Optus CMO on plans to digitise the beach, and why they’re moving away from sponsorships
During a talk at Cannes Lions Optus chief marketing officer Nathan Rosenberg said the brand wants to digitise the beach, with the Clever Buoy project the first part of that.
Afterwards he spoke to Alex Hayes about the plans for the brand, creating a technology incubator, why they are moving away from sponsorship, and the brand as a “wingman” for customers.
You spoke about wanting to digitise the beach. Is Clever Buoy part of that?
Clever Buoy is the first step in that for us. It really came from the discussion around this falling to lifeguards. They’ve got outdated technology they’ve not really kept up with things in terms of technology and it’s one of those things councils have trouble continuing. So the opportunity is to come in and use technology to help them get more informed about what’s going on.
It’s a great idea but so far its just that ‘like the paperless office’ a great concept whose time may be now – but so far it’s just a prototype. Lets not consider it an actual thing thats happened, at least not just yet.
The great thing about working at Optus is you’re only ever one restructure away from redundancy.
They’ve never been short of structure or ideas; just patience around execution.
Being relevant on a beach is not a bad idea however Optus have clearly dropped the brand and marketing ball big time.
Executing a brand strategy is far more complicated than having your customers give you good ideas come at you on the beach.
The company has had huge cultural and leadership issues for many years and what we haven’t seen from the marketing side has been a result of that for at least the last two or three years.
Not backing up a good idea with some marketing investment tells me they haven’t committed to anything other than a good idea on the beach. Good start but not convinced of the follow through yet!
Love this idea from Optus, using their power for the greater good of Australians countrywide!
If Optus wants to be everyone’s wingman and keep them connected at the beach can they start by supplying free wifi to every beach in Australia
As a regular beach-goer, I have 2 things to say:
1. Dolphins. (yep lots of them. yep look like sharks). If this thing goes off every time a dolphin cruises past, the clever bouy will end up simply crying wolf…
2. Coastalwatch has done a great job of digitising the beach
Smacks to me of shallow thinking.