OOh media : Big milestone for businesses looms – End of Financial Year.

As we march towards the end of April, a big milestone for businesses looms - End of Financial Year.

EOFY takes place on June 30 as businesses and individuals take stock and prepare for tax season, the drawcard for consumers is the abundant sales that occur in the lead-up.

The opportunity for brands during EOFY is a big one - over $15 billionis spent across EOFY in Australia(1). This spend is seen across a host of categories, where competition is fierce, sales spike and the advertising landscape heats up.

EOFY calls for targeted advertising strategies for two clear audience groups, B2B (business-oriented) and B2C (retail oriented).

For businesses audiences, this time of year is about closing off one year and confirming, initiating, and activating plans for the coming Financial Year. B2B brands should advertise to dominate top of mind awareness while business decision-makers and influencers seek solutions for the year ahead. There are also immediate sales opportunities for technology retail (think PCs, printers), office furniture, and tax services providers, as businesses take advantage of tax-deduction opportunities and urgent needs. These categories would do well to focus on activation messaging.

For B2C brands targeting consumer audiences, it's quite a different mindset. Consumers' focus is very much centred on purchases, whether that's appliances or white goods, furniture, travel, or something they've had their eye on at retailers. Competition is aggressive as we see brands look to capitalise on the influx of cash as the 'tax back mindset' drives time-bound action.

The mindset of brands' consumer groups is critical to distinguish, as are the planning and buying behaviours seen in the weeks leading up to EOFY. Salmat's retail business consultant Dan Salter offers the advice,"Marketers should heed consumer behaviour…Our research shows that the majority plan their EOFY shopping in advance"(2).

It's important for brands to build mental availability and preference before turning to price-based messaging in their marketing executions.

Researchshows that 22% of Australians start spending on EOFY sales as soon as they're announced, with 32% shopping in the month of June, and 14% shopping in that last, frenzied week of June to make the most of the final markdowns (2). This frenzy isin partbecausemost brands are responsiveto audiences, focusing on when transactions occur and less so on the planners. We seeasharp spike in marketingmessagingduringthe last week of June. The opportunity remains for brands to capitalise on driving awarenessto influence the decision-makers and planners' mindsets in a more targeted fashion.

So, you understand your audience, but what about how to cut through to them?

42% of shoppers search online and browse in-store before making a purchase(3). For efficient cut-through, it's all about Omnichannel marketing. Omnichannel is an approach where brands promote their offering across a range of media types and platforms, with unified messaging, cohesive visuals and consistent collateral.

Analytic Partners' studies in 2021found that the most efficient combination for driving ROI is Digital and Out of Home (OOH) for campaigns under $1mil, and it's proven that OOH does the heavy lifting in combination with other media (4). When you combine the smarts of digital, with the hyper-targeted precision possible through digitisation and data advancements, OOH offers a critical pathway in bridging the gap between online and offline touchpoints.

Every brand needs to be plugged into Omnichannel (pardon the pun), and it's constantly evolving. We recommend brands lean into their EOFY audiences and stand out from the crowd by first building mental availability and preference before turning to price-based messaging in their EOFY executions.

For access to deeper insights regarding your category, specific spikes in spend during EOFY and to understand deeper audience targeting, please reach out to oOh!.

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Sources

1. NRA: '$15 billion forecast for EOFY sales'
2. Marketing Mag:'Marketing to 2018's EOFY bargain hunters - Salmat Report'
3. Analytic Partners,Omnichannel and a Brave New World, Australian finding, ROI Genome Database, 2007-2020.
4. Analytic Partners, oOh! 4.0 Study 2021, benchmarked to TV