Telstra’s directories unit is up against a formidable foe online, and it doesn’t look good, writes Dominic White from the Australian Financial Review.

Who bothers to dig out the Yellow Pages if they want to find a plumber or order a pizza when they can Google it in seconds on their laptop or iPhone?
It’s a question Telstra shareholders may be asking after the company revealed this monthly the first-half print revenues at the Yellow Pages tumbled by some 8.7 per cent.

Even after adjusting for growth in China, online, currency movements and the loss of Trading Post, revenues at Sensis, the Telstra unit that looks after Yellow Pages, fell 0.1 per cent – the first revenue fall in Sensis’s history.

Until now Sensis have proved remarkably immune to the headwinds that have battered other Yellow Pages businesses across the planet, including rise of Google. Unlike its rivals, which are largely owned by private equity, it doesn’t have debt problems.

But now experts wonder whether the move into negative growth marks a worrying turning point for Sensis, a business that generates almost 10 per cent of Telstra’s total sales.

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Is this a sign that Google feels the need to compete with the Bing advertising budget? Is it a bit of cheeky post-modern irony? I don’t know. But it sure was interesting to see that Google just ran an ad in the Superbowl coverage. Here it is…

Pepsi Hit Refresh

Press Release

In January 2010 Pepsi takes to the streets with one of the heaviest weight outdoor campaigns in Australia’s history: Hit Refresh.

Hit Refresh introduces the evolution of the renowned Pepsi globe logo with a massive outdoor campaign hosted by newly announced MTV VJ Erin McNaught and stable mate Darren McMullen.

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We have the technology

Welcome to the future.

Its 2010, a time oft referred to in sci-fi movies and old TV shows as “The Future”. Sure, we haven’t got hover cars yet, but technology and media is now well and truly exceeding expectations. It wasn’t long ago that we were marveling at the push and touch technology in the Tom Cruise movie Minority Report, now becoming a reality on smart phones and the forthcoming iTablets.

In fact, technology and media are evolving so rapidly that its hard to keep up with what will be the break-out hit of the year and what marketers should be focussing on. Here are just some of the prognostications from those in the know:

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Stop Interrupting

The last 80 years of advertising has been about interruption. Interruption of the music or conversation you listen to on the radio. Interruption of the program you watch on the television. Interruption of your view when traveling. And with the advent of pop-up ads online, interruption of the material you are viewing or reading online.

Occasionally advertising has engaged us, but that is the exception rather than the rule. Overwhelmingly advertisers try to interrupt us to gain our attention. Notice the screaming voice-overs, eye-popping graphics and loud music that leap out of your TV every ad break? That’s just more advertisers fighting for your attention.

Up until recently interruption has been reasonably effective too. There wasn’t a lot of media choice so we just endured the interruption and purchased enough of the products being advertised to justify the advertising expense. Interruption was the price of mass media.

Not any more.

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Over at Marketing Magazine they’ve just published my post Marketers need to turn to ‘inbound’. Its about making sure your marketing is keeping up with today’s media consumption and marketing trends. Let me know what you think.

Writing this blog has been an amazingly informative experience for me. What began as a small site dedicated to the media in and around the Hunter Valley (hence the actual reason for the name Media Hunter) quickly grew to tackle national media issues. Then, as the media landscape began changing rapidly with the convergence of digital technologies, I began musing on the implications for traditional media and marketing organisations.

Researching and writing Media Hunter helped me tap into a realisation that we are experiencing one of those rare revolutionary periods in history. Old powers are falling, new technologies are rising. And the changing media landscape has become one of the most important battle grounds of the 21st Century.

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A few years ago it occurred me that digital media had enabled transition for marketers that allowed them to become their own media outlets, to engage their audience directly and bypass the traditional media outlets. I have subsequently posted extensively on the subject here on Media Hunter.

So naturally I am thrilled when venerable industry watchers like AdAge concur with this theory.

Recently AdAge editor Jonah Bloom gave a speech saying

the marketer has become the media owner…the job of the agency is going to morph into bringing their expertise to bear to help marketers build channels that connect them with potential customers and continually reward the customers who come back with new valuable information.

I couldn’t agree more. A new age of marketing is upon us. You can watch the short video with Jonah Bloom’ speech here.

I just came across this excellent piece in AdAge explaining how digital agencies should be the new advertising leaders due to their understanding of technology, speed of iteration and technology. It was written by Jacques-Herve Roubert.

Over the past 18 months, a great debate has consumed our industry: Are digital agencies poised to sit at the head of the advertising table? Depending on whom you ask and what you read, the answer seems to flip flop — with a majority of people still having reservations and making claims that digital agencies aren’t ready to lead.

So why does the debate continue? Does offline or online really matter to an oblivious consumer who’s only interested in “no-line” communications? Are we spending too much time focusing on who should lead and not enough asking: What’s next?

Ana Andjelic’s DigitalNext post, provocatively titled “Why Digital Agencies Aren’t Ready to Lead,” mentions several reasons why digital agencies aren’t ready to lead, one of which was their lack of experience in the business (as compared with the “decades of experience” that traditional agencies are known for). I’m sure there are instances where decades of experience can directly translate into success, but there are certainly instances (uh, Lehman Brothers?) where deep roots had no bearing on their ability to produce — and produce well. Furthermore, a certain percentage of the individuals now working and thriving in digital agencies came from traditional agencies.

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The future of successful marketing is relevance.

We now live in an age where consumers have developed selective hearing as a defense mechanism against being inundated by thousands of marketing messages every day. Your potential customers are time-shifting, downloading and channel surfing. Most of them research purchases online and many of them rely on the recommendations of those they respect in their social networks.

Interruption marketing is under threat. Customers are in control. You best give them what they’re looking for.

This warning extends to online marketers too.

Ranking highly in search (either organic or paid) isn’t good enough if you had to “game” the system to get there. Link-baiting and link farming often results in disappointment for the consumer who has wasted time visiting a site that doesn’t really address their needs, or lured them there under false pretenses.

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