Author: Awaken

Talking about KPIs has long been popular in the corporate world – but what do they actually mean for your business and how can you make them work for you? We all know that KPIs stands for Key Performance Indicators, but what this really means is that these are specific numbers you can use to help you achieve certain goals, and to figure out when things are (or are not) working. 

They say that numbers don’t lie, and KPIs are a really handy way of keeping track of results and making sure that individual performance and actions stay in line with your broader organisational vision and strategy. They’re a fantastic reference point – but only if you use them correctly and make sure they are relevant to your goals. 

So what’s the best way to do this? We have a few suggestions…

KPIs come second

First you need to make sure you’re clear on your campaign goals and the strategy you’re going to use to achieve these goals. What are you actually trying to do? Are you purely going after sales? Are you building your audience or customer base? Are you focused on awareness? It is only once you’re crystal clear on these goals that you can go ahead and set a collection of truly relevant KPIs.

KPIs need to be SMART

Of course, they need to be smart, as in well thought out. But they also need to be SMART. By this we mean: Specific (know what you’re measuring and why), Measurable (you need to be able to define it), Achievable (you need to be able to deliver it), Relevant (it needs to matter to your business and boost performance) and Time-Bound (achievable in an agreed timeframe). Use this simple framework when putting together your list of KPIs and you’ll be well on the right track to success. 

KPIs need to look back to look forward

By this we mean – don’t go setting KPIs in a vacuum. Use all of the information available to you, especially any historical data you have to hand. Even if you’ve not specifically set KPIs in the past, you can look at previous numbers to get a good idea of how things have played out previously and use this to set better and more precise KPIs going forward. If your business is too new for historical data, try doing some market research and use competitor numbers.

KPIs need to be tracked

The goal of KPIs is to analyse performance, for better or worse, so make sure you’re keeping a close eye on growth and tracking all the important data. If your campaign is set to run for a certain period of time (for example, three months) make sure you set regular reminders to check in on the numbers (ex: weekly) so you know in which direction they are going and pick up any changes. Never wait to the end for a big reveal, as you might miss the opportunity to implement some potentially valuable optimisations or adjustments. 

If you need help crunching your numbers, assessing your past data and/or setting relevant KPIs for your company, please feel free to reach out to our team here at Awaken. We’re passionate about data (really, we love it!) and would be delighted to help you build a strategy that not only reaches your expectations but far exceeds them. 

Get in touch today and let’s start a conversation.

Having lots of followers on social media might look and feel good for your brand, but you might have noticed that big follower numbers don’t necessarily convert to sales. No matter how many likes or comments you’re getting, if it’s not turning into actual purchases then you need to rethink your strategy. What you want are social conversions, which are new or return customers acquired directly through your social media networks, ad campaigns and other social strategies. 

So how do you turn your social media followers into gold? Here are a few ideas:

1. Know your audience

We can’t emphasise the importance of this enough. If you want to successfully convert your followers into customers, you first need to know who they are and what they want – then figure out how to connect this to whatever it is you’re selling. 

2. Use the right platforms 

Once you’ve figured out who you’re talking to, make sure you’re speaking to them on the right platforms and in the right way. For example, if your target demographic is squarely Gen Z then you don’t want to be wasting your resources on Facebook – you need to be focusing your attention on YouTube and TikTok. Our audience insight tools at Awaken help us find the most relevant social media networks for our customers’ unique audiences.

3. Consistency is key 

There’s no point posting five times a day for a week and then going silent for a month – your followers will lose any connection they feel with your brand. Consistency is essential and it’s best to roll out a light but steady stream of posts (for example, three times a week) rather than the occasional barrage of content. 

4. Always engage 

You need to let your followers know that you see and hear them – and care about them! This is the best way to build their relationship with your brand and encourage them to become customers. Make an effort to like and respond to comments, and always reply to direct messages. This is particularly important for complaints and negative comments, which should always be dealt with politely and as quickly as possible.

5. Invest in paid ads

Unfortunately, to get traction on social platforms you need to be willing to spend. The budget doesn’t necessarily need to be huge but investing in paid ads is an important way of playing nice with the ever-changing algorithms and making sure your content and brand is being seen by new and existing audiences. 

6. Embrace user generated content (UGC)

Nothing is better than content that comes from people who have used and genuinely love your product or service. So embrace UGC, which is usually very authentic and can really help to radically boost engagement. Video UGC is particularly powerful!

7. Partner with influencers

Influencers can get a bad rap, but done the right way, these partnerships can be highly successful. Influencer partnerships usually work in one of two ways – you can either work with the influencer to create a collection of sponsored content that you can then promote across your channels, or you can bring them on as a brand ambassador and use them directly in your content and for events. The key to success here is making sure you choose an influencer who really aligns well with your brand and your audience.

At Awaken, we have lots of experience working with our clients to help them convert followers into loyal customers – and we would love to help you do this too. Whether you just need help developing a strategy or are looking for a more comprehensive social media management service, our social media-savvy team is ready to work with you. 

Get in touch today and let’s start a conversation.

When Panasonic Australia approached Awaken with a brief to bring awareness to the range

of products offered by audio equipment brand Technics, we jumped at the chance. This was an opportunity to create a TVC that would shine a spotlight on an iconic company that had become somewhat overshadowed in a busy marketplace, and we were thrilled to step up to the challenge.

One of the greatest strengths of the Awaken team is our passion for storytelling, and so we immediately looked for a way to express the decades-long endurance and widespread impact of Technics.

We did this by following the musical journey of a woman throughout her life. The TVC began with that special moment in her youth in the 70s when she opened her first vinyl, then carried through to her DJing on a Technics deck at a house party in the 80s and later using a Discman with Technics earbuds in the 90s. It then carried all the way through to her today being an older lady who still loves her Technics earphones and sharing the experience of vinyl (and the latest Technics deck) with her granddaughter.

Every business needs a strong marketing strategy. But before you plunge into creating one, you should think carefully about your target market. A blanket messaging approach, through which you try to appeal to everyone and anyone, is a waste of resources unless you’re a global company with instant recognition and a universally attractive offering. For most businesses, it pays to be specific.

And we mean this literally. Knowing and honing in on your target market can save your company serious money as it will help you to strip out any wasted spending on unfocused advertising that might fall on deaf ears. Speak directly to people who are actually interested in what you’re doing and you’ll find you get better results in a shorter period of time.

In addition to this, knowing your target market inside out makes it easier to build a powerful connection with your customers, who will feel seen and heard in a positive way. In return, they’ll reward you with increased engagement and, ultimately, higher levels of customer loyalty.

So how do you connect with your target market? Just follow these steps:

1. Identify your current customer

It’s tempting to focus all your attention on new customers, but don’t neglect the ones who are already with you. Use tools like Google Analytics, social media analytics, online reviews and customer feedback to really get to know who is buying from you right now and why. This information can help you build opportunities to up-sell and find lookalike customers.

2. Focus on the problem

The next thing you need to ask yourself is: What problem am I solving for my customer? By considering what your customer needs and wants, you’ll be able to figure out if you’re providing them with the right product or service. Is it possible to tweak your offering or re-think the way you deliver it to encourage greater engagement?

3. Find your benefits

Take some time to do an objective review of your product or service and consider what you’re offering your customer using what you discover in the first two steps as a basis. Are there ways to adapt or expand your offering to improve the way you’re serving your current customers and solving their problems? How are you appealing to new customers?

4. Look for new markets

Don’t restrict yourself to the obvious. Think outside the box and explore any possible niche markets that could work for your product or service. Get creative and see if you can find ways to adapt your offerings to appeal to underserved markets – you might find yourself opening the door to unexpected future sales.

5. Consider your competitors

Knowing what you’re up against is essential in the business world, and any good marketing strategy should contain a thorough assessment of the market. Work out who else is doing what you do (or something similar) and who they’re targeting. Then figure out your point of difference. Maybe you do it better, faster or in a slightly different way. Whatever it is, it’s important to have a clear understanding of where you stand.

6. Work out your target customer

Finally, using all the information you’ve gathered above, put together a profile for your target customer. Consider all factors including their age, gender, lifestyle, location, income bracket, social media habits, media consumption, hobbies and interests and shopping habits. You can use this customer profile to create your marketing strategy, brainstorm creative concepts, target relevant audiences via paid media, and create community care guidelines. The more you know about the customers you want to speak to, the more successful you’ll be.

This might seem like a lot of steps to follow, but each one is essential to help you successfully target the right market for your service or product. And you don’t need to do it all alone. Our team at Awaken are experienced at helping our clients identify and effectively reach their target markets – and we would be delighted to help you. Get in touch with us today and we’ll set up a time to talk.

It’s hard to look at social media these days and not notice the prevalence of short, punchy videos endlessly rolling through your feed. Whether it’s cute puppies, slick dance moves or cooking demonstrations, these videos are capturing the attention of millions of viewers every minute. And this translates to a BIG opportunity for marketing.

If you’re not using short-form video to promote your brand right now, then you should be. Simple as that. But don’t plunge in without a plan. Be strategic in your approach and you could see some spectacular results.

To help you understand more about this content form and how it could work for you, we’ve put together a few of the questions we hear most often:

What exactly is short form video?

As the name suggests, these are short duration videos that run from as little as 15 seconds up to several minutes (although, generally speaking, the shorter the better). They’re housed on a range of social channels including TikTok, Instagram Stories and YouTube Shorts (which currently attracts over 1.5 billion viewers every month).

But the opportunities and audiences for this content are constantly growing and it’s also well worth considering placing content on Facebook Stories and LinkedIn Stories, which are both gathering steam, as well as Instagram Reels and Snapchat Spotlight.

Why is it so effective?

Short-form content ticks so many of the boxes – starting with viewer engagement. It’s really easy for audiences to consume quickly and to digest easily, so we see impressively high engagement levels that often translate into strong conversion rates. If you use the content cleverly and integrate with your website, it can also be a powerful tool for driving website traffic.

What sort of content works best in short form video?

Whichever platform and length of content you choose, one thing remains the same: the content needs to be good. By this we mean compelling, engaging and worthy of the viewer’s attention: Think high-quality storytelling that is both interesting and useful. In a heavily crowded marketplace, you really need to stand out, so short-form video content must be short and sweet and super punchy.

Time really is of the essence here, so focus on essentials. Pick one key idea for the video and focus entirely on this. Don’t try to tell the whole history of your brand in 30 seconds, unless you have a genuinely interesting way to do this. Instead create a series of short videos that each spotlight a different point.

Never forget to include a CTA at the end of the video (such as “Shop now” or “Visit our website”) so that your viewers know exactly what to do once they’ve finished watching and are, in that moment, engaged with your brand.

And don’t worry if you don’t think you have enough video content to be effective. One of the great joys of short form content is that it’s so adaptable and so much of your existing content could be repurposed and repackaged as punchy little bite-sized morsels, if approached in the right way.

What’s the future for short-form video?

This is a content ‘trend’ you need to embrace as soon as possible because it’s still very much on the rise. Audiences and marketers both love it because it’s easy to produce and easy to consume.

Going forward, we’ll be seeing an increased emphasis on authenticity in brand videos, which often comes through user-generated content and influencer ads. This is just a natural extension of reviews. Having real customers talking honestly about why they love your brand is so much more powerful than any marketing content you could create.

This authenticity will also be seen in more behind-the-scenes content. Show customers how your business works and how your products are created in entertaining little video bites and the bond of trust will increase, leading to higher sales. This is also true of educational videos and FAQs, where you speak directly to customer queries and concerns about your product or service.

It’s also important to consider accessibility by adding subtitles and text overlay, as people are increasingly watching videos without sound and on the run, and think about taking part in one of the many viral challenges regularly going around as a way of tapping into new audiences.

What’s next?

This might seem like a lot to consider, but making a move into short-form video can be transformative for your brand. Our team here at Awaken are passionate and knowledgeable about this content form and we would love to help you understand it better, to assess your current content library and strategise ways to leverage it, or produce brand-new compelling brand content.

Get in touch with us and let’s start a conversation.

The brief

When tequila brand Jose Cuervo launched the world’s first ready-to-drink Sparkling Margarita – a refreshing new version of the much-loved cocktail – Proximo Spirits selected Awaken to challenge convention and create a media campaign like no other.

With aggressive targets, including selling 56,268 cases of Sparkling Margarita and stealing two drinking occasions from competing products, our client required a media strategy to successfully launch the new brand and quickly and make it THE go-to drink for summer socialising.

While this campaign seems straightforward, it was anything but – media was briefed, booked and launched during COVID-19 lockdowns when a carefree summer with friends was far from certain.

Our research

Awaken conceives media strategies that genuinely connect with consumers. We invest time to deeply understand and effectively engage with them.

We used focus groups to identify that the product would appeal to a younger (25–34-year-old) demographic already enjoying tequila and pre-mixed white spirits and pinpointed a female skew in those likely to trial Sparkling Margarita.

With our target confirmed, we harnessed our research portal to deeply understand the audience, confirming they were likely to be single, educated and progressive, living an aspirational lifestyle and enjoying going out frequently, stay-at-home orders permitting.

They spend substantial time online, including when they’re on-the-go, having grown up with the internet and smartphones.

We tapped into research confirming they craved a post-lockdown summer with friends, where they’d press pause on binge-watching content and reconnect in the physical world.

The media idea

The Sparkling Margarita campaign was the perfect opportunity to demonstrate our knack for being bold, clever and strategic.

Alcohol brands traditionally adopt a ‘safe’ approach for product launches, relying heavily on outdoor media to drive awareness and consideration.

Our media budget was small compared to Sparkling Margarita’s competitors’ typical summer spend, so we decided our plan would intentionally avoid the channels used by competing products.

This meant being inventive when we crafted our central media idea.

Our client seized the opportunity to create a drink that research said Australians were craving – a refreshing, convenient, flavourful serve matched to a summer outdoors socialising. We leveraged audience insights to construct a complementary strategy serving relevant and refreshing advertising in context.

Our central media idea tapped into our client’s desire for Sparkling Margarita to become THE in-home drink consumed while getting ready to meet up with friends – whether at a Friday night venue or virtually when stay-at-home orders were in play.

We translated this idea into our strategy by focusing on opportunities to connect with our target audience in the key moments when they are getting ready to go out.

As we dived into research, we identified a correlation between our predominantly single audience and dating apps. It naturally made sense to expand our strategy, targeting in-home moments where people were getting ready to meet new people.

The plan

Our plan prioritised high-impact digital formats to achieve national reach and frequency through brand-building, including partnerships, sponsorships, takeovers and skins to drive top-of-mind awareness.

We cleverly wove channels and components together to surround people in contextual, getting-ready moments, including sponsoring the Spotify playlists they were listening to, taking over Pedestrian TV when they searched for entertainment, and placing playful profiles for them to consider in their Tinder swiping.

We extended our plan to connect Sparkling Margarita with our target audience when they were out socialising and sharing their moments using Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook, also driving consideration and action with link clicks.

As our media idea centred on context and proximity, it was critical that the creative matched our thinking. We worked closely with creative agency Mango to devise creative for each channel, with clever straplines conveying Sparkling Margarita’s authentic, more interesting personality.

In another departure from traditional category thinking, we recommended retail-focused creative, prioritising the product to ensure our advertising cut through.

Given that our plan was secured and bought when Australia was still battling COVID-19, with no end to the pandemic in sight, we deliberately crafted a strategy that could be adapted quickly.

We knew our media plan required an outdoor presence through summer and took a calculated risk to book contextual media, adapting our media idea of connecting with friends.

At the time our plan was booked, people were able to meet in small groups outdoors. This became a cornerstone of our outdoor media plan. We secured placements around parks and beaches to reach people meeting in friend bubbles if restrictions were still in place at launch.

Mindful of public health orders’ impact on people’s movements and their path to purchase, we secured outdoor media close to retailers to connect our target audience with Sparkling Margarita as they travelled to shop. This also ensured we would avoid the clutter of competing products within retail spaces to maintain aided awareness, drive consideration and purchase.

We emerged from lockdowns as the campaign launched, so we quickly pivoted our outdoor plan, securing placements close to reopening venues.

We used our real-time dashboard to constantly optimise, for example adapting creative when we discovered that men engage with Tinder at a higher rate than any other channel.

We’re masters of the pivot, never afraid to shift direction if it means securing a better result. Adapting to take advantage of opportunities was the success driver of our strategy.

Success and effectiveness

Our media idea and plan delivered exactly the results our client required, including:

· Sparkling Margarita sales significantly exceeding target by 33%

· Generating 47,394,489 campaign impressions in total

· Achieving 155% of target impressions with paid social activity –

· Creating 114% impressions and 134% clicks via paid media activity target –

· Bettering our cost targets for Spotify, Tinder, Snapchat and Facebook, demonstrating these platforms’ effectiveness for product launches

· Reaching 2,800,000 people and achieving a 10.1 frequency average with our calculated outdoor plan, exceeding our reach targets, despite pedestrian traffic remaining low during the campaign period due to COVID-19.

Proximo Spirits was amazed by the impressive results of Awaken’s media strategy; they’ve already planned a similar channel strategy for 2022.

Coates contracted Awaken to shift their content, media and social media strategy away from humorous tradie content and towards their large-scale industrial and engineering solutions offerings.

Content funnels for these pillars were built to nurture and create quality leads, and paid media was used to support getting these rich content pieces in front of the right audiences. This resulted in a 1717% increase in conversions across Facebook/Instagram, Linkedin and Youtube for the year and a 91% lowered CPA.

WHITE PAPER CAMPAIGN: During this particular campaign, we spent 34% less than the typical Always On media month, yet increased traffic by 98%, lowered CPC by 67%, increased conversions by 374% and lowered CPA by 86%. This was due to a targeted campaign around one content pillar, funneling users through awareness and then conversion content, while gathering valuable and targeted leads for their industrial solutions sales team.

It has been an interesting couple of years in the world of TV and video. Like so many industries, entertainment was transformed by the pandemic and has emerged on the other side looking a little different, but in an unexpectedly exciting way.

The shock of lockdowns led to an initial freeze on many marketing budgets, with the squeeze being felt particularly on TV budgets that on average dropped 9.8% in CAGR (according to PwC’s latest Australian Entertainment and Media Outlook). It didn’t take long to bounce back, but it did so in a slightly different way than expected, with BVOD (Broadcaster Video-On-Demand) experiencing a staggering increase in ad revenue of 67.8% in 2021, as recorded by industry body Think TV. While this still represents a relatively small (approximately $363m) slice of the $4.2bn pie that was total TV revenue in 2021, it’s impossible to ignore these impressive growth figures.

This boom in BVOD is largely driven by Millenials and Gen X, and all of the traditional networks are stepping up and launching their own streaming platforms including SBSOnDemand, 7Plus, 9Now and 10Play as well as BVOD which is a curated mix of catch-up TV, live TV and exclusive content that is available through their respective apps.

SVOD services contribute to the plethora of global and local streaming platforms available to consumers, further fragmenting TV viewing audiences. With the entrance of new, sports-specific platforms such as Kayo, Stan Sport (ad-free) and more traditional players such as Foxtel Now and Optus Sport, advertisers are able to reach audiences in a way they haven’t been able to before.

So what does that mean for TV as we know it?

Let’s be clear here – linear TV will undoubtedly continue to deliver strong opportunities and potential results, and any talk about TV (or the formerly revered 30” TV ad) having had its day is wildly misguided. But – and it’s a big but – TV needs to be approached in a new way in the future.

To get the most bang for your buck you need to be able and willing to think literally outside the box going forward because more and more people are going beyond the traditional living room flatscreen for their entertainment.

Like it or not, the way that younger people in particular are consuming content has changed, and if you
want to land your message to the right audience in the right way, you will need to rethink the way you position your brand.

You will also need to reassess what exactly you know about your audience. Transformations in the digital world and the shift away from third-party cookies mean that networks are having to turn to multiple online and offline sources to glean data, giving digital platforms a distinct advantage that might ultimately be more valuable than VOZ.

So where to now? Every brand needs its own unique approach that is carefully designed to respond to your specific needs and target audience, and our team here at Awaken is ready to support you in this. We closely track industry changes so we can help you formulate a strategy that perfectly aligns with your goals and makes the absolute most of your budget.

We still believe in the power of TV but we’re also passionate about the rise of BVOD and SVOD are skilled at developing integrated campaigns that make the best of all possible worlds.

Get in touch with us to find out more.

Are brand ambassadors something you’ve chosen to ignore or even dismissed as unnecessary? If so, you could be doing your business a major disservice. Far from a frivolous marketing ploy, quality ambassadors can help give your brand a much-needed stamp of authenticity that might be the silver bullet in a crowded marketplace.

A successful brand ambassador will humanise your corporate image and make it more relatable by helping your customers to better understand the practical applications of what you’re offering. This can lead directly to both increased sales and higher engagement.

A strong ambassador will often bring their own network to the table, which can be a huge help in increasing your reach. Whether they’re active on LinkedIn or other social networks (such as Instagram or TikTok), a consistent contributor to the press or a regular on speaking and presenting circuits, the right person should have a reputation for integrity and a distinct sphere of influence.

Bear in mind, their network doesn’t necessarily need to be huge, and someone who has the ear of 1000 quality customers is worth more to you than someone with a random following of 100,000 people on Instagram who have no interest in your brand. Ultimately the right ambassadors will help build a bridge between your brand and your perfect customers.

So who exactly qualifies as a brand ambassador? Great question. Let’s briefly run through the options:

Social media influencers

The best-known type of these are macro influencers who have managed to build up huge followings (anything upwards from 100k) and are usually associated with a specific topic or genre. These people play a numbers game, which means the majority of their followers won’t be interested in your brand, but their followings are so large that you could still enjoy strong cut through. Alternatively, you could look at working with micro influencers (10k and up) who often have smaller but much more engaged followings, or even niche influencers who focus on a specific area that’s relevant to your customers.

Celebrity ambassadors

This group is similar to macro influencers, as they generally have large followings. But they are set apart from those only renowned through social media because they are usually celebrities for a compelling reason, such as their work as an actor or sportsperson or politician. While building their career, they develop their credibility and attract a vast network of admirers and followers interested in their opinion. When the right celebrity endorses your brand, it can be game changing. Just ask Michael Jordan and Nike.

Your customers

NOTHING is more powerful than the genuine endorsement of a happy customer and their rave reviews can be invaluable in converting new sales. User generated content and testimonials, especially on high traffic sites such as Google and Trustpilot can be particularly helpful for reaching a huge audience.

Employees

Another effective group of ambassadors are your employees. It speaks very highly of your business and approach when your own staff is raving about your brand, and their endorsement can be a strong inducement for new customers who might otherwise be on the fence.

Business partners

You can also look to others you work with successfully for external ambassadors, such as any affiliate partners including charities, associated organizations or other companies affiliated with your brand. When they are proud to work with you and are not afraid to show it, this can persuade new customers to give you a go.

This might all sound a little overwhelming but, lucky for you, our team has extensive experience helping our clients find the right partners and run successful brand ambassador campaigns that connect with the target audience and get powerful results.

If you’re interested in working with us or even just have some questions, please feel free to get in touch.