The following SMART 100 profile and the information it contains is a duplication of content submitted by the applicant during the entry process. As a function of entry, applicants were required to declare that all details are factually correct, do not infringe on another’s intellectual property and are not unlawful, threatening, defamatory, invasive of privacy, obscene, or otherwise objectionable. Some profiles have been edited for reasons of space and clarity. More about the SMART 100.
This innovation initially came to life when…
From dealing with a number of international brands such as Red Bull, Toyota and Microsoft we realised that Australian subsidiaries have a challenge in identifying local content. Customers had to deal with ‘noise’ as they tried to determine what conversations are local and what they should care about. We needed to work out a way of pinpointing where conversations were happening beyond a domain basis (all the main social media sites are .com so would be attributed to the US). Our technology can now take a conversation sat on any domain and pinpoint the creator down to a suburb level.
WHAT & HOW
The purpose of this innovation is to…
Allow clients to make well-informed decisions from relevant consumer insights. For instance, a Marketing Manager can see the reaction to a campaign in Sydney compared with Melbourne allowing them to gauge reaction to different marketing messages.
It does this by…
Finding conversations that are relevant to the keywords or subject matter that a client is interested in. We take these mentions and process them by reviewing and attributing a weighting to a number of different indicators to location. This includes use of geotagging technology, review of profile information and historical posts or articles generated by the user.
PURPOSE & BENEFITS
This innovation improves on what came before because…
Businesses can now get a true understanding of how their advertising message, product or service is received by location. Previously companies relied on market research (expensive and time-consuming) or sales data (the last indicator in the sales cycle) to understand how different locations received their offer. We can now offer insights as they happen.
Its various benefits to the customer/end-user include…
More accurate decision-making around marketing spend and where the sales cycle is long (e.g. automotive) it can allow the business the chance to change their positioning, and therefore tailor a relevant message to capture a specific market.
COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE
In the past, this problem was solved by…
Sales data, market research, customer service feedback, surveys. These are all still useful business metrics but the advantage of monitoring location-based conversations is that you get the feedback instantaneously and can act on it quickly.
Its predecessors/competitors include…
None that we could find or copy in the online media monitoring space!
TARGET MARKET
It is made for…
Any business that wants to understand what is being said about it and where. Research suggests the Australian market is about 3,500 businesses. In terms of users within these businesses they would span: Marketing Departments, HR (to monitor employee branding/recruitment advertising campaigns), Corporate Communications (to see the spread of press releases and conversations about the business generally), Finance (to see how conversation by location correlates to sale by location), Media buyers (both for looking at results and for planning spend) and Sales Teams looking to directly engage with people and tailor their offering relevant to that persons location.
DISTRIBUTION STRATEGY
It is available for sale through…
Calling our business so we can determine the best solution for the client. We also sell through a number of partners who predominantly are advertising or PR firms. The product is delivered as SaaS so is infinitely scalable.
Our marketing strategy is to…
Engage directly with businesses and through our partners with their clients. The biggest opportunity for us is that clients are just starting to adopt this technology. Our marketing educates clients on how they can use online monitoring to improve their business. We do this through speaking engagements, webinars, client meetings, blogging, PR and of course our social media strategy!
SUPPORTING IMAGES AND/OR VIDEO
SHOW YOUR SUPPORT FOR THIS INNOVATION
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To check out the Anthill SMART 100 Readers’ Choice winner for 2010, click here.
