$8.90 [email protected] | www.surveysampling.com CONTENTS

THE MEDIA ISSUE

SHORTER

2 Editorial Slowly slowly.

4 Shorts Numbers, comments, stats and stories.

5 Which online ads are most hated? Kiwis share their least favourites.

6 What’s it like? Perspectives on sexism, ageism and race.

10 CCC infographic A $6 billion industry. SPECIALS

12 Horse’s Mouth 14 The Hot List Nick Vile. We pick out the best of the bunch in the media business.

46 Integrated or independent? FCB Media and MBM give the lowdown on their two different media agency models.

56 In the dock Alex Lawson on ads that steal time.

58 Horse’s Mouth Louise Bond.

68 Peep show Alex Radford on ‘creepy’ tech that tracks.

FEATURES

33 The next big trick David Thomason discusses targeting vs. mass media.

40 20/20 Television Erin McKenzie finds the value of local 61 The transparency issue TV foradvertisers. Damien Venuto looks at digital advertising’s growing PR problem.

76 Outdoor bounty 70 Merger mania Lynda Brendish looks at the growth of A chorus of smart industry folks give their take on the future of Sky out-of-home advertising. Vodafone and NZME/Fairfax.

The Media Issue 2017 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | 1 editorial

SLOWLY SLOWLY Editor Damien Venuto [email protected] 021 981 001

stunningly designed contraptions. But think of when Deputy Editor Apple released the iPhone 7. The general consensus Erin McKenzie was, ‘Okay, so they removed the earphone jack and [email protected] 027 339 9531 introduced a pressure-sensitive home button’. Pretty meh, right? Staff Writer This might be the case, but it didn’t stop people all Jihee Junn [email protected] over the world from queuing for hours and lodging 021 257 0607 pre-orders to get their hands on one. The point here is Commercial Manager that Apple understands that small changes designed Vernene Medcalf to enhance the customer experience are vastly 09 966 0998 or 021 628 200 superior to major redesigns that render the product a [email protected] glitch-ridden disaster. Design DAMIEN VENUTO But can this slow-burn method be applied to the Wade Wu Jessie Marsh Editor media industry, particularly at a time of enormous Julian Pettitt change when innovation is listed as a prerequisite for survival? Editorial Director/Publisher One need only look at Procter & Gamble chief Ben Fahy [email protected] brand officer Marc Pritchard’s confession earlier 021 245 4894 n 2014, City University of London professor Paolo this year that his team had erred in trying to be a Aversa and his pit crew of data geeks published a “first mover on all the latest shiny objects” to see the ICG Print David Ashton Ireport tracing every innovation in Formula One importance of adopting a more strategic approach to 021 951 403 over a 30-year period. innovating in marketing and advertising. Contact What the report found was that innovation in The obvious counter-argument to this is that NZ Marketing is published by Formula One technology didn’t always result in advertising is a messy creative process that can’t be Tangible Media success on the racetrack. On the contrary, in certain measured against the technical specifications of a 19 Lyon Ave PO Box 77027, circumstances, the less innovative cars performed far racecar or a mobile phone. I’m not denying that. But Mt Albert, Auckland 1350 better than the spruced-up vehicles of their opponents. this hasn’t stopped other creative industries from 09 966 0998, 09 360 5702 (fax) An anecdote Aversa recently told the Harvard generating enormous success from a more measured www.tangiblemedia.co.nz Business Review recounts the 2009 season when approach to innovation. Subscribe to NZ Marketing Jenson Button, who had finished 18th the previous A classic example is Hollywood’s remake and sequel via stoppress.co.nz, at www. year, ended up winning the Drivers’ Championship strategy, which shows that subtle creative changes to tangiblemedia.co.nz/product/nz- marketing, by calling in a basic, albeit solid, Mercedes-Brawn car. Racing work that already exists can often generate something 0800 782 347 or emailing against a field of innovative hybrid speedsters, popular and enormously lucrative—both of which are, [email protected] Button’s modest single-person-mover whizzed past after all, the primary objectives of advertising. Distribution the competition all season long. Also, it isn’t only cinematic creativity that has a Netlink Only a year later, by which time the tech had penchant for innovating bit by bit. In April this year, been tested on all his competitors, did team owner Justin Bieber collaborated with Luis Fonsi to create Printing Image Centre Ross Brawn invest in it and, unsurprisingly, won the the first Spanish-language number one hit in the US NZ Marketing is printed using championship again. since the Macarena in 1996. vegetable or soy-based inks. Paper supplied by BJ Ball using wood from Aversa’s study showed that time and time again, What’s interesting is that the original version of the sustainable, well-managed forests. teams that held back on innovation or innovated more song was released in January to a relatively mediocre cautiously ended up being more successful. The reason US reception. However, rather than canning the song Copyright NZ Marketing is subject to copyright being that changing even a few features of a highly and starting anew, Fonsi worked with what he saw as in its entirety. The contents may not technical Formula One car introduces variables that a good core, writing a few English lines and through be copied without written could lead to failure. What’s more is that this principle what can only be imagined as some superhuman form permission from its owners. All material sent to NZ Marketing can be applied to virtually any technical product. of persistence, recorded the song with Bieber singing will be deemed to be publishable Of course, we love to mythologise certain in Spanish. At the end of it all, it was a touch of slow, unless marked ‘not for publication’. companies as being supremely innovative and patient innovation that lifted what was a good track to NZ Marketing invites contributions but takes no responsibility for pushing their industries to the brink of madness. something that will go down in history. unsolicited material. Apple, for instance, is often thrown around as the Isn’t it fitting, then, that the name of the song, exemplar of innovation, changing the world with its Despacito, translates to ‘slowly’ in English? ISSN 0111 9044

2 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | The Agency Issue 2017 SKYCITY CONVENTION CENTRE

NZMS 2017 is back on 21 SEPTEMBER 2017

Featuring insights from:
INTERNATIONAL KEYNOTE: L’Oreal NZ Pandora NZ NICK LANZAFAME, The Agency 88 Head of Strategic Insights & Analytics, Motorcorp Distributors Ltd Buzzfeed nib New Zealand And more!

MARKETINGSUMMIT.CO.NZ #NZMS Shorts STOPPRESS By the

STOPPRESS COMMENTS Top five stories on StopPress since March numbers 42.9 percent The best of the bunch The Hot List: vote for the best thinkers, brands 1 of New Zealanders and shows in New Zealand surveyed by Global Web Index have used May was a busy month for industry ad-blocking tools awards but the hangovers didn’t ASB and Saatchi & Saatchi to part ways 2 to stop websites stop people taking to the StopPress after five years from displaying comment section to have their advertisements when point heard, and when ASB and Park like a dick? Prepare to be ‘dicketed’ visited. Saatchi & Saatchi confirmed they 3 were ending their partnership,

things really heated up. We pick 29.6 percent out some of the best comments Local brands suspend advertising on from the thread: 4 YouTube of New Zealanders surveyed by Global The reality is Goldstein remains Spark moves media account from Dynamo Web Index have more“ impactful than anything 5 deleted cookies to they’ve done since. Clever Kash etc is to PHD stop a website from nice, but nothing like a proper brand remembering them. positioning that gets consistently built over time. Saatchi tried to save it 16 percent with an old-school ECD ... too late. DATA DUMP ” of New Zealanders - FAIR CALL Ad blocking: Global Web Index surveyed by Global Web Index have used Ad-Blockers % Motivations of Ad-Blocker Users (Desktop or Mobile) an ad-blocker on their They have produced some mobile phone. “bloody great work for them! Snap • Too many ads are annoying or irrelevant 72.4 Scholarships and Clever Kash were • I find online ads intrusive 59.1 13.9 percent some of the strongest campaigns • Ads take up too much screen space and get 56.6 to hit the market. They should be in the way of New Zealanders proud.” surveyed by Global Web • I think there are too many ads on the internet 56.5 Index have used anti- - ANONYMOUS • I try to avoid ads wherever possible, whether 48.1 tracking tools to stop on TV or online companies monitoring • I don’t like seeing video ads before I’m allowed 47.2 their internet activites. “ Every agency has its up and downs. Sometimes adversity to watch video content/clips creates opportunity and sometimes • I want to speed up the time it takes for things 44.3 54 percent it’s good to part ways with a client to load on my device of males use ad you’ve had for a long time. New blockers. beginnings and all that. Chin up • I don’t like ads which are personalised based 36.1

Saatchis, you have friends. on my browsing history ” • I’m concerned about ads compromising my 30.5 29 percent - COMPETITIVE BUT FRIENDS online privacy of females use ad • I want to stop the battery life on my device 24.7 blockers. “ Yes and now the new agency is from being drained by ads frantically recruiting to service • I want to stop the data allowance on my 10.5 61 percent the client... shot gun to say the phone from being used up by ads (Only asked least. to those who said they have used a mobile of 18- to 24-year-olds ” use ad blockers. - MC ad-blocker in the past month) • Other 2.5

4 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | The Media Issue 2017 NZ MARKETING

HATE THE MOST? It’s hard to avoid online advertising when trying to read the news, watch a video or interact with friends, and for many, clicking out of it has become an automatic response. But what types of ads cause the most frustration? To find out, NZ Marketing and its survey partner SSI asked 1,008 New Zealanders which online advertising they found the most annoying.

0% 50% 100% stats / quotes

Male 28% Online banner ads 31% of 25- to 34-year-olds find Female 24% them annoying.

Male 55% “If they have to stop me from doing Online takeover ads things it’s frustrating and not a Female 55% good method, but if they are off to the side it’s better.”

Male 30% Spotify/Pandora ads 35% of 25- to 34-year olds find Female 24% them annoying.

Pre-rolls on Male 33% “I don’t like them interrupting what I am trying to look at it - it feels very online videos Female 35% pushy and in your face advertising.”

Male 33% Mid-roll ads on 9% of 18- to 24-year-olds find them Facebook Female 32% helpful and engaging.

Male 58% “I only want to know about an ad if Auto-play ads I click on it to start. I don’t won’t to Female 62% be made to watch something I am not interested in.”

Male 20% Header Banners Only 13% of 18-to 24-year-olds find Female 20% them annoying.

SSI is the trusted global leader in survey and research solutions for market research firms, B2B and B2C companies. Visit surveysampling.com

The Media Issue 2017 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | 5 Industry folk often trumpet the importance of having a diversity of thought within marketing and advertising as it adds a broader spectrum of ideas to solving client problems. But this is easier said than done in an industry known for being young, white and male. So we decided to ask three individuals who don’t quite fit that profile to share their first-hand experiences and hear their perspectives on sexism, ageism and race relations in the industry.

6 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | The Media Issue 2017 JOHN MACDONALD

What’s it like being an old-timer?

John MacDonald, TVNZ Marketing Hall of Famer, worked in the marketing industry for 50 years before announcing his retirement and saying goodbye to BrandWorld (for which he worked as a consultant for 10 years) earlier this year. We asked him to reflect on those five decades.

During your career did you ever say and share their thoughts. have the funds to travel, they experience ‘ageism’? This is particularly important ‘need’ more pharmaceutical/ as a means of communicating medical preparations and they No, I can honestly say it never change—for instance, the last may well be the group that arose. Occasionally, I heard words five years has seen fantastic influences purchasing by their like ‘there he goes again’ referring growth via digital media. But, at younger family members. to some hobby horse, but certainly the same time, it’s always useful nothing like ‘he’s too old so what to remember not to be too far • In 50 years, the need to supply does he know!’ ahead of a particular audience or consumers with information and consumer needs. encouraging them to understand Are there any risks of getting rid of and purchase products and experienced thinkers in favour of Are there lessons you’d like to share services hasn’t changed much. ‘young hot things’? with those entering the industry? What has changed is how the information gets to people. Back Experience in every industry Many, but some fundamental things: then, radio was more important is very valuable but so is new than TV so the creativity was thinking. For most managers, • Make sure you enjoy what you’re very different—i.e. jingles and getting a balance is incredibly doing—if not, do something jingle writers were the top dogs. important. Constantly having to go else. Have a life outside work, Today it’s changed again with over the same ground is costly and remembering that family and digital communication needs time-consuming and this is where friends will always be there and starting to overcome some forms the experience comes in. the boss/work may not! of broadcast or wide media. It’s worth remembering in the FMCG industry that the brand • Take time to fully understand How does the age of those entering leaders 50 years ago are still mainly what you are being asked to do the industry today compare with the brand leaders today. A few or to use the jargon. Make sure when you entered it? examples are Nescafé, Coca-Cola, you understand the brief fully so they’re often happy to present Heinz Wattie’s, Milo, Dettol, before starting as huge amounts Probably about the same. the recommendations when eight Weet-Bix, Cadbury, Sunsilk, the list of time and frustration come by I was appointed as a marketing out of ten boxes are ticked. On the goes on. This doesn’t mean that new not understanding this. And if director at 28-years-old. The other hand, most women want to brands haven’t been invented, but you are a marketer, learn how to main difference is that back make sure all boxes get ticked, so the originals have held their ground write a really good brief so that then, almost all marketers (i.e. are more cautious getting their and their positioning is largely the the agency gets it right first time! product managers) were male recommendations right and may same as it was years ago. and probably older, and came into take longer. All these brands have probably • Consumers/customers aren’t all marketing in a variety of ways However, my experience has had a heap of people working on like us. If you work in an agency (i.e. from the sales force or with also shown that the end result, say them in marketing roles and in in Parnell or Ponsonby, in most research backgrounds). It’s great a year later, from both genders will their advertising agencies, so as one situations, your consumers won’t to see today that there’s huge likely be the same. manager hands over to another, the be like you. diversity, with a large number of Having a team with both experience has kept growing as well. women in these positions. genders and a variety of ages But it’s equally important to keep • It’s exceptionally important I’ve come to the conclusion is probably best overall to a brand up to date so that it appeals to understand your consumer after all these years that men make a winning combination. to the next group of consumers. or target, and again it’s worth and women in marketing behave Unfortunately, it may be a luxury remembering that the ‘oldies’— slightly differently, so when not available to everyone! Are there lessons you have learned i.e. 50- to 65-years-old—have approaching an issue, I needed from the young ones coming in? greater purchasing power than time to consider both groups and most other age groups. They’re answers at the risk of alienating all Absolutely, many times, and I have responsible for most new car my colleagues. always tried to encourage anyone purchases (apart from corporate Men tend to take more risks and new to the business to have their purchases), they travel more or get bored with issues more quickly,

Cast your mind back 10 years, and you’re looking at a very different media landscape. 30% of Kiwis are still on dial-up Internet. adds to their digital team by importing a digital media planning specialist from NYC in 2007 shorts / what’s it like

BRIDGET TAYLOR

What’s it like being a female executive So there is a lot of rejection. I always say: “In creative director in New Zealand? this job, it’s about how many times you can get punched in the face and get up smiling, still With awards from Cannes, D&AD, the One Show and more, Contagion’s Bridget determined to win.” For some people, male and Taylor is one of the few women gracing the top ranks of the country’s advertising female, it’s just too hard. industry. We ask her for her take on being a female ECD. Then there are the hours. Unfortunately, creative inspiration doesn’t always strike between 8.30 and 5.30. So when you have children, it’s hard to think how you’ll fit How long have you worked in the industry? it all in and unfortunately we lose a lot of incredible talent at this stage. But it’s this type I started as a junior copywriter at Aim Direct of life experience that’s so valuable. as a fresh faced 22-year-old. That was 20 years ago. How does gender equality in the industry compare now to when you initially entered it? Has your gender ever been a hindrance to your career in the advertising industry? Every year there seems to be more and more females coming through, which is great to see. In New Zealand, I don’t think being female has got in the way of my professional progression. Are there any changes you’d like to see in the Although once you hit your 30s and find industry relating to gender equality? yourself in more senior roles, there is certainly an undercurrent of worry that you’ll disappear We’re different. Males and females are and have children. The other interesting thing is socialised slightly differently and therefore that looks can be both a help and a hindrance. bring different experiences to the table. I remember the MD of one of the agencies I think this creates a balance of emotion, I worked at rushing into the creative understanding, humour and ultimately department one day and saying he needed stronger communication. So mixed teams are me in a new business meeting. I was deputy often stronger. creative director at the time and headed a lot of new business pitches. So I grabbed my What’s your advice to other women who want to trusty Sharpie and notebook and headed off, get to the top? questioning him all the way about the client and the role of creative. We were almost at the • First and foremost, be smart. Use your boardroom door when he turned, flustered brain, personality and attitude to get ahead. and said: “You’re just here to look good.” • Don’t focus on you being male or female, just I worked for two years in Singapore which do your job to the very best of your ability. was fascinating. At that time, I believe I was • If something feels inappropriate, it probably the third or fourth female creative director to is, so don’t put up with it. be appointed in the country. I was interviewed • Find a mentor and work on the leadership extensively and many offers were made, but skills you need to be truly effective. every agency was terrified of what their clients • Don’t ever feel you should act like a man. would think about having a female in this senior • Support other women. Just because older role. I settled into BBDO and enjoyed wonderful females may have given you a hard time on relationships across clients ranging from the way up, there’s no need to carry that Johnson & Johnson to Diageo. Interestingly, it behaviour on. seemed this old fashioned attitude sat firmly with the agencies, not the clients. I had the rare opportunity to have worked with two female ECDs on my way up. Because Why do you think there are so few female of this, it never entered my mind that I wouldn’t executive creative directors in the industry? get there too. I’ve also had some incredible support from a range of extraordinary ECDs, Let’s start by breaking down the job. Around planners, incredible account service people, 85 percent of what you create never sees the clients, directors, creative partners and a very light of day. The process of elimination of ideas understanding husband. You can’t do this alone, starts with yourself, then your creative partner, your needs will change with your title and you CD, account service and finally your client. never stop learning and evolving.

years into 2000, nearly 600K Kiwis watch ONE News each night. brings back Wheel of Fortune 8 as a 30min Noel Leeming advertorial in the One News lead-in. Wins Best Use of TV. KASMIRA SEWPERSHAD

What’s it like being an Indian woman in the have been different if I fitted a different media industry? profile, so I believe it’s out there and it exists. I’m aware of it but it’s never held Having worked across the local media environment—including, Saatchi & Saatchi, me back and I don’t think it ever will. MediaCom, Carat, OMD, MediaWorks, Datalicious, TVNZ and currently Phantom Billstickers as an account manager—Kasmira Sewpershad knows first-hand the What are some of the areas in which New challenges that face an Indian woman working in the industry. Zealand could do better when it comes to diversity? How can we encourage this to happen? What is it like to be an ethnic minority woman working in New Zealand? Diversity in senior management/ leadership roles. On the whole it’s very good. I believe The first step would be to encourage we’re more advanced here in New a more diverse range of people to Zealand than certain other markets. enter the industry, which we have I think New Zealanders in general become better at over the years. The are open minded, forward thinking the next step is to nurture those people and more accepting of diversity and make sure we’re giving them than our Australian and American opportunities and appointing them into counterparts, for example. leadership roles, which we need to get better at. We can’t continue to have all How would you rate the New Zealand of the same type in leadership roles and media industry when it comes to then diversity only in the lower rungs, diversity? Is it doing well or is there room which is the way it is now even in 2017. for improvement? What are some of your pet hates when It has improved a lot over the last 10 co-workers talk to you in New Zealand? years since I first started out in the industry. There is still room to improve I personally do not like being asked though. In particular, I would like to see about my background and ethnicity, more diversity in senior management it makes me feel like an outsider, like roles. From what I can see, there’s I’m different and like I’m some sort of currently none to very little diversity in imported exotic animal sitting in the senior management in most places. It’s Auckland Zoo. It’s irrelevant to me just all of the same types of people. being able to do my job, it’s irrelevant to most things. But I understand people Why do you think diversity is important? are naturally curious and probably What does it add to the workplace? think they are showing interest by asking those types of questions so I try It adds a different perspective and to keep an open mind. a richness. The people we’re talking to in advertising and marketing What advice would you give to campaigns are not all the same, executives in New Zealand looking to so why do we have all of the same have more diversity in their staff? types of people high up making the big decisions on what’s right and Do it because it’s the right thing to do, what works? because it’s 2017 and because it’s going to improve your business and the Have you ever personally experienced industry as a whole. Some people discrimination in the workplace, seen it and places are better at embracing taking place or heard of someone diversity than others – and I mean truly else facing it? embracing diversity, which is different to pretending to embrace diversity or Yes, I believe I have missed out on doing it for show. It’s not hard to see opportunities due to discrimination and who these people and places are and I have been in situations where I am they are going to succeed in the years to sure the approach taken with me would come whereas others will be left behind.

Bebo is the biggest social networking site in NZ. see it as prime place to support youth with depression, and win Best Use of Digital for The Lowdown in 2009 infographic

The advertising industry contributes $6 billion to the New ADVERTISING Zealand economy every year according to a 2017 Deloitte report for The Commercial Communications Council. We delve into it to PAYS see where that spend goes and what it achieves.

Spend ($ million)

Real advertising expenditure Contribution of advertising to GDP by industry, 2015 in New Zealand, 1980 - 2015

1980 Retail $ 815.64 1981 Leisure, Entertainment 1982 $ 587.57 1983 Foodstuffs $ 566.39 1984 1985 Automotive $ 526.32 1986 Government Department, 1987 Services & Community $ 382.62 1988 1989 Travel $ 296.03 1990 Investment, Finance, Banking $ 285.86 1991 1992 Toiletries / Cosmetics $ 243.46 1993 1994 Pharmaceuticals, Health $ 235.14 1995 Home Improvements $ 234.25 1996 1997 Insurance $ 205.51 1998 1999 Household Electrical Products $ 202.73 2000 Beverages $ 167.03 2001 2002 Household Furnishings $ 166.75 2003 Telecommunication $ 159.32 2004 2005 Business Services $ 156.25 2006 2007 Real Estate $ 145.40 2008 Computers $ 123.79 2009 2010 Miscellaneous $ 100.47 2011 2012 Couthing $ 84.81 2013 Agricultural $ 71.04 2014 2015 Household Cleaning Products $ 60.27

0 5001000 1500 2000 2500 900 800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0 source: StatsNZ(2016); Deloitte Access source: ZenithOptimedia (2015) Economics Calculations

It’s twenty 10 and most Kiwis have never shopped online. manages to sell out Mini Cooper Sohos straight off the Mini website. source: Cannes Lions (2016) Business Objectives 2nd London 1st 6th New York Tokyo 2oth Mumbai

In 2015 Auckland ranked fourth in the Cannes Lions Global 4th 3rd Auckland Creativity Report San Paulo 13th Sydney as a highly creative city – ahead of hubs like Tokyo, Bangkok and Sydney.

Employment Campaigns that were creatively awarded were 11 times more efficient Advertising is associated with the at delivering business employment of over success (in terms of excess share of voice) 44,000 The people in the New Zealand economy Over the past decade average agencies from return New Zealand have on investment won 150 ‘pencils’ (ROI) was $17 26,400 12,400 5,300 from the D&AD in sales for in the advertising directly in the in the advertising organisation every $1 supported industries advertising industry supply chain

2013 census spent on In addition to this, 5,436 6,976 advertising advertising also plays working in employed as amongst a cost-saving role in 2016 the industry through advertising advertising Effie public health and services professionals in winning government work. other industries advertising As an example, the report campaigns in highlights that the ‘Legend’ drink New Zealand driving campaign, commissioned (Nielsen 15% 18% 18% 50% by The NZ Transport Agency, is & CCC, estimated to have saved 64 young core marketing design and supporting 2016). driver lives over three years, saving occupations and PR development roles the country $290 million (the specialists Ministry of Transport estimates that the cost of a single life in a source: StatsNZ drink driving crash is $4.54 million).

Ask Jeeves and Yahoo! are competing with Google for search investment. With Best in Show media thinking, engages 1 in 4 Kiwis to search for their power savings number in 2011 interview

HORSE’S MOUTH

NICK VILE ADSHEL Fresh off the back of winning the Media Business of the Year at the Beacons, Adshel New Zealand general manger Nick Vile sits down with Jonathan Cotton for a quick chat about growing revenue, digital creepiness and whether the future is programmatic.

Jonathan Cotton: Why do you think Adshel stood out among the finalists at the Beacons?

Nick Vile: We were obviously pretty chuffed to win Media Business of the Year and receive that recognition from a group of our peers, and it is a great reward for the hard work that the team have been putting in over the last few years. The entry itself was explicit in what was required – a sound strategy and demonstrable evidence that strategy leads to results. Our entry focused on 2016 being the escalation year of a strategic plan, which is underpinned by our company purpose, ‘creating smarter connections for communities’.

Smarter connections? Smarter in what way? That’s smarter connections through technology, smarter connections for advertisers with their consumer communities, smarter connections with our client communities and smarter connections for communities themselves via our network of street furniture infrastructure.

So how have you been working towards that? Last year, was an escalation year for us because we launched a national digital roadside network of 150 screens, following the successful trial of the Auckland premium network of 35 screens in 2015. The extension of our national footprint included coverage in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, providing the opportunity for advertisers to be contextually relevant at a scale previously unavailable to them. We also further invested into our data offering through the launch of our Adshel Audience

20 sees an average of 1 billion Facebook posts a day. harnesses the power of social to broadcast dogs driving cars across 12 70 countries and every major news network. Profiling programme, enabling advertisers to use audience measurement definitely has to be one of What are your thoughts on selling outdoor the scale of our poster network but be very precise those key priorities. No matter how skilled you advertising programmatically? Is any of your with their audience targeting. are at audience profiling, advertisers still want to business here currently sold that way? know at a base level, ‘What was the audience that It isn’t in New Zealand, but in Australia we’ve was delivered to me?’, ‘How much did it cost?’, run a couple of trials over the last 18 months with Is it digitisation specifically that’s feeding the and ‘How effective is that spend into the outdoor some of our Sydney Rail inventory. We recently market’s growth at the moment? medium versus the spend into other mediums?’ announced relationships with both Rubicon It’s part of it. There’s been significant investment Project and Lotame, which have traditionally in digitisation, there’s no doubt about that – you What would that measurement solution operated in the digital online programmatic space, only need to drive around Auckland to see the actually look like though? What specific but we prefer to refer to programmatic more as number of digital sites in play at the moment – but technology are we talking about here? ‘automated trading’. there’s also been significant investment in data I challenge the sector to develop a measurement tool The issue to date is that people have been taking and audience profiling and that helps support the that is based on technology that delivers geolocation programmatic methodology and trying to apply it growth profile too. data. That’s going to be key to solving the to the outdoor space. Outdoor isn’t one-to-one like The big one though, in terms of the benefits measurement problem moving forward. It will have digital is though, it’s one to many. But that thinking out-of-home delivers to advertisers is around that the ability to deliver accurate and real-time audience is now starting to change. fragmentation of media, particularly traditional information versus that historical theoretical Automated trading is about enabling ease of broadcast media. Out-of-home is being seen as the methodology that we’re moving beyond now. planning and ease of trade and it’s a potential last true broadcast medium and at the moment it’s sales model that will support investment from bridging that audience gap that’s been created. Some outdoor measurement methods can be what have been traditionally non-outdoor quite...creepy. Do you think this could turn into a investors. If we’re going to utilise digital Given that a lot of this growth is contingent on problem for the industry? Do you foresee some inventory to its most effective and allow people to population density increases, do you forecast resistance to the use of geolocation data from buy campaigns on a daily or time-of-day basis, that growth will eventually plateau? the consumer? we actually need an automated trading platform The media market valuation that was released by The impact of geolocation data on privacy is to fulfil that requirement. the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) last definitely at the forefront of our discussions both month had the market valued at $2.5 billion, and internally and externally. The reality is though, What would be the timeline for a process like out of that, outdoor represented only five percent that any solution will only ever use anonymised that rolling out? of the total market. So even with the significant and aggregated data anyway, and ideally that will It’s very much at the forefront of our thinking. The growth we’ve seen over the last two to three years, be coming from consumers who have opted-in via key for us is solving the geolocation audience data we are still only a five percent medium. That to location services in their phones. issue to be able to do that. me talks to continued growth opportunity. Those At the end of the day, there are a lot of other macro trends are not diminishing and technology social media apps that are tracking people’s How do you see the industry changing over the is only going to continue to enhance our offering, movements anyway. It would never be any more next five to ten years? so there’s an opportunity for that trend to continue. intrusive than what’s already become the status 2017 will see further digitisation. There will be The measurement issue will be resolved soon too, quo for most of us. a push to better understanding the audience. so I see no reason to think it’s going to plateau. There will be a convergence with mobile in terms There have been some criticisms of outdoor of a complete campaign solution – mobile and That question around measurement because it leaves the consumer with no choice outdoor working really well together. There will – historically, it’s been a big problem for the – the moment you walk outside you see ads be more advances in automated trading, further outdoor industry. How are you solving this? whether you want to or not. Do you think there consolidation across the sector and, I believe, less There’s not a standardised or unified approach will be a backlash against this type of so-called outdoor assets, but assets of better quality that from the sector to an audience measurement attention theft? can deliver the same audience. That will be an solution at the moment, and that is an issue. You look at the cityscape in New Zealand or insight that an audience measurement tool will be Luckily, this is being addressed at an OMANZ around the world and outdoor is now a very well able to facilitate. (Outdoor Media Association of New Zealand) level established part of any urban landscape. And For Adshel, we are in the midst of rolling out right now. With the recent appointment of Derek fortunately there’s been advances to ensure that an additional 70 screens to take our national Lyndsay into the role of GM of OMANZ – a role cities are maintaining an [aesthetic] balance and network to 220, with further coverage in the that had been vacant for 12 to 18 months – we’re that things that are important to all of us – like a existing markets of Auckland, Wellington and starting to see he’s really driving in that direction. city’s heritage – are being protected. Take Mexico Christchurch – focused on proximity to key retail From an Adshel perspective, we’ve always City as an example. There’s a very good balance precincts, plus extension of our national footprint been very supportive of a unified approach to there around what’s acceptable from an outdoor with the inclusion of Hamilton (focusing on the audience measurement and I think it’s a key media perspective and what’s acceptable from the CBD, The Base and Chartwell). priority for the sector. rich history and culture – they’ve really found that We will also see further development of our data We’ve been through that initial period of balance point. offering this year with various initiatives to ensure investment into digitisation so now’s a really In New Zealand, there have been advances that we continue to offer solutions that deliver good time for this sector to come together and around that as well and the Auckland Unitary Plan results for our advertising clients and ease of trade tackle those core issues as a cohesive group and is a really good example of that. for our agency partners.

In 2013, $5m is spent on retail advertising each week in NZ. cuts through by scaling customer advocacy in real-time for Noel Leeming. ROI? 32:1. Number of champagne bottles popped? Well over 13 ffeeaatuure

1. MAGAZINE / 2. EDITOR / 3. RADIO BRAND / 4. RADIO SHOW / 5. TV CHANNEL / 6. DRAMA / 7. COMEDY / 8. REALITY / 9. FACTUAL / 10. SVOD / 11. NEWS & CURRENT AFFAIRS / 12. NEWS ANCHOR / 13. PRODUCTION COMPANY / 14. SOCIAL PRESENCE / 15. DIGITAL BRAND / 16. DIGITAL CREATOR / 17. MOST INFLUENTIAL PERSON IN MEDIA / 18. MEDIA VISIONARY OF THE YEAR

It’s 20 and programmatic accounts for 9% of all digital ad spend. pioneers the use of data and programmatic media to help 14 Inland Revenue track down overseas based borrowers. There’s a 57% increase in repayments from defaulting borrowers. Nominees: NZ Geographic, Mindfood, Miss FQ, Paperboy, The Spinoff, Idealog, Homestyle Magazine

PAPERBOY

Bauer added Paperboy to its portfolio in the past year, which was a brave move considering it’s a free print product in a digitally focused world. Led by former Home editor Jeremy Hansen, the weekly publication touts itself as a magazine for Auckland’s urban adventurers and is fittingly distributed around the city’s transport hubs and cafes every Thursday morning.

People’s choice:

Paperboy

It was a close call between the print-focused Paperboy and the digital- only The Spinoff with the With its daring approach, high-quality four pillars of urbanism, food, culture and former collecting a 30.5 writing, urban photography and additional style, but boasts an older readership. The New York Times Paperboy’s percent share of the vote lifestyle content from , While not the only magazine Bauer’s Paperboy has thrived as a mass media in the category to be introduced in the last while the latter recorded product targeting the lucrative demographic year (Miss FQ picked up the audience Cleo 29.5. McHugh Media’s of well-educated, high-income Aucklanders left behind when it was closed down in MindFood, which will be in their 30s. It’s broadened what Bauer’s 2016, while Idealog underwent a makeover celebrating ten years in flagship monthly, Metro, does best, while to become three topic-focused issues a the business next year, avoiding eating into the audience of its other year), Paperboy stands out from the crowd took out third place with weekly publication, The Listener. It also sets and serves as a reminder that print still 11.3 percent. itself apart from NZME’s weekly publications has a place in a modern city increasingly Canvas and Viva which also cover Paperboy’s dominated by glowing rectangles.

With NZ smartphone use at 70%, mobile geofences an entire coastline in a world first to get boaties wearing lifejackets in 20 Maritime NZ win Best in Show the following year. 15 Nominees: Miriyana Alexander (Weekend Herald and Herald on Sunday), Jeremy Hansen (Paperboy), Editor Shelley Ferguson (Your Home and Garden, Nadia, Taste), Duncan Greive (Spinoff)

a plurality of clients, it’s almost a fire-breathing” editor. He DUNCAN GREIVE on a weekly basis that The Spinoff says his writers have autonomy, publishes something a partner with the majority of the pieces Since founding The Spinoff in 2014, Duncan Greive has might not agree with. created coming from them watched it grow into a popular and entertaining source “That’s going to be life,” and he encourages the younger Greive says, and admits the team and older staff to talk to each of socioeconomic, political and pop culture commentary. will call clients and give them other to shape the angles and This, combined with the fact he’s not afraid to stick a a heads up if there’s potentially subjects. brand alongside that content, is why he’s the year’s conflict. But looking beyond “I do have a vision for the site, Hottest Editor. The Spinoff he says if the story and business more broadly, but warrants it, people take the I’ve worked with editors who When Greive tweeted about Garage Project, in which The hit and if they want to leave, operate in that [fire-breathing] The Spinoff’s record 973,797 Spinoff team sit down and share it creates an opportunity for style before and I found it bred visitors in April, he celebrated a beer and conversation with another client to step in. in me a fearfulness when what his amazing staff and brilliant fascinating New Zealanders. “If we were just seen as I want from our writers is more contributors just as much as he “Increasingly that’s what toothless, no one would consume fearlessness.” did the numbers. we’re seeing the smart brads what we create,” he says. The approach no doubt helps And this sentiment carries doing. You can talk about your to inject character into the tone over as we chat about his win, brand sometimes but being there No dragons here of the site’s writing, videos and with Greive commending as a facilitator of something Feeding The Spinoff’s never- podcasts, and Greive says it aims his team for embracing both worthwhile is a much better ending tubes with content to be funny where appropriate, the editorial and sponsored place to sit,” Greive says. and keeping its sponsors happy serious when it’s not and “ideally elements of the site –the latter of But that doesn’t come without is not a task to be taken lightly, a bit of both”. which Greive believes has been its own challenges and with such but Greive assures us he’s “not “It’s about us trying to create particularly important to the something and take what we’ve venture’s success. loved about magazines and Visit the site and you’ll see a feature writing and criticism fair share of its work is “brought and commentary from the old to you by” one of its sponsors, environments of print and so including Spark, Lightbox, AUT on but take advantage of the and Flick Electric. It’s a media infinite possibilities of an online platform as well as a content environment to create something agency, Greive says, and it’s a that feels new.” financial model he established quickly when starting it in 2014. “I do think that this is People’s choice: the future for journalism at least – unless you’re going to rely on government funding or Duncan Greive philanthropy. Selling your ability to create content people want to While Greive’s steady read is really critical.” hand at the helm of The Brands are catching onto Spinoff, landed him in that role of media companies as the top spot, the battle well and those that work with for second place was a The Spinoff understand that Bauer showdown. Your while there’s a certain degree of Home and Garden and briefing involved, they need to Nadia’s Shelley Ferguson trust the team because they’re pipped Paperboy’s Jeremy not going to write: ‘Hey, this is a great brand, here’s why…” Hansen in a photo finish, Instead, it takes a more with Ferguson getting sophisticated approach and 24.8 percent and Hansen Greive gives the example of a getting 24.5. recent series he launched with

It’s 20 and 93% of Kiwis regularly watch video online. create NZ-first programmatic video campaign to deliver hundreds of 16 tailored videos to match individual buyers for Volkswagen’s Tiguan. From dial-up internet and Bebo,

to programmatic video and coastal geofencing, the media world has come a long way in the last 10 years.

We couldn’t have consistently stayed ahead without the help of our media partners, clients and incredible staff. So, a huge thank you to you all.

Media Agency of the Yea7r 2016P & 20O 17| Radio Brand Nominees: The Edge, RNZ, Radio Hauraki, Mai FM

People’s choice: RNZ

RNZ put in a strong performance in this year’s battle of the news stations, beating its competitors at Radio Live and Newstalk ZB. That performance has been bolstered by the station’s expansion into online and TV platforms, with its loyal audience following suit, helping it to collect 35.1 percent of the vote to take out People’s Choice Award. MAI FM Mai FM came second with 26.1 percent followed by When Leon Wratt, The Edge (19.8 percent) MediaWorks programming and Radio Hauraki (19.1 director, was asked to pick percent). his standout station when the first radio results of this year were released, it was Mai FM that got his nod. And when looking at the numbers and its growth of 33,100 listeners, it’s hard to deny the station our pick for hottest radio brand.

While the ascendancy of hip genre’s underwhelming live Edge’s weekly audience of 18,200 Twitter followers who are hop and RnB has been ongoing scene. Broader sections of the 662,300, pop’s wide-ranging keen to keep up with local hip since the 1990s, its dominance population are tuning into remit (and steady co-opting of hop and RnB goings on. of the mainstream music stations like Mai FM and Flava genres like hip hop) means the Like Mai FM, Radio discourse has burgeoned in to get their musical fix, but with station still reigns supreme. But Hauraki saw growth across all the last decade. The country’s Flava boasting a weekly audience Mai FM gets the nod from us demographics to reach an overall top 40 charts currently boast of just 191,500 compared to Mai’s for being Auckland’s number weekly audience of 218,400. But the likes of Kendrick Lamar, 386,800, Mai FM has managed one music station and due to its while Hauraki puts up a valiant Future, Jason Derulo and Drake, to strike a chord between growth across all age groups. fight during rock’s transition and the recent sell-out shows entertainment and music that Off air, the station boasts more period its competitor, The Rock, for Bruno Mars’ New Zealand Flava has not. than 26,000 Facebook followers, saw a loss in its audience numbers tour have helped revitalise the Although lower than The 31,000 Instagram followers and to reach 428,500 listeners.

If you’d like to be part of ’s next chapter in 2018 get in touch at FCBMedia.co.nz Nominees: Fletch, Vaughan & Megan (ZM), Jono, Ben & Sharyn (The Edge), Breakfast with Matt & Jerry (Radio Hauraki), Morning Report (RNZ), 9th Floor (RNZ) Radio Show

FLETCH, VAUGHAN & MEGAN (ZM)

With impressive audience growth and a massive online presence, ZM’s Fletch Vaughan & Megan take the title of Hottest Radio Show.

Buchanan said he was particularly pleased with the performance of the show, People’s choice: which won the most listeners among 18- to 34-year-olds across the country. Jono, Ben & Over on The Edge, the Sharyn (The Edge) newly combined team of Jono, Ben & Sharyn have Jono, Ben & Sharyn unleashed their witty pipped RNZ’s Morning approach to the station’s Report for the People’s afternoon slot. However, Choice. The Edge trio the trio saw a drop in the collected 25.8 percent of recent survey to see 327,700 listeners tune in from 4-7pm. the vote while Morning That’s despite a change up Report got 23.3. Hauraki’s in talent with Jono and Ben Jeremy Wells and Matt joining earlier in the year to Heath show they’ve still replace Guy Williams and got plenty left in the tank Clint Roberts. for audiences, taking RNZ’s consistent out third place with 20.5 Morning Report offering percent. and its daring new 9th Floor series (both of which feature the excellent Guyon Espiner) also deserve a special mention, with the latter currently ranking as New Zealand’s 27th most popular podcast on iTunes at the time of writing.

In 2014, Polly Gillespie and year showing that it grew by Grant Kereama departed their 12,700 to reach 273,000 listeners. ZM post after 20 years at the Off air, the hosts regularly helm, making way for the feature in NZME’s WatchMe younger trio of Fletch, Vaughan offerings, with several of their & Megan who were poached videos – such as their attempt from The Edge’s drivetime to recruit Lorde as a babysitter show. Since then, the trio’s –racking up thousands of dynamic repartee and Vaughan’s views from their 100,000+ enthralling series of family Facebook fans. anecdotes have helped revitalise When speaking of the the station’s breakfast slot, with results, NZME group director the first radio survey for the of entertainment Dean

The Media Issue 2017 | STOPPPRESS.COCO.NZ.N | 19 TV Channel Nominees: Bravo, Duke, Viceland, Three

People’s choice: THREE

Having launched its colourful and mathematics-inspired rebrand last year, Three THREE took the risk of alienating an audience accustomed Earlier this year, when to the classic TV3 look. the slightly eccentric However, the people have Three logo first emerged spoken, and 42.3 percent from the creative of voters picked the department of MediaWorks, channel as the hottest one there was a public outcry, out there. Sky TV’s edgy with viewers across youth channel Viceland New Zealand condemning might not be available it for being too weird. free-to-air, but it still took But none of this criticism out second place with 20.5 fazed the team at Three percent of the vote. and they stuck with it.

It was a bold move, but indicative winner in this category, it’s far of a confident brand looking from being the only risk taker to concretise its place in the these days. New Zealand livingroom. And Also looking to change things that confidence has now been up was TVNZ Duke, which woven into the programming launched last year in a bid to lineup, which builds on the chase the eyeballs of the hard-to- channel’s comedic strengths reach 18- to 39-year-old males. with the likes Jono & Ben, Funny A year on, it hasn’t failed in that Girls and 7 Days (all featured mission as it boasts a 57 percent throughout The Hotlist) while male skew with its unique blend simultaneously breaking new of sports, comedy and drama. ground with shows like The Another recent edition to Project. There’s also a good dose the local lineup is Sky’s edgy of reality TV, with local versions youth channel Viceland, which of The Block and The Bachelor deserves a special mention for putting Three at the heart of the delivering younger subscribers country’s conversations. a plethora of documentary-style The strength of the channel programmes, such as Grace is also carried online, where Neutral’s Needles & Pins, Ellen Threenow serves as host to both Page’s Gaycation and Action Three and Bravo shows, giving Bronson’s F*ck That’s Delicious. audiences their much-needed All in all, the recent history on-demand fix. of television is one of risk taking. While Three was the outright Long may it continue.

20 | STOPPPRESPRE S.COO.NZ | Thehe Media Issue 2017 Nominees: Shortland Street, Westside, Hillary, The Brokenwood Mysteries Drama

SHORTLAND STREET People’s choice: Westside Having recently celebrated 25 years on TV, Shortland Street is showing no sign of losing its momentum. 627,000 New Zealanders tuned in to watch the celebratory special According to the people, feature-length episode, which managed to stay top secret until going to air. Its script there’s a new reigning producer Nick Malmholt takes us behind the scenes to explain how it’s avoiding leaks soap in town with Westside and why Ferndale holds a special piece of New Zealanders’ hearts. boasting 37.9 percent of the vote. The Outrageous Fortune prequel was Nick Malmholt and producer renewed for a third Maxine Fleming season last year, while Prime’s detective drama The Brokenwood Mysteries, which came second with 26.1 percent, has also been renewed for another season. Meanwhile, Shortland Street still gets a bit of love with 21.2 percent of the vote.

Is it challenging keeping the storylines under wraps? Yes, especially in the days of omnipresent, omniscient, social media. But it can be done. And when secrets leak, they aren’t always snapped up, and so What role do you see It’s tackled topics such on the mysteries of the human fail to gain critical, damage Shortland Street having in as medical marijuana, heart. What makes us nervous mass. A recent example is the New Zealand? euthanasia and HIV as well is the ever-present fear that build-up to Shortland Street’s Shortland Street is a huge, as featured LGBT characters we’ve run out of time to make 25th anniversary volcanic storytelling bonfire, around and a range of ethnicities. the stories as good as they eruption. Hundreds of people which all New Zealanders, Do you see it challenging can possibly be. We don’t want were involved in the production, young and old, rich and poor, New Zealanders thoughts to let down our characters, or all with mobile phones and north and south, can gather and beliefs? our audience. cameras, and the production and be warm. Yes. But not just through studios were covered in fake controversial subject matter. Which storyline has ash—clues for all to see. Some How important is it that All dramatic storylines should generated the most response, inside knowledge was indeed Shortland Street reflects be challenging. Powerful positive or negative? leaked to social media, but New Zealand society? storytelling and emotional “Please tell me that is not your the leaks were largely ignored Shortland Street doesn’t just truth will provoke reaction—for penis.” An unexpected, unlikely, because the vast majority of reflect New Zealand society; good and for bad. Comfortable global, viral sensation. people were convinced it was Shortland Street is a child of indifference is our enemy. going to be an earthquake. that society. It’s in our DNA, What’s the craziest idea with stories about New Zealand, Are there any storylines you’ve had that never made What’s been Shortland told by New Zealanders, to you’ve been nervous about it to the screen? Street’s key to reaching New Zealanders. Without running? If so, which ones? Not telling—I still hope to get it 25 years and still be going New Zealand, Shortland Street All stories are sent out with love to screen… strong? would wither and die. and the hope they will shed light Love and laughs. Never giving up.

The Media Issue 2017 | STOPPPRESPRE S.COCOO.NZ.N | 21 Nominees: Jono & Ben, 7 Days, Funny Girls, Tery Teo, Darryl: An Outward Bound Story, Family Feud Comedy / Reality Nominees: The Bachelor NZ, The Block NZ, Real Housewives of Auckland, Survivor NZ

7 DAYS

New Zealand TV offers up plenty of opportunities for comedy antics, and there’s little doubt that 7 Days is the best at delivering just that.

THE BACHELOR NZ

Love it or hate it, everyone’s talking about it. It’s become an annual ritual for office watercooler conversations across the country to arrive at the scandalous dating show, and this year has proved no different.

Bachelor Zac Franich, new host Dominic Bowden and a fresh flurry of female suitors once again kept Kiwis glued to the screen as it regularly topped Three’s list of most watched shows. Judging by the sheer amount of scandal, coverage, hubbub and hype the show entails, The Bachelor tops our Created by The Down Low Concept (also nominated in the Hottest pick for Hottest Reality TV. However, Bravo’s flagship show Real Housewives of Auckland also Production Company category) and styled on the UK’s Mock the Week, deserves a worthy mention for helping launch the sassy Gilda Kirkpatrick the show provides a pithy and quick-witted commentary on the week’s and champagne-obsessed Anne Batley-Burton into the public limelight. news and current events. The show has potential to become a mainstay on the nation’s reality TV As the purveyor of Friday night laughs since 2009, 7 Days is not roster (although fewer racial slurs would be much appreciated). only the hottest comedy show on our screens, but the most popular on Three’s crowded entertainment roster. Even without looking at the numbers, 7 Day’s popularity can be seen in its expansion to live shows People’s choice: that see its hosts and set traverse the country and perform every year. The mischievous trio of Jeremy Corbett, Dai Henwood and Paul Ego The Block NZ have served up an impressively consistent job over their eight years on air, while recurring cast members Urzila Carlson, Ben Hurley, Jeremy When it comes to reality TV, the results of the Elwood and Josh Thomson have managed to add their own bit of People’s Choice show it’s all fair game. There was comedic spark to proceedings. just 0.1 percent separating first and second place, Some of these comedians also grace the screen in Three’s other shows, The Block such as Jono & Ben and Funny Girls, the latter of which deserves special with DIY renovation show scraping past credit for helping dispel the age-old myth that women just aren’t that funny. The Bachelor with 28.8 percent. Third and fourth place was also a close call, with TVNZ’s brand new show Survivor getting 22 percent and Bravo’s Real People’s choice: Housewives getting 20.5 percent. 7 Days

7 Days also earns itself the People’s Choice with 36.5 percent of the votes. Jono & Ben and Funny Girls take out second (23.7 percent) and third (18.4 percent) place respectively, further solidifying MediaWorks’ prime position in the genre.

22 | STOPPPRESPRE S.COO.NZ | Theh Media Issue 2017 Nominees: Mind Over Money, Gutsful, Gloriavale, Country Calendar, Coast New Zealand Nominees: Stranger Things, 13 Reasons Why, Black Mirror, Westworld, Abstract: The Art of Design, The People vs. OJ Simpson, Bojack Horseman, The Crown, Mr Robot Factual / SVOD

GLORIAVALE

In 2014, TVNZ opened the unsuspecting eyes of New Zealanders to a South Island community many had no idea existed, with the continuing series of documentaries must- watch viewing ever since. The annual visit inside the controversial Christian community has become something of a bizarre New Zealand TV tradition. This year’s instalment, Gloriavale: A Woman’s Place, enthralled audiences to the point that it topped Nielsen’s of most-watched list for 25- to 54-year-olds. The episode gave a special insight into what life is like for the women of Gloriavale, and focused on a young woman named Dove Love and her quest for marriage and motherhood in the secluded community. BLACK MIRROR Off air, the series continues to be watched online, with bonus content including a sing-a-long to Dove Love’s wedding song (#soblessed), which Dystopian sci-fi thrillers are clearly a thing with android- alone generated 345,000 views on TVNZ 2’s Facebook page. There are populated theme parks (Westworld) and neurotic cyber also online tools available for fans of the show to generate their own hackers (Mr Robot) all making an appearance. But Charlie Gloriavale-inspired name. Brooker’s Black Mirror is a little bit different. On a different note, Mind Over Money with Nigel Latta deserves a special mention for making the topic of money appealing to audiences With stand-alone episodes instead of recurring plotlines or characters, during primetime while taking the unusual route of being entirely each hour-long instalment provides a jarring and twisted take on sponsored by Kiwibank. the human relationship with science and technology. From the toxic and all-too familiar social media habits in ‘Nosedive’, to the vigilante blackmailing and trolling in ‘Shut Up and Dance’, Black Mirror reflects an exaggerated truth that resonates deeply in our tech-obsessed society. On a similarly depressing note, 13 Reasons Why deserves a mention for not only being New Zealand’s most popular digital show last month according to Parrot Analytics, but stirring up a much-needed debate on the topic of teen suicide. It seems local audiences got swept up in the hype surrounding the controversial teen drama, tuning into all 13 episodes to find out what drove protagonist Hannah Baker to kill herself.

People’s choice:

People’s choice: Stranger Things

Country Calendar Spielberg-esque sci-fi is back in style, with the Duffer Brothers’ supernatural series Stranger Things whipping Netflix viewers into a bingeing If there were ever any doubt New Zealand was a frenzy. With elements of mystery and horror, farming nation, Country Calendar’s 27.8 percent win combined with commanding performances by should put those thoughts firmly to rest. Having Winona Ryder and Millie Bobby Brown, the aired on TV since 1966, Country Calendar is the show captured the attention of the internet as well nation’s longest-running TV series, with its twangy as viewers here in New Zealand, with the series opening theme music and lush rural pastures attracting 28.7 percent of the vote in an extremely ingrained into the cultural mindset. TVNZ has even crowded category. 13 Reasons Why took out second more to celebrate, with Gloriavale coming a close place with 15.8 percent, while The Crown got 14 second with 26.8 percent, and Mind Over Money percent. nipping third with 20.1.

The Media Issue 2017 | STOPPRESS.COCO.NZ | 23 News & Current Affairs Nominees: The Project, The Nation, Sunday, Attitude, The Crowd Goes Wild

THE PROJECT

Over the last decade, New Zealanders exposed to Close Up, Story, Seven Sharp and Campbell Live have come to expect the same-old setup when it comes to 7pm shows. The format usually involves a middle-aged authority figure talking to a camera, interviewing various important personalities and relaying stories from a team of reporters dissecting the day’s news and events. In light of this, and despite still being relatively new to air, The Project tops the category for being brave enough to try something a little bit different in the post-newshour slot.

Fusing comedy, banter and journalistic flair to tackle the day’s most topical issues, the show has yet to reach its Australian counterpart’s level of relevance, but it’s certainly making an impressive attempt at breaking Seven Sharp’s nightly People’s choice: hegemony. Hosts Jesse Mulligan, Josh Thomson and Kanoa Lloyd (who takes The Project the title of Hottest News Anchor over her MediaWorks counterparts) have so far With 38.5 percent of people proved a dynamic trio and lived up to its selecting The Project as tagline of “News Delivered Differently”. their pick, the show also The While not quite graced with takes out the People’s Project’s colour, flair or primetime slot, Choice, with Sunday Lisa Owen and Patrick Gower’s The Nation provides a rare in-depth look into grabbing second place the week’s most newsworthy events, with 27.5 percent. Third delivering a regular slate of insights from place honours goes to politicians academics and commentators Prime’s The Crowd Goes from New Zealand and abroad. In a Wild, proving that sports similar vein, Sunday has been informing will always be at the audiences about politics and topical heart of New Zealanders’ issues for years now, with the programme viewing habits. ranked as TVNZ’s fifth most popular show last year.

24 | STOPPPRESPRE S.COO.NZ | Theh Media Issue 2017 Nominees: John Campbell (RNZ), Jesse Mulligan (The Project, RNZ), Kanoa Lloyd (The Project), Samantha Hayes (Newshub), Jack Tame (Breakfast, Newstalk ZB) News Anchor

What do you think makes a KANOA LLOYD good news anchor? People’s choice: My favourite news anchors are From Squirt to The Project, Kanoa Lloyd has become a honest, kind and they’re team John Campbell familiar name to audiences across the country and she players. No one does this job hasn’t been afraid to have her voice heard in the process. without a huge group of smart people helping them every step He may have moved She’s been criticised and praised for standing up for what of the way. his talents to radio, but she believes in, like her Maori heritage, and now she fills John Campbell is still us in on that journey. How do you balance being commanding hearts and both funny and informative minds with his brash style when presenting topics on of journalism on RNZ’s When and where did your Did you ever picture that The Project? Checkpoint. He takes TV career start? one day you’d be hosting a I always try to remember that out the top spot with 28.9 In 2004, when I was at Queens current affairs programme? we’re talking to real live people… percent, while Newshub’s High School in Dunedin and I Not in my wildest dreams! I’ve yet to come across a person got a role on a kids show called I’ve always watched current who is 100 percent serious or 100 Samantha Hayes comes Squirt. It was famous for its affairs and often found myself percent silly. There’s no magic second with 25.8, no doubt cartoon penguin, Spike, and I in awe of the incredible people formula and we’re always working eliciting extra kudos for remember Dom Bowden hosted in the industry and the creative on getting the balance just right. her work replacing Hilary it once. Matt Gibb took over from ways that they spoke about Barry so confidently in the him and he would borrow the important issues. We’ve seen you involved in 6pm newshour chair. boss’s flash car to pick me up The landscape has changed a number of conversations from my all girls’ high school a bit and I feel really lucky that about the use of Te Reo, each week. So exciting! my experience fits into this new, most recently with David always call out backlash when energetic, entertaining model. Seymour. Do you see your it isn’t backed by fact. That sort position as one that could of thing doesn’t hold me back You’ve been a host of kids help you promote issues you from telling a story or speaking show Sticky TV, a host believe in or your culture? out about things I believe are on Mai FM and a weather Personally, I would love to see important. presenter. How have those the number of Māori women diverse roles prepared you working in media increase, but How do you feel being the for The Project? I also think it’s important to only woman on The Project You learn that everyone deserves identify that my experience of alongside Jesse Mulligan to be informed, listened to being a Māori woman is not the and Josh Thomson? and taken seriously. News and same as anyone else’s. I feel really Jesse and Josh are two of the current affairs isn’t just for the lucky to be in a privileged place most thoughtful, supportive, middle class in Auckland. No where I am given a loudspeaker hard-working guys I have ever matter where you are in the to shout about things which met – it’s fair to say we give each country, how old you are or what I think are important. It’s not other plenty of stick. They’re you care about: it’s meaningful. my intention to abuse that. I’m encouraging and respectful Oh yeah, and it’s okay to have a just trying to talk about things I and never make me feel like laugh along the way! think people care about. I’m playing an old fashioned sidekick, I really appreciate Which has been You faced a lot of backlash this about them both and I love your favourite role on social media for your use working with them. and why? of Te Reo when presenting That’s like trying to the news, has that given So now that you beat choose a favourite child you any concern about Jesse in the NZ Marketing’s (I think? I don’t have kids). standing up for what you definitive Hottest News I wouldn’t trade any of those believe in? Anchor category, will you experiences for anything There’s a difference between be asking him to give you because I wouldn’t be doing this criticism and backlash. I think centre seat on the project? job without all of them. criticism is valid, even if it can Not a chance! But thank you guys, be tricky to stomach. But I will I really appreciate the honour.

The Media Issue 2017 | STOPPRESS.COCO.NZ | 25 Production Company Nominees: Augusto, Curious, Ruckus, Fish, The Sweet Shop, The Down Low Concept

AUGUSTO

We may be a small nation at the bottom of the world, but our production companies aren’t letting that define them. For Augusto, that’s visible in its recent expansion with its New York office, its Everest Rescue series on the Discovery Network and a win of work for Adidas Rugby out of Germany. We caught up with general manager Oliver Sealy to get an insight on how Augusto works.

How did you guys move into How long does it take to branded work for clients most the documentary space? produce and shoot a project rewarding. It requires more People’s choice: Augusto is full of documentary like Chasing Great? What collaboration and is usually makers. Many of our shooters, are some of the challenges more innovative. We make very Augusto producers and editors have you face that you wouldn’t few ‘ads’ in the traditional sense backgrounds in factual necessarily have with an ad? of the word, and more often find Augusto’s impressive slate Chasing Great television and docos, and I don’t was about a year ourselves producing for new of commercial work over think we’ve ever not had some and a half of solid production, channels and technologies. That the past year puts it in top kind of documentary-type idea but every job we do is different work is just as exciting as a film on the development slate. It’s in size and scale. We can turn or TV concept. spot with 28.4 percent of actually very complementary around a hype reel for NZ the public’s vote. Known to a lot of the work we do with Rugby in 48 hours, while a How important is it for its production of brands, which often involves web series for Mitre 10 can for modern production local comedy like 7 Days, working with real people such take a year to complete. One companies to diversify The Down Low Concept as athletes, CEOs or their difference is that entertainment what they do? comes second with customers. We’re experts at work takes much longer than For us, it has been vital. Being 21.3 percent and The dragging stories out of people branded content. It took us half a production company is just Sweet Shop comes third and finding the hidden angle. a year to finance Chasing Great, one component of the wider with 16.4. and Everest Rescue was shopped Augusto business. There aren’t How challenging is it to around for several years before many production companies balance your advertising it found a home with Discovery. with creatives, designers, at the top of the curve. We don’t work with the documentary That’s one of the things we love strategists and technologists really like the idea of a ‘comfort projects you’re working on? about client funded work. No at their disposal. And having zone’. In the last quarter we It’s not that hard. Augusto was messing about. our own client service team has delivered over a thousand still started nine years ago with the allowed us to develop direct-to- images for retail, six one-hour aim of using branded content Where do ideas for these client relationships, which in comedy scripts for a US production to fund long-form projects come from? turn allows us to retain talent broadcaster, a jingle sung by entertainment development. We Mostly from weird conversations and a sense of team. Wayne Anderson, a branded web now run a full-time entertainment next to the coffee machine with series starring George Clark, and division developing docos and Leon (Augusto co-founder). What will the production we made the opening titles for the comedies. There’s even a musical company of the future America’s Cup global broadcast. being worked on at the moment. What does your team find look like? Whatever the production The variety helps us attract most rewarding? The bigger Everyone at Augusto works company of the future ends up great talent and keep them in projects or the ads? really hard to foster a culture looking like, our aim is to be three full-time work. I think the team find the of innovation which keeps us steps ahead of them.

26 | STOPPPRESPRE S.COO.NZ | Theh Media Issue 2017 Nominees: Allbirds, BurgerFuel, Hell Pizza, Karma Cola, Air New Zealand, Garage Project Social Presence

BURGERFUEL People’s choice:

Having recently branched out into the USA, BurgerFuel is Air New Zealand continuing its mission to take over the world one burger at a time. Aiding the company’s growth and expansion is its When it comes to making strong social presence by its in-house marketing team. We viral content, there are ask global communications manager Kate McGahan to give few out there that do us the lowdown on what makes them tick. it better than Air New Zealand. With its effective use of everything from Snapchat filters to safety videos, the airline gets the nod for first place with an overwhelming 42.8 percent. At a distant second and third are wool shoe brand Allbirds with 13.9 percent and BurgerFuel with 11.5 percent.

What’s the secret behind is relevant to them – and that the in our stores, on the streets and You guys seem to spend quite a strong social presence? content is always delicious! at events. Through video content a lot on crafting your social How do you use the channel on YouTube, live stories on campaigns. Do you think effectively to reach your What are some of the Instagram and Facebook, and brands sometimes go too audience? channels and methods awesome images posted on both cheap when developing stuff For us, having a strong social you use to create a strong channels in real time, we can for social? presence is about being authentic, social presence? invite everyone into the unique You don’t need to spend huge creating great, genuine content Gourmet burgers are at the BurgerFuel experience. money on content creation, but that people enjoy viewing and centre of everything we do, so you do need to be creative, nimble making sure we’re total ninjas #burgerporn leads our strategy, How does BurgerFuel’s and authentic. Look at Instagram when it comes to targeting and but the BurgerFuel experience in-house marketing work? Stories, for example. It doesn’t cost re-marketing. Accessibility is key extends far beyond this. We We run our marketing department a thing to create or post, but at the too – social is a great place to talk run an arts programme called like an in-house agency. Almost tap of a button we’re instantly able with our customers, so being there ‘Creative, Sweet’ with in-house everything you see comes from to invite people inside the world of to respond quickly and personally BurgerFuel artists who paint inside the walls of BurgerFuel HQ. BurgerFuel from NZ to the USA, when someone reaches out is custom murals in our stores The burger pictures we post on to Dubai, Australia and beyond. non-negotiable for us. and communities, run our very Facebook and Instagram are un- Having fun and not taking As a brand that offers a lot of own global radio station (Radio retouched and taken by members ourselves too seriously is a different food options for a lot BurgerFuel) and are heavily of our team or customers in our BurgerFuel essential for producing of different lifestyles, targeting involved in the car scene. stores. Our staff also star in our great, high-quality work – how is not a luxury; it’s essential. We Social media allows us to videos and copywriting is a crowd- can we expect a customer to enjoy work hard to ensure that our connect the loop with how we’re sourced gig within the marketing viewing our content if we didn’t audience only sees content that activating these cultural pillars department. have fun making it?

The Media Issue 2017 | STOPPRESS.COCO.NZ | 27 Nominees: The Spinoff, The Wireless, Noted, NZ Herald Focus, Newsroom, Digital Media Brand Stuff, Vice, Neighbourly, Metservice, Concrete Playground

THE SPINOFF

As much as digital is often blamed for decimating the revenue stream of traditional media channels, it’s also spawned interesting products that offer users more choice than they’ve ever had in history. In the last few years, we’ve had The Spinoff, The Wireless, Noted, NZ Herald Focus and Newsroom all added to a digital news menu that already includes established players, such as Stuff and Vice. And of those, it’s The Spinoff that stands out as best of the bunch.

The Spinoff’s TV-themed missing stories that would popularity of established content was originally have real resonance with them. players Stuff and Vice. People’s choice: proposed to be housed That strategy surrounding But it isn’t just about news in Lightbox’s website, social media is a characteristic in this category. Digital media The Spinoff however, with the potential of all the nominees and the brands also provide utility. of contravening the SVOD’s NZ Herald Focus is careful not Whether it’s Neighbourly contracts, a dedicated to post all of its content on connecting communities, The Hottest Digital standalone website was Facebook. Instead, managing Metservice keeping New brand also picks up the created. Lightbox is one of editor Shayne Currie told Zealanders up to date on People’s Choice for its a number of sponsors of StopPress it uses Facebook as approaching cyclonesor 32.1 percent of the vote. It The Spinoff, and the types of a fishing pond for audiences Concrete Playground was a substantial drop for content it offers and the senior as it posts only a selection of recommending the best things second place, with Vice writers it’s attracted have its videos and sometimes only to do, digital media brands receiving only 13.6 percent grown just as rapidly, with partial videos in order to pull have burrowed their way into of the vote. Third place stories, videos and podcasts the audience back to its own all the nooks and crannies of goes to Newsroom (12.8 now available through the site site where NZME knows the our lives. percent), followed closely and its app. engagement metrics and who The winner, The Spinoff, Noted The Spinoff App launched the audience is. has just done that particularly by on 12.5 percent. earlier this year as another Continuing the news trend, well – especially with its means by which to engage The Wireless, Noted, and Tim humorous commentary on The audiences. Founder and Murphy and Mark Jennings’ Bachelor New Zealand. editor Duncan Greive told Newsroom are also performing One thing that’s certain is StopPress the changes to well in the digital media brand the news isn’t dead at all. It’s Facebook newsfeed algorithms category despite being new just morphing into a new- got the team thinking about to the scene and their fangled beast with tentacles how those accessing it via momentum may one day stretching into every digital social media were possibly see them reach the same direction.

28 | STOPPPRESPRE S.COO.NZ | Theh Media Issue 2017 Nominees: Harkanwal Singh (NZ Herald Data Editor), Toby Morris (The Wireless – The Pencilsword), Lucy Zee (The Wireless – What’s Going On?), Jordan Watson (How to Dad), Jose Barbosa (The Spinoff) Digital Creator

People’s choice: Jordan Watson

‘How to Dad’ Jordan Watson’s humorous and blokey take on modern day childcare has certainly struck a chord with Kiwi parents, attracting 36.6 percent of the public’s vote. Second place was a close battle between The Spinoff’s audio and visual guru Jose Barbosa Your journalism with data is (19.3 percent), and Lucy quite unique, do you think Zee’s wry and alternative HARKANWAL SINGH journalists should have commentary for The more skills to deal with and Wireless (18.3 percent). As The New Zealand Herald’s data editor, Harkanwal Singh present data? takes a fresh approach to journalism by tackling complex As data becomes more pervasive, topics with interactive visualisations. He’s intrigued readers journalists will be required data and methodology are good with information about the most religious suburbs, where to up-skill to understand and and repeatable, then it is closer to and why Maoris still smoke and the population’s wealth, so communicate data. objectivity. I’d double-check with we ask him to fill us in on how it’s done. agencies that produce data and Do you think universities interview experts on the topic. prepare students for the demands of real data What did you think of Who, or what determines analysing data. One way I’ve journalism? Is it easier to Winston Peters questioning what you are going to developed as a workaround teach statisticians how to your objectivity? investigate? is to publish visualisations write or writers how to work Winston Peters’ questions were Newsworthiness and which are updated when new with numbers? about my objectivity as an ‘Asian availability of data. It’s hard to data is released. Journalism schools in New immigrant’ journalist rather investigate unless there is data Zealand are nowhere near close than as a data journalist, which available. Also, if anyone in the From all the investigations to preparing students for future says a lot. I cannot change my newsroom suggests ideas worth you’ve done, what’s been challenges. The gap is staggering ethnicity but I am more than investigating. your biggest learning? and doesn’t seem to be improving. happy to discuss data. You You can always do better in I haven’t done much teaching to can read my full response on How long does each communicating the complexity know which is easier; ideally, you nzherald.co.nz. project take? of the data because headlines can actually want someone who can It depends on complexity and rarely capture it. code and communicate. What will data journalism what we are creating as end result, look like in the future? but anywhere from one to three Your projects are very Numbers can be spun into As the quote goes, predictions weeks. popular and raise a lot of virtually any narrative. So are hard, especially about eyebrows. Which piece of what steps do you take to the future. Data journalism Do you feel the same pressure work has generated the ensure your reporting is internationally has and will as other journalists to churn most response? objective? continue to become more things out quickly? Probably the burglaries I don’t think numbers can be spun mainstream. In New Zealand, it There’s always pressure to crime map, in terms of analytics into ‘virtually any narrative’. There will depend on the shape of the publish but it’s hard to turn and responses. are interpretations and there can market and whether journalism over a visualisation without be competing ones, but if your schools rise to the challenge.

The Mediad Issue 2017 | STOPPRESS.COCO.NZ | 29 Nominees: Amy Adams (former broadcasting minister), Most Influential Person in Media Mark Berry (Commerce Commission chair), Jane Wrightson (NZ ON Air chief executive), Cate Slater (TVNZ director of content), Andrew Szusterman (MediaWorks chief content officer), Steve Tew (New Zealand head of rugby), Russel Stanners (Vodafone chief executive), Nadia Lim, Mike Hosking, Taika Waititi, Sinead Boucher (Fairfax executive editor), Paul Dykzeul (Bauer chief executive), Shayne Currie (NZME managing director) MARK BERRY (COMMERCE COMMISSION CHAIR)

In a year when some of the country’s biggest media companies have sought mergers as a solution to consolidate their businesses, there’s no denying Commerce Commission chair Mark Berry the title of Most Influential Person in Media.

People’s choice: Taika Waititi

Acclaimed director Berry and the Commission 70-73). Also wielding significant and actor Taika Waititi members are responsible for It goes to show that those power are NZ On Air chief received the most votes the proposed Vodafone/Sky and with power are never going to executive Jane Wrightson, to win People’s Choice, NZME/Fairfax mergers being please everyone. TVNZ director of content no doubt due to the declined, and now the industry One person perhaps less Cate Slater and MediaWorks popularity of his films waits in suspense to see the than pleased was Vodafone chief chief content officer Andrew impact this is going to have executive Russel Stanners (also Szusterman who determine that audiences clamour to on those companies and the a finalist in this category) who how an annually allocated see. With the success of industry as a whole. more recently penned a four- budget is used to make content Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Already, it’s been reported year sponsorship deal with the and which programmes make the anticipation of in local media, that less than an All Blacks. He continues to push it to air. Anything not deemed his upcoming Thor: hour after the NZME/Fairfax his attempts to take over Sky worthwhile by this trio is likely Ragnarok and his recent merger had been declined, an TV and should he succeed, he’ll to never make it to an audience. endorsement of the Green email had been sent to Fairfax have a broadcaster, rugby rights However, this still pales in Party, Waititi wields staff warning that “further and one of the nation’s biggest comparison to the Commerce unprecedented cultural publishing frequency changes telcos under his control. Suffice Commission’s influence over the influence. He was followed and consolidation of titles is an to say, his influence stretches fate of media companies. by Andrew Szusterman inevitability.” across many touchpoints. Also worth a mention are There has also been Speaking of rugby, New Fairfax executive editor Sinead (19 percent) and My Food widespread criticism from many Zealand head of rugby Steve Boucher, Bauer’s Paul Dykzeul Bag co-founder Nadia Lim that the decision was out of Tew deserves a mention for and NZME managing editor (14.7 percent). NZME’s touch and failed to recognise the his influence over which Shayne Currie, who have the Mike Hosking and Shayne financial burden of creating and broadcaster gets the right to air power to guide public opinion Currie tie for fifth place distributing journalism. (Read All Blacks games. It’s the sport and shift society through the with 5.3 percent of the more of what people have to of the nation and the fans that words, images and videos their votes each. say about the merger on pages come with it are a massive win. teams publish on a daily basis.

30 | STOPPPRESPRE S.COO.NZ | Thehe Media Issue 2017 Nominees: James Frankham (Kowhai Media publisher), Duncan Greive (founder of The Spinoff), Regan Savage (Kiwibank Media Visionary GM of marketing communications), Julia Baylis (Top TV head of programming and acquisitions), Sarah Bristow (executive producer of The Paul Henry Show and The AM Show), Paul Thompson (RNZ chief executive), Todd Scott (NBR publisher), Shelley Ferguson (editor-in-chief at Your Home and Garden, Taste and Nadia magazine)

RNZ CHIEF EXECUTIVE PAUL THOMPSON

When looking across New Zealand media, there’s plenty of talent leading the way of radio, magazines, newspapers, websites and TV. However, standing out from the rest is RNZ’s Paul Thompson. The biggest ships are the most difficult to turn around, but Thompson has managed to do just that – and at time when the water has been frozen.

“It’s been an absolute privilege to non-commercial model. and challenging, create a sense go by, it’s successfully living and pleasure,” Thompson “It reminded me in parts of of community and foster a sense up to that with RNZ National says about his last three and what the newspaper industry of nationhood. sitting in number two position a half years since taking over used to be and I’ve also just “All of that stuff is really for its weekly audience of the throne as chief executive of really loved working for an motivating us,” he says, again 579,400 with an 11.3 percent RNZ. organisation that’s got such a using the word “privileged” to share of listening time. That Joining from his role as strong sense of its role in New describe how RNZ feels about audience is up 44,200 from the Fairfax New Zealand’s group Zealand life.” the charter. previous survey. executive editor, Thompson That role comes from its “That does create, I think, a While RNZ has always says he’s really enjoyed learning foundation documents that desire for us to grow the appeal been a significant player in the about broadcasting, feeling the specify its promise to deliver and relevance and accessibility radio market with one of the stability that wasn’t there so unique and high-quality of our content.” largest audiences and shares, much in the publishing world news, current affairs and If the latest GfK Radio the last few years have seen the and moving from a commercial entertainment, be innovative Survey results are anything to broadcaster shift its mindset

The Media Issue 2017 | STOPPPRESPRE S.COCOO.NZ.N | 31 with a digital transformation unique and different to what Part of the message he distinctive, high quality and that places greater emphasis other people do.” has for staff now is that they’re credible and really gets to the on its online platforms, social While the audiences’ 30 percent down the path of heart of what it means to be a media, mobile apps, Sky, successful pickup of the new its digital transformation, with New Zealander – not whether Freeview and satellite. digital offerings is a reflection 70 percent to go over the next we’re continuing to do as much Now, its audience is as varied of the consideration that went few years. radio in the future.” as ever, with some happy to into the new platforms, what’s “We’ve done a great job, And being the only non- continue to tune in as they just as impressive is the fact we’ve adjusted to the new commercial broadcaster, this always have while others have the digital transformation was environment, we’re growing and attitude puts it in good stead branched out and made the new achieved without any extra we’ve raised our profile. But if we when considering the current offerings their go-to. funding. (Increased funding stop now we’ll again fall behind.” turmoil across the media. “From what we can see, most was finally announced in the RNZ believes the future “It’s really challenging and the people are there online, they’re 2017 Budget). is about multi-platform and public media space is certainly listening on air, they’re listening Thompson says throughout Thompson says there’s a world not going to shrink, it’s going to on demand and they also pick the process it’s become more of opportunity to provide more grow so RNZ needs to be ready to up our content when they go on efficient, moving resources services to New Zealand because do more work and provide more Stuff or The Herald.” around the organisation to make of its funding. services as the commercial media Thompson says in the room for more digital staff – A major ingredient of that continues to adjust to the tough changing media environment, pointing out that head of digital will be its on air broadcast, but financial situations. RNZ is going where its media Glen Scanlon now has a going forward, the focus will “I think we’ll need to do a audiences need it to be and team of 30-40 staff. be on ensuring its content lives better job, we’ll need to be more that’s been made easier by a It also made it a requirement up to the high standards the transparent and we need to be change to the charter last year. for all its programme managers, charter and RNZ sets. able to show the government, It specifies RNZ should use executive producers and “What our rock will be, is every dollar invested in RNZ is a the most effective means of newsroom leaders to think whether the work we create is service to New Zealanders.” distribution and with that came digitally. control of what those means are. And while Thompson And as well as its own admits there’s been stress and People’s choice: platforms, it now collaborates strain due to questions around with other media companies, resources, he credits his team Duncan Greive which Thompson says brings in for the way it’s handled the a new audience for RNZ as well transitions. The Spinoff founder’s ability to introduce something as helping out the media sector “There’s a lot of hard work new to the market and build it from the ground up as a whole. in behind that and the RNZ has earned Duncan Greive the People’s Choice win An example of this is its staff have been extraordinarily with 26.9 percent of the vote. What started as a tiny new 9th Floor series, which willing to be open to the profiles five living New Zealand challenge and they’ve embraced operation with two people to promote Lightbox prime ministers. As well as it. That’s because they’re really has, in a short few years, grown into a respectable providing RNZ with new motivated around getting things (and extremely popular) multi-media organisation. angles, news packages, written to audiences and online allows In the voting, Greive was followed closely behind content, video, podcasts and them to do much more than they by Sarah Bristow (26.7), who’s taken the risk of radio output, most major media could in the past.” broadcasting across TV and radio with The AM outlets in New Zealand have At the helm of the ship, Show and The Paul Henry Show. also made good use of the series Thompson is held in high regard In third place is Shelley Ferguson who earned 18.6 and it will be broadcast on by the staff and he has an equal percent of the vote for going beyond the page with Your free-to-air television by Three respect for them, which is why Home and Garden’s homewares range. That’s all while later this year. he’s made it his mission to be editing Taste and playing an integral role in the launch But no matter where the accessible to them all. audience consumes the content “I’ve tried to be present and of Nadia magazine. created by RNZ, Thompson says available and I just really try And in fourth place with 12.4 percent of the votes is there’s a common theme across to communicate very strongly Kiwibank’s Regan Savage for bravely financing Mind it all. opportunities for RNZ as it gets Over Money with Nigel Latta. The move paid off and “The glue that hangs it all it plan right and evolves as a early ratings placed the show among the broadcaster’s together is that the quality of the media organisation. And I think most-watched programmes. content is high and it’s credible, staff have responded to that.”

32 | STOPPPRESPRE S.COO.NZ | Theh Media Issue 2017 Advertising is an industry constantly focused on finding new ways to bedazzle and charm consumers. But in reaching too far into the digital hat, David Thomason reckons advertisers might be losing grip with what made the show effective in the first place. feature

In theory, numbers and logic should show us the bigger picture, and suggest the best solutions. But hearing the words ‘big data’ (is anyone really doing it?) seems to have focused us on little things. Hundreds of little things that don’t last, and few people see.

ALAN MORRIS was the ‘Mo’ of Mojo, the legendary decisions based largely on emotion. We’re whatever their circumstances, would like my ad agency behind some of Australia’s most iconic particularly influenced by what we think others work. This wasn’t based on any understanding of eighties ad campaigns. While presenting a global are doing and how they might perceive us. advertising effectiveness. It just seemed a natural, advertising concept to Coke in Atlanta, Mo was Knowing this, I won’t just use research to make human ambition to create something popular. interrupted by another ad man. He challenged my point. I’ll tell some good old-fashioned stories. Early in my career I worked for seven years on Mo to define the target market in terms of both The first time I heard Mo’s quote was at a decorating brand called Levene. (For the young demographics and psychographics. Mo stood up Lintas in 1993. I found it confusing because I was ones, it was a large and very popular privately and spoke clearly into the microphone. simultaneously being given the first brief I’d seen owned retail chain that was sold then died.) I “Any c*** with a mouth.” featuring a target audience and insight box. don’t remember anyone ever carefully describing Apparently the president of Coke considered I soon realised that the box often evoked the Levene target audience. And I definitely never this refreshingly precise. an apologetic tone from the person doing the saw a brief. This article is about a renewed appreciation of briefing. “I know this is rather broad, but they Our target audience was simply Gill – the broadcast advertising. It’s not a critique of digital insist on appealing to everyone”, or “Yes, the young home-owning, style-conscious art director channels. It’s about the way we’re using both household shopper buys it, but everyone in the I worked with. She was a modern, discerning, modern and traditional media. Carefully targeted family eats it, so we can’t go too narrow, sorry”. image-conscious woman. Having lived overseas, short-term marketing is a critical part of the As a creative working on a large mass-market she was disappointed with what was available marketing mix. But it shouldn’t dominate. product or service, it was very useful for me and affordable to her in New Zealand. So we Mass-media, brand-building and long-term to picture one person that I was writing for, aimed our marketing at her. (Levene’s category thinking are intertwined. Combined they remain real or imagined. Someone with certain beliefs, managers even chose product with Gill in mind.) the most efficient and effective marketing force hopes, needs and behaviours. I’ve long believed Our ads were sexy and young; full of stylish for driving large, sustained business results. But in having a focused, meaningful brand position people, fast cuts, colour and music. More like we’ve now moved too far to the other end of all and that generally starts with a defined target European fashion than New Zealand retail. But, three scales; to focus on a quick sale to today’s audience. And, conversely, not worrying too as distinctly positioned as the brand was, it was customer. Despite the modern rhetoric, this move much about other segments. As professor Michael widely popular. Our parents shopped there. isn’t based on evidence or logic. It’s cultural. Porter said: “The essence of strategy is choosing Grandparents, students, men, people who’d Marketing is still run by human beings. Like what not to do.” never been interested in home décor all loved the our audiences, we’re social animals making But the truth is that I hoped most people, brand. We didn’t try and reflect everyone’s tastes.

34 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | The Media Issue 2017 Levene’s marketing actually moved the country’s doing it?) seems to have focused us on little some of this expert reasoning and providing home décor aesthetic more towards Gill’s. things. Hundreds of little things that don’t last, six reasons why mass-media should enjoy a That’s a creative perspective on targeting. and few people see. resurgence: But what about media? Back then, even with a For decades there’s been a growing belief that clear audience in mind, there was little chance soon we’ll be able to eliminate waste and talk 1. Fame drives success: that our work would only be seen by the core directly to potential buyers only at the moment This means people talking about you even target. If it appeared in television, print, outdoor they’re ready to buy. That’d be clever. We’d look though they might never buy you. One of Peter or radio, then careful planning could skew good to clients and peers. Field’s strongest points. placement towards a certain demographic or Technology has brought us closer to that psychographic. But given enough time in market, vision. Here’s an excerpt from a March 2017 piece 2. Top of mind awareness is powerful: we were pretty much reaching all people. Want by Zander Nethercutt called, unhelpfully, ‘The – mental availability makes it easier to buy. to reach household shoppers? Use Shortland Death of Advertising’: Street. Want to reach anyone? Use Shortland Street. “The perfection of data will, eventually, give 3. Humans are social animals: How successful would Levene have been if our rise to a world in which every consumer can be We feel safe choosing what others are advertising had only reached those young female paired up with goods that meet their biological choosing, and we signal our identity via home-owners? tendencies, rather than their consumptive ones. brands and products. There’s a moment when people well outside This world will also be devoid of branding, because of your usual circles learn that you work in in a world that relies on perfect information, there 4. It takes time and repetition to form habits: advertising. So they ask which ads you or your will be no need for branded trust.” Targeted and timely communications are a agency have done. Back in the nineties I’d I’m grateful to Nethercutt for succinctly more effective nudge later in the customer mention Levene. A decade later it might have been summing up the essence of the flawed thinking journey. Moccona. In the last ten years, perhaps Pak’nSave that’s already led many marketers astray. It sounds or Mitre 10. like brainy stuff. To my point about culture, this 5. Reach tomorrow’s customers: There’s much to learn from those barbecue is the age of the progressive high-tech marketer. Reach a wide audience and you’re building conversations. Firstly, no-one wants a But it simply doesn’t stack up, and it never will, your brand with customers yet to move into complicated answer. Hopefully, a brand name is because it’s not based on actual science. your target segment. enough to get, “We love Stickman,” or for Mitre I’d have to agree with commenter Justin Choi, 10, “The funny one with the two kids in the who added below ‘The Death of Advertising’ 6. Efficiency: playground?”. It’s awkward when your potential that “this article points to a fundamental Producing less elements, that last longer, saves new friend looks blankly at you, unable to recall misunderstanding of both advertising and precious resource. anything. So you describe the ad. “Oh yes, I just human beings”. didn’t remember who that was for.” Many technology-driven marketing evangelists I neglected a very important seventh point which Today it’s likely you’ll have to explain that seem attracted to the idea of a rational approach I’d already focused on in a separate article: your recent work has been very targeted, so that would eliminate the flawed human element. they probably didn’t see it. If it was on TV, they That messy link in the marketing sequence has 7. The waste is the part that works: might respond with: “Sorry, I just don’t see TV always been an inconvenience. It’s frustrating The status conveyed when a person or ads anymore.” Advertising people hang out with when customers purchase a competing product brand has enough resource to put on an people that are many times less likely to see or service even when “the numbers show our one ‘unnecessarily’ expensive display (production television ads. Millions still do. And it’s likely performs 2.3 percent better”. Or costs 4.2 percent and mass-media costs) increases both the self-proclaimed non-TV viewer did see your less. The conclusion? “Get those messages out credibility and desire. ad but it wasn’t memorable. Increasingly likely there. It’s an education job.” is that your ad, TV or anywhere else, didn’t have Yet, there’s a vast and easily accessible But these aren’t the real reasons we’ll rediscover enough media weight or run for long enough to understanding of human behaviour that quickly the power of broadcast advertising and brand- make an impression. explains (scientifically) why there’s so much building. We’ll reset the balance for the same reason This scenario is about more than just the more to marketing. Recently, there’s been a lot of we moved away in the first place. It wasn’t logical. It ego of the advertising or marketing individual marketing talk about behavioural economics, and was a shift in marketing culture. We’d been hearing concerned. It’s a very useful proxy for the even neuroscience. Ironically, both are rational and reading endlessly about innovative, technology- effectiveness of the modern advertiser’s efforts ways of explaining emotional human behaviour to driven, targeted methods that deeply engage – possibly even an early-warning sign for many educated people who’ve been taught not to trust audiences. Campaigns and people that applied large brands and the industry in general. It’s our their instincts. these methods have been celebrated loudly. Usually job to make brands famous. But we’re often too For advertising specifically, there are the without waiting for the results. In many cases we’ve busy crafting numerous small, engaging short- research-based observations and principles continued to speak in awe of campaigns even after term campaigns that briefly reach a from the likes of Byron Sharp, Mark Ritson, we know they’ve failed. narrow audience. Peter Field and Les Binet. So you’d think that the ‘Pepsi to skip Super Bowl ads in favour of In theory, numbers and logic should show us fundamentals of effective marketing would now a $20 million social media campaign’ read one the bigger picture, and suggest the best solutions. be quite clear. of many dramatic headlines at the end of 2009. But hearing the words ‘big data’ (is anyone really Late last year, I wrote an article capturing Marketers around the world looked sheepishly at

The Media Issue 2017 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | 35 feature

Short-term Peter Field’s studies have shown that short-term strategy gives brands a quick lift in sales with one hand, but then just as quickly pulls it away with the other. Stick to short-term digital advertising based entirely on ROI and it becomes an endless cycle of lifts and troughs. Stick to this approach sleight of hand over an extended period and you end up with a brand in much worse shape than it could’ve been.

The deception of short-termism Short-term data flatters Search

60% 1.8 Very large activation effects source: IPA Databank, 2008 - 2016 cases Sales uplift over base Brand building short term sales uplifts Long term sales growth

55% 1.7

50%

1.6 45% Sales uplift over base over Sales uplift

Short term effects dominate ~ 6 months 40% 1.5 Very large activation effects activation large Very source: Binet & Field 2013 Time Used No Search Search the old-fashioned media plans they’d presented “My point isn’t to say that Oreo weren’t clever myths: mass marketing is inefficient and tight to their exec teams. But ‘Pepsi Challenge’ was or effective in their tweet,” Ritson continued. targeting rules; real time data-driven marketing one of the greatest catastrophes in marketing “My point is to say ‘on which bloody planet does is less wasteful than broadcast advertising; history. Sales fell more than five percent and the that tweet beat that ad?’ For reach, for impact, for timely and relevant offers are the most effective brand slipped to number three behind Diet Coke. value, for brand-centricity? … Lazy, inaccurate advertising; last-minute activation is better than Yet, in August 2010, Forbes listed the campaign journalism giving marketers completely the brand building; and ROI drives everything we do. at number five on their list of ‘Best-Ever Social wrong impression.” Field’s research focused on the new media Media Campaigns’. Ritson also looks at the large number of context and acknowledged the important role of Marketing professor Mark Ritson is very entirely wrong headlines proclaiming ‘TV is digital channels. But his analysis showed that most clear about this flawed culture. He uses the 2013 dead’. When it comes to anything other than of the ‘old success models’ still very much apply. Oreo Super Bowl tweet to demonstrate the biased sustained brand-building using broadcast media, He ended with six important out-takes influence of media. the hype is consistently louder than the facts. for the room: “The whole stadium went dark and the game But it’s not just the marketing press. I feel lucky had to stop. Oreo saw an opportunity and sent out to have been part of an agency with a holistic and 1. Beware the growth of short-termism a tweet. ‘Power out? No problem.’ And there was balanced view on all media, while the industry a link to a picture of an Oreo cookie. Underneath in general has perpetuated a myth. The cult-like 2. Do not retreat from mass-marketing it said: ‘You can still dunk in the dark.’ social pressure to avoid anything that looks like “That tweet became known as the tweet that ‘traditional brand advertising’ has been immense. 3. Remember the power of video was heard around the world… In Wired magazine: To reiterate, this isn’t about technology. We’ve ‘How Oreo won the Marketing Super Bowl With got the mix wrong for both traditional and digital 4. ROI can damage your brand a Timely Blackout Ad on Twitter’. In the Wa l l media. To maximise success, we need to shift the Street Journal: ‘How Oreo culture-jacked the Super balance back toward sustained, wide-reaching, 5. Emotions and creativity drive Bowl’. In C-Net: ‘How Oreo’s Brilliant Black Out brand-building activity across all channels. long-term success Tweet Won the Super Bowl. BRW in Australia: Digital opportunities that quickly deliver the ‘Taking the biscuit: how Oreo’s blackout tweet largest audiences will demand a premium, as have 6. Balance between short- and long-term trumped million-dollar Super Bowl ads’. Let’s talk TV’s Shortland Street and the news. activity matters (the balance should about that tweet. Let’s not be lazy journalists… Recently FCB hosted a dinner for its senior be 40:60) Let’s break down the numbers.” clients with UK-based advertising effectiveness Ritson compares the tweet with a Budweiser guru Peter Field. We’d hosted a similar dinner three years ago, TV ad. He calculates that about 64,000 people saw After kicking off with a frightening graph but Field’s thinking was especially well received the tweet, or 0.02 percent of Oreo customers. A showing that advertising has become less effective this time—probably as a result of sustained long- somewhat larger 50 million people saw Budweiser. over time, Field set out to bust some important term marketing about the importance of sustained

36 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | The Media Issue 2017 Short-termLong-term RoI Very large profit growth

Focus on ROI promotes short-termism Short-term data flatters Social but not profit growth

70% 2.2 Very large activation effects 600% 30% Very large activation effects source: IPA Databank, 2008 - 2016 cases

60% 2.0 500% 25%

50% 1.8 400% 20% 40% 1.6 300% 15% 30% 1.4 200% 10% 20%

10% 1.2 100% 5% source: IPA Databank, 2008 - 2016 cases 2008 - 2016 Databank, IPA source:

0% 1.0 0% 0% Very large activation effects activation large Very ROI Average Used No Social Social Short-term Long-term long-term marketing. Most had been exposed to audiences and stakeholders beyond the customer, budgets, rather than digital versus other. Field’s thinking a number of times over the years. and a famous brand campaign reaches all. Show KPIs and incentives are key. If people are We were building on an existing brand. them the best work in the market, here or overseas. employed and rewarded for short-term results, Our dinner, and this article, are part of a large And throw in some results. the problem continues. Hold the biggest and important campaign. So if I’ve covered some Change the language. Don’t call mass-media celebrations for big picture results. of this stuff before… well that’s the point. advertising ‘traditional’. It includes channels Tenure is a challenge. I met a New Zealand Many marketers of large New Zealand brands such as Facebook. Talk about efficiently marketer who was remunerated by a large global have now had time to experiment. They’ve seen reaching very large numbers of people. Call it company after he left their employ, based on the the long-term results of moving too much budget ‘mass-reach-media’. on-going results of initiatives he put in place from sustained brand-building and mass- Salience is important. But there are many more while he was there. Incentives can reward all marketing. They’ve also seen the huge resource meetings about short-term results and objectives types of longevity. required to produce numerous short-lived ideas than long-term ones. Find ways for brand health to Everyone is receptive to social influence. We and campaigns. be part of everyday discussion, and highly visible need to establish a new norm. Marketing has So after the presentation, the conversation beyond the core marketing team. changed. The smartest businesses are thinking quickly turned to corporate culture. Converting Present Field’s findings to audiences beyond bigger. They’re thinking about big, lasting, the people in the room is one thing. But shifting marketing. Or get your agency or Field himself to emotional campaigns that create fame. Anyone beliefs and behaviour with the many other do it. It makes good business sense. still pushing a short-term, highly engaging and stakeholders, and keeping it shifted, is another. Measurement is key. Focus on one or two targeted approach above all else, rather than a So let’s imagine now that I’m talking to simple target brand numbers and market those smart 40 percent of the mix, is now out of date. the converted. How do we convince others numbers to the wider internal audience. Then Mass media is the next big marketing craze. to rebalance their marketing efforts toward keep marketing the progress. Make sure you tell everyone. sustained brand-building using mass-reach- Show that this brand number delivers to the media? Let’s apply some of the same principles business. It’s hard to connect long-term activity we’d use, or should have been using, for our and brand effects to the bottom line. Field’s customer audiences. research is based on case studies that require When it comes to senior business people, all quite lengthy analysis. But the maths needs to be the careful boardroom analysis in the world will done and endorsed at a senior level. never completely replace the human experience Balance is very important. Many marketers of repeatedly seeing something exciting in the are well out from the ideal 60 percent brand, market, having an emotional reaction to it, hearing 40 percent activation marketing mix that Field your friends and family talk about it, and envying proposes. Most wouldn’t know. Measure and the brand behind it. Brands need to impress many scrutinise the long/short split in marketing David Thomason is chief strategist at FCB.

The Media Issue 2017 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | 37 NZ MARKETING The Radio Bureau

ON Radio might be one of the oldest media channels around, but with over three million New Zealanders still tuning into the airwaves on a weekly basis, it continues to have a strong hold on the attention of today’s listeners. We chat to TRB general manager Peter Richardson about why radio is still grooving despite all the changes in media.

THE SPINOFF EDITOR DUNCAN GREIVE RECENTLY THERE’S A PERCEPTION THAT TRB USUALLY ONLY DO YOU HAVE SOME EXAMPLES OF BRANDS/ REFERRED TO RADIO AS BEING “A KIND OF WORKS WITH SMALLER, DIRECT CLIENTS? IS THIS AGENCIES THAT YOU’VE HELPED TO MAKE GOOD GODLESS MEDIA IBIZA WHERE EVERY CITIZEN IS FAIR? OR DO YOUR COMMERCIAL ACTIVITIES RADIO ADVERTISING DECISIONS? OILY AND SUSPICIOUSLY TANNED AND PULLING EXTEND WELL BEYOND THAT? TRB collaborated with MBM to create an A FUNNY FACE DESPITE BEING 108 YEARS OLD.” That’s an interesting perception and one that overarching radio strategy for VTNZ in 2016. WHY DESPITE EVERYTHING IMPACTING THE MEDIA couldn’t be further from the reality. TRB’s key The strategy has been successful, evidenced by DOES THE CHANNEL STILL COMMAND SUCH A clients are advertising agencies and their clients its continuation this year. TRB also worked with STRONG LISTENERSHIP? including Foodstuffs, The Warehouse Group, Panasonic to combine sponsorship of Olympic The simple answer is content, content and Farmers and Spark. Our role is to work with activity with integrated content, by giving away content. Listeners have strong connections to the agencies to develop impartial radio solutions for a TV whenever NZ won gold – possibly a few radio brands and personalities. The personalities their clients. In our most successful partnerships more TVs than they bargained for. These are just have evolved into the social media space and we are the agencies’ radio planning arm. a couple of examples of what the team does every so offer more opportunities for interaction day – identifying opportunities and events to with their listeners. This has driven greater leverage campaigns by using appropriate content connectivity and loyalty. on the most suitable radio station.

WHAT ROLE DOES TRB PLAY IN 2017? HOW HAS THIS EVOLVED FROM WHAT IT WAS PREVIOUSLY? TRB plays the same role it always has done – a one-stop shop of radio experts providing impartial radio plans and solutions that maximise the effectiveness of radio. The only change is that agencies have the option to engage with each of the networks’ sales teams. TRB’s role as industry marketer has taken a hiatus over CUME AUDIENCE BY 2016 the last couple of years, but watch this space. DEMOGRAPHIC 2017 THE RADIO INDUSTRY STILL SEEMS VERY COMPETITIVE. EVERY TIME THE SURVEY RESULTS 600 ARE RELEASED, THE COMMERCIAL NETWORKS 500 REALLY SEEM TO GO AT EACH OTHER. IS THIS

COMPETITION GOOD OR BAD FOR THE INDUSTRY? 400 ISN’T COLLABORATION A NECESSARY PART OF THE GAME THESE DAYS? 300

Competition between the networks is healthy 200 and essential for a strong industry. However, occasionally the rivalry can obscure the overall 100 picture which is a vibrant medium attracting 0 more and more listeners. The competitive nature All All All All All All All HHS 10-19 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69 70+ with of the two networks drives each other to produce kids even better engaging content.

38 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | The Media Issue 2017 RADIO LISTENERSHIP - ALL 10+ CUME AUDIENCE DIGITAL PROVIDES THE 3.5 OPPORTUNITY TO COST- 3.0 EFFECTIVELY ENHANCE A RADIO 2.5 2.0

CAMPAIGN WITH A VISUAL 1.5

COMPONENT. ADDITIONALLY, 1.0 EACH NETWORK HAS A DIGITAL .5 .0 PLATFORM – IHEART AND ROVA S2/16 S3/16 S1/17 – AND THESE FORM PART OF VIRTUALLY EVERY PLAN.

TRB HAS GONE THROUGH SOME SIGNIFICANT RESTRUCTURING OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS. HAVE YOU NOW SETTLED ON A FINAL TEAM? Undoubtedly, 2015 was a turbulent year for TRB but 2016 saw stability, the re-establishment of the WHAT ARE SOME OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL HOW BIG OF A THREAT ARE THE LIKES OF PANDORA team and strong revenue growth. This year we BRANDS THAT YOU’VE SEEN BUILT ON RADIO AND SPOTIFY, ESPECIALLY GIVEN THAT THEY are building on that foundation and looking to ADVERTISING IN RECENT YEARS? OFFER TARGETED ADVERTISING SOLUTIONS? add resource, particularly in the marketing area. The Warehouse has been a strong supporter The numbers on Spotify and Pandora are not of radio for many years. We plan various in the same ballpark as radio listenership. Once WITH SO MANY DIGITAL LISTENING OPTIONS layers of radio activity, in consultation with subscribers are taken out, the numbers that are AVAILABLE, WHY SHOULD BRANDS STILL their agency, to support the various categories, hearing ads are very low. Yes, they can target CONSIDER USING RADIO AS A CHANNEL TO GROW primarily product and price. This activity is very specifically, but the plethora of radio brands THEIR BRANDS? then enhanced by the use of promotions and allow targeting to a larger market. Radio can also Because, despite what people’s perceptions are, integrated offerings to boost major events, most offer, via iHeart, even tighter targeted solutions. the evidence shows that over 79 percent of Kiwis recently Mother’s Day. The Warehouse are also listen to commercial radio each week – no digital enthusiastic supporters of Christmas charity listening format can match that. We constantly promotions across several radio stations and are get told how the younger demographics don’t a key provider of prizes and giveaways to the less listen to radio, but the latest GfK survey reported fortunate across the festive season. an 8 percent increase in the number of 20- to 29-year-olds tuning in. WHAT IS TRB DOING IN THE DIGITAL SPACE? DIGITAL REVENUE FOR RADIO REMAINS VERY SMALL? SO WHAT ROLE CAN TRB PLAY IN INCREASING DIGITAL REVENUE FOR THE THE NUMBERS ON SPOTIFY INDUSTRY? Digital provides the opportunity to cost- AND PANDORA ARE NOT IN effectively enhance a radio campaign with a THE SAME BALLPARK AS visual component. Additionally, each network Contact: Peter Richardson has a digital platform – iHeart and Rova – and general manager, The Radio Bureau RADIO LISTENERSHIP. these form part of virtually every plan. [email protected]

The Media Issue 2017 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | 39 NZ MARKETING Freeview

THERE ARE 196 countries in the world, making up a population of 7.5 billion people. And while 4.6 million of them live in New Zealand, the world is at their fingertips through their smartphones, tablets, computers, laptops and the TV remote. But while they’re busy exploring there are two things New Zealanders all know – Dr Ropata is not in Guatemala anymore, and you must always blow on the pie. 20/20 TELE VISION TV is a cultural driver – and educator – in New Zealand and an important part of that role is the broadcasting of local programming. So much so that according to NZ On Air’s 2016 Local Content Report, local content makes up 31 percent of the free-to-air schedule with a total of 13,126 hours of its broadcast time in 2016. TVNZ saw 1 News, Fair Go and Hyundai Country Calendar take the top three spots in its highest rated 20 programmes of 2016. Sunday, Dog Squad, Coast New Zealand, Mastermind New Zealand, Our Big Blue LINEAR IS LOCAL: Backyard, Seven Sharp and Border Patrol were also local programmes that made the list. Meanwhile, at MediaWorks, 7 Days, The Block NZ, All WHY FREE-TO-AIR TV IS STILL Star Family Feud and Westside were its most successful local programmes in the 25-54-year-old age range. ‘A MIRROR INTO NEW ZEALAND’S SOUL’ MediaWorks chief content officer Andrew Szusterman says as far as New Zealand network TV goes, it needs to be representative of New Zealanders with less reliance on overseas stories and more reliance With an endless library of overseas on our own. programming on offer online, where can “We’ve got to have a mirror on our souls and represent ourselves. New Zealanders expect that, New Zealanders go to get a fix of right?” he says. content that’s relevant and familiar to “The most important part of what we do as a them? Erin McKenzie finds Freeview's broadcaster is make sure that we tell our local stories, and we tell our local news and we entertain our free-to-air TV offering might be the audiences.” answer advertisers are looking for. In fact, MediaWorks has put such an emphasis on that mission that in 2016, Three increased its broadcasting of first run local content by 239 hours to reach 2,128 hours. It was followed by TVNZ 1’s 2,061 hours and Maori Television’s 1,162 hours of first run local content. Szusterman says one of the ways MediaWorks is increasing that number is through unscripted programming, including comedy, reality and live genres. Szusterman compares them to soap operas, saying unscripted programmes make for “water cooler television” as they drive New Zealanders’ conversation topics and often lead to quite visceral responses. And, given the way they’re constructed, advertisers can also get involved in that conversation. As well as getting ads in front of big audiences, there’s often room for them to be integrated into the storyline and sit alongside the talent, as has been seen regularly with its shows like The Block NZ, The Bachelor NZ and The Real Housewives of Auckland. “That is one of the joys of local production, we have the ability to work with our commercial partners to

40 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | The Media Issue 2017 highlight their brands and make their brands being given brownies laced with cannabis, and pop within our programmes in a way that they while series producer Simon Bennett told the can’t do in a 30-second spot,” Szusterman says Herald on Sunday it was coincidental the episode As the audience becomes more engaged with went to air as the debate was making headlines, the programme, the advertisers within it have a he hoped it would spark further debate around greater impact on them and can earn credibility the use of medical marijuana in New Zealand. and relevance off the back of the programme’s He said the programme wasn’t intended to say credibility and relevance. whether use of the drug is right or wrong, but the But it’s not just unscripted programmes that storyline would divide people and that is when work for advertisers, as TVNZ’s Shortland Street Shortland Street is at its best. has demonstrated. It’s also introduced a mix of ethnicities as One of the reasons Shortland Street continues well as queer and transgender characters, to be one of the biggest programmes on air after and tackled topical issues such as suicide, HIV 25 years is the way its fictitious storyline is able to and euthanasia. mirror reality in New Zealand. “Everyone has a different perspective on what In 2015, it tackled medical marijuana just days they actually want to watch, but certainly that after associate health minister Peter Dunne local view and being able to see ourselves on approved the medical use of cannabis for a Kiwi screen is something we know our viewers really teenager in a coma. love,” says TVNZ general manager of content The episode showed a teenage cancer sufferer solutions Lyndsey Francis.

Shortland Street's Blue Nathan transgender character Percentage of local Content Hours by Genre source: NZ On Air Local Content Report

Children s 9% E nt er ta in m e One of the joys of n t 6 % local production is that we D r a have the ability to work entar m cum ies 9 Do % a % / with our partners, our 4 C 1 o s m t M r commercial partners, on e a o d o

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The Media Issue 2017 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | 41 TV’s kryptonite or TV-plus? According to NZ On Air, last year, linear TV To target or not to target reached 86 percent of New Zealand each week, while online video, including YouTube and Facebook, reached 64 percent. New Zealanders also spend two and a half hours watching linear TV each day, while online video (such as YouTube and Facebook) is watched 40 minutes a day. Despite the numbers, neither MediaWorks or TVNZ see YouTube, or any other digital video, as a threat. In fact, both use the website as a big part in their content delivery. “We’re not anti-digital, we play in the digital The issues tackled by Shortland Street are also space and we see huge value for advertisers in In recent years, digital has taken over the top spot discussed and debated around the world. online video because of the engagement they can for advertising revenue ($891 million) in New However, their portrayal in a way that’s relevant have,” Francis says. Zealand, but TV still has a strong hold in second to New Zealanders and reflects New Zealand She says TVNZ views digital video as “TV-plus” place ($559 million for TV and $21 million for society is unique to local programming. It’s because the broadcaster uses it on social media digital TV) according to the ASA’s latest report. unlikely any programme on an SVOD service and YouTube to tease audiences and drive them to Francis says it’s seeing advertisers use TV as an would be able to match it. That doubt only programmes, as well as share content that doesn’t always-on driver while also introducing digital increases when considering they offer little, if any, into the mix. local programming. “I don’t think New Zealand’s largest brands Netflix, which an estimated 1,066,000 New are shunning TV. If you speak to advertisers Zealanders aged 14+ have access to, defiantly doesn’t, themselves, they all see the value of TV and what and MBM managing partner Sean McCready says perspective on what they’re doing is trialling other areas. Sometimes it’s going to be a long time, if ever, before it does. successfully, sometimes they’re learning they’ve The second biggest SVOD used in New Zealand they actually want to watch, gone too far.” is Lightbox, which has 630,000 users, and as but certainly that local She recalls Procter & Gamble’s chief marketing users grow bored of the content on offer, they go officer, Marc Pritchard, who last looking for something new on another SVOD. The view and being able to year shared the company’s experience with trend means one in 10 New Zealanders now have Facebook advertising. access to two or more SVODs. see ourselves on screen is “We targeted too much, and we went too But no matter how many times users flick narrow,” he told the Wall Street Journal. between them, they’ll also never find any form something we know our The company, whose portfolio features Tide of live programming. And while on-demand and Crest, had been using the platform’s targeting certainly has its benefits, live events still have viewers really love. tools to reach a narrowly defined audience. power, especially as viewers regularly discuss - Lyndsey Francis However, when it found that strategy wasn’t as their feelings about shows or events on social successful as it had hoped, it didn’t pull all its media (see sidebar). As advertising philosopher money from Facebook, it simply repositioned it to Faris Yakob says: culture should be a shared reach a wider audience. experience and media fragmentation is making But that’s not to say targeting can’t be useful, there that more difficult. go to air, like its New Blood web series. just needs to be a balance in the advertising mix. “Live, of course, like live sports, still have a lot Recently, Survivor New Zealand made its debut McCready says it comes down to what the of power in the markets at this stage and that’s on the screen and in the lead up to it, TVNZ used advertiser is trying to achieve, but it’s a good not something that Netflix and Lightbox are its existing social channels as well as a dedicated strategy to access those who already know the necessarily promoting,” McCready says. programme Facebook page to distribute previews brand, are previous buyers of it, or are ready to be But content and audiences aside, he also points and bios of the contestants in an effort to engage a buyer of it. out there’s a big difference between TV and audiences and build their interest. On the other hand, higher-reach media should SVODs, because the latter doesn’t offer advertising As the series progresses, the short-form video be used to convince light and non-buyers to opportunities due to being paid for by subscribers. online will also serve as a driving force to increase become buyers. “If you want to reach an audience using video the audience that tunes into the linear TV He gives the example of Air New Zealand as a or video advertising, then Netflix, Amazon, and broadcast—a trend that was proven in a Nielsen brand that has used the two approaches well. Lightbox aren’t really an option for you,” he says. case study commissioned by Google last year. “They have a really strong digital data approach However, YouTube remains an option, and It found there was an 18 percent increase in tune- to marketing. They use a lot of their own first pay McCready says that as well as being a place the in on TV for leading talk shows among an audience data to target audiences they know are customers under-30s are going to, as it develops more live that watched YouTube content of the shows. and have certain types of behaviour. But at the content it could pose a threat to the future of So as the YouTube audience increases, so does same time, they still use reach out advertising linear TV. the TV audience and vice versa. across mass media as well.”

42 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | The Media Issue 2017 Taking a step back First run local content hours 2016 by channel By the numbers source: NZ On Air Local Content Report 13,126 hours

Maori of local content was screened on seven Choice TVNZ 2 Prime Four Three TVNZ 1 Television New Zealand free-to-air channels

0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 The questions surrounding mass versus targeted hours 17 percent Year is one of the reasons Szusterman says some local of the broadcast schedule was first run advertisers have started to pull in the reins and 2007 local programming start to assess whether or not dealing with the often mysterious, slightly opaque world of digital 5,184 hours advertising is worth it. of local content was broadcast on Everyone was quick to the bandwagon of the 2008 “big, shiny and new” thing, but now it’s not quite Maori TV as attractive as it seemed, he says. “People are starting to get a little bit more real 31 percent and have started going: ‘Well, hold on. This isn’t 2009 of prime time hours were local content shiny and new anymore, and there’s obviously some issues here.’” As well as ongoing concerns about walled 940 hours gardens, inaccurate data, transparency and of prime time hours were local content effectiveness, another issue was recently raised 2010 when advertisers pulled away from YouTube over concerns that their ads were appearing alongside racist, sexist or terrorist-related content. The TV of the future? Local arms of Holden, Vodafone and Tourism 2011 New Zealand were among those around the world While TVNZ, MediaWorks and other to suspend their ads on the website. broadcasters use the social feed to direct “What we’re starting to see is more engagement audiences to the TV and generate plenty of back to free-to-air TV and that safety of free-to-air online discussion – typically as a result of their 2012 TV where they can guarantee audiences, and they local shows – Receptive.tv director Sam Aldred can guarantee the environment of where those suggested in an opinion piece on StopPress messages are going to take place,” Szusterman says. that they should go event further. Advertisers know the programmes they’re He sees the social feed as a new form of TV running alongside or within adhere to those 2013 because there’s huge youth engagement and a standards, and when 31 percent of the free-to-air data-rich ad network. There are also features schedule is local programming, they’ll also know it’s like Facebook Live, which Aldred recommends highly relevant and engaging to New Zealanders. using to broadcast through with the added “[Local programmes] are obviously more 2014 bonus of comments, allowing the audience to expensive to make and so they do come at a interact in real-time. premium, but they also drive a premium audience And there shouldn’t be any concerns as well,” Szusterman says. about the audience having to look down at a “…The key part of it is, which is the local part, smartphone or laptop as the new Facebook TV 2015 is that it is showcasing ourselves on the screen app means the social feed can be accessed on which, more and more, is becoming important for the big screen. free-to-air TV, and will be the success of free-to-air “The audience is in place and conveniently TV in the future.” located in the modern version of the water Some argue it’s even bigger than just the future of 2016 total cooler, the social feed. The only piece currently TV, because seeing our own local stories on screen 59 71 411 940 1162 2061 2128 6831 missing is something to watch. Perhaps, it’s and reflecting the cultural nuances of New Zealand time to watch this space,” he says. is an essential part of a healthy, functioning society.

The Media Issue 2017 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | 43 NZ MARKETING Insight Creative

BIG IDEAS

The greatest marvels of architecture didn’t simply appear one day; they were built one brick at a time. As it turns out, ideas in advertising and design are no different.

arketers are often fixated on By way of example, Giannoulis points to the big idea, on producing the work Insight Creative has done with the that one thing that’s so New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (NZSO) in wildly popular it completely recent years. shifts the sales trajectory “The client came to us and said, ‘look, the Mof a business. While a fair aspiration for an previous agency did really brilliant work and won ambitious creative to hang onto, things don’t lots of Best Awards but they just didn’t drive sales’. always pan out this way in business. So the brief we got was to put more bums Instead, Insight Creative chief executive Steven on seats.” Giannoulis tells NZ Marketing, the best ideas While it would be easy to interpret a brief like generally have an inauspicious start, often growing this as sapping all creativity out of what could’ve from what might be as simple as a conversation. been an interesting project, Insight saw potential. “The traditional approach is to start with the big “It was an opportunity for a different kind of idea and work out how to sell it into the marketer, creativity, the kind of creativity that drives results,” but really you should start at the other end and he says. “We looked at who was attending concerts question why the client approached you in the first and why, and also who wasn’t. We sought to Above: 2015 marketing campaign place,” Giannoulis says. understand perceptions and purchase barriers “It’s often a little thing, it’s just a problem they’re before we began looking at creative territories.” looking to solve. And sometimes, that question The team at Insight responded by developing might lead to a path that arrives at a big thing.” a much more targeted campaign, focusing on In research conducted for the previous edition driving consumer action by addressing needs of this magazine, various marketers expressed and perception barriers rather than positioning their frustration at the self-aggrandising nature of a creative mood. It was an approach that drove an industry more interested in winning creative immediate results. awards than truly helping the client. “NZSO had a 30 percent lift in ticket sales, and As a former client, Giannoulis has been on the many of these came from people who had never receiving end of a few such self-serving agency been before,” Giannoulis says. pitches and understands where this frustration This is not to say that the work itself was any comes from. This is part of the reason he does less aesthetically pleasing than work NZSO had everything he can to ensure that the work his previously done (in fact, the work has been a Best agency develops actually drives value for Awards finalist in both years Insight has been his clients. involved). Insight still had to produce something “I often tell my team to sell the thinking and the that matched the high artistic standards of NZSO, value in the idea, and then the design sells itself,” but did it in a way that resonated with an audience he says. that had not previously gone to a show. The “If you don’t do that, people get hung up on work was artistic without being esoteric, the wrong things, like the shade of yellow or the making it accessible to a broader audience of typeface being used. Those things are irrelevant at potential buyers. that stage, because they can all be changed.” The point Giannoulis makes here is that design For Giannoulis, good design should always should always serve a clear purpose; it should deliver results for the client. It’s not enough that always find an audience, solve a problem, answer a it looks pretty enough to cause people to ooh and question, change a perception or drive an action. It ahh. Unless it drives real commercial value, it shouldn’t wait tentatively in a museum to be seen remains inert in the world of art rather than that and admired, but rather actively offer something of design. useful to the consumer. In this case, that utility Above: 2016 marketing campaign

44 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | The Media Issue 2017 This page: 2017 marketing campaign The more things change While we can sometimes get tied up in all the changes happening in the industry, Giannoulis says there are THE VALUE LIES IN THE certain fundamentals that remain rock solid. THINKING BEHIND IT. IT’S Match the media to the audience ABOUT FINDING A GOOD “You need to work out where your audience is and what media is right for that audience,” Giannoulis IDEA THAT’S DRIVEN BY AN says. The point being that babyboomers, for instance, UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT aren’t likely to be snapchatting their smashed avo WILL DRIVE THE AUDIENCE brunches to their mates at the golf club.

TO ENGAGE. Match the media to the message Some messages are easier to deliver in some mediums, came in the shape of introducing a whole new Giannoulis says that marketers don’t want to and harder in others. This is part of the reason you don’t group of people to the symphonies of some of the hear that something might work according to the necessarily want to write a novel on a billboard. nation’s finest musicians. gut feeling of the designer, but rather expect a Insight has continued to build on this thinking rational argument outlaying why an idea is likely to Match the media to the creative idea in the following two years’ work, going even work based on a clear insight on the audience, their Giannoulis argues ideas that are finely crafted are further in the 2017 Season campaign, based on the decision drivers and how the chosen medium and more suited for books or magazines, whereas ideas learnings from the previous years, to attract an channel aligns with this. that require mood or feeling are more suited to multi- even broader audience set. “I often lean back on my client experience, when media channels, online or video. Giannoulis says the success of a campaign I was the only marketing person on the executive doesn’t come down solely to the design itself, but team. Everyone else was an accountant or a Match the media to the desired outcome rather what lies beneath. technical specialist, and I used to tell them to spend Some mediums are better for delivering certain “There are a lot of designers out there who can big money so that customers could feel this or feel results, whereas others aren’t, Giannoulis says. On a deliver design cheaply and quickly, but aesthetics that. It was as though I was talking a different website, for instance, you can click a button and make aren’t necessarily the thing that holds the key to the language, so I had to change my approach. I had to a purchase, but this instant gratification simply isn’t value,” he says. take my team on a rational journey to the idea.” possible when it comes to an outdoor ad. “The value lies in the thinking behind it. It’s It’s an approach that Giannoulis still applies about finding a good idea that’s driven by an today, and part of the reason every client meeting at Want to see if Insight Creative can help you solve your understanding of what will drive audiences Insight Creative starts with a conversation rather business problem or realise an opportunity? Get in touch to engage.” than a design solution. with the team today: [email protected]

The Media Issue 2017 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | 45 UNDER

PERMANENT CONSTRUCTION

Between 2010 and 2017, FCB won six out of a possible eight Best in Show trophies at New Zealand’s premier media agency awards show. But as Damien Venuto discovers, just because an agency’s in good shape doesn’t mean you should stop chiselling away at the structure.

Photographs by Bryce Carleton A STREAMER of hazard tape This move looks to accentuate cordoned off the door that the advantages that come with connected reception to the ground having an integrated model that floor of the agency. High-vis brings together creative, media, vests circled the space in lieu of PR and digital. The greater the statement frames and on-trend opportunity for collaboration, kicks, while the dull thud of the more likely they believe it is tools replaced the tic-a-tack of for different skillsets within the fingertips on the keyboard. business to come together to solve As he led the way to one of client problems. the few rooms on the ground “We’re always thinking about floor not impacted by the the impact a physical space commotion, FCB Media can have on how we collaborate general manager Rufus Chuter and the work we produce,” apologised in advance for the says Chuter. sound of hammering that was That said, he believes there’s a likely to serve as the background false perception in the industry percussion to the chat about that integrated agencies just the agency. happen to collaborate across The whole idea of the agency departments by default, that being under construction seemed integration automatically equates somewhat at odds with the fact the to collaboration. team had just celebrated winning “Having people in the same yet another Best in Show for NZ building doesn’t mean you’re Fire Service’s ‘Made from remains’ integrated; there’s a difference campaign and Agency of the Year between integration and co- at the annual Beacon Awards. As habitation,” he says. the Americanism goes, if it ain’t “People sometimes think that broke, don’t fix it. because we’ve got all these things But in this instance, in our building, it’s some sort of the motivation behind the gimme, but we actually work hard construction isn’t so much to to create the advantage the model repair holes in gib boards, but should offer.” rather to ensure FCB remains in tune with an evolving industry. Integrated edge A significant part of the refit FCB chief strategist David will involve increasing the number Thomason sometimes tells an Andrew 'Ribs' Coulthard shows of workable meeting rooms anecdote about attending the off his contemplation face from six to 12, giving staff more Beacons a few years back on a space to hash out ideas together. night when FCB didn’t win the

The Media Issue 2017 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | 47 feature

Agency of the Year award. As is customary at rate at awards events, but rather that a model of its clients. But digital has ripped through the these events, the presenter read out the judges’ dismissed as antiquated not too long ago has now industry, tearing some channels into fragments comments, which credited the winning agency emerged as an apparent competitive advantage. and melding others together. for doing well because it didn’t have the unique Historically, most agencies were fully This has introduced a level of complexity that advantage of FCB, which had creative and media integrated with media and creative operating not only makes it difficult for media agencies in-house. alongside each other under the same roof. But to decide which channels to use but also for “They were almost referring to it as some sort following the 1980s example of larger-than-life creative agencies to determine what to make for of award cheat that we had,” recalls Thomason. Australian media magnate Harold Mitchell, the client. And it’s also led to plenty of in- Looking at the results between 2010 and many of those creative and media departments fighting over who’s really in control. 2017, it certainly does seem as though FCB has consciously uncoupled to form independent Chuter argues this complexity is only further downloaded some secret cheat code, with the shops focused on their primary strengths. exaggerated when creative and media agencies agency landing six of eight Best in Shows at the This all made sense in an era when there was are operating in their disparate siloes, not to nation’s biggest media awards. a clearly defined set of media channels, which mention when you throw data management However, what’s interesting about Thomason’s the media agency, as objective purveyor, could and below-the-line marketing into the mix as anecdote is not that FCB has a decent conversion use in accordance with the needs and budgets well. With so many players, each with their Having people in the same building doesn’t mean you’re integrated; there’s a difference between integration and co-habitation ... We actually work hard to create the advantage the model should offer. - Rufus Chuter

own interests, circling the brief and offering their services as the panacea for all business problems, the marketer will, at best, become frustrated or, at worst, invest in an idea that doesn’t service their needs. Something’s got to give—and to the Chuter, it’s the siloes that stand in the way of collaboration. “I believe that integration [of previously siloed Jay Drew tries out the standing desk approach disciplines] is an inevitability,” he says. “It simplifies complexity, it allows connection

48 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | The Media Issue 2017 Climate control

Angela Spain

‘Good culture’ is something of cliché in advertising, often mocked for amounting to little more than colourful beanbags, impressive office décor and Friday drinks. But Angela Spain, the head of brand experience at FCB Media, argues that her understanding of culture demands more than a few freebies and aesthetic design. “Culture means different things to different people,” she says. “For us, we spend a lot of time focusing on the climate and how that relates to culture. And we make it as important as the other key parts of business such as client relationships, Silvia Kusic in the construction zone the work we produce, commercial partnerships, and future-proofing the business.” Spain says there are numerous factors that of more seamless customer journeys, which ensuring their businesses remain profitable. impact the climate of an agency, but prioritises six historically have been separated in different Even FCB operates as something of a hybrid specific areas when it comes to ensuring the culture siloes, and it sets itself up to have data at the heart model, with some clients using the completely remains positive: of the organisation.” integrated full-service option and others using 1. Physical working environment and spaces This is not to say that every agency of the the agency only on the media side. 2. The mood of the floor: are people feeling future will look like FCB, but rather that So, with this in mind, does the client, good, bad or indifferent about their jobs? Do we operations across advertising will evolve to better rather than the agency, determine the level of know? Do we ask? Do we take action? Do they service the needs of modern marketers. integration? And despite all this talk about the feel the impact of that action? “The types of integrated solution will vary, competitive edge of integrated agencies, does 3. The opportunity to create and have fun but the principle of bringing siloed disciplines the model really serve as an advantage if clients – people spend a lot of time together at work, so together to create more seamless, connected haven’t signed on for the full package? we make sure there is fun to be had both inside experiences in a simplified way for clients is Unsurprisingly, Chuter still believes there’s an and outside of work inevitable,” Chuter says. advantage in the model, even to clients that only 4. Inclusion: do we allow people to be Across all the major holding companies, we’re work with the agency on the media side. themselves (and make an effort to do so), starting to see various forms of integration “The way we work as a team and the culture do we create an environment where they feel appear. It’s the motivation behind WPP chief we create and the processes we adopt reflect comfortable to speak up and have a voice on big executive Martin Sorrell’s emphasis on what an integrated mindset that believes in the or small issues, which allows a feeling of trust? he calls horizontality, which basically requires importance of content and context coming 5. Clarity of purpose: does our team know what agency units with different competencies together. Our focus on that is taken to the is expected, what they’re being asked to do, do within the broader group to work together; it’s independent pieces of business as well as our they own that and are they empowered with the foundation upon which Havas Group’s 47 integrated clients.” support to achieve that? ‘villages’ around the world are built; and it’s This claim is certainly backed by Flight Centre 6. Recovery: every team has drops in positive infused in the thinking swirling through the general manager of marketing Jodie Burnard, culture or climate and how you recognise that Dentsu Aegis offices in New Zealand. who says FCB’s integrated approach lends and recover from it is also crucial. strategic and creative weight to campaigns. To Spain, ‘good culture’ isn’t something the A constant tinkering As an example, she points to the work the agency executives can simply hand down to staff. It’s earned There’s no colour-by-numbers guide on becoming did last December on the ‘Gifts that go places’ with enormous effort from everyone at the agency. integrated, leaving agencies with little choice campaign, which used Google data to get holiday And it can only be achieved when everyone across but to tinker with the existing system while still packages in front of customers that were looking to the business buys into it.

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purchase other Christmas gifts for loved ones. agencies because of the relative separation of the “Because they had digital, strategic and Media agencies planning of the context and the creation of the media buying teams they were able to pull content,” Chuter says. “If one of the inevitable together a creative and innovative campaign used to be order takers. areas of progression for the industry is in idea … with an extremely short lead time for a more personalised and more moment-based low budget,” she says. They were like monkeys communications that demands a bringing FCB also ensured the execution was up to together of message and moment, that can be scratch, assisting Flight Centre’s in-house studio with calculators. They hard to achieve if you have different agencies with creative ideas. working on the business.” For Chuter, campaigns such as these bring to were at the bottom life that imperative relationship between ‘content This could get complicated and context,’ a phrase he peppers all the way of the food chain, and But collaboration between the various forces at through the interview. play is always easier said than done. And even For him, every creative decision must be made made money from in the integrated model, it doesn’t come without with an eye on where it will play out. Getting challenges. either side wrong is akin to booking Adele to booking media. A common criticism levelled at FCB, play in a heavy metal club or an amateur rock for instance, is that the agency works with band to play in Spark Arena. In some ways, - Rufus Chuter competing clients across the disciplines on offer advertising is even more complex than this in the agency. analogy suggests, because you have to start by An example often raised is FCB’s assortment building Adele from scratch before you can book of partnerships in the banking and finance her to perform anywhere. industry, which sees the agency working with No matter what channel you’re dealing and potentially delivering something very Westpac on media, ANZ below the line and with, adept media thinking starts with a clear different from what was originally intended. Latitude Financial Services (which includes strategy that identifies the creative and the And to Chuter, this issue is most pronounced in Gem) above the line. media objective, and ends with both being digital, which demands greater immediacy than More recently, FCB has also been stepping delivered with desired impact and audience. any other channel. outside of the traditional remit of these Separating the creative and contextual “Social and mobile are increasingly categories, creating a TVC for ANZ and a range discussions at any stage of the process risks demanding a marriage of both content and of web content for Westpac. tearing the strategy into two separate directions context, which I think is a struggle for many Placed under the UV lights of wiley, highly

50 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | The Media Issue 2016 competitve industry investigators, these Monkeys with calculators? partnerships light up as conflicts of interest, which The biggest investment at any agency is in Trust issues is why it’s not uncommon to hear these same the people. And if the growing staff numbers investigators question how clients could possibly are anything to go by, media is an area that be happy with FCB’s Chinese Walls—particularly the executives at FCB are happy to spend a few It’s no secret that media agencies are starting to given the agency’s tendency to tout its single profit dimes on. Between 2010 and this year, FCB lose the trust of media owners and marketers. But and loss statement as an advantage. Media has grown from 35 to over 70 staff. as Trade Me head of advertising Josh Borthwick “It starts with honest conversations about the Chuter says the agency has also diversified tells us, that trust can easily be won back with nature of the services that individual clients are significantly, with the addition of a fast-content sound business practices. buying from us,” says Chuter, explaining that unit called Hive, increased data capabilities the agency takes steps to inform all new clients and the introduction of consultancy services Why do you think marketers and media of the checks and balances in place to ensure within the agency. Each of these add-ons serve owners are losing trust? What does FCB do to that confidential client information doesn’t reach to shift the agency’s focus from simply buying win your trust? competitors. media to playing a role in solving clients’ FCB are transparent with us about their fee “It goes without saying that there are a whole business problems, says Chuter. structures to clients and share more information range of information and data security measures “Media agencies used to be order takers. to increase insight to client needs. Obviously that we put in place to ensure that client They were like monkeys with calculators. they take necessary precautions like NDAs, but information is protected,” he says. They were at the bottom of the food chain, I think that level of frankness encourages us to There is also perhaps an argument to be made and made money from booking media. But be more forthcoming too. Ultimately, I think this for the evolution of our understanding of conflicts what you’re now seeing in the more successful fosters better outcomes for marketers. They of interest. As far back as 2013, Laurie Coots, then agencies is a cultural revolution toward being also understand that the value they deliver to the global CMO at TBWA/Worldwide, wrote in much more entrepreneurial and service- and clients is not just in negotiating media costs, but Ad Age that “having a client suggest that you not solution-orientated for clients. How we make working with a client brief and publisher to deliver serve another client in a non-conflicting category money today is very different to how we made innovation. For us that has been both creatively because it does not want you to ‘contribute to its it ten years ago.” driven, as seen recently with their work with us competitors' success’ is no longer acceptable”. She While many of the changes have been for NZ Fire Service, and purely data driven, as called for conflicts of interests to be resolved on a introduced to improve the agency’s handle on demonstrated by their award winning Flight Centre rational level in tune with how the industry was digital and data, Chuter warns against taking a campaign. Both those examples are a win for all evolving (particularly in the context of increased sledgehammer to the foundations good media three partners: client, agency and publisher. project work) rather than on an emotional level, agencies have always been built on. largely informed by boundaries inherited from a “It’s tempting to get carried away with the What role do you see media agencies playing previous generation. science and lose sight of the art,” warns Chuter, in the future? How will this differ from what Of course, it’s also no secret that advertising pointing out that a new piece of technology won’t we have today? happens to be a fickle industry, and Chuter automatically resolve all client problems. I think there'll be a continued push towards makes the point that unhappy clients tend to Chuter says the art of media planning transparency, driven by clients, particularly around jump ship when a partnership isn’t delivering remains as relevant as ever, particularly given programmatic media buying and data. Agencies what they expect. that advances in neuroscience have shown that can add a huge amount of value to data driven “There’s no benefit to us in this not working,” humans aren’t quite as rational as we imagine insights and how they form creative and media he says. “We are the ones who have most to ourselves to be. decisions, particularly in New Zealand where lose from those situations not going well. It’s And despite the consistent stream of demolition marketing teams are smaller and less resourced something we take incredibly seriously.” experts blogging about how technology will lead than their overseas counterparts. Programmatic He adds that while FCB does have a single P&L to the demise of media agencies, planners and provides huge efficiency to digital media buying at chief executive level, the disparate arms are all strategists, the team at FCB still seems content to and it's becoming increasingly important for accountable for separate financial statements. keep chiselling away, tinkering at the structure media agencies to understand "path to purchase". “Within FCB Media, I have oversight of a and shaping it into something that stands out and Continued fragmentation of media and technology media P&L and I have accountability for how helps its clients navigate a complicated, ever- means agencies will continue to play a key part in media is running as a business, but that feeds changing environment. helping clients navigate the best opportunities for into a master FCB P&L that we use to make wider “We don’t want to be like other media agencies their objectives. decisions about how and where we choose to or follow legacy industry models,” says Chuter. invest across the total business,” Chuter explains. “I think a big part of the success of agencies “It means we can make investment decisions to such as ours and MBM is that we’re offering support the evolution of certain capabilities from something different.” revenue that may be generated in other parts of the So even when the tools are laid down business. In that respect, while I run an operation with the completion of FCB’s renovations, that’s profitable, I still have the benefit of CEO level you’ll probably still be able to hear the faint decisions where we can make wider investment sound of hammering, if you listen carefully decisions that will benefit the total agency.” enough. feature

After just seven years in existence, MBM has won two Agency of the Year Awards and a number of high-profile clients. The agency’s core trio talks to Jihee Junn about the highs and lows of the independent media world they inhabit. Matt Bale Sean McCready Alysha Delany co-founder & co-founder & managing partner managing partner managing partner

Everything has to start somewhere, and for MBM, you only have to go back to 2010. Before all the awards glory, recognition and high- profile clients, Matt Bale was working in a Wellington office just 11 metres squared in total, while his founding partner Sean McCready was sloughing it out in Auckland, sharing his work quarters with an architect. Nowadays, there’s a bit more room for the pair to stretch out in, as evidenced by its slick and modern Kingsland headquarters. With

52 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | The Media Issue 2017 the masters and the media people were the servants, and you didn't create magic because you were being overruled. But the point of creative and media working together, I'm a believer in,” says Bale.

Speed to market When it comes to being a local independent, MBM’s core trio agree that one of the key upsides more than 50 staff across two locations, McCready conscious change to become better and smarter at is the nimbleness that comes along with it. With and managing partner Alysha Delany run MBM’s digital and data, and that's certainly accelerated the absence of overseas parent companies and operations in Auckland, while Bale still bases growth in that part of the business,” says McCready. cumbersome decision-making procedures, things himself down in the country’s capital. at MBM have the ability to move relatively fast. Recalling MBM’s early years, McCready Gongs, they've had a few “The three of us can make decisions really and Bale describe the agency’s fast and furious Having expanded from three to 13 staff members quickly on things like new staff, services ascension with a tinge of both fondness and by 2013, the agency had grown in stature and and offerings. We can decide that pretty exhaustion. work. But it was 2014 that really put MBM on quickly between ourselves and not have to get “It was pretty full on. But personally, I really the map as it took out Agency of the Year at the permission from overseas,” says McCready. enjoyed that period,” says McCready, who first inaugural Beacon Awards. And if that wasn’t “It’s speed to market. We can spot met Bale when the two worked at Saatchi & enough for the four-year old independent, 2015 opportunities and jump on them, or if there are Saatchi in the 1990s. saw it take home the coveted prize for the second issues with a client servicing issue, we can fix “It was lot of hard work and a lot of long hours, year running. that pretty quickly too. We also have the freedom but it was quite adrenalising. Luckily it all went “I think our awards success comes from two to experiment with new products, services and really well and the momentum came pretty early.” areas,” explains McCready. “The first is creative even software, so we're not tied into what the But building that momentum was no easy feat, and media collaboration, like with Whittaker’s group might be offering through its network. We with the duo working their way up by doing what and Griffins. The second is from experimenting can develop our own solutions.” they did best: ruthlessly prioritising the projects and pushing into digital and data, like we have A prime example of this efficiency to market that played to their strengths. with our work for Fly Buys and Slingshot. lies in MBM’s analytics and data science division, “Our background meant we were really strong “As an independent company, one of the things which the trio insist was done “our own way with at strategy, channel planning and the creative you have to be good at is collaborating. Many of our own staff developing our own products.” media aspect of digital, and I've also always had a our awards have come from working closely with Established to help clients understand the passion for social,” recalls Bale. the creatives at creative agencies,” he says. performance of their digital properties, the “So for the first while, we really just focused On this point, Bale concurs, and adds that analytics practice was formally set up in April on that because that's where our strengths were. although MBM functions as a separate media last year. But it took more than 18 months of It was only once we got established that we agency, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to work building up a number of case studies and identified that to take the next step, we needed separate content and context, something which doing consistent work for clients for MBM to expertise in other areas because otherwise we'd he and FCB Media’s Rufus Chuter appear to have become certified Google Analytics service and be confined.” in common (see feature page 46). sales partners, which Delany says makes the To achieve that objective, the pair brought in “I’m a believer that you create magic when agency one of just three CCC agencies to hold Delany from SparkPHD in 2013. Having helped creative and media are aligned and have a single that capability. establish PHDiQ during her time there, Delany vision. Integrated is one way of achieving that, as “I think it's fair to say that as an agency, we've was operating at the forefront of digital marketing long as both partners are equal in terms of their been pretty interested in making sure we're in New Zealand at the time. contribution at the table, because I've also lived in data and insight driven. So having a data and “When we brought Alysha on, we made a an integrated environment where the creatives were analytics business was just a natural extension

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of that,” she says. brand over the years and it’s taken time, whereas and companies such as IBM handing some of “Once we got that [Google Analytics] it's not such an issue anymore because people its media planning and buying capabilities over certification, we then formalised it so that we’ve understand what our culture's like and what we to its AI engine, Watson, questions have been now got a team of people performing functional offer is a point of difference." raised as to whether AI will one day make media analytics as well as quite advanced data science “We're not really showy or aggressive people,” agencies obsolete. and attribution projects.” he says. “We're reasonably moderate, which “AI is only as intelligent as the data that’s put MBM’s nimbleness also comes through in doesn't sound very exciting, but we're down to into it,” says Delany. “You can automate media its openness and speed in using new media earth. We give our staff the opportunity to have a planning or buying, but at the same time, unless methods, such as its adoption of Adshel’s latest reasonable work-life balance.” someone is providing the insight to direct it, it’s digital roll-out, Adshel Live, as well as the only as good as the data it gets to work with.” company’s latest suite of targeting tools. Playing to the audience “Even though you’ve got machines doing “They’ve always been quick to adopt more With the media world operating in a constant a lot of the grunt work, there still needs to be innovative ideas and support the new products state of flux, agencies are being forced to adapt the interpretation and strategic input,” adds that we’re bringing to market,” says Ben Gibb, to new circumstances much more regularly McCready. “But there’s always going to be a role sales and marketing director at Adshel. and at much greater speed. Keeping the agency for client service, trying to understand what the “They’ve really embraced the flexibility [of model relevant to the changing needs of clients client’s issues are and finding a solution for those.” Adshel Live] and seen the opportunity for a digital is one of the biggest issues in the industry today, Despite the infringing threat of in-house and data-led approach for out-of-home. Last year, particularly with a growing number of brands and automation, the survival of media agencies they used Adshel Immerse where we customise taking things in-house. bus shelters to a particular brief. We did a great “There's no doubt it's happening overseas one [with MBM] recently for Eta's Uppercut chips and to a certain degree, with larger clients over to try and give customers an experience of what here. But our view is that because New Zealand At the end of the day, the new flavours are like." is relatively small, finding the skilled staff to take digital in-house is probably going to be a independent is literally A battle of perception challenge,” says McCready. While MBM comes across as a well-oiled “I think there'll always be a role for expert that. It's just us, and machine, being independent hasn’t always been external advice to play in that space. Whether such a smooth ride. Back in 2010 when Bale and the role of an agency will see it do less of the that comes with a real McCready took the leap of starting their own actual physical doing and more of the consulting company, the pair found themselves battling on the strategic approach, that might be a change sense of we're looking with being newcomers to the game. that will have to happen for some clients.” “It takes time to get credibility in the market, “We’re constantly being used to provide after all the people who so it took about three or four years to start training, knowledge and cross pollination of building that up,” McCready recalls. “That's a thinking,” adds Bale. “If you spend all day just have chosen to work downside of independence since you don't have in one sector, you quickly lose touch with what's an automatic feed of work coming your way. You happening in other places, and that’s where with us, because there don't have a global network providing global agencies are great in terms of taking something clients. So you've basically got to find all your you're seeing in one area and applying it to isn't a mystery company own business." another.” “We also don't have permission from a parent This steadfast belief in the value of external parachute aspect to it. company to, for example, run at different advice also comes through in MBM’s attitude profitability levels,” adds Bale. “At the end of the towards artificial intelligence. With automation – Matt Bale day, independent is literally that. It's just us, and overhauling the nature of the wider work force that comes with a real sense of we're looking after all the people who have chosen to work with us, because there isn't a mystery company parachute aspect to it.” While MBM’s Wellington and Auckland offices now boast a range of experienced staff in both senior and junior positions, getting talent on board hasn’t always been the easiest as an independent either. “There's a bit of a [perception] battle in terms whether you can offer career advancement opportunities, versus a network that is a lot bigger as a company and can offer international opportunities as well,” says McCready. “We've had to build up our employment

54 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | The Media Issue 2016 An industry tainted?

On MBM’s position on transparency… “What we charge clients at the bottom of an invoice is what we're paid. Our policy is not to take any rebates from publishers that are not declared to clients, so for us, it's not an issue to be transparent in that regard. You're not an agent if you're not doing the best for your clients. As soon as you have an arrangement with a media publisher that says you'll be provided special benefits...then you're arguably not doing the best job for that client because your recommendations are already biased.” – McCready

“Transparency's always been a personal ethics thing for all three of us. We probably haven't been as vocal about it as we should have been, because it is a big deal, and it's an issue for me personally. I think I feel almost tarred by that brush of people saying that we don’t have the client’s interests at heart or that we’re misusing or misrepresenting how money is being spent.“ - Delany promises a more assured future than some are certainly looking up with a handful of client On its effects on the industry… observers predict. Yet that survival hinges on wins over the past year, like the Green Party and “The area is an issue for us because it's an assumption that agencies will be able to Columbus Coffee, and a recent spate of work for happening in the market. When the UK's trade change and adapt, doing more types of work existing ones, like Fly Buys and TAB (on the flip body tells the public that it doesn't believe more often. And this comprehensive work side, it's recently lost Fisher & Paykel). media agencies have the best interests of their method, which is set to future-proof agencies, In addition, MBM's revenue has also been clients at heart anymore, that's a real worry for already translates into MBM’s approach with its following an upward trend, with the agency anyone in that space. If you haven't got that, clients today, going above and beyond the typical reporting 79 percent growth over the last two then there isn't an industry anymore. It worries remit of a media agency with the work it’s been years. It's also been overinvesting in new and me that our industry gets tainted.” - Bale doing for Loyalty NZ. developing areas with the view that revenue “They've really adopted the mantra of being will follow. On what needs to be done… a business partner. They haven't just stuck to Given its independent heritage, its alignment “I think we all have a responsibility, and clients their media buying. They're constantly exploring with challenger brands continues to remain need to stop being complicit in this too. opportunities and bringing us new areas to strong. But if there’s one thing that might be Clients who don't believe their agency is being explore,” says Hamish Mitchell, head of strategy different in the future, it’s that we might not be transparent should be asking questions from at Loyalty NZ. calling it a media agency at all. them and getting the right answers. There are a “A lot of the key things that we've been “We see media agencies evolving into almost lot of different ways agencies make money...and exploring have been born out of our relationship like an audience agency where, because of the data that's okay as long as the client understands with the team at MBM. They're very proactive analytics, it's not just about where the eyeballs the cost of doing business.” - Delany in terms of connecting us with other potential are, but where do different types of audiences partners and providers in the market to explore exist and where can you engage them,” says Bale. new opportunities. They work really well with “The media agency's role will be much more our other partners and quite often act as the pinned to audience, so one-to-one in scale, than centrepin or link,” he says. it is today where it's still largely defined by space When it comes to MBM’s own future, things and time.”

The Media Issue 2016 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | 55 opinion

IN THE DOCK The industry has been put on trial for the crime of theft, and Alex Lawson believes time is running out to prove its innocence (and value to society).

TIM WU, in his Wired article ‘The Crisis offer no additional content in return. demands some type of value exchange of Attention Theft, Ads That Steal If you’ve paid for it already do you and is increasingly choosy about Your Time for Nothing in Return’, deserve to be taxed again? the type of advertising that they will argues the advertising industry should Wu may have watched Minority allow through their devices, we are be locked up. Our crime? Attention Report one too many times, but we committing marketing suicide by theft, larceny on a daily basis. should indeed be asking ourselves: ignoring the Attention Economy. Wu asserts that advertisements Are we guilty of attentional theft and The Attention Economy in in places that garner attention but what is the potential impact on our marketing represents an exchange offer no perceivable value exchange client’s brand? between advertiser and audience are not only unethical and criminal, There is no denying that our providing a tangible benefit. This is but detrimental to our mental health job is to garner the attention of those most easily appreciated on channels and even impinge on our free will. that otherwise wouldn’t give it to us. such as FTA TV, news websites, Gas station TVs, airline seatback Let’s face it, not many folk actively YouTube and so on. These are places TVs, shopping malls and other forced look forward to the ad break, go where you’re receiving content viewing zones are targeted by Wu with on billboard tours or tune into a in return for accepting exposure us, the evil marketing industry, being radio station thinking, “I wish this to the advertising message, thus the chief villain of this Orwellian tale song would end so they can play me commoditising your attention. of mind control. some ads!” However, unlike Wu, I believe I would actually extend Wu’s In a society that is increasingly that there are four types, not one, definition to advertisements within able to avoid, switch off or just plain of attentional value exchanges in places that you have initially paid for. block our ads, can we afford not the economy with each providing a For instance, magazines, cinema and to offer something in return? With distinct, if not always obvious, value paid TV that on the surface appear to a core audience that consistently to the consumer.

56 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | The Media Issue 2017 1 The Content Exchange 3 The Social Exchange Ok, let’s start with the one that Wu isn’t arguing against as In recent years, various cities around the world have it’s the cornerstone of the Attention Economy. The basic opted for a clean space movement and removed billboards. principle of this is watch, look at or hear this ad and you’ll In Sao Paulo, it helped expose levels of abuse and poverty get something you value in return such as the TV show, that were previously, literally, covered by billboards. news article or song. Easy. Taking down the ads from London’s Trocadero center allowed an impressive example of period architecture to be seen and appreciated again. But is that the case everywhere? Go look at a number of buildings that currently hold billboards The Entertainment Exchange in Auckland. Sleek digital screens, well-shaped 2 static executions such as the North Western motorway Over the years there have been many wonderful ad water tower, or fun Phantom picture frame sites that add campaigns that have made us smile, laugh, cry and to the urban environment rather than detract many other emotions. From the Anchor butter family to – a visual value exchange, raising our social Toyota’s Bugger, ASB’s Goldstein, Mitre 10’s Sandpit Kids environment for the better. or Steinlager’s Harvey Keitel talking up us Kiwis, these And what about campaigns for social good? Do little pieces of genius pop up repeatedly. Today, Samsung’s we think that there is no value in a campaign for VR inspired Ostrich and tales of kids’ sporting glory from homelessness, domestic violence or animal abuse because Lotto are warming the cockles of my heart. it’s placed in a forced viewing environment with no My point here is that if we have to experience the ads tangible content exchange associated? in the first place, regardless of placement or format, then they can still create a value exchange by entertaining us, creating a little moment of magic in what is otherwise a forced transaction. 4 The Desire Exchange The main purpose of advertising is to inform, sell or create a desire for something, be that a product, service, brand or outcome. Regardless of your opinion as to the ethics of In a society that is this practice, many have bought something they now love or value because they saw it on an ad. I’ve done it myself without regret. increasingly able to avoid, The key here is finding the ways to put the right products or services in front of the right people at the switch off or just plain block right time to make this value exchange worthwhile to the end viewer. With our current technology and targeting tools, we should be able to get this right most of the time. our ads, can we afford not to With incoming advancements in mass channels from programmatic TV to audience tracking out-of-home, or Genius based online offerings rich in data, this should offer something in return? only continue to improve.

We ignore these four value elements of the Attention Economy at our peril. If our ads provide no content in return, don’t entertain, make a difference in our physical or mental environment or just don’t offer us anything that we may desire at that time, then we are failing our clients, ourselves and the audiences we profess to know so well. There will be more ad-blockers, streets littered with billboards torn down by the baying mob and potential consumers steadfastly refusing to direct their gaze away from their phones to where we desire. Wu’s dystopian future will come to pass and we will have only ourselves to blame.

Alex Lawson is the general manger of Carat NZ, part of the Dentsu Aegis Network.

The Media Issue 2017 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | 57 interview

HORSE’S MOUTH Getting into the methodology behind research can sometimes be quite a specialist area. I firmly believe education of clients is really important.

LOUISE BOND PHD On clients taking greater ownership One thing that’s increasingly happening in the As the chief executive of one of the biggest media agencies in the country and as chair of agency space is that the technology is actually set the Commercial Communications Council, PHD’s Louise Bond is at the forefront of all up in the client name, as opposed to the agency the major issues facing media agencies in 2017. And at time when marketers are taking name. The benefit of that from a client perspective increasing chunks of their media in-house and transparency issues are blighting the is that it ensures the client owns the infrastructure reputation of the industry, she certainly has her hands full. and has greater visibility. In theory, there should be the same visibility if it’s set up on the agency side, but it changes the mindset a bit. More often On strategic objectivity than not, the technology still sits with the agency The strategy capability that sits over everything because they’re the custodians of actually running in terms of understanding a business problem it. But I think the principle lends itself to better is becoming really important. If you ask a social transparency and better due diligence of the specialist what the answer is, they’re going to say relationship. When we first got into the digital social; if you ask an SEM specialist, they’re going to space, we didn’t even think about things like that. say SEM. So you need that broader smart strategy Nobody thought about what it meant if, down the along with having strong digital and tech capabilities. track, a client wanted to take something in-house if it was all tangled up in a single account with an On kickbacks and rebates agency. Now, clients are thinking about technology We need to keep an eye on it. Without a doubt, infrastructure and what sits where. We’re all just there have been scandals globally, but we’ve never becoming more sophisticated and clearer about had one locally. However, agencies and marketers what good practice looks like. need to have good business practice, due diligence, be asking the right questions and having the right On questionable digital metrics level of transparency in regard to how agencies are There has been a lot of press dedicated to being paid. It’s important to find out what costs this. There have been areas, particularly there are within the media supply chain. There’s a related to Facebook, where we’ve seen a lot of responsibility from the media agency perspective misunderstanding around the metrics presented. I to be transparent about how they make money, think agencies and clients need to become better at but increasingly, marketers also need to be well understanding what the metrics actually say. What educated in terms of where the hidden costs lie. are you looking at? How does it relate to that other piece of data that I have over here? More often than On the complicated media supply chain not, there are multiple bits of metrics that you are I think agencies can play a role in the education actually looking at. And if you do happen to spot process. If you think about something like the an inconsistency between two sources of data, then media supply chain in digital or programmatic, you need to ask why. I don’t think it’s a question marketers need to understand that there are tech of whether we can trust the metrics or not, but I On the biggest issue facing media costs along the way. They’re perfectly legitimate think there is potentially misinformation and there There are multiple ways you could approach this costs, but the clients should know what happens has been some misrepresentation. We have to put question, but I’ll focus on one thing in particular. to every dollar they put in before the ad is even processes in place, so that we can trust the metrics. We all know that what we do is becoming more served. Agencies have an obligation to talk to From our perspective, all our digital metrics and more complex every day. As a consequence of clients about these things, and clients need to are third-party verified via Moat or Integral Ad that, the resource and talent we’ll need is going to engage in these discussions. Science or another third-party auditor. That’s the be quite different in the future. Everyone’s talking same due diligence we use for all other media, and about tech, data and marketing sciences … and On ensuring greater transparency it will just become best practice for digital. these disciplines will become core competencies. All marketers should have good visibility about how They’re no longer nice things to have around the their money is being spent. I think the transparency On measuring the right thing outside. They’re now core to agencies. What’s question is perfectly reasonable, but it is happening There’s a difference between proxy metrics [such really hard about that is that we are a service across all sorts of areas. Digital metrics, research as likes, views or shares] and business metrics. industry and that whole kind of client ethos that methodology, social listening tools, attribution At the end of the day, everything needs to line up many of us who have been in the industry get and modelling, the list goes on. When you talk about with the business metrics. I’m not saying that some understand isn’t as familiar to the sophisticated transparency at a media agency level, it can touch on proxy metrics aren’t valuable – of course they are specialist group of people who haven’t come out of a lot of stuff. That’s where it gets quite complex and – but we have to ladder any metrics we use up to a that environment. it again really comes down to that education piece. business outcome.

58 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | The Media Issue 2017 On Facebook and Google giving auditors a peek speed, and it suits a certain type of personality. As a consequence of the broader conversation [on That said, the way we work in advertising is On the rebrand of CAANZ to the Commercial digital transparency], the likes of Facebook and evolving a bit. Here at PHD, for instance, we have Communications Council (CCC) Google have realised the importance of ensuring a wellness programme which we didn’t do ten The organisation has been CAANZ for 17 years. that their metrics can stand up to scrutiny. They’re years ago. Another example of this would be the The brand needed a refresh to reflect the industry. becoming more collaborative with the third- introduction of a mindfulness programme. It’s not Regardless of what discipline within the spectrum party auditors, and they’re opening themselves for everyone. Whether people adhere to it is up to of agencies you’re in, it’s about communications up slightly more for better depth of verification them. But it’s important to create that framework. that deliver commercial results for clients and to be done. Facebook is now starting to work We’re also re-introducing our email policy that that’s all captured in the new name. with Nielsen. Those things have happened as encourages staff not to email after 6.30pm unless a consequence of the conversations we’ve been it’s absolutely urgent. When we launched it 18 On criticism of the CCC having [in the industry]. Once again, it’s going to months ago, it was so well received. But then we The thing about the Comms Council is that it’s lead to better business practices. all slipped into business pitches and forgot. actually a small organisation. It’s five people. I Now, we’ve decided to reintroduce it. It’s think it’s very easy to be judgmental and critical On walled gardens just about trying to create those boundaries of all the things an organisation may not do, but I think it’s unlikely they’ll come down. If you for people. Businesses and agencies have a I think you’ve also got to look at all the things look at Facebook, it’s a tech company more so responsibility for setting up a framework that they are doing and see some of the things that than a social media company. And Google’s depth allows people to switch off. In any industry, are valuable to the industry. I personally think of capability and offering to the market is so people have to be able to have some downtime. the Comms Council has done a great job of huge and diverse now that media is only a small If a client comes to us at 5.30pm on a Friday its professional development and education part of what they do. Regardless of whether it’s afternoon and tells us that they need something in programmes. They run a great foundation of right or wrong, they have a huge amount of user market by Monday morning, then we have to do advertising courses, they were instrumental in data that has to be managed properly. They are it because we’re in the service industry. But that bringing Peter Field to New Zealand and they run the custodians of this [information], and as a should be the exception. great strategy and media labs. If you think of the consequence, I don’t think those walled gardens number of things they do across the year from a are going to come down anytime soon. On the younger generation driving change professional development perspective, it’s actually When I joined the industry, I was meek, quiet and substantial. We also have key events in the Beacon On Facebook and Google losing their sheen polite. But now you have a generation coming in and Axis Awards, which are pillars of our industry Without a doubt, Google and Facebook are going that has a much stronger voice. They help facilitate in terms of celebrating the work we do. The one to continue to be very important. It comes back to the changes taking place. We want to hear what thing we’ve done over the last three years is become the diversity of their businesses. They’ve got very they have to say because they’re the future of our really clear about what the Comms Council should clear differentiating propositions in market and business. You can’t always fix everything, but it’s do in terms of promoting our industry and its they’re tech companies. That said, the industry about having the conversation and considering contributions to the economy, business and society. at large and marketers recognise what the role what we could change. It’s about being open- So with this in mind, I actually think the Comms of channels are, and that Facebook and Google minded, really. Council contributes a lot. Are there areas for don’t answer every question. I think we will see improvement? Of course. Are there projects they a much better balance of the role other channels On clients taking media in-house should take on? Probably. But it’s a not-for-profit have to play in the broader communications mix. I think media agencies will always have an organisation with five people, so let’s be realistic Television is a prime example of having important role in terms of strategy and creative about what can and can’t be delivered. suffered quite a lot for not being new and shiny. thinking. Clients will take stuff in-house, and we The reality is mass-reach TV remains a very have to be flexible and think about how we can On what a media agency of the future looks like powerful medium. Don’t you think it’s interesting construct our services to continue to meet client Strategy and creativity will be hugely important that globally, all the major tech companies needs. For some businesses it makes sense, like regardless of what the framework of an agency advertise on TV? We’re heading towards an big retailers having production facilities or big might be in the future. Whether we have media environment where we won’t leap to the newest corporates that want a handle on their own data. agencies that are still media agencies or creative shiniest thing just because it’s new and shiny. I’m The one thing I would say [about clients taking agencies that are still creative agencies, those not saying we shouldn’t use these things, because media in-house] is that media is not their core fundamental human capabilities will still be if they’re right for the problem we’re solving, then capability and they really need focus on what their enormously important. Without a shadow of doubt, we definitely should. But there should be a bit core business is. Media is our core business – it’s artificial intelligence will touch the landscape. more of a balance. what we do, and I think that’s always going to For instance, will we all have our own artificially be the fundamental business. We already work intelligent PA that makes decisions for us and On younger staff being overworked with clients that have bits and pieces of media in- determines what brands we choose? That will Lots of categories work hard, but I think the house, but that doesn’t mean they don’t value our probably be some part of our future, and it’s all very distinguishing thing about media is that it’s quite contribution. And I think that when clients have exciting when you think of the constantly changing fast paced. Sometimes we might get annual briefs media in-house, we have to look at what role we framework. There will be so much that’s automated where we have six weeks to plan, but more often can play given that we touch multiple categories in the future, but it won’t take away from the need than not that’s not the reality of the business and have a depth of specialist capabilities. I think for smart thinkers, creativity and the fact that we world and client challenges. It’s a constant there’s still a lot we can do. still want to engage with people.

The Media Issue 2017 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | 59 NZ MARKETING Y&R Media

PROGRAMMATIC KOOL-AID As an industry, focusing on commoditised technology as a competitive advantage is the fastest way to the bottom. What we’ve collectively established is that automated trading desks create low costs for low-value impressions, and that without human intervention these platforms can become a marketing minefield. Well done. Programmatic buying is only as strong as the people manning the controls and at the moment we’re on collective cruise control as marketers drive agency costs down for a specialism that takes hours to deliver. This in turn has led to issues with agency transparency.

The industry has lost sight of the main challenge issues such as viewability and safety that have first, then be dispersed through this new media we face in this new infinite media environment; arisen with this new approach have shifted the channel of hyper-connected people. how to get consumers’ attention and influence focus from media agencies’ greatest asset - their This new approach to media is evident in human behaviour. people. Smart media people with the aid of tech/ Y&R’s recent campaigns for Vodafone VNZMAs, The airline industry recently faced similar data are what drive business results and we need Burger King’s McWhopper and Actual challenges. The brands now winning the war to bring the attention back to what’s driving the Reality for Jaguar which offered a real driving are those such as Air New Zealand and Emirates success - people. experience to those expecting a simulation. that chose to focus on value over price. With agencies at a cross roads, we believe NEW WORLD CAMPAIGN SUCCESS IS HINGED ON there is no better time to be in the media IT IS TIME TO REDEFINE THE VALUE OF A UNLOCKING PEOPLE AS BROADCASTERS industry. We’re moving forwards and focussing MEDIA AGENCY In today’s media environment where everyone on the real value that we can deliver for clients; Whilst there is a role for programmatic buying and everything is fighting for your attention, smarter thinking to capture human attention as a function of digital implementation, it is still people have become the most valuable media and drive better business results. just a tactic to reach people. We need to drive channel. No matter how many impressions you the conversation upstream. When you work in buy, brands and campaigns that are winning the a commoditised category the real question we fight for attention are those that demand people’s should be asking ourselves is, what value are we attention; ideas and media strategies that are Contact: Paul Hamilton offering our clients? social by design, relevant, impactful and unable Client Service Director - Media The micro-focus on digital cost efficiency and to be ignored. Designed to drive engagement [email protected]

60 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | The Media Issue 2017 feature

With viewability rates indicator is used for social decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures and as low as 40 percent on the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the supposedly trustworthy social processes it is intended to monitor.” Campbell used the example of a city’s crime rate to local sites, rampant ad show that a reduction in the overall number of crimes fraud costing marketers recorded doesn’t necessarily indicate an improved social environment but instead serves to a reflect the billions and ads being impact of procedural changes introduced to make served alongside the number look better. Police may, for instance, objectionable content, downgrade the seriousness of certain crimes or change the rules as to what should be reported. Damien Venuto looks The point Campbell makes is that when at digital advertising’s performance is measured solely from a quantitative perspective, it leads to gaming of the system. growing PR problem – Participants find ways to accentuate the metric and why it isn’t always being measured, delivering what appears to be a good result on the surface. living up to the promise Businesses disrupted by quants—or big it arrived with. data—are particularly prone to such gaming of the system. When metrics become an indicator of success, players in the game start finding ways to deliver the desired results without much hen the victims of famed consideration of the overall performance. imposter Christian The agency pitch Gerhartsreiter were asked One game leads to another how they could fall for the As big data has disrupted advertising, we’ve seen cycle has dropped man’s claim that he was various forms of gaming the system play out across Wa member of the illustrious Rockefeller family, the industry. The first and perhaps most rudimentary the response was generally some variation of example would be the example of selling likes online. from around five ‘because that’s what he told me’. The contact lenses The moment entrepreneurial types realised that given to us by hindsight make this rationale seem social media likes were a commodity some brands years to three ridiculous now, but it’s a reminder that the default and online influencers were willing to pay for, setting for humans is one of trust. packages offering likes popped up online. It didn’t years and a big Something very similar has happened in digital take long for brands to cotton onto the fact that advertising. Some years back, search and display millions of likes were little more than a vanity metric, introduced themselves as a pair of sophisticated particularly useless when fake. Attempts to game the reason for this is gentlemen, who had arrived to change things digital system certainly don’t end there. around town. They came bearing briefcases filled Part of the reason why Google constantly to maximise cost with the finest assortment of tools, designed to cut updates its algorithms is to stay a step ahead of away the fluff and give marketers greater efficiency. SEO consultants trying to take shortcuts to reach effectiveness or Buoyed by well-crafted press releases, news the top of Google rankings. Glen Maguire, the of their arrival travelled quickly and before long founder of SEO firm Clickthrough, says that one every advertising journalist was writing about the of the major challenges he faces when picking up cost efficiency. benefits of targeting customers through digital. a new client is unravelling all the dodgy backlinks At first, few mistrusted the claims that were bought by “lazy optimisers” looking for a quick - John Montgomery being made. And why would they? Digital was, after buck from a digitally naïve business owner. While all, presented as the first truly measurable media this approach works in the short-term, Google across the world mimic human behaviour and channel. Every action could, in theory at least, be eventually cottons on and penalises the client’s illicitly funnel billions of dollars of ad spend traced as online users wandered from one page to website. And by that stage, the SEO company into their coffers every year. The ‘Bot Base Line’ the next, providing valuable data perfectly suited for has likely moved on to its next mark, leaving the report published by the Association of National application to online marketing campaigns. Believing business owner with the mess. Advertisers (ANA) in the United States recently the hype was almost the rational thing to do. However, buying links and likes remains found that online ad fraud is likely to cost What no one anticipated, however, was the only a minuscule part of the broader picture. advertisers an estimated US$6.5 billion in 2017. This impact Campbell’s Law would have on the industry. Undoubtedly, the most successful and intricate is down from US$7.2 billion lost in 2016 but make In his 1979 paper titled ‘Assessing the Impact of form of gaming the system is found in the black no mistake, the fraudsters are only becoming more Planned Social Change’, social scientist Donald market ad fraud industry. ingenious and today’s bots have become much better Campbell argued “the more any quantitative social Bots created by sophisticated criminal networks at mimicking human traffic. Much of the same

62 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | The Media Issue 2016 technology that powers AI interfaces and digital advertising is often sold. Fraudsters have essentially One place where this is always apparent is when algorithms is now also being used by criminals to taken advantage of the industry’s almost singular marketers pitch their media business, he says. make their bots look and smell a lot like human obsession with this metric and extracted illicit value “The agency pitch cycle has dropped from clickers. With this in mind, it’ll be interesting to see out of it. But the CPM model hasn’t only inspired around five years to three years and a big reason if that US$6.5 billion estimate isn’t perhaps adjusted action from fraudsters; in fact, it has directly for this is to maximise cost effectiveness or cost at the end of the year, by which time investigators influenced the way business is done, websites are efficiency,” he says. would’ve unravelled some of the more elaborate made and how marketers choose their partners. “Whenever we have a new pitch, there’s a schemes syphoning away ad dollars right now. GroupM global executive vice president of brand requirement to lower the CPMs and we then have safety John Montgomery goes even further, saying to go to our media partners and negotiate very The domino effect in an interview with NZ Marketing that at least hard to bring the costs down. When those pitches Part of the reason the ad fraud syndicates have been some of the transparency issues blighting digital happen in a category, like a big consumer group, so successful is due to the CPM (cost per advertising are attributable to “slavishly following and one advertiser does that, the other advertisers 1,000 impressions) model upon which online a low-cost principle and measuring on CPMs”. often follow in order to make sure their pricing is

Vanishing spend

Starting budget Agency commission Platform tax Brand safety/viewability fees Trading desk fees Final budget

20%

if an 20% agency is involved 10% and $100 $80 outsources remaining the buy $64 remaining 20% to spend to spend on on media media $58 $46 remaining to spend on media

planned budget $46 to spend on by brand actual media

Acquire Online programmatic director Zane Furtado So negotiable, in fact, that Furtado compares and the potential for shadiness at every stage, says that once a proposed media spend of $100 the trading desk fees to stock brokerage, saying some businesses are starting to take their enters the supply chain, it’s clipped numerous times that an experienced trader could easily negotiate programmatic buying in-house. But this is easier before any ads are served. Various providers take a a commission of over 30 percent at this step (the said than done and usually only recommended for cut of commission along each step. And as is always standard rate is around 15 percent). bigger organisations with the capacity to dedicate the case with commission, the rates are negotiable. Given the complexity of the media supply chain specialised staff to the task.

The Media Issue 2016 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | 63 feature

competitive as possible.” a web user. Montgomery says this then has a knock-on effect But this peace of mind comes with a price tag the in that publishers are forced to introduce new ad marketer is required to pay. The services offered by zones to make up the loss in advertising revenue. At these providers are added to the already-complex best, this creates an annoying ad-heavy experience digital media supply chain and marketers can for the users or, at worst, it leads to ads being served then choose whether or not they’re willing to on sections of a website never seen by human eyes. pay the commission fees attached to having their To show how far the CPM game can be impressions guaranteed as viewable. pushed, Montgomery and his team recently ran What is somewhat unusual about this is that an experiment in which they constructed a faux marketers are essentially footing the bill for a campaign entirely out of invalid or unviewable ads. problem on the media owner side. And what “You can take your CPMs down to zero if you further complicates the matter is that there’s want to but don’t expect your ad to be seen,” he says. still little in the way of third-party measurement When you extend this issue across commercial when it comes to the online duopoly of Google and categories over a number of years, you end up Facebook (and, increasingly, Snapchat). with what has today manifested as a viewability In all other media channels (except perhaps crisis serious enough for the IAB New Zealand to outdoor), media owners pay for at least some dedicate an entire event to it in February. independent reporting of their viewership or The general consensus among the panellists was readership numbers, whereas the viewership that it was important for all the players in digital and usage numbers for the big international marketing to accept the IAB’s oft-ridiculed standard sites generally come directly from those big that an ad can only be considered viewed if 50 international sites. percent of the pixels are viewable for a duration of To put this into context, imagine the industry one second in display or two seconds for video. uproar if, for instance, the magazine or television At the time, Moat partner manager Dave industry suddenly told marketers that they would Imagine paying Goodfellow conceded the standard might be lax now be reporting their own numbers and that but added that marketers can always ask more of marketers would have to pay Comscore to ensure TVNZ to air your their providers. the ads were actually airing in the right place. “The important thing is to find a baseline that So why the double standard? Why are digital makes it possible for us all to work together,” providers allowed to mark their own homework TVCs and they Goodfellow said. “If there are people who want to while other media owners chip in to pay the bill go beyond that baseline and have a better quality for independent analysis? Part of it is down to come back to audience, then they should be able to do that.” momentum. Marketers and agencies seem willing The point here is that IAB’s standard is not an to forgo certainty to be on these digital channels you, saying objective, but rather a minimum requirement to simply because they are so popular. And you only ensure all providers are playing by the same rules have to look at recent growth in revenue to see this in the local market. ‘crisis’ isn’t harming Google or Facebook (at least that they only What makes the viewability issue so imperative not yet). Also, it happens to be a little more difficult is that the problem is rampant across both local and to measure digital audiences than anticipated. managed to air international sites. So pervasive is the problem that “It’s tricky because there will always be ANZ head of digital marketing David Gascoigne variations, even from third-party suppliers,” says 40 percent of says he’s seen viewability rates as low as 40 percent Gascoigne. “We see variances in Google Analytics on some of New Zealand’s biggest websites. and Adobe Analytics numbers even with the same “Imagine paying TVNZ to air your TVCs and code being applied to the same pages and actions them but they’re they come back to you, saying that they only across the site. [It’s] all down to the way in which managed to air 40 percent of them but they’re still these two vendors collect the data.” still charging charging you 100 percent – it makes no sense at The difficulty of the task aside, arguably the all,” Gascoigne says. most obvious reason we don’t have independently provided numbers is that the likes of Facebook, you 100 percent Paying for peace of mind Google and Snapchat have been resistant to Whenever there’s a mess, you’ll have someone allowing third-party verification of their audiences, – it makes no willing to clean it—at a price, of course. And when preferring to keep their cards very close to their it comes to the viewability debacle, advertisers have chests. And a few prominent voices across the sense at all. a number of cleaning agents at their disposal. industry, Montgomery’s among them, have raised Moat, Integral Ad Science (IAS) and Comscore the opinion that this breeds mistrust. all offer tools that gauge viewability, giving “When there isn’t third-party measurement - David Gascoigne advertisers a semblance of security that their ads allowed on a platform like Facebook, Snapchat are at least making it into the peripheral vision of and most of Google’s properties, there’s always a

64 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | The Media Issue 2016 concern about what’s going on that we don’t know and brand safety, you’ll find a lot of businesses are about,” says Montgomery. turning and running, and that’s really the feeling That said, the digital juggernauts are starting to I’ve had from the industry of late.” Beware the new walled give the other players a few momentary peeks, with He says ANZ is still using the channel but has gardens one example being Facebook’s commitment to an taken a slightly more cautious approach. audit with the Media Ratings Council. “At the moment we stick with premium The lack of third-party verification offered by the big While a good first step, Montgomery placement. We’ve got a 200-strong whitelist of digital players is a concern. But an industry source, who doesn’t believe this is enough to ensure actual top-performing and safe YouTube channels that agreed to speak to NZ Marketing under the condition transparency in the industry. we run a lot of our activity on.” of anonymity, believes marketers also need to be wary “It’s after the case and it’s also not real auditing,” This still gives ANZ scale, but it doesn’t of the walled gardens being put in place at agencies. he says, explaining that a report released once a necessarily bode well for the channel as a whole. The source says it’s become common for some of campaign has run does little to give marketers any Part of what makes YouTube so popular with the bigger holding companies to set up independent security in the fast-moving digital space. younger consumers is that it offers edgier, racier programmatic offerings that they own and operate For this reason, Montgomery is a proponent of content that might not be considered safe from a within the group. appending what he calls “a brand-safety tag” to ads traditional branding perspective. And if these content In some instances this can become problematic, running across social media networks. creators are precluded from making money on the source says, because you have what amounts to “If we had a tag on those ads, then at least account of strict enforcement of brand safety rules, media arbitrage. we would’ve known about it or we would have then they’ll either have to find a new site that offers “You’ve got a media agency body buying space, been complicit in it. Without any control, it’s an monetisation or stop producing their videos. Neither sitting on it and selling it on to clients for a margin. incredibly uncomfortable situation.” of these scenarios is ideal for YouTube—or for brands Back in the day, this was called space farming and A common argument against allowing a third- looking to engage with younger consumers. it was outlawed. This included things like agencies party to tag ads in Google, Facebook or Snapchat buying up stacks of billboards and onselling them. is that this could place the data of the subscribers Changing the conversation Space farming is not how we do business, and yet, the in each of those channels at risk. While a leak or Despite transparency and brand safety issues norm, at least in certain agency programmatic units, is privacy breach would be extremely damaging to running rampant across the industry, marketers that model.” these social media giants, Montgomery believes aren’t giving up on digital. Instead, they’re finding The counter-argument to this, of course, is that the it’s well within the capabilities of the companies to ways to measure the effectiveness of campaigns agency is taking on all the risk by buying the inventory keep the information secure. without paying attention to the dodgy metrics and should, by virtue of this, be allowed to make a “Even if we were allowed to append a tag to an ad, floating around. return out of that. But the source rejects this reasoning there would be extremely strict agreements in terms The reason why we haven’t seen a mass exodus of because it essentially removes the objectivity of of what would be allowed to be collected. Remember, advertisers from Facebook, despite its admission of the media agency, which is meant to act in the best this is not personal information… They’re not sharing a string of measurement errors, is that advertisers interests of the client. names, addresses or any personal details. What aren’t all that worried about basic view metrics “You’re not making an independent investment they’re sharing is where the ad appears.” as long as the campaign still delivers the results decision. You’re making a decision based on the initially intended. inventory you’re trying to get rid of rather than what’s Playing it safe “With any digital media channel, you need best for the client.” Knowing where ads appear is important not only to make sure the budget you are spending The source says many clients are being caught up in to ensure viewability but also brand safety, the is delivering to the business objective,” says these scenarios because they don’t fully understand latter of which is particularly pertinent at a time Gascoigne. “You need to take insight from metrics how programmatic providers make money and when countless brands are being called up for like views and engagement but judge the success of therefore don’t know what questions to ask. advertising alongside objectionable material. the activity in an action. For us, the importance of This is part of the reason he encourages marketers Interestingly, the introduction of a brand safety our cost-per-acquisition indicators are the number not to put pen to paper before asking the following tag might not only be in the best interests of clients one priority, and yes we look at certain metrics four questions of an agency: but also the media owners. As seen in April when with a ‘lens’, because at the end of the day you need myriad advertisers suspended advertising on to see the returns.” 1. What demand-side platforms (DSPs) are YouTube and Google’s display network as it came In much the same way that online discussions we actually using? to light that their ads were appearing alongside have shifted from impressions to viewable extremist and misogynistic content, brand safety is impressions and then to safe viewable impressions, 2. Is there any financial benefit, direct or an area advertisers aren’t willing to negotiate on. we’re starting to see measurement language evolve. indirect, to the agency in using these DSPs? Since this scandal, YouTube has taken drastic Rather than talking about reaching millions of steps, flagging large swathes of its online creators people, marketers and programmatic providers are 3. What’s the ownership of the DSP? as ‘non-advertiser friendly’ in a bid to coax increasingly talking about return on investment Is there any shared ownership at a holding advertisers back to the platform. and attribution models that claim to show the link company level? Gascoigne says he understands why so many between an ad and a consumer action. advertisers are unwilling to risk their reputations The only question is how will these metrics be 4. If there are charges being added for on the channel. gamed and how many millions (if not billions) of technology and data, what specifically “If they don’t have the skillset and the dollars will marketers lose because of it? are you paying for? understanding of how to manage transparency

The Media Issue 2016 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | 65 NZ MARKETING KPEX

DO YOU KNOW WHERE

As the transparency and brand safety battles wage on, KPEX chief executive Richard Thompson believes it’s more imperative than ever for brands to be selective when choosing where to advertise.

HOW SERIOUS DO YOU THINK THE TRANSPARENCY advertisers the opportunity to target through a of the opportunity. Advertisers need to fully ISSUES ARE IN THE INDUSTRY AT THE MOMENT? fully transparent system that allows brands to see understand how their budgets are being spent and WHAT CAN THE INDUSTRY DO TO ENSURE GREATER the content page or URL before advertising on to also proactively up-skill in this area so they can TRANSPARENCY? it. This all means that an advertiser can both be ask the right questions of their partners. Both transparency and brand safety are confident with the environment and the content on At the same time, media owners, technology rightly very hot topics at the moment, and it’s the page before appearing on the KPEX exchange, providers and agencies have a responsibility fundamentally important to the industry that we providing full transparency to the brand. to be transparent around the supply chain in address them head-on. If we want to continue regard to what technology is being used, how it to maximise the opportunity digital advertising IS THERE ENOUGH CLARITY REGARDING THE MEDIA will benefit the advertiser and the commercial is presenting us, it’s essential we come together SUPPLY CHAIN IN DIGITAL MEDIA? DO MARKETERS model behind it. as an industry and work with advertisers to ACTUALLY KNOW WHAT THEY’RE PAYING FOR? navigate safely through this issue. HOW CAN WE RECTIFY THIS ISSUE? HOW IMPORTANT IS THIRD-PARTY VERIFICATION We definitely need a more open conversation OF DIGITAL MEASUREMENT DATA? SHOULD WE HOW DOES KPEX ENSURE TRANSPARENCY between advertisers, technology providers, HAVE A STANDARDISED APPROACH APPLICABLE FOR CLIENTS? agencies and media owners to ensure everyone ACROSS ALL DIGITAL MEDIA? KPEX only represents New Zealand’s premium understands the technology being used (and fees As we have seen over recent months, it’s not broadcasters and publishers such as Fairfax, being charged) throughout the supply chain. acceptable for global media owners to be NZME, TVNZ and Mediaworks. Therefore, Much of the technology for programmatic ‘marking their own homework’ as Martin advertisers can be 100 percent confident their is valuable in ensuring both efficiency and Sorrell puts it. It’s wholly unacceptable to be activity will only be running within brand-safe effectiveness, but it’s a complex space so we all need misreporting performance and there is a need environments. In addition, KPEX provides to continually educate ourselves to take advantage for a rebalance of power (driven by agencies and

66 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | The Media Issue 2017 BUYER BEWARE Thompson says that transparency and brand safety debate comes down to four important areas that brands need to consider any time they spend money on digital media.

1) Environment: 2) Content: 3) Technology transparency: 4) Agency transparency: This is the area that’s getting the most Within all sites there will be content Within programmatic advertising It’s hard to have a conversation profile at the moment. As a brand ‘you advertisers would prefer not to we are increasingly using technology around transparency without the are the company you keep’ and no one appear next to, for example, an to improve buys, reduce wastage by subject of agency transparency wants to see advertising alongside or airline may not want to advertise targeting the right people to create arising. It’s natural that as an industry funding sites that don’t align with your around an article that mentions the more efficient campaigns. Some of dramatically transforms there will brand values (we have seen some high words ‘plane crash’. This is also the technology enables advertisers also be a need for a reset of what profile and fairly shocking examples of relatively simple to avoid, most of to buy programmatically, other represents value and the commercial this recently). The good news is that the leading brands within the tech overlays audience-targeting model attached to it. Advertisers this is also the simplest to fix; most programmatic space have fairly information while a further piece need confidence that their agency agency trading desks have a ‘whitelist’ of comprehensive lists of ‘negative of technology ensures brand safety. partners are making buying decisions preapproved sites for brands to advertise keywords’. Trading desks can use All of these solutions are important for the right reasons and this on, alongside a ‘blacklist’ of sites to their ‘brand safety technology’ to to advertisers and add significant comes from complete transparency specifically avoid. At KPEX, we have seen scan a page and ensure that activity value to the process. The key is for throughout the value chain. At the a number of advertisers shift the focus of doesn’t run on keywords that have advertisers to really understand the same time, we need a reset on what their investment towards our exchange a perceived negative connotation ‘why’ of each piece of technology represents value and for advertisers so they can be confident in appearing to the brand. that is being used and the commercial to remunerate agencies fairly for the on 100 percent premium New Zealand relationship that sits below this. skills required to be effective from inventory (a built-in ‘whitelist’ if you like). strategy through to buying.

advertisers) to hold media owners to account. HOW DO YOU THINK THE ISSUES OF more accurately, more efficiently, with more Third-party verification will be key in driving TRANSPARENCY AND BRAND SAFETY WILL EVOLVE impact and more measurably than ever confidence for advertisers individually and the IN THE COMING YEARS? before. The programmatic opportunity for the digital market as a whole. It’s important to remember that the speed advertisers is huge and we need to provide However, before we even get into third- of change and growth in digital has been the confidence for them to continue to grow party verification, we need to be clearer on exponential over recent years. We believe investment in the channel. measurement as a whole. We need to put in place the current transparency and brand safety some market-wide standards and benchmarks conversations are speed bumps in the maturing for performance expectations. Advertisers need of the market. a clear shortcut to understand the environments The technology required to provide their advertising is being placed within and the advertisers full transparency and brand performance they can expect. safety exists today, however, we are seeing a At KPEX, we see market-leading video lag in industry standards and education. As completion rates and excellent viewability scores the transparency conversation grows and within premium environments. Consequently, the industry puts in place measurement, it’s no surprise our sites often achieve superior performance and commercial standards we performance for advertisers than from other will see this issue dissipate over time. corners of the internet. Market standards and There is no question that programmatic third-party verification will help advertisers advertising (and the technology it uses) identify the digital sites that are really creating provides advertisers with an unprecedented Contact: Richard Thompson value for them. ability to target existing or potential customers chief executive, [email protected]

The Media Issue 2017 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | 67 opinion

Just how creepy can digital tracking technology be? Well, as Alex Radford explains, that depends entirely on how creepy the public wants it to be.

FINDING AN accessible way of talking when this data is used, lost, hacked, right now there are too many instances about the weird relationship the world shared, or sold. where the policy makers are too far has with “tracking” is challenging. I’m always surprised that people behind the innovators to challenge However, the other day I read an article are taken aback that companies use their current strategies. on a completely unrelated topic that the data they share for purposes that Don’t get me wrong – tracking analysed the argument that we are might, by the unexposed, be seen as consumer behaviour is a massive part living in a dichotomous society. On one nefarious. I was always under the of our role as digital marketers but, at side you have the hypersexualising of, impression that it was just a given Dentsu Aegis Network in New Zealand, in particular, young women. Then, on that there is a value exchange; in other we are very strict on what level of data the other an increased prudishness and words, you get Facebook, Snapchat, we use to market clients’ products. conservativeness, principally from the Google, and so on for free, because you Perhaps, unlike many, we self-police right wing press. know that everything you share, or do, our staff with a clear policy that we This got me thinking. on that platform will be used to target don’t manage any kind of Personally Could this position also be levelled you. Correct? Identifiable Information (PII). What at the argument currently raging Apparently not, especially when we do is track behaviour, collect trends, around privacy, tracking, net neutrality, we take into consideration the reaction and use that data to help predict big data, yada yada? of the press to stories about Facebook consumer behaviour, and provide Stick with me. tracking emotions, or billboards with communications that are relevant On one hand we have never shared embedded cameras, eye tracking, and timely. We always act well more information with anonymous super cookies or indeed Bose tracking within the boundaries of the law, and brands, apps and companies about listening behaviour through their furthermore in good conscience, but I ourselves, our friends and our connected headphones. still think as a wider industry we have family (location, weight, emotions, Thankfully there are very clear a long way to go in educating the public demographics, health, sleep, etc.) but laws that exist in most countries on how brands track, monitor and also we act outraged and shocked designed to protect consumers but analyse user behaviour.

68 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | The Media Issue 2017 Yes, the European Cookie Law is a view regulated in a way that protects start but we have nothing like this in the public. I was schooled under the I still think as a New Zealand, which is an issue, and old adage of ‘hope for the best, plan let’s be honest, cookies are the tip of for the worst’, and right now we need wider industry we the iceberg. Furthermore, how do we to plan for what companies can do protect consumers who are tracked with data, in a worst case scenario. have a long way without their knowledge? Did you know that Amazon tracks the speed you read books, or that Netflix to go in educating monitors viewing behaviour, or that Google—through Chrome—logs your the public on entire web browser history (within two minutes I can see that at 20:24 on 1 Jan 2012 I searched for how brands “Japan Earthquake” and visited bbc. com three times). track, monitor And, ultimately, should we be able to opt out? These questions need to Alex Radford is the general manager of and analyse user be publicly debated, but also in my digital at Dentsu Aegis Network. behaviour.

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The Media Issue 2017 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | 69 feature

SWEET LOVE SNUFFED OUT

Like a real-life modern Dr Merja Myllylahti, project manager of Journalism, Media iteration of a Capulet and Democracy research center (JMAD) based at AUT parent, the Commerce Do you think the regulators understand the Commission has done all it challenges of modern media? can to stand in the way of the proposed matrimony The final determination of the NZME/Fairfax where we are heading? I doubt it. It seems that merger clearly shows that the Commerce no-one really knows how the news media looks of Fairfax and NZME, Commission understands the digital challenges in the future, and how they make money and and Sky and Vodafone. of the two companies. It correctly notes that the sustain journalistic operations. So what does the future applicants “like all news media, are in a transition I recently attended an international media phase. The growth in digital revenues is currently conference in San Diego and one of the key hold for the star-crossed not replacing falling print revenues and they messages there was that news publishers need lovers? We ask a chorus of are seeking to transition to a more sustainable to stop blaming Facebook and Google for all business model”. their problems, and start to find solutions. For some smart folks across However, I think we need to ask if anyone example, in Norway, news publisher VG has the industry for their understands the real challenges of the modern invested in a separate video company which digital media and how to respond to those now produces more advertising revenue than its thoughts on these tragic challenges. Do publishers themselves know print products. romances.

Tim Murphy, co-founder of Newsroom Did the Commerce Commission over-reach in the NZME/Fairfax decision? Did it extend into territory that doesn’t really fall into its remit?

This is the crux, really, of the NZME/Fairfax evaluate a media merger solely on the efficiencies, appeal. Basically, they say the Commerce the ‘synergies’ that applicants put forward. Nor Act restricts the Commission to considering can you try and divorce the dollar savings from economic efficiencies alone, not social goods or the journalism costs. No one seriously thinks ‘political’ considerations. (I think by ‘political’ journalism will benefit from this proposed the StuffMe parties mean talk about democracy merger. They simply think by being given a and the public good.) break by the Commerce Commission to act The Commission’s view, clearly, in its final anti-competitively they might stay around a little decision after hearing all the Fairfax and NZME longer and something, anything, might happen arguments on sticking to its Commerce Act that changes the dominance of Facebook and knitting, was that all considerations of how a Google in the ad markets. market could be detrimentally affected not only Leaving out the effects on journalism and can, but must be considered. It provided clear the public good would be like assessing an anti- examples where just that approach was validated competitive telecoms merger and focusing only by the courts. on the dollars saved and not the fact the 111 service My view is that you cannot and should not would no longer function as it needs to. Nicky Greville, national general manager of media at Y&R NZ Paul Catmur, managing partner and executive creative director at Have Google and Facebook won the online ad Barnes, Catmur & Friends Dentsu game because they simply offer more efficient/ effective forms of advertising (their offerings Would the NZME/Fairfax are more targeted, require fewer people to run merger have made a difference and work instantly) and how can local media given how much better Google companies compete with this, regardless of how and Facebook are at the big they might be? online ad game?

There is no denying that both attention of massive audiences have It all depends who you ask... Google and Facebook are the been using content via traditional most prolific digital advertising media. Google and Facebook were NZME & Fairfax Shareholder: ‘You’re not platforms that we have at present certainly an important part of fooling anyone. This would just be papering over the in terms of reach and management the channel mix for the spread of cracks, a chance for a short-term financial blip as of advertising options. Both are ideas – but they were not the be all the redundancies and closures roll through. It will fuelled by intuitive technology and end all of the ideas themselves. take a much more innovative solution to our long- and almost endless targeting Google and Facebook don’t build term problems than hiding in a cave with our rival.’ opportunities that focus on the brands or sustain brand values; it’s consumer first, with advertising conspicuously creative content that Consumer: ‘I find the standard of journalism technology then designed around drives this. As such, they cannot (with a few exceptions) across New Zealand papers them; no doubt entirely daunting achieve the power of tangible cannot compete with foreign publications. True, for local companies not used to traditional media. The Guardian, The Daily Mail and The New York economies of scale at a global level So what’s the opportunity for Times might not cover the possible drench shortage and innovation at the rate of a local companies to compete? The in Whykickamoocow but I’m not half as concerned heartbeat. answer lies in brands, agencies and about that as you seem to think.’ However, as the recent safety media partners coming together to and reporting accuracy issues have make conspicuously creative ideas Client: ‘So with my already fragmenting media highlighted, advertising that works that generate an earned PR effect options they want to create a monopoly to further is not solely about efficiencies, (using Google and Facebook at limit my choices and allow them to crank metrics that oversimplify (or their best). It’s about making stuff up the price? If Google and Facebook offer more overstate) time spent with content, together that people truly want to effective solutions I suggest you try and better or reach. spend time with. them, rather than crying foul to the Commerce We have a saying at Y&R Media In a grossly oversimplified Commission.’ – attention eats reach for breakfast. summary, the merger would have Yes, local companies have a way certainly helped in terms of scaling Democrat: ‘There’s a name for people who to go in terms of competing (or up the resources to help deliver think that it’s a good idea to consolidate the press more likely working to integrate efficiencies to the businesses. But into one outlet. It’s a name often used in the same with) the technology that both our jobs are about so much more sentence as Donald Trump.’ Google and Facebook platforms than cost efficiencies and numbers. offer, but where they do have an The need to produce outstanding Taxpayer: ‘If Facebook and Google are scraping advantage is knowing inherently content that captures hearts and off our media dollars and hiding them offshore it’s what it is that makes Kiwis tick and minds of New Zealanders (and in down to the government to find a way to collect. making great content that people doing so compelling them to act) I look forward to seeing proposals about how to invest time and attention on. isn’t a new requirement from our claw this back during the coming election.’ Here’s what I know: across a media sources, nor is working number of our recent successes, all of collaboratively with brands and Facebook and Google: the triggers we used for capturing the agencies to do this. ‘NZME and Stuff who?’

The MediaIssue 2016 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | 71 feature

Sam Aldred, director of Receptive.tv In light of Vodafone’s recent partnership with the All Blacks, do you think it’s likely that the telco might one day vie for digital streaming rights, particularly when viewed in the context of all the problems Sky has had with its online services?

Vodafone aren’t going to make a standalone exclusive investment in alone and sell direct packages to the New Zealand public but their core remit broadcasting rights for the All Blacks. I don’t see Vodafone Group releasing is to maximise their revenue and a cheque in hand is probably worth two in $100 million in capex to pay for it or the millions in annual production costs the bitcoin bush. and the significant internal team that would be required to administer it. So, The best bet for smoke signals to the future broadcast state of rugby in no. Much more likely is a joint bid between the pair, with Vodafone having New Zealand, is to look at how the battle over cricket rights in Australia pans some exclusive carveouts – likely mobile, with the big screen experience still out later this year. There are multiple players involved and a progressive owned by the satellite broadcaster. There is a chance the NZRU might go it rights body. I’m sure the NZRU will be looking at it with interest.

Nigel Douglas, managing director of MediaCom Who do you think is in a better position now that Sky and Vodafone haven’t merged?

What you’re seeing is audiences and thus revenue fragmenting and shifting and radio. Bauer could still do more. with the digital revolution. The media companies need to evolve their The TV companies could all benefit from almost any media partnership, businesses with the market. It’s a travesty that the recent mergers were but as Vodafone has shown, the watch out is for emerging players. In a declined by the Commerce Commission and hypocritical that they approved digital world, the telcos are basically the ‘broadcasters’. Bauer’s (APN’s magazine titles were purchased by Bauer in 2014). Whilst the Com Com doesn’t seem close to getting its head around this, I All of the media companies could benefit from mergers, but the ones would predict that the telcos are and will. Traditional media companies may that are losing audience are print and TV. NZME and Fairfax could create need to remodel their business, the telcos want to remodel theirs. efficiencies for their declining newspapers and regional synergy across print This is just the beginning.

Richard Thompson, chief executive of KPEX Given the amount advertisers are spending on Google and Facebook, do local marketers actually care whether businesses are local or international? Is this something they should care about?

Yes, absolutely. There are a couple of factors to take into account when considering there’s plenty of evidence to demonstrate that local content works harder from why they care that go beyond the obvious and more emotive reasons. a brand perspective. Firstly, a recent Communications Council NZ report has demonstrated Why do we see so many New Zealand brands associate themselves with that advertising contributes $6 billion to the New Zealand economy each year New Zealand’s culture, sporting teams or events? The answer is simply a more and helps employ over 44,000 people. New Zealand’s advertising industry engaged and invested audience. New Zealanders care about, engage with and ranks fourth in the world for creativity and if marketers expect to see such an can relate best to our Kiwi culture. The same applies to content, it’s no surprise outstanding output and business results into the future then we are all very that the majority of the top rating TV shows every year are New Zealand made. incentivised to support the New Zealand advertising ecosystem. Of course there is value in New Zealand content for brands and we should Secondly, marketers care about the performance of their activity and protect this fervently.

72 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | The Media Issue 2017 Anonymous NZME reporter What was the mood like in the newsroom on the day the merger failure was announced?

It was fine at NZME. Some people were saying we wouldn’t have jobs in five years’ time, Bernard Hickey, founder of Hive News but they were also celebrating increases in readership and more people listening to Newstalk ZB, so it’s not like it really mattered. Can local publishers compete with A lot of people seemed to support the merger, but I didn’t particularly. I don’t think we Google and Facebook in the online would be less likely to become redundant if we merged with Fairfax. It was business as usual. advertising space? Come to think of it, I think Shayne Currie actually said “it’s business as usual”. It would be interesting to hear what it was like at Fairfax though, because they haven’t been doing so well. All I’ve heard from another Fairfax journalist was that they hadn’t been told anything. The simple answer is that Facebook and Google have won the battle for online advertising. They own the data and have the engineering resources to out-compete, underprice and swamp news publishers hoping to survive on earnings from display advertising. News publishers should give up on John Baker, managing director at Lassoo Media display advertising and either try sponsorship arrangements or go behind paywalls. The long-term future for news Why do you think Sky and Vodafone are publishers is producing excellent, nourishing and compelling so eager to merge? They’re both successful news that provides something worthwhile to news readers businesses already, so what’s the possible and viewers day in and day out, and which those readers and viewers are prepared to make regular payments for. Other motivation behind this deal? news publishers overseas have worked this out and are focused completely on serving their readers as subscribers I think this is a reflection of Sky’s need to future proof its business and specifically about both online and offline, rather than focusing on growing large moving its obsolete distribution technology/network to the internet and migrating away online audiences that can’t be monetised through advertisers. from scheduled programming to a better user experience along with the evolution of its That game is over, but unfortunately NZME and Fairfax revenue/product model to enable greater flexibility and consumer choice. While there is NZ haven’t worked that out yet. They both need to focus on no reason they can’t do this alone, a partnership with Vodafone would appear to be able building long and strong relationships with paying readers to accelerate it and perhaps mitigate the investment requirement. On the other hand, directly, both online and offline. New owners may force the wholesale access to Sky content would give Vodafone a competitive advantage but once current leaderships of NZME and Fairfax NZ to see financial again, the same argument applies with respect to this being possible now. I am not sure I sense and stop them from giving away their news in the vague agree with the Commerce Commission’s call on this one either. hope of monetising it with display advertising. We’ll see. I suspect that new private equity or family owners will be less enamoured with the digital first group think.

Kath Watson, OMD CEO Would there have been any advantages from a media buying/advertising perspective, had NZME and Fairfax merged?

OMD was an enthusiastic supporter of the proposed merger of NZME and topical content; as demanded by consumers and our clients. Global players do Fairfax. Our media market has radically changed and will continue to do so. not pour enough resources into small markets like New Zealand to provide From a media buying perspective, international content providers offer scale quality local content. This creates a clear role for NZME/Fairfax in the market and efficiencies our local partners cannot compete with. But we also need and exciting opportunities for advertisers. local providers to offer New Zealand consumers locally relevant content in Without this merger, we worry about the future of our local publishers and an engaging and innovative environment which in turn, creates effective their ability to produce content that New Zealanders love, and advertisers’ opportunities for our clients. This merger would have allowed the resource demand for engagement with audiences. Declining print circulations and to deliver this. difficulties in monetising digital content are constant challenges, but a merged Granted, amalgamation would reduce duplication within the businesses. NZME/Fairfax would create a commercially viable local voice to represent all But, this would have created efficiencies to be funnelled into quality, local and of New Zealand.

The Media Issue 2017 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | 73 feature

LOVE DOESN’T ALWAYS LAST Just one in four mergers result in success, and according to TRA’s Colleen Ryan, that comes down to companies focusing too much on the tangible aspects of the balance sheet and too little on the intangible aspects of company culture.

NEW ZEALAND has been running against the neglect applying the same rigour to the intangible tide of late with potential mergers falling by the element of culture. And just because culture isn’t an It is this failure wayside, either blocked on the grounds of unfair asset on the balance sheet doesn’t mean you can’t do competition or not getting across the line for other due diligence. Company culture is an amalgam of rate that should reasons. NZME/Fairfax is one of the most recent, its accepted tacit rules, habits, values, customs and and the dust is still settling on the Sky/Vodafone norms, and these create a rhythm and cadence that on/off merger. Around the rest of the world, govern behaviour – there is a sense of “it’s the way make us sit up and mergers are still in fashion, especially in the media we are and the way we do things here”. And this is and entertainment space and the most recent an emotional territory so the rules and behaviour acknowledge just merger of Microsoft and LinkedIn. Historically, patterns don’t always seem rational. But it is because mergers were fashioned to optimise and leverage it is an emotional territory that getting it wrong can how important physical production resources (manufacturing be so costly. We are naturally herding creatures, and factories) whereas now it’s much more about we stand by our tribe, and attempts to disrupt the audiences and owning share or attention. habits we have learned in the way we work together and unique a Yet, if we were rational decision makers can feel very threatening. and calculated gamblers, we’d run a mile at the company’s culture suggestion of a merger. I challenge you to find a Cultural Due Diligence single report that doesn’t quote a number between Having described culture as an intangible does 60 and 80 as the percentage of mergers that fail not mean surrendering the notion that it can is. If it were not – 75 percent seems to be the consensus mean. be examined and diagnosed. An analysis of the Failing is defined in regard to delivering value to language that is used within a business (called so, then it would shareholders, and in fact, a whopping 30 percent discourse anlaysis) including emails, notices, of mergers actually erode the shareholder value instructions, contracts, internal communications, be much easier of both companies. Innovation stalls or reverses, and verbal communications both formal and the operational cost savings are invariably less informal, is a powerful tool that can be used to than expected, and perhaps the most worrying is diagnose a company culture. to merge two that customers of both companies suffer. Looks An illustration of the power of discourse analysis like NZME and Fairfax dodged a bullet, unless to drive transformation of company culture can be companies. they believe they were in the elite group of one in found in The British Prostrate Cancer Charity who four that does deliver a success story. As Jeffrey undertook just such a project. Discourse analysis Pfeffer, a professor of organisational behaviour revealed that the things that had helped it succeed in at Stanford Graduate School of Business says: the past had outlived their usefulness. But they were “Mergers go on anyway, even though there’s not now baked into the culture, perpetuated through much evidence they work out. Everybody believes habits of language and, because invisible, very hard they are going to be different.” for them to change. Not only is there consensus on the low Commenting on the insights from the probability of success with mergers, but there is analysis, Seamus O’Farrell the new CEO who also a high degree of agreement on why they fail. had ambitious targets for growth and a much Culture is the culprit. Or more specifically, two higher public profile for the charity said: “It was cultures, and the failure to leverage the value of incredibly energising for the organisation. It was two businesses because of cultural differences. lovely to see people go ‘oh, yeah!’ in a totally non- It is this failure rate that should make us sit up defensive way: ‘Oh, we are like that, aren’t we?’” and acknowledge just how important and unique The result was frank internal conversations a company’s culture is. If it were not so, then it which were not always comfortable, but would be much easier to merge two companies. important things are now being said, challenged Yet with all this evidence available, companies and openly debated. As a result of changing the still focus their due diligence on the tangible aspects language patterns and thus changing the culture, of the business they are buying or merging with and the charity has had recent successes in winning

74 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | The Media Issue 2017 significant corporate partnerships. So if language is so important in a single company, it’s not hard to imagine how critical it can be when two cultures come together and where it is likely to cause of conflict, mistaken blame and a break on the speed at which things happen. As an example, a series of experiments conducted by Weber and Camerer at Carnegie Mellon University had people work in small teams to sort and identify photographs which AMBITION they had to describe to others in their team. They then had to carry out various tasks which involved use of the images. They quickly assigned shorthand names for images – the one ‘with the girl and mother sitting’, ‘the powerpoint image’, ‘the portrait picture’. They then merged the teams and applied various tasks using the images. The Strategy and Beliefs and execution of tasks was significantly slowed in the goals passions newly merged teams and confusion, irritation and misunderstandings were common. Scale that up to two merged companies and you can almost RATIONAL EMOTIONAL hear the talent running out of the door.

The acquirer and the acquired Though the CEO of each company may have History a bigger vision and see the benefits to both How we do - behaviour organisations in the merger, there is nevertheless things here always a sense of a winner or dominant company. and habits That would no doubt have been true of the two New Zealand mergers had they gone ahead. The recent acquisition of LinkedIn by Microsoft is another one to watch, especially in light of Microsoft’s poor record. Neither Microsoft’s CURRENT acquisition of digital advertising firm aQuantive nor the mobile unit of Nokia were a great success. But Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s CEO, seems determined to get this one right and has asked But culture can’t be imposed from above. This can’t be Weiner and Nadella’s vision alone. LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner to take the lead on an The power of ‘How we do things here’ is an intangible that is owned by the entire business. integration team responsible for merging their two As Mike Spose, CMO of Epic Media Group who managed a successful merger with a smaller companies: a responsibility that normally falls to advertising network, says: “Empower people to have a voice in defining the new culture.” an executive at the acquiring company. Culture doesn’t just determine how well the company will function internally (talent But how will Weiner go about it? Culture can’t retention, efficient working practices, innovation and creativity), it also creates an employee be a mash up. It’s not like throwing two cultures experience which has a direct impact on customer experience. Clients and customers suffer into a blender and seeing what comes out. A during mergers unless the issue of culture is managed early, managed well, and given as structured framework is needed, and employees much time and energy as operational issues. have to have a voice. Otherwise it hinders morale Due diligence of cultural issues prior to a merger prepares the company for and talent leaves. You need a new culture, not a the intangibles of the merger. It sets a comms strategy in place, it starts mash up, and it can’t just be plucked out of the air. joint projects where common language and ways of working can be An internal culture has to be built on core developed, and it sets up a new culture with common agreement. The truths about the business. The building blocks for operational stuff will follow, if the merger survives that long. the culture are both business based and people/ belief based – the rational and the emotional mix gives the internal culture meaning and depth, and allows for a sense of ownership and belonging. Colleen Ryan is head of strategy at TRA

The Media Issue 2017 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | 75

Outdoor may be the oldest – and one of the most traditionally static – advertising mediums. However, with the addition of digital formats, its slice of the industry pie is growing. But are the innovations in measurement systems enough to keep up and is society ready for sensor-based tracking? Lynda Brendish finds out.

he out-of-home (OOH) on one of the biggest challenges CEO of Australia-based oOh! T industry has been going for the New Zealand industry: Media, says he expects digital from strength-to- audience measurement. In to contribute to half of all the strength, growing at a pace that totality, company’s revenues within nearly equals that of digital these improvements have the next few years and in New advertising over the last year. been recognised and rewarded Zealand, “we see this number In the latest Standard Media by the market, with spend being significantly higher”. Index insights, outdoor grew growing healthily. Part of the promise is the 22.2 percent over the previous New Zealand advertisers flexibility of digital – creative year, compared to digital’s spent $118 million on OOH can be responsive to the time of 22.6 percent growth. Of course, advertising in 2016, according day, weather conditions, physical digital is at the heart of the to the most recent ASA statistics, location or even current news industry’s renewed vigour, but up from $95 million the year events, and if neccessary, it can that’s the result of more than before. More importantly, the at shifting the goal posts be changed out in seconds after just the obvious appearance of industry has gained market further out. an operator receives creative. It’s a plethora of large and small share. While television and The first factor in OOH’s also a medium that dovetails format digital billboards in newspapers lost ground, renaissance is digital outdoor; nicely with mobile advertising recent years. OOH grew its slice of the media the engine primarily driving and opportunities for the two It’s also down to steadfast pie to 4.6 percent, which is close growth in the industry thanks to interact (although this is true investment and innovation in to industry body OMANZ’s five to advertiser interest piqued by whether the outdoor asset is the digital back-end, including percent target. Chairman Wayne the new formats on offer. As an digital or static), as we’ve seen bringing digital tools to bear Chapman says it’s looking example of that, Brendon Cook, with campaigns that make use

The Media Issue 2017 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | 77 feature

of technology such as near field hesitancy around having to share thousand overall. “I can’t see NZ Marketing broached the communications (NFC) and ad space with others. “I think that getting into the hundreds, issue with operators in 2014. brands like Snapchat and Shazam. everybody understood the value to be honest,” he says. Of course, There was talk of following the Phil Clemas, the former exchange between giving up smaller formats such as those Aussies’ lead, but Chapman says general manager of APN Outdoor sole display rights with the extra found on bus shelters and inside the rapid changes in technology (APNO) who co-founded the benefit that digital could bring,” malls and workplaces bump up made it difficult to assess digital-only boutique outdoor says Chapman, who in addition to that number, but with both cost potential solutions when OMANZ operation Lumo Digital last year, chairing OMANZ is chief executive and council permitting acting tackled it a couple of years ago. explains advertiser attraction: of the transit-focused outdoor as limiting factors, we’re not “We didn’t know what we didn’t “[Advertisers] also see there is operator, QMS. “There are a heading for a digital-only outdoor know, if that makes sense. Our no need to print skins anymore, couple of advertisers who still landscape anytime soon. concern was, are we committing and also to go through the prefer to have sole display rights, The non-obsolescence of ourselves to a program that trouble and the time to install and that’s fine, because not every print is good news for operators ultimately is going to be anything them on static billboards. So solution is a digital one. My own like Phantom Billstickers, whose but future-proof?” he says. “Even that saves not only money, view is that digital and other business has been seeing steady in the last couple of years, there but also time.” He also notes formats are part of a broader, growth – despite the lack of have been more enhancements that the immediacy of content out-of-home proposition.” digital formats on the books – and more developments of various changes is also a plus. “In other And that’s a good point. While thanks to a resurgence of the technologies and methodologies words, I could take a piece of digital may be the jewel in the touring industry, says managing that will assist us to get a better content emailed to me by my crown of OOH at the moment, partner Robin McDonnell. read and therefore get a better client today, right now, and it’s still a small part of the overall But where digital formats product at the end of this process.” within 10 seconds we can upload picture. Clemas estimates that might not be the right fit for a There are other reasons too— it onto the billboard.” there are around 30-40 large company like Phantom right not the least being the difficulty That flexibility, for the most format digital billboards in now, it doesn’t mean it never of unifying a group of operators part, outweighs any advertiser New Zealand out of a couple of will be – they’re keeping an eye that, as McDonnell diplomatically on the tech for sure – but its says, “doesn’t necessarily real promise has been on the play that well together.” But back-end. The company has by appointing Derek Lindsay digitised its entire inventory to to the general manager role, create an automated booking OMANZ hopes to change that, and inventory management and Lindsay has been given a system that will soon see real- mandate to get the ball rolling. time reporting on installation He hopes that his years of progress rolled out, to the point familiarity with operators on the that advertisers will be able client side will aid him in gaining to pinpoint, “with absolute buy-in to an industry-wide certainty”, the street corner, day metric, one that both he and and time that a poster will go up. OMANZ consider a priority. All this effort helps the One difficulty, he explains, business remain competitive is in finding an approach that now, but it also lays the caters to the large variety of foundation for the future and outdoor formats – adshells, projects that might move billboards, mall, transit, etc – the towards more automated ways differing locations and markets of buying, selling and reporting that OOH serves. Lindsay hopes on inventory. to move fairly quickly on this effort, aiming to have made Measuring up reasonable progress by the end Perhaps the biggest challenge of this year. for the New Zealand outdoor Boiling it down, Lindsay’s industry, though, is audience approach will be to take what’s measurement. Although there’s working best in Australia and been talk for a few years further abroad, what individual about introducing an industry- operators in New Zealand have wide standard to measuring already developed, factor in cost, viewership on OOH, as Australia suitability and local adaptability did in 2010, there’s been little to work towards a solution progress since the last time OMANZ members can get behind.

78 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | The Media Issue 2017 NEW ZEALAND’S LARGEST DIGITAL ROADSIDE NETWORK IS GETTING BIGGER

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The Media Issue 2016 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | 79 feature

to provide an estimate of audience. “There’s no way of actually measuring the change in those numbers over a period of time, nor is there any measure of volume changes or trends during the day,” explains Clemas. Lumo has solved this by placing cameras capable of counting traffic and speed as it moves towards a billboard, and analysing license plates to understand both the frequency of exposure and the flow of traffic – in terms of volume and average speed – past different outdoor sites. Clemas says this gives Lumo the ability to report on real-time traffic flows and frequency, while a Wi-Fi sniffer will identify mobile devices within the vicinity and allow the company to perform more advanced analytics. Like APNO, it’s a model they hope other And despite the sometimes audience profiling tools are, with it all together. APNO’s operators will adopt. tenuous relationships between clients still want to understand newly launched Calibre is one of OOH operators like Val operators, Lindsay says he has what is the cost, and how the former, adding to the DTV by Morgan Outdoor, whose New seen a broad agreement that a effective that spend is versus establishing geo-fenced areas in Zealand inventory is largely unified approach is a necessary what other media can deliver.” front of billboards that allow it comprised of digital screens in way forward to earn credibility In the meantime, many to capture mobile data and cross office buildings in main centres, for the industry as a whole. operators have taken to reference with third-party data has taken another tack with its “Taking everyone along with me developing their own solutions – to not only measure reach and audience metric platform, DART. at the same time, and getting all of which, reflecting the wide frequency for any given asset, “Each of our screens have that agreement, is quite critical,” variety that OOH encompasses, but to infer socio-economics, what’s called an AMD, an he says. come at the audience demographics and purchasing audience metric device, built into Adshel general manager Nick measurement challenge from behaviour. it, and that device takes a scan Vile agrees Lindsay is driving a different angle. For example, It’s a solution that APNO is of the face and tracks the eyeball real impetus and says Adhel transit-focused operator iSite so confident in, that it’s hoping movement,” explains Anthony has “always been supportive of (now QMS), one of the early other operators will utilise it Deeble, VMO’s managing director. a unified approach to audience leaders in the space, created as well, as smaller operators “[That] allows us to determine measurement, and although this a system around mapping bus GoMedia and Media5 have not just the age and gender, but is often listed as a key priority for routes, travel times, traffic flows, already signed on to do. “What also what content they’re looking the sector, there have been plenty points of interest and mesh we’re trying to do with this at, and when they’re not looking of other initiatives to focus on”. block census data. system is bring a high level at content.” “It seems that with digital oOh! Media, whose of data into a system, which “What we’re able to do in the well established after a core Australian parent just had a will give transparency across office environment, is optimise period of investment that there merger proposal with APNO the board and can be utilised campaigns to the audience is a window now to focus on an batted down by regulators, has across the board,” says Mike that’s being targeted or desired audience measurement solution developed a retail audience Watkins, APNO’s New Zealand by any of our clients. We’re able that meets both current and metric based on geo-mapping general manager. “It’ll become, to highly target the particular future requirements,” says Vile. and multiple data sources which, hopefully, the default solution demographic group in a very He adds a unified approach says CEO Brendon Cook, “was for the out-of-home industry.” precise way.” will provide an AMS that delivers designed specifically for the New Others, like Lumo Digital, fall base level measurement to deliver Zealand retail market.” into the latter category having The creep factor reach and frequency and CPM Some operators supplement dispensed with DTV, a metric All of this digitisation on screens comparison against other media. the existing day traffic visual that uses council and NZTA data, and in how advertisers plan, “No matter how sophisticated (DTV) metric, others do away overlaid with census information, buy and measure their OOH

80 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | The Media Issue 2017 Changing the way you can target audiences in Outdoor.

PROGRAMMATIC Thevalmorganoutdoor.com/work Media Issue 2016 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | 81 feature Ooh ! No .

A proposed merger between Aussie outdoor giants, oOh! Media and APNO fell apart in May after a statement of issues was released by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). That statement indicated the Aussie regulator viewed the merger narrowly in the context of the OOH industry, not as part of the broader advertising industry as a whole, as oOh! and APNO contended. “The loss of competition could result in increased prices for advertisers, or lower levels of service, quality, or innovation,” the ACCC said in its statement. In an emailed response to NZ Marketing, oOh! Media CEO Brendon Cook said that he thought the ACCC’s position was “surprisingly adverse.” He wrote: “The ACCC took a narrow definition of the market and one that we do not believe reflects the current and rapidly changing media landscape. The ACCC has said that the likes of us don’t compete with anyone other than other out-of-home companies and that our products allow us to bundle in ways others can’t.” As a result, the boards of both campaigns means the adoption on-line realm and attempting companies decided to step away from the merger. of programmatic trading of to apply them in the real world The merger would have likely had little impact on the New Zealand outdoor inventory is inevitable. context of OOH.” market, where oOh! is a much smaller player than it is in Australia For most operators, it’s still a way He says there are two flaws (although it is expanding its footprint), but the question of how to define out, although the work being to that approach, the first being the industry is a compelling one, nonetheless, in an era where media done now in audience metrics that programmatic’s inception is both increasingly fragmented and the lines between channels is helps lay the groundwork for it. was in remnant inventory and a increasingly blurred. In VMO’s case, programmatic seemingly unlimited supply of Cook had harsh words for the regulators, blasting them for an inability trading is already here, made inventory. But OOH has a cap to see that media owners aren’t just in competition with owners of the possible by its real-time face in inventory so the play is more same type, but with digital channels and, in particular, the Googles and scanning technology. The basic yield-based versus flogging Facebooks of the world. “So, we don’t agree with the ACCC position,” he idea being that advertisers can unsold inventory. The second flaw continued. “But we don’t want to spend six to 12 months educating the select the day part, location is that programmatic is based ACCC or in court, especially as the media market is changing so quickly, and audience profile for their on a one-to-one communication hence our mutual decision to walk away from the merger, and oOh! taking campaign, and when VMO’s whereas OOH is a one-to-many a decision to continue to deliver on and build out our clear strategy that we screens detect that audience broadcast medium. had been working to for the past few years.” present, they’ll serve the ad. “All “I believe we are of this is happening in real-time,” finally making progress in says Deeble. “The screen network understanding where the comforting to know that all OOH choice in whether or not they’re is analysing the audience profile, opportunities really exist for operators assure that data is aggregated, tracked and parsed and making decisions to serve both media suppliers, agency anonymised and aggregated – for demographic info. It’s one content to optimise the target partners and advertising clients even the face scans are stored thing to have targeted ads demographic group.” in an automated world – quite as data, not images. Still, served online, it’s wholly another Programmatic trading may be clearly, an opportunity exists there’s an inescapable creep to have them served in real life. a reality for VMO, but for Adshel, in developing an ease of trade factor attached to the idea that The good news is that we’re Vile prefers to use the term through automation and for real- people’s faces and physical not close to that particular “automated trading” as he sees time campaign delivery based on movements are being monitored. Minority Report scenario yet. it best describes the opportunity real-time audience attribution. We’ve adapted to the idea As Chapman points out: “There for OOH. The challenge is pulling it all that online behaviour is tracked, would have to be an enormous “In recent history, many together in a manner that but browsers like Chrome and amount of normalisation for programmatic specialists have enables all stakeholders to Safari offer opt-out mechanisms people to get comfortable with been assessing the opportunity benefit,” says Vile. to avoid that if users are both that level of precise targeting.” for OOH. Unfortunately, the basis If the idea of real time inclined and savvy enough to do Although the technology to of that assessment has largely audience attribution, tracking so. However, there’s no opt-out achieve it is certainly within the been taking programmatic and scanning sounds a little, in the real world, and neither realm of possibility these days, principles that work in the well, creepy, maybe it’ll be pedestrians nor drivers have a culturally we’re still far from it.”

82 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | The Media Issue 2017

NZ MARKETING APN Outdoor

ON Marketers have called loudly for a trustworthy form of measurement in outward advertising, and APN Outdoor has answered this request with a new system, called Calibre. We talk to APN Outdoor General Manager Mike Watkins about why this is what marketers have been waiting for.

WHAT IS THE CALIBRE MEASUREMENT SYSTEM? launched Calibre with the aim of uniting the in the development of Move, the industry WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THIS NAME FOR out-of-home industry. measure in Australia. We included a number THE INITIATIVE? Additionally, Calibre has both a media partner of our competitors in the development phase Calibre is an Audience Measurement System and agency interface so agencies can access the as well as agency partners to ensure what we for out-of-home media. The Calibre platform platform, plan campaigns and export proposals were building and the methodology adopted encompassed three key components that inform directly. Calibre has been designed with the was validated. its outputs: 1) reach and frequency measures; consumer journey in mind. 2) rich behavioural and demographic audience THAT SOUNDS EXPENSIVE. WHY DID YOU DECIDE insights; and 3) a customised planning dashboard HOW DOES THE SYSTEM WORK? WHAT DATA TO INVEST IN THIS TECHNOLOGY AT THIS STAGE? that will allow planners to identify optimal sites DOES IT RELY ON? APN Outdoor has made a very substantial for their campaigns. Calibre works by supplementing traffic investment into the development of Calibre. The name Calibre was chosen as it reflects data with a vast universe of aggregated, We are in the business of selling audiences, the level of accuracy our data delivers and is anonymised people movement data to calculate audiences that are reached via our physical also reflective of our AMS being one of the most Audience Reach and Frequency at site and assets. Digital and social has redefined the innovative and accurate globally. campaign level. This Audience is enriched benchmark of audience knowledge and insights by established segmentation tools, modeled so we needed a system that would allow us to WHAT DOES YOUR NEW INITIATIVE DO THAT purchasing behaviour and demographic compete at that level. PREVIOUS MEASUREMENT SYSTEMS DIDN’T DO? characteristics. All told there are more than We looked at the systems used globally WHAT IS THE MAIN POINT OF DIFFERENCE OF one billion data points in the Calibre audience and picked the best elements of each, THE NEW SYSTEM? measurement system. developing a system we believe is un-paralleled. Firstly, in New Zealand there has been no Calibre was built by the data scientists at We are pulling in over a billion data points singular audience measurement system Reachmedia in conjunction with ourselves and from multiple sources into Calibre at the available to the out-of-home market. We have our team in Australia who were instrumental present time.

84 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | The Media Issue 2017 OUR APPROACH HAS BEEN TO TAKE A LEADERSHIP POSITION TO DRIVE THE INDUSTRY FORWARD AS A WHOLE WITH THE INTENT TO UNITE THE OOH PLAYERS. OUR CLIENTS, THE AGENCIES, HAVE BEEN CALLING FOR THIS FOR MANY YEARS. SOMETIMES YOU JUST NEED SOMEONE TO STEP UP AND MAKE THE MOVE.

HOW WILL INSIGHTS BE DELIVERED TO YOUR WE’VE NOTICED THAT YOU ARE MAKING THE SYSTEM HOW DO YOU SEE CALIBRE EVOLVING IN THE CLIENTS (DO YOU HAVE A DIGITAL DASHBOARD)? AVAILABLE TO OTHER OUTDOOR MEDIA COMPANIES? COMING YEARS? Agency planners will have the option of utilising WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS? ISN’T THERE AN ELEMENT Calibre has been designed to constantly evolve an Optimisation tool in the initial phases OF SHARING YOUR SECRETS IN THIS? and this will be dictated to by the ongoing of planning their campaign, whereby they Very good question. For the OOH media development of data depth available from can select from a range of demographic and industry in New Zealand to grow we need to be our partners. Deeper insights and audience behavioural audiences, to generate a site list able to provide our clients true accountability understanding is the key driver. which best targets this audience. Alternatively, a and prove ROI. To effectively do this as an simple site list upload or an interactive map can ‘industry’ there needs to be a singular audience To develop this layered system, APN Outdoor be used to pick sites. measurement system as opposed to each partnered with Snakk Media, Experian, A report will then be generated showcasing company having their own and confusing the Marketview and Qrious in addition the standard media metrics, reach, frequency, market. We are the only mainstream media that to Reachmedia. contacts and CPM, as well as rich audience does not have a unified measurement solution, insights, reach curves and audience location and we believe we need to move towards heat maps. standardised planning and buying for OOH. As Calibre continues to develop, additional Some of our competitors currently have their data sources can be added to provide more own version of an AMS. Our approach has been insight at a category, expenditure and brand to take a leadership position to drive the industry level. We forecast advertisers will look at forward as a whole with the intent to unite the overlaying their own enterprise data on the OOH players. Our clients, the agencies, have Calibre platform, and the system certainly has been calling for this for many years. Sometimes the capability for them to do so. you just need someone to step up and make Contact: Mike Watkins, GM New Zealand the move. [email protected]

The Media Issue 2017 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | 85 ...now it’s your turn

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86 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | The Media Issue 2017 NZ MARKETING IPSOS

Relevance: The extent to which an innovation meets consumer needs.

Expensiveness: The extent to which an innovation is perceived to be higher-priced than competitors (higher price points are not always bad of course, but price points have to be justifiable via high performances on the ALTERNATIVE other two measures here).

Differentiation: TO CONCEPT The extent to which the innovation provides unique benefits versus competitors. OPTIMISATION By testing in a competitive context and using appropriate modelling, results from this kind of analysis can be delivered quickly and flexibly, so no further re-testing is usually necessary. Another key benefit from using these three measures is that they are not biased toward INNOVATION RESEARCH - AN ART AND familiar concepts like line extensions, so we can A SCIENCE be confident that disruptive concepts with high The art is evident in the workshops, potential will not be killed. ideation sessions, and concept-building In addition, by looking at how each concept huddles that take place at the earliest performs across these three variables it is also stages of innovation. This is where possible to profile the nature of each concept’s creativity, imagination and ingenuity meet profile – e.g. whether it has the markings of to form the keys to success. being a true winner; simply an also-ran; a And then there’s the science. This happens breakthrough concept; or perhaps a niche or when quantitative testing, optimisation, and premium option – all of which require different modelling help to steer the concept to success. go-to-market strategies. Often there are multiple combinations of Armed with this information, product product features, benefits, branding, price- innovators can choose the best possible concept points, packaging and insights to measure as the to move forward with; understand its strategic optimum combination for the greatest market role in the innovation portfolio; and predict potential is sought. This can get even more how well it will perform in-market. complex when estimating trial potential, ‘what The high failure rate of newly launched if’ simulations and volume forecasts. products has often been cited in marketing Readers will be familiar with the empirical intent—which kill anything that is different circles, but that need not be the case anymore. tools used to evaluate these factors. However, from what’s already in the market— we at there seems to be a missing piece—one that our Ipsos find that solutions that actually reward clients are increasingly asking us to provide. uniqueness are much better in the long run. The piece in question is the recipe for what This piece was written by Lee Markowitz, Lucy consumers want from the concept. Specifically, GETTING TO THE BEST CONCEPT Robles, Luis Abimerhy and Jonathan Dodd, Ipsos what is the best combination of elements to For this sort of work, many readers will be include in a concept? Our clients narrow down familiar with conjoint trade-off methodology. the best insights, benefits, reasons to believe and There are many variations of this but all they other elements to include in the concept. What will do on their own is identify the winner of the they still need to know is which combination of bunch – but not if the eventual ‘winner’ actually these elements will yield the greatest consumer has sufficient appeal to the target consumer, appeal in the most efficient way. with current competing options factored in. So, how do we do this in a way that So we find that the key is to also have the nurtures unique, disruptive ideas versus various concepts rated on three key factors: a natural selection method which rewards relevance, expensiveness, and differentiation. Please contact: Winifred Henderson, senior client common, close-in ideas? While most concept These measures, which are proven success director, Ipsos NZ, +64 9 538 0537, optimisation tools employ choice or purchase factors, are defined as follows: [email protected]

The Media Issue 2017 | STOPPRESS.CO.NZ | 87 Championing the practice of professional marketing

A REFRESHED VISION AND REFOCUSED Tony Mitchell Acting CEO, Marketing STRATEGIC PILLARS Association of New Zealand

After my first month stepping in from the Marketing VISION Association (MA) board to be the acting CEO, Our vision is to inspire business success through a your development I’ve been focused on bringing to life the strategic connected marketing community. Your source for lifelong professional development. plan that was developed in conjunction with many To achieve this, we will work tirelessly to create a - Qualifications stakeholders. I’d like to take this opportunity to connected community of talented marketers, who - Partnerships share our vision and strategy with you. can in turn promote and deliver marketing success in - Events and Conferences their organisations. The framework has been constructed based on - Training and Skills engagement with our 7,000-plus members – New STRATEGIC PILLARS - Resources and Toolkits Zealand marketers who want an association that can The strategic pillars support the vision by focusing provide three core functions: our efforts, initiatives and interactions to be connected • relevant education, development and connections aligned with the core needs of our members. your community for every stage of their marketing career; The pillars have been created through significant Creating tangible connections between members, • a membership body that can be the voice for their research on the membership, reviewing best-in- leaders and organisations. concerns and industry issues; class membership models from around the world - Networking • and providing a platform to facilitate connections and strategic planning sessions. between other members, leaders and - Advice and Support organisations. The strategic pillars for your association are: - Regional and Advisory Groups - Your development - Awards and Recognition With ever-increasing complexity in the environment - Your connected community - Student Engagement that marketers and organisations operate in, - Your voice members are looking for the MA to be a partner throughout their marketing career to help them keep your voice ahead. A voice for marketers. - Advocacy and Influence - Marketing Might and Communications

Principal business partners - Regional and Advisory Groups - Thought Leadership

88 www.marketing.org.nz Our members are our key stakeholders and YOUR CONNECTED COMMUNITY YOUR VOICE customers. In most cases, our members are We will create a connected community of talented We will be the leading voice for marketers. organisations, from the very small to the very large. marketers that provides ongoing support, networking, The MA represents the interests of 7,425 members. These organisations range from commercial to mentoring, recognition and advice for members. Ensuring a collective voice for marketers and not-for-profit, to public sector. We have a direct Enabling connections between members to foster representation on key issues is paramount. relationship with both these organisations and the learning, and to support and challenge each other As issues and opportunities arise, we want the MA to individual marketers who work within them. is paramount for ongoing success of the marketing be heard in the marketplace with a strong point of view We also have some members who chose to join profession. us as individuals. that resonates with members and the wider business A connected community of marketers will drive thinking community.ur We acknowledge that these different audiences and promote current content. It facilitates self- have different needs but that they are regulation, development of best practice and creation Our resources will be focused on the initiatives interconnected and brought together under our of networks and valuable life-long connections. to achieve our vision, which include: vision to inspire success through a connected marketing community. Our resources will be focused on the • Advocacy: providing advocacy and YOUR DEVELOPMENT initiatives to achieve our vision, which include: influence for your profession and We will lead the way in developing marketing • Partnerships with leading local and organisations on critical issues talent in New Zealand. international learning institutions • Marketing, Might and Communications: The marketing environment is fast-paced and • Speciality Groups: Including regional Initiatives and activities that act as a keeping your skills current is vital for you and your groups to provide ongoing support and cheerleader for marketing in the wider New organisation's ongoing success. Keeping current is development for northern, central and Zealand environment an ongoing need that requires the right professional southern areas; and advisory groups, development throughout your career. creating connections for members within the areas of specialisation, namely data, The MA will be the premier source of marketing strategic marketing, digital, not-for-profit DELIVERING ON THE STRATEGY development to maintain your marketing value and others as they become relevant The strategic pillars represent a refocusing of the throughout your career journey and for areas of • Networking and Sharing: Networking direction the MA is already heading. This refocus will specialisation. event series allow the initiatives and activities that the MA put in The choices you make with your professional • Student Engagement: Creating awareness, place to become better aligned to members’ needs development will be the differentiator of your attraction and a pathway for a career in over the next 12 to 36 months. It will also support more marketing talent. Your value in the marketplace will marketing with tertiary students targeted use of resources and finances. Over the next remain high, resulting in better career opportunities 12 months you can expect to see: and greater rewards in New Zealand and overseas. • Membership - refined and segmented for effective engagement • Content – sourcing, creating and delivering Our resources will be focused on the relevant customer-centric content through initiatives to achieve our vision, which include: learning, development and events, and marketing • Qualifications: Strategic and technically platforms, to reach our target audience and beyond based curricular that enables a platform for a member’s career. Including certificates, • Delivery – innovative service delivery to provide diplomas, short courses and online learning content locally and classroom programs to deliver against • Networking – provide more effective networking the current and changing development opportunities to our target audience needs of marketers • Stakeholders – increased presence and activity • Events, Awards and Conferences: from regional and advisory groups Education that gathers and inspires • Advice and Advocacy – proactive approach to marketers on the big topics of the improving marketing standards and best practice profession with members, government and media • Resources: Best-practice toolkits, guidelines, We welcome your feedback and I look forward templates, articles, services and advice for to discussing and updating you on our progress your day-to-day role and organisation and success.

develop connect voice 89 THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS When did you last have the chance to tell 12,000 marketers about your product and services?

Sponsoring a Marketing Association kicked off by Betty Li of Netflix). The “We had the great pleasure of Association for over four years, event is a fantastic way to raise your MA team are dedicated, passionate working with the team at the MA first as a sponsor of the Brainy company’s profile, engage with the and fantastic to work with. We’re to host a Sunrise Session around Breakfast Series and more recently MA’s members and showcase your proud to be a partner. ” virtual and augmented reality. as a principal business partner. Being associated with events of the calibre expertise to New Zealand marketers. Grant Torrie From the outset, they were willing The MA team will ensure that you Acting CMO - Fairfax Media New Zealand to go to all lengths to make this a of the Brainy Breakfast series has enjoy all the benefits of association successful event for us. We wanted been great for raising the profile of with the right event, targeted at the “Smarter Data is a very well- to showcase some demos and they Ubiquity amongst the marketing right delegates, with a promotional established event and a must for helped accommodate us in terms of community. Our involvement has also package that underpins your data professionals to have in their space and equipment. The event was enabled us to learn what resonates marketing strategy. calendars. Therefore, as a data well organised, attended and well with the Kiwi marketers, allowing us solutions provider, sponsoring the received with great feedback from to incorporate this into our marketing Each year, new sponsors join the event was the perfect way for us to our team and attendees. “ automation products and services. “ MA network – this year, the MA was engage with our target audience and Sam Ramlu Nathalie Morris delighted to welcome Fairfax Media Managing director, Ubiquity it exceeded expectations with regard Managing director, Method Studios as exclusive sponsors of the Network to brand exposure, leads generated of Executive Marketers and Equifax and ROI. The MA team were also as new sponsors of the Smarter Data A special thank you is due to MA’s SPONSORSHIP OPTIONS great to work with and just made it Conference. Here’s what they had to two principal business partners, New Principal Business Partnership really easy organising everything.” say about the experience: Zealand Post and Ubiquity, for their Premier Conference Sponsor Exhibitor Darron Jermy ongoing support and involvement. “Sponsoring the Network of Head of marketing services NZ, Equifax Event Series Sponsor Both have shown true commitment Executive Marketers (NEM) is an Sunrise Sessions to the New Zealand marketing opportunity for Fairfax Media Content Hub Sponsor community. New Zealand Post are to support growth and help local Another new sponsorship option is NZDM Awards Category Sponsor also premier sponsors of the Direct talent thrive. An important part of the popular Sunrise Sessions. Free for Services & Suppliers Marketing Conference and the NZ this is being able to connect senior members to attend, these workshops Direct Marketing Awards. To find out more, please contact marketers and facilitate those are delivered by suppliers who the MA on 09 361 7760 or conversations. We’re excited to value the opportunity to share their “Ubiquity has enjoyed a strong [email protected] support the NEM events (which were expertise with MA’s members. partnership with the Marketing

90 www.marketing.org.nz FIVE TIPS TO ADVANCE YOUR CAREER IN A DIGITAL INDUSTRY Our global recruitment business gives us landscape transcends age. New Keep abreast of what's happening. great insights into developments and trends job opportunities are countless, 4 Look out for courses, blogs, webinars in the digital industry. Here are some key especially in non-digital industries. and network to find mentors you points every marketer should consider: can learn from. Ask your company to There is no one-size-fits-all support you in developing your skills. Jacqui Barratt masterplan for digital. Digital CEO, SALT Stay agile and take life-long learning 3 is a tool which gives us amazing Build your personal brand online. seriously. Industrial revolution, digital 1 ways of engaging, analysing and Digital changes recruitment. Your revolution, the world will never stand 5 understanding our customers but online footprint matters and a still and we need to learn to keep up it needs to be part of an integrated keyword-optimised CV helps you to and adapt to the changes. strategy. This is your chance to stand get noticed. Digital is for everyone, not just for out. Every company needs people who 2 millennials. All industries undergo understand digital but can put it into digital transformation and the digital context and create the right solutions. NEM NETWORK OF EXECUTIVE MARKETERS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH FAIRFAX MEDIA

The Network of Executive Marketers (NEM) is an elite group of New Zealand’s senior marketers and decision makers. In 2017, we will be delivering exclusive events and experiences featuring distinguished global and local speakers.

NEM Member criteria includes: Senior marketers with a minimum of 10+ years executive level experience Chartered Marketer (CIM) Executives from Businesses and Agencies

To apply to become an NEM member, please email us at: [email protected]

develop connect voice 91 UPGRADE YOUR OPPORTUNITIES IN 2017 MA CERTIFICATE AND DIPLOMA COURSES

After feedback received from students and practitioners, the MA is very happy to announce the breaking down of traditionally siloed that we are launching a range of new certificate and business units of technology, customer and diploma courses. marketing with new roles appearing that bring together customer experience and As the hub of New Zealand’s marketing industry, digital responsibilities. It’s now imperative you can be confident that our courses are to keep up with new trends. Completing the developed locally with content relevant to New Certificate of Digital Marketing inspired me Zealand marketers. to take charge of my learning, to be more WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR YOU? proactive and to make learning part of what • We are keeping all the good bits, including our I do every day. It provided the foundation, world-class facilitators. which helped me to understand the impact • More practical content, relevant to our New of new trends and grew my confidence to try Zealand context. new things. I come back often to build on what • Improved course content, assessment methods I learned to grow my knowledge over time.” and processes. • All courses will still award CPD credits towards a TESTIMONIALS Chartered Institute of Marketing status. Certificate and Diploma courses: Check out the new and improved courses below: Adrian McNearney, assistant marketing • Certificate of Marketing, starting 27 July, Short Courses: manager for ASB, Certificate in Auckland Marketing, 2016: “The course exceeded • Certificate of Digital Marketing, starting 25 July, Amy Batty, T&G Global, Copywriting (two- my expectations. I enjoyed the course, Auckland, and 5 August, Wellington day) course, 2017: “The mix of process and every Wednesday I actually looked forward • Diploma of Marketing Management, starting 26 practical implementation over the course to going to my class. I’m grateful for the July, Auckland allowed me to implement the skills learnt opportunity, my tutor and my classmates. into my work life easily. I highly recommend It’s definitely worth the investment and this course to anyone looking to learn the Contact us with code MAL&D2017 before your own time and if you’re looking to get basics or hone their copywriting skills." 31 July, to receive a $50 discount off any that one step ahead.” Certificate / Diploma or Short Course. [email protected] (09) 361 7760 Sam Davidson, Mitre 10, Digital Boot Janna Alexander, marketing and Camp, 2017: “I really enjoyed the course. The communications manager at Active Health after-hours timing and two-hour blocks were CASE STUDY Care, Diploma of Marketing Management: really manageable and allowed you to digest Kim Versfeld, head of customer engagement, “For me, being able to sit down and focus on each subject area well. The topics worked senior marketer and NZDM Award Winner my company and our specific challenges and well together, especially finishing off with “As marketers, we are seeing disruptions write a strategic marketing plan throughout a focus on measuring digital marketing. I that are radically changing marketing the course, as well as hearing from industry found myself applying the knowledge pretty team structures, what marketers do and experts and being able to discuss with like- quickly. Met some cool people and look the strategy that drives us. We're seeing minded marketers, was a great experience, forward to the next course.” marketers leading large customer and digital and exactly what I needed. And to, at the focused projects, with increasingly more end of it, come out with a marketing plan cross functional groups of people. that I was able to use every day in my work Increased focus on customer is blurring of and use that as the structure to base my the lines with customer experience seeing year's plan around was really valuable.”

92 www.marketing.org.nz Calendar

04/05 JUL 25 JUL 14 SEP 2 day short course Event STRATEGIC BRAND KNOWLEDGE BITES

MANAGEMENT Sponsored by APD 21 CPD credits 1.5 CPD credits Wellington Christchurch

06 JUL 25 JUL 1 day short course Event SOCIAL MEDIA FOR KNOWLEDGE BITES MARKETERS 10.5 CPD credits Sponsored by APD Auckland 1.5 CPD credits Auckland Wellington Also available in Christchurch on 16 AUG in partnership with Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce 17 OCT 21 NOV AUG 6 week short course JUL 15 06 Event DIGITAL BOOT Event Short course CAMP SUNRISE SESSION 18 CPD credits BRAINY BREAKFAST Auckland Presented by Ubiquity Sponsored by Ubiquity 1.5 CPD credits 1.5 CPD credits Auckland Auckland 19 OCT 1/2 day short course JUN AUG 27/28 29 FACEBOOK FOR 2 day short course Event BUSINESS MARKETING DIRECT MARKETING 5.25 CPD credits CONFERENCE Christchurch FUNDAMENTALS Brought to you in partnership with Canterbury 21 CPD credits Sponsored by New Zealand Post Employers’ Chamber of Commerce Auckland 10.5 CPD credits Also available in Wellington, 26/27 Sep Auckland 01/02 NOV 27/28 JUL 19 SEP NEW COURSE 2 day short course STRATEGIC BRAND 2 day short course 1 day short course MANAGEMENT COPYWRITING PROGRAMMATIC 21 CPD credits ESSENTIALS MARKETING Auckland 21 CPD Credits Wellington 10.5 CPD credits For more information and to view our full list of events & courses visit: www.marketing.org.nz Also available in Auckland, 18/19 Oct Auckland All event details are correct at the time of publication

develop connect voice 93 Join the Marketing Association We help marketers succeed and connect with New Zealand marketing success. Our purpose is to inspire business What we deliver: success through a connected marketing community. We do this connected by helping our members develop, your development your community your voice connect and have a voice. We lead marketing talent We bring marketers together. We give marketing We have a thriving member base of development. The MA enables connections a collective voice. over 7,000 businesses and marketing The MA is the premier source of between members, to facilitate The MA ensures marketing industry professionals, and we connect with development to ensure you stay support, learning, self-regulation representation on key issues, with a over 10,000 people every single week. current in marketing throughout your and network creation. strong point of view that resonates career journey. with the business community. As the only New Zealand industry body dedicated to marketing, we work tirelessly to have marketing services include services include services include seen as a success driver for – Qualifications, including certificates, – Partnerships, with leading local and – Advocacy, providing influence for organisations of all shapes and sizes. diplomas, short courses, online international learning institutions marketing and organisations on Our members are facing complexity learning and classroom programs – Support, for northern/central/ critical issues and pace in their operating – Events, Awards and Conferences, southern regional areas and – Marketing might and environments, and we partner with including the TVNZ NZ Marketing advisory groups Communications, including them throughout their marketing Awards, NZDM Awards, Brainy – Connections, for members in initiatives and activities that act as career to help them keep ahead. Breakfasts, Sunrise Sessions and specialist areas a cheerleader for marketing in the So join the MA today and reap the Knowledge Bites – Networking, via events series wider New Zealand environment benefits for your career and your – Resources, covering best-practice – Student Engagement, to create awareness and pathway for careers organisation. toolkits, guidelines, templates, in marketing articles and advice for you and your organisation

communications, whether by mail or Build and protect your reputation telephone, at their home addresses. The Do Not Call and Do Not Mail lists, as well ADVICE LINE: ASK KEITH DATA WARRANTY REGISTER both consumer and business data as the NZ Deaths List, are available by We're here to help our members stay What is the Data Warranty Register? to demonstrate the effectiveness subscription for organisations. on the right side of the many laws that of a self-regulatory regime, thereby The Data Warranty Register (DWR) affect marketing and marketers. reducing the likelihood of restrictive The Name Suppression Service allows is a self-regulatory system that will laws being implemented which may members of the public to add their Typical advice line enquiry topics: provide best-practice transparency affect the ability (and the right) to take name to Do Not Call and Do Not Mail • Sales Promotions and the Gambling Act relating to the collection, storage and goods and services to market. lists. The MA then allows subscribers • Email communications….Do you use of marketing data by New Zealand to access these lists, along with an need consent to send? businesses for marketing purposes. Companies that carry the Data additional Deaths Information list. • Terms and conditions It is designed to be an effective Warranted logo treat your personal • Privacy, collection, transfer and identifier of data owners, providers information with respect and absolute storage of data and enhancers who follow best privacy, in accordance with best practice practice guidelines and/or are trusted standards and New Zealand law. To find out how to subscribe or • Name suppression services sources of data. for more information: • Competitions NAME SUPPRESSION SERVICES [email protected] • Supplier and agency The DWR is intended to future-proof Consumers have the right to opt out or phone 09 361 7760 recommendations the collection, storage and use of of receiving unsolicited marketing

94 www.marketing.org.nz 2017 Tour to New Zealand

Sheet of collectable stamps 1oz silver proof coin

Get behind The British & Irish Lions 2017 Tour with limited edition collectables Available from your nearest PostShop or online at nzpost.co.nz/lions develop connect voice FLOWCHART START HERE Are you cut out to be a social Are you under media influencer? the age of 35?

Yes No

Great, Bad luck, Congrats on you've met turns out influencing Woohoo! your youth. the basic biological is a young (wo)man's requirements. game.

Are you Thanks, so an actor/singer/ what's next? athlete? GGeet a Yes No Are you a man? reeaall joobb Yes No

I'm positively loaded. Are you rich? Do Sorry, I wasn't you like paying attention. I make-up and was studying this beauty? photo of Taylor Are you physically Yes No Being Swift's eyeshadow. an influencer attractive? is a promising career path, Yes No but not exactly Are neccessary. YYouuTTubbe you funny in BBeeaauuttyy short bursts BBloogggger Yes No

Keeepp doiinngg Do you have style? Are you funny? wwhhaatt yoouu''rre ddooinng Is that a Don't euphemism You've worry, it's for irritable found your true not the end of Do my I'm pretty awkward, bowel calling. your marketing statement but I can write a syndrome? career. Attitude frames and pretty scathing tweet is everything, and genuine lack of when Mum's asleep. you've got a terrible interest in what one. you're saying count?

Time MMaalee sellff-- MMeemmee to get your SSnnappchhat Goo woorrk aat immpproovveemmeennt mmaakkeer Helvetica game ccoommeeddiiaann ann aggennccy gguurru on. Get top tips & tricks from great kiwi innovators on every stage of business growth innovationcouncil.org.nz sticking up for NZ since 1982. Find your own fl ora for the concrete jungle and unleash your creation in our bespoke art frames nationwide. [email protected] /posterpoem @0800phantom www.0800phantom.co.nz