Day 7

Lend Lease

The weekend was over and it was time to get back to what we were away for, gaining marketing knowledge. The first company of our returning visits was Lend Lease. To be honest I wasn't all that excited about this visit, maybe because I didn't no too much about the dynamics of the company, but as per usual on this trip I was pleasantly surprised. We were first greeted by an employee called Trish who took us for a tour of the new building explaining their prior architectural plans and what had actually been implemented. She spoke about the building being of an eco-friendly nature and their sustainability plans, a strong focus for the group it seemed. We were taken through the open plan offices, starting to get concerned about what seemed irrelevant information for our purpose of visiting, we were soon handed over to the marketing team. Paul Pozzobon, Christine Khoury and Madeline Tomczyk were the presenters, a young and very personable team. 

They explained that their company had many developments but their presentation would be focused on retail. Currently the company manage 16 shopping centres across Australia and follow the philosophy 'Retail is not just a business, its a way of life'. They are very community driven and attempt to create an experience in their centres not just simply a development space. They spoke to us about their marketing strategies and explained that in 2010 they produced a new creative guide for the centre as they felt the previous one was outdated- to boxy and conservative. They wanted to revamp their image to capture emotion, create positioning ('Good Times') and cut through noise. The main observation was that less is more, and they introduced flexibility in the guide. 

The team also spoke about their involvement in Facebook and its launch in 2010. They explained its use as allowing them to engage with their customers in a more personal way. Through this channel 'The Great Give Away' was launched where one prize per day per centre was given away through the month of Feb. This succeeded in creating loyalty and PR within the communities. Anther channel launched in late 2011 is an IPhone App, under the name of each shopping centre. This launch was a result of research indicating that consumers research online before their shopping journey. 

Also mentioned was the teams principles of Social media, those that they follow-

• Make it conversational and relatable
• Don't delete or ignore negative posts
• Embrace the power of Social Media
• Value your community

For what originally seemed like a quiet industry which may not have a great opportunity for marketing creativity, it was much the opposite. The team was very much getting involved in new technologies and channels, and doing it well. 

DDB

After a short lunch break we were off to DDB. We arrived at the advertising agencies offices where we signed confidentiality agreements. There was no room for our presenation here so we were taken to the upstairs of a near by pub where we sat in lounge chairs and had some drinks. DDB began by stating 'We believe that creativity is the most powerful force in business. They are one of the biggest advertising agencies in the world and their vision is to be the most influential communications agency in the market with a focus on innovation. The team spoke about changing technologies and communication channels describing the mobile device as a Swiss army knife. They spoke about cloud systems, social networking and moving away from the original desktop to other devices such as tablets. What was presented to us was a range of case studies the company had been involved in including the companies they were working for, the design brief and the final creative solution and execution. It was great to see the whole process uncovered and some advertisements we regularly encounter in the mix. 


What seemed evident in their creative solutions is that to capture a customers attention they were having to offer an experience as opposed to simply an advertisement. They were using a combination of channels to provide their audience with a brand experience and most importantly engage them in the campaigns. Often the audience would be pat of their marketing as they would share the videos or images and the campaign would become viral.  This stressed the importance and relevance of digital marketing in today's age, the new marketing era being about digital and social strategies rather than mass media advertising. 



Last Night in Sydney
It was our last night in Sydney, so to celebrate/commiserate we went on our last group dinner out of state at Cargo Bar. We enjoyed some food and drinks and witnessed a cocktail/punch bowl bigger than our heads. It was a nice end to our time in Sydney and then we were back to the hotel room for our last sleep out of our own beds.