. This young group, just 19% of the online population, are turning tradition on its head – no longer are our elders providing the wisdom. The implications are vast. Firstly, targeting this one group successfully, even if not your primary target, will create more positive content about your brand. Secondly, when you are doing your social media monitoring, its important to remember you are really only monitoring a small proportion of people – the majority are silent and hence not represented. Finally, whilst some segments don’t really read UGC regularly, of course often content can jump channel and feature in more traditional press – which the other segments are consuming. I’m sure that’s how most people in the room hear about things like the wedding dance ad the Old Spice campaign – whilst the influencers would have seen it at source, the others hear about it on today tonight or alike. Fergus will talk more about the influencer within his paper.
- Related to this, is the topic of brand socialisation which has become a white hot topic in the past couple of years. I was talking to digital agency person recently and they were saying most if not all briefs had a community aspect to them. Every brand seems to be trying to become friends with their targets, whether it be through facebook, twitter, youtube, forums or a proprietary community. But how successful are we being?
- We have discovered that Australians has a fairly low propensity to connect with brands. (explain) We looked in consumers likelihood of connecting with brands – being part of a community. In some markets, it the norm, but in Australia it is still less than 1 in 3. This is on the increase however What’s interesting is that there is no linkage between time spent in social media and connection with a brand – in essence there are other factors that determine if a consumer will connect with you. Simply some cultures are more open to it.
- We also explored what would motivate someone to connect with a brand. And I’m sorry, its not generally because they want to give constant feedback on your brand. Ultimately if they like you (or probably love you) they’ll be open to connecting with you. If not, they can be bought – almost 70% of Australians will connect with a brand if they get deals, promotions and so on through it.
- But once connected with brands, they appear to embrace brand socialisation, becoming connected with more and more brands. It is probably safe to assume it will become more and more common for consumers to become part of online brand communities in the future.
- And what’s really interesting is when we look at the different segments. The more basic users definitely require incentivisation, but the more advanced segments like the influencers are just as likely to connect because they like a brand, as they are for incentives. The implication of course is that if you want to create a community around your brand, make sure you’ve budgeted to incentivised people to join.
- I thought it would be useful to share a couple of examples of brands creating meaningful facebook communities. Of course there has to be an underlying purpose to the community. Some brands use it successfully as a customer service channel – vodafone being a good example, whilst others use it as a newsfeed – quicksilver being another good example. <click> But you still need to attract people in the first place. One of the most successful communities in Australia is the Lonely Planet facebook page. What they have done well is leverage the cult following they have for their brand. They publish content such as ‘top 10 places to go in florida’ which appeals to the core audience they have and stimulates conversation– many of who are most likely digital influencers. But interestingly, they also incentivise people – offering 30% off your next purchase in exchange for personal deals. <click> And 2 good examples of incentive led communities are air new zealand offering $50 to ‘like the brand’ (in otherwords amplify it) and logitech australia who run competitions via their community. In essence, communities can be a good method of rewarding and engaging with your existing customers, but don’t expect it to be a freebie.
- The last topic I would like to discuss today relates to mobile and how the changing ways in which people are using their phone could change marketing forever.
- You may have read recently that Wired magazine declared the internet dead. Their point was simply that applications are taking over as our means of accessing online content. There is no truer place than mobile. Application usage now outstrips mobile internet access worldwide, and this no different in Australia. Interestingly, we were running some online groups in India a couple of weeks ago amongst in essence the Influencer segment, and to them, the mobile web simply isn’t cool, but apps are. Australia is still slow in the uptake of both the mobile web and app usage, quite possibly due to the fact our phone contracts are some of the longest in the world, meaning migration to new handsets such as the iPhone take much longer. The iPhone still only has 12% penetration in Australia, according to our data.
- It is important to note that in Australia, whilst usage is still low, it is no longer just an early adopter technology. This might seem an obvious point to us as most of us are highly mobile already, but its easy to forget that real Australia doesn’t work in marketing for a big organisation. And a further point that really emphasises that mobile has become a different experience to the PC – 66% of online occasions are via wifi – in otherwords, they have access to a PC, but chose to access content via their mobile instead.
- But the rise in popularity of apps creates an interesting dilemma, one that the gaming industry has faced for years – what platform do we develop for? Often its too costly to cover all bases and given the potential lead time for app development and the changing handset landscape, you need to decide which are the right platforms to develop for, for your target Currently, its quite easy – iPhone and android. But within the next 2 years, as people’s contracts come up for renewal, the vast majority of handsets will become app capable and some major players like Nokia and Microsoft will fight back. <click> This slide illustrates how share is split between Nokia, Apple and other manufacturers. Apple does well amongst influencers and networkers, but not other segments <click> But if people could change their handset tomorrow, the landscape would change dramatically. The latent demand for iPhone and other smartphones like HTC is strong. But even still apple remain a minority across all segments, especially when we consider their limited production will mean these shares are not fulfilled. And to demonstrate how quickly things can change – the android platform accounted for 2% of online occasions in April this year (be it via apps or a browser), yet by october this year, it accounted for 16% of occasions. You need to ensure you are in a position to develop for multiple platforms and then choose those most relevant to your audience.
- To finish, This is a great TED video by a lady called Pattie Mae. I think it gives us good insight into how the mobile phone may well develop in the future. Essentially she’s developed a technology which you wear around your neck that recognises things in front of you and presents information back to you. The device works right now and costs $350 to build. At a more simplistic level, we asked if people had already started accessing reviews on the go. 9% have. And 33% have an immediate interest in doing so, if available. Obviously the implications for retail are massive. The ability to get instant advice could have a significant impact on product choice, would change the role of the sales guy and likely result in a shortening of the purchase cycle for many products. It will also mean that monitoring your review status will become increasingly important. I think the most interesting thing about this example is that it demonstrates how the mobile will evolve to provide dynamic content, but in a very different way to how it is presented on the PC. It will be about intuition and ease of access, not volume of content. The incredible uptake of apps is an obvious precursor to future usage. Make sure when developing your apps, you are keeping this in mind and not just replicating a PC experience on a handset
- Each of the presenters today will leave you with 3 final pieces of advice, to sum up their papers.
- My first piece of advice is to Invest time to understand your audience. Because the online audience in Australia is so diverse and highly fragmented, there is an inherent risk that we’re playing a game of digital guess who. That we’re putting campaigns, strategies out there without thoroughly exploring what our target audience is doing online and how they’re likely to respond to our activity. When using mass market channels, the need to start with the ‘who’ is of less importance in many ways. Often a decision is made to make a TV ad, irrespective of who the target is. The who is considered later in the mix, when writing the storyboard and doing the media selection. But with digital, it is imperative that you start with the who – who your audience is and how best to reach and influence them. If you invest more time in understanding your target first, then the rest of the strategy becomes much more intuitive.
- Don’t succumb to peer pressure. Don’t just create a community because everyone else is. Do it because it’s the right way of reaching your target. The same goes for twitter, facebook, mobile apps, banner advertising, and so in. Its too easy to get sucked into doing something because its cool, do it because it’s the right way of connecting with your target.
- And finally, I’m sure the digital agencies will hate me for saying this, but don’t reinvent the wheel, unless you have to. Look beyond our shores for ideas that can be localised and implemented, to help provide a greater chance of success. Thank you for your time