Dr Mumbo Archives « Page 2 of 105

Opinion | Features
- Q&A with Adshel's Rob Atkinson
  
  Online trading is the next big thing says Rob Atkinson in a piece that first appeared in Encore.
  
  Who is the most powerful person in Australian media and why?
  
  Harold Mitchell because of his influence and the footprint he has left. He’s built a huge brand in Mitchells, offloaded it into Aegis, Aegis has obviously done extremely well to be then sold on to Dentsu. So if you think about it, he is very much a father figure of the industry.
- Making it overseas
  
  Is the best way of being successful in Australia not be here at all? In a feature that first appeared in Encore, Lee Zachariah speaks to Aussies making it big abroad.
  
  I always wanted to work in New York,” says Julian Cole. “I thought it was the number one place to work in advertising; a lot of the best campaigns were coming out of there. So I moved over and was lucky enough to have a couple of interviews in the first couple of weeks.”
  
  Cole’s story is indicative of the somewhat contentious idea that the best way to be successful in Australia is to not be in Australia any more.
- Got a book in you?
  
  From journos to ad execs and PRs, these days everyone seems to have a book in them. But what does it take to get published and will you actually make any money? In a feature that first appeared in Encore, Brooke Hemphill finds out.
  
  Attention wannabe authors. Forget big fat advance cheques and living off royalties. The reality of having a book published today is another story altogether. There are only two reasons you should even consider sitting down at your computer to bash out a manuscript – passion or profile.
- Savage counsel
  
  In an article that first appeared in Encore, Chris Savage tackles your career and agency dilemmas in his weekly advice column.
  
  Hi Chris,
  
  My clients seem to be demanding more and more from us. At the same time, it seems many of the younger people in our industry simply don’t have the client servicing skills my generation grew up with. How do we instill in our executives some of the good old-fashioned behaviours that would keep a client happy and loyal?
- Fake it til' you make it... as an ad agency receptionist
  
  From dressing the part to playing the gatekeeper, Leo Burnett Sydney’s Susie Henry tells us how to make it as the face of adland in a piece that first appeared in Encore.
  
  What does a receptionist in an ad agency actually do?
  
  Well, there’s the frantic every-day, all-day stuff of deliveries, courier bookings, doing expenses for directors – always challenging – plus arranging all the travel. But one of my main jobs is counselling the account service people. I also keep up with all sports information to discuss with our sports-loving clients – because who wants to be bored while they’re waiting? And I know how they like their coffee. You need to know everyone – from accounting to HR. I’m also the go-to for all catering and sending flowers.
- Whose views skew the news? Media chiefs ready to vote out Labor, while reporters lean left
  
  Most journalists lean left-of-centre, says Folker Hanusch of the University of the Sunshine Coast, in a post first published on The Conversation.
  
  Most Australian journalists describe themselves as left-wing, yet amongst those who wield the real power in the country’s newsrooms, the Coalition holds a winning lead.
  
  But while the media’s political leanings will no doubt be debated in the lead-up to September’s federal election, our study has also found other largely unscrutinised biases remain – particularly whose views disproportionately shape the news.
- It's time for a new New Wave in the film world
  
  Government funding bodies are lazy and decadent, says industry veteran Michael Thornhill but in a piece that first appeared in Encore, Ed Gibbs begs to differ.
  
  I vividly remember the time I first saw Animal Kingdom, David Michod’s breathtaking labour-of-love feature debut. The press screening was half empty, despite the film winning the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance just months earlier, in 2010. Yet its superb performances, stylistic flourishes and overall polish left me speechless. Could this really be a feature debut, an Australian one at that, I wondered, almost out loud? It seemed too good to be true.
- Going cold turkey on an agency addiction
  
  Life is sweet for freelance writer Max Kitchen, but in a feature that first appeared in Encore, he admits his struggle against returning to the agency fold.
  
  I’ve never taken heroin. But I suspect if I had, the temptation to try it again would not be too dissimilar to the lure of returning to agency life.
- Can sport save Ten?
  
  First there was the Grand Prix. Next came the reported $500m bid for cricket rights, then Ten secured the 2014 winter Olympics. So, can sport save the ailing network? In a feature that first appeared in Encore, Nic Christensen investigates.
  
  The television sports rights bidding process is a bit like a game of poker.
  
  Check, fold or bet. Those were the options for the Ten Network last week when it had to finalise its bid for the cricket rights.
- Andy Lark: good for the marketing of marketing
  
  I can still remember the first story I wrote about Andy Lark, when it emerged that he was to be the new chief marketing officer of CommBank.
  
  It was immediately clear that Australia was about to meet an interesting marketer, one who blogged and tweeted and thanks to his time at Dell in the US was digitally savvy. Even two years ago, that was a big deal. The fact that he also had a stint in public relations gave him an absolutely intriguing background before he even arrived.
- Storming the media barricades - advice for young journalists
  
  This week Mumbrella’s Nic Christensen, who began his career four years ago, gave the keynote address to would-be journalists at the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance’s Student Day. This is an edited version of his speech.
  
  Good afternoon, I can remember distinctly the last time I was in this room.
  
  It was 2009 and I was sitting where you are. I’d come to this event, a friend and myself — from memory we sat up the back — and I can remember at the time wondering if I’d ever get a job as a journalist.
  
  It was only four years ago and then as now getting a job was ultra competitive but I’m not sure there was quite as much media ‘doom and gloom’ as there is now…
- Paywalls will help fund campaigning journalism
  
  In this guest post, News Limited’s group editorial director Campbell Reid responds to the views of ninemsn’s Hal Crawford that the company’s push into metered paywalls is about data rather than dollars.
  
  Hal Crawford is both right and wrong in his article which argued that our digital subscription plans are all about the data.
- Fake it 'til you make it... as a features editor
  
  Cosmo’s Kate Leaver tells us how to bluff it in her job in a feature that first appeared in Encore.
  
  What do you do, as a features editor?
  
  Really, play with words and ideas all day. At any one time, we’re working across three issues of the mag – getting one on its way to the printers, pooling all the words together for another, and planning the issue after that. It’s busy but it’s a pretty magnificent process.
- Savage counsel - JFDI
  
  Hi Chris,
  
  I run a medium-sized agency that is doing pretty well. As the leader, I am finding my workload just seems to go up and up. I am struggling to stay motivated and particularly to tackle the bigger and tougher challenges I have to face every day. How do I keep up the energy when there just seems so much to do? How do you do it?
  
  Productive, successful executives are those able to consistently tackle difficult and big challenges. It’s a constant struggle for me so I know how you feel. How do the successful leaders do it?
- Q&A with Brett Clegg
  
  Brett Clegg, group director – business media, Fairfax Media, in a Q&A that first appeared in Encore, on the journo who refuses to work with him – his wife.
  
  Who is the most powerful person in Australian media and why?
  
  Hard to go past Rupert Murdoch. He controls the single largest and most diverse portfolio and is intent on leveraging its scale (and, of course, influence). He’s an innovator and his will to win is obvious to all.

Being successful is hard, says the editor whose magazine was closed down

It’s tough at the top, Dr Mumbo’s been told, but he had little understanding of just how difficult, until he read of the plight of former Grazia Australia editor Amy Molloy.

In a column published in The Daily Mail, the self-proclaimed high-achiever describes her position as “torturous” in comparison with that of her “scatty, jobless” friend.

“Now in her 30s, she tends to crash from one career crisis to another and inevitably will have just quit one job and be searching for her next,” Molloy writes of her friend. ”She’ll arrive with a hangover, minus her wallet, meaning she won’t be able to pay for dinner.

“At some point during the meal, she will always say the same thing: ‘You’re so lucky, Amy — you’re so driven and successful.’ She envies my life, my career, my salary, my prospects.

“But the truth is I envy her failure. It’s hard being a lonely and joyless high-achiever. I wish I could be mediocre.” Read more »

By Megan Reynolds · May 6th, 2013 at 5:50 pm · Comments: 24

First taste

TEDxSydney was, as ever, a wonderful affair.

But this piece of work by Saatchi & Saatchi shown on the day, Dr Mumbo feels, deserves to go viral.

Quite the most adorable thing. Ever. Read more »

By mumbrella · May 6th, 2013 at 1:23 pm · Comments: 1

Silence of the pigs

It took about 48 hours, but that controversial Studio poster is now gone.

As Dr Mumbo’s spy puts it: “No more squealing.” Read more »

By mumbrella · May 3rd, 2013 at 8:08 am · Comments: 4

Worst media namedrop ever

If there’s one thing Dr Mumbo can’t bear, it’s somebody who plays with their mobile phone during a live performance.

If there’s two things he hates, it’s when they’re sitting in the front row.

And if there’s three things, it’s name droppers.

So imagine his feelings towards a person who would be capable of combining the three.

Somewhat spectacularly, that person achieved the trifecta in Sydney last night during a monologue from comedian and storyteller Daniel Kitson.

When the performer stopped the show to ask what the hell he was doing, the miscreant’s somewhat awkward reply: “I’m messaging Courteney Hocking to tell her how you’re doing.”

Courteney Hocking, Google tells Mumbrella, is an occasional comedy writer and former contributor to Good News Week who once appeared on the radio with Kitson.

If you’re going to namedrop, you can probably do better than that.

Or, you know, don’t be a dick in the first place.

(By the way, it was still a work in progress, but Dr Mumbo thoroughly recommends Kitson’s show After The Beginning. Before The End.)

By mumbrella · May 2nd, 2013 at 11:32 am · Comments: 1

How not to be digital marketer of the year

What with Monday’s accidental despatch of a press release with the less than compelling headline “Heading 3″, Dr Mumbo was initially inclined to let this one from the IAB go through to the keeper as a kindness.

But as it’s now been forwarded to him by three different people, he feels he can’t resist: Read more »

By mumbrella · May 1st, 2013 at 3:00 pm · Comments: 2

Loaded words on a newspaper front page: ‘The Truth’

Dr Mumbo had always assumed that one tabloid headline was so tainted that it would never again be used, not least by a News Corporation paper.

He was wrong.

For those unfamiliar with newspaper history, News International’s The Sun has never fully recovered from the untrue claims it made about football fans at 1989′s Hillsbrough Disaster in the UK in possibly the most notorious front page of all time. To this day, its sales have not fully recovered in North West England. No paper in the UK, he is certain, will ever use the words on a front page again.

The Daily Telegraph does not, Dr Mumbo assumes, know its family history, based on its presentation of the Tom Waterhouse affair today. Read more »

By mumbrella · May 1st, 2013 at 10:00 am · Comments: 3

Gerard Henderson for Media Watch host? The odds narrow

It’s the question many in the media elite are asking: who will replace Jonathan Holmes as the host of the ABC’s Media Watch program?

Last year Holmes indicated that he would be finishing up mid year and Crikey has recently reported that a new replacement would be announced next month.

Amid the rumour and speculation about a replacement Dr Mumbo salutes the diligence of betting brand Sportsbet for creating a market on who would be the next host.

And the Sydney Institute’s Gerard Henderson, star of the somewhat ABC-sceptical website Media Watch Dog, comes in fourth paying $8 (presumably there are rules preventing the inclusion of Nancy his dog). Read more »

By mumbrella · April 30th, 2013 at 1:33 pm · Comments: 12

Has Tom Waterhouse jumped the shark?

This Facebook photo of Tom Waterhouse looks set to go viral - any moment, now…

By Nic Christensen · April 29th, 2013 at 12:44 pm · Comments: 10

Some young guy told us this was game changing

While Don “game changer” Meij is of course the ideal front man for Domino’s, Dr Mumbo can’t help but wonder why this…

… reminds him of this: Read more »

By mumbrella · April 29th, 2013 at 10:37 am · Comments: 2

Caption conniptions

Something went slightly awry in this caption from Nine News Brisbane.

Or perhaps it’s one for the hate crimes unit.

By mumbrella · April 29th, 2013 at 10:06 am · Comments: 0

Heading off track

The following press release from the Interactive Advertising Bureau reaches Dr Mumbo’s inbox.

And he much prefers it to stinky old Heading 3 or sleazy old Heading 5

By mumbrella · April 29th, 2013 at 9:41 am · Comments: 0

That’s the way to do it

So reporter Angus Thompson has just tweeted that he’s “kicking back” at a talk to Herald Sun journos about how to use Twitter.

Dr Mumbo knows this because Thompson has tweeted a pic of the lecture.

What he doesn’t know is why the hell the image on screen is the profile of Dr Mumbo’s colleague Nic Christensen.

We’ll choose to take it as flattery though.

By mumbrella · April 26th, 2013 at 11:19 am · Comments: 1

How to make TV that says something

So The Daily Show’s John Oliver was in Australia for a week filming pieces on gun control. It says something about the combined resources and abilities of Australia’s TV industry that during that brief visit he was able to produce one of the best bits of telly of the year.

Or, you know, we could stick with miracle diets and money saving tips.

By mumbrella · April 26th, 2013 at 11:10 am · Comments: 6

Citizen Stu

Dr Mumbo was greatly intrigued by an email that lobbed into his inbox from Stuart Gregor, the founder of PR agency Liquid Ideas and chairman of the PR Council.

Gregor, with the help of a few advertising industry people, is setting up a political party ahead of the September federal election.

In the email sent out to a number of people across the industry he explains that the party, which is to be called the23million (based on Australia’s population hitting the 23 million mark this week), is an attempt to “agitate for a bit of change in our political system”.

Agitation you say? This is a topic Dr Mumbo thinks the chairman of the Public Relations Council knows a bit about. Read more »

By Nic Christensen · April 26th, 2013 at 10:58 am · Comments: 4

Vodafone. Just as good in Australia. No, honestly

It’s always interesting to compare the marketing performance of global brands in Australia versus the rest of the world.

Here’s Vodafone’s efforts in the UK, “The Kiss”, via Grey advertising:

By mumbrella · April 26th, 2013 at 10:41 am · Comments: 6

News Limited – the toughest cadetship process in the country?

What would the last person you “de-friended’’ on Facebook say about you in three words?

Dr Mumbo doesn’t know the answer which means that he may struggle to get a cadetship at News Limited’s Victorian division.

It is one of 32 questions being asked of applicants as they jump through some major hoops for this year’s traineeships.

The application for NewsVictoria traineeships is no less than 11 pages, and requires not only a CV but also a 30 second video (with voiceover) of a local event. Read more »

By mumbrella · April 24th, 2013 at 9:52 am · Comments: 10