Advertising & Promotion Campaigns

Sponsors eye games talent pool

The Australian Financial Review
Page: 54 : 11 August 2008
Original article by Neil Shoebridge

LexisNexis Summary: Advertising & Promotion Campaigns

Australia's winning swimmers at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games stand a good chance of signing sponsorship agreements upon their return. Sweeney Research GM, Todd Deacon, said sponsors are particularly interested in local swimmers, because of their clean image and association with the "Australian way of life". According to Deacon, swimmers whose careers span two or three Olympics are particularly attractive to sponsors, because of their high profiles

Ikea makes lifestyle choice

The Australian Financial Review
Page: 55 : 11 August 2008
Original article by Noelle Waugh

LexisNexis Summary: Advertising & Promotion Campaigns

Over three million new Ikea catalogues for 2009 will soon be distributed across Australia. The Swedish furniture retailer is adjusting its emphasis in its advertising, and will now appeal to Australian consumers' lifestyle choices rather than market itself based mainly on cheap pricing. Advertising agency Host has designed the accompanying campaign for TV, print and internet, with the tagline "This is home". Ikea reduced its advertising budget by $A2.2m to $A10.4m in 2007-08, but will also invest some $A1bn in the launching of seven new outlets over the period to 2018 in Australia

Stranger than fiction

The Australian Financial Review Boss
Page: 84-85 : August 2008
Original article by Brad Hatch

LexisNexis Summary: Advertising & Promotion Campaigns

Emily the Strange, a fictional character created by Rob Reger and his company Cosmic Debris, has made his creator rich. The fictional girl generates more than $A30 million in sales annually for the company. She has been used in viral marketing with great success. Critics say the character is a fad but Rogers retorts that the popularity of Emily the Strange is more than that, considering that it has been used by marketers for 13 years

E-Business

Online ad spend confounds old media

The Australian Financial Review
Page: 61 : 11 August 2008
Original article by Neil Shoebridge

LexisNexis Summary: E-Business

The Australian online advertising market has not slowed, as predicted by traditional media sectors. A report by the Interactive Advertising Bureau has revealed that the online ad market rose by 28.7 per cent to $A797 million in the first half of 2008. The market increased by 27 per cent to $A1.52 billion during 2007-08. The free-to-air TV ad market rose by 0.7 per cent to $A1.7 billion in the June 2008 half, and the outdoor ad market increased by 11 per cent to $A217.4 million

Marketing Strategy

Outdoor measurement gets a MOVE on

The Australian Financial Review
Page: 56 : 11 August 2008
Original article by Neil Shoebridge

LexisNexis Summary: Marketing Strategy

The outdoor advertising sector plans to launch a new audience measurement system in late 2008 or early 2009. Outdoor Media Association CEO, Helen Willoughby, said the $A5 million system has been designed and the field work carried out, leaving only the development of a likelihood-to-see currency and testing remaining. Willoughby said the system will bring much-needed measurement to the local media and marketing sectors

Chaos theory

The Australian Financial Review Boss
Page: 64-66 : August 2008
Original article by Mike Hanley

LexisNexis Summary: Marketing Strategy

Network science can be successfully used in business. Australian scientist Duncan Watts, a professor of sociology at the Columbia University, US, stated in an article co-written with S H Strogatz and titled "Collective dynamics of small-world networks" that network structure plays an important role in determining system behaviour. In retail, random matching of supply and demand may be more efficient than rational distribution processes. The Spanish fashion group Zara has used chaotic distribution method with great success

Consumer Behaviour

Prospect of rate cut almost enough to open wallets

The Australian Financial Review
Page: 3 : 11 August 2008
Original article by Mathew Dunckley

LexisNexis Summary: Consumer Behaviour

Australian property buyers are waiting for a cut in interest rates. Australian Property Monitors has reported that auction clearance rates fell by 7.4 per cent to 47.4 per cent in Sydney on the weekend of 9 and 10 August 2008. Clearance rates in Melbourne dropped by 8.3 per cent to 47.1 per cent. Real estate agents say there was a change in sentiment, with more people attending homes that were open for inspection. However, buyer confidence will not greatly change until interest rate cuts actually occur

From boom to gloom in six months...

The Australian Financial Review
Page: 19-21 : 9 August 2008
Original article by Emma ConnorsPaul GarveyScott ElliottAshley Midalia and Andrew Cornell

LexisNexis Summary: Consumer Behaviour

High interest rates, falling real estate values and news of redundancies at a range of businesses in Australia are spooking consumers. Already the preparedness to take on new debt has declined, and sentiment may be entering a spiral where falling consumer confidence drags down the economy and vice versa. One new aspect to the pattern is that commercial banks are pushing their mortgage loan rates even higher than the official rate increases, and are likely not to lower them as much again once the Reserve Bank begins cutting its rates. Meanwhile, in Western Australia there is a widening gap between the wealthy who benefit from the resources boom and those who struggle with higher rates, food prices and petrol costs. In New South Wales, retailers are noticing that consumers are reining in their spending, while in Victoria expenditure from discretionary income on things like coffee is also falling

Ground-down Starbucks to be sold?

Inside Retailing
Page: 1-2 : 4 August 2008
Original article by Robert Stockdill

LexisNexis Summary: Consumer Behaviour

Starbucks closed 61 of its Australian stores in the week ending 1 August 2008, putting 685 people out of work. The US firm appears to have conceded that Australian consumers do not like the taste of its coffee, while retail analysts found its lease arrangements hard to fathom. The decision only leaves Starbucks with 21 stores in Australia, all in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, and few would be surprised if it decided to sell them via some form of licensing arrangement