I hope the holiday season is proving to be good for your business. Before we know it we will be in a new year - and a new decade. The start of the 10s. So what will happen next year in the Australian retail landscape? I’ll take a stab:

1. Sex please

2010 will see the vying for customer information increase in intensity. Email continues to be a very cost-effective marketing channel and mobile will play an important role in the future. Furthermore, we are aware of the benefits of making our one-to-one customer communication relevant and therefore the importance of capturing profiling information will be a large focus. So Australian shoppers can expect to be dazzled, coerced and bribed to “opt-in” to your database.

2. What are they doing here?

We understand the strong share Amazon has of online book purchases in Australia. In 2010 we will continue to welcome new, large, experienced and aggressive competitors from offshore who will take advantage of the strong Australian dollar and underserviced appetite for Australians to buy online. Apparel, electronics, books and cosmetics are categories that will continue to lose market share to overseas retailers in 2010.

3. Dah Dahhhhhh!

We will see some significant movements in the ecommerce industry with some major brands upping their presence online, or in some cases launching their ecommerce play. This will fuel multi-channel marketing even more, which will see more marketing budgets and campaigns including digital media in a serious way.

4. Backyard blitz

Success in the multi-channel world will mean a more efficient, effective and synchronised back-end to your business. From customer data to product information, from inventory to reporting, analytics and marketing production; 2010 will see retailers invest in cleaning up their systems and content, gaining efficiencies and improvements across the business.

5. Who can you trust?

As multi-channel marketing gains momentum and the retail community continues to embrace it (IAB predicts one billion will come from retail and FMCG into online in the next four years), there will be greater demand for your online marketing dollar and endless ways to spend it. 2010 will see more clarity on channels and businesses that deliver real value for retailers. It will also be the time to ensure you have digital media expertise in-house and important future investment.

6. Multi-channel arrives

2010 will be the first year when the majority of retailers will market, sell and service across multiple channels in a synchronised way. Consistent marketing campaigns will be accessible through different media, in different ways, to targeted audiences. Customer data will start to recognise channel contact points and behaviours and respond accordingly. It should be your New Year’s resolution.

Of course, I could be wrong on all the above, but I don’t think so. What do you think? Please comment below.

Have a great holiday season, a restful and safe break, and, like me, look forward to a great 2010.

Paul Marshall

www.lasoo.com.au

If you’re handing out labels, 2009 was arguably the year of social media (in the Internet world, at least). Everyone and anyone seem to be climbing on the bandwagon at the speed of light. If you don’t believe, check out this nifty social media counter to see exactly what’s going on in the space in real time.

This was the year it became clear to all savvy marketers that if you want to have any sort of online presence, then you need to be across as many forms of social media as possible. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Wikipedia, Flickr, blogging – all these platforms and more will help you engage consumers and therefore boost your brand.

Now we’re into 2010 – and it’s crunch time. Your aim for this year should be to raise the bar and not only do social media, but to do it well. A half-hearted effort such as a Twitter account that is only updated once a month will not only do you no favours, but it could actually damage your brand.

There were many social media campaigns that stood out for me this year, some for the right reasons and some for the wrong reasons. A couple of the better ones were:

The Fun Theory: Volkswagen built this site to prove that “something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better. Be it for yourself, for the environment, or for something entirely different, the only thing that matters is that it’s change for the better.”

People were able to submit entries demonstrating how they would creatively solve various problems. At the time of writing, submissions were closed but you could still vote on your favourite entries and leave comments. Make sure you watch the video for the Piano Staircase – guaranteed to make more people take the stairs over the escalator!

Bring It Back!: This is a local campaign devised for medical hair centre Ashley and Martin. In a similar way to the Fun Theory website, users can submit videos, pictures and info about things they’d like to bring back (as the name suggests). The campaign was devised by agency Thinq – you can read more about the process behind Bring It Back here.

Beat Cancer Everywhere: Proving that short and sharp campaigns are often the most effective, the Beat Cancer Everywhere initiative involved a one-day push exclusively on Twitter in October 2009. Each time a Twitter user mentioned the #beatcancer tag in their Tweet, eBay/PayPal and Millers Coor donated one cent to breast cancer research. In the space of 24 hours, nearly 700,000 Twitter users tweeted the tag, proving that social media campaigns work just as well for non-profit organisations (not to mention the goodwill created for the sponsors).

(Dis)honourable mentions should go Witchery Man, Toyota and, of course, the Vegemite iSnack 2.0 fiasco. Yes, these were all social media campaigns that attracted negative feedback and therefore failed dismally… or did they? Well, it depends on how you define success. At the very least, most people are aware of these campaigns and were talking about the brands behind them. It comes back to the “is any publicity good publicity?” debate.

Of course, these campaigns should provide you with inspiration, not a template for creating your own social media strategy. As they say, lightning never strikes twice and what worked for these brands won’t necessarily work for others – in fact, launching a “me too” or copycat attempt will most likely damage your credibility. The best strategy is to be bold, be creative and think outside the box to engage your customers.

Paul Marshall

Lasoo.com.au