I just saw a new Australia Post ad promoting their parcel delivery services to small to medium businesses in Australia. The ad encourages businesses to “zing their thing” and apart from being a little trite (zing = speed), I liked the ad.
It tells the story of a small business that makes Zing and becomes wildly successful. And guess what, they need a flexible delivery service to meet the needs of their rapidly growing business. The ad is backed by a website http://www.zingyourthing.com.au/ which builds on the idea that Zing is every product, every idea, every dream, which is of course delivered speedily by Australia Post.
The ad invites people to search for zing. So being an obedient consumer I did exactly that. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that there were no results for Australia Post or their campaign sites on page 1 of Google. There was a paid search ad. This is another case of agencies getting only half the campaign right. If you’re going to invite people to search for a low competition term like zing then spend a couple of weeks ensuring you rank for it. With an estimated 2% to 10% of Google searchers clicking on paid search ads, Australia Post are going to be missing out on a reasonable amount of traffic. Admittedly, Australia Posts click-through-rate for the ad will be higher than most terms, but it is still a poorly executed campaign. Some users will wonder if they are in the right place and move on.
It is a shame because the rest of the campaign is really great. The campaign site is one long page and has a beautiful scrolling background. The call to action is front and centre, and the privacy policy is easily found. Before the digital geniuses in agencies have a great idea like, “Why don’t we just ask them to search for quirky product term”, they should make sure they cover off organic and paid search.
Hi John
The e-tail delivery experience, (as promoted by Australia Post and every courier service) especially from B2C in the new age of eCommerce is both the most important component (I receive the Zing !) as well as the well as the most frustrating. Why? For deliveries to Homes, 25 to 35% of people are not there to receive the goods during the day (we are at work you know…) Ironically, convenience and cost of etailing is the reason buyers and sellers use e-tailing to get the Zing. The last-mile experience of frustration of having to pick up the goods from a depot or post office after a failed delivery reflects badly on the overall experience. If couriers and retailers can fix this it will deliver the “Zing” and not cruel it for the retailer. I heard somewhere that customer pick-up of goods from retailers using smart-lockers was being trialled as means to do this. I would like to see that. My parcel, my way…
I love your thoughts Rob. I love the idea of solving the last mile with a smart locker. What would be truly great is getting a better level of service from Australia Post. I have local post office in a General Store near me and I can collect my zing after hours. If Australia Post offered a better service then they would nail this.
Jon & Rob, completely agree with the smart locker concept. Similar concepts trialled by the usa could be looked upon – infact do you recall kincos – the fedex mob that went under a few years back a one stop copy shop with a built in collections / drop off unit. eretail has to nail the final delivery and pickup process. Is the answer a combo of smartlockers and evenining deliveries. There are a few national carriers now gearing up for satchel /airbag PM deliveries. Will be interesting to see if it works fro a process point of view & a culture view lets face it even the bricks and mortar shops mostly close at 5 working past 5.30 is hard to do mentally. I think a disounted PM delivery rate might be the trick as with eretail going gang busters the volume is there now to make it happen.
http://www.examiner.com.au/news/local/news/general/post-office-return-to-sender/2252210.aspx
just read this and heard about smartlockers in brissie. looks like were entering the 21st century. may be ill start buying online again after a couple of bad delivery experiences
There’s a new service called Parcel Point that got some press recently which is pretty cool. It’s great to see entrepreneurial and innovative services like this get up.
I do think though that the only answer is Australia Post extending opening hours, opening Saturdays, offering a service tailored to people buying online. Only they have the reach to fully launch a service which meets the needs of most Australians. It might even help them claw back the $20M a year they’re losing to overseas couriers.
Farmers Direct deliver meat, bread and milk overnight claiming that it will be on the door-step by 7am. I think this is really smart. It avoids traffic and most folks are home. Although I do wonder what they do with apartment dwellers?
Items coming from Las Vegas reach Australia within two days and then take a three weeks to reach Adelaide. No Zing here, maybe Australia Post are holding our items hostage in an attempt to promote their premium products but I don’t think they are that competent.