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CORPORATE TRADE HOW BRANDS CAN ACHIEVE MORE WITH LESS Retail businesses don’t have to freeze their marketing activity in this tough environment. There’s a way to keep advertising with no cash investment involved. BWy Active International Head of Commercial Selina Martin. e have now experienced one fundamental: we help clients achieve the enormous uncertainty more. We’ve been not only helping these turbulent times businesses survive during the pandemic, have brought in the but also preparing them to recover faster market, and unfortunately continue to post-COVID-19. bring. Many brands have had no choice but to shred their plans for 2020 and be as agile as possible, forced to shift their focus towards cashflow preservation. Often marketing budgets are first to be cut as they seek to yield noticeable returns quickly, but what happens when brands stop advertising can be even more concerning than the pandemic itself. Economist Peter Field, backed by numerous studies, has warned that while cutting ad budgets is a temporary fix to a short-term deficit, it could put brands at a significant competitive disadvantage during the recovery period. Consumer share of mind is hard to recoup Cutting back on media and marketing spend will assist with saving money in the short term. However, over time, brands will lose their share of the market and risk the long-term brand equity they’ve worked so hard to achieve. Share of voice deterioration can impact sales, making the path to recovery even more difficult. Brands that choose to freeze their activity, worrying about the short- term effects rather than the long-term recovery, have options to reconsider. Knowing brand building leads to long- term profitability, should marketing be considered essential? Time to get creative and achieve more with less Maybe it’s time for marketers to get creative, think outside the box and stop shrinking budgets. There’s a way you can continue your marketing campaigns with no cash investment. Brands can maintain an advertising presence and gain market share at a time their competitors are silent. How can this even be possible? Turn existing assets into an ad campaign At Active, our core business is based on Marketers have an alternative: to extract more value out of their media spend and achieve more in the most challenging economic environment. In other words, we let clients use their products (excess stock or first line product), services or assets to fund their advertising campaign. Marketers can fund their campaigns using existing assets, not requiring budget approval or investment. The marketing campaign will run as planned by the media agency, an activity that wouldn’t otherwise be possible. Too good to be true? No. A double win Businesses benefit by moving some extra, obsolete or unwanted stock, while at the same time continuing to build brand awareness and improve their balance sheets. Using assets to fund a media campaign is not new, but isn’t often considered because it’s misperceived as complex. The pandemic has commercially challenged brands, which we see being forced to think differently. Now more than ever, retailers need to become agile in their approach, innovate the way they operate, and work smarter. We partner with our clients’ media agencies and top up their budgets or keep the budgets whole if it’s at risk of cuts. There hasn’t been a better time to try something new. In the case of excess stock, this is a clever move. Failure to turn over the unwanted stock and reinvest in the next sales cycle can be detrimental. Retailers that have seen the value in our media-based operations are able to free up the financial burden of excess stock, or first line products, into what they really need: better marketing and consumer experience to prepare for the next sales cycle. ROI guaranteed Even when it comes to those brands without excess stock worries, which continue to perform well, we can still help them achieve more in a different way. If retailers are seeking to drive new business with new customers and keep up with ever-changing consumer behaviour, or if they’re simply keen to gain measurable and additional ROI from their marketing spend, Active has the right solution. To achieve the best results, we work with a client’s media agency to execute the pre-agreed strategy and plan. Active’s involvement doesn’t affect the quality/price of the media they buy. The result? Additional ROI is guaranteed and new incremental sales delivered. “We’re in a strong position to assist clients during this pandemic,” Active Group Managing Director Cameron Swan said. “We already have helped brands heavily affected to continue their marketing plans, sustain or even increase market share with the lack of competition and prepare them for long- term profitability and recovery.” About Selina Martin Since joining Active in 2015, Selina has built a strong commercial team and helped shape Active’s corporate trade offering. Selina’s experience spans a range of media, including TV, cinema, radio, magazines, digital and retail media. About Active International Active International is a global commercial innovation company and business solutions partner with 36 years of global operations. Active is leading the corporate trade industry across 14 countries, backed by a team of extraordinary talent, financial experts and media mavens in each market, and well-established relationships with clients, media vendors and media agencies. For more information, visit www.activeinternational.com.au. 74 RETAIL WORLD AUG, 2020