Responsive marketing is not a dirty word

As the media landscape accelerates, marketers must ensure they can respond quickly to situations – and stop thinking of responsiveness as a dirty word.

Thanks to the rise of the internet, social networking media and 3G phones, the way Australians live and do business is increasingly immediate. While there will always be a place for long-term brand planning, more clients also want the capacity to act quickly.

The challenge is to match speed of response with high quality, brand-oriented work, says Lincoln Graham, managing director of Sydney-based creative agency Transmarketing.

“The media and consumer landscape is moving faster than ever and marketing opportunities need to be met in an increasingly responsive way,” Graham explains.

“We live in a very responsive landscape today and marketing has to evolve to meet that need. Campaigns can go up within days – or even hours – now, and clients deserve that option.”

Responsive marketing can be anything from capitalising on market changes to reacting to a competitor’s price change. It can be riding the coat-tails of a good news story or responding swiftly to a bad one.

In the past six months, Transmarketing has created three high profile responsive campaigns, all quality work and all launched in record time.

For the Indian Government, Transmarketing created and produced the Australasian launch of the high profile ‘Incredible India!’ campaign. An extensive integrated campaign with careful audience segmentation, it ran internationally across TV, newspapers, magazines and outdoor.

For The Daily Telegraph, Transmarketing produced the ‘Widescreen’ campaign, a strategic response to a changing competitor landscape that promoted their new format TV guide. Along with a press campaign, Transmarketing promoted a $50,000 giveaway with the top rating TV show A Current Affair.

Also for News Ltd, Transmarketing produced the popular ‘Headline Moments’ rugby league campaign. Telecast during the Dally M Awards on Fox Sports, it aired at every venue of the NRL final series.
The key to effective responsive marketing, argues Graham, is brand integrity.

“Every campaign you do, no matter how responsive, must meet the positioning of your brand,” he says.

“It should reflect the core values of your product and business and work in conjunction with your marketing plan. It should never replace your marketing plan but always work within your own structured and strategic approach. It may roll out quickly but it should roll out on message, on brand and in time. That’s the new responsive marketing.”

While the bulk of Transmarketing’s work is developed within appropriate timeframes, Graham says the size and creative nature of his agency means it is picking up more responsive briefs.

“As a creative agency we’re resourced perfectly for responsive campaigns. We’re not over-resourced where internal processes slow us down; we can be nimble and flexible. But we’re also not too small to meet large client demands. What we have is a good size, established creative studio and a flat planning structure that means we can respond rapidly to any brief.”

For more information contact Lincoln Graham, managing director, Transmarketing.