Invite List: Vocus, Australia's Coral Coast, Bankwest, Barrett Communications, City of Armadale, Tourism WA, City of Perth, City of South Perth, Department of Water, MS Society of WA, Muzz Buzz, Pindan, Price Waterhouse Coopers, SKG Radiology, Tim Davies Landscape and Health Engine. ​

ecently, Facebook announced that it had once again updated its News Feed algorithm, this time to prioritize our friends’ profile posts over Page posts.
 
What Does This Mean?
Posts from Pages will be pushed further down on your News Feed, making it less likely you'll see them. This puts increased pressure on Page owners to get people to directly share their content (as it then comes from a friend) while it also boosts the incentive for Page owners to pay to promote their posts.
 
This change will likely impact Page reach – as noted by Facebook:
“…we anticipate that this update may cause reach and referral traffic to decline for some Pages. The specific impact on your Page’s distribution and other metrics may vary depending on the composition of your audience. For example, if a lot of your referral traffic is the result of people sharing your content and their friends liking and commenting on it, there will be less of an impact than if the majority of your traffic comes directly through Page posts. We encourage Pages to post things that their audience are likely to share with their friends.”

Talking Points

• What content do you find engages your consumers/customers most on Facebook?

Pokémon GO, an augmented reality game and mobile app based on the beloved Nintendo series, has become a viral sensation and innovative marketers with a keen eye can take some big lessons from this surprise hit to both gain in the short term and evolve themselves to be better prepared when the next big thing comes along.

1. Brand Makes all the Difference
   Imagine if there was a mobile game that offered a similar augmented reality experience, has a compelling plat, GPS based integration, an evolving story, and team-based interactivity. It sounds exactly like the kind of game that would take off right? That game already exists and was developed by the same company that created Pokémon GO. It was unsuccessful and never took off. The difference lies in the brand, Ingress had to build a new image, but Pokémon is approachable, recognizable, and has the familiar face of Pikachu, all of which has helped draw in over $1.6M revenue daily, in the US alone.
   
   
2. Riding Coattails
   While few brands experience the same recognition and affiliation as Pokémon, businesses of all kinds are hopping on the Pokémon train, with many seeing great success! The app incentivizes users to go outside, walk around their communities, and explore areas they wouldn’t normally which is incredible news for local businesses. Brick-and-mortar stores and restaurants are seeing an influx of random passer-by’s. Individuals or organizations are able to pay a small fee to make a given location a ‘Pokémon Hotspot’ by setting a ‘lure’. Flip over to the next page to see some Perth examples of brands hopping on the trend.
   
   
3. Consumers are More Open to AR Than We Thought
   Despite the seemingly endless potential of augmented reality, the technology hasn’t really seen significant uptake or adoption. Tepid responses to other AR apps has left some in the tech community wondering if there will ever be any demand for this tech from the average consumer – until now. Snapchat (Interactive Lenses) & Pokémon Go have shown that if you package it in an approachable and user-friendly fashion, consumers will take to the tech.
   
   
4. Nostalgia can Overcome Generational Barriers
   As content marketing has quickly matured from a creative experiment to a disciplined science, and as marketers we are often told to design or strategize to target one target audience or persona. While Pokémon GO is a concept that has almost always been targeted to children, there remain several generations of people who have grown up with the games, and this game has been a hit across different demographics, age, gender, location, and economic status.

 
Talking Points

• Has anyone played/used Pokemon GO?
  
• What do you make of this AR craze?
• Check out the original article here

MasterCard’s familiar orange and red circles just got a facelift.

The credit card company rolled out a minimalist new logo on Thursday, the first adjustment to the logo in 2 decades.
Instead of interlocking in the middle as they previously did, the two circles now blend into one another in a design that looks exactly like a Venn diagram.

The change, which was orchestrated by branding agency Pentagram, fits with what seems to bethe vogue in corporate logo design right now — simple one-dimensional shapes and serif-free basic fonts that translate better in digital formats. Verizon, Ihop and Google have all moved in the same direction in the past year.

The new logo is also meant to mark the company's shift into online payment platforms and evolving financial services tech, with the ‘C’ in MasterCard being made lower case, to move away from the idea of needing a physical card.

Talking Points

• Do you like the new mastercard logo?
  
• Do you think this is an effective rebrand?

Facial recognition software is expected to be ready by the end of the year to link your MasterCard account to the image of your face — so all you have to do at the register is snap a photo of your face and off you go.

The technology, which the credit card company announced on Thursday, is more secure than the passwords now used to prove one’s ID — and you won’t ever forget your face at home when you go shopping.

The biometric system, called ID Check, created by MasterCard in partnership with Google, Apple and Samsung, will digitize your face into a series of zeros and ones, convert that image into a hash and compare it to the hash stored on MasterCard’s servers, the company said.

The app will use a fingerprint or the facial biometrics — activated by staring into the smartphone and blinking once.

The blink is used to prevent someone from simply holding up a picture of you to spoof the system.

Talking Points

• Would you ever pay for something with this technology?
• Do you think this technology will take off?

Telstra has launched a major brand revamp aimed at repositioning itself as a technology company rather than a telecommunications business.

The multi-million-dollar Telstra 3.0 campaign, which will be rolled out over the coming weeks, first aired on Sunday night with a 90-second television commercial.

Jo Pollard, group executive of media and marketing at Telstra, said the business was “evolving from a telco to a techco — to be a world class technology company empowering people to connect. Our brand needs to reflect this and demonstrate there are better ways for everyone to thrive in this connected world”. She said the campaign will show how technology can solve common problems, “helping people to thrive as a result”.

The rebranding follows a horror year for the business which has been suffering sporadic network outages. In July CEO Andy Penn denied the problems were any worse than usual. Penn said the telco was prioritising $250 million from the company’s existing capital program to improve network resilience and performance over the next six to 12 months. Major national mobile network outages earlier this year saw Telstra compensate customers with two “free data” days.

Talking Points

• Do you think this is the right move following the ‘disastrous’ year they had?
• How successful do you think this campaign will be?

Do you want to check how well your site performs across multiple devices? Interested in the page speed time of your site? Google's new tool is a combination of the past page speed tool and the mobile friendly tool and gives you a run down and report on your site and key recommended improvements. Check it out here...

übusiness.linkedin.com/sales-solutions/the-social-selling-index# Have you ever wondered how you compare against others in your industry on LinkedIN? Check out LinkedIN's social selling index to see how you effective you are at establishing your professional brand, finding the right people, engaging with insights and building relationships. Check it out here...

Well, that's it for this month and I'm looking forward to the next Marketing Club!
Christina Marie Giuffré