Marketing powerhouse P4 Group and Ruby Communications rebrand as 'Sabio'
Renowned Integrated Communications Agencies Celebrate Growth
by Hitting Refresh
Today, integrated marketing and communications powerhouse, P4 Group and sister agency, Ruby Communications announce an agency rebrand, now officially debuting as ‘Sabio’.
Today, integrated marketing and communications powerhouse, P4 Group and sister agency, Ruby Communications announce an agency rebrand, now officially debuting as ‘Sabio’.
Under the new brand, the group will design business solutions that funnel close to three decades of experience into cleverly crafted campaigns and creative solutions for their expansive client list. With a fleet of creatives and way of thinking that doesn’t sit on the side of the majority, Sabio brings a re-energised approach to marketing, stakeholder and communications and a promise to elevate the everyday, into the unexpected.
In August of 2020, Brisbane powerhouse agency, P4 Group, joined forces with Ruby Communications uniting their extensive media relations capabilities with P4’s existing communications, stakeholder management, digital marketing and creative services for clients across government, tourism, non-for-profit, hospitality, lifestyle and corporate sectors.
Managing Director, Naomi Spies states that it’s an exciting time to be in the industry, particularly with such a huge focus on collaboration and creativity―a space that Sabio knows all too well.
“Sabio will always be a fluid agency that is ever-changing and ever-evolving to adapt to the fast-moving industries we work within, bringing a clever, highly integrated lens to our client’s needs across communications, creative, digital, marketing and engagement,” says Spies.
“The last three decades has allowed us to work with so many brands, corporations and Government projects and it’s been an amazing ride, but I can genuinely tell you, the best is yet to come.”
Echoing Spies’ remarks is Sabio Founder and CEO, Adrian Basile, who says the rebrand was a necessary change to highlight the talent of the team and its ability to bring the absolute best to the table.
“From what started as a traditional communications agency almost three decades ago with a sole focus on media relations, we are now a campaign-driven agency that delivers exceptional integrated work across a multitude of sectors—we really needed a brand that spoke to this innovative shift,” says Basile.
“We want people to know that we’ll be carrying all of our experience and incredible team into Sabio – our team are the lifeblood of our company so it’s important to us that we bring our highly skilled mix of individuals and our vibrant culture into this next chapter.
“Through Sabio, we’ll deliver work that meshes our ability as powerful storytellers with campaigns that are inherently and cleverly, you. What we’ll bring to the table are ideas that not only bring out the best in our partnering brands and companies, but the unexpected and the surprising.”
Sabio is defined as clever, learned and Spanish for ‘wise,’ and encapsulates the agency’s history as an experienced, trusted advisor while also enabling it to continue its trajectory as an exciting company designing work for clients that is ‘cleverly, you.’
Sabio holds offices across Brisbane, Sydney and the Gold Coast, and specialises in an extensive mix of services spanning marketing, PR and communications, digital, marketing, engagement and creative.
Recent agency work includes campaigns and projects with Brisbane City Council, Brisbane Economic Development Agency, Gallagher Bassett, Tourism and Events Queensland, Major Events Gold Coast, Bicycle Queensland, Multicultural Australia, Ghanem Group, Hallmark Group, Home of the Arts (HOTA), Lung Foundation Australia, Outback Queensland, Youly and Nobby’s Beach Village.
For more information, contact Sabio Communications Director Laura Carlin via laura@sabio.com.au
Kick your external communication goals by defining your audience
External communication is now considered a non-negotiable when it comes to amplifying your business and wining a share of voice in the market.
As a result, publicity, advertising, and marketing activities are crucial to reach your customer, grow your business, and ultimately define your bottom line.
The art of external communication is all about telling a story – particularly one that is authentic to your brand and that resonates with your audience. In a two-part blog series, we’ve developed our key tips and tricks to help anyone become a communications expert and professional storyteller, so you can implement a strategy that will work best for your business. This blog identifies the first step in developing any communications plan – knowing exactly who your audience are and where they are located.
Know who your audience is
It’s more than likely that you aren’t your target audience – and neither are men and women aged 18+. It’s easy to think your product and service is relevant to everyone, but in most instances, this isn’t the case. Identifying your target audience/s is pivotal on your path to successful communications. Consider the below when identifying your audience/s through a similar who, what, when, where, why and how framework:
- Who is your ideal customer?
- What problem does your business solve?
- What does your ideal buyer do during the day?
- When are people going to most need your product/ service?
- Where would your product/ service be applied? Are there any geographical limitations?
- Why did you create your business?
- How do your customer’s consume content?
From here, you can begin identifying the personas of your target market. You’ll likely have one key target market and one to three secondary markets. Notice how these markets vary and how their wants, needs and desires may change. Feel free to give them a name – we often give our client’s target personas a name. E.g. We’re targeting Abbie who is in her 20’s, lives in the inner-city, is single and likes to go out to a new restaurant at least once a week.
Go micro with your personas to understand exactly how to build relationships with them.
Know where your audience is
You’ve identified your audience, now you need to figure out how they can be reached through communications channels. There are three key channels below – Earned, Owned and Paid – with subcategories. Consider the communications channels you’re currently active in. Is this where your audience is consuming media? Use the below as a checklist and see where you could expand your reach.
– Brand endorsements and mentions voluntarily given by others.
- Online
- TV
- Radio/ Podcasts
- Unpaid influencer engagement
- Organic shares, reviews, comments
– the channels that you own and are in control of. It can be easy to forget about these outlets, however they are incredibly important as they directly represent your businesses. Be sure to nurture your owned media channels.
- Website
- TikTok
- Blogs
- EDM/ Newsletters
- Events, Videos, Webinars
– third party channels with social or brand equity. Formats of advertising where you are able to control key messaging and imagery.
- TV advertising
- Online/ Print advertising
- Radio/ Podcast advertising
- Paid influencer engagement
- Social media advertising (Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest)
- SEO
- Display Ads
Through experience as an integrated agency, we know creating multiple touchpoints that complement each other raise awareness, help key messaging/ brand repetition, and have a stronger impact on your current or potential new customer. For optimal results, ensure you have a voice in a number of Earned, Owned and Paid media channels.
Once you’ve defined exactly who your target audience is and considered where you can reach them, you’re a few steps closer to developing a strategy that will garner results within the right markets and places.
Happy pitching! And, if you need a hand building an integrated approach to reach your audience – connect with our team of experts today, get in touch with our Communications Director, Laura Carlin via laura@sabio.com.au
How to maximise your success rate when engaging with the media
In our previous blog, you learned how to identify our audience and determine where they are consuming your content.
Now you know who and where to find them, its time to capture the editor/ journalist/ producer’s attention.
Earned media coverage involves brand endorsements and mentions voluntarily given by others and can be a powerful method of amplifying your external communications strategy and reaching your target audience.
‘Traditional media’ aka TV, print/online and radio can often seem impenetrable, however there are ways to maximise your success. To position your business in a positive light, you need to build credibility to bolster a strong story. These are the non-negotiables media MUST have when you share your story to get cut through.
A representative from your business who can talk to media from an internal perspective (confidence and a strong knowledge of the business is a MUST).
A third party who can talk authentically about their experience with your product or service. It’s important to make sure this person feels comfortable on live interviews/ in front of the camera and is briefed correctly.
What is the problem in the community you’re engaging with, why is it relevant to the outlet’s audience and how are you solving this issue?
Identify why you are different to your competitors and why the media should be talking about you.
Back up your story with facts. Share specific data, research and statistics that prove the problem, why your solution works and how you are different. If your organisation owns the research – even better!
Take a look next time you read the newspaper or watch the news and see which of the above are included in the segments and articles. Once you’re confident you have all these elements covered, it’s time to consider how to sell your story. There are a number of ways you can sell your story, however the placement and avenue you take to get there can be detrimental to the success of publicity. Here are the key methods:
– creating the ‘angle’ or story. This option is often less timely and requires a compelling concept to create media interest.
– responding to an industry story or coverage about your organisation for additional commentary.
– identifying opportunities within or outside of your industry to provide commentary. This response requires an agile approach, and the best results can come from targeted, tailored outreach in response to an article that has already run on a timely topic.
– offer a unique opportunity, such as a launch, to a publication exclusively. This means the publication has a first-to-market run, which can then be followed by outreach to additional publications. An exclusive format works well in today’s current media landscape where outlets are competing to be the first on the scene or to have the inside scoop.
No matter the approach, your outreach should always include messaging and information that is authentic, credible and impactful. Now you’re prepared and at the starting line ready to hit go, there are a few other external hurdles that can get in the way of taking home the win:
– will override all news given the timeliness and usually urgent nature (particularly in the current climate)
– can push your story out of the schedule
– can mean higher priority items are published over your story
– media need to diversify their stories to keep their audience engaged
– no room for new discussion topics
– your story doesn’t suit the outlet’s format/ topics/ audience
– you cannot share the assets required in line with the outlet’s deadlines
– publications don’t have the physical capacity to craft or produce your story
– outlets (particularly magazines) are focusing on majority paid advertorial, reducing the opportunity to receive editorial
– your story isn’t relevant to the conversation anymore
Don’t feel depleted if you find yourself in any of the above situations – it’s common and not everyone can pick up your story. Look at what else the business is doing, how else you could contribute to your industry as an expert, and the activity you have on the horizon. Pick yourself up and try again with a fresh approach.
Happy pitching! And, if you need a hand building an integrated approach to reach your audience – connect with our team of experts today, get in touch with our Communications Director, Laura Carlin via laura@sabio.com.au
Internship Experience
I am in my final semester of a Master of Digital Communications degree at QUT and over the past six weeks I have completed an internship with Sabio.
I wanted to do an internship to cement the things I’ve learned over the course of my degree and to gain some practical knowledge and experience. No class or assignment at Uni can compare to the experience of being amongst communication professionals in the office and being assigned tasks from real-life clients to work on!
What I’ve learned
The main thing I’ve learned through my experience at Sabio is how a professional communications agency operates and what a typical day at work looks and feels like. The team at Sabio were super supportive in tailoring my internship to my personal interests and goals, and I got to work on lots of exciting digital communications projects. I learned what it’s like to create social media content for a variety of different clients and it was so rewarding to see my work posted to high-profile pages with thousands of followers.
What surprised me
The thing that surprised me most was how professionally the internship was run and the way I was always busy and being given different tasks to complete. Each day I had my own structured workload assigned to me which meant I was always focused on one task, allowing me to really become immersed in what I was doing.
The best part of being an intern
The best part of being an intern at Sabio was being able to network and gain advice from professionals in the industry. The feedback and guidance I received was so helpful and I’m sure I will take it with me throughout my professional career. I was also able to narrow down my perception of what I’d like to do when I graduate, and I now have a clearer idea of what kind of positions I’d like to apply for next year.
The hardest part of being an intern
The hardest part of being an intern for me was being confident enough to believe my work was up to standard for a professional communications agency.
Submitting an assignment at Uni is one thing, but it can be even more daunting when there are real clients at stake. The team at Sabio were really encouraging and supportive, and I was able to improve my quality of work and general skills through the feedback I was given.
I would highly recommend an internship at Sabio for any student who wants to gain some practical experience and build their confidence. I feel more excited and ready to finish my degree and enter the workforce because of my internship at Sabio Group.
Written by Katie Fotheringham
Tips for the Transition: From Inhouse to Agency
As communications professionals, deciding whether to hang on the inhouse or agency side of the fence is one of the most common decisions we face.
For those of us who are a fence sitter or perhaps just like to try everything once, transitioning between the two can be a challenge. More often than not, we hear the stories of people beginning in agency and then transitioning into inhouse – but less so do we hear from those who go the other way.
Though it feels like much longer, a few short months ago I made the jump from a career within inhouse communications and marketing roles over to the flipside – agency. If I were to do it all again, here are the tips I would share with my former self on how to flourish through this complex change.
Be a sponge!
My mum always used to tell me to ‘soak it up’ and at one point or another in my career, it finally made sense. Though it was never more prevalent than in this transition. Like so many new experiences, whether coming in as the intern or an Account Director at an agency, it’s important to swallow your ego and show true commitment to learning the ropes. You’ll need to remind yourself that there’s no such thing as a dumb question over and over and over.
In my first few weeks at P4 Group, I was likely considered the ‘quiet girl’. I sat back and listened to as many conversations as I could, read anything and everything I could get my hands on, and simply learnt all that I could from those around me. My colleagues would be quick to tell you now that this quietness has well and truly warded off now – but at the time, it was vital for my learning. Being thrown into a totally new way of working means you can be quick to second guess your natural working style. The more I learned from others, the quicker I started to feel confident in finding my own way of working.
Focus on what you know, not what you don’t
There are so many experiences you’ll need to learn in an agency environment. Things that are second nature to those around you can seem like daunting, confusing feats for a newbie to agency-style. From logging time on client tasks through to presenting proposals, all the newness can often leave you sitting in that ‘what on earth am I doing here?’ feeling.
In these moments, it’s critical that you remember what you know. Looking around the room, just as there are many experiences those with agency experience will have that you do not, there are so many – potentially even more – learnings that you can bring from your inhouse experiences.
Remember that diversity in an agency is like tonic to gin – it’s a key ingredient! Diverse opinions, experiences and skillsets are how true market-leading agencies thrive, so leverage your differences not as shortcomings, but as opportunities for all the new things you can bring to the table.
Treat your clients like your in house stakeholders
With an in-house role comes exposure that can’t be matched in agency. You are exposed to – and often working closely with – decision makers and executives well beyond the marketing or comms team. You will likely know the line of approvals and hierarchy of decisions like the back of your hand, and you are well and truly exposed to the entire organisation. When switching sides to agency, one of the biggest challenges faced can be getting a grasp on your clients without this innate understanding of their organisation.
While you will only ever be privy to the information your client is willing to share, putting in the hard yards in those early days to build strong relationships with your clients will make a big difference to how quickly you hit the ground running on accounts. I have found that it all comes down to treating each and every one of your clients as though you are their inhouse team. Despite it being a buzz phrase, working as an extension of your client’s team is well and truly the greatest way to quickly build trust and in turn, quickly see great outcomes.
Organisation will be your best friend
Whilst the age-old debate of whether those inhouse are cut out for the pace of agency or not will likely continue on, there’s no questioning you will need to focus more of your energy into organisation.
Remember that you are essentially going from working on the equivalent of one supersized client to two, three, four, five and beyond, so organising your time and knowledge across a broader range of topics with naturally be a hurdle. Whether it’s lists, calendar blocks, a note pad or a full suite of software, make a decision, find a system and stick with it as quick as you can. The more you can leverage the tools around you to help break down each complex client into achievable goals and needs, the quicker you’ll arrive at the day where you just get the hang of it!
If you’re interested in hearing more about a career in PR, connect with our team of experts today, get in touch with our Communications Director, Laura Carlin via laura@sabio.com.au
What the IOS 15 update means for email marketers
As email marketers, one of our key campaign metrics is to track open rates.
This lets us know our audience found the subject line engaging enough to open to find out more and suggests the messaging hit the mark. With the new IOS data privacy update looming, now is the time to assess your current campaigns and set new email campaign benchmarks for the future to measure your performance. Below, we explore the implications of the new IOS update and ways to pivot your current email marketing strategy:
What is happening in the new IOS 15 update?
The new Apple IOS 15 update due to be released in September will give Apple users the ability to turn off opening tracking and hide their email and IP addresses. With Apple commanding up to 58% of the email client market share and over 90% of all mobile email opens, email marketers will need to pivot their strategy to determine campaign success. To make sure you are ready for the new update, consider our below advice on how best to pivot your email marketing strategy going forward.
1. List segmentation
The good news is, as far as we know personalization is staying and it will still play a major role in email marketing, so segmenting your data is more important than ever. However, using lists to segment disengaged contacts by their email open rates will no longer be reliable. Instead, focus on using your lists to segment contacts by behavioral attributes through effectively lead scoring high value actions. Creating and implementing your businesses lead scoring system can be complex but pays off in the long run. Once you have your lead scoring system in place, you can start segmenting your contacts by actions they have taken and allocate them to certain parts of your marketing funnel. This will give you the opportunity to deliver the right message, to the right people at the right time in your email marketing campaigns.
2. Automated workflows
For nurture sequences, automated emails or drip campaigns you need to start implementing user click or time-based triggers, versus open based triggers. Click based triggers can be used to your advantage here if one of your workflow goals is that the contact must click on a high value call-to-action. Think about the purpose of your email and what you are trying to achieve, if you are implementing a nurture sequence think about how you can include links to useful content that you can then track and how you can then attribute this action to click based triggers. It is also worth considering incorporating other channels like SMS marketing and push notifications into your workflows to expand your reach. Over the past year, there has been a steady rise in companies incorporating SMS marketing into their inbound marketing strategies and this will not be going away, SMS marketing can achieve an open rate of up to 98%, making it one of the most effective ways to engage with your customers. If you are currently collecting your contacts phone numbers, start thinking if there is a relevant conversation you could have with them via SMS. How can you bring your contacts value here?
3. Performance Benchmarking
Now is the time to pivot your email marketing campaign goals. If you use your emails to drive contacts to case studies, landing pages or blog pages, measuring your campaigns success on your clicks and click-through-rates is an excellent way to evaluate the success of your email strategy. You can also take advantage of tracking URLS to measure how much traffic is coming to your website from your email marketing efforts. Another way to measure your emails success is to take note of your unsubscribe rates to see if there are any patterns emerging. If you are consistently below the average unsubscribe rate you can sleep soundly knowing you are successfully retaining and producing great content for your contacts.
4. Preparing for the new IOS Update
Follow our top tips to make sure you and your database are ready for the new privacy updates coming into place:
Whilst you still have visibility over your email marketing open rates, make sure you use this time to run A/B tests across all current campaigns to test your subject lines. As measuring click rates for engagement tracking becomes increasingly important, you’ll want to ensure you are providing recipients the most optimized email possible.
Assess your Database health and make sure you have a sunsetting campaign in place to start removing inactive contacts and subscribers.
If executing a sunsetting campaign is not on the cards, make sure you build out a re-engagement campaign strategy to try and win back your unengaged contacts in your CRM. This can be seen as a softer approach than sunsetting and can be taken as a first step.
Re-engagement campaign strategy
To start planning your re-engagement email marketing campaign, you first need to establish who your unengaged contacts are in your CRM. Luckily most CRMs have a functionality that suppresses unengaged contacts into one list. From here, if you have multiple subscriptions and communication options it is best practice to segment the list down even further. This will then give you the chance to have a more relevant contextualized messaged and hopefully more cut through with the reader.
It is also worth your time in gold to look at your contact’s profiles in further detail. They might for example not be opening your emails but are actively spending time on your website, this suggests that the emails they are receiving from you are no longer relevant. Creating a re-engagement workflow to update your contact’s subscription preferences is a great way to nurture contacts and can serve you better than just sending one standalone email.
There is literally nothing wrong with Comic Sans
The importance of typography in communication
Comic Sans.
It’s the font we all love to hate. But what if I told you Comic Sans was a well-designed and extensively thought-out typeface? See, for what it was originally designed for, Comic Sans is everything it’s supposed to be. It was decades of misuse that saw Comic Sans become the meme-worthy monster it is today.
Comic Sans (CS) was originally designed in 1994 for a Beta version of ‘Microsoft Bob’. This software was designed to make early versions of Windows more user-friendly and approachable by changing the interface into a ‘house’, so your calendar was literally a calendar, files were folders on a table, and so on. As such little speech bubbles would popup and give users tips, however before the inception of CS these displayed in good ol’ Times New Roman. It was quickly decided that the speech bubbles needed to feature a friendlier font so, inspired by comic books littered throughout his office, Microsoft designer Vincent Connare set about creating one of the world’s most infamous fonts.
Fun fact: Comic Sans was also designed to be easier to read for individuals with dyslexia.
For all intents and purposes, Comic Sans is a well-designed font that does exactly what it was created to do – when used as intended. Once it was released as a standard font in Windows 95, it all went downhill for poor, misunderstood and abused Comic Sans.
When used for a children’s fete poster there is nothing wrong with Comic SansFor the average punter this is perfectly acceptable use. It all fell apart for CS when people made the decision to use comic sans for formal applications. Below are some notable examples of extremely questionable Comic Sans moments:
The European Organisation for Nuclear Research presenting its discovery of the “God Particle” in a Comic Sans riddled PowerPoint presentation.
But what does any of this mean to you? -A rational person who knows better than to use Comic Sans in your capability statement. The saga of Comic Sans is a lesson that typography says the same about a message than the words alone do. Your font choices tell your message before the viewer has a chance to process the words written.
Here are some examples that show how important fonts are for communicating a brand’s message and personality. You’ll see that some are quite jarring, or just downright wrong.
This all seems fairly obvious, right? What happens when the ‘wrong’ choice isn’t quite so clear-cut? That’s where we, graphic designers, come in. Below are five examples of sans-serif fonts that are all appropriate in their own right; however they all possess subtle traits that convey an entirely different brand personality.
When you engage with a graphic designer you are enlisting the help of an expert in telling your brand story. In one instant, before even reading the name of your brand or any knowledge of what you do, what do you want people to know about your brand? Do you want people to know you’re the no-nonsense, trustworthy experts with 20 years of experience? Or do you want people to feel excited and energised by your fun, new, edgy brand? All of these things are taken into consideration throughout the concept development stage.
Are you ready to tell your brand story with no words at all? Ok, you might need to come up with a few – but direct those to our Creative Director, Bec Kowald and we’ll take care of the rest. bec@p4.com.au
In the meantime, take a moment to reconsider the use of Comic Sans.
Written by: Beth Ierino