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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 »
Aussie Home Loans leaps into social media with Amnesia
Aussie Home Loans has embarked on a full social media and digital campaign to support its new TVC of a skydiving financial adviser.
The TVC ad – based on the idea that wherever the adviser lands, he can save customers money, was the last work from agency Saatchi & Saatchi. Lowe has since become Aussie’s agency.
But the new interactive campaign is the work of digital agency Amnesia Razorfish. It integrates across several social media channels.
It features real life Aussie Home Loans mortgage adviser Duanne Brown. He’s been persuaded to make the first parachute jump of his life on April 6. He tells his story on YouTube:
As well as a dedicated YouTube channel, consumers are invited to get involved by guessing on an Aussie Home Loans site using Google Maps where in Australia he will land. The winner will get $3,000, while 50 runners up get $300.
The blogosphere has been involved by Amnesia asking financial bloggers to hide a code somewhere on their site. Users who find it can use it to have further guesses about the landing spot.
There is also a Facebook group where Duanne asks for advice on coping with the jump, and he also has a Twitter account where he banters with supporters.
March 20th, 2009 at 11:34 am
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Comments
20 Mar 09
2:42 pm
Does this sort of campaign really lend itself to social media? I think consumers will see through this.
The You tube site has been live 16 days today and has had under 300 views, Flickr had 3 or 4 views on the first and last photos I viewed at 2.30pm. Given the jump is 17 days away lets hope it improves….this so far looks like a fairly poor execution to me.
20 Mar 09
3:08 pm
I agree with Ben. All credit to Aussie for trying something fresh and different but i just don’t think Aussies will actually care about this. Entertaining? Fail. Starts a debate/discussion? Fail. Worth passing on? Epic Fail
20 Mar 09
3:27 pm
Given Australian’s relationships with their homes in general, coupled with the economic climate at present, this campaign has to be the most juvenile campaign on air. And the biggest wasted opportunity.
Both Saatchi and the client need a smack in the chops.
Guess Saatchi got theirs.
And the client who approved it??
20 Mar 09
3:49 pm
Hi Ben & Gerry (got any ice cream you can sell me? Boom, boom…), and Andrew, too. Thanks for your comments.
For what it’s worth, I think you’re being a tad harsh, particularly to Amnesia.
Consider that their starting point is inheriting a TVC of a financial adviser jumping out of a plane. They don’t have the option of telling the client they should have been involved from the beginning – clearly they weren’t.
But what they have done is created an idea which works across several different social media channels. They’ve executed that very professionally across each channel. (Although I do score you down for not PR-ing it, chaps – that is arguably a tad naive)
However, one element that is particularly impressive is the idea of hiding codes to have extra guesses on various financial blogs. That is an excellent way of getting bloggers directly involved. I can’t think of that having been done in Australia before.
Granted, this isn’t a campaign we’ll be talking about for years to come (unlesss the parachute doesn’t open – is there a crisis recovery plan for that?), but it’s solid, utilises social media intelligently and will, I’m sure, at the very least deliver them a return on their client’s original investment.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
20 Mar 09
3:58 pm
fair point tim, fair point…totally take your point about inheriting a legacy and having to polish the proverbial turd..I just think the ’smarts’ you mention above will go largely unnoticed by 90% of people except a few of the techies at digital agencies across town …as to your point, they havent PR’d it…you’re totally right…critical error.
I guess i will be eating humble ‘ice cream’ if this campaign is a big success..won’t bet on it though..but as i said, nice effort…playing in the social media space is about trying new things, not everything sticks..maybe this will..
21 Mar 09
5:25 pm
Tim, take your point of having a go and Gerry’s of polishing the turd; they were given a hospital pass. My point was that where elements of social media doesn’t serve a campaign as its been developed don’t use it. Otherwise it just puts cost into a campaign for no return. I say this in a recent post on my site.
Where you find a campaign that you believe is both well executed and has the stats to prove it has hit its marketing objectives I’m sure that would be very well received by your readers. I’m keen to see some real home runs in this space.
22 Mar 09
1:06 pm
They said it would never fly
When the Wright Brothers took their wood, wire and bike wheels out
They said it would never fly
When Edison struggled for months with filaments to ignite our world
They said he should not try
When England almost alone stood against Hitler’s efficient war machine
Their chances were not high
When every man and woman who stands before us the crowd and tries
The rest of us ask why
Good luck you Aussie Home Loan champs, your pioneering style behoves
Respect because you’ve flown
Like Edison you’ve become a beacon light in Australian business groves
Because you tried and grown
Like England when all was lost you’ve moved to a higher plane and won
And in this its clearly shown
That you continue to lead the way, where others will only follow
Making comments unbeknown
That the world will one day mark this innovation in reality marketing …
And that you have got the bone.
22 Mar 09
5:07 pm
Another continued example of how everyone’s a social media expert these days. Remember how everyone was a search expert? Oh hang on… everyone still is.
This has fail all over it. There are very few agencies who have the right to be termed experts in this space and they’re not the ones who created this piece.
23 Mar 09
1:42 pm
So many overly critical negative people.
I say good on Aussie and Amnesia for actually getting involved. The number one problem with social media in Australia is that there is a lot of noise and talk and very little action or follow through.
Whether it performs or not is yet to be seen, so how about we pull back on the sledging and “Im more of an expert than you are” pissing contest and try and actually grow the industry by supporting it?
Great work on getting this across the line and actually doing something with social only.
23 Mar 09
3:12 pm
I don’t beleive we (Amnesia) have ever said we were experts in social, in fact we’re just like most agencies… trying to figure out how it all works… but we ARE prepared to have a go. This includes making mistakes and epic fails (if it should happen). So we enter into each project being prepared to take a couple of arrows in our backs and we’re quite prepared to take critisism if it makes us better at what we do.
What I do find slightly strange that judgements can be made without knowing what our goals and criteria are for the project. We have not stated what the campaign objectives are at this point in time. In fact there seems to be a misconception that Social media must produce reach and frequency to be a success. What does 160 views in YT mean? Failure? So… what if 10 of those views were all journos who wrote stories seen by thousands? Still a failure?
It’s OK – we know at the end of the campaign, people will make judgements either way. All we can say is that we do listen and hopefully we will be able to share some of what we learn.
Cheers,
Iain, Amnesia. (http://twitter.com/eunmac)
PS: @failed – Is it not a basic courtesy of social media (including blog comments) to disclose who you are so that a conversation can take place and people can understand your thoughts in an objective light? I don’t know who you are, but I’m not hiding from your argument or feedback should you wish to make yourself known.
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