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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 »
7PM Project’s bad ratings night
Ten’s live topical show The 7pm Project has slumped to one of the lowest audiences since it went on air in July.
Thursday night’s episode rated just 576,000 viewers in what was a bad night for Ten, according to preliminary ratings from OzTam.
The best Ten did all night was Glee with 905,000, with the network slumping to a share of less than 20%.
Channel share:
- Nine: 27.1%
- Seven: 26.5%
- Ten: 19.3%
- ABC1: 15.8%
- SBS1 4.3%
- GO!: 2.0%
- 7TWO: 1.6%
- ABC2: 1.5%
- ONE: 1.3%
- SBS2: 0.6%
Thursday’s top shows:
- Getaway Nine 1.2m
- Seven News Seven 1.2m
- Beauty and the Geek Seven 1.2m
- Today Tonight Seven 1.2m
- Two and a Half Men Nine 1.1m
- CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Nine 1.1m
- A Current Affair Nine 1.1m
- Home and Away Seven 1.1m
- Nine News Nine 1m
- ABC News ABC 0.965m
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Comments
6 Nov 09
12:24 pm
Maybe because 7pm Project is sh*te and Dave Hughes hasn’t been funny in years?
6 Nov 09
12:25 pm
The highest rating show on television last night was getaway with just 1.2m?
I get the feeling that all those TVs I see dumped on the street during council clean up aren’t actually being replaced…
6 Nov 09
12:33 pm
7pm Project: Carrie Bickmore’s new hair cut – makes her look 10 years older. Ratings go down. Coincidence?
6 Nov 09
1:32 pm
Great to see Geeks up there.
It’s a genuinely fun, feel-good show, despite what all the people who haven’t watched it say.
6 Nov 09
1:46 pm
Am i the only fan of the 7pm Project…..
6 Nov 09
2:02 pm
I think that Ten’s decision to keep this show going over summer is an excellent one as there is a good chance to introduce a new audience to the show and potentially get a good set of repeat viewers during that time.
It is quite a good show (can’t say I’m desperately in love with it but it beats the crap out of Getaway!) so I hope that it gets a run and nice to see Ten giving it the opportunity to grow it’s audience and not shafting it at the first sign of trouble…
6 Nov 09
2:12 pm
Adam, just a thought starter. All those old analogue sets you see in the council clean-ups are there because they already have been replaced … by the shiny, gleaming flate screen HD sets with in-built tuners and many with hard-drives to record programmes.
The ratings data that you see above is for LIVE viewing only. At the moment we don’t know how many people are “time-shifting there viewing of these programmes by using hard-disk recordings or ‘catch-up’ viewing over the Internet.
From the start of next year, OzTAM will also be reporting how much “time-shift” viewing is being done. That is, we will continue to see ‘overnight’ ratings, but will also get to see ‘consolidated’ ratings that include any playback viewing in the past seven days.
6 Nov 09
3:38 pm
John – if ANYONE is recording The 7pm Project to watch later, then they really need to get out more
6 Nov 09
3:44 pm
Hey MJ – you are not the only 7P.M. Project fan……..I am too!!
It is a show in which one has to use a little brain-power. Maybe, that is why it is suffering an audience drop(??!)
6 Nov 09
4:45 pm
The 7pm Project is a great concept (much better than repeats of Jamie Oliver or Futurama), I think they need to make some host changes though…. if im home at 7pm that’s what’ll be on the box at my place
6 Nov 09
5:30 pm
Maybe so Tony. I was actually trying to point out that this affects ALL shows … the numbers for all of them are on the low side because of this.
6 Nov 09
5:33 pm
I don’t know where I stand. I am the demographic (21), and most times I just felt as if they’re trying too hard to get a laugh out of viewers, rather than being intelligent with their content. But what else can I expect from Dave Hughes?.. and what’s that other guy’s name? meh
6 Nov 09
5:39 pm
Hi John, obviously my little joke was a little too thick to see through, but the point is that 1.2 million “live viewers” for the number one show in Australian capital cities is simply a pathetic number. There was a time not that long ago where 1.2m in prime-time would be considered a dismal failure – now it’s a number to be celebrated. Very sad indeed.
…and for the record – I saw my first flat-screen TV out for council cleanup last week!
6 Nov 09
5:50 pm
Point taken Adam. I agree viewers are “pickier” than ever. TV can still get big audiences (PTTR, Underbelly, SOO etc) but people are less accepting of what they consider is mundane fare.
Having said that, I’m not aware of any other medium that can hold 1.2m for an hour, so there is definitely life in the beast yet!
6 Nov 09
6:08 pm
I would be interested to see if the ratings were higher last week when Andrew G (or ‘Ginsburg’ as he’s reinventing himself) hosted instead of Charlie Pickering. I personally found it much easier watching G(insberg) than Pickering, who comes off very cold and a bit too businesslike.
There’s still a bit of a ‘meh, it’s ok’ factor to the whole thing, but more time to grow over summer should help.
6 Nov 09
8:37 pm
The 7pm Project is irritating chatter and banter better suited to commercial radio, and the hosts’ interview skills are horrific. Also, the stories featured are often trivial or treated with poor form by the hosts.
Want an example of a news-in-review show aimed at a younger audience which is actually entertaining, and interesting? Tune into the ABC1’s Hungry Beast 9pm Wednesdays.
6 Nov 09
9:19 pm
Renee. Last week’s average Mon-Thu was 665,000, compared to this week’s Mon-Thu average of 695. Last week peaked at 720,000 on Tuesday and Friday was it’s lowest day (488,000) as happens most Fridays. This week so far hase peaked at 771,000 (again Tuesday) and last night was the lowest day with 576,000 compared to 610,000 for Thursday last week (Friday still to come of course). This shows the volatility in TV audiences, and I’m not sure how much water the “Ginsberg Theory” holds.
6 Nov 09
9:20 pm
Of course that is 695,000 for this week’s average.
6 Nov 09
10:21 pm
The thing with the 7pm project is that you can tune in or out depending on if you’re bored and around a tv at the time. Whenever I’m at home at 7pm I don’t feel a desperate need to watch it (as I would with other shows) but when I have it’s an alright show (except for Charlie Pickering whose just irritating). If they replace Charlie and Dave I think it has the potential to do better.
7 Nov 09
9:56 am
Pickering is a definite highlight in a sea of Token/Roving “usual suspects”… but how can we expect any different when the “q-score” is taken so seriously here? The only other paid-for survey that is AS arbitrary is radio ratings “survey” books!
9 Nov 09
10:26 am
Maybe if the 7PM project wasn’t just a boring mass of political correctness it would do better. The sooner the MSM realise that most of the population don’t agree with their leftarded views the sooner they will create shows that rate better.
9 Nov 09
12:14 pm
The poor quality of Australian free to air TV programs and the poor reception of digital TV channels (every time the wind blows hard you have no signal reception!) is the reason pay TV is so popular.
9 Nov 09
12:24 pm
Hey A leave futurama outta this!!!
9 Nov 09
3:08 pm
The list of most watched programmes confirms that TV watchers are very easily pleased. What an embarrassment.
9 Nov 09
9:17 pm
i’am a fan of the 7pm project as well as over half a million other people
9 Nov 09
9:39 pm
You know what I don’t get? How a TV programme that gets half a million viewers in 30 minutes is a failure, yet a website that gets (say) a quarter of a million people in a month is a success. Go figure.
10 Nov 09
1:37 am
I think the concept is good; a news program with talkback. Problem is, it’s all one sided views. If they had intelligent & informed views from both sides of politics, then that will fill a huge gap in Australian media: fair debate.
But Rove being the quintessential Gen Y personality with much media clout and decided left-wing bias, has produced a poor format: a no-personality lead, a fool comedian and a not-so informed female, all of the same political persuasion = failure.
Rove was on-target with the concept & format, but off with staffing choice & bias.
10 Nov 09
7:00 am
Hey Mick … what does the RWC stand for? Right Wing Clown? Rove’s Walking Critiquer? Raving Wanker Cretin?
11 Nov 09
10:48 pm
why oh why doesn’t ch. 10 realise that this show is no good!! or is it purley to meet australian content on the channel?
scores of people that i know tune in to the “fat kid show” on ch 9 myself included a showi’d never watched until the 7pm project..
11 Nov 09
10:55 pm
how many shares in ch.10 do i have to buy to take this c**p of the air??
25 Nov 09
7:26 am
I love how people say the 7pm show requires brainpower ? How exactly does this work ?
Why…because they are dressed in suits and act like pompous dicks ? I’m pretty sure that doesnt equate to brain capacity. How much brainpower would one need to listen to Dave Hughes….was he ever funny ?
25 Nov 09
7:27 am
Mr. P. I. Staker….I’m with you…whats it gonna cost and how do we go about obtaining these shares ?
25 Nov 09
2:43 pm
Hey anon,
RWC is Latin for rational, objective and fair
.
Unlike anon which must stand for “I’m too gutless to say who I am while making a personal attack.”
25 Nov 09
2:54 pm
Hey anon,
Other posters here have expressed similar views (posts 10,12,15,16,21,29&30)
How is it that you chose to personally attack someone who dared to show their political colours while not having the courage to do the same?
Why not take the piss out of Mr Staker?
25 Nov 09
7:20 pm
I love the 7pm project but maybe it appeals to a different audience than Ch. 10 usually attracts – I think it’s the best thing they have.