MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU
As Luke Skywalker was urged to trust the Force, so to is Trust (or Distrust) omnipresent in the advertising business. We work in an Industry where trust is a prime currency and a lot of this is granted…or taken for granted! We don’t often think about it. In 2021, SMI says $8.6 billion was put through the Media Agency Industry of which a large amount is conducted via phone or Email – all done on trust. To a large extent, the Media sub-contract all financial risk to Media Agencies, because of the conditions and qualifications of Media Accreditation. Never-the-less each one of us are earning Trust or Distrust through our interaction with the Media. What we do, how we communicate, how we say it, how truthful, transparent and forthright we are, and in observing protocols and deadlines. Decades ago, trust was where most everything was done under the guise of your word is your bond. As most books about the history of Advertising attest, historically verbal agreements were the currency. However the dollars at stake are far greater today.
Beyond this is the much bigger field of consumer based trust and distrust, in services, in brands and their owners.
Morgan Research have been tracking this comprehensively for 4 years since 2019, (in the case of Government partially for 15 years, since 2007). Morgan now conduct a great quarterly presentation of their analysis of findings, trends and rankings.
As Morgan point out, a lot of Clients and Marketing people use Net Promoter Scores, as a yardstick of Brand standing with Consumers, positive consumer scores minus negative = NPS. The issue there is it is simplistic and often done in a silo not taking into account the underlying trends or competitor comparisons. Today (perhaps for ever) the most important trend line is those who Trust or Distrust the Brand or service (or person/personality).
During the past two years of Covid, really significant changes in rankings have occurred. Supermarkets trended upwards and scored heavily and positively due to their responsiveness. They adapted to challenging conditions and various Governments regulations, primarily concerning how to handle Covid and the often resultant panic buying.
For an entirely different reason, Banks have trended upwardly in past two years, post the 2017 Royal Commission into Banking. They largely took the findings and were given the opportunity through Covid, Fires and Floods, to mend their ways and treat their customer/clients with greater care and respect.
Conversely, those whom have not handled their interaction and social responsibility well with the public, have suffered huge reversals, AMP and Rio Tinto the outstanding examples, but many more have changed score and ranking.
Trust and Distrust scores plus trajectory through tracking and trending, are today THE new currency for Brand health, success and longevity.
WHAT’S NEW IN MEDIA – AFL TV RIGHTS UP FOR GRABS
Late 2021 saw Ch9 and Foxtel secure the NRL TV rights worth $400 million per year for the next 5 years, also on the cards right now is the TV rights for the AFL. They are worth a staggering $470 million per year and Ch7 have held the rights exclusively for the past 10 years on Free TV.
As it stands Seven holds the broadcast rights and Foxtel Group the pay TV, which is spread across both Foxtel broadcast and its streaming platform Kayo. Although there was a two-year extension agreed during the pandemic, the last time the rights were properly negotiated was in 2015. It was a deal worth $2.5bn for six years. Most of the money came from Foxtel, with owner News Corp infuriated at being blindsided by NRL doing a deal with Nine.
Despite the fact it’s almost a certainty as a guaranteed loss, the networks can’t pass up such a draw card ratings winner. It’ no surprise the bidding war has commenced from major networks for a 5-year deal from 2024.
However, there is another factor at play here in that Ch10, who was largely discounted over previous bids on AFL rights is in a much stronger position with support from its parent company (Paramount).
Seven knows that losing the AFL will spell disaster as it was for Ch10 when they moved away from the AFL shared rights between themselves and Ch9. The future of AFL and to safeguard the sport long term will be a deciding factor in the bid, although one would argue Ch7 is in a better position over Ch10 right now. However, if history is anything to go by, the AFL TV rights will be secured by whoever has the ‘deepest pockets’ – and one thing is for certain – a truck load of cash is going to be needed to make this deal happen
DIGITAL – XBUCKS & PAYSTATION – ADS IN VIDEO GAMES
Last week Microsoft and Sony both expressed their interest in allowing in-game ads on both Xbox and PlayStation respectively, as the gaming super giants have coincidentally shared their plans at the same time.
Microsoft’s goal is to generate revenue through ads such as in-game billboards, signs and screens. The ads would only be available on free-to-play games (think Halo, Apex Legends, Destiny and multiple more) which proves the adage “nothing is free in life”. Sony‘s plan has been in the works for around 18 months and also indicates ads will only be available on free-to-play games (Fortnite, Warzone, PUBG and a bucket load more). Sony has suggested players could watch ads to earn in-game benefits (eg. skins), the possibilities are truly endless.
This news comes just after a major development in the mobile gaming industry earlier in April. ‘InMobi’, a provider of content, monetisation, and marketing technologies, has signed a deal with in-game ads platform ‘Anzu’. Anzu allows advertisers to run content, still to IAB standard, projected onto 3D objects in the game, such as banners, buildings and billboards. The goal is to blend the ads into the game’s surroundings so they look to be part of the game.
This could become more a popular advertising medium given there is an estimated 3.24 billion gamers across the globe. Interestingly, Asia Pacific is the largest market for video gaming worldwide with 1.48 billion gamers while Europe comes in second place with a gaming audience of 715 million. If you would like more information visit https://www.anzu.io/
SMI UPDATE – MARCH 2022
March continued the positive run of growth in advertising spend in Australia. With a total spend of $697.4 million it was 2.8% higher than March’21. The first quarter of 2022 is now 9.4% higher than Jan-Mar’21 and 9.8% higher than Jan-Mar’20. SMI also monitors the forward bookings for April and May which are showing especially strong levels of growth and more evidence of continuing growth.
Once again, Government expenditure increased enormously (+109.7%) and is now challenging Retail as the largest category spender. The Government spend has increased close to threefold since Jan-Mar’20. Communications (+53.2%) and Financial Services (+44.6%) continued their strong growth. The Insurance sector is also increasing its advertising spend (+15.6%) while the Automotive category continued its decline (-2.8%).
Radio had a strong month with a +10% growth. The vast majority of that came from Regional Radio that grew +18.5%. The interesting trend has been that Regional advertising spend is doing much better than its Metropolitan counterparts. Regional TV, Regional Press and Regional Radio have all had positive increases for the past two months. Digital increased by +11.6% while TV declined -1.7%. News Media (Print & Digital) also declined by -12% and so to Magazines (inc. digital) by -13.9%. Cinema again had a solid month with a +65.2% increase.
FAST FACTS
- Camels have 3 stomachs
- 64% of Australians would like to lose weight (Morgan)
- Lightning strikes the earth 100 times every second
- There are more galaxies in the universe than grains of sand on earth
- On average, each person takes around 20,000 breathes per day
- 50,000 calls a day are made on Aust. Payphones – fyi, they are now free
At the Easter Show, 34,204 scones were baked by the CWA