The Works Blog

• Edit

  Prediction week #5 - The Transmedia Groove Train

  December 22, 2011 By Jon Holloway

  There is always a buzz word rocking around the agency world that all the cool kids use, right now it’s Transmedia.

  Marketers have again taken a word that has been used for a very long and made it their own, a simple definition would be the telling of a story across multiple medias like Year Zero. An excellent game based on the album of the same name by NIN.

  So the basic premise is doing things across multiple platforms and taking your audience on a deeper more engaging, more fulfilling story based journey. The switched on brands have been doing this for a long time, Red Bull are masters at this story based cross media communication.

  In 2012, there will be a Groove Train of brands and agencies jumping on the transmedia bandwagon. We may actually see the end of large scale ‘single-channel’ campaigns. Mass media, like TV will become only the trigger for campaigns that are sewn far and wide across digital and real life experiences.

  Share

  Tagged in:

• Edit

  Prediction week #4 - Content, content value and monetisation

  December 21, 2011 By Jon Holloway

  The big buzz word in 2011 has been content, for a while ‘content is king’ has been on the lips of every marketer across the world.

  2011 has seen this cranked up another notch, brands competing with entertainment, bands and in the social world every brand is challenged for air time by the likes of Red Bulls content machine.

  Moving in to 2012, content is going to be even more on the agenda, the merging of the real world and digital world is going to make every brand consider a deeper journey through entertaining content. The key for 2012 will be the value chain, how this content effects the buying process and how content can be monetised to drive in to retail and e/m/f-commerce.

  Share

  Tagged in:

• Edit

  Prediction week #3 - Get your brand story right or face a price war

  December 20, 2011 By Jon Holloway

  Brand is a big word and one that is thrown around a lot in the marketing world. It means so much to so many and in 2012 those companies who don’t have their “Why” (or brand story) sorted out, will need to do so, and quick… ‘cause if they don’t they’ll be forced into price wars.

  But in many categories it’s not going to matter anyway, because “brand” as a concept will continue to come unstuck in 2012 – it was over-mystified during bubble times (when everything sold/went up, and much of that was misattributed to the power of “the brand”) but in recessionary times it’s clear that in only a handful of categories can “brand” command a sustainable price difference.

  This will mean a renewed focus on innovation especially customer service and customer experience innovation.

  Share

  Tagged in:

• Edit

  Prediction week #2 - Promo app lust moves to m-sites

  December 19, 2011 By Jon Holloway

  Is the day of the promo app numbered? With thousands of them being ignored on an ongoing basis and smartphone usage in Australia growing rapidly. Brands need to get serious about mobile and what it means to them.

  Our prediction for 2012 is that the lust for promo apps will move towards mobile sites as users interact more with search and browsers on their ever smarter smart phones. Mobile apps will become defined around their utility and purpose as we all strive to cut down the noise and save time.

  How is your mobile strategy for 2012?

  Share

  Tagged in:

• Edit

  Prediction week #1 - digital spend 2012

  December 16, 2011 By Jon Holloway

  Next week is prediction week on The Works blog, short, sharp and to the point predictions ending on friday 23rd with our views on what will drive marketing in 2012.

  So today, to kick it off, a budget prediction around digital, media, content and platforms:

  2011 is 10% content and platforms, 90% media.

  2012 will be 40% content and platforms, 10% community management, 50% media.

  Share

  Tagged in:

• Edit

  You can no longer ignore digital (obvious but not mainstream!)

  December 16, 2011 By Jon Holloway

  Over the past few weeks as we move towards 2012, the predictions have started flowing around digital in a new year and what it means for marketing and marketeers in Australia.

  Some are good, some are wrong, but one thing that seems to be a key guidance point is that digital is no longer an option, it is an absolute must have for the ever evolving research generation.

  I am not going to rant on about the usage of digital platforms, the growth and ROI of social channels, this has been done. I am just going to take this back to the plain and simple.

  What is the first thing you do when you see something great? You Google it! You look for the next level, in fact there is a rapidly growing trend towards Facebooking it.

  So what does this mean? Spending hundreds of thousands of dollars above the line is mostly doing one thing, lighting the ignition paper for a campaign or idea. But ignition is not enough, in the modern world consumers have access to so many more channels, second and third screens, they want and crave more and we would be stupid not to create a longer journey, isn’t it just common sense?

  As brands and agencies we need to take this ignition and then excite the audience with more engaging elements across the real world and digital ecosystems. Providing links in to areas where people can experience and share the idea, the brand or the campaign.

  This isn’t a prediction as it is already happening and the really effective brands and campaigns have already smashed through this barrier and are reaping the rewards of a longer audience journey.

  So to end on a prediction. 2012 » Ignite, excite and unite.

  Share

  Tagged in:

• Edit

  Welcome Paddy, our new general manager

  December 14, 2011 By Gemma Hogan

  Signalling a strong commitment to further embedding managerial and operations excellence, Paddy Morahan has been appointed to the position of General Manager. With over 18 years experience in the business, Paddy will play a pivotal role in furthering The Works unique position of Creatives on the Forefront.

  When I asked Damian Pincus, Creative Partner and Founder at The Works about Paddy, he said: “I could not think of a better guy to steer the agency. He’s a natural manager and really gets the business. Coming from Host, until recently another independent agency, he understands the value of unique business models. With Paddy on board we know we will move from strength to strength and push The Works creatives on the forefront model even further.”

  Paddy Morahan was lured to The Works from Host, where he worked as Director of Operations. Previous to Host, Paddy worked at Leo Burnett and M&C Saatchi in Sydney, Mad Dogs & Englishmen in New York and Bartle Bogle Hegarty in London.

  Speaking of his new agency Morahan says: “The Works is a vibrant and creatively driven independent agency. With such a unique business model and a strong, diverse talent pool, I can only see the agency prospering well into the future.

  The partners’ entrepreneurial spirit will ensure that we have the agility to deliver fantastic work in new, highly-efficient ways.” he added.

  True to The Works way, we’ve asked Paddy about his ambition. He will get back to us when he’s able to filter them all down to one, two or four!

  Share

  Tagged in:

• Edit

  Winning ways

  November 28, 2011 By Gemma Hogan

  When you’re on a roll, you don’t want it to end. You want to keep on winning.

  This is exactly the feeling around the the agency at the moment, and with good reason too. Thanks to Effie and most recently ADMA, the work and effort of the creative folk at the agency is being recognised and is winning.

  The campaign that The Works developed for client Staples -The “Stationery City” launch took out bronze in the Digital - Online Broadcast category at ADMA.

  The Works reconstructed Sydney Harbour entirely out of Staples Stationery and Office Supplies. Featuring 2,344 recycled sticky notes, 84 boxes of staples, 361 bulldog clips, 169 paperclips, 107 rubber bands, 132 coloured pencils and loads more.

  Watch the video here:

  Share

  Tagged in:

• Edit

  IPTV's got personality

  November 23, 2011 By Gemma Hogan

  How do you communicate the features and benefits of IPTV? How do you get an audience to connect with and understand the value of such a service? You give it a personality!

  For our latest campaign for client Fetch TV we created a new spokesperson for the brand. Introducing Frank- the Fetch TV dog.

  This animated character delivers the message that there’s a new breed of entertainment, while also helping build brand awareness.

  He demonstrates how Fetch TV makes TV better by being different, unexpected and entertaining. Each of the short ads delivers a different Fetch TV feature or benefit.

  We’re quote proud of the work we’ve produced for Fetch TV and are sure that the audience will find Frank as fun as we do.

  Take a look at the ads here:

  Share

  Tagged in:

• Edit

  Why data is fundamental

  November 21, 2011 By Jon Holloway

  Even I find data to be a really boring subject, something associated with that word that just makes it all brown, grey, bland and boring. This really sucks, data is so fundamental to the marketing and advertising process, that it can no longer afford to be forgotten.

  Data in our world is defined in so many ways; lists of people, sales analysis, web analytics and so on. As consumers evolve and the uptake of digital mediums like social, mobile and even the good old fashion web increases, there is a whole spectrum of rich and information data that can be used to do the marketing job better.

  Data just got interesting!

  So if you take the word data and replace it with the words, tweet or content or conversation, replace analytics with words like journey or experience and then wrap the whole thing up in creative storytelling you have a new way of looking at data.

  Everyone talks about privacy in this more open world, but in truth, consumers are sharing more data and information than they ever have. We call this ‘ambient voice’, everything now has a voice, from brands to buildings, from cafes to pubs. The amount of data being shared across social, mobile and digital platforms is creating a map of emotion, thoughts, feedback and suggestions. What is important now is how we harness this.

  At The Works, we are passionate about bringing data to life and using it to unlock real insight and understanding of brands and consumers. We have just launched the largest and most in depth study of twitter data in Australia. No more looking overseas for stats, it was time to start understanding what we do as a country.

  Datafication was born out of this idea, taking boring data and bringing it to life through storytelling and awesome communications.

  Did you know that 54% of all tweets in Australia are from women and that the best time to launch content is first thing in the morning? No? Niether did we until now.

  So you can find out more at datafication.com.au

  or

  Follow the story on twitter @datafication

  Share

  Tagged in:

• Edit

  The mascot

  November 10, 2011 By Gemma

  The Works is a home away form home for about 40 staff, and now, 1 Kookaburra called Worksey.

  He’s a spirited l’ill bird with a lot of ambition and creative drive.

  This drive see’s him trying to peck down the pane of glass that stands in his way.

  He has been pecking and pecking at it in an effort to either join The Works crew, who would blame Worksey, or, more realistically, this poor little fella thinks his reflection is his soul mate.

  Share

  Tagged in:

• Edit

  The future of community management

  October 28, 2011 By Joanna Golding

  When I got my first job in the online world, community management was barely a blip on the digital radar. Aside from occasionally checking a barely-used forum for abusive behaviour or language, the company’s online community presence was pretty much irrelevant – all advertising was television, print and web-based, meaning you had full control on what the public saw of your brand.

  Facebooked

  Then came Facebook. Back in those simple days, MySpace was the only big social network that the cool kids used and Facebook (which simply consisted of your general info, photos and a wall) was only for university students.

  Fast-forward five years and working in the online world is a whole different ball game. Facebook has exploded (along with the development of smart phones), opening its doors to everyone worldwide and allowing organisations to have their own pages, meaning it is fast becoming the go-to place for finding things. You meet someone new, you look for them on Facebook. You visit a bar you like, you ‘like’ it on Facebook. You even ‘check-in’ via your phone when you’re in said bar. Then you Tweet about it.

  The brand view

  From a brand perspective, these developments are brilliant. With people ‘liking’ your page, mentioning you in status updates, uploading photos and checking in at your venue or events sponsored by your brand, you’re receiving a whole load of free advertising without even having to lift a finger. Of course, the flip side is that you have to make your page interesting enough for people to want to do these things.

  Personally, I love this new development. Having an online community whose voice can be heard by anyone and everyone worldwide means that brands need to step up their game both creatively and in relation to the service they provide. Advertising is no longer just about reaching people, it has become an experience which influences peoples decision making, and if people aren’t engaged with a brand through social media communities, the brand is going to get lost in the noise and left behind.

  But more importantly, what happens on social media channels happens in real time and for all to see. We are no longer able to control what the public see in terms of positive or negative feedback, meaning it is up to the community manager to creatively monitor comments.

  The community manager

  Community managers are now integral to the success of a brand and its reputation online and off. Creating a personality for your brand, engaging with users in a unique way and dealing well with negative feedback is now just as influential as placing an advert in the perfect TV slot. Brands are being forced to up the ante as far as creativity is concerned, bridging the gap between client and customer – an area which I believe to be the most exciting in the development of community management.

  Having worked in this world for the last seven years I have witnessed first-hand the way in which online communities have impacted the way we consume online media. Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter are constantly developing and moving into new areas, meaning the role of the community manager is going to develop alongside them. For me, this is what draws me to the role. No precedents are set, no one really knows what direction new developments are going to take, and that gives us the unique opportunity to take the reins and set the trend for others following.

  Share

  Tagged in:

• Edit

  The future of media is...?

  October 24, 2011 By Jon Holloway

  Answer = People.

  This is a dangerous time to be in the media world, hell it’s a dangerous time to be in advertising full stop. Power to the people, the most over used phrase ever, but so true, call it what you want; push to pull, social evolution, conversational marketing or any other BS term that we all puke at daily. What we are seeing here is a shift, a shift to people being the medium and a big leap towards people media.

  Take a normal person in todays world, they have the ability and knowledge to make their own mind up about a brand, to create their own brand personality for it and then share that amongst their friends. Branding has always been about perception about the illusion of controlling peoples perception to be exact. How can you control perception if your ‘noise’ is being turned down?

  The concept of the ‘freedom superhighway’ where the research generation have access to everything and anything at anytime is step 1. Step 2 is then the freedom to make up our own mind and step 3 is our ability to be less susceptible to noise and to switch off the irrelevant chatter.Step 4 is then the channels and always on nature to be able to tell everyone what we think. (Remember no matter how small a group of connections, everyone is an influencer)

  If it wasn’t before, targeting is now the Holy Grail, we hear a lot about being ‘media neutral’, how about one step further, being ‘media negative’? Just made that up, but you get the point. Think about every single person you need to speak to and find the best way to do that. Start with face to face as that is the most honest approach and move backwards towards media, rather than forwards from media.

  Relationship - another big word being thrown around at the moment, but one you can no longer ignore. If people really are the media of the future, your best asset are those people who are already involved in your brand, your customers.

  Take the ‘media negative’ view, how would you get your message out with no channel at all? Most sane people would start with the people that come to them, the customer, does that make us all insane?

  This may all send a bit ‘blue ocean’ so bringing it back to earth there is an interim stage between where we are now and ‘people as the new media’, its called community. Horrible word, over used, but a group of people together is a powerful thing, this could be anything from your website, blog readers, twitter followers or Facebook fans, the activation of it is irrelevant.

  Consider this though, if you spend $2m on a TV campaign and out of that capture 50.000 people in a group, the next time you go out to ‘media buy’, you only need to target outside of that 50,000. When the communication is ‘really useful’ and entertaining that 50,000 will quickly become 100,000, perpetual growth theory. How does saving 50% every time you go out to your media company sound? Simplified yes, possible yes, taken in to account, probably not.

  Strategy for 2012?

  Bring people together and give them something to do.. Simple.

  Share

  Tagged in:

• Edit

  Bigger isn't always better

  October 21, 2011 By Gemma Hogan

  The Works summer campaign for Daikin brings to life the old adage, “bigger isn’t always better”, when it comes to sizing air conditioners. Daikin’s summer campaign features incorrectly sized air conditioning units talking us through their struggle to keep a room at the right temperature.

  To unlock this campaign, The Works undertook research that identified air- conditioning as being a really difficult purchase, with consumers feeling stressed about making an incorrect selection.

  Damian Pincus, Creative Partner and Founder at The Works said: “To overcome the stress surrounding this purchase decision, we came up with an ad which humorously dramatises what can happen when you make the wrong selection, as Daikin provides the best solution via their Specialist Dealer Network.”

  The campaign consists of one 30 second TVC spot, two 15 second spots an extensive digital schedule of banners, e-dms and a strong presence on Ninemsn.

  Watch the TV spot here:

  Share

  Tagged in:

• Edit

  Facebook's new metric self serving?

  October 18, 2011 By Jon Holloway

  With the launch of the ‘People Talking about this’ metric in Facebook insights, I am thinking that this might just be a little self serving to Facebook.

  Let me explain, the stats that I have seen show that page ‘likes’ is an important aspect of this metric. So if you run an advertising campaign to get more likes with Facebook, you can get up towards what is essentially 50-100% engagement and share levels. Which in real terms is totally untrue and skews towards advertising and getting more ‘likes’ as the best way to attack Facebook.

  Someone liking your page is a measure of exposure, it will be seen by others, but it certainly isn’t someone talking about your page, sharing your story or getting their friends to interact.

  I love the idea of the metric, but for me the current algorithm is a little off track to make it really useful, the last thing we need is another way of people misunderstanding that more ‘likes’ = success.

  It is also not a metric that can be used for comparison as there are too many factors to take in to account. If your page is aggressively seeking new likes and another has done that already, your page will look like a success and there page invariably wont. Just a word of caution, metrics are only useful if you know what you are trying to prove.

  Thoughts?

  Share

  Tagged in:

• Edit

  ADMA finalist

  October 11, 2011 By Gemma Hogan

  We are quite chuffed to announce that Staples -The “Stationery City” launch is a finalist in this years ADMA Awards in the Digital - Online Broadcast category.

  The Works reconstructed Sydney Harbour entirely out of Staples Stationery and Office Supplies. Featuring 2,344 recycled sticky notes, 84 boxes of staples, 361 bulldog clips, 169 paperclips, 107 rubber bands, 132 coloured pencils and loads more.

  Watch the video here:

  Share

  Tagged in:

• Edit

  Kev makes the hot list

  October 11, 2011 By Gemma

  The AdNews 40 Under 40 list is out and we are proud to say that Kevin Macmillan - Founder of the agency has been included.

  According to AdNews, competition for a place on this year’s list was fierce and they had more nominations this year than any other year since 40 Under 40’s launch.

  Those who work with Kev understand why he has been included. His energy, passion, authenticity and ambition always shines through.

  Congrats Kev.

  Share

  Tagged in:

• Edit

  The real masterchef

  October 11, 2011 By Gemma

  At The Work we are very proud of our worksers achievements both in and outside the agency, Tristan Chantler, Graphic Designer at the agency was a finalist in this years’ Shoot the Chef competition.

  Congrats Tris.

  Here’s what he had to say about the pic: “I could smell this scene before I shot it. I followed the blood red river towards a young man named Mustafa who killed and cooked your meal. All very real. No cameras to hide behind. The real masterchef.”

  Share

  Tagged in:

• Edit

  Your brand doesn't exist. Simple.

  October 10, 2011 By Jon Holloway

  This post is inspired in part due to a conversation with @HannahDeMilta yesterday, that brought an idea I had been carrying around for some time to the very front of mind again. It’s simple really, if you always think your brand doesn’t exist, where does that take you on a communication journey?

  Let me give you the basis of where this started, Hannah tweeted yesterday:

  ‘OH (13 yr old on the bus) That sign says Vans since 1966. I honestly can’t believe that. I had never heard of them until recently.’

  That is Vans, Vans! Who is their target audience? I would imagine that it includes 13 year olds, well at least it should! I was wearing Vans at 13..

  Hannah then went on to say:

  ‘So true! There were 3 of them and they had so many tweet-worthy quotes. They had a lot of opinions :)’

  It just struck me that in its simplest form, this is the challenge for all brands and marketers right now. We all have a misconception that our target market knows who we are, just because we are ‘targeting’ them with our ‘media’. To me, this is the marketing fallacy: people buy our products so we must be doing it right.

  Wrong, never accept what we are doing is working, go bigger, think that our brand doesn’t exist, the journey we will then take to making people aware will be a lot different. To make this happen we need analytics, data and a really useful, digital layer that allows us to move from assumption to fact. We then need to feed this digital layer with real understanding, why not ask 13 year olds on a bus for example?

  If we clear our minds and think as if our brand doesn’t exist, we then have to consider opinion, the basis for all this social media hoo-ha. Everyone has an opinion, but do they have one about you and your brand? I see a lot written about people scared of negativity in the social world, for me, negativity rocks, being irrelevant or invisible should be the thing giving you the nightmares.

  Imagine a world where everyone has an opinion and is quite willing to tell everyone who will listen and you are not part of that conversation, at all, in any way, you don’t even exist. Scared now? You should be.

  So what does all this mean? Try to ask yourself three hard questions every time you go to market:

  1. What if our brand didn’t exist amongst our target audience?
  2. How can we get as many people talking about us as possible?
  3. How can we become a ‘useful’ part of that conversation?

  This should help you to; firstly become media and channel agnostic, secondly to really start thinking about the ‘best way’ to communicate who you are and what you do with the ‘right’ people.

  If you need someone to ask you those hard questions and not let you leave the room without an answer, come and say hi, always happy to help.

  @socialvation jon(at)theworkssydney.com

  Share

  Tagged in:

• Edit

  Brands need to get a life!

  October 7, 2011 By Jon Holloway

  In a few weeks time I will be taking to the stage at a Networx Sydney event talking about bringing brands to life. This is a subject I am really passionate about and one that more brands are starting to think seriously about, so is time for a post on the subject.

  If you want to sign up for the event visit networx site it’s on the 25th October and will also feature Ben Macpherson CMO of Pie Face and Andrew Keith, the brand manager for Smirnoff in Australia.

  First the theory

  The world is changing, consumers are changing, the buying cycle and/or path to purchase is in a constant state of flux. 18% of purchases now start in the social media world, a great stat, but what it really shows is that 82% of purchases start elsewhere.

  This is what I call life. It is simple as that, life has changed for everyone, we are traveling more, connected more and are always on. Connected through the internet, phones and events on an upward scale that show no signs of slowing. Nearly 50% of all Australians have a smart phone, something like 16,000 are sold daily.. Interesting.

  The point behind all this is that consumers now have multiple options of how they can see your message. They can choose to see it, ignore it or even turn the volume up and down. They can get involved or just spectate and they can do all this anywhere they like; at home, at work, on a bus, on the street, in the car even on the toilet.

  This changing world has brought us so many ‘moments’ with our consumers, this means that a brand now has to be more than just an advert, more than a TV commercial, more than social, a brand now has to have a personality and create moments at every part of this complicated thing called life.

  Making it simple

  What I am talking about here is experiences, whether that is digital or in the real world. The brand of the future will have a really unique personality that is brought to life through a series of immersive experiences.

  This is all about over committing to your consumer. Getting your brand story right and then creating an opportunity for people to become immersed in your brand. The new interruption state is now about entertaining consumers on their journey through life.

  Some examples

  McDonalds inner child - this was lovely, an experience of what is means to be a child again. Adult sized play-park in Circular Quay Sydney.

  View it here

  Jim Beam Party Crew - Hand picked to represent The Bourbon, bringing personality to the brand and allowing people to experience more than just the drink.

  View it here

  Red Bull Art of Motion - We all know how good Red Bull are at over committing to a category. The Art of Motion is all about bringing the passion of parkour to the streets. Immerse yourself in the brand and sport, even have a go.

  View it here

  VW Fun Theory - VW Blue Motion is all about fun, how do you get people to understand that? Make everyday things fun, create experiences that change behaviour, record them and show them to the world..

  View it here

  If you want to come and hear more visit networx site it’s on the 25th October and will also feature Ben Macpherson CMO of Pie Face and Andrew Keith, the brand manager for Smirnoff in Australia.

  Share

  Tagged in: