Behaviour, accelerated: SCA & Seven host exclusive Insights breakfast in Sydney

SCA's Charlie Brown, National Head of Strategy & Partnerships. Image supplied.

This week, over 200 key clients and agencies attended SCA and Seven’s Insights Breakfast at Capella in Sydney.

Hosted by Luke Minto, SCA’s National Head of Total Audio Sales, the Behaviour, Accelerated event looked at how Australians are really spending their time – and what that means for brands navigating an increasingly fragmented media landscape.

A series of panels explored the findings of a report by decision intelligence platform Prophet, examining how Australian consumer behaviour continues to evolve across media and platforms – as well as the latest developments in audience targeting, data and measurement across SCA and Seven.

The event wrapped up with a discussion on the role of quality journalism in today’s media landscape, featuring Ray Kuka, Seven Director News Integration and Strategy, Sacha Barbour Gatt from LiSTNR’s The Briefing and Michael Usher from Seven News.

Olly Newton, Group Digital Commercial Director and Kim Loasby, Head of Digital Ad Product and Operations, presented insights that combine data, technology and audience intelligence to help advertisers work smarter.

Jasmine Beech, Head of SCA IQ and Charlie Brown, National Head of Strategy & Partnerships, spoke of how media fragmentation stability has given way to unpredictability.

The Prophet study noted that decisions rarely happen in a single moment. Awareness is built over time, and by the time a consumer searches for a brand, much of the work has already been done.

The report looked beyond the point of conversion to examine how demand is actually formed and what marketers risk overlooking when measurement focuses too narrowly on where demand is captured rather than how it is created.

The key takeaway? Demand already existed before the click. Marketing determined where it went.

“People don’t begin their journey with a specific brand in mind. In the case of electric vehicles, the decision starts at a category level. Consumers decide they want an electric vehicle, and only then does brand preference begin to take shape.”

“That distinction is where marketing plays its role.”

Southern Cross Media Group says its partnership with Prophet removes the uncertainty from cross-media planning. For marketers focused only on the click, the result will be increased efficiency in capturing existing demand. But for those who understand how demand is formed, there is an opportunity to do something more powerful to influence it.

Jordan Taylor-Bartels, Prophet CEO, said “Marketing has spent decades getting better at measuring what happened yesterday. The next decade belongs to organisations that understand what creates tomorrow’s demand.”

“That’s the difference between reporting on growth and engineering it.”

Yesterday’s event was attended by a host of Southern Cross Media Group representatives, including Managing Director and CEO Rohan Lund, Managing Director – Audio John Kelly and Chief People Officer Rebecca Ackland.

Images supplied.