Speaking Sensis

Hi again. Well, Winter is here with some great rain for our gardens and dams. There’s a lot of exciting things happening at Sensis. And, to top it all off, St Kilda’s nudging the top of the AFL ladder. Could life get any better? In this update, I wanted to share with you some comments on our two speed economy, an exciting couple of months on the innovation front and a few beautiful sets of numbers.

Australia’s two-speed economy
We seem to have hit an uncertain cross-road in the Australian economy. There are signs of a solid return to growth and businesses in many sectors are performing well.

At the same time, however, confidence has dipped among Australia’s small to medium enterprises (SMEs). While SME confidence grew strongly from its historic lows during the GFC, the June Sensis® Business Index reported a significant quarterly drop in confidence. Confidence is still above the lows of last year, but it is concerning that it has fallen so far: especially when you consider that the chief concern among SMEs is ‘lack of work/sales’.

As we all know, the Federal Election is not likely to be far away. Given the importance of Australia’s SME sector and the millions of people it employs, I sincerely hope that the policies of all political parties will reflect a real focus on support for the SME sector.

A busy time for Yellow Pages®…
On a more positive note, we’re currently finalising the distribution of our Yellow Pages® print Regional and Living Local directories to households and businesses around Australia. As I mentioned in the last report, I’m proud to say that we have taken responsibility for the carbon footprint of all Yellow Pages® and White Pages® print and online directories from 1 February 2010. We will offset the carbon emissions through Government accredited providers and projects in Australia.

At the same time, the 2010 Yellow Pages® metropolitan campaign is now well and truly underway. This is one of Australia’s largest customer engagement operations with more than 1,000 consultants developing solutions that help hundreds of thousands of Australian businesses connect with the well over six million potential customers who use our print directories every month¹. That’ real muscle for Australia’s SMEs.

Of course, Yellow Pages®’ value extends far beyond the print directory these days, with millions more searches of Yellow Pages® advertising being conducted in online, mobile and voice every month.

… and a busy time in the labs as well
And we’re committed to building on that value. The evidence of this lies in the ‘run’ of digital innovations we’ve delivered recently. All these new releases further improve the quality and ease of use of our services for buyers and sellers. With so much to report, it’s hard to know where to start, so let’s just jump in.

Early June saw the launch of Yellow Pages®, White Pages® and Whereis® sites specifically designed for the Apple iPad. It was great to be able to launch these tailored sites (complete with gestural interactions like panning and zooming with a swipe or pinch of your fingers) in time for the iPad launch.

We’ve also released upgrades to our Yellow Pages®, White Pages® and Whereis® Mobile sites. All three incorporated auto suggest features to make searching easier for users as well as gestural mapping for high end Android and iPhone supported phones. On top of this, we added a more seamless click to call feature for the White Pages® and Yellow Pages® sites. In the case of White Pages® Mobile, this dropped the call wait time from around seven seconds to practically zero. And we also incorporated a range of new features for Yellow Pages® advertisers, including text descriptors, business logo and image gallery capabilities.

More recently, we launched a new social networking feature to White Pages® Online. ‘Save and Share’ lets you save interesting White Pages® listings or share them on Twitter or Facebook. Save and Share is already proving popular, with thousands of shares and a large number of resultant click backs from social networks to White Pages® Online. That, of course, means more potential leads for White Pages® advertisers.

Another exciting online announcement was the launch of an upgraded Bing search engine, which can now include Yellow Pages® listings (in the form of a ‘5-pack’) as part of its search results. This means Yellow Pages® advertisers can now be searched for on both Bing and Bing Maps.

We’ve loaded Citysearch® restaurant listings into Whereis.com. This has the joint benefit of improving the richness of the Whereis® experience, while helping to drive more potential customers to Citysearch® advertisers.

And we’ve launched online behavioural targeting for MediaSmart advertisers®. This gives advertisers the ability to deliver more relevant advertising to people using the MediaSmart® online network, which includes Sensis and Telstra sites and an extensive roster of third party sites.

Finally, we’re seeing great advertiser uptake of our bundled advertising products. Over the last year or so, we’ve released a strong range of new multi-product, multi-channel advertiser bundles such as the Yellow Pages® print and digital bundles and the priority advertiser bundle that spans 1234, Citysearch® and Whereis®. These bundles combine different advertising products into a single package, making it easier for advertisers to broaden their reach and create advertising solutions that meet their specific needs.

A beautiful set of numbers
Recently, there have been some great votes of confidence for what we’re doing at Sensis.

I mentioned in a previous update that Sensis looked like receiving great results on the 2010 Corporate Responsibility Index. The CRI, if you’re unfamiliar with it, is run by the St James Ethics Centre and is used by many major Australian businesses to benchmark their sustainability performance. Well, the results are now in. Our first year entrant score of 79.44% (bronze) last year has grown substantially to 92.51% (gold) this year. This result includes platinum scores (a new rating for benchmark performance) in three of the total six areas: sustainability strategy; integration; and assurance and disclosure. This achievement is a real source of pride and is the result of a strong commitment to sustainability from everyone in the business.

Meanwhile, we continue to see fantastic growth in mobile usage. In June, Whereis® Mobile officially became our first mobile site to hit a million visits in a month². Our other mobile sites – like Yellow Pages® and White Pages® – are also doing well. In fact, the whole portfolio is now being visited more than 3 million times a month², which represents high double digit growth over last June and potentially a huge amount of new ROI for our advertisers.

And on a totally different topic, we’ve been working with Mission Australia on the ‘1234 Project’. For every person who clicks ‘like’ on the 1234 Project Facebook home page, Mission Australia will give a pair of socks to a person in need. Our initial target was 12,340 socks and, in less than a month, we’ve already reached it!

The Human Yellow Pages®
Finally, if you think this update is a long read, spare a thought for Tansel Ali. To prepare for the upcoming World Memory Championships, Tansel, who is our own Australian Memory Champion, has turned himself into something of a human Yellow Pages®. Tansel is attempting to memorise every display advertisement (business card size or larger) in the Sydney Yellow Pages® so that he can recite any business name or number. For the record, that’s 2,306 pages, more than 16,000 numbers and a hell of a lot of reading!

That’s an incredible feat Tansel. All the best for the Championships in China later this year.

Best wishes,

Bruce Akhurst

1: Roy Morgan Single Source Australia, April 2009 to March 2010. Base: Australians 14+
2: Omniture SiteCatalyst. June 2010

With the end of the year almost upon us, Sensis’ CEO, Bruce Akhurst, provides his first bi-monthly update.

Hi.

I thought it might be good to end the year by starting something… a regular report that I hope will give you a deeper insight into how Sensis is working to improve the value we offer all Australians.

New ways to help you find, buy and sell
Sensis is committed to helping you find, buy and sell. Our services help you find the suppliers you need right when you need them. In doing this, we help thousands of local businesses find their lifeblood – customers.

Our innovation programs reflect this commitment. How can we make our services simpler and more informative for buyers? And how can we build the value and simplicity of our advertiser services?

On this front, we’ve been particularly busy in the last few weeks. We launched the White Pages® app for iPhone recently. I was very happy to see that it reached the #1 free app in Apple’s App Store very quickly. This caps off an exciting quarter for our mobile sites, with usage growing off the scale. We launched White Pages® Mobile four months ago and it’s already delivering over 400,000 visits a month¹. At about the same time, we also launched the Yellow Pages® iPhone app. Since then, Yellow Pages® Mobile usage has more than doubled to over 650,000 visits a month²… in just a few months!  Clearly, Australians are connecting with these new generation mobile services and that’s great for advertisers. Our network strategy means that Yellow Pages® advertisers – print and online – can be searched through mobile and therefore can benefit from mobile usage growth.

We’ve also recently commenced delivery of the 2009 Yellow Pages®. This year’s book includes a more informative front cover and an expanded information section. Both of these enhancements were specific requests from Australians who participated in research we conducted earlier this year.

In Yellow Pages® Online, we’ve recently launched a new advertiser product – Purely Mobile Business, or PMB. PMB is designed for mobile businesses, like mobile mechanics, looking to reach out to customers in the areas they service.

We also recently launched Category Search, which is a new product that lets advertisers combine Voice, Whereis® and Citysearch® advertising into a single, easy to use product. Response has been strong, with hundreds of customers choosing Category Search in just a few weeks.

The Whereis® team has just released 3D City Maps for GPS to sat nav equipment manufacturers. 3D City Maps bring the Sydney and Melbourne CBD areas to life by providing a real-time 3D city-scape. 3D City Maps should be launched in popular GPS units shortly, and more cities will be ‘3D’d’ in the near future.

Finally, MediaSmart – our online and mobile display advertising business – has released new targeting capabilities. Working closely with Telstra, we’ve developed a segmentation capability that ensures mobile display advertising is more relevant and targeted for both mobile users and advertisers… like helping a major bank deliver specific branch manager contact details to customers mobile phones based on their location. This is a genuinely unique capability and I’m pleased to say the support from marketers has been fantastic.

In the field
Right now, our Yellow Pages® regional and local consultants are out talking to advertisers, as are our White Pages® consultants. We’ve been backing them up with new products, comprehensive training and a much stronger focus on engaging with local communities.

This local focus led to the opening of a new office in Penrith on November 10 (with offices in Ballina and Coffs Harbour also opening soon). We were really pleased to open Penrith by announcing a new community partnership with Great Community Transport. At the same time, we’ve been increasing our support for local businesses by regularly sponsoring and speaking at local events – over 80 in the last few months.

1.5 million calls… and counting
If you ever wanted proof of the value of Yellow Pages®, here it is. As you may know, we’ve been running a metered ad program for two years now. This program helps advertisers track the number of calls they receive from Yellow Pages® print.

In January, we began monitoring the phone calls delivered by Yellow Pages® print to a small cross-section of display ad customers (a sample of less than 1% of our total customer base). By early November, the number of calls delivered to these customers by Yellow Pages® print passed the 1.5 million threshold!

Imagine how many valuable phone calls Yellow Pages® is delivering to all our advertisers. Imagine how many more enquiries there are when you add people who are bypassing the phone and visiting the store or office. And imagine how that number could grow even further if you included all the other Sensis and third party online, mobile and voice services that form the Yellow Pages® network.

Interesting movements in the advertising market
Recently, we’ve seen some interesting movements in the media sector. The September quarter IAB report showed 3.3% growth in the online advertising market compared to the September quarter last year³. While this is a marked slowdown on last year, the results were really buoying for Sensis, as they show we are growing our share of the market.

Another interesting observation comes from our Adstream business. Adstream sits at the centre of the ad industry by helping marketers, agencies and media outlets, like TV, radio and newspaper publishers, manage and distribute their ad content. We’ve seen renewed growth in enquiries to Adstream recently. Could this mean the ad industry’s on its way back?

Our people have spoken
The other day, we received the results of our latest employee opinion survey. This is a global survey undertaken by Towers Perrin and it covers some of Australia’s, and the worlds, largest companies. In the latest survey, Sensis exceeded the Australian norm (the average of all Australian companies) in every category. Our results also benchmarked well among the world’s best employers, with results in a number of categories exceeding global norms. This is fantastic news. We work hard to ensure Sensis is a great place to work for our present and future employees. These results tell us we’re on the right track.

Sensis Sustainability Report
Finally, if you’d like to know more about Sensis’ strategy, operations, performance and impacts, I’d recommend you check out the 2008/9 Sensis Sustainability Report, which has just been launched. You can download it today from our newly upgraded corporate site.

Until next time
So that’s it for now. Have a happy, relaxing and safe Christmas and New Year. I’ll be back to you with a further update in February. In the meantime, thanks for all your support. You can rest assured we’ll be pulling out all stops to keep improving our value to you.

1: Omiture Site Catalyst, November 2009;
2: ibid
3: PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Internet Advertising Bureau Online Advertising Expenditure Report, quarter ended September 2009.

Thomas Arthur, Sensis GM, Digital Marketing Services talks about the changing face of digital display advertising and how mobile advertising is now making its presence felt.

WA:    Hi Thomas. Before we talk mobiles, I wanted to focus on the digital display market if I could. Where do you think it’s headed?

TA:    Thanks Wayne. The digital display ad market continues to grow strongly, despite the downturn. Just as importantly, the fundamentals that underpin that financial growth are really healthy. Usage of our online network grew by 13% to 9.6m unique users¹. It’s the largest online display advertising network in Australia and it includes Sensis sites, Telstra sites and a growing portfolio of third party sites like Village, Weatherzone, IGA Worldwide, Swellnet and Bub Hub.

And customer growth has been strong. Marketers really see the importance of digital media now. Growth has been particularly strong in the new areas: in-game, video and, of course mobile, which has really hit the mainstream.

So I think digital display has got a really strong future. I personally think there is a lot of headroom for growth over the coming few years.

WA:    What do you mean by mobiles hitting the mainstream?

TA:    Let me give you a couple of stats. Usage of Sensis’ mobile sites – like Yellow Pages® Mobile, Whereis® Mobile, Sensis® Mobile and Citysearch® Mobile doubled in the last 12 months². And the number of campaigns we executed for mobile advertisers also doubled. Clearly, both mobile usage and advertising are growing at a rate of knots.

Later this week, we’ll be releasing the 14th Sensis® eBusiness Report. Based on some of the preliminary numbers I’ve seen, it looks like there’ll be an exciting mobile story in there.

WA:    So what’s the attraction of mobile marketing?

TA:    It’s an entirely new proposition for both the audience and marketers.

Network speed is now fast enough to view video and other forms of rich media, and the simple charging mechanisms mean that even paid content can be accessed easily.

And, through their mobiles, consumers can access the Internet from just about anywhere. If usage growth is anything to go by, consumers really value that.

Proximity is a powerful advantage for advertisers as well. Mobiles are the first personal medium we’ve ever had. You don’t need to be in front of a TV or a billboard. Mobile advertising reaches people wherever they are.

This gets really powerful when you start to consider the possibilities of location-based advertising. You can stream ads that are contextual to where a person is located at that moment. You might send a coupon for a store when an opted-in buyer is just around the corner. Or a video of a house for sale when they’re nearby during inspection times.

As a result, the mobile audience is really active. People who view display advertising on mobiles are ten to twenty times more likely to take further action, like contacting you or downloading content, than online. So that makes mobiles a real conversion engine for marketers – far more so than just about any other channel.

But there’s more to mobile advertising than display. Mobiles are also proving a boon for local search users – people searching for nearby businesses and places. It’s easy for them to track what’s around them and navigate their way there.

WA:    What about targeting? Are you able to target consumers more effectively through mobiles?

TA:    Absolutely. In fact, one of the real benefits of being a Telstra subsidiary is that we can utilise Telstra mobile segmentation data to really personalise the content we stream. This is a real plus for both users and advertisers, because it ensures more relevant advertising.

WA:    How has the emergence of smart phones impacted mobile marketing?

TA:    Oh, it’s been huge. Smart phone users have already shown themselves to be heavy adopters of online content. Already, well over 10% of all Sensis’ mobile traffic is coming from iPhones.

WA:    So what will be the big things in mobile advertising in the coming year?

TA:    A few things spring to mind. We expect consumer usage and advertiser activity to continue growing strongly. Location-based advertising, which I’ve already mentioned, will really grow, as will video advertising now that we have the bandwidth to enable it.

We’ll see a lot more integration between online and mobile. This will be an important step because mobiles can deliver acquisition capabilities much better than online. So mobile adds acquisition to the brand building strengths of online.

Mobile payments will become more widespread.

And, underpinning all of this, we should see real progress on common mobile advertising standards through the work Sensis and others in the industry are doing together.

WA:    That’s great Thomas. Thanks a lot.

1: Roy Morgan, Single Source Australia. Average monthly unique users, MediaSmart network. March qtr 2009 vs 2008
2: Omniture: Average monthly visits, May to June 2009 vs 2008.

Gerry Sutton, Sensis COO, and Robert Rath, CEO of Sensis China, talk about the achievement of a major milestone for Sensis.

WA:    Hi Gerry and Robert. This year’s financial results contain a real milestone for Sensis. On a reported basis, Internet advertising revenues, including online and mobile, grew by 47% to reach $502 million. So we’ve hit half a billion dollars in Internet advertising revenue – the first Australian owned and operated company to do so, I believe.

GS:    It’s a great achievement. Fourteen years ago we entered the online space with the first online directory in the world. Like everyone at the time, our people had high hopes, but no real idea where digital media would take us. To stand here now and see an audience of millions, well over 100,000 Australian online advertising customers and half a billion dollars in revenue is really satisfying.

RR:    I feel really privileged in a way. I’ve worked closely with the Yellow Pages® and White Pages® teams for a long time, so I’ve got to see that business grow. Now, I’ve had the chance to play a role in the birth of Sensis China. It’s fantastic.

WA:    How has Sensis achieved this result?

RR:    Gerry, I think we’ve achieved growth in China and Australia in two very different ways. One is pure start up while the other is extending a traditional media business. What do you think?

GS:    I agree. In Australia, we’ve integrated digital into the existing Yellow Pages® and White Pages® businesses. It’s been a way of adding value to an existing proposition for both buyers and sellers.

RR:    And, in China, it’s pure online start-up. I saw an interesting statistic the other day. In the USA, they have about 2,000 directories for every thousand people – a 2:1 ratio. In Australia, it’s more like 1:1. But in China, there are only about 20 directories for every thousand people. And, of course, we’re not in the directories market in China.

WA:    Can you point to any defining moments over the years?

GS:    A few years ago, we changed the business model for Yellow Pages® Online. In the beginning, it was a separate business to print with a different sales force. We then integrated the two businesses. If you advertised in print all your content went online. A simple tick the box solution. You could then sign up to enhanced content and position online if you chose to. The minute we did that, online customer numbers skyrocketed. And it was great for buyers too because it put more content into the online directory.

Once we’d integrated the print and online directories, we set about extending what we call the Yellow Pages® network even further. Firstly into our own services like Whereis® and 1234 and then into third party services like Google Maps and Bing Maps. This has added enormous reach for our advertisers and made cross-platform advertising simple for them.

The other thing that comes to mind is much more recent. In my other interview with you, I mentioned the White Pages® Online Platform and how that product led to a real growth spurt in customer uptake and revenue. Thanks to that one product White Pages® Online has tripled in two years and doubled in the last year.

Actually, White Pages® Online Platform flags another big milestone that hasn’t happened yet. This year we’ll complete our systems and process transformation. We actually turned part of it on for White Pages® last year. And the new systems meant we were able to produce the White Pages® Online Platform product in just a few days. Under our old legacy systems, it would have taken weeks.

WA:    So White Pages® Online Platform is a sign of things to come?

GS:    That’s right.

WA:    Robert, what have been the big moves for you?

RR:    Of course, our China investments are only about two years old, but there have been some big wins already. Clearly we’ve invested in the right businesses. We’ve integrated them well, which can be seen in the great way our people are working together: and the team has delivered on expansion plans, like the Soufun 100 cities program. As a result, these investments are delivering really exciting growth.

WA:    So, where to from here?

GS:    I’ve already mentioned our transformation. This will have a huge impact on the types of services we can deliver and the way we deliver them. On that score, I do want to acknowledge one thing. People forget that everything we’ve achieved in our online directories has been done on twenty to thirty year old legacy systems. To be honest, it’s been a real struggle at times and our people have done a fantastic job to deliver what they have. The future’s going to be very different.

RR:    In China’s case, we’ll keep doing what we’re doing. Looking for opportunities for geographic expansion and looking for new services we can deliver to our customers. We’ll also focus more and more on the mobile space, which is starting to emerge. It’s an exciting time.

WA:    Thanks Robert. Thanks Gerry.

Sensis General Manager, Marketing, Michelle Sherwood is participating on a panel at the Advertising, Marketing & Media Summit this Monday 11 May. The session is titled “When the going gets tough… The tough get marketing”….topical for most marketers today. Joe Talcott, Marketing Director, News Limited is chairing the session and the other panelists include senior marketing practitioners from marie claire, AFL, Medibank Private, ninemsn, MINI and Australia Post.

Sensis will have a double-billing at the CeBit WebForward web, search and e-marketing event in Sydney next week. General Manager, Digital Marketing Services, Thomas Arthur is speaking on Wednesday 13 May about Integrating Mobile Advertising into the Marketing Mix. Group Manager, Mobile, Gregan McMahon is speaking on the following day about Tapping into Mobile Search. Both presenters are hoping the audience comes away revved up about the endless possibilities of the mobile medium!

Meanwhile, Group Marketing Manager, Yellow Pages, Stephen Harvy is addressing a luncheon hosted by the Australian Arab Business Network in Bankstown, NSW on 13 May. This group, which represents a wide range of businesses, invited Stephen along as they’re keen to know more about Local Business Search: how are consumers really searching and how are technologies converging to enhance the consumer experience?

Hope to have an update with key take-outs from these sessions soon…

Today, Sensis CEO Bruce Akhurst spoke at an American Chamber of Commerce luncheon on what he describes as The Age of Engagement.

Digital media isn’t merely cannibalising traditional media. It’s giving marketers new tools to work with and the ability to build deep, valuable relationships with customers.

The first presentation in this series looks at how local search is helping marketers support consumer purchase decisions in exciting new ways. And how the next generation of local search is being driven by the mobile phone.

The second presentation looks at social media. Be sure to check back as this presentation will be uploaded shortly.

Times might be tough in the media sector today, but there’s a lot about the future to be excited about.

This week, Bruce Akhurst, the CEO of Sensis, will be sharing his thoughts on the future in a two-part presentation: The Age of Engagement.

The first part of his speech – covering the rise of local search – will be delivered at an American Chamber of Commerce luncheon in Sydney this Thursday, 23 April.

And, in a departure from the norm, part two of this presentation, which covers the rise of social media will be delivered using – what else – social media!

So, pop back to the Speaking Sensis blog this Friday, 24 April. You’ll be able to view both of Bruce’s speeches.

My last couple of entries have looked back on 2008.’s

Now it’s time to turn from past to future, with eight trends for 2009.

It’s a testing time for the media sector today. But despite the impacts of the economic downturn, there’s a lot to be optimistic about. The key will be focusing on customer needs and listening to what your customers are saying to you.

Which is why we’ve dubbed 2009 ‘the year of the customer’.

Have a read and tell us what you think. Do you agree… or not? What do you think this year’s hot spots will be and why?

Mobiles make mainstream

Mobile advertising has been promising big things for years. Now it’s delivering and, this year, mobile advertising will make the mainstream.

I could spend hours talking about the unique capabilities mobiles offer marketers (and I will do soon), but, for now, let’s talk numbers.

From January 08 to January 09, traffic to Sensis Mobile sites grew on average 12% A MONTH . Mobile now represents 8% of Sensis’ total Australian digital traffic – and it’s growing fast(1) .

And, according to MediaSmart (Sensis’ digital display advertising business), the uptake of mobile display campaigns is currently running at almost three times the rate it did last year.

Think mobile advertising is a way off? Think again.

Integration

The marketing challenges created by fragmentation (people spreading their media consumption) has been a hot topic for years.

In 2009, we’ll turn our attention from the problem to the solution – integration, multi-channel, cross-platform or whatever you choose to call it.

Increasingly, media companies will bundle different media into multi-brand, multi-product networks. This way, advertisers can access a larger base of consumers with a single purchase and manage their media strategy in a co-ordinated way.

Sensis has been executing on this for a while through our Yellow Pages® print, online, voice, mobile and sat nav network. We”re also seeing strong traction for cross platform advertising in the activities of a number of major media players, including the Mitchell Communication Group’’s cross-platform media negotiations, which received considerable media coverage late last year.

Expect integrated campaigns to steadily become the norm.

Syndication

Okay. So, major media providers are increasingly enabling cross-platform advertising. But what about the web itself? After all, it isn’t just one platform, it’s millions. About 108 million at best guess(2). How can you possibly reach out across such a diverse landscape?

In the past, going online meant having a web site and not much more. This year will see more marketers stepping outside their web sites to create syndicated content that windows that reach out right across the web.

Today, advertisers are increasingly using blog, video and even Powerpoint networks like LiveJournal, Wordpress, YouTube and Slideshare to generate and deliver content. They’re using a blinding array of sharing and syndication tools to spread that content everywhere. And the whole lot is search engine optimised, including their Yellow Pages® and White Pages® listings.

The end result is an easy to manage content store streaming content out to a whole mass of proprietary and public sites. You’re heavily increasing potential reach and enabling a whole range of different opportunities, like the ability for people to discuss, share or subscribe to your content.

No doubt about it, there’s more work in this than the old model. But the spin-offs are potentially huge, which is why you‘ll see far more syndication occurring in the future.

Social Media

While we’re on the subject, there’s no doubt that social media is the hot topic right now.

And it’s likely to stay that way. YouTube and Facebook usage continues to grow at almost obscene rates. According to Roy Morgan, over 5.5m Australians used these two sites every month in the September quarter last year – up 1.8m on the previous year(3).

Meanwhile, Coca Cola’s Facebook page now has over 3 million fans !(4)

So social media is a big potential opportunity. But how do you unlock it?

The exciting thing about social media this year won’t just be its growth. It will be the fact that marketers will work out how to use it.

Engagement versus eyeballs

But, to do that, there’ll need to be a major (and very welcome) shift in how we perceive the role of marketing.

Will marketers get value out of social media by using it as another way of shoving brands in people’s faces?

No. They’ll drive value by using social (and other) media to genuinely engage people in conversations and learn from their views. They’ll use media as a channel to provide service – not just taglines – to consumers. They’ll begin sharing, rather than just promoting, their brands and they’ll use media to go right to the source: seeking consumer views on everything from product development to customer service to community relations.

Make no mistake. This is a quantum shift. As a result, brand awareness will start giving way to brand ownership and the role marketing plays in the business will change forever.

Accountability

Here’s a disturbing irony. While digital media is touted as highly accountable, a lack of accountability is still seen as the greatest roadblock by online advertisers. For example, a 2007 McKinsey survey(5) found that over 50% of digital advertisers nominated “insufficient metrics to measure impact” as a barrier to adoption.

The IAB is currently undertaking a much welcomed revision of online measurement guidelines and industry standardisation.

Let’s hope the many issues confronting online measurement can be resolved, including the ability to align online metrics with other media and the ability to measure the rapidly growing mobile landscape in a standardised way.

Of course, accountability doesn’t apply solely to online. Traditional media need to become more transparent about ROI as well. One example of how Sensis is following through with this is our Yellow Pages® metered ads. Unique phone numbers are used on Yellow Pages® ads and then monitored. In this way, the advertiser can see exactly how many calls their ad is generating.

Advertisers have been demanding accountability for some time now. Over the next year, you’ll start to see media providers – both online and offline – start to really deliver it.

Tough times

So there’s a lot of exciting things going on today. But you can’t realistically talk about 2009 without mentioning the global downturn and it’s impact on media.

In Australia, the Sensis Business Index and Sensis Consumer Report are reflecting global trends by finding the lowest levels of consumer and business confidence in their history.

This declining confidence has had a sobering impact on advertising and media.

Almost every major Australian media business is staring at falling revenue, although it’s pleasing for us that Sensis has been a notable exception.

And even the major dot.com high flyers are experiencing either curbed growth or revenue declines.

There is a feeling that things will improve for the industry in 2010, although recent downward revisions in forecasts from various analysts suggest we may not yet be at the bottom of this cycle.

The year of the customer

And this leads me to the final trend. 2009 will be the year of the customer.

Over the last few years, the industry has been beset by discussions about systemic changes. Is traditional giving way to digital? Are advertising business models changing?

These discussions, while vital, have tended to divert the industry’s attention away from the most fundamental and vital question of all – are we delivering what our customers (both consumers and advertisers) want?

Whether they’re traditional, digital or both, the companies that survive and thrive through this downturn will all have one thing in common.

They’ll be focused unerringly on the needs of their customers.

1: Omniture. Visits to Sensis sites. January 2008 to January 2009.
2: www.domaintools.com
3: Roy Morgan Single Source Australia. October 2007 to September 2008. Base Australians 14+.
4: Facebook
5: How Companies are Marketing Online – A McKinsey Global Survey. September 2007.