social media Archives | Now We Collide

September 24, 2024

AI for Marketing

Google recently published a new “AI for Marketing Engine” framework intended to help marketers understand how AI can work to achieve more as part of a suite of tools to enhance marketing strategies. This model, which focuses on measurement and insights, media optimisation and creative content generation, provides a structured approach to leveraging AI in marketing. However, with platforms and providers jostling for position in the AI race, it is important to view it as one of many tools available, each with its own strengths and limitations.

Google's AI for Marketing Engine framework is built around three core functions:

Measurement and Insights: AI aids in analysing first-party data to uncover valuable insights and predict customer behaviours. This can significantly enhance targeting and personalisation efforts, allowing for more strategic marketing decisions.

Media Optimisation: AI facilitates real-time ad delivery optimisation, helping marketers reach the right audience at the right time. This capability is crucial for maximising advertising efficiency and effectiveness.

Creative Content Generation: AI supports the creation and adaptation of marketing content, enabling rapid production and testing of creative assets. This can lead to more engaging and personalised customer experiences.

While Google's AI model offers benefits, it's essential to recognise that it should be integrated with other tools and strategies to maximise its potential. As a full service agency, agnostic in our approach, we ensure that the model is considered as part of a wider view of the media and marketing landscape and considered in a number of contexts:

Complementary Tools: There are numerous AI marketing tools available that can complement Google's model. For instance, HubSpot offers a comprehensive suite of tools that can effectively complement Google's AI for Marketing Engine, providing a holistic approach to digital marketing. For example, as a customer relationship management (CRM) platform, HubSpot integrates various marketing, sales, and service functionalities, making it a versatile tool for businesses looking to enhance their marketing strategies. Most other CRMs, notably Salesforce are also integrating AI into their tools and processes. Other tools like Jasper AI for copywriting or Surfer SEO for search engine optimization can address specific needs that Google's framework might not fully cover.

Customisation and Flexibility: Each business has unique requirements, and a one-size-fits-all approach may not be effective. The ability to customise AI applications to fit specific needs is crucial. This might involve integrating Google's model with other AI solutions to provide a more tailored strategy.

Balancing Automation and Human Insight: While AI can automate many tasks, human creativity and strategic thinking remain irreplaceable. It's vital to balance AI-driven automation with human insights to ensure that marketing strategies are not only efficient but also resonate with target audiences.

Ethical Considerations and Data Privacy: As AI becomes more integrated into marketing, ethical considerations and data privacy become increasingly important. Ensuring responsible AI use and protecting private data are paramount to maintaining trust and compliance. Having a plan and infrastructure in place to ensure data is secure and not publicly available is central to this, something we have built into our Generative AI pipeline for Collide AI.

In summary, incorporating Google's AI for Marketing Engine framework in order to understand how AI can work in practice within broader marketing is useful and has the opportunity to enhance our ability to deliver innovative and effective marketing solutions. However, overall the model is fairly simplistic and is unlikely to align with all activity taking place within the marketing ecosystem. It is essential to view this model as part of a broader toolkit, integrating it with other AI solutions and human expertise to provide comprehensive and customised strategies for our clients. By doing so, we can ensure that we are not only keeping pace with technological advancements but also delivering the best possible outcomes for our clients based on their individual objectives.

Published by Keir Maher in News

Tags: advertising, AI, marketing, social media, social media advertising, social media marketing, social media strategy

August 21, 2024

TikTok’s new Creative AI suite is set to blur the line between UGC and “AIGC”

We recently attended a webinar hosted by TikTok APAC, in which they introduced an upcoming suite of features called TikTok Sym phony. This is a new suite of AI-powered creative tools designed to simplify and enhance content creation on TikTok. There’s no shortage of interesting features included in the suite and in this article we want to shed light on some of the most exciting ones.

In TikTok’s own words, the Symphony suite of solutions aim to:

Level the creative playing field: Make content creation on TikTok accessible to all, regardless of creative maturity or resource availability.
Boost productivity: Supercharge productivity in content creation, making mass production, hyper-personalisation, and constant iteration a reality.
Uncover Insights: Identify cultural and industry trends as well as campaign learnings, enabling informed decision-making and creative strategy refinements.

The first big feature to take a look at is the Symphony Assistant. An AI-driven virtual assistant similar to the AI chatbots we’ve all already integrated into our day-to-day that helps marketers and creators brainstorm ideas, implement best practices, and optimise content for TikTok. This tool is guaranteed to be of help to brands trying to stay in the loop with what’s happening in the ever-changing landscape of TikTok.

Some examples of useful prompts here will be:

"Create a script for a new TikTok ad for my [industry] brand called [name], targeting [market] and [target audience]. Make sure to highlight these USPs in the script: [benefits].”
“Show me the top-performing TikTok ads in the [industry] industry right now."
“Show me the top-performing TikTok ads in the [industry] industry right now."
"Come up with TikTok ideas for my brand named [name], promoting [topic]."

The next big section of this new suite is the Symphony Creative Studio. Powered by generative AI technology, this is a tool that helps quickly generate TikTok-ready video content from minimal inputs, such as product URLs or existing assets. It includes features like global translation, AI-generated avatars and advanced editing tools. According to TikTok these features are designed to enhance and amplify human imagination.

The AI-Avatars feature stands out as one of the most impactful innovations within this suite, offering brands the ability to scale storytelling through UGC-style videos that feature lifelike avatars. These avatars, modelled after real actors who have been compensated and have consented to the use of their likeness, can effectively communicate key messages about your products or services. While this feature may give off some Black Mirror-esque vibes, it presents a valuable opportunity, particularly for smaller brands that may lack the resources or expertise to create UGC-style content, which consistently performs exceptionally well on TikTok.

Another interesting feature of the Symphony Creative Studio is the ability to seamlessly translate existing video content into other languages. TikTok will take your video and use generative AI to translate and dub it into the language of your choice. If you create a UGC-Style video in English that you’re particularly happy about, why not have it run in Italian, Tagalog and Finnish as well? Trialling products in new markets will be easier than ever. In the beginning, however, you should definitely make sure to check with a native speaker that the translation makes sense before putting your whole quarterly budget behind a new international campaign.

In a nutshell, TikTok Symphony is all about blending human creativity with AI smarts, making it easier than ever to create stellar content and connect with your audiences across TikTok. And honestly, we can't wait to dive in and try out these features ourselves!

At Now We Collide, we’ve been incorporating AI workflows, creative platforms and generative AI for over 2 years through our Collide AI division. This allows us to create fit-for-purpose workflows and content creation efficiencies, no matter the platform or the objectives. You can find out more about this in our recent post - Revolutionizing The Ad-Making Process: The Generative AI Approach.

Published by Keir Maher in News

Tags: advertising, content production, Content strategy, Mobile-First Video, social media, social media advertising, social media strategy, Video Content Marketing, video production

July 25, 2024

Unlocking Success In B2B Marketing: Insights from the LinkedIn B2B Benchmark 2024 Report

LinkedIn released their B2B Benchmark 2024 Report in July, and the document offers invaluable insights into the evolving landscape of B2B marketing. As an independent agency, Now We Collide recognises the value this study holds for any business involved in B2B marketing.

Continuing to grow our HubSpot partnership

We're continuing to see huge benefits and tangible results for the organisations we are working with that are utilising HubSpot as part of their integrated digital and social media strategy. As a HubSpot agency partner, we are helping our clients build out strategies that include a clear understanding of the customer and the customer lifecycle by integrating the HubSpot CRM. This then connects directly to the development of creative strategy and optimises creative, channel performance, media performance, ROAS, and informs ongoing optimisation. More information and how we achieve this is here.

So it's no surprise to us that HubSpot was recently named a Leader in the 2023 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for B2B Marketing Automation Platforms for the third consecutive year. Marketing Hub, HubSpot’s marketing software, is powered by its Smart CRM, unifying data and leveraging HubSpot AI to help marketers craft personalized journeys that attract, engage and delight customers and prospects. Customers using Marketing Hub for six months have seen an 81% increase in deal close rate, 108% increase in web traffic, and 115% increase in leads.*** You can read more about the Gartner B2B award here.

If you're interested in understanding how Now We Collide is using HubSpot as part of our broader service offering and how it can impact your digital and social marketing efficiencies and drive customer growth, please drop us a line.

Published by Keir Maher in News

Tags: advertising, content production, HubSpot, social media, social media marketing, social media strategy

August 5, 2023

Threads – suddenly you’ve got huge scale instantly, which no other ‘Twitter killer’ has been able to achieve.

August 5, 2023 - Article featured in MediaWeek

Last month, Meta launched Threads, the app widely reported to be a ‘Twitter Killer’ – or perhaps now, an ‘X killer’.

As an app, Threads is more focused on text and dialogue, with Meta saying that the platform “offers a new, separate space for real-time updates and public conversations.”

With the app now out there in the world, Mediaweek caught up with Keir Maher, managing partner at Now We Collide – Meta’s local agency of record.

“It’s been interesting – Meta have come back really strongly this year,” Maher says, reflecting on how the year has been for Meta so far. “ It’s good for us to be part of that journey after last year’s ups and downs across the tech industry, I don’t think anybody was really out of the firing line for that.

“It’s been good to be back this year, and with things like Threads launching, it just means there’s more to come.”

Now We Collide works with Meta as part of their B2B side of the business, and in that space, Maher says that the team have been pleased with the launch of Threads.

“Everybody is blown away by how quick the take up has been, in terms of the interest that there’s been from creators’ brands. ChatGPT had the fastest growth ever, and now three months later, that’s been blown out of the water by 10 million new users in six hours.

“I think it was a super smart move from Meta to make it so easy for people to access Threads through their Insta account, and at the touch of a button say, ‘Yes, I want to follow everyone that follows me on Insta, and everyone that’s on Insta that follows me can follow me on Threads’. Suddenly what you’ve got is huge scale straight away, which no other ‘Twitter killer’ has been able to achieve, because they’ve had to build scale from scratch.”

The ‘Twitter killer’ – or perhaps ‘X killer now – label has been following Threads since it first launched, however, Maher says that anyone who is pushing that line probably hasn’t spent much time on Threads.

“A lot of people are saying it’s a Twitter killer because it’s the same as Twitter – they haven’t used it if they’re saying that, because it’s not the same as Twitter. You can’t use hashtags for content discovery yet, which is what drives Twitter. There’s no area within Threads to find trending content at the moment, it’s a single feed, whereas Twitter is all about picking news trends, sports trends, and music trends in their native menu – there is no native menu in Threads yet for that.”

When it comes to the rapid take-up of Threads – the app took only 5 days to record 100 million users – Maher says that Now We Collide will always focus on the value equation, because “there needs to be some kind of value equation between the consumer and the platform itself.” With some very famous backers of the app, however, he’s feeling positive about the future.

“You’ve got Chris Hemsworth with 3.7 million followers already on the platform, Tourism Australia, they’re on there with 155,000, you’ve got Nike with 2.5 million followers, you’ve got Netflix with 3 million followers. Even Anthony Albanese is on there with 51,000 followers. The fact that you’ve got all these content creators already there means you’ve got brands looking for that first-mover advantage. We’ve been talking to the partners and the clients that we have on how they can take that first-mover advantage, experiment with the platform, and see where it goes.”

While Meta isn’t offering advertising to clients just yet, Maher says that it could be a service that is just over the horizon.

“There’s still more development to come. At the moment, they’re not offering advertising to clients, so that first mover advantage is from an organic point of view – what can clients do to test, learn, and experiment while they’re building out? Threads are saying that monetisation is not a priority for them at all this year, Zuck himself is saying that his vision for Threads is to create an open and friendly public space for conversation.

“Meta has very good ad tech tools, they’ve got the tech stack, they’ve got the tools for finding people and delivering relevant advertising messages. It makes sense that over time that could possibly come in, but at the moment there are no plans to do that in the foreseeable future.”

Published by

Keir Maher

Now We Collide - Managing Partner

Published by Keir Maher in News

Tags: advertising, social media, social media advertising, social media marketing, social media strategy

December 13, 2022

‘Experience the Unforgettable’ with BridgeClimb Sydney

BridgeClimb Sydney is putting one of Australia’s most iconic experiences back on the itinerary of international travellers, with a new campaign from independent creative agency Now We Collide.

Cocentric – Unlock the Best in People

Now We Collide launches campaign unveiling new name and look for digital transformation business Cocentric. Independent creative agency Now We Collide has worked with digital employee experience company Azuronaut to rebrand, creating a new name - Cocentric - brand values and visual identity. Cocentric improves the digital employee experience, bringing people and tech together to […]

Why AI is the assistant every creative needs

Full article published by The Australian

If you work in advertising or digital marketing, some of today’s emerging technology might seem a little threatening. But just as television didn’t kill the radio, intuitive AI won’t spell doom for human creativity either. Ryan Bodger, Chief Creative Officer at Now We Collide, explains why we should look on the bright side.

Not long ago I was working with a client and telling them about the improvement I’d seen in AI-generated copy. They were, it’s safe to say, dubious.

So we did a little experiment and produced a few different versions answering the copywriting brief they’d sent our way. Oh, and one we slipped in there was produced by an AI source.

Lo and behold, their preferred option was penned by the machine.

Others were at it before us. In 2018, Lexus released an advertisement completely scripted by AI. The company used IBM Watson, an AI system, to analyse 15 years of award-winning car ads. Watson managed to identify the elements of successful ads that resonated most with audiences - and did it with aplomb.

If this sounds like an unconvincing way to open a piece reassuring you that the machines aren’t going to put creatives out of business, well, fair enough.

But bear with me, because where pure creativity is concerned, I’m convinced AI is the assistant we need right now and not an existential threat. Here’s why.

In the media and technology industries machine learning has thus far mostly been associated with measurement. In recent years we’ve been swamped by a sudden deluge of data with no way to make sense of it. The solution was AI.

Ask most people and they’d say machines replacing human brains for repetitive tabulation tasks is a good thing. Well, AI can do something very similar for creatives. There are now huge efficiencies to be had in developing concepts and getting them back to clients quickly.

At Now We Collide, for example, we’re already experimenting with art and text generators like Open AI & Broca for copy, tagline and idea generation. And we’re running tests on video and animation solutions that can help our designers come up with new ideas and expedite existing ones (see below).

We’re also using MidJourney, Dall-e2 and Stable Diffusions DreamStudio for visual concept development and content generation. It’s a new and exciting world - and one that can make us much more efficient as businesses.

In many cases, having this AI in our toolkit means tasks that would’ve taken two to three weeks from conception to delivery can be achieved much quicker. And this is especially important when speed to market is key to keeping share-of-voice high for most brands.

Measuring up in a creative space

In the world of measurement you’ll often hear people from tech companies extolling the virtues of giving the AI the richest data possible. The theory being that what you put in correlates strongly with what you get out. This is having some interesting knock on effects in the creative realm.

We’re now considering the types of roles the intersection of human output and AI technology is creating. There’s now a place in businesses like ours for what we are calling the Prompt Architect or Engineer. This is a role that involves working with AI, providing it with the right stimulus, or ‘prompts’ in order to get the best possible results.

Of course, we’ll never replace the human element entirely, but the ability to maximise the output of AI shapes as a very important new job skill. It’s an interesting inversion to think that great results can come from humans learning machine learning language, rather than us teaching AI what to do.
And if you’re not convinced of AI’s efficacy yet, well, we’re already seeing some exciting developments in the fashion and cosmetics space. In the example pictured below, the model, hair and makeup were all created by an AI source in under two hours - derived from refining a single prompt sheet of images.

And while AI used in this way could be disruptive for the fashion industry, it’s fair to assume this approach isn’t going to work for everyone just yet. But given the potential, I think that brands and marketers will certainly be interested in faster, more cost-effective ways to get their messages to market.

For creative businesses, there are simple ways you can experiment too. Being a big basketball fan, and working with ESPN on creating ‘Your Home For Hoops’ brand platform, I’ve started a BallArt Instagram account as a way to experiment and explore new visual concepts. Just by showcasing what’s possible via AI creativity, it provides us with a way to quickly realise which ideas work with a specific audiences.

Perhaps the most exciting aspect of the rise of machine learning in the creative space for me, though, is the ability to generate fresh ideas and new ways of thinking at a much quicker pace. A lot of effort goes into ideation, and having a collection of thought starters can be a very powerful thing.
If you’re still not convinced, then consider this. For agencies - particularly smaller Indies like us - leaning into this technology can also be a great selling point for clients. It’s a sign you move with the times and embrace agility - and that you’re not afraid to experiment with new trends in the quest for success.

For brands, I say, don’t be scared of it. Embrace it, test it and work with those who are doing likewise. At the end of the day, it’s just another software solution, but one that could really make a difference to your next campaign.

Published by Ryan Bodger in News

Tags: AI, Artificial Intelligence, creative, creative agency, Creative Industry, Experiment, social media, social media advertising, social media marketing, social media strategy, Software, Video Content Marketing

November 14, 2022

Creating history with ESPN and the Opals

For just the second time in history, Australia played host to the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup, and in a first, ESPN would be broadcasting a major sporting event, live from Australian shores. Now We Collide was given the task of creating a social media led creative campaign that targeted a wide Australian audience alongside basketball fans to drive tune-in to ESPN’s live broadcast.

The creative strategy involved featuring high profile Opals players delivering inspirational lines to camera from a New York training camp, which NWC managed remotely. We then combined this footage with unique cell animation, game footage and commentary stings to set the scene for the home town showdown. Multiple exports were created with different calls to action. The first was to create awareness in the lead up to the competition, we then tailored messaging to game specific tune-in as each game approached. The creative was then A/B tested with sound on and sound off versions across different platforms.

The semi-final game creative - Opals v China on ESPN.

We ran the campaign using a blended social media strategy with the goal of reaching the widest possible audience and combining this with ‘active engagement’ to achieve video view completions.

The Opals did Aussie fans proud in the world cup, bringing home the bronze medal after narrowly missing out on the gold medal match. The USA claimed their third championship on the bounce but there was another winner out of the competition and that was the success of the sound on, vertical format video in our creative campaign, something that Now We Collide has been championing for a while now - Vertical video keeps soaring.

Sound on environments such as TikTok and Instagram Reels proved to be a great format to drive reach and engagement where we used the celebrity and inspiration of the Opals players to deliver piece-to-camera with a more ‘native’ feel to the TikTok/Reels world during the campaign. Also, because people tend to actively scroll TikTok and Reels as opposed to the more passive scrolling provided by other formats, audio becomes more relevant and powerful when making creative choices on these platforms. The TikTok campaign also included some tactical enhancements such as premium placement in feed and Super Like interactive add on.

The campaign reached over 2.5 million viewers across Facebook, Instagram and TikTok while engagement and 100% video views performance achieved was significantly above benchmarks and KPIs set. Not only that, and most importantly, the event has become one of the most successful for ESPN Australia in terms of audience numbers and viewing figures.

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Why AI is the assistant every creative needs

Published by Keir Maher in News

Tags: content production, Content strategy, Mobile-First Video, social media, social media marketing, social media strategy, Video Content Marketing, video production

November 11, 2022

Vertical video keeps soaring

Just over 2 years ago we wrote about the “Rise of Vertical Video” and how we saw it as “one of the biggest opportunities for brands” at the time. Shift forward 2 years and it's clear that the prediction has become a reality. During that time we have seen the exponential growth of Instagram Reels, in 2021 Adam Mosseri, the Head of Instagram announced a focus on video and the tripling of Reels maximum running length to 90 seconds (while ads have a maximum running length of 60 seconds) – with over 1 billion active Instagram users every month the move into vertical mobile video has been one of the driving forces behind the success. Reels has now been expanded to Facebook as well which in turn increases the views and discoverability of Reels across both platforms.

Ultimately though, Reels was a response to the growth of what was then a new-comer to the vertical video scene – TikTok. TikTok has grown rapidly and whilst we recognised 2 years ago that they were a serious competitor to the incumbent leaders in social video at the time (Facebook and YouTube) we didn’t foresee quite how big they would get. In fact, data from the recent Hootsuite / We Are Social report shows that TikTok now leads in average time per month spent in app across Android devices globally:

TikTok’s undoubted success has been driven by their AI algorithm and the ability to curate and recommend the most relevant content to keep viewers hooked and scrolling for more. In this sense, TikTok has become a quasi social media and entertainment platform in one. TikTok now has over 1 billion monthly active users itself and is projected to reach somewhere between $8bn - $12bn in ad revenue in 2022.

Not to be out-done, in late 2020 YouTube launched their own YouTube Shorts vertical video and short-from platform for videos 60 seconds and less. YouTube Shorts is already driving 1.5bn monthly views and has in our eyes the advantage over both Instagram and TikTok in that it plugs into both the creator community of YouTube and the overall Google ecosystem, particularly search. Demand for YouTube Shorts has been soaring, in April this year Google CEO, Pichai announced that YouTube Shorts, is generating 30 billion views per day, which is four times more than the same time a year earlier.

So what does all this mean for brands and advertisers? In a word, plenty. There are the obvious creative ramifications we discussed in our original article – vertical video needs to be filmed or produced with the vertical 9:16 format front of mind mind – utilising all the available pixel space to maximise engagement with a feeling that is native to viewing and platform experience. With videos across all vertical platforms primarily watched with sound-on, this means that dialogue, sound and sound design has become more important than ever and revokes many of the previous recommendations around creating for a sound-off viewing experience.

This also means that video content including people and dialogue directly to camera within the creative has become more important than ever – driven by the success of a plethora of content creators – and for advertisers this is an important consideration. We have run a number of organic and paid campaigns across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube in which we have A/B tested different creative and we have interesting findings where for certain categories and demographics, people speaking directly to camera and engaging with audience one-to-one, have significantly out-performed all other creative.

One thing we have also been working on as an agency is optimising video creative for 95%+ or 100% video completions. This is because the video platforms are often optimised to reporting on a 3 second or up to 6 second video view and while this might be relevant for the platforms themselves to report on, this isn't necessarily a true gauge of how consumers are interacting with a brands content or ads. While there has been lots written on the demise of the average attention span there is also plenty of evidence available to confirm that if you reach the right people, at the right time with content that is relevant and of interest/engaging, they will dedicate as much time as needed. So we believe a truer reflection of campaign success is to understand and report on those higher video completion rates and optimise the creative and media strategy accordingly.

Data from numerous campaigns we have run here at Now We Collide over the last 2 years has shown that the growth in vertical video has been accompanied by much higher video viewing completion rates and the associated cost efficiencies which can be achieved and by optimising video to the vertical format, even higher engagement and efficiencies can be achieved.

So for now at least the rise of vertical video continues and is now an essential part of any digital and social media strategy and should be integrated into the channel mix accordingly.

Published by Keir Maher in News

Tags: advertising, content production, Content strategy, Mobile-First Video, social media, social media advertising, social media marketing, social media strategy, Video Content Marketing, video production

August 10, 2022

AdNews Industry Profile: Ryan Bodger our CCO at Now We Collide

AdNews Industry Profile

Our Industry Profile takes a look at some of the professionals working across the advertising, adtech, marketing and media sector in Australia. It aims to shed light on the varying roles and companies across the buzzing industry.

Ryan Bodger: Chief creative officer at Now We Collide

Time in current role/time at the company:
Now We Collide was founded in 2015 by CEO and Managing Partner, Keir Maher, and myself, Ryan Bodger, chief creative officer and managing partner.

How would you describe what the company does?
Most of the time we are helping our client partners realise the potential of the new digital economy. This means coming up with creative ways to intersect and engage with audiences, customers and consumers on a myriad of platforms, channels and digital ecosystems. Every business we work with has different goals and objectives, so we uniquely tailor our approach to each of them and build teams to support their business for successful outcomes.

What do you do day-to-day?
Problem solving, ideation, creative execution, research, strategy, production, client and stakeholder management and team building. Sometimes I might even fix a broken cupboard in the studio - I like to get hands on with everything I do. Each day presents a new set of challenges and often I lean on our great team, resources and mentors - both internal and external - to get the job done. I’m blessed to work with such a talented and clever group of people.

Define your job in one word:
Adaptation.

I got into digital market industry because:
It was where the ad industry was heading. It was a natural progression from working in television early on, through the dot.com boom running a digital agency, to the fragmented, decentralised digital landscape we are now in. It’s been a wild ride and it’s ever changing - but that’s why I like it.ADVERTISING

What’s the biggest challenge you face in your role?
Helping clients realise the potential of the ever-changing media and digital landscape. I think a lot of the time we are comfortable in the day-to-day and find it difficult to adapt and change. Often people resist change, because it’s hard and it makes them feel uncomfortable.

But that is exactly what we all do as audiences or consumers. We constantly shift our gaze to the next exciting thing that interests us, solves a problem or entertains us. Think the iphone, Netflix, Reddit, TikTok, Discord, Blockchain, AI - it’s always changing. We’re here to help businesses embrace these changes.

What’s the biggest industry-wide challenge you’d like to see tackled?
Getting people to value creativity in our industry and the ‘idea’ as currency. While the digital age has caused a paradigm shift in our ability to scrutinise data, and rightly so, the value of creativity has been diminished by some.

I think the ‘idea’ is seen as something floating in thin air, waiting to be plucked. Sometimes that can happen, but very rarely. I believe those that harness the power of data, draw valuable insights and drive quicker creative thinking and effective strategy to market will win. Those ideas and that thinking needs to be worth more and valued more.

What are you most excited about in the next 12 months?
Seeing Now We Collide go from strength to strength in delivering some of our best work, while continuing to build and support an incredible team of people that all love working together.

Who has been a great mentor to you and why?
My Dad. As a kid I saw him go from working in the backyard shed in the outer suburbs of Melbourne, as a sole trader Signwriter (back when they used paint and brushes), to running a sign factory with around 20 people working for him.

I have good memories of spending time with his apprentices, learning how signs were made, mixing paints, screen printing, and seeing how business was done. He didn't always have to give me great advice, but his work ethic and commitment to making a better life for his family has given me a great lens through which to see the world.

Words of advice for someone wanting a job like yours?
Nothing ever stays the same, so be ready to adapt to change, constantly. Don't be precious when things don't go your way.

If I wasn't doing this for a living, I'd be:
As a kid, my dream was to be playing alongside Michael Jordan with the Chicago Bulls… that didn't quite work out. But if I wasn't running a Creative Agency right now, I would probably be helping my wife more with her new venture, Alba Atelier (plug!).

My mantra is:
Time is running.

My favourite advert is:
The original Apple iPod Ad - design, simplicity, fun. RIP the iPod

Published by Keir Maher in News

Tags: content production, social media, social media advertising, social media strategy, Video Content Marketing, video production

March 31, 2022

Now We Collide Champions Small Business In New Global Campaign For Meta

B&T ; MarkeTech APAC ; Mumbrella ; Adnews

Now We Collide has created a new campaign for Meta which showcases the ingenuity of small businesses across APAC in its latest “Good Ideas Deserve To Be Found” global campaign.

The campaign will run across the APAC region and consists of four 15-second ads which bring to life the stories behind nine different small to medium businesses (SMBs) from countries including Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Philippines and Thailand.

“Good Ideas Deserve To Be Found” is designed to build awareness of tools and resources available to help SMBs connect with new audiences and grow their business online.

It is built on the insight that there are millions of good ideas out there, even though running a business and making it stand out to customers can be difficult.

“The last two years have been uniquely testing times for SMBs, providing some serious challenges with store closures and new opportunities with the explosion in digital retail,” said Meta Australia and New Zealand director of marketing, Alex Sloane.

“With this campaign, we wanted to draw attention to the wealth of resources available to help them use digital tools to even better effect, with the potential to create truly global businesses. We genuinely believe that “Good ideas deserve to be found.” and can come from anywhere.”

Meta 'Good Ideas Deserve to Be Found' - Stay Flower Japan

The campaign will be distributed via digital channels and Meta-owned platforms through Dentsu Media.

Each of the creative executions centre on revealing the ‘invisible’ product of a small business. One shows a boy wearing a bike helmet and pads apparently floating along, before an Instagram ad unit reveals the bike he is riding. Another features a woman practicing Jiu Jitsu apparently alone before revealing she is sparring with her instructor.

“We’re excited to be involved in a campaign that would help out many SMBs across APAC, especially as it was filmed at one of the more challenging periods of the pandemic,” said Now We Collide chief creative officer, Ryan Bodger.

“We had to grapple with these challenges as well, and our team was able to bring to life these stories from all across Asia either filming remotely or in-studio and on location in Sydney.

“By bringing the client into the studio ‘virtually’, we were able to closely collaborate throughout the production process, making approvals frictionless. We streamlined the process through live video offline edit sessions, bringing together various stakeholders from different locations across the globe.”

Now We Collide CEO, Keir Maher, added, “One of the more positive things the pandemic has given us, is the ability to work in ways we never thought possible.

“Quick adaptation to change has always been part of the Now We Collide DNA, but now it is built into our production processes and methodologies. This campaign is testament to our abilities as a nimble and effective team.”

Credits:

Creative Agency: Now We Collide

Production/Post: Now We Collide
Media: Dentsu

VFX/CGI Post: Heckler
Sound: PureSound
Executive Creative Director: Ryan Bodger
Business Director/EP: Naomi Young
Creative Director: Shelby Craig

Meta Internal Creative Leads: Justin Yeo (Meta), Jonathan Cockett (Meta)

Director: Toby Morris

DOP: Dan Freene

VFX Supervisor: Jamie Watson (Heckler)
Stunt Coordinator: Ray Anthony

Account Lead: Shayne Carter

Producer: Re Lim

Editor: Josh Groom

Motion Graphics/VFX: Darryn Rogers

Sound: James Martell

Published by Keir Maher in News

Tags: Advertising Campaign, Content strategy, creative agency, Independent Creative Agency, social media, social media advertising, social media strategy, Video Content Marketing, video production

November 26, 2021

Find The Blue Beer: An integrated campaign for Sauce Brewing Co

Loved by locals and enjoyed (responsibly) by craft beer enthusiasts, Sauce Brewing Co is an independent microbrewery in Sydney’s inner-west. Based in Marrickville, the brewery has developed a cult following amongst avid craft drinkers, highly regarded for its lineup of easy drinking ales and hop-heavy IPA’s.

As part of their ongoing growth, Sauce Brewing tasked Now We Collide to develop an integrated campaign to support the distribution of Caribbean Fog. Juiced up with Azacca and El Dorado hops, Caribbean Fog is a fruity, sessionable pale ale that’s recently found its way into the fridges of a number of key retailers.

To celebrate their entry into major bottle shops, Sauce Brewing launched ‘Find The Blue Beer’, a promotion to drive taste and trial of their summer friendly tropical ale. In the spirit of supporting a local Sydney business, Now We Collide joined the project to lead the strategy, creative, production and media distribution of the campaign. The team photographed and designed campaign material in-house, rolling out a suite of creative assets to feature across OOH, social media, digital and in-store POS.

Taking an integrated approach to media, the campaign reached customers using hyper-targeted OOH with precinct and neighbourhood posters and targeted digital and social media to reach lovers of craft beer in Sydney locations. The team worked with Sauce Brewing to identify key audiences and used Facebook and Instagram targeting to reach customers based on location, demographics, interests and behaviours. The extensive social campaign also drove new followers to Sauce Brewing’s social pages, increasing brand awareness of their wider lineup of products and their craft brewery experience in Marrickville.

To support the in-store promotion, we also created a suite of POS deliverables to appear in independent bottle shops and major alcohol retailers, to encourage trial of Caribbean Fog at point of purchase.

blue beer campaign now we collide agency

Through development of the ‘Find The Blue Beer’ campaign, Now We Collide helped Sauce Brewing to paint Sydney blue with it’s Caribbean Fog beer. With a strategic suite of OOH and social assets, the campaign increased brand awareness of the brewing credentials of Sauce Brewing, keeping their product top of mind for craft drinkers and beer lovers in search of their next taste adventure.

Published by Keir Maher in News

Tags: advertising, blue beer campaign, creative, creative agency, digital advertising, out of home, photography, production, promotion, sauce brewing co, social, social media, social media marketing, strategy

November 2, 2021

Instagram: New Tools For Creators

Article: Instagram

Instagram has released an exciting new batch of features, arming users with a shiny toolbox of toys to play with. The new features provide creators with greater freedoms, empowering them to collaborate, commercialise and fundraise for charitable causes. Take a look at the three biggest updates for Instagram.

Collaboration

An exciting feature designed to increase engagement, Instagram has launched ‘Collabs’ which allows two accounts to co-author Posts and Reels. The move is a win for creators, influencers and brands, encouraging users to create partnerships and collaborate on the platform. The feature will also improve the feed for users as it reduces the frequency of followers seeing duplicate pieces of content from two separate accounts. When posts are created in ‘Collab’ mode, both accounts are able to see a shared like count, view count and comment section.

This new feature is exciting for marketers as it provides brands the ability to streamline social campaigns that are based on partnership. This year Australia has seen a number of high profile collaborations such as the recent Dominos x Vegemite and Bundaberg Rum x Bundaberg Ginger Beer product innovations.

Link Sticker

A big win for smaller accounts, Instagram is beginning to roll out ‘link stickers’ for all users, a function that allows users to include hyperlinks in Stories. The feature was previously offered only to verified accounts and high-profile creators. The barrier set a perceived benchmark that often drove users to break the hallowed 10,000 follower count.

The wide deployment of the ‘link stickers’ feature is seen as a valuable win for small businesses, who now have the ability to include links to their products and services on their Stories. The move sees Instagram improve its ability to act as an ecommerce portal for brands of all sizes. The democratization sees a leveling of the digital playing field. For example a small local clothing boutique will now have access to the same app features as a global brand. The update compliments existing features such as Instagram Shops.

Instagram is also rolling out desktop functionality, allowing users to upload photos to the platform directly from their web browser. The new updates allows users to edit, filter and post from the comfort of laptops and desktop computers, however the feature is yet to be added to iPad and tablet devices. The update essentially gives all users the same experience of industry social media managers, who have long used 3rd party apps to bypass the previous restrictions. The emergence of desktop posting will likely push users towards uploading curated content of a higher quality, as creators look to leverage desktop software such as Canva to create image and video assets.

Fundraiser
The rising influence of digital activism has also been boosted, as Instagram announces the rollout of a new ‘fundraiser’ feature. The function allows users to create a fundraising initiative for not-for-profits, with subsequent posts appearing in the feed. Instagram trialled a similar fundraising feature during the global pandemic by allowing users to include fundraising links during live streams for charity. It’s important to note the feature appears to suit time-sensitive initiatives, as fundraisers can be set up for up to 30 days. No doubt major charity platforms such as GoFundMe and Donorbox will be keeping close watch as Instagram moves into the humanitarian space.

Published by Keir Maher in News

Tags: instagram, instagram announcement, link, new on instagram, social media, social media advertising, social media marketing, swipe up

September 8, 2021

Now We Collide launches new APAC brand strategy for TMX

READ THE ARTICLE: B&T, Adobo Magazine, Marketech APAC, Campaign Asia

Now We Collide has been appointed to create the new brand strategy for leading supply chain consultancy TMX, as it expands rapidly throughout Australia and across APAC.

Founded in Melbourne in 2010, TMX works with major consumer brands including UNIQLO, Australia Post, BMW, L’Oreal, Kmart, Asahi, and Coles to create end-to-end digital and supply chain solutions. The business’ success has propelled during the pandemic, attracting significant new investment to enter several new markets across APAC.

Now We Collide was brought on to develop a universal visual identity that would translate across multiple languages and markets to support this growth. The new integrated brand campaign encompasses digital and social media strategy in addition to a full suite of creative for both organic and paid media.

The work is driven by high-end 3D animation and the aesthetic is dynamic, fast-paced, visually informative and warm to echo TMX’s brand purpose to ‘invent tomorrow’.

Travis Erridge, CEO at TMX commented: “TMX is the leading solutions provider for a number of traditional bricks and mortar retailers which are navigating new digital supply chains. Our new brand strategy firmly establishes our credentials as a true innovator in this space across APAC.

“Now We Collide has been an absolute pleasure to work with. The team’s strategic insights, creative development and in-house production capabilities have been the perfect combination to provide a new platform for us to continue driving results and focusing on customer acquisition and engagement.

“Navigating through the nuances of each APAC market is no small feat however Now We Collide were experts in providing consistency of message. We're looking forward to continuing our partnership with Now We Collide as we continue our growth across key markets.”

Keir Maher, Managing Partner & CEO at Now We Collide added: “It’s always a privilege to support a successful Aussie business that’s making such big waves on the international stage.

“The visual identity, language and style guide of the campaign is very unique in the category and goes to the heart of TMX as an innovator. We’re proud of this campaign that translates TMX’s unique story onto a global platform and best of all, we’re already seeing the strategy provide positive business outcomes for the team at TMX.”

CREDITS:

Now We Collide

E.P. & Strategy Director - Keir Maher

Chief Creative Officer – Ryan Bodger

Client Services Director – Naomi Young

Creative Director - Kurt Toohey

Motion Designer – Jamie Hoy

Project Producer – Michele Marquet

Copywriter – John Kerswell

TMX

Natalie Liang – Director of Marketing & Communications

Nhung Nguyen - Marketing & Communications Manager, Vietnam

Grace McLean - Marketing & Communications Executive

Published by Keir Maher in News

Tags: APAC, Brand Campaign, Brand identity, brand strategy, branding, social media, social media advertising, social media marketing, social media strategy, supply chain, tmx

June 15, 2021

Shedding More Light on How Instagram Works

Source: Instagram

Search “How to Hack the Instagram Algorithm?” and you’ll find an array of blogs, click-bait and YouTube videos with unverified top tips and tricks.

In a move to clear up the many misconceptions floating about the web, it’s interesting to see Instagram beginning to release a series of blog posts explaining how their algorithms actually work. The article demonstrates Instagram’s ambition to become more transparent about their technology and the way data is leveraged to shape the user experience of the app.

The blog outlines the fundamental metrics that decide how content is served to users across their Feed, Stories, Reels and Explore. This is a helpful tool for users looking to understand why certain posts appear in their feed at any given time. The blog is even more useful for content creators looking to better understand what affects the success of their content and its ability to reach the right followers. The top tip? Post interactions are key.

We’ll be keeping a close eye on this feed as Instagram releases further in-depth analysis of their various algorithms. It will be interesting to see whether other major social players follow suit.

Published by Keir Maher in Insights

Tags: algorithm, instagram, social media, social media strategy

June 11, 2021

Roblox – Social Media Game Changer

Anyone with kids aged 8-15 will know about Roblox, the platform that allows players to interact with friends in user-created 3-D digital worlds, and how it has become the go-to entertainment and social network choice for this age group. We have been following the progress of Roblox for a couple of years as it has grown the user base (average daily active users of 42.1 million, up 79% year over year Jan-Mar 2021), time spent on site (hours engaged jumped 18% to 3.2 billion) and revenue (adjusted revenue jumped 161% to $652.3 million). After the company's recent IPO, it now has a market value of US$51 billion.

One of the key reasons for the success of Roblox is that it is built as a community first platform, Roblox provides the platform and tools for creators to build their own games and environments, with over one third of revenue from the platform going to creators, much higher than most other social platforms. Prof Galloway provides an interesting perspective on the Roblox Flywheel (at 5 mins).

The social media aspect comes in because users can multi-play with friends and interact in real-time through speech or messaging within games and from different or remote places, while online safety and parental controls have always been a huge part of the success of Roblox as a platform primarily for kids. There are now over 18 million 'experiences' to choose from on the platform with users sampling on average 20 different gaming experiences per month.

Also, the Roblox social-media tentacles spread into mainstream social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and predominantly YouTube, with YouTubers such as Ssundee having 17.4 million subscribers on YouTube and regularly getting video views of over 5 million per video playing Roblox games.

Roblox is not only driving revenue from in-game purchases but is also now ramping up brand partnerships. As this article from DigiDay explains "From Nike to Disney, Warner Bros. to Gucci, some of the world’s largest advertisers are already trying to reach Roblox’s audiences, which historically has had a very young demographic though that is changing. "

Roblox, is definitely on the growth path with a new generation of audiences and certainly one platform we are keeping a close eye on their progress.

Published by Keir Maher in News

Tags: gaming, Roblox, social media

May 24, 2021

Snap continues innovation for both users and brands

Snap recently had their partner summit and announced a number of developments including next generation spectacles, rolling out more business profiles, ecommerce features, new AR features and Snap Map features.

It's interesting to see Snap continuing to stick to their strategy of providing a real alternative for younger audiences within the social media space, defining themselves as something very different to Instagram, Facebook and YouTube in terms of technology and usability - and don't forget, they're a camera company!

Facebook Tests New Warning Prompts to Stop Users Sharing Articles They Haven’t Read

A great move from Facebook to help prevent the spread of misinformation and ensure people actually know what they are sharing before they hit the share button. It will be interesting to see how this affects content sharing and engagement on the platform.

Read full article here: Social Media Today

Published by Keir Maher in Insights

Tags: facebook, social media