What do WWE superstars and colonoscopies have to do with billboards?

SXSW is going down under, what could this mean for Out of Home in Australia?

And New Data Finds Emerging Shifts in Consumer Behavior Amid Evolving Economic Landscape - how can you apply it today?

We’ll answer these questions on today’s daily tear sheet for June thirteenth two thousand and twenty-two.

So we are big WWE wrestling fans in our house and if I didn’t cover this story, my son would probably get mad at me since it combines his love and mine (wrestling and billboards) but this also has a ton of practical application, especially for local advertisers and how to punch above your weight by thinking outside the box.

Now there isn’t a ton of information about the business that did the billboards, or well, anything that really tells us how this came together but there IS a phone number on the billboard so rest assured we’ll be trying to track someone down for an interview about this story but here’s what we know…and if you’re listening to this, you absolutely have to check out the link and the pictures to really appreciate the simple brilliance of what a digestive health specialist.

Men, these are the doctors that do colonoscopies, so there’s a bonus health lesson in this episode for you.

The company and campaign are both out of Troy, Alabama and the billboards use a graphic of AJ Styles with copy that reads “AJ Styles turns 45! Time for his colonoscopy”.

Apparently, the company has used this strategy before with other WWE superstars, including John Cena.

A quick google trend analysis of the search term “digestive health specialists” puts Alabama as the #1 trending state for this search term over the last 7 days, beating out second-place Arizona by 32 puts out of a score of 100.

Alabama ranks 100 for search trend activity in the 7-day period while Arizona comes in at 62. The Google trend analysis provides access to a largely unfiltered sample of actual search requests made to Google. It's anonymized (that is to say, no one is personally identified), categorized (to determine the topic for a search query), and aggregated to create a score out of 100 possible points.

And while it is really just meant as a quick litmus, it is evident that something is going on in Alabama that is driving a TON of new search activity for the keywords since the billboards went up.

South by southwest is expanding and it’s heading to the land down under coming in October 2023.

Austin’s famed South by Southwest conference and festival is headed to Australia. The Texas-born event brings its famed celebration of the technology, film, and music industries to Sydney, Australia across seven days and nights from Oct. 15-22, 2023.

SXSW Sydney will be a collaboration with Australian promoter TEG and The New South Wales (NSW) Government and Destination NSW. The new edition will serve as the official annual Asia Pacific installment of SXSW as the event builds on its more than three-decades-long foundation.

At the time, the 2019 SXSW Conference and Festivals in Austin welcomed more than 280,000 attendees to the conference and generated $355.9 million in economic impact to the city in just 10 days. That’s $35 Million a day. That’s insane.

So, Australia, get ready. 472 days from now, south by southwest will touchdown. 

What could it all mean for Out of Home in Australia? Well, droves of new brands looking to make a statement, new eyes equal new reach, and the opportunities abound to create engaging and interesting campaigns in the real world. 

If you’re expecting it to feel like south by southwest Austin, well, don’t. Surely the conference and festival will take on a brand all its own with a special Aussie flavor. In a moment where there is A LOT of uncertainty in the world, this is cause to get excited and to start having conversations about a point in time that looks past the current moment we’re in, so find opportunities to start them with news that’s relevant, like this.

And lastly, your consumer behavior update and how can you apply it today?

While discounts are definitely on consumers’ minds as they consider high inflation rates, the reactionary behaviors to markdowns appear split. Nearly half (49 percent) of consumers, including 60 percent of Millennials, said they will plan to buy more online over the next six months due to discounting trends, however, 15 percent of consumers say they are unlikely to take part in these deals due to a commitment to cut back on spending.

Notably, a similar index report from Digital Turbine found that 84 percent of Americans plan to cut back on spending as a direct result of rising prices with a corresponding growth in apps that offer ways to save money. Top apps in this category were revealed as Craigslist, Dollar General, Klarna and Fetch Rewards, all of which feature different ways to save cash. Shein’s app was also found to be thriving with high install volumes.

In fact, my colleague Heather Weisanen introduced me to fetch today. It’s pretty slick. You take pictures of your receipts and get rewards like Amazon giftcards and other rewards. This is part of the data economy, incentivizing consumers to offer their data with consent and in exchange for compensation.

If you want to check it out for yourself, I’ve included Heather’s link in the show notes so if you signup, I’m pretty sure you both get hooked up with some points towards rewards.

One behavior that has remained steadfast is the preference for online shopping, although according to the company’s latest data motivations have evolved in recent months leading to the return of some pre-pandemic e-commerce behaviors.

Okay, quick pause, what this is saying is that - if your website is not tight, if you are NOT looking for opportunities to improve your customer experience, from the moment they first meet you until they buy and for their entire lifetime after, then you are losing opportunities to someone else who is refining that experience.

That’s the biggest opportunity right now is to clean up your customer experience before you spend a dime on advertising, but if you’re going to advertise, at least make sure your website is on point and minimize the spillage of customers to your competition.

The survey also found that while shipping speed has been a growing motivator in recent years, the behavior may have leveled out. Data showed that 67 percent of consumers are no more likely to pay for faster shipping than they were three months ago. Looking at Gen Z and those shopping online more than they were three months ago, however, about one in three people were likely to upgrade shipping than they were previously. Twenty-three percent of parents and 22 percent of Millennials also reported they are willing to pay for speed.

And speed is part of that experience, so if you’ve got it, use it. Flaunt it. If you can deliver on speed, whether that’s as a service or actually getting something someone orders to their doorstep, speed matters and people want to know if you can deliver. There is value in it. And while it may not be the value that it was even just at the beginning of the year, it has become the tie breaker. 

When all other things are equal, price, quality, etcetera, it is SPEED that will determine the winner so again, if you can deliver quickly - advertise that.

Shoot, even if speed ISN’T your strongest suit, just advertising how quickly you CAN deliver, in a space void of competitors proclaiming ‘speed’ as THEIR superpower can be a competitive advantage.

Share of voice equals share of mind and share of mind equals share of market, so make it count when you say something.

Please share this episode with a colleague or client today and start a conversation about finding hidden value.

Make sure to subscribe, wherever you’re listening to this and NOW for your Motionworks Marketing Minute…

Did you know 42.6 million Americans will travel by automobile over the Fourth of July holiday? Road trips are expected to be up 80% compared to last year, so surely a great weekend ahead for brands advertising in the real world.

That’s your tearsheet for today, June thirteenth two thousand and twenty-two. We’ll be back again tomorrow with more from the front lines of media and marketing news.

WWE Colonoscopy Billboards

https://nodq.com/features/photos-aj-styles-and-john-cena-colonoscopy-billboard-advertisements/

Google Trends Analysis Mentioned

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=now%207-d&geo=US&q=digestive%20health%20specialists

SXSW goes to Australia…

https://www.billboard.com/business/business-news/sxsw-expands-australia-sydney-1235108810/

New Consumer Data

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/data-finds-emerging-shifts-consumer-135342244.html