Page 33 - AdNews Magazine Nov-Dec 2020

Investigation
up we had to change that messaging and we moved it to a chew-your-way- to-fresh message instead,” says Hill.
“And quickly got out the door a mask breath campaign as well because obviously people behind masks suddenly realise that their own breath doesn't smell amazing.
“With Extra, one of our biggest brands, we had a campaign that was all about study in university campuses. Clearly that couldn't go ahead so we maintained the campaign around study, but we moved it online supporting not just students but people working from home in terms of being able to study and focus at home by chewing gum.
“And we had a great outdoor campaign planned with M&M's, which again was contingent on people being in large crowds in areas. We pivoted that quite quickly and supported the Melbourne International Comedy Festival because M&M's is a brand that stands for fun.
“We knew the arts industry was suffering and we felt we could play a really strong role in helping to bring that to life digitally and through screens for people.”
Next year
Hill says 2021 will have a clear focus on social as part of the channel mix. “We'll be looking at the shifting landscape of that and making sure we
utilise the reach potential of each platform,” he says.
“TV will still be a really important part of our mix. We know it's
a powerful medium so that will continue.
“We're going to be far more active with on-demand streaming
platforms as an enterprise and here in Australia.
“Screen time is a huge occasion, particularly for brands such as M&M’s
and Maltesers. So we will be far more active in that as we've seen a sig- nificant rise in Australia this year.
“One of the challenges for advertisers, of course, is that many of them [streaming platforms] don't have advertising built in. And I think that's where, as an industry, trying to find ways to work with those partners is really important.
“The other thing we've seen, and it’s fairly well established behaviour, is the way people now consume their media is rarely on just one screen.
“So our ability to integrate the second screen into that occasion, that shared moment around a screen at home. Where there's no advertising on the core screen, how do you leverage the second screen, and the platforms that people are using there, at the same time?
“We are spending a lot more energy understanding the moments that matter, and particularly the digital moments that matter.
“The keynote there is that our channel mix is never static.
“But another key part of our role of being responsible for advertising spend is to not to waste it and instead to make sure we're spending it where it makes sense while still being agile enough to test and learn as we go.”
Warning signals
On March 3, Lisa Ronson, CMO at supermarket group Coles, was at a com- pany leadership team meeting at Beechworth, Victoria. The CEO, Steven Cain, had decided, after the bad bushfire season, to go to fire-affected areas.
That was the day when panic buying of items such as toilet paper became noticeable. Coles had seen the start of change around the end of February with long-life food items, such as tins of tuna, selling hard.
“I think we were doing Christmas every day for a period of time there and we normally have six months to prepare for Christmas,” says Ronson. “We really had to pivot, lean in and focus on different types of infor- mation for customers. It was more community service announcements rather than the regular demand-driving activities that we would normally
do, and safety was a big focus.
“I flipped the marketing team to focus on COVID-19. We did that
quickly and that was quite successful.
“We did a lot of press ads with a lot of information. It's not that we've
changed the channels, we just changed the weighting and the mix of
How do you expect your marketing budget to change over the next 12 months
15%
10%
9%
8% 8%
4% 3%
16%
28%
DECLINE BY MORE THAN 20% DECLINE BY 10%-20% DECLINE BY 5%-10%
DECLINE BY UP TO 5%
STAY FLAT
INCREASE BY UP TO 5% INCREASE BY 5%-10% INCREASE BY 10%-20% INCREASE BY MORE THAN 20%
Dentsu CMO Survey 2020
www.adnews.com.au | November-December2020 33