Speaking Sensis

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

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,

Do you know of a small to medium business that consistently goes the extra distance to provide a better service to its customers? Have you thought about ways to help it get the recognition it deserves? Would you nominate it for a business award?

Well, if you have answered “yes” to all three questions, you now you have a chance to do your bit. The 2010 Telstra Business Awards are now open and your favourite small to medium business has a chance to share in the fantastic opportunities that have been benefitting Australian businesses for the past 18 years. And for the first time this year, all entrants have an opportunity to receive a business health check to help them plan for tomorrow, encouraging them to keep up the good work.

I’ll be coordinating our support of the Sensis Social Responsibility award category. While sustainability is at the core of our Sensis’ business strategy, we recognise that embracing sustainability can be a bit scary for small and medium sized businesses. So, this is an opportunity for us to recognsie and support those businesses we believe are giving it a crack and to celebrate their efforts. And through their success, we hope to encourage more businesses to do the same.

The Telstra Business Awards give small to medium businesses amazing networking

opportunities, media exposure and business development prospects.

Every year, the awards get me thinking about the small and medium business owners I know and who I’d like to nominate. There’s a fantastic beautician I go to in Prahran, but then there’s also that amazing breakfast place on Gertrude St, Collingwood. And I can’t forget about my hairdresser in Fitzroy. The one thing they all have in common is that the owners and their teams are all putting their heart and soul into making their businesses the very best they can be.

While a lot of large businesses have their own internal rewards and recognition programs in place, who is there to pat the small and medium business owner on the back and say, “Well done. You’re doing it right. Keep up the good work”?

The Telstra Business Awards give them that and also provide them with amazing networking opportunities, media exposure and business development prospects – not to mention the serious prizes getting around.

So, a final question for you. Who are you going to nominate?

I went along to the 15th Telstra Business Women’s Awards National Awards Ceremony on Thursday 12 November and was overwhelmed by the achievements of the inspiring business women in the room.

Christine Nixon, Head of the Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority and former Police Commissioner made a great speech, telling the room about her experience joining the police force as a 19 year old woman in 1972.

She spoke about the importance of respect and courage in the workforce, and how there weren’t too many people in 1972 telling her that one day she could be the Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police.

She recounted a time in her early career when she was being harassed by a more senior policeman and two of her male colleagues overheard. They marched straight in and made it very clear to the harasser that – “We don’t do that around here.”

At risk of sounding a little bit Sliding Doors I wonder what the impact of that situation and those six words have had on Christine Nixon’s career. If her colleagues hadn’t overheard the situation and 19 year old Christine had continued to be harassed, would that have changed Christine’s path?

I wonder if WA’s Gina Rinehart has ever been bullied? Gina, Chairman of mining house Hancock Prospecting was announced as the 2009 Telstra Australian Business Woman of the Year. She has being working in a heavily male dominated mining industry since 1992 and successfully transformed the small prospecting company into a growing mining house.

The awards followed comments from Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard from 10 November, lamenting the status of working women.

“A lot of progress has been made for women at work over the last 20 or 30 years, indeed all the world has changed in many ways.

“But there are still some troubling sings, there is still a pay difference between men and women, there is still a clustering of women tending to be in low-wage, low-skill occupations,” Ms Gillard said.

The latest Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data reported the average hourly gender pay gap was 13.1 per cent in May 2009, the biggest gap since 1996.

It’s figures like these that reinforce the importance of continuing to recognise and celebrate the achievement of women in business.

The Telstra business Women’s Awards have recognised the achievements of more than 400 women in business since its inception in 1995.

As part two of his ‘The Age of Engagement’ series, Bruce Akhurst shares his thoughts on the rise of social media and what it could mean for marketers and the media.

Want to know about the US food van business that has built a huge following using Twitter? Or the toy company that used advice from its fans to create a truly innovative product development processes? Or the coffee chain that asked its customers for ideas and ended up with 70,000 of them in just one year?

Welcome to the extraordinary world of social media. The use of social networking sites have grown at extraordinary rates. Did you know that two thirds of Australian teenagers now use Facebook, YouTube or MySpace every month? (1)

But, in reality, these networks are just the beginning of the social media landscape.

In this presentation, Bruce takes a look at the world of social media and concludes that it is a game-changer on a par with the launch of television. It provides the potential for small businesses to access serious online technologies. And it can get companies and consumers not just talking with (instead of at) each other, but actually working together to build things that ultimately benefit them both.

(1) Roy Morgan Single Source Australia, base: Australians 14+

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.

One thing becomes very clear when you thumb through Sensis’ recent performance.Despite competitor efforts to undermine the value of print directories all over the world, Sensis has comprehensively proven that the value of Yellow Pages® is as strong as ever… and growing.

Over the last eighteen months or so, we’ve really committed to improving the experience Yellow Pages® delivers to both buyers and sellers. This has led to a range of initiatives that enhance the usability of our products for buyers and the value, accountability and customer support we provide advertisers.

More on these initiatives in a follow up blog next week.

The results of this commitment have been astounding.

First up, Yellow Pages® usage is growing. People all over Australia are letting their fingers do the walking… and clicking… and tapping.

Usage of Yellow Pages® print directories has been stable for the last 18 months(1). Similarly, unique visitors to the Yellow Pages® OnLine site have grown by 19%(2). Usage of the 1234 voice service, which includes the ability to perform Yellow Pages® searches, grew by 9%(3), while Yellow™ Mobile unique visitors grew by a whopping 190%(4)!

In fact, in just nine months, Yellow™ Mobile visits have grown from only 2.5% of Yellow Pages®’ total digital visits to almost 6.5%(5).

Not surprisingly, advertisers are giving Yellow Pages® an emphatic ‘thumbs up’ for value.

The number of Yellow Pages® print display ad units (a measure of display ad coverage in the directories) has grown by 2.1%.

Meanwhile, the number of Yellow Pages® OnLine customers has continued to grow by a healthy 5%.

And, along the way, Yellow Pages® advertisers have acknowledged Yellow Pages®’ value for money in rapidly growing numbers.

In the last six months of 2008, customer satisfaction with Yellow Pages®’ print value for money rose by 7 percentage points compared to the same period in 2007. And Yellow Pages® OnLine value for money rose by a phenomenal 16 percentage points(6).

All together, not a bad result! Clearly, this commitment is paying off for everyone involved.

1: Roy Morgan Single Source Australia. Average monthly unique usage by quarter from Apr/Jun 07 to Jul/Sep 08.
2:  Omniture. Average monthly unique visitors December quarter 2008 vs 2007
3:  Sensis call data, December quarter 2008 vs 2007
4:  Omniture. December quarter 2008 vs March quarter 2008
5:  ibid.
6:  TNS. Sensis Advertiser KPI Report. 2008 metro canvass vs 2007 metro canvass.