TOURISM Australia and New Zealand's national carrier Air New Zealand have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) aiming to see more than A$6 million invested in joint marketing activity over a three year period, to promote tourism to Australia in key overseas markets. The agreement may also help develop increasing numbers of special seasonal services, similar to the Auckland-Sunshine Coast route.   

Under the MoU, Tourism Australia and Air New Zealand will each contribute $3 million towards co-operative marketing initiatives such as advertising, public relations, events and trade engagement, aimed at attracting more international visitors from three of Australia's largest and most valuable inbound markets - New Zealand, North America and China.

The new MoU was signed by Tourism Australia managing director Andrew McEvoy and Air New Zealand chief executive officer, Christopher Luxon on June 27 in Sydney.

Mr McEvoy said markets covered by the arrangement aligned strongly with Tourism Australia's balanced portfolio approach to Australia's largest inbound visitor markets.

"Together, New Zealand, America and China account for more than a third of Australia's annual international arrivals and, importantly, all three markets are growing," Mr McEvoy said. "This new deal provides a strong platform from which to further grow inbound tourism from all three of these key inbound markets.

Mr Luxon said Air New Zealand was delighted to be partnering with Tourism Australia to promote travel to Australia, which has long been a vital market to the airline.  The partnership will be the airline's largest marketing partnership outside of New Zealand.

"Air New Zealand carries almost half of all New Zealand visitor arrivals into Australia and we have invested heavily in our trans-Tasman services in recent years, including the introduction of our Seats to Suit fare structure which allows us to offer a range of competitive fares and service levels within the one aircraft, and the introduction of new routes such as the seasonal Auckland-Sunshine Coast service," Mr Luxon said.

"We are also welcoming the opportunity to engage in joint promotional activity in China and North America.  As a market experiencing exponential growth, China presents a huge opportunity for our industry, while the North American market continues to go from strength to strength for our region.  In fact over one third of all North American visitors to New Zealand arrive or depart via Australia."

Mr McEvoy said the benefits of partnering with Air New Zealand extended beyond the Tasman.

"This deal also gives us important access from North America - from Air New Zealand's own direct  presence in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Vancouver, but also through the connections and ‘feeder traffic' provided by its alliance with United Airlines, which opens up cities like New York and Chicago," he said.

"Air New Zealand has also extended its reach into China and Hong Kong with its alliance partners Air China and Cathay Pacific.  These two markets present significant opportunities for us to attract high value niche travellers," Mr McEvoy said.

Mr McEvoy also pointed to the importance of Air New Zealand's trans-Tasman alliance with Virgin Australia, with whom Tourism Australia already enjoyed a similar strategic marketing agreement.

"Air New Zealand's alliance with Virgin Australia on the Tasman provides travellers with greater frequency and connectivity with access to 34 Australian ports.  We are looking forward to seeing the two carriers extend their reach even further later this year through the introduction of a seasonal direct service between Christchurch and Perth.  Aviation partnerships such as these remain key to Australian tourism achieving its long-term Tourism 2020 goals," Mr McEvoy said.

Under the alliance, Air New Zealand and Virgin Australia currently operate an average of 420 trans-Tasman flights per week.

Through the new marketing partnership and in line with continuing efforts to speak with ‘one voice' in its international marketing, Tourism Australia and Air New Zealand will jointly seek involvement of the States and Territories in future co-operative campaigns, starting with Tourism and Events Queensland this winter.

There were 1.2 million visitors from New Zealand during 2012, spending $2.3 billion. Tourism Australia estimates that the New Zealand market has the potential to grow to between $3.4 billion and $4.2 billion in total expenditure by 2020.

www.tourism.australia.com

www.airnewzealand.com.au

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Facebook’s unveiling of Graph Search this week may interest -- and even delight -- the social network's users, but where is it leading commercially? That is the question digital marketeers are asking already.

Will Facebook's Graph Search work for business?

Andreas Pouros, the chief operating officer (COO) at London-based digital marketing agency, Greenlight, was quick to comment, "Many had expected Facebook would have launched a new mobile phone today or thrown down the gauntlet to Google and challenged the company in web search supremacy, neither of which happened.

"Web search is a touchy subject as everyone knows that it is a hugely lucrative market, and one Facebook was expected to enter."

Mr Pouros said he feared investors would suspect that Facebook is making too little progress gthrough Graph Search.

Facebook's Graph Search is a smart search engine which allows people using Facebook to more quickly find answers to questions about friends in their Social Graph.

Greenlight and Mr Pouros's analysis calls the announcement a "story of three halves".

"On the one hand, users will be very happy to get this new functionality that Facebook is calling Graph Search," he said. "It is innovative and powerful, and will allow people to search within Facebook, albeit restricted to what they can see and read right now.

"It allows the user to search across people, places and interests using structured queries, e.g. ‘Friends who like Star Wars and Harry Potter', or more usefully perhaps ‘Which restaurants do my friends like in London’. Ordinarily the user would ask that question by posting it on their wall, now the tools are there to allow the user to just search.

"Innovative, very cool and the first major addition of functionality Facebook has seen since Timeline."

Mr Pouros said businesses were likely to become more visible within Facebook given that many of these searches will bring up their pages in Graph Search results. However, this may simply offset the reduction in visibility brands have experienced due to Facebook’s Promoted Posts mechanism that has limited the exposure of brand posts on user newsfeeds -- where businesses are prompted to pay for their post to reach a wider audience.

"Also, it is unclear at this stage if or how Facebook will monetise Graph Search," Mr Pouros said.

"Ultimately, this is progress, which is welcome, but whether this is good for everyone rests on if and how Facebook chooses to monetise this new mechanism, and to what degree it is a stepping stone to a more aggressive product strategy."

Mr Pouros leads an an international team of search consultants, developers, programmers, and copywriters at Greenlight, providing to well-known brands including Santander, New Look, Sky and several government bodies.

www.greenlightdigital.com

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Australians may be leading the world in the take-up of smart phones and are ahead of the game in utilisation of mobile technologies - but business is sadly lacking in getting in sync with the trend. Only one in five Australian businesses even have a mobile website, the CMO Summit on the Gold Coast was told yesterday.

Smart phones: business playing catch-up?

Google's head of marketing for Australia and New Zealand, Lucinda Barlow, told CMO Summit delegates that Australia perceived itself to be behind international trends on mobile phone take-up and usage - but research by Google and others revealed the opposite was the case.

In fact, Australia had both a faster take-up of smart phone use and a broader use of applications for the devices - especially in e-commerce and business mobility usage. Australia was also one of the leading developers of mobile applications for business use.

Ms Barlow said with growth in the take-up of Android operating system phones growing at about 400 percent a year - and in 2011 Android overtook Apple in numbers of devices in the marketplace - the opportunities for business to market to mobile customers were also exponential.

Ms Barlow said Google has a ‘mobile first' policy that determines its products will be available on mobile platforms from release, but she was surprised at how many businesses that were leaders in other areas were tardy in meeting the new needs of the mobile market.

Exceptions, she said, were companies such as Domino's Pizza, whose CEO Don Meij recounted how he found himself "in the technology business" just through a desire to sell more pizzas - and mobile applications were now giving the company an edge in service and efficiency.

Ms Barlow said the Domino's approach of making pizzas cheaper through smart phones was a lesson to others in marketing the benefits of smart phone use. She said the savings for Domino's came from not having staff on the phone taking orders and these savings could be applied to smart phone users.

Ms Barlow also highlighted Google research which showed a growing trend for shoppers to use their smart phones to research items - and check prices - while in the store. She saw this trend as an opportunity to provide more information to clients through the store's own ‘apps'. The trend to smart phone ‘price shopping' on the premises meant retailers had to be prepared to negotiate, but could adapt the situation and build rapport with clients who clearly have a preference for shopping in that location.

Ms Barlow's advice to business was to make a start now in mobile marketing, create a mobile website even though it is extra work, and be prepared to be rewarded and appreciated by customers for communicating the way they prefer to communicate.

The cream of Australia's chief marketing officers are attending the CMO Australia New Zealand Summit, organised by Marcus Evans, at Sheraton Mirage Resort & Spa on the Gold Coast until Wednesday.

A feature session today is Qantas executive marketing manager Lewis Pullen, who will present on ‘Achieving Innovative Brand Communication: the Qantas Journey'.

Tomorrow's sessions include Paul Malina, former national sports marketing manager of  Red Bull Australia, Bevin Aston of American Express Global Network Services, Phil Ore of Nokia Siemens Network, Jason Shrugg the global strategy development director of Lonely Planet and facilitator Iggy Pintado of  UXC Connect.

www.cmoanzsummit.com

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Having a winning product, an impressive company website or thousands of fans on Facebook are not enough for long-term success, according to Iggy Pintado - who really ought to know.

Iggy Pintado

Mr Pintado is the director of marketing, sustainability and innovation for UXC Connect - and he is also the chairman and a speaker at the upcoming Marcus Evans CMO Summit 2011 in Queensland, September 26-28.

At the CMO Summit, Mr Pintado will share a wide range of experiences and pathways to success. In this Acumen preview he shares "the four Ps" of online networking and discusses marketing and brand loyalty:

Q: What is the best way of conveying a marketing or product message across in a world where consumers are bombarded with products?

Iggy Pintado: It is not only the content that is important, but the ‘context'. You have to make sure you deliver the message in an appropriate way, when the target market is ready to receive the message and to consider the product. That is the most effective way of communicating with people. You need to be there when they are ready to buy and be present wherever they are, so that they can find you easily. Having a website is no longer enough. You need to have a presence where they choose to be. In the online world, that is on social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Marketers can take advantage of social media by making absolutely sure that they are there for the audience.

Q: Is it more than just about having a presence on social media and thousands of fans?

Mr Pintado: Of course. You cannot just create a social network because everyone else is doing so. Here is where the four Ps of online networking comes in: purpose, profile, participation and persistence. You must have a purpose and decide what you want out of a social media presence - fans, connections or a community of customers - to be able to measure returns. Take time to ensure your profile is compelling. If you know your target market, you will know what interests them.

Participation is critical in online networks; you cannot just post or broadcast, but need to interact, observe, listen and converse. This is different to how marketing used to work in the past; it is now a two-way interaction. The fourth P, persistence, is as time dependent as building a brand or launching a product. You need to build your presence, community, followers and fans, and once they get used to interacting with you, that is when it will begin to pay off. Many companies have generated great returns from their social media presence.

Q: What strategies for creating brand loyalty would you recommend?

Mr Pintado: I recommend another acronym for creating brand loyalty: PLAN. This stands for personalise, listen, activate and nurture. You do not want just another follower, so you have to personalise the customer experience, address them by their right name and understand where they are coming from. The days of generic mail with ‘Dear Sir/Madam' are over. If you are personal with people, they will be personal back, which will generate brand loyalty.

Listening is a critical part of the social media conversation. When people are ready to buy or ask questions, you must be listening and be ready to respond. Thirdly, when you have a product launch or a campaign to run, get your fans involved. The strength of the community is when you actually ask them to participate. Lastly, nurture, staying in touch on a regular basis. Like any relationship, this takes time. You have to personalise, listen, activate and nurture in order to have a long-term relationship with people.

Q: What is your outlook for the future?

Mr Pintado: Video is going to be an incredibly powerful medium for getting a marketing message across sharper, quicker and more effectively. Mobile marketing and location based marketing will also become increasingly important. If you know where people are at a given point in time, you can serve them with more specialised offers.

The one constant in this world is that things are changing all the time. With technologies constantly evolving and different ways of using information, marketers need to make sure they keep their finger on the pulse of what is going on with the target market.

CMO Summit 2011

This unique forum will take place at the Sheraton Mirage Resort and Spa, Queensland, Australia, September 26 - 28, 2011. Offering much more than any conference, exhibition or trade show, this exclusive meeting will bring together esteemed industry thought leaders and solution providers to a highly focused and interactive networking event. The summit includes presentations on social brands, engaging consumers, brand differentiation and management.

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http://www.cmoanzsummit.com/

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