Speaking Sensis

Whether you consciously think about it or not, the life of a retailer, online or off, is steeped in behavioural psychology.  As we head towards Christmas, here’s a case study on how to move your customer from buying to owning.

Imagine you are a boutique fashion retailer. Time and again people come in to your store, start their walk around the perimeter, acknowledge your greeting with a strained smile and maybe a “just having a browse” mumble, and then exit without trying any of the clothes.  That’s me – I’m your nightmare. Money to spend, interest in buying, but inert when it comes to engaging with the purchase process.

How is it then that I happily and impulsively spent a few hundred dollars on a dress that I hadn’t imagined owning before I stepped into the store?

Great salespeople are a great experience. 

What got me into the store?
I’m pretty basic – it was a sale sign.  But I wouldn’t have bothered chasing a sale unless the window display was evocative.  Subtle lighting, natural tones, textured faux-stone display materials – the store fit out made me feel like a was entering a place of nature.  And what’s more pleasant than strolling around a place of natural beauty?  It felt special, the clothes were obviously cared for, and the warmth generated by the store rippled through me as I started my perimeter stroll. 

How did the sales assistant engage me? 
Catherine (yes I learnt her name through the exercise) greeted me from a non-encroaching distance. “Anything I was looking for?” “No just browsing.”  But then her genius move – “Can I try this jacket on you?”. And she did.  She effectively was asking a favour of me – and through so doing she won my trust because the jacket was great.  But then, “There’s a dress that would really suit you” – and off she skipped to the other side of the store, presenting the dress for my reaction.  She’d already managed to engage me through the jacket and I knew through this exercise she had expertly appraised my figure and gained my trust.  Most of all, it felt like she was truly interested in me not in making a sale. She had invested herself in the experience.

How did she make the sale?
The dress went on and was great. But then the show began. The other sales assistant tagged teamed as they demonstrated all the features – yes features – of this wonder dress. Tie it this way, tie it that way – multiple looks as a result of this beautifully, cleverly and practically designed dress.  Add a cummerbund and add another layer of versatility. 

Was I thinking price at this point…kind of. But by that stage it was a question of how much I would pay, not whether I would.  By that point I could have justified almost any price because I had moved way beyond ‘buying’ and was already in ‘owning’ land. And did I feel I was being sold to? No. I felt like they were helping me.

So what are the lessons for small business owners and operators?

Make the experience concrete not abstract – asking me if I was looking for something in particular would have been less effective than asking me to try on a jacket.  For online sites, telling me to click for the product catalogue is less effective than telling me to click to view details, availability and pricing for 23 skirts.

Create a consistent experience throughout the process – in this case, the store fit-out was consistent with both the clothes and the warm attitude of the staff.  Don’t set up a consumer campaign that celebrates fun, connection and happiness if you grind your customers down with a bureaucratic, boring and cumbersome purchase experience – you’ll confuse people about your brand integrity and savage your conversion rate.

Consider reciprocation – asking me for a favour was a way of making the relationship two way.  I was then prone to ask the sales assistant a “favour” ie I was more prone to ask for what I wanted – the ‘power balance’ was equalised.  Seems strange given I was the buyer with the purchasing power, but when dealing with an inert shopper like me, it was a great strategy to get me to act.  How can you create a two way relationship with your customers with the aim of making them more comfortable to do business with you?

No doubt retail is a tough gig so in the lead up to the Christmas season I’d encourage you to take a fresh look at the interactions you have with your customers and see whether some behavioural tweaking is in order. It might just make the difference.

The Sensis® Social Media Report backs up the views of social media experts by showing that engagement is critical to social marketing.

One of the most significant findings of the Sensis® Social Media Report is that consumer uptake of social media far outstrips business uptake. This leads to the conclusion that Australian businesses need to do more to ‘follow the audience’.

But, how?

For a long time, the experts have been telling us the secret is engagement: being able to connect with consumers in a relationship that benefits all.

And the Sensis® Social Media Report bears this out.

Overall, Australian social media users seem roughly split on the legitimacy of advertising in social media. About half don’t like it, while the other half either don’t mind or welcome it.

That’s not so bad. But the skies become less sunny when you consider that only 29% of people say they take notice of advertising on social media. And (coincidentally), only 29% say they sometimes click on social media ads.

In other words, while the acceptance of social media advertising isn’t too bad, we’ve got a fair way to go before it becomes really effective.

So does that mean the social media doors are closed for marketers?

Absolutely not!

You see, in the midst of all this advertising apathy, 63% of social media users say they read online reviews and blogs when searching for information about products and services.

And those consumers expect to read an average of six reviews before making a decision.

But that’s not all. Social media users also have a voracious appetite for something extra. 57% want discounts, 45% want give-aways, 41% want invitations to events and 36% want coupons.

In other words, while social media users aren’t reacting to ads, they’re really big on information and incentives.

And that’s where the opportunity lies. There’s value to be had for marketers who try to be useful, rather than try to be snappy.

And that value can be magnified if you can meet people’s needs so well that they openly advocate for you. That’s because, 27% of Internet users have provided online ratings while 24% have posted an online review or blog.

As everyone keeps saying, the potential for social media marketing is huge. But to unlock that value, we need to see consumers as targets for service, not targets for spin.

Okay, have a guess. Which Australian state is first past the post when it comes to social media?

Too easy. With their higher population and access to technology, it’d be NSW and Victoria in a canter.

Right?

Wrong.

In fact the Sensis® Social Media Report has found that our two most populous states sit in the middle when it comes to most measures of social media uptake.

And that there’s one state that stands head and shoulders above the rest… Tasmania.

To show you what I mean, here is a roll call of leading states in the social media stakes.

Most connected: Tasmania
100% of Tasmanians access the Internet. The national average is 94%.

Most social (consumers): Tasmania (by a mile!)
44% of Tasmanian social media users are networking every day compared to a national average of only 30%. However, they average 160 ‘friends, contacts or followers’, which is well under the national average of 217.

Most social (businesses): ACT and Queensland
20% of Queensland and ACT businesses have a social media presence, which is way ahead of the national average of 15%.

Most friendly: Victoria
Victorian social media users have an average of 241 friends or followers each compared to 217 nationally.

Most brand friendly: Tasmania
Tasmania walloped the other states. 39% of Tasmanian social media users follow sites or groups associated with brands, compared to a national average of 20%.

Most bargain friendly: Queensland
16% of Queensland social media users have used group buying sites compared to a national average of 12%.

Most vocal: Tasmania
37% of Tasmanian social media users have written an online review or blog about their views on a product or service. This is way above second placed Northern Territory (28%) and eclipses the national average of 24%. Meanwhile, 67% of Tasmanian social media users have used online reviews or blogs to research product purchases. This is second only to Western Australia on 69%.

I’ve been thinking what might be behind these trends. Is Tassie’s very high uptake of the Internet (100%, as I mentioned before) driving all this social media activity? Or is there a sense of isolation that social media might be remedying? (Interestingly, social media take-up is also relatively strong in NT). Maybe it’s all of the above, but whatever it is, Tasmanians are the savvy social media users to watch!

The Sensis Social Media Report, which was released last week in conjunction with the Australian Interactive Media Indsutry Association, had some interesting things to say about social media trends among older Australians.

HELPING YOU STAY IN TOUCH

It’s no surprise that the uptake of social networks in Australia is heavily weighted to teens and young adults. According to the Sensis Social Media Report (which is available for free download from the Sensis corporate site), 93% of 14 – 29 year olds have used social media at some point compared to only 31% for over 65s.

While uptake maybe relatively low, the reasons why middle aged and senior Australians are using social media make for interesting reading.

Their reasons suggest that social media could have an enormous role to play in enriching the lives of older Australians in the years to come.

Consider this:

• 60% of over 50s use social media to share photos or videos. This is second only to 20 – 29 year olds and well above the 56% for all Australians.
• 18% of over 65s use social media to meet new friends – this proportion is exceeded only by 14 – 29 year olds.
• 14% of over 65s are using social media ‘to find people with the same interests that you have’. That’s bang on the average for all people and well ahead of 20 – 39 year olds and 50 – 64 year olds.

Growing old must be difficult for many Australians. You spend decades building a life, a family and a network of friends; only to find that they slowly ebb away due to an increasing loss of mobility.

I’ve seen this myself over the last few years. Before they made the trip to aged care, I watched my parents gradually become prisoners in their own home. Due to growing immobility, their ability to socialise – something the rest of us take for granted – became more and more difficult; to the point where they only rarely left the house and hardly ever saw their friends.

Social networks bring with them an enormous opportunity to alleviate the loneliness of advancing age. They offer a way to talk, share and even play with family and friends regardless of distance and mobility issues.

Which, in an ageing country like Australia, could become very important in the future.

HELPING YOU SHOP

Of course, many middle aged and senior Australians are as mobile as ever and living very active lives.

Which leads to another interesting observation about the use of social media in Australia.

You see, Australians over the age of fifty are showing a tendency to rely heavily on social media for purchase decisions.

• 17% of over 65s use social media to research holiday destinations or travel offers: the highest percentage for all age groups
• And 17% of 50 – 64 year olds, use social media ‘to research other products or services you might want to buy’. This response shared the top spot with 12 – 19 year olds.

There’s a simple message here. You wouldn’t normally think about over 50s as an audience for social media marketing.

But, given their spending power and propensity to use social media to research purchases, social media could be a significant opportunity for over 50s marketers in the years to come.

As a self-professed iPad convert, not only is this week exciting for me personally but it also marks a milestone for the team here at Sensis as we’ve just launched the much anticipated Yellow Pages iPad app.

The app, developed by our talented in-house team over the past few months, brings together for the first time our digital and print content in the one device. It also adds another layer to our multi-channel platform strategy – now spanning print, online, mobile, search engines, iPhone, Android (to name a few!) and now… iPad!

So, the reach of Yellow Pages print and digital products extends to another new audience this week which means Yellow Pages advertisers now have even more ways to reach consumers, and people searching for businesses now have a new way to access the information.

A bit about the new app – it’s free to download and includes all the information you’d expect from Yellow Pages, and it comes in two versatile views so you can choose how to search and view businesses on your iPad:

Business listings are displayed on an interactive combined map and list view

Or you can check out the business ‘ad view’ which displays Yellow Pages book ads based on relevance to the search term – in other words, it’s the digital version of a print search for many of our ads

The app allows you to FIND businesses nearby, SHARE them with friends and SAVE them for later.

And we’re not talking about one-line listings here either! You should check out the content – the listings can include contact details, product and service information, a photo gallery, videos and links to social media.

The app lets you search by name, category or keyword and as you type a list of possible options are presented so you’ll find what you’re looking for faster. There are a number of other helpful features:

See results for businesses ‘nearest to you’ (your current location) or at a predefined location

Share listings with your friends using Send to Mobile or Send to Email

Save business details to ‘contacts’ so you can access them later

We can’t wait to get this app out amongst the iPad community and hear what people think – so make sure you download it now and post your feedback after you’ve used it.

You’ll find the app under Yellow Pages in the App store.

Well, it’s that time of the year again. Every August, Telstra reports its annual financial results for the financial year to June (FY10). And that, of course, means Sensis reports as well. So I’m pleased to use this opportunity to give you a brief rundown of our FY10 performance.

First, I’m pleased to say that Sensis has delivered growth (adjusted) in what has been a very challenging year.

On an adjusted basis, Sensis’ EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation) grew by 2.4% to $1.21 billion. This was based on revenue of $2.19 billion (up 1.0%) and expenses pre depreciation and amortisation of $982m (down 0.6%).

I should explain what we mean by ‘adjusted’. During the year, a number of extraordinary items impacted our financial position. These were the transfer of Trading Post to Telstra, the sale of Universal Publishers, the acquisition two businesses in China and the impact of the falling Australian dollar on our China revenue. All of these items have a ‘one off’ impact on our FY10 results. To get to an ‘apples with apples’ comparison between this year and last year, we need to adjust for the impact of these one-off items.

Digging a bit deeper, I found four things really encouraging about our FY10 performance.

A solid performance in a tough year for SMEs and the advertising industry
The first is that Sensis was able to grow in a very tough year. We were operating in markets that were heavily affected by the global financial crisis – both in Australia and China.

Throughout the 2009 calendar year the Australian main media market experienced what may have been the largest decline in its history. The overall market (including online) declined by 8% for the year, while print media specifically declined by 13%(1). In contrast, our Yellow Pages® and White Pages® print revenue declined by 5.1%: a strong result considering that almost all this revenue was earned during the 2009 calendar year.

At the same time, Australia’s SMEs (who make up the bulk of our customer base) registered some of the lowest confidence levels in the history of the Sensis Business Index during this period. And, while confidence has partially recovered, it is still very patchy.

SME perceptions of the economy fell from +50% (i.e. more SMEs with a positive perception) in late 2007 to -72% in early 2009, when the Yellow Pages® FY10 metro canvass was being sold. Perceptions rose in late 2009 (Yellow Pages® non metro canvass), before falling again in May this year: from +24% to -1% in just one quarter(2).

Yellow Pages® remains the growth engine for Australian SMEs… now and into the future
The second notable element of this year’s result was the continued strength of Yellow Pages®.

Yellow Pages® sole focus is on driving sales leads to hundreds of thousands of Australian businesses, most of which are small to medium enterprises. And while this core purpose hasn’t changed, the way we deliver leads has evolved enormously.

These days, Yellow Pages® is much more than print. It’s evolved into a multi-platform lead generation network. Yellow Pages® advertisers can now be searched for through Yellow Pages print, online, online, mobile, iPad and T-Hub. That’s over 14m visits by potential buyers a week(3), with about 70% of searches resulting in the buyer contacting a business.

Those same advertisers can also be searched for through our Whereis® and voice services, like 1234. That’s another 2.3m visits a week(4). And third party sites through which Yellow Pages® can be searched (like Google Maps and Bing Maps) receive many more potential visits every week.

It’s the diversity of this network that gives Yellow Pages® advertisers the edge over their competitors. Through just one company, our business customers can be searched for in print, online, voice and mobile: in directories, general and local search engines and mapping sites.

And there’s a lot more to come, so stay tuned.

Digital is leading the way forward. Our digital innovations are kicking goals.
It’s also been a great year for innovation, particularly in digital media. In fact, digital now accounts for 20% of our Australian revenue, which makes digital a major player for Sensis and the key growth engine moving forward.

The undoubted highlight has been the performance of our mobile services. Sensis’ total mobile usage grew by 80% to 3 million visits per month (15% of total digital usage)(5). Within that, we saw some fantastic growth from our new innovations. The White Pages® Mobile site grew from nothing to 410,000 monthly visits in less than a year, while our Yellow Pages® and White Pages® iPhone apps grew from nothing to almost 600,000 monthly visits in even less time. Even now, months after their launch, the Yellow Pages® and White Pages® iPhone apps are the fifth and seventh most popular free Lifestyle apps in Apple’s AppStore(6). Meanwhile, our more established mobile sites maintained strong growth, with Whereis® Mobile up 43% to 950,000 monthly visits and Yellow Pages® Mobile (not including iPhone app usage) up 56% to 560,000 monthly visits.

We’ve also been able to make very significant improvements to our online sites. We’ve made substantial upgrades to almost all our sites, designed to improve your ability to search our advertiser base and the quality of content you receive. We’ve also added social media sharing capabilities to White Pages® Online, Yellow Pages® Online and Citysearch®. We’ve also added new content to the Whereis® digital mapping database, including national upgrades to road geometry, point of interest features, 3D landmarks, junction views. This is all designed to make using satellite navigation a better experience for users of Whereis® powered systems.

And we’ve backed these many user experience improvements up with new digital advertising bundles, which make it easier for advertisers to profile themselves across our networks in the way they want to. These bundles, such as Purely Mobile Business and Digital Content Maximiser have performed exceptionally well, with uptake of both running well above target.

A big thank you
Finally, perhaps the most encouraging element of this year’s results has been the support of people – the customers and employees that are crucial to Sensis.

To begin with, thank you to all our customers – both users of our products and advertisers – for your unwavering support this year. It was pleasing to see that, despite the many challenges FY10 has delivered, our customers have remained very positive about the services we offer. In fact, today, many advertisers are asking us to do more for them, like providing new value-added marketing services to their businesses. To me, these requests are a real vote of confidence, and I can confirm we’re definitely going to respond to them. We have recognised a number of opportunities to improve the service we provide to our customers and we’ll be relentless in pursuing them. We’re listening, and keen to respond.

As I said before, stay tuned.

Of course, our FY10 performance would not have been possible without the people who are Sensis. It takes a difficult year like this to test any business and I want to really thank and congratulate our people for their commitment, not just to Sensis but to the needs of our customers, over FY10.

Until next time,

Bruce Akhurst

1: CEASA Main Media Report, December 2009
2: Sensis Business Index, May 2010 and earlier
3: All data represents average weekly visits, June quarter 2010. Print data from TMP, Universal Measurement Programme. Digital (online and mobile) data from Omniture SiteCatalyst.
4: Digital (online and mobile) data from Omniture SiteCatalyst. Voice data from Sensis internal call data.
5: Omniture SiteCatalyst, average monthly visits for June quarter 2010 vs June quarter 2009
6: Apple AppStore: Top free apps in the Lifestyle category. Average of daily results for the period 2 August 2010 to 6 August 2010

At an American Chamber of Commerce luncheon next week, Sensis CEO, Bruce Akhurst, will be talking about the challenges and opportunities Sensis has faced in evolving the Yellow Pages® from a print directory to a multi-channel, multi-brand network.

Thanks to digital media, we now live in a world of proliferating choice.

And, with their attention, people are telling us they want that choice. They’re demanding ubiquitous access to media – what they want, whenever and wherever they want it.

In this world, the challenge for media companies isn’t “how do I get advertisers online?” It’s “how do I get them everywhere”?

On Tuesday 1 June, Sensis CEO Bruce Akhurst will be in Sydney talking at an American Chamber of Commerce luncheon about “The Challenge of Choice”.

Bruce will discuss Yellow Pages®’ decade-long journey from a print directory to a multi-channel, multi-brand advertising network:  a journey that has challenged Sensis’ technology, product development and every other part of the business.

If you’d like to attend, you can find more information about the event, together with booking details, at the American Chamber of Commerce web site.

Hi again, and thanks for taking the time to find out more about how Sensis is bringing buyers and sellers together. In today’s update you can read about a tasty new way to demonstrate the value of Yellow® Pages; kicking off the 2010 metro canvass; more new innovations to make life easier for buyers and sellers; the phenomenal growth of mobile; and some more great news about our commitment to sustainability.


8,500 guys and girls and a pizza place
In April, Sensis ran a ground-breaking campaign that really brought the value of Yellow Pages® to life. The campaign worked a bit like this. Team up with well-known Melbourne pizza chef, Tony Fazio. Open a restaurant offering free pizza for two weeks. Don’t tell anyone the address or phone number. Instead tell them to “look it up the way you would any other business”. Then sit back and watch the dough fly.

And fly it did. Over the campaign’s two weeks, over 8,500 calls were made to Hidden Pizza, with over 70% of the callers saying they found Hidden Pizza through the print, online and mobile Yellow Pages®. That’s a lot of pizza… and a great testament to the ability of Yellow Pages® to bring buyers to your door.

Yellow Pages® Metro Canvass is up and running
Our people are now out and about talking to businesses as part of the 2010 Yellow Pages® metropolitan canvass. This must be one of the largest customer engagement programs in Australia, with consultants all over Australia contacting more than half a million businesses over the next few months.

This year, we’ve got some great new products for our customers. These include a Brisbane version of the popular Yellow Pages® In the Car book, Yellow Pages® Online Gold Plus, which is a new advertising solution for businesses without a web site, and enhanced accountability through our metered ad program.

But, perhaps the most exciting new step is a range of bundles that make it even easier for our customers to advertise right across our network. As I’ve talked about before, Yellow Pages® has evolved from a print directory to a diverse and sophisticated advertising network spanning print, online, voice and mobile. These bundles make it easier for businesses to profile themselves to potential buyers right across the network.

From the labs
Of course, we’ve been busy delivering for buyers – the people who use our products – as well.

Firstly, we’ve launched more new features to make our digital services easier to use.

Recently, we reconfigured the Yellow Pages® Online search experience. To begin with, we’ve dropped the ‘business name’ and ‘business type’ radio buttons in favour of a more intuitive search. Now, you can search for a business name, like ‘Sensis’ without having to click a ‘business name’ search button. Instead Yellow Pages® Online will drop down suggested listings relating to Sensis for you to choose from. We’ve also re-built the business profile pages to give buyers easier access to more content. The results of this have been pretty immediate, with a significant reduction in nil result searches and a big rise in interaction: most notably in the number of business profile readers clicking on email links and image galleries.

We’ve also added a series of new features to the White Pages® Online site. White Pages® is all about finding people and businesses you already know, so it’s a fair bet that you’ll be wanting to find your White Pages® contacts over and over again. Recently, we made this easier with the ability to save your contacts to a new ‘My List’ feature on White Pages® Online. We also launched send to mobile, which lets you send your listing from White Pages® Online straight to your mobile to save in your contacts.  In May, we’ll be taking this a step further by launching a new ‘save and share’ feature. With save and share, you’ll be able to save your White Pages® contacts to your pages on Facebook and a wide range of other social networks.

Secondly, we’ve made our services easier to access with new additions to our network.

As you may know, Telstra recently released the home phone of the future, the T-Hub. This is great for buyers and sellers using our services because White Pages®, Yellow Pages® and 1234 (with Whereis® coming soon) are all easily accessible right where your phone is. Just one touch of the console and you’re searching. And when you find the result in Yellow Pages®, you don’t even have to dial… just click to call.

The Yellow Pages® enhanced location search on Whereis.com I mentioned last time is also delivering results. Yellow Pages advertisers are now being profiled on Whereis.com more than 8 million times a month: a number that’s been boosted by about 2 million since we launched the enhanced location feature . This is fantastic for both buyers and sellers. It means Whereis is playing a growing role in bringing buyers and sellers together, while improving the ROI we can offer Yellow Pages® advertisers.

Finally, we’ve also been busy in the mobile space.

We launched a new CitySearch® Mobile site, with an improved look and feel, expanded TV and Movies content, a new ‘Bars’ vertical and improved mapping functionality. And we also launched new Yellow Pages® and White Pages® apps for Android devices to complement the incredibly successful launch of our iPhone apps.

Mobile coming up trumps
On that note, mobile has been an incredible success story for the buyers and sellers who rely on our services. As I’ve mentioned before, mobile usage is growing at a rate of knots. Average monthly Yellow Pages® Mobile visits for the March quarter have doubled YoY yet again. When you look across our entire network, mobile now accounts for over 13% of our total digital (online and mobile) usage.

And smart phone apps are playing an enormous role in this exciting growth. iPhone apps account for something like half of our total Yellow Pages® Mobile and White Pages® Mobile usage and these two apps still sit in the lifestyle category Top 10 in Apple’s App Store … months after they were launched.

More great news on the sustainability front
As I mentioned last month, I’m really proud of the positive contribution being made by our sustainability initiatives; such as our directory recycling program and the decision to offset our carbon emissions through Greenhouse Friendly™ accredited providers and projects in Australia.

Now, we’ve taken this a step further with the release of a new book: Small Business, Big Opportunity: Sustainable Growth. This free book, which is a complement to our highly successful advertising guide, provides practical information on how businesses can reduce their impact on the environment and save money as well.

Small Business, Big Opportunity: Sustainable Growth has been written by Jon Dee, who is the Founder and Managing Director of the not-for-profit action group, Do Something, and the NSW Australian of the Year 2010. If you’d like to order a copy, just check out the Small Business section on our corporate web site.

And finally, in more good news on the sustainability front, I’m pleased to say that our efforts to support a more sustainable future are being acknowledged. Last year we joined the global Corporate Responsibility Index program for the first time. This program is run in Australia by the St James Ethics Centre and we were incredibly proud to achieve a ‘Bronze’ rating and Best New Entry Award in our first year. Since then, we’ve put a lot more work into our sustainability commitments and, as a result, I’m told we have lifted our result even higher this year. More on that next time, when the results are out.

Until then, all the best,

Is traditional media bowing before the online juggernaut? Don’t you believe it.

Well, trounce me with a tablet and tell me I’m a technophobe.

In contrast with the armies of ‘gurus’ claiming an increasingly irrelevant traditional media is on its knees begging for sweet mercy from the digerati, out come the following two reports.

In February, The Nielsen Company’s Australian Internet and Technology Report 2009 – 2010  found that “the continued increase in time spent online amongst Internet users has, overall, not been at the expense of other media.”

Nielsen found that, while, time spent online grew by over an hour in 2009, consumption of traditional media (like TV, radio and newspapers) actually grew as well.

Go figure!

In fact, Nielsen’s results over several years suggest that, while Internet users tend to spend less (but still substantial) time consuming traditional media than non Internet users, the actual time they spend with traditional media has remained pretty well flat for quite a few years now.

In other words, while time spent online has risen massively, time spent offline hasn’t fallen in response.

Then in March, way over the other side of the world, KPMG UK reported a similar kind of trend.

Their Media and Entertainment Barometer for March found that while time spent online grew by 74 minutes in the six months to March, traditional media consumption ALSO grew by 33 minutes.

So what?

I can’t help thinking there’s a really simple, but really important, message in this data.

That traditional and digital together is far more powerful than digital alone.

Digital media is a massive part of our lives today and will play an even bigger role in the future.

But it won’t be alone, because people want choice. They want a paper in their hands and on their mobiles. They want TV in their lounge and on their iPad.

And the more choice people get, the more media they consume.

In short, the future is everywhere, not just online.

Maybe we should put an end to these phoney media wars and start realising we’re all in this together.

Because, clearly, that’s what consumers (and advertisers) want.

The last six months of 2009 was a mixed bag for the Australian media market. While a number of media are experiencing real challenges, the sector as a whole showed slight improvement in the December half, with the Internet and TV (particularly pay TV) being the big winners.

So, do you like a good roller coaster? Well, the ad industry has a pearler for you.

According to the December 2009 CEASA Report – the ‘bible’ of revenue in the Australian main media market – the GFC gave the ad industry a not unexpected whacking in 2009. Advertising expenditure (covering newspapers, magazines, directories, TV, radio, online, outdoor and cinema) fell by 8% during 2009 to about $12.6bn.

Ouch.

Mind you, just like all good roller coasters, just when the slippery slope looks like slamming you into the soil, up you go again. The CEASA report pointed to a slight improvement in the December half. And while things still looked weak, they weren’t quite as bad (in most places) as the June half, suggesting a recovery maybe in play.

To reinforce this trend, the latest SMI report, which came out a few days ago, suggested that the media market gathered the upward force of your average space shuttle in the March quarter, with growth of approximately 10% compared to the same time last year. Mind you, the SMI report doesn’t cover the full market in the way CEASA does, so you can’t directly compare the results.

While this is good news for a media sector that did it tough during 2009, the champagne corks aren’t popping everywhere. In fact, when you look under the hood, you find that the results across different sectors of the ad industry are going up and down like a … well, this is a family blog.

So who were the big winners and losers in 2009?

The Ups

Not surprisingly, online was the only major sector to grow in 2009, although it clearly wasn’t a great year by Internet standards. In fact, the industry looked quite weak in the July and September quarters before staging a strong recovery in December.

And, although it still declined by 6% for the year, TV – that other big screen – was also a winner. That’s because TV did a lot better in December (down 2.9%) than June (down 10.6%). This result was heavily supported by pay TV, which grew by 5% for the year.

In fact, TV revenue did so well compared to other the rest of the market that it actually out-muscled newspapers in 2009 to become Australia’s highest earning media sector, possibly for the first time in history.

The Downs

Of course, what goes up must come down … and there’s a few different media that lost big in 2009.

Newspapers were down almost 16% in 2009, although, like TV, they showed a reasonable overall improvement in the December half. But suburban newspapers defied that trend: the 21% decline they experienced in the December half was actually worse than June.

The other big loser was the magazine sector, which went from a 9% decline in the June half to a 26% decline in December.

But the really big loser has got to be classifieds. All newspaper and magazine revenues tend to be a mix of display advertising and classifieds. And while the display ads didn’t do too badly (national newspaper ads were down 5.6% for the year), classifieds took a bath, with newspaper classifieds down 32% and magazine classifieds down a blood curdling 45% (although they are a small part of the overall magazine revenue base).

Directories down? Well, yes… but not all is as it seems

The other segment that was down in the December half was classified directories, which includes print directories and used to also include The Trading Post print. Although there’s some pretty clear reasons why.

Firstly, the Trading Post print publication was closed during the year. This of course heavily impacts the result.

Secondly, Yellow Pages® and White Pages® print revenues are recognised in our accounts mainly in the half of the year following the sale. So the decline you’re seeing in print directories was actually the decline in sales experienced in the June half, when everyone else also fell.

So that’s it:
•    A media industry that’s coming out of the GFC with what looks like a sudden growth spurt in the first three months of this year;
•    And results across the industry that are so topsy turvy they’ll have your cheeks flopping about like a parachutists’ in no time.

Which leaves me with one final question.

Can someone please pass me that brown paper bag?