Innehållsförteckning för April 2017 från AdNews

I was never really one for science in school. I did pretty well and got the grades, but I never really had a passion for it. But I could see how it different from the arts and humanities. It wasn’t subjective like literature and art. It wasn’t open to interpretation and analysis like history. The answers were there. Our cover feature on marketing science looks at how scientific rigour is being applied to marketing to deliver growth. What the Ehrenberg Bass Institute and Dr Byron Sharp do is try to bring some robust research and rigour into the discipline – which is utterly lacking elsewhere. While not everyone may buy into all the principles, it’s hard to argue with any effort to make advertising more effective, accountable and credible as…

Sharp’s is definitely the loudest voice in marketing science and it often appears he is a lone voice, but marketing science is an entire field - not just the Ehrenberg Bass Institute. There is the Marketing Science Institute based in Massachusetts since 1961, as well as behavioural scientists, neuroscience and more which each rely on empirical data. Theories from former Harvard Professor Douglas Holt, whose cultural branding approach is tailored for innovation and change rather than relying on historical data and tackles the issue some have with EB, which relies on the past to predict the future. Also, Mark Uncles, marketing professor and deputy dean of UNSW’s Business School’s work on loyalty provide alternatives within the field. As do Kevin Lane Keller’s brand equity model and Robert Heath's low attention…

A lack of transparency in the digital media supply chain holds back growth and inhibits ROI, marketers were told at an event hosted by the AANA. Marketers and agencies were confronted by some home truths about the lack of transparency in the digital media supply chain, revealing that things are even murkier than they might have thought. Nick Manning, chief of strategy at auditing firm Ebiquity gave a brutal presentation shining a light on the failings of all areas of the supply chain that have led to the lack of transparency and some action points for how to tackle it. Contracts, poor marketing knowledge, a complex fee structure, ad fraud and viewability are all part of a much bigger issue. Programmatic got a particularly heavy beating as Manning said it…

At a time when content distribution has never been easier, it seems it has also never been easier to lose consumer trust. In a recent study from Havas Worldwide, which analysed 1500 brands and 300,000 people, results indicated that the global average for brand trust sits at just 57%. While this figure may be disheartening, it is Australians who have the lowest trust in brands globally, at just 25%. Clearly, consumers are becoming wary of this ‘cluttered’ content environment, and as a result, becoming more critical about the quality and relevance of it. Brands were measured on their ‘meaningfulness’ and benefits to the community, as well as contribution to the consumer’s wellbeing and quality of life. According to the study, Google was found to be the most meaningful to Australians,…

Agency leaders have expressed concern that consultancies encroaching into creative turf are splintering client relationships and threatening the future of the industry, while others shrug off the move. Over the past 18 months, the likes of Deloitte, KPMG, Accenture and PwC have scored high profile agency deals around the world. The shops they’ve snapped up are not just tech, mobile, or social specialists. Some are full-service creative firms. Accenture has been leading the way, acquiring sets of new skills across digital, media and creative, notably purchasing the 250-person UK creative shop Karmarama last year and Australian hot shop Reactive in 2014. With Deloitte, PwC and McKinsey’s pitching against agencies for strategy work and “cutting their lunches”, it's clear consultancies are poised to take on agencies and compete for the budgets…

Sharp sets out common myths in his book How Brands Grow and proceeds to disprove them with facts, research and a scientific methodology. • Differentiating a brand is a vital marketing task • Loyalty metrics reflect the strength not the size of a brand • Customer retention is cheaper than acquisition • Price promotions boots penetration not loyalty • Who a brand competes with depends on the positioning of the brands image • Mass marketing is no longer competitive • Buyers have a special reason to buy a brand • The consumers of a particular brand are a distinctive type of person • The heaviest 20% of a brand’s customers deliver at least 80% of its sales.…

It's about time media agencies unite and tackle hot topics such as transparency and measurement, according to IPG Mediabrands CEO Henry Tajer, who formerly ran the Australian business. When it comes to the industry teaming up and tackling the hard issues, it does happen, to a point. The emergence of independent diversity charter, The Agency Circle, is one example, but it should happen more in media, Tajer believes. The first step is to leave their considerable egos and insecurities at the door. “It’s pretty clear to me that the market has to come together and be prepared to have a meaningful discussion, agree on meaningful steps forward, and work together," he said. "Media talking about it in isolation isn’t good enough; agencies doing their own commentary in isolation doesn’t move…

Accenture Interactive has confirmed it intends to help clients bring their digital media buying in-house as part of a global strategy – a move that threatens to bypass an increasingly important and lucrative part of a media agency’s role. The move is motivated by discussions around programmatic trading, including concerns about transparency and fraud in the digital media supply chain “We offer programmatic trading locally and are focused on ensuring our clients get better transparency, connection to the end customer and are able to drive greater efficiencies within their marketing execution,” an Accenture spokesperson said. The threat of clients in-housing programmatic trading is a very real concern for media agencies. Yesterday, an agency head of investment told AdNews that more clients are looking to bring the function internally, but the…

Agencies are shifting their focus from state to national with three of Australia’s top agencies appointing chief creative officers in the first quarter of this year. First former M&C Saatchi Andy DiLallo resurfaced at TBWA as national CCO and most recently Jason Williams (pictured) stepped up to Leo Burnett national chief creative after 10 years as the Melbourne ECD – both new roles for the agencies. Creative heavyweight Pat Baron was also promoted to chief creative officer of McCann – a position that has been left vacant for three years after John Mescall moved to become global ECD of the group based in the US. The appointments reflect an increasing demand from clients for their brands to appeal to a national as well as APAC regional. It also allows agencies…

Pellegrino on walled gardens Google and Facebook are often criticised for operating closed marketplaces around their user data – often derided as ‘walled gardens’. Pellegrino thinks Facebook is more of a culprit in that sense, but argues ‘walled garden’ is a blunt term that’s “thrown around” and fails to fairly reflect the “details of the business we operate in”. “Across all of the assets we have, whether it’s search or YouTube, the content is owned by content owners, not us. These are open agnostic platforms. Whether it’s Google Analytics, our Double-Click stack, fundamentally it does allow access on a scaled way to a vast array of publisher content, whether that’s video, text or image,” he said. The Google MD said this is different to media platforms that attempt to contain…

• Double jeopardy - brands with less market share have far fewer buyers who are slightly less loyal • Retention double jeopardy - all brands lose some buyers; this loss is proportional to their market share • Pareto law: 60/20 - more than half a brand's sales come from the top 20% of its customers, the rest from the bottom 80% • Buyer moderation - heavy buyers start buying less, light buyers buy more often and non-buyers become buyers • Natural monopoly - brands with more market share attract more light buyers • User bases seldom vary - rival brands have the same customer base • Attitudes and brand beliefs reflect behavioural loyalty - customers know about brands they use and not others • Usage drives attitude - users of different brands feel the same way about their…

“We are in no means perfect, but we are beginning to make real sense of how we operate beyond traditional mediums”James McGrath Creative chairman Beyond the agency’s performance in 2016, Clemenger has decades of consistency, strength and success that is unrivalled in the Australian market. From award-winning work, like TAC’s Graham, Bonds’ The Boys and Snicker’s Hungerithm, the agency prides itself on the ability to evolve by integrating disciples such as data-led creativity and creating long-term brand platforms that have impact well beyond these shores. “We’ve completely shifted from what we were renowned for 10 years ago,” said creative chairman James McGrath, who has been with Clems more than a decade. “Work like Hungerithm is a good symbol of the success that we can have delivering non-traditional campaigns that transcend…