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Opinion
What's in a name?
In this guest post, Moensie Rossier wonders about the power of names for brands and marketers.
Brands have been having a bit of fun with names lately, not to mention a fair bit of success. Interbrand just named a headhunting firm Cloak & Dagger. And ‘Share a Coke’ showed how much power there is in a name.
The Coke campaign effectively short-circuited the usual mechanics of communication. It undoubtedly stroked people’s egos. But, I believe, its success stems from the fact that it directly and automatically affected people’s behaviour, rather than doing so indirectly by shaping attitudes.
Best ads from Super Bowl 2012
The Super Bowl is all done and a team from North America won. But as well as some sort of sporting event, it’s the world’s biggest advertising showcase. See the best of them right here… and please tell us what you think.
How to debunk media myths
In this post, UWS’s Ullrich Ecker, John Cook and Stephen Lewandowsky argue that cognitive science can help PRs form strategies in managing media misreporting.
A growing cohort of commentators has bemoaned the descent of contemporary political “debate” into a largely fact-free zone.
How about simply focusing on what consumers want?
In this guest post, Peter Mountford argues that brands should think more about what is really going on for consumers
Who here is hoping their favourite brand of toilet paper is going to be organizing a flash mob on their way home from work today?
What the Optus web copyright victory means
In this analysis first published on The Conversation, RMIT’s Marita Shelly examines the implications of Telstra’s defeat over the online rights to the AFL broadcast deal
This week’s Federal Court ruling that Optus customers are able to view sporting matches minutes after they are streamed live without breaching copyright is a landmark decision that alters our understanding of copyright law, and has significant implications for the AFL’s broadcasting rights deal.
Does Gina Rinehart’s bite of a chunk of Fairfax make her an oligarch?
In an article that first appeared in The Conversation, Mark Rolfe wonders whether the mining magnate’s move could turn Fairfax into something resembling America’s Fox network.
Australia’s richest person Gina Rinehart has moved to increase her stake in Fairfax Media, owner of The Age, Sydney Morning Herald and a number of radio stations. Rinehart has already shown her desire to play a role in public life, campaigning against former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s aborted mining tax. She has also demonstrated a willingness to make media investments to ensure her pro-business worldview is promulgated.
What does this latest move by Rinehart mean?
Gillard's Australia Day crisis
PM Julia Gillard’s media adviser Tony Hodges has been forced to resign over the Australia Day tent embassy debacle.
It came after it emerged he had revealed opposition leader Tony Abbott’s whereabouts, leading to both politicians being rescued by police in ugly scenes.
Mumbrella editor Tim Burrowes and advertising practitioner Jane Caro debate the topic on Weekend Sunrise’s masters of Spin segment:
The biggest cock-up I made in business
In this guest post, Chris Savage urges agency staff to live the brand.I still shudder when I think about how incredibly stupid I was when I made the biggest stuff up of my career. And then, 18 years later, I did it again. Do not make this mistake with your clients. Ever.
Hey Groupon. Thanks for fucking up email
In this guest post, Daniel Monheit warns that group deal overload is devaluing email marketingEmail marketing used to be fabulous. Back in the heady days of 2010, brands would work hard to build up well qualified databases, upon which they’d bestow carefully crafted correspondence filled with information, offers and incentives. The recipients, of course would be delighted: “Oh look! An email! From one of my favourite brands! And it’s 40 cents off at Woolies this week!”.
The staggering sway of Harold Mitchell
The Power Index today names Aegis Media chairman Harold Mitchell as the most powerful person in Melbourne. Andrew Crook profiles him.
Harold Mitchell takes pride in dispensing with the niceties. When The Power Index visited his South Melbourne private office before Christmas, fresh remains were scattered all over the boardroom table.
Share a Coke with… the moronic masses
The most-read story on Mumbrella last year, with not far off 100,000 page views, was a fairly humdrum yarn about the launch of Coca-Cola’s name-on-a-bottle campaign.The headline, “Coca-Cola puts people’s names on bottles in ‘Share a Coke’ campaign”, though hated by any self-respecting sub-editor, was loved by Google. And in rushed what can be politely described as the public.
Assumptions kill creativity
In this guest post, Gual Barwell disagrees that the sales success of the Old Spice social media campaign was overstated.Yesterday’s post from Cathie McGinn suggested the Old Spice campaign failed to connect with consumers. Based on the facts and figures, I disagree.
What Old Spice and Wieden + Kennedy has done and done phenomenally well is to create a franchise.
The SMH's readers (are wrong) editor
We are now about five months into the reign of Australia’s first readers’ editor. And I don’t think it is working.
It struck me at the time of Judy Prisk’s appointment to the Sydney Morning Herald that the fact that her boss was editor-in-chief Peter Fray was not going to be ideal if she was going to be the independent voice of the reader.
The emperor's new fragrance: Old Spice’s campaign failure
In this guest post, Cathie McGinn slays a sacred cow of 21st century marketing – the highly awarded Old Spice campaign.One of the biggest myths of recent times (by which I mean a story of great heroism and triumph we’d all like to believe but deep down know to be untrue) is the Old Spice social media campaign. It’s been much lauded and awarded as an example of outstanding content, a creative and collaborative way of connecting with consumers and driving a record increase in sales.
How reliable are radio ratings?
In this guest posting, Jason ‘Jabba’ Davis wonders how accurate radio ratings can be, since the data is collated from handwritten diaries.
So, the radio ratings season gets underway tomorrow. After a well-earned break, Australia’s commercial radio stations will renew their obsession with figures to see how many of us are listening. Are they winning or losing the ratings war?
The much feared radio survey is the only way to measure the success or failure of a station’s playlist, talent, promotions or even good old Black Thunder crosses. With six-figure salaries riding on the make-or-break nature of ratings, just how accurate are Australia’s radio survey results?
Cadbury’s ad celebrates dogs in cars
Dairy Milk in Australia is having another go at tapping into the viral success in other parts of the world of Cadbury’s epic Glass And A Half Full productions.
Featuring a Blue Danube soundtrack, the ad – reportedly shot on the Oran Park raceway in NSW - consists of dogs leaning out of the window of Lamborghini repainted in Cadbury’s colours.
The ad has been created by Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney. The last attempt to localise something in Cadbury’s Glass And A Half Full Productions series was a remix of the drumming gorilla, using John Farnham’s You’re the Voice. The move was poorly received.
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:04 am
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Comments
2 Nov 09
9:23 am
The ad is shot at Oran Park if the grandstand in the background is any indication.
I’m not in marketing, just a simple consumer . . . and I am totally baffled by this advert and how it is meant to increase the sales of chocolate . . . . ????
I would prefer they save the money and drop the price of the product. That will stimulate sales more than a drumming gorilla or dogs in a car. Appears they could save lots of money on marketing salaries, too.
2 Nov 09
9:38 am
nope, not a fan. bland.
2 Nov 09
9:39 am
Gorrilla spot- fantastic.
The eyebrow kids- great spot.
Dogs in cars- utter crap.
2 Nov 09
9:39 am
It’s weird the trade rags are only picking this up now, it was first broadcast almost 2 weeks ago on TV and the site’s been live for a while.
I really like it … plus the dog at 0.38 is the same as mine. Not sure how it directly relates to chocolate but I think it brings a bit of fun and creativity to a 1 min ad
2 Nov 09
9:40 am
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
2 Nov 09
9:41 am
I love this ad!! Agree that there is no direct correlation between the product and the ad. I thought it must be for pedigree or something at first with their “we’re for dogs” tagline.
2 Nov 09
9:41 am
What Art said.
2 Nov 09
9:52 am
From a simple marketer.
Salience and association Matt, are the goals of these kinds of ads.
You get the association, as a consumer, through the entertainment value in it.
Then you’re meant to say “oh hey, seen that ad for Cadbury? Cool huh?” or, when next passing the supermarket shelf, stop and go “oh, Cadbury. I remember that ad. It’s cool, I’ll get some”.
This one, in my opinion, isn’t half as bad as the gorilla with whipsering jack over-dubbed. Doesn’t have that same affect as a localised American ad, with Australian accents over-dubbed (makes me cringe every time I see one of those). It’s actually pretty engaging, in my opinion and it resonates in the mind (mine at least).
The first two, with the Phil Collins gorilla and the eye-dancing kids, were gold. Fantastic executions. Artistically engaging and memorable.
Downside though, they were almost too good so continuance was always going to be hard.
This one would’ve been better as the first, than the third. It’s a good ad, but following the gorilla or those kids? It definitely runs a distant third.
2 Nov 09
9:55 am
It does nothing for me. If there were less dogs, it was in serious slo-mo and we saw real pleasure on a couple of dogs’ faces … maybe with a proper big grin and a drool trail disappearing into the wind as they just looked amazingly happy … MAYBE then the ad would work to evoke pleasure. As it is, I bet there’s another 4 dogs playing poker in the back seat, which is where the real action is!
2 Nov 09
9:56 am
Sarah
I am certain a dog food brand somewhere already used the dogs out the window idea for their product.
2 Nov 09
9:57 am
Agree with Tama.
Poor and dull execution, and I’m a dog lover.
2 Nov 09
10:05 am
Meh! iAd2.0 in my opinion.
Also what happened to good ole research – most chocolate has a toxic effect on domestic pooches. Any correlation in my head is not a good one – unless of course the subtext is dogs living by the “live fast, die young” ethos but I can’t see it.
2 Nov 09
10:07 am
Meh – carries on a bit too long I think. Initially thought the idea had some entertainment value but the fact that there is absolutely no correlation to the product and the ad doesn’t evolve at all, just seems like a slight disappointment.
2 Nov 09
10:16 am
great brand alignment, poor execution, poor creative…
If the car was going faster to get more “flap” from the dogs cheeks and then the dogs were in super slow mo… it could have worked
Plus it was just avg. seeing the dog harnesses holding the dogs in… amateur.
2 Nov 09
10:39 am
Agree with 1.Tama Leaver on this, could’ve been done better.
Loved the phil collins gorilla. The JF one, bad bad move. The kids – annoying. This is boring and doesn’t invoke a sense of joy at all.
2 Nov 09
12:40 pm
It’s not the most joyful ad, is it?
2 Nov 09
2:44 pm
Chocolate isn’t good for dogs.
2 Nov 09
2:46 pm
Its quite simple really. Chocolate is supposed to be fun and not taken too seriously. If you didn’t smile when you first saw the ad, you are only kidding yourself.
2 Nov 09
2:47 pm
i agree with tama – should have been one dog – super slow motion – happiness and joy with tongues and slobber jiggling ever so slowly in the wind
2 Nov 09
3:03 pm
Am I the only one who thinks of “Animals Close-Up with a Wide-Angle Lens Wearing Hats” when looking at this but somehow missing the irony?
I can just imagine the brainstorming meeting on this one… “we need DOGS in CARS! …ummm….purple sports cars! yeah! BRILLIANT!”
2 Nov 09
3:15 pm
I really like this ad. I makes me laugh, and probably the execution could have been a little better, as mentioned in the previous comments, but I think it is fun. I think of it as the dogs having fun sticking their heads out of the window…it is their ‘joy’ just as ours is/can be enjoying a bit of chocolate.
2 Nov 09
4:03 pm
OK, I’m joining the thread late and the point that there was no correlation between a drumming gorilla and chocolate has already been made … drat.
Then I thought, being a dog-lover, chocolate is poisonous to dogs. Double-drat.
But I can confirm that it is at ‘soon-to-be-closed’ Oran Park. Then it hit me! Did anyone else pick up that the Lambo is driving around Oran Park in thewrong direction. Maybe that is symbolic of the ad!
2 Nov 09
4:22 pm
Why are there no boxers ?
Chocolate is bad for woofers.
Why weren’t they driving a ute [localism anyone ?] not a poncy Lambo
Tama is right. It should have been one dogy [Moi] in super slow mo.
2 Nov 09
4:25 pm
Is this ad made for consumers or award judges. The only correlation between this ad and the product is the colour of the car. Think of your audience would they relate it to chocolate if they didn’t watch it all the way through? This ad is not strong enough to stop the remote flicker. And if you did make it to the end there is often a what the F has that got to do with chocolate?
2 Nov 09
4:55 pm
The whole point of Cadbury’s ads right now is “random.” What did a drumming gorilla have to do with chocolate? What did two kids whose eyebrows danced have to do with Cadbury? In both of those, at no point did you have any idea they were for Cadbury until the end. Yet both ads have been internet sensations and highly remembered, without the chocolate association.
When the eyebrows ad came out, I found it annoying, but my partner and the teenagers (who are miles away from this industry) in my household all thought it was funny and the teenagers facebook and msn messenging went beserk about the ad. Isn’t that what advertisers dream about? Creating an ad that people not only remember and talk about, but also remember who the ad is for? You hear people describing an ad so many times, but when asked who the ad is for, they can’t remember but people always remember that those ads belong to Cadbury.
The latest ad with the dogs made me laugh. Did I associate it with Cadbury – no. But it is similar to the Bondi Flip flash mob. If the general public like it and remember it as a Cadbury ad, then it obviously doesn’t suck.
2 Nov 09
4:59 pm
I like the idea behind this. But the execution just seems so lame. The cliched music doesn’t help either.
2 Nov 09
6:15 pm
This ad is bloody dangerous … some dick head will see the ad and think it’s ok to feed dogs chocolate! Dogs can become poisoned by a substance called Methylxanthine alkaloids which is found in natural products such as chocolate.
3 Nov 09
8:30 am
Like the ad, anything that has my fav furry creatures in it makes me smile. Like chocolate too. Gee never knew that people took ads this seriously.
3 Nov 09
6:21 pm
Fail
3 Nov 09
9:09 pm
Inspiration possibly coming from the “Birds” clip – http://is.gd/4LRty – just putting it out there.
4 Nov 09
4:20 pm
To do it once was cool (Gorilla ad)
To do it twice was interesting (Eyebrows ad)
But to do it three times in an attempt to stay ‘cool’ is just try-hard.
It’s like Sly Stallone trying to do another instalment of Rocky….FAIL.
8 Nov 09
7:24 pm
in case you didn’t know rocky actually made a huge revenue on the last installment so i don’t know how much of a fail that is.
but dogs & chocolate…….wtf?
seriously, it’s not that memorable