Yes, it’s finally that time of year. The time when we can all let out a communal sigh of relief, as we regain a warmer spring in our step and remember that there’s a world outside the front door of our former winter hidey-holes.
- At Threesides we’ve certainly been springing into action this month. While September marks a time where many office groups step up their game as part of Steptember… At Threesides we’ve been aiming to take it one step further, by holding an in-office competition to see who can complete the most “active minutes”. It’s not all about the race to the finish line though, the reason we’ve decided to do this actually has a much more important purpose. Although we love everything marketing related, when you put a magnifying glass on our industry as a whole, people working within creative, media and marketing certainly need a boost in the health department, especially when it comes to caring for our mental health. A recent study conducted by the Mentally Healthy, reveals that 56% of marketing industry workers show severe or extremely severe symptoms of depression and anxiety, 20 percentage points higher than the national average. The participants of the study indicated that they felt this statistic was likely the result of poor work-life balance. Knowing that work-life balance and implicated health is an industry-wide issue, only reinforces why our new campaign to become more active is so important for our team. More physical activity, fresh air and time in the sun has been proven to improve overall wellbeing while diminishing the chances of preventable diseases in future. And for many people, participating in regular physical activity has also been found to improve concentration and productivity in the workplace. So, the more we improve the healthiness of our bodies and minds at Threesides – the healthier our working outcomes will be for our clients too.
- On the topic of mental health and important causes, this was the month for the annual R U OK? Day. This year though, R U OK? has taken promoting healthy conversations one step further, partnering with creative agency The Works to launch voice technology for Google Assistant to ensure that people R OK, asking “R U OK?”. In short, RUOK Mate is an innovative tool for Google Home or Assistant, that now provides strategies for people to help manage the conversation and appropriate actions if someone answers ‘No, I’m not ok’.
Considering that almost 70% of Australians with enabled technology use voice-tech to interact with smart-assistants, and 31% would consider using human voice interfaces to engage with topics/products relating to health… we think this is certainly a smart way to promote mindfulness in the community. If you or someone you love is need of support, call Lifeline Australia on 13 11 14. - Earlier in the year, we saw Instagram test like-hiding across users and it now looks like they’re going to do the very same thing across Facebook. Similar to the reasoning behind the Instagram trial, Facebook claims to be doing this in an effort to deter users from using likes as a measure of self-worth. With no results yet available from the Instagram trial to see how effective this method is, we can’t help but yet again ask, what does this mean for social media-based marketing activities and the health of relevant influencer accounts? If made a permanent fixture for either platform, it’s likely that for newcomer brands, the challenge of breaking into the feed to then be noticeably eaten up by target consumers may be a harder task than it has been before. From an alternative front, we can’t help but also notice this announcement comes in the wake of Facebook receiving intense scrutiny from the community when it comes to protecting its users from harm. Whether or not this is an attempt to promote user-wellbeing or promote themselves, we’ll be keeping a keen eye on this for you in the coming months.
- The Australian Association of National Advertisers (ANAA) recently announced they will be holding a review of our national code of advertising ethics. The ANAA has mentioned that they will be updating and developing the code where necessary to meet community “requirements and expectations,” particularly in areas surrounding treatment of minors, the portrayal of genders, use of sexual appeal and influencers. While the code is constantly updated, with the ANAA most recently banning the portrayal of unrealistic body images in November of last year, we’re eager to see what their changes indicate about how the expectations of Australian consumers have further developed in just one short year.
- Twitter recently announced that they will no longer be allowing advertising from government-controlled news within its feeds. The change is taking place on a global level and while any affected accounts will still be able to use the platform to engage in public conversation, they will have no capability to access the platform’s advertising products. In Twitter’s own words, “We want to protect healthy discourse and open conversation. To that end, we believe that there is a difference between engaging in conversation with accounts you choose to follow and the content you see from advertisers in your Twitter experience which may be from accounts you’re not currently following.” Don’t worry, the policy won’t apply to taxpayer-funded entities, so there won’t be any unpleasant implications for your favourite news platforms like the ABC.
- Ooh!Media has released a new ‘global first’ data proposition – Smart Reach. According to the outdoor advertising giant, Smart Reach will enable advertisers to more effectively make the most of their advertising spend combining anonymised data sets – allowing for unmatched targeting capability across this media landscape. How? By getting their data scientists and partners to combine trillions of data points, including more than 3 billion geo-signals from mobile data, 2.5 billion banking and purchasing transactions annually, and more. It now seems the great outdoors platform is only set to get better when it comes to getting market cut-through and reach.
- And for a more light-hearted end to the month, 13cabs has launched a new cheeky campaign this month. And we expect it to start riding viral waves soon, being shared across the social media realm. The campaign aims to remind audiences of a range of familiar moments that we have all likely experienced, (whether we would like to admit it or not). From the ‘oh, I thought the meeting was here!’ moments, to re-evaluating shoe choices after a big night out on the town. There’s no doubt that the cab industry has suffered in recent years – with the ride-share application market growing and its number one competitor, Uber, further indicating an industry “over-take” after recently announcing that they would be integrating public transport price and time comparisons into their app. What this campaign does so well is strip itself back down to the basics, remind us why 13cabs always has your back no matter what your intention for travelling may be… They’ve done a great job of reminding us why they really are the official travel partner of, well, life!
Check out the cheeky new campaign here
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That’s another wrap for this month! Keep watching this month for up-to-date marketing insights.