The (R)evolution has begun

Welcome to Sticky Advertising 2.0, Newcastle’s first Digital, Social & Traditional media agency

We are proud to launch a new direction for Sticky Advertising. A commitment to DIGITAL media. A commitment to offering DIFFERENT and highly innovative creative work.

Our new call-to-arms is DIGITAL + DIFFERENT .

We have embraced an exciting new website platform that provides unparalleled flexibility, adaptability and search-ability. It can offer your business wonderful new online marketing opportunities. The Sticky site is the first example of the platform and what it can do.

One of the biggest issues we have begun tackling is Search Engine Optimisation. So many websites have been poorly designed and do not perform well (or at all) in Google, Yahoo and other searches.

What is the point of a website that nobody sees?

We believe that your website shouldn’t just be a destination, but an active part of your marketing campaign. It should be introducing new customers to your business. That’s why we have developed a unique new Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) service to allow your site to be found easily and often. No need to pay for Adwords. No reason why you can’t be on the first page of all the relevant searches. Sticky has the tools to have your site performing better in online searches immediately.

In fact, we believe so strongly in the benefits of good SEO that we now bundle it into all new website designs. We refuse to create sites that aren’t fully optimised.

Finally, the DIFFERENT part. We are totally committed to creating advertising that really stands out from the clutter. Entertaining. BOLD. Left-field. We will do what it takes to give your marketing more impact. It might be a creative production or a creative use of media. Whatever it is, it won’t be bland.

Viva la (R)EVOLUTION,

Zag Theory

Let’s face it, the game has changed forever. Now it’s customers, not companies, who decide which brands live and die.

Today’s real competition doesn’t come from other companies but from the extreme clutter of the marketplace. You can’t fight clutter with more clutter.

In order to stand out you need a brand and advertising that is different. Radically different. When the others ZIG, you must ZAG.

At Sticky, we believe that a radical ZAG strategy comes first. Build a good ZAG and the rest will follow. Your team will have something to believe in. Your potential customers will know what you stand for. Your opposition will be nervously looking over their shoulders at you.

The result should be a brand that delights customers so that more people buy more things for more years at higher price.

Sticky applies Zag Theory to each level of the advertising process.

• Branding
• Positioning
• Creative
• Media Placement
• Digital

We ask how treating each of these aspects differently will help our clients stand out from the crowd and make quantum leaps in marketing effectiveness.

The cliche is that you should look out of the square for your advertising and media ideas. We suggest you get as far away from the square as possible. Create totally new geometry. ZAG.

Television’s generation & gender gaps

Source: David Dale, Sun Herald blogs

If men and women could only unite, Australia might get some stimulating television in the second half of this year. But they can’t, so we’re stuck with the programming preferred by viewers aged over 55 — the time of life when, apparently, the sexes are most similar.

Last week this column pointed out that the seniors are the biggest consumers of TV, while the groovers watch the least (37 per cent of prime time viewing is by people over 55, up from 32 per cent in 2003; 28 per cent is by people 16-39, down from 30 per cent in 2003).

So the network that wins the year will be the one with the geriatric appeal. Off the back of a truck has fallen some fascinating research about the age of viewers for each station’s most popular shows this year. The median age of Australians is 37, which is to say that half the population is older than 37 and half is younger. But the median age of viewers for most top programs is well above the national figure. Half the people who regularly watch Today Tonight, for example, are over 54. What you’re about to read suggests that TV is, to put it politely, a mature medium.

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Let us comfort you

Source: David Dale, Sun Herald blogs

Australians are crawling back into their cocoons. The age of adventure is over. You can tell from the way they’re watching TV. Don’t try to show them anything edgy, surprising or demanding. They want slow, reassuring, and predictable.

The programs that symbolise the national mindset right now are Domestic Blitz and Better Homes and Gardens. We demonstrated enough bravery by watching The Chaser boys and electing Kevin Rudd. Now we’re pulling up the drawbridge.

This behaviour pattern seems to go in three year cycles. From 2002 to 2004, as we retreated from September 11 and the Bali bombings, the top shows reassured us that every problem had a solution. Messy garden? A team of fairies will fly in for a weekend and redecorate it. Messy crime? A team of scientists will shine a blue light on it and find the culprit within an hour. Our favourite sitcoms came with cues to tell us when to laugh.

In 2005, we started to take a few risks, tolerating and then embracing shows that kept us in suspense from week to week.

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The Social Media Adoption Process

Yesterday, I received numerous invitations to join a new Web 2.0 site called - Plurk.

My first thoughts were “No…not another one.” But I joined and spent most of my productive day inviting or accepting people as my friend.

But, what excited me wasn’t Plurk itself, it was seeing for the first time social media Thought Leaders taking up and interacting with a new technology.

People like Robert Scoble, Ann Handley, Darren Rowse and Gavin Heaton.

I felt like a young David Attenborough viewing animals interacting in their natural habitat. No…I’m not saying these Thought Leaders were animals…it’s the only analogy I could come up with.

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Traditional v new media debate

from Media Hunter

At the Sydney PubCamp Web 2.0 Media Day much of the discussion and vigorous debate centered around the topic of traditional verses new media. The room largely divided into two camps, with the majority supporting new media. This was fairly predictable given the nature of the day and the web 2.0 focus of the event.

What surprised me was the strength of conviction and belief in one form of media over the other. There seemed to be very little middle-ground.

As a representative of an advertising agency I saw the debate from a very different perspective. We are heavy users of traditional media but very interested observers and emerging users of new media. Our view is definitely that there is room for both and will continue to be for quite some time.

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What is media in 2008?

from Media Hunter

When I began the Media Hunter blog my world-view was much narrower. I intended to write about media, marketing and advertising news and issues in my local region as it related to my clients and our agency. Initially that meant most posts covered radio, television and press stories, with maybe a little bit of online news for good measure.

The dialogue has changed dramatically over the year or so that Media Hunter has existed. So much so that I now have been forced to ask myself, what is media in 2008?

A decade ago, or maybe even less, media in regional centres was easy to identify. The local TV stations, local radio stations, local press and perhaps some outdoor were all the available and relevant media for marketers to utilise. It was all pretty straight-forward.

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