Media Tonic

In case you missed our educative post about the impending 28 square metres LED screen in the Murray Street Mall and its resulting advertising opportunities, you can now download a three slide PowerPoint* that fills in the pixels.

We think there are opportunities here for retailers especially, given the ability to hinge advertising messages to highly topical events and synchronise with daily or weekly promotions. “Last hours: world ends soon”.

Research by the Digital Signage Association in 2009 found that over 40% of 1200 industry respondents believed Retail had the most to gain from digital signage.

53% of respondents were expecting to spend more on digital signage.

*PowerPoint is a trademark of Microsoft Inc.

Twenty20’s Big Bash rated its pants off in January (307,000 viewers, a best ever – 18.5% up on the 2009 final) and Subscription TV continued to rise at the expense of Free To Air stations.

Traditionally a strong period for STV, January was up 10% and FTA down 2%. In subscription homes, STV stations accounted for 64% of viewing. Overall, between 6AM and midnight, STV leads individual FTA networks with 26% of metro viewing. Source: OzTAM.

For a small price you can have the booty of your dreams… How can you argue with that?

I know we risk lowering the tone again, but this is simply to say you can keep your social media campaigns; here is some great old-fashioned direct marketing. Everything about this campaign is wonderful: the product concept, the name, the execution…

Now shipping in the tens of billions *punches own head*; why didn’t I think of this? Why? Why? Come to think of it, why didn’t Playtex think of this?

You know what’s beautiful about the Murray Street Mall? 45,000 pedestrians per day. All of them beautiful people. FYI, that is 40% MORE than the Hay Street Mall, due in part to the new train station. The new centre of Perth. Hay Street Mall foot traffic is 25% down since 1993 and Murray Street Mall now has more foot traffic than George Street in Sydney and matches Swanston Street in Melbourne according to a study by Gehl Architects.

Screentech has appointed Media Tonic to manage (limited) advertising sales for the Murray Street Mall Big Screen which will be commissioned early in 2010.

It’s 30 square metres in size with a 20mm pitch – opportunity for a pun about sales or cricket but we’re not going there. If you’re interested in a new, serious-high-traffic medium, you know, call. It’s a logical spot for “Today Only” offers if you’re a big city retailer.

And I’ll tell you something else about Murray Street. It was named after Sir George Murray who was Secretary of State for War and the Colonies at the time Western Australia was founded. And here’s the connection: Murray was born in Perth in Scotland and was the member for Perthshire at the time. I dare say naming a new city after the home town went down well in the electorate.

More developments in LED large format advertising: Melville now hosts the latest in static digital screens – first Wireless Hill, now this.

50,000 cars a day travel past it on Leach Hwy (it’s next to Bunnings; you won’t miss it) and we’ve undertaken to find a major advertiser interested in 50% of content. Creative executions – animated graphics and text – can be regularly changed and are in 10 second bursts.

Yes, they’re the City of Melville armorial bearings. Read more about them here.

We’ll shortly be landing at Minneapolis Airport. Media Tonic would like to announce that they now represent the AirAsia network in Western Australia. It’s the largest low-cost air carrier in Asia; around 37,000 Australians fly AirAsia each month. Passengers skew towards medical professionals, government, military, education and self-employed. There are onground advertising opportunities such as boarding passes and booking tickets. You’ll be able to access the airline’s e-newsletters (over a million subscribers) and advertise on booking confirmation emails.

Onboard promotion can include decorated tray tables, overhead lockers, flyers, napkins, in-flight magazine and television advertising as well as product sampling. And the online opportunities are substantial. You’ll be able to run campaigns in the Air Asia portal which has more than twice the reach of the Qantas site – 20 million unique visitors in the last monthly figures we’ve sighted. Importantly, you can do geo-targeting and you can be language-specific.

Everything from decorating beverage cups to sign-writing an entire aircraft (example of the Oakland Raiders’ AirAsia plane above). Onground, onboard and online. One of the most flexible products we’ve seen. Worth discussing? Call David (Air) Fare or Mark Sydney (Stopover) Treasure on 9388 7844. They’ll be on their laptops.

The West recently went to press on the increasingly slow travel times on Perth roads. The story also quoted Motor Trades Association research: 21.5% more cars on the road than 5 years ago. Most of them in my lane. More people, spending more time stuck in traffic.

The traffic reports created by the Australian Traffic Network and broadcast on commercial radio stations continue to be booked well ahead of time. Pictured is Taryn Onafaro, ATN traffic reporter and TV personality.

If you’d like to speak to Taryn about advertising, too bad. Call Dave or Mark on 9388 7844.

Here’s a video that proves the ability of outdoor advertising to improve health outcomes.

Such incredibly low key advertising. The video series is sponsored by Volkswagen but the venue seemed to carry no branding whatsoever. Obviously looking to position Volkswagen as a ‘fun’ brand; an interesting example of video combined with outdoor interactive. Give us a call if you have a client looking to use outdoor for re-positioning. 9388 7844.

Thought we’d start with the Kim Williams quote:

“Since the launch of digital in 2004, this is the most significant milestone in FOXTEL’s history. With FOXTEL Next Generation, a new phase of television will be created for Australian consumers. We are moving forward, adapting technology to give our subscribers the power to tailor viewing to their needs.”

Over 30 new channels, the launch of the download service and an improved interface. For example, iQ users just hit the green button during a promo to queue a program for later viewing.

As of Oct 1st, subscribers have three viewing options; Live, On Demand and Record to iQ. All subscribers will have free access to iQ but there are a range of iQ products. The download option (free to subscribers) allows viewing over the net – true viewing portability.

10 new HD channels, 16 dedicated movie channels, new sports channels and 8 timeshift channels. Net, new technology, new content and unprecedented flexibility. There’s good detail on the specifics at the Foxtel site.

Hoping this is a trigger for you to re-examine the balance of your FTA/subscription spend since further market share gains for subscription seem likely. Of course, Dave and Mark are keen to provide stats or brief you personally. 9388 7844.