Media

14.10.2008 Media 2 Comments

Digital People: Claudia Sagripanti

From: Digital Ministry

Welcome to Digital People, where each fortnight we profile someone in the Digital Industry through a regular series of Q&A’s. This fortnight is Claudia Sagripanti – long time mobile advocate and now Director of Mobile Communications at GroupM.

Name: Claudia Sagripanti

Works: GroupM

Job Title: Director of Mobile Communications

How, where and when did the digital industry find you?

I started at Macquarie Bank in the IT Venture Capital area, just before the Dot Com crash, and saw some great and not so great start up businesses. While I was there I met with a number of senior executives from the online advertising sales companies, and then  went on to co-establish the Online Advertising Taskforce

What is your current role and what do you actually do?

I joined GroupM 2 months ago to manage and develop the strategic integration of the Mobile channel into the overall communications offering across the 4 groups of MindShare, MediaCom, Mediaedge:cia and MAXUS.

I also run training and seminars through my company VentureOne, in partnership with AIMIA, looking at the commercial issues in the digital media sector.

If you could have any job, what would it be (can be in and/or outside the industry)?

I’m doing it!

Take a punt on the ‘next big thing’ in digital?

It’s all about mobile to me – so more on mobile social networking, mobile location based services, and bedding down mobile advertising

Where do you see the digital industry in the next 5 years? (any forecasts and challenges)

The digital industry will be all about engagement, and developing innovative ways to interact with consumers and users.

There are big expectations for mobile advertising so the huge budgets expected will be enough of a challenge. It will be interesting to see how mobile internet will grow as consumers become accustomed to searching for content and accessing mobile websites. Mobile websites development is rapidly becoming a commodity product before becoming redundant in a couple of years due to the iPhone, and also the sophistication of browsers to deliver content dependent on the device and location. Also I’d like to see sophisticated use of location services – we haven’t yet seen the killer app.

How do you see other media evolving in the next 5 years?

It will be interesting to see how social networking will be monetised.

Where do you see mobile marketing going in the next 12 months?

The challenge for mobile marketing and advertising is to get in front of the planners and strategists at the right time. There’s also a lack of really innovative mobile marketing campaigns – a lot of the campaigns are effective and work, but it would be nice to see one with a big idea.

Mobile advertising will move from being an experimental medium to being an essential part of the media mix strategy.

Did you ever have a big digital idea you wish you pursued (or someone else’s idea you wish was yours)?
Everyone I know in this industry has at least one side project – maybe we’re just a creative entrepreneurial bunch! I have lots and lots of ideas, but I’m focusing on just one or two.

Where do you get your industry information from?

I read local magazines including Digital Media magazine, B&T, AdNews, BRW and Anthill. I also read a variety of international email newsletters and blogs. And Twitter of course for up-to-the minute thinking.

What industry groups or networks are you a part of?

AIMIA – I chair the Mobile Industry Group. I also regularly go to Mobile Monday Sydney and I belong to several mobile related online networks specifically for mobile.

27.10.2007 Media No Comments

Programs launched to tackle digital content skills shortage — Computerworld

From: Computerworld
Programs launched to tackle digital content skills shortage
First seminar to be held in February, 2008
The Australian Interactive Media Industry Association (AIMI) has introduced a number of training programs in a bid to overcome the current skills shortage within the digital content industry, particularly for Web and mobile developers.

AIMI is working with business consultancy VentureOne to establish the training and education programs for 2008. The Business of Digital series will be launched in 2008, with the first seminar on the Business of Digital Content to held on February 28, 2008.

The education program provides practical business training in the digital media and content sectors, covering online, mobile and other digital channels including IPTV, widgets and applications and other interactive services. AIMIA president, Guy Gadney, said with the rapid rate of growth in the digital media sector there is strong demand for training and education for newcomers to the industry and also upgrading skills.

Gadney said by partnering with VentureOne, they can create a business focused program to meet the demand for fast-tracking, up-skilling and providing the right balance of commercial knowledge in the digital content industry. He said the initiative was driven by consultation with industry leaders across Web, mobile and content developers.

VentureOne director, Claudia Sagripanti, said there is a real thirst for knowledge on the future commercial opportunities surrounding cross-platform content.

She said the seminar format has been designed to answer those questions and to cover current issues and needs in the industry both at entry and advanced levels. More details on the Business of Digital can be found at http://www.aimia.com.au/i-cms?page=3787. AIMIA has several industry specific internship programs in place, and earlier this year launched the intern program for the mobile industry with digital agency Hyro piloting the program.

The program will be rolled out early in 2008 with over 10 companies involved. More details at http://www.aimia.com.au/i-cms?page=3313.

27.10.2007 Media 1 Comment

Employers draw the line on soaring IT salaries

From: The Age

AUSTRALIA is short of skilled IT workers but, perhaps curiously, that shortage has not led to a repetition of the dotcom blow-out in salaries, recruitment agencies say.

Salaries are high for well-qualified people in an industry dominated by the financial sector, but the steep rises seen in the first half of this year did not continue into the second half, says Andrew Cross of recruitment agency Ambition.

A factor was the subprime mortgage crisis in the US that had made US-based banks more cautious about hiring.

“We have had a few of the US-based investment banks not freezing but certainly slowing down on their hiring,” Mr Cross said. “We do not yet know whether that will have an impact on recruitment going into the new year.”

But salaries across the board were now at premium levels and there seemed to be an unspecified but perceptible cap on the money employers were prepared to pay. “Companies appear to be nervous about further increases creating an environment that could be unsustainable,” he said.

Many companies were now focused on retaining employees by concentrating on further education, lifestyle benefits and professional opportunities.

Talented IT employees were being encouraged to expand their horizons by gaining knowledge of management and the wider business scene.

Employers and peak bodies, such as the Australian Information Industry Association, the Australian Computer Society and the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association, were increasing educational programs and promoting IT among high-achieving secondary students as a career as attractive as the more socially upmarket professions such as medicine, law and accounting.

Efforts to improve recruitment in digital media sectors are also under way. The Australian Interactive Media Industry Association announced yesterday support for a series of training and education programs covering online, mobile and other digital channels, including IPTV (television carried over the internet).

AIMIA president Guy Gadney said demand was strong for training and education for newcomers to the industry and also for upgrading skills.

The industry generally felt there was a need to encourage secondary students — boys and girls — to take up IT-related engineering courses at university.

“The Australian Computer Society and the Australian Information Industry Association are both pushing to change the perception of IT and trying to show it as a good career path with high rewards,” Mr Cross said.

Ambition’s annual survey of the industry, published this week, says “good levels of candidates … are arriving from England, Ireland and Scotland, providing the technology market with a valuable pool of resources, but a significant number of Australians are being lured to the UK by long-term visas and sponsorships for longer-term positions.

“And with the pound performing so well it can be difficult for Australian companies to compete for candidates.”

It was now not unusual for Australian expats to stay in Britain for 10 years or more, producing “a transactional deficit for Australia in the international flow of candidates”.

Recent changes tightening the terms of short-term skilled worker visas had “exacerbated the already critical shortages in technology industries”, the report said.

31.08.2005 Media 1 Comment

The Age: Sexes divided on mobile use: claim

From: The Age

The sexes are divided over mobile phone accessories – men like to play games and women, well … you can ring my bell.

The first national study of mobile phone users has found 34 per cent of Australian women bought ringtones in the past year compared to 27 per cent of men.

And the Australian Mobile Phone Lifestyle Index said of 2400 consumers surveyed, 30 per cent had purchased a ringtone in the last year, with most purchasing an average of three.

As for games, 15 per cent of men had bought them in the last 12 months, compared to only 10 per cent of females.

The highest concentration of game purchases was among 22 to 25 year olds.

And parents may not be surprised to learn that 13 to 16 year olds purchased significantly higher numbers of ringtones, logos, wallpaper, screensavers and accessories than any other age group.

The Mobile Content Industry Development Group conducted the study in a bid to address what it says is an information deficit on mobile phone use in Australia.
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MCIDG chair Claudia Sagripanti said the study showed that age and demographic influenced the type of content people had on their phones.

Married participants tended to use the movie reviews more than most, but used the comedy and astrology services less than others.

Males tended to use news and adult content, comedy and sport more than females, while females used more astrology content than males.

Ninety-seven per cent of respondents used SMS and over 50 per cent used pictures, music and sounds on their mobile phone.

The Australian Interactive Media Industry Association, a sponsor of the study, said it would help develop products to meet the increasing demand of mobile phone users.

01.11.2004 Media No Comments

Mobilising Forces, CRM and the mobile phone

From: DM, The Direct Marketing Magazine,Singapore, November 2004

Mobilising Forces, CRM and the mobile phone

Does mobile technology truly allow brands to make the connection with customers? Claudia Sagripanti reports on Australia ’s growing trend towards mobile relationship marketing

Are you a big fan of Grinspoon or jet? If you attended their concerts in Australia recently, you would have noticed a revolution in the delivery of your ticket to attend the event. You could have chosen the option to receive a triple redemption ticket directly to your mobile phone.

The so-called ‘mobi-ticket’ is promoted by Aura Digital and Sydney concert venue Metro Theatre. According to Aura Digital’s sales and marketing director, Adam Dunne, more than half the concert-goers received tickets directly to their mobile phone. As part of the Grinspoon special offers, those who pre-ordered the latest CD at HMV enjoyed discounted beer and received a trucker cap. HMV marketing manager, Damien Devine, says, “We see fantastic potential in partnering with the promoters and record labels to offer concert-goers music related offers through out stores. And we see mobile marketing playing a major role within our marketing strategy.”

The mobile ticket is one of a range of new mobile technologies revolutionizing loyalty marketing and customer relationship marketing (CRM). “Mobile coupons will become more relevant as mobile marketing evolves from one-off to multi-offer campaigns,” predicts Dunne. Although it is still early days, Dunne sees enormous opportunities, particularly in the travel and entertainment industries, which have been the first to embrace this new technology. “Marketers understand the benefits of replacing plastic membership and loyalty cards with mobile coupons. The key is the significant cost savings,” he says.

Savvy brands are less concerned about the technology than getting the best response via the most appropriate channel. Hoyts Cinema is one early adopter of mobile marketing. It gathers information about its customers including mobile number, age group, sex, preferred cinema location and movie genre via its website from competition entries and subscriptions to Hoyts Movie Club. Internet and new media manager, Jacki Morgan says the objective is to extend the Hoyts experience beyond watching the film.

“We were very successful with our ‘text trivia’ competition. We’d expected that people would play 10 to 15 minutes before the film. But what we found was that the game was played after the film and intermittently over the next few days. Most people played it three times,” she says. “We haven’t used the preferences to the full extent as yet. We’re heading down that path. There’s a big opportunity to do more targeted marketing and advertising. Mobile is going to be the key medium of our core demographic of 14- to 24- [years-olds]“, she says.

Mobile marketing specialist Trent Telford, MD of SMS Intelligence, part of the STW Group, sys a variety of channels can be incorporated into a mobile messaging campaign. For example, he is about to launch a competition-based campaign for a national women’s fashion retailer, which mixes traditional DM with the new channel of mobile.

“The customer is committed to sending out its traditional DM pieces. Rather than fighting the paper-based guys, it’s better to work with them and so we used the brochure. Each brochure has a unique code. The customer send the code via SMS and receives a unique barcode. The barcode can then be swiped at the till. The more purchases made the more entries into the competition,” says Telford .

His advice on managing the different channels seamlessly? “Whether you have a plan for some customer contact or a full CRM strategy [it's important] to collect extra information and hold it so it doesn’t then become lost. Later on you can extract the value out it when you need to. At the very minimum you need to ask for permission for future contact via mobile. We’ve seen many databases that have disparate permissions for various media channels, ” he says.

Digital technology makes tracking of customers’ interactions and preferences across any digital interface – web or mobile – possible. Integrated digital communications company MassMedia Studios has worked with several companies in the telecommunications, entertainment and transport sectors to deliver targeted information according to customers’ profiles. MD Steve Fanale says: “The objective is to learn about your customer on every interaction, whether by the web or mobile. Over a period of time we can collate this data, learn more about them through their interactions and then market to them more effectively,”

However he does issue a caveat. It is important to ask specific permission for SMS even though you may already have a database of opt-ins via a competition. “Even though there is opt-in permission this does not mean that there is a real desire to receive more information let alone take action on it. It’s all about establishing a dialogue across multiple media to collate more information on the needs and wants of your customer so that you can target the communication more effectively [to get] a greater response. SMS can be very effective when you’re delivering specific requested information such as news or sport, which also gives you insight into the customers’ profile,” he says.

If Dunne has anything to do with it, the mobile in the entertainment sector will be used to drive foot traffic to one central kiosk and take the pressure of point-of-sale operators and untrained cashiers. It will be the end of paper vouchers and plastic cards as we know them. And hopefully the end to queues.

Claudia Sagripanti is co-founder and project director of the Mobile Marketing and Advertising Awards in Australia . She sits on the IIA Mobile Content Regulation taskforce and is the convenor of AIMIA’s mobile content industry development group.