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Opinion
Video: How to win new business
Mumbrella Question Time saw the panel asked the secrets of winning new business. Read more »
Let’s stop the anonymous vitriol
In this guest posting, Peter Bray, boss of The Brand Shop, takes issue with negative comments from anonymous posters on Mumbrella and elsewhere.
There are very few ads that I vehemently dislike. There are also very few ads that I really love. But most ads I see on Mumbrella and other blogs I can usually take something from, whether it is information about the brand, a bit of inspiration or a “watch out”. I’m open to learning as much as I can from others, and encourage those around me to do the same.
My basic assumption, however, is that because an ad has been produced by a professional agency, and had the approval from the client, then the end result must be doing something right. Therefore, without knowing the practical rationale behind the ad, for me to have a strong opinion about whether it is great advertising would be kind of arrogant. There is a reason that awards shows ask for information about why an ad was created: they are rarely judged on end product alone.
So as someone who enjoys watching the work that our industry creates, I am stunned at the level of vitriol stemming from some people’s comments in both this blog and others. Read more »
Read his lips
This is several weeks old, but worth a look. It’s certainly an original way to deal with media criticism.It features Air NZ boss Rob Fyfe responding to weekly current affairs magazine The Listener using the medium of sign language. Read more »
Let’s not be too positive just yet – the nail is still there
It’s more than a year since News Ltd’s marketing boss Joe Talcott used the memorable analogy of a dog whimpering on a nail to describe the structural change the industry needs to go through. Read more »
The AdNews numbers that mislead the market
It’s always a tad tawdry when competitors attack each other, but I hope you’ll bear with me…
Whether cynically or through incompetence, AdNews has been misleading its advertisers by providing them with data that seems to suggest they have six times their true online audience.
Allow me to present the evidence. Read more »
Technology will help us own the agenda – all day, every day
In this opening speech to the Future Forum of the Newspaper Publishers Association, News Ltd CEO John Hartigan argued that news organisations have the opportunity to become more rather than less relevant.
Today I want to talk about a tipping point that heralds the most exciting era for journalism. The most exciting era ever.
This tipping point is already upon us. It has arrived at lightning speed, with the explosion in demand for mobile devices.
I am not consigning newspapers to the scrapheap. Not by a long shot.
But this tipping point is going to change journalism forever. In my opinion, very much for the better. Read more »
The real time shit sandwich detector
In this guest post, Clive Burcham of The Conscience Organisation, relishes the instant feedback of social media.
I’ve been making brand driven content since 1996 and often I’ve been so close to the work that I couldn’t tell the difference between if we were chomping on a shit sandwich or savouring the crème de la creme. From an audience perspective, we wouldn’t know the difference for weeks or months. What excites me most now is that we know within 24 hours if we’ve developed shit or cream. Read more »
SMH shows how to make a home page takeover work
When you’re a commercial organisation, balancing the needs of consumers with the need to make money through ads is tricky.
Among the organisations that sometimes goes the wrong way in my view is Fairfax, with its autostart video ads, for instance.
But today, a bit of unreserved praise Read more »
Inside the Foxtel factory
Having been at the launch of Foxtel’s new season the other night, nine points occur… Read more »
ABC News 24 – a handy service for niche journalists
It may not have many viewers yet, but ABC News 24 saves specialist journos having to leave their desks, argues Delimiter’s Renai LeMay
When media commentators discuss the future of journalism, they usually agree on at least one thing: It will involve much fewer generalists and more reporters dedicated to exhaustively covering niche fields. Read more »
The seven ages of Carlton Draught’s Made From Beer
Today sees the launch of “Slow Mo”, the latest instalment of Carlton Draught’s irreverent Made From Beer series.
It’s been quite a run – from the highly awarded Big Ad, to the comedy of Flash Beer, to the debacle of the abortive banned Tingle campaign. These are the seven ages of Made From Beer… Read more »
Real consumers don’t have ‘brand conversations’. They use search
In this guest posting, Simon van Wyk argues that much as marketers might wish otherwise, most consumers don’t have emotional connections with brands
I have a background in marketing, but my understanding of branding seems at odds with the 2010 opinions I see from social media commentators, marketing and advertising agencies. Read more »
Hot, censoring atheists: Google’s insight into what punters think about pollies and journos
One of the charms of Google is autocomplete, where it takes a punt on what you’re going to ask, based on what the rest of the world has been wondering previously.
And it certainly gives a few insights into the high quality of political debate about the Labor leaders in the run up to the election.
Take NSW premiere Kristina Keneally… Read more »
The copyright-busting election
This is rapidly turning into the copyright-infringing election. Read more »
Digital Fail: The gaping void in digital training is failing our industry
In this guest post, Amnesia Razorfish’s Iain McDonald warns that the industry has fallen badly behind on digital training.
Before I get accused of trolling with that headline, I’ll state what I think is obvious: The current education system isn’t producing or nurturing enough ‘digitally skilled’ individuals to sustain a growing a digital economy. Read more »
40,000 online conversations about Kings Cross Clare Werbeloff
Kings Cross bogan Clare Werbeloff has already been discussed online more than 40,000 times, according to a calculation released today by social media monitoring company Buzz Numbers.
According to the company, since Werbeloff’s breathless retelling of a shooting that she didn’t actually witness went viral last Monday, at least 41,186 conversations have occurred online on Australian websites.
Although many PR agencies no longer use an equivalent media value figure, BuzzNumbers says that if this metric is used, it would was worth $200,000 in equivalent advertising dollars on Australian websites and social media destinations alone.
Around 41% of the more than 41,186 online conversations about her took place in social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter, whilst a further 27% of conversations occurred on blogs and forums, and 12% on news sites.
BuzzNumbers CEO Nick Holmes a Court said: “She is this year’s Corey Worthington. It just shows how powerful a medium the social web is.”
May 25th, 2009 at 10:40 am
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Comments
25 May 09
11:17 am
Corey, who?
25 May 09
11:54 am
You know, Corey Worthless.
25 May 09
12:03 pm
It’s hard to get excited about 41,186 meaningless ‘conversations’.
25 May 09
12:08 pm
“Although many PR agencies no longer use an equivalent media value figure”
That’s one way of putting it. Another would be:
“Although advertising value equivalents (AVEs) have been completely discredited and the Public Relations Industry Association forbids its members from using them under its code of ethics”
25 May 09
12:20 pm
This whole scenario could well be a well contrived PR plot to expouse the ostensible relevancy of the power of social media for dialogue to the brainless masses who have nothing better to do.
41,186 conversations – wow!! I wonder what metrics are available to report the analysis of the IQ levels of the 41,186 !
25 May 09
12:23 pm
“With the Internet and reality shows, regular people like you are hitting it big and becoming the toast of the town. While there’s no giant door you simply walk through to stardom, there are some steps you can take in order to give yourself some added exposure. Read on to learn how to become a celebrity.”
http://www.ehow.com/how_238711.....brity.html
25 May 09
12:27 pm
Sue. My specialty is media research and audience metrics. There are no firm data available. At a guess … collective IQ approaching 10,000 … how does that sound?
25 May 09
12:34 pm
It’s misleading to give social media an ad value. Both Twitter and Facebook are free sites and the conversation threads can’t be bought. I realise that Buzz is trying to translate the space into “advertising speak” but marketing managers looking at this space for the long term need to determine value by the size of the community following the brand, their willingness to interact and the quality of conversation that the brand has with them. If they do it well, they’ll measure it in sales not ad dollars.
25 May 09
1:32 pm
Hrm don’t see the relevance of this.
Given there was probably 400,000 offline conversations about it.
Still – what does it really mean to anyone? After every weekend there’s probably 40,000 discussions about Collingwood losing online and off. I wouldn’t say that “shows how powerful a medium the social web is” it just shows people like talking about things.
26 May 09
4:30 pm
I am sitting in Johannesburg preparing for a radio interview, and I will talk about the 41 000 conversations and the millions of views of the video. (I wont be talking about footie)
This incident is a huge demonstration of the power of social media, its intensely relevant, and the conversations have gone far further than what a chat in the pub would have, and we can measure them. Of course it shows that people like talking about things. Exactly that’s the point.
Well it looks as if the Ostrich effect has a firm hold in Aus
26 May 09
4:56 pm
What’s the point of measuring it though? last week there were 41,000 ‘discussions’ around Clare Bogan. The week before it was Keyboard Cat. The week before it was I Like Turtles Zombie kid. Next week it’ll be something else
So what? Just because you can measure something doesn’t mean it has any value.
I fail to see how this is a demonstration of the power of social media. Fame seeking or just plain stupid people have become pop culture icons for short periods forever.
26 May 09
6:01 pm
Has Keyboard Cat been around for a week!?!
I only saw it today – loser
26 May 09
6:09 pm
Ben, I couldn’t agree more. Why do we measure TV programmes – because we know that week-to-week the audience rarely varies by more than 10% so we can plan and buy in confidence. Same goes for magazine titles – we know they’ll be there next issue and doing the same sort of humbers.
As for Clare – by the time you’ve counted it, it’s all over red rover, until “the next big thing” comes along in a week or two.
26 May 09
6:40 pm
Clare is the same as The Simpson’s ‘I Didn’t Do It’ episode.
Everyone jumps on it and thinks it’s hilarious and awesome, Bart records a song with MC Hammer, he’s on Conan etc … then a week later everyone is over it due to how inane and pointless it is and it becomes embarassing and tired even for the most committed bandwagon jumper.
26 May 09
6:42 pm
may i also add it’s impressive to see the business dev. acumen of the social media guys to take something as flimsy as a bogan viral and turn it into a product/service sell.
26 May 09
6:43 pm
When you measure Social Media you measure how conversations are spreading, nodes of influence etc. Conversations that are actually happening, people taking action.
What are you measuring with magazines, TV? You measure audience, how many people COULD HAVE have seen your Ad? Huge difference.
What this lady said or did is irrelevant, that she is a sensation is relevant, that the story spread is relevant, how it spread is relevant, why it spread is relevant.
26 May 09
7:10 pm
Walter, I agree that ‘measuring’ social media is about conversations. Measuring ‘traditional’ media is about OTS. I agree that these are huge differences.
However, the ‘hughest’ difference between ‘traditional media’ and ’social’ media’ is runs on the board. Without tracking ‘nodes of conversation’ (what we used to call water-cooler talk) traditional media have managed to build the majority of the biggest brands in existence (apart from Google. which is a genuine phenomenon). Somehow I think the existing media must be doing SOMETHING right.
As you point out it comes down to relevance. What Clare did and said IS irrelevant. Just as the ‘conversations’ generated will be irrelevant in a week or two. The fact it spread is a quirk of human curiosity – social media allowed a rapid spread of that curiosity – which is just wonderful. But what outcome was there – none. It was irrelevant – just some (pretty) harmless fun. It does NOT mean that the ’success’ of Clare to generate a momentary spike in ‘buzz’ will work for a brand communication campaign. People will see straight through it – zero ‘buzz’. AKA … irrelevant,
26 May 09
9:48 pm
Jon
But it is a changing era, remember that marketing was only created in the 1960’s and brands in the true sense were around a lot earlier as well.Marketing is about as old as television.
I must refer you to Y&R fundi John Gerzema and his book called the Brand Bubble in which he talks about the massive difference between what brands think they are worth and what consumers think brands are worth. (and waht brands think they are worth is actually irrelevant) Also to the writings of Seth Godin where he describes the different eras before during and after advertising. (meatball sundae)
Many of the key assumptions of advertising are just no longer valid.
Thats not to say that those massive brands that have switched up to 80% of their budgets into online are right, just because they measure effectiveness and action not OTS.
The real power of online is word of mouth, and ok in this case the story that spread via WOM was so what – the fact that it spread is the big thing. Far faster, far further, and far cheaper, than any conventional campaign ever invented.
I am not saying that there is no value in conventional media, at all, but its role is changing, television is already a support medium not a primary medium in some markets.
26 May 09
11:02 pm
Walter – the excitement IS the phenomonal change and the sheer pace of it. However, one has to be careful not to get swept away in the excitement. Thanks for the references I am a bare pass on them so have some reading to do.
Could, you please enlighten me as to which of the massive brands have switched up to 80% of their budgets online – because I simply can’t think of who they are. Or is this hyperbole.
The POTENTIAL to harness WOM online is massive. It is however, still just potential as far as I can tell based on results (apart from hits, downloads and chatter) – I want to see firm brand-building results over a period of time. Again, please enlighten me. Many pundits believe that you CAN’T harness WOM. The vey fact that it is an ill-defined collection of disparate people with an unforeseen common interest that rises like a Phoenix dictates this (i.e. Bogan Clare). That which cannot be harnessed has little or no value no matter how large the numbers are. Further, some of the gloomier pundits believe that attempts by marketers to ‘invade’ the social media space with advertising messages is the antithesis of the whole raison d’etre of social media, and could damage brand equity – though myself am not that gloomy and think we need to experiment to find the ground rules and boundaries . But always remember the old adage “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should”.
26 May 09
11:43 pm
Tim you are so bloody right, the questions Star initially raised plus the incredulous cameraman retelling (that shot was framed for that ad from two different angles), and the dramatic body language of Clare all flag a good ol STUNT. The truth will come out eventually and you will be vindicated. Where there’s smoke in PR it’s usually followed by mirrors
29 May 09
10:03 pm
well…she’s about the right age for me,but with a name and nose like that,she must be a ….burp…
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