PR agency launches audience profiling tool
PR agency Encoder Public Relations has launched a tool that profiles audiences for Australian companies. The tool, called Audience Planner, analyses traditional, digital and social media use and attitudes to marketing.
The announcement:
• Sydney PR agency, Encoder Public Relations today announced the launch of an audience profiling product for businesses in Australia. The research offering helps communicators and marketers profile specific audience groups to maximise the effectiveness of traditional and digital PR investments.
• The Audience Planner research product by Encoder PR analyses traditional, digital and social media usage, attitudes to various forms and channels of marketing and consumer behaviours relating to all forms of media and content.
• Audience Planner by Encoder PR informs brand communication planning processes and enhances the effectiveness of consumer engagement strategy. The online research product takes audience profiling beyond standard demographic profiles to examine behaviour.
• The product is designed to help brand marketers and communicators make smarter and more effective decisions during PR program planning stages. Audiences are segmented into six digital lifestyle types, in accordance with the TNS Digital Life research framework – the largest ever global study of the digital consumer.
• Encoder PR released the results of its Australian Brand Engagement Study to mark the launch of Audience Planner.
Key findings: Australian Brand Engagement Study
• The study confirmed a high a high level of pro-activity when it comes to advocacy. 43 per cent of Australians will ‘actively recommend the brands that they like to others’.• 58 per cent are open to following and receiving information from brands that they like. 26 per cent would like more opportunity to do so.
• The survey looked at some of the most popular social networks as platforms for consumers to engage with brands. It found that less than one in ten (8 per cent) like to follow brands on Facebook and half again (4 per cent) like to follow brands on Twitter. Significantly, the study found that more sophisticated internet users are fix or six times more likely to want to follow a brand via Facebook.
• 72 per cent are aware of advertising when using the Internet but only nine per cent look out for it and the same proportion believe that it is relevant to them.
• The study found that digital advertising is widely distrusted in Australia. Just four per cent of those surveyed trust online ads.
• 43 per cent of Australians said that they tend to stick with the brands that they know and trust, rather than trial new ones.• The Online Advertising and Brand Engagement in Australia study is based on a representative sample of 1,002 Australians. Research was conducted by TNS during October/November 2010 and commissioned by Sydney PR agency, Encoder Public Relations.
Quotes – Audience Planner by Encoder Public Relations
Daniel Young, general manager, Encoder PR said:• “Ultimately, the effectiveness of public relations and customer engagement programs will be determined by the degree to which brands understand their target consumer, their preferred forms of media and content and their specific digital profile. Different types of consumers will interact with media in different ways and the brand engagement strategy needs to reflect that.”
• “Audience Planner provides behavioural and attitudinal insights relating to the consumption of traditional, digital and social media. It is delivered as a product with opportunities for brands to customise specific elements to their category. ”
Quotes – Audience insights critical to effective PR planning
Daniel Young, general manager, Encoder PR said:• “Brands are operating in a highly competitive and fragmented media environment. It’s getting harder to reach and engage specific audience groups. The vital first step of audience research and profiling is often overlooked, which results in misdirected resources based on assumptions and out dated information.”
• “Digital advertising may be effective as a brand building strategy but it has not yet received widespread consumer acceptance as a channel for engaging with brands. The Internet presents consumers with opportunities to interact with brands but it’s clear that a digital strategy that relies too heavily on advertising is unlikely to deliver this type of consumer participation. An integrated and targeted PR-led strategy is required to deliver actual engagement.”
• “Brand presence within social networks is a relatively recent trend, which is gaining consumer acceptance. Some consumers may perceive brand involvement in social networks as an intrusion while others are looking for it. Brands need to make a choice about who they want to engage via these channels and why.”
• “Brand marketers should consider all forms of social media. The most high profile and talked about social networks don’t necessarily present the best consumer engagement opportunities for every brand. A specific brand may find that there are bigger and better opportunities within specific forums and blogs or communities that they create themselves. Researching and understanding your specific audience and the choices they are making about all forms of media is key.”
