Competition and its role shaping industry

Recently Nielsen Ad Intel released its Top Advertising Report outlining the country’s biggest advertisers for 2021.

I was unsurprised to see the Australian communications industry listed once again as the second highest media spender in the country with telecommunications and internet providers, mobile communications and web content services shelling out more than $1 billion on advertising.

Given the last two years saw much of the country’s population mandated to work and learn from home, connectivity in all its forms has never been so vital. It’s no wonder brands are investing such vast amounts to secure the hearts and minds of customers.

But it hasn’t always been this way.

Before 1992, advertising in the Australian telco industry was literally non-existent. In a market held by a single government-owned entity, there simply wasn’t the need.  If Australians wanted a landline for their home, there was only one place to get it – like it or leave it.

Three decades after a little-known Optus opened its doors to offer Aussies a choice around their phone plan, our country’s telco industry is now one of the world’s most competitive markets and sits at the centre of our digital economy and connected society.

Competition, in any industry, drives better outcomes.  It provides accessibility and alternatives, promotes development and is often a catalyst for change and innovation. 

It forces brands and businesses to understand and prioritise the needs of its audience to better articulate product or service benefits to maintain or gain market share in the race to attract consumers. It also encourages brands to innovate and differentiate and allocate spend towards researching, identifying and delivering the most effective means of capturing that audience.

For grocery chains, banks, and other fiercely competitive industries, brands continuously up the ante to make an impression on consumers who hold value, price and performance as key decision-making factors.

Last year, advertising spend in Australia reached more than $17 billion in a never-ending jostle by brands to keep at the forefront of the consumer’s mind.  In the absence of multiple brands competing in the same market for the same buyer’s dollar, it’s almost certain that figure would be significantly reduced.

It’s also not unrealistic to think the strategic and technical evolution of any industry might have been slower without a wary eye kept on the rear-view mirror for the first sign of a nearing competitor. It is certainly true in telco.

Like the telco industry has evolved to keep Australia connected through its journey of 3G, 4G and now 5G network capabilities, today’s ad campaigns, with the introduction of digital, new tech and smarter personalisation, are a far cry from the traditional tried and true paid media approaches of 30 years ago. 

As my colleagues and I celebrate three decades of offering Australians choice in their communications, I encourage you to think about how competition has impacted and shaped your decisions and your industry.

Be it the rise and rise of content, the hedonistic chase of social likes, shares and follows, or shake-ups and disruptors, one thing is for certain, competition has had a role in it all.  And as digital has reshaped the landscape over the past three decades, new technologies will do so next.

I can’t wait to see what competition delivers in the next 30 years.