Mumbrella Readers Choice Awards – media brand of the year shortlist

The following entries have been shortlisted in the media brand of the year category of the Mumbrella Readers Choice Awards.  

The order that follows was deliberately randomised so there is no alphabetical advantage in the order they appear.

Subscribers to the Mumbrella daily email will receive a link to the voting website.

While readers are invited to comment on the entries, please be aware that we will be alert for both astroturfing and deliberate attempts to sabotage a particular entry. Multiple comments from the same IP address, or otherwise suspicious postings will be moderated.

Please remember that including a video was optional, so entries that do not do so should not be judged down for that reason.

The shortlist:

• Adshel
• Daily Addict
• Eye
• KahDo
• Salmat (Lasoo)

EYE

*EXECUTIVE SUMMARY –

EYE is a multi-format Out-of-Home media operator with a suite of audience offerings that are unique within the sector. EYE is the only company to specialise in all Out-of-Home formats and have the knowledge and expertise to provide advertisers with the most effective exposure to consumers.

EYE’s offerings integrate the advertiser’s brand into the daily activities of the consumer. Unlike other media which is content driven, for example TV telecasts programs and newspapers run articles and features, with EYE the medium is the message and the advertising message is the hero.

The combination of EYE’s valuable audience sets, quality environments and product innovation have provided advertisers with a strong and powerful medium to reach consumers.

EYE is committed to lead the industry and deliver advertisers with unparalleled insights into consumers and how they interact and engage within the different EYE environments.

*EYE’S AUDIENCE SETS –

EYE’s audiences of Flyers, Shoppers, Drivers and Students are unique; from the out and about Driver to the inspired Flyer, the motivated Shopper and the trialist Student. EYE’s distinct audiences bring together environment, and mindset.

The Flyer: EYE has an intimate understanding of Flyers and conducted an extensive study earlier this year profiling six distinct audience groups; their mood and mindset and the impact of their journey through the airport.

The Shopper: Years of research investment into EYE Shop effectiveness has provided EYE with extensive insight into what makes Shoppers happy and the elements that trigger greater engagement.

The Driver: The Drivers journey becomes the transition between places and environments. EYE knows how Drivers move around the city and engage with their roadside offering.

The Student: Students are the CEO’s of tomorrow with extremely limited consumption of traditional media. On campus often and highly engaged in the environment, Students are a highly impressionable group who are in the formative years of determining brand allegiance.

*EYE’S ENVIRONMENTS –

EYE’s high-value audiences and quality media offerings located in high traffic environments such as airports, shopping malls, roadsides and higher education institutions deliver a highly valuable consumer.

Eye Fly is the only airport specialist in Australia. Their national airport network captures the traveler’s journey through check in, lounges, gate and baggage precincts, and the journey through the airport.

Eye Shop has the largest coverage of the most premium centres in Australia with more retail outlets and the greatest moving annual total ($MAT).

Eye Drive offers the greatest network of quality billboards in Australia. EYE’s iconic large format connects brands with consumers in an unsurpassed environment.

EYE Study provides constant exposure on tertiary education campuses over an average of four days a week, for five hours a day. The constant exposure generates presence, frequency and impact. EYE has an intimate knowledge of what the Student sees and how they move between thoroughfares, food halls study rooms and bars.

*COMMUNICATIONS –

The EYE brand target audience is a highly sought after influential audience of clients, business partners, staff and the advertising community at large. The key focus of EYE’s communication is to educate and inform clients on how to connect with consumers through EYE’s portfolio of products. Key communication channels in 2009 are as follows:

– Eye Reporter – A global leading Out-of-Home publication (produced and published by EYE for free subscription)

– EYE’s website – eyecorp.com

– EYE media releases

– Trade press, direct mail, events, sponsorships and product launches

– Trade presentations / sales teams

*INSIGHTS –

EYE is committed to accountability and leading the industry in research and insights, making a significant investment to understand how consumers view and engage with EYE environments and formats. Research and insights studies conducted in 2009 include:

Study: Eye Tracking Study – Access Testing

Fly: Airport Audience profiling and Effectiveness Research – Hoop Insights

Insurance Category Case Study – Synovate

Shop: New Economy Shopper – Hoop Insights

Shopping Centre Precinct Profiling – SSI

Three FMCG Category Awareness Studies – Hoop Insights

*SUMMARY –

EYE’s unique and valuable audience sets and environments are a strong connection point to consumers where the combination of environment and mindset is powerful for advertisers. They are the only Out-of-Home media brand to specialise in all Out-of-Home environments.

EYE are committed to the Out-of-Home sector and have strongly contributed to raising the profile of the industry through our ongoing commitment and investment into insights in 2009.

KAHDO

*WHY VOTE?

If you believe industry awards like this are best served to recognise the value delivered to our industry through true innovation, rather than propagating the norm, then please consider the value you may add by voting for this entry.

*WHAT IS KAHDO?

KahDo is an independent 100 per cent locally owned media platform that has carved out a unique media industry niche over five years.

You will have seen our branded fleets of smart/yaris cars driving around with campaigns including Nokia, TED, Bigpond, Maltesers and more recently Vodafone and Mortgage Choice – but unless you have worked with us directly you may not understand the strategic thinking that differentiates our offer from anything else in the market.

*INNOVATION: OUR POINT OF DIFFERENCE

KahDo’s success is underpinned by the fact that our innovation is borne through the simplistic and downright obvious – that the consumer is king.

If the consumer should be central to our strategic thinking when developing campaign creative, then why not embrace the value of the consumer in the process of physically delivering that message to market.

Our proposition is to connect advertisers with their consumers in a mutually beneficial advertising relationship:

Consumer Benefit: gets the convenience of a “no financial risk” branded car (a KahDo) 24/7 – at the fraction of the normal cost.

Advertiser Benefit: engages with a branded community of their very own consumer ambassadors who take their KahDo’s , and the advertising message, back into their communities where they live, work and play.

Media Outcome: an advertising medium that literally behaves like the target market immersing the message in highly relevant lifestyle environments; physically on the ambassadors vehicles, and virally through leveraging word of mouth strategies via a highly engaged consumer community

*2009: A BLOODY GOOD YEAR

In a year when many traditional media brands struggled under the pressure of the GFC, KahDo experienced its best on record.

No greater industry validation could KahDo receive than to win the Partnership Award at the Media Federation Awards for innovation in delivering Vodafone’s Business Ambassador campaign. See the video link.

Against competitive entries from media giants including television networks, publishing companies and outdoor conglomerates it was KahDo who was voted by the MFA judges panel as adding most value to a client campaign.

*The MFA award is just a backdrop to other key achievements that has seen KahDo grow from a small to medium sized business in 2009:

1. Expanding from our foundation markets of Sydney and Melbourne into all five major capital cities

2. Increasing our fleet of branded vehicles and community of consumer ambassadors who drive the fleet by 150% to 250.

3. Quadrupling our client campaign activation count from one at any given time to 4 simultaneous campaigns across our fleets.

*STILL READING?

True innovation comes not from market leaders who benefit from propagating the norm, but from “challenger brands” like KahDo who must prove their unique value to survive – and in 2009 we have.

Why not vote for this principle?

SALMAT (LASOO.com.au)

According to Nielsen’s 2008 Top Media Advertisers Report, the retail industry is the largest spending category for traditional media. Retailers controlled three out of the top four advertising positions and yet online made up only 1% of their overall media split.

Lasoo.com.au is a first of its kind, leading digital media brand that is dedicated for retailers. It is experiencing rapid growth and has developed into a household name. This powerful and unique vehicle serves ads from catalogue, newspaper, television and radio ads, aggregating product-based ads in a similar way that Seek.com.au aggregates job ads.

The ads can be searched and explored using a range of customisable tools and can be shared through email, social media and the user-generated social shopping site u.Lasoo.com.au.

*VALUE DRIVEN MEDIA BRAND

Since launch, this highly targeted advertising channel has profoundly changed how Australians shop and dramatically increased online visibility for traditional retailers.

According to the Australian Centre for Retail Studies, 50 per cent of Australian shoppers use the internet for pre-purchase research of bricks-and-mortar retailers. However, prior to launch of Lasoo.com.au, retailers were only superficially discoverable to search engines, on brand terms alone (owing to Flash and PDF formats). They required a vehicle to make their products visible online. A contrasting pre-purchase behaviour is demonstrated on Lasoo and on major search engines. Consumers predominantly search for distinct products rather than on retailer brands, which has traditionally resulted in negligible traffic for retailers.

When compared to all other advertising vehicles, Lasoo.com.au has a remarkably efficient cost per thousand impression rate (CPM) in a targeted environment. The average cost per visitor for retailers performs favourably against any comparative, such as CPC through search.

Research conducted by Nielsen Online in 2008 found that of over one million people who visit Lasoo.com.au in a month, an impressive 24% go on to make a purchase in a store as a result. 97 per cent of visitors who go on to buy, do so within one week.

In 2009, Salmat expanded its mobile services. The Lasoo iPhone application and mobile site provide consumers with a content-rich and location-targeted experience, with instant access to retail products and store locations. The app has experienced over 10,000 downloads since launch.

Further innovation is in the works. The soon to be launched Lasoo or retailer-branded gadget display ad Dynamic Ad, is location-targeted, interactive and extends the reach of any campaign.

*SUCCESS AS A MEDIA VEHICLE

Successes have been many. The site has now served over 3.3 billion product impressions to 15.3 million daily unique visitors, averaging 106 products served per second. This outstrips the reach of any other media brand dedicated for retailers. The brand ‘Lasoo.com.au’ has even become synonymous with ‘shopping’, according to Hitwise data.

The site has a community of over 250,000 members, supplemented by a powerful social following of over 5,000, on Twitter and Facebook. User-generated shopping site u.Lasoo.com.au continues to perform as a strong social recommendation media platform, with over 8,500 submissions.

Currently over 140 advertisers are reaping the benefits from increased in-store traffic and sales, including Target, BIG W, Myer, Coles, ALDI, IGA, Dick Smith, Officeworks, IKEA, Priceline, Telstra, Toys R Us, Rebel, Bob Jane, Repco, Apple, Borders and many more.

Lasoo.com.au continues to change the purchasing behaviour of Australian consumers and improve online visibility for traditional retailers. It is undoubtedly one of the most effective advertising vehicles for Australian retailers looking to compete in the online environment.

ADSHEL

MAKING OUTDOOR COUNT IN 2009

Despite the dreaded GFC hitting, it hasn’t stopped 2009 being a year of innovation, new partnerships and creative thinking. By living our brand values – innovative, creative, forward thinking – Adshel has been able to thrive in a difficult market. Here are our top 5 our highlights…

1. The Adshel Dynamic Pricing Model And Proactive Pitch Blitz

• Outdoor has suffered more than most as spend moved to cheaper and more measurable media options.

• To build confidence in the market, Adshel implemented a new Dynamic Pricing Model. We rewarded clients who booked early and by offered incentives for volume.

• Not only did our new pricing approach help lock in revenue, we were able to bring stability back into the market and it also had a major positive impact on inventory management.

• We also devised a Proactive Pitch Blitz project across the whole of Australia. The blitz involved a large roll out of proactive strategic pitches tailored to individual clients.

• As a result, Adshel revenue grew 7 per cent from June to July, compared to the outdoor industry’s 3 per cent. From July to August, our revenues grew an impressive 20 per cent, compared to the industry’s 8 per cent.

2. Creative Challenge With Award And Sydney Theatre Company

• Adshel and AWARD teamed up to host a Creative Challenge event for the Sydney Theatre Company.

• The Challenge, conceived by Adshel, aimed to promote creative excellence in the outdoor medium and encouraged leading creative agencies to bring their ideas outdoors for STC.

• The challenge for the agencies was to develop a concept, over the course of an hour, for an Adshel outdoor campaign in Sydney.

• The brief was delivered by the Company’s Artistic Directors Andrew Upton and Cate Blanchett.

• M&C Saatchi took out the top prize – the opportunity to have their concept brought to life and up in lights on a 300 panel Adshel campaign.

• The winning concept is a world-first; an interactive play delivered through a provocative poster visual and the audience’s mobile phone. The campaign will be in market in February 2010.

3. Championing Creative Excellence – Adshel Quarterly Awards

• Following on from the Creative Challenge, we have established a quarterly award for the best campaign on the Adshel medium.

• The award aims to promote creative effectiveness in outdoor and get senior creatives talking about lifting the bar in outdoor executions.

• The initiative is supported by AWARD and James Proctor, AWARD committee member and executive creative director at GP Y&R, lead our judging panel again this quarter.

4. Adshel Mobile: Australia’s First And Largest Mobile Out Of Home Network

• Adshel Mobile was launched earlier this year to help advertisers deliver added engagement, activation and measurability.

• With the largest out of home mobile network in Australia, Adshel is at the forefront of mobile marketing and out of home integration with QR Codes, SMS, MMS and a sophisticated Bluetooth network.

• At the backbone of the offering is a 200 site Bluetooth network which allows advertisers to deliver branded assets and content direct to their customers while out of home.

• The network is intelligently linked which means consumers who visit more than one site can be offered different download experiences each time. It also makes instant responses to a call to action possible.

• Paramount Pictures recently had excellent results with Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Check out the case study.

5. Partnerships With Media V, Maverick And Aura Interactive

• Adshel has developed strategic partnerships with scooter specialist Media V and experiential experts Maverick to offer clients effective, cost efficient media strategies in summer – with outdoor at the core.

• Clients can now increase their campaign reach, frequency and impact through Adshel Mobile, Adshel Create, Media V scooter advertising and sampling and Maverick non-traditional experiential executions.

• This is all in addition to Adshel’s custom built Summer Packages skewed to destinations such as bars and clubs, cafes and restaurants, parks, beaches and retail precincts using our ProximityTM targeting.

DAILY ADDICT

*BRIEF OVERVIEW OF DAILY ADDICT’S BUSINESS

Daily Addict’s business is to publish lifestyle-related news via its two main products, the Daily Addict electronic newsletter and website www.dailyaddict.com.au. The newsletter is delivered free to subscribers’ inboxes each week day, featuring a recommendation of what’s hot right now and short articles listing what’s on in Sydney.

Daily Addict is published for a discerning group of smart, tech-savvy and fashion-friendly readers who have a penchant for up-to-the minute news, must haves and must do’s. It is written for the socially astute that continue to seek more meaningful and fresh experiences because they value their limited time with friends and family.

*THE HUMAN SIDE:

Daily Addict was conceived and founded by Carrie Choo, a lady who is passionate about lifting the lid on the best experiences Sydney has to offer. Carrie launched Daily Addict on 15 January 2008. Inspired by the many others looking for a creative dose of great things to do, she’s putting her ten years of marketing communications experience, love of writing and fascination about people to good use. As a Sydneysider, plus a four-year stint in London working as a corporate communications consultant, she has travelled extensively to big cities to shop, love, live and learn.

*DAILY ADDICT’S PURPOSE / MISSION:

Daily Addict is committed to uncovering hard to access lifestyle-related news, exclusive events; and highly sought-after lifestyle products and services. Think of us as your personal aide to urban gems, like a new store opening or the restaurants that the locals go to. Giving you succinct recommendations on how to live stylishly and the low-down on beauty, fashion and design labels.

We love living in and getting the best out of Sydney. We spend all of our time staying ahead of the social game sifting through to what counts, so you don’t have to waste precious time searching for the best places to go, to see and to do.

We deliver valuable information in a medium that our readers like and make use of every day. Our clean and sophisticated look and products cater to an audience intent on having lots of experiences in as short a time as possible – ie. every day!

*SOME OF OUR KEY ACHIEVEMENTS THIS YEAR:

Published our 437th daily edition (as of application entry date)

Launched new edition – The Dispensary (fortnightly edition dispensing exclusive reader lifestyle deals and offers, upgrades and discounts)

Launched our iPhone Application – the first lifestyle app totally dedicated to providing premium daily content for Sydneysiders

Social Media: Twitter account hit more than 2000 followers (October 2009)

Founder recognised as Online Diva Award 2009 winner (Media Category)

We think we’re participating in an industry that has been dominated by traditional media players and big publishing houses. We’re a drop in the ocean compared to them, but the point is that we’re being compared to them. We’re in the same mindset of their niche target audiences, and we’ve only been around less than 2 years. We’ve built a loyal base of readers (growing daily) and have become their trusted provider of lifestyle news, which is great! We don’t think anyone else writes quite like we do for the market that we cater for in Sydney. We’re also looking at information which provides valued experiences rather than just a product or service.

*AT DAILY ADDICT WE’RE PASSIONATE ABOUT:

Experiences – being valued because we suggest the perfect mix of sophisticated and fun experiences for our target readers

Execution – being a great looking, well-written, entertaining read

Being personal – we like being your trusted, clever and like-minded friend giving you a daily dose of informed ideas to make the most of limited time with friends and family.

Tim Burrowes

Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.

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topics Adshel ALDI Apple BIG W Borders Coles Daily Addict Dick Smith Eye Eye Shop IGA Ikea Lasoo Media Mumbrella Readers Choice Awards Myer Nielsen Online Officeworks outdoor media Paramount Pictures Priceline Rebel Salmat Seek.com.au Target Telstra Toys R Us

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Comments: 8

Belinda Lawton 3 Dec 09

This site goes beyond the obvious launches etc in Sydney and gives information about all sorts of events we’d never hear about otherwise – and it’s free!

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Mona 3 Dec 09

Great site that features places to eat, store openings, product launches, exclusive sales, and things to do.

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Skye 3 Dec 09

Love the site & email notifications which are a great read and always interesting & inspiring.

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Outdoor Avenger 3 Dec 09

Yawn Yawn. blah blah blah!!
When are outdoor media operators going to recognise that they are not a one stop shop?
Eye do not specialise in all out of home formats. That’s a mass exaggeration. They have the minority of large format, only a portion of the airports, no on the road transit, and only consumers that shop in westfields! Not one OOH company has the complete solution. Wake up and stop the bullshit. The industry should be working together to maximise it’s potential against the narrowcast, fragmented and expensive mediums.

Go Daily Addict. You rock!

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Jules 3 Dec 09

So refreshing to see a brand like Daily Addict on the list, otherwise it is *yawn* as expected.

Go Carrie – we LOVE Daily Addict.

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Carrie 4 Dec 09

It’s feeling a little like David and Goliath in this space, but we like to punch above our weight!

Thank you Belinda, Mona, Skye, Outdoor Avenger and Jules for your super comments – it always bowls us over to hear that what we’re doing is loved by those we write daily for.

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