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Traditional and digital media proving to be good partners

Traditional media still has an important place in advertising campaigns as long as its understood how to leverage the benefits of an integrated digital campaign according to Sunny Media director Roger Delaney.

“Two years ago it became quite clear to us that as a media advertising agency we needed to embrace and lead the way in the digital space for all our clients. At that time we searched the country looking for a suitable partner who could help integrate traditional strategies with the brave new world of digital media and we eventually partnered with a Brisbane based digital marketing firm called Reload Media.

“Reload now works with our clients to boost their digital marketing performance and as one of the few Google accredited agencies in Australia we now work side by side on all media strategies.  We’ve seen firsthand how traditional and digital media can work together to help improve our client’s overall presence in the marketplace.

“We call it the ‘leaky bucket theory’ and that ensures our traditional advertising spend is not wasted when people go to find the business on the internet,” he said.

Rhys Furner from Reload Media says businesses may have recently seen their websites drop in the Google rankings and this is a result of its recent change of its algorithm, now called Hummingbird.

“Hummingbird is a new program which will better reward those businesses who have invested in producing great quality content and optimised websites. It is designed to give people better search results for their query.

“Essentially Google has become more efficient at determining what information a searcher wants to see and the key to improving a site’s Google ranking is to produce high quality, unique, genuinely helpful and shareable content on your website through a blog or resource section such as articles, infographics or videos.

“We are working with Sunny Media’s clients to improve their search presence and rankings so that Google will pick up on the themes around this content and begin to identify their relevance for particular search phrases.

“Google’s goal is to give people the information they want so when you align this with your website, you will reap the rewards from search engines, especially Google,” he said.

Roger Delaney, Managing Director Sunny Media

Roger Delaney, Managing Director at Sunny Media

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Rhy Furner, Digital Strategist at Reload Media

So what is Public Relations?

One of the most commonly asked questions from potential clients is what is the role of public relations and how can it improve business?

Peppi Bueti Director of QA Public Relations explains what PR is:

Let’s start with what I tell my University of the Sunshine Coast PR students and that is if you cannot write persuasively or have the ability to think strategically then it may not be the career for them.

There’s a misconception out there that if you have a great personality then you should get into PR. While it’s important to have good interpersonal skills, it’s a long way from what is required unless you think PR is handing out brochures or products at your local shopping centre.

That’s not PR folks.

PR is an important part of the marketing mix and tactics range from media relations, events management, promotions, internal communication, social media and issues management.  

Media relations is used to generate publicity through a media release to help promote a product, event or an issue of interest. At QAPR we write media releases for a range of clients covering all sorts of industries. These are pitched to press, radio and TV stations as well as industry publications and social media sites.

At QAPR we work alongside the QA team to ensure all messages throughout your advertising, marketing and public relations are consistent. This is achieved for above the line and below the line spends.   

So when you are planning how you spend your marketing dollars, consider how PR can help you generate greater exposure for your dollar.

Contact Peppi Bueti our Director of Public Relations to find out how you can improve your business with PR.

Peppi Bueti – pbueti@sunnymedia.com.au or 0447 131 306

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Peppi helping out at a client’s event

What is Google+?

We are all fairly familiar these days with social media and how it works… but what is Google+? We are finding a lot of clients have either never heard of it or just don’t understand it.

We are still trying to get the hang of it ourselves but we thought we might tell you a little bit about it to try and help you understand what Google+ is and why you need it.

Social media experts are labelling Google+ as the most important social network for businesses and marketers… some have even said it could one day take over Facebook!

Google+ isn’t just a new social network site, it integrates with other Google features and one of the main benefits is that it has a significant impact on your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).

As you would expect, Google+ allows you to post videos, photos, links and text just as you might do on Facebook, however it has an exclusive feature which they call ‘Circles’. Google Circles are basically groups of friends that you can organise by categories including Family, Friends, Colleagues, School Friends, Customers etc. You can also do what is called a ‘Hangout’ which is video or text chatting with several others.

So why do we need Google+, here are our top 3 reasons:

It makes life easier

Google+ integrates with Gmail, Youtube, Google Maps, Chrome and Google Play. This makes is super easy for you to share and manage content across all of these services.

SEO

As we mentioned earlier, Google+ can affect your SEO Google ranking.  You should have already noticed the little +1 that now appears on a lot of websites and blogs, this is similar to a Facebook like. The more +1 (likes) that a page gets, the more Google determines that website as being popular, which then increases your ranking score. Ultimately effecting you position in Google search results which allows people to find your website and your business easier.

Hangouts

Being able to video chat with several other parties is a very useful tool for the likes of video conferences, live feedback sessions with customers, video training and much more.

We hope this very basic review of Google+ helps you understand a little bit about what it does and why you need it. Once you have signed up visit our page and join the QA CIRCLE.

For more information visit our website www.sunnymedia.com.au

Why should I advertise on TV?

2013 has seen a change in the way marketers advertise, many choosing to spend more of their budget on online than ever before. While online has definitely proved itself as a new must in your media mix that cannot be left out, it isn’t time to stop advertising on TV and most likely never will be… here’s why.

TV is still the primary media for watching video content. The average time spent watching TV a month per person is over 90 hours, compared to only 9 hours online. During prime time viewing an average person consumes 38 minutes of TV commercials, that’s approximately 114 commercials each night.

TV is massive for the next generation, in 2013 40% of all tweets were in relation to prime time TV shows, and research shows that watching TV while performing other online tasks such as reading emails, using social media, browsing the net or even watching another show or video at the same time are increasingly popular activities.

If we look at some of the top rating shows of this year you can’t deny that TV has a massive audience reach that no other platform can compare to. An episode of The Voice on Channel 9 attracted a massive 3.3 million viewers Australia wide and the AFL grand final on Seven attracted 3.2 million viewers, that is impressive!

So, we know TV viewing remains consistent but there are big changes to the way we are consuming TV.  Some of the key influencers are:

  • More time spend watching time shifted viewing and play back services
  • TV shows or snippets being watched on YouTube
  • Unofficial downloads of TV shows & movies
  • More free to air channels available
  • Combined TV and internet viewing activities

This means you need to work a lot harder to confidently plan a TV campaign, and marketers often need to spend more to maintain reach levels, making it even more important than ever before to employ an agency to strategically plan your advertising buy.

At QA we constantly monitor consumer trends and keep on top of what is happening in the Australian market. We work hard to ensure your advertising will break through to your audience by ensuring all of your advertising whether it be TV, Online, Radio, Outdoor or Press work together to get you the results you want.

We hope you enjoy reading the Sunny Media blog. For more information please visit our full website www.sunnymedia.com.au

Agencies can make an impression with your budget

As 2013 is coming to an end marketers and business owners are making plans for next year, particularly on their advertising and marketing budget and which agency can provide independent and ultimately the most effective advice on how to spend that budget.

Previously, an effective marketing campaign would use two or three media channels. Today, this has jumped to an average of seven channels such as print, tv, outdoor, radio, PR and a smorgasbord of digital options. Media agencies can determine the right mix of these channels to both suit your brand and your budget.

The main kinds of media to get a company’s message across include the following:

• Paid (once the traditional) – tv, radio, print.

• Owned – the brand’s own website, Facebook, twitter, blog etc.

• Earned – word of mouth, PR.

In 2013 the fastest growing media is owned; Facebook, Twitter, blog etc. Although all of these channels are free, they cost money to set up, maintain and to create worthy content.

So what is the right combination you ask? First you must ask what are you trying to solve, and second, if consumer does ‘x’ now, what do you want them to do in the future?

Only by identifying these questions can you decide how to split your budget amongst the appropriate channels.

Agencies like Sunny Media speciliase in determining the most effective media channel mix. We have on our team specialists in the fields of media, digital and PR to strategically plan your split between paid, owned and earned media.

With the full suite of specialist communications disciplines to tap into, an agency can provide you as a marketer or business owner the benefits of our expertise to ultimately create brand awareness and sales for your business.

We hope you enjoy reading the Sunny Media blog. For more information please visit our full website www.sunnymedia.com.au

Channel Ten’s Wake Up proves not as popular as fellow morning programs

With an introduction of ‘breakfast TV with a twist’, the numbers are in for Channel Ten’s program Wake Up.  the show attracted 29,000 people in its early slot and 52,000 for the main part.

The program, broadcasted from beachside in Manly, NSW, lifted the Ten’s 2013 average timeslots by 300 % between 7am and 8.30am and 70% between 8.30am and 10.30am.  Compared to Channel Seven’s program Sunrises’ 368,000 viewers and Channel Nine’s Mornings total of 135,000 viewers, Wake Up still has a long way to go.

What is your favourtie morning show and are you loyal to only one?

We hope you enjoy reading the Sunny Media blog. For more information please visit our full website www.sunnymedia.com.au

Crowdsourcing: Is it worth the trouble?

Crowdsourcing is a concept where businesses fill out an online brief which is then submitted into a pool for a group of designers to work on and essentially compete for your money.  According to a crowdsourcing website, 99designs.com, there are 2,048 contests occurring currently and in October 2013, a massive $1.8m was handed over by businesses for the work of the many graphic designers.

Let’s look at a few worrying factors about this process:

  • No relationship: Not once have you as a business spoken to a designer to their face.  You have not specifically outlined your businesses brand, your audience or core values.  All you have done is give a small amount of information to a faceless person who produces something in hopes to impress you only to move onto the next job at hand
  • Time waster: You are left with countless examples of what someone else thinks your logo should look and you now have to spend hours sifting through each one, sorting the good from the bad.  Surely you time is more valuable put towards building your business? After all, you paid the experts to decipher fonts, colours and other tedious details didn’t you?!

At the end of the day, the idea behind your logo is to shape consumers perceptions and expectations.  When you decide to leave your brand in the hands of someone who doesn’t have a vested interest, you will no doubt end up with something generic and powerless which will struggle to penetrate your target market.

Temptation to take the cheap route is increasingly common these days as budgets tighten.  However, in the long run your brand is not worth cutting corners.  People don’t read – they scan.  We are constantly saturated with content from multiple platforms so unless you can stand out with a well-designed brand – you’ll blend in!

Our Senior Graphic Designer, Darryl Baldwin prides himself on taking the time to ensure the needs of each individual client are met.  QA Design is now operating for all your graphic needs.

We hope you enjoy reading the Sunny Media blog. For more information please visit our full website www.sunnymedia.com.au

Exploring the shopping habits of Smartphone users

According to new research by Telstra, since 2010, Australians are buying three times more clothes via their smart phones; making fashion the top selling consumer good brought via smart phones.

The research conducted by Nielsen for the Telstra Smartphone Index surveyed 2,004 Australian people.  The study showed that more than one in two turned to their smartphone to browse the internet on an average of three times every hour.

Adam Good, Director of Digital Media and Content at Telstra explain that these findings are worrying for businesses that do not have a strong mobile strategy in place already.

The research showed that Australia is one of the most connected countries for smartphone use behind China and South Korea, ahead  of the US and UK.  The research dives further to find that smartphone owners aged 16 to 24 will spend the equivalent of one month out of the year searching on their phones.

As this research is surprising, what is more interesting is what types of consumer behavior is being generated.  It is interesting to find out what people’s shopping and lifestyles involve.  Once advertisers can work out this type of information, it is easier to reach a particular target audience and have a message reached effectively.

We hope you enjoy reading the Sunny Media blog. For more information please visit our full website www.sunnymedia.com.au

Australian consumer confidence practically unchanged

This week’s Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence Rating discusses the topic of ‘Consumer Confidence Public Opinion’.  The report is based on 1,301 face to face interviews conducted Australia-wide with men and women aged 14 and over last weekend (October 5-6, 2013).

The report is aimed at taking a snapshot of the levels of consumer confidence within Australia.  The report revealed consumer confidence has received a substantial increase following the Federal Election – reaching its highest point of 124.1.  This figure dropped after the new Coalition Government was sworn in.  The figure remained steady at 119.8 (down 0.4%) after the RBA left Australian interest rates unchanged at 2.5%.

The report also highlights that Australians are relatively more confident about their personal finances compared to this time last year and 51% of these people say now is a good time to purchase large household items.  32% of Australians say that they are in a better financial position, with only 24% (down 1%) saying they are worse off financially that this time last year.

With a new political party elected back in September, 34% of Australians predict good times for the country’s economy; compared to 19% who feel there are worse economic times to come.

Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence Rating, October 8th 2013, Finding Number: 5235, Topic: Consumer Confidence Public Opinion

We hope you enjoy reading the Sunny Media blog. For more information please visit our full website www.sunnymedia.com.au

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