Head of Marketing at Blunt Umbrellas, Fee Cortis, underwent a major rebrand in 2023 which has led her to be named one of the finalists for the 2024 YouTube NZ Marketing Awards.
Digital transformation
How have you integrated digital technology into your marketing campaigns to enhance audience engagement and campaign effectiveness?
We work really closely with our digital performance agencies both here in New Zealand and overseas to test, learn and adapt our digital marketing targeting, content and strategies continually and to be able to make data-driven adjustments in real time. It’s really important for us to continually monitor performance and engagement because what works here in Aotearoa is not necessarily going to be s
Cross-channel integration
How have you successfully integrated Out of Home media with other marketing channels to create a cohesive and multi-faceted campaign?
At Blunt, we may be a relatively small brand, but we have huge global ambitions. While most of our media spend is directed towards digital environments like Meta and Google, we’ve recently ventured into DOOH (Digital Out Of Home) for the first time in both Australia and New Zealand to enhance brand awareness.
A key driver behind our brand transformation has been achieving cohesion and consistency across every brand touchpoint, and our DOOH campaigns have been a significant part of this strategy. I’m a strong believer in the insights presented by Ritson and Analytic Partners in the USA, which show that increasing the number of channels used in a campaign boosts its effectiveness. For example, using two channels is 19% more effective than one, three channels are 23% more effective, and four channels are 31% more effective, and so on.
In this context, our OOH efforts have substantially contributed to our brand awareness, resulting in a 6% growth in both Australia and New Zealand over the past 12 months in key metro cities Auckland, Sydney and Melbourne.
Measurement
What metrics and tools do you use to measure the effectiveness and ROI of your marketing initiatives?
We are fortunate to be able to measure both short-term and long-term indicators of success. Short-term measurements include the usual suite of metrics like ROAS, ROI, CPMs, CTRs, VTRs, unit sales, revenue etc. Long-term measurements focus on brand awareness, consideration, preference and penetration.
With a strong focus on digital in the marketing department, we run the EDM channel, digital performance marketing through PC and PPS, and manage four Shopify sites across New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, and North America. We consistently delve into data using tools like Klaviyo, Google Analytics, and Meta Business Suite. Additionally, we review our Shopify data daily and cross-reference it with our ERP system, Netsuite Oracle. To streamline our processes, we are integrating our reporting through a platform called Supermetrics, providing us with one consolidated source of truth and taking some of the manual reporting away through automation.
Over the past two years, we have invested in Brand Health Tracking through Kiwi startup Tracksuit. This has allowed us to establish a baseline before our brand transformation and track progress over the past 12 months. The results have been remarkable: a 2% increase in brand awareness in the UK, equating to an additional 600,000 British consumers now aware of Blunt. In both Australia and New Zealand, we’ve seen a 6% increase in brand awareness – phenomenal achievement meaning an additional circa 400,000 Aussie consumers are now aware of our brand.
These metrics give me confidence as a really positive indicator for longer term success. It also reinforces that we’re doing the right thing with the Blunt brand.
uccessful with a simple lift and shift approach to our focus cities like London or New York. The nuances for targeting, culture, behaviour and content are really important to get right. We also pay close attention to a weather and rainfall monitoring app so we know when it’s raining and when we need to either double down or pull back on paid performance budget which ensures our digital marketing efforts show up when most relevant and needed, driving efficiencies and effectiveness.
The whole marketing team have also integrated AI into their roles through platforms like the paid-for ChatGPT service and by testing the beta versions in the Adobe Creative Suite – having some mixed results in Photoshop has been interesting to say the least, but these new digital technologies and capabilities are really helping us to push the boundaries of our creative capabilities.
The Marketer of the Year award is sponsored by oOh!Media. To read more about Cortis’ answers, make sure to get your hands on the September-October NZ Marketing Magazine issue here.
