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Opinion
The keyboard warrior of Twitter
In this guest post, NBN staffer Scott Rhodie writes an unofficial, personal view on his experience with a hostile Twitter critic.Last night I had a strange incident. While on Twitter I noticed someone saying that Australia’s NBN is already outdated. I wrote a small note back explaining they were incorrect.
And their response? The lovely gentleman (whose Twitter profile says: ‘Father of 5 kids, Loving Grandfather of 10 Grandchildren,and 2 Great Granddaughters. love to give heaps to Pollies and Poofters’) said to me: “Go and lick Gillards C*** out U commie Prick”
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.
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?
Ten to launch Breakfast on February 27
Ready for Breakfast - From left: Roze, Henry, Rochford and Robinson
Ten has confirmed it will be launching its new TV show Breakfast in a fortnight’s time.
The network’s head of news and current affairs has also accused rivals of “taking cheap shots” over the launch. Ten announced:
“The wait is over – at 6am on Monday 27 February, Network Ten will make its highly anticipated entrance into the early morning news space.
“A program that throws out the rule book, Breakfast will be spontaneous, fresh, provocative and fun. It will spark conversation and debate, giving viewers the news and information they need for the day ahead.
“Paul Henry, Andrew Rochford, Kathryn Robinson and Magdalena Roze might be the newest kids on the block, but they have been chosen for their unmatched dynamic, wealthand breadth of expertise, journalistic experience and wit; they are excited to bring their conversation to your mornings.
“Some would say Paul Henry got a little too excited when he leaked the start date to the market a few months ago.
“Paul Henry says: “Apparently it’s a big deal in Australia to keep program start dates under wraps. I won’t blow the launch date for Breakfast again, promise.” Read more »
Air NZ casts Aussies who don’t like New Zealand in reality series
Host has created an online reality show for Air New Zealand called Kiwi Sceptics.
In the short film series, located on NineMSN, Air NZ took people who had never wanted to go to New Zealand, to New Zealand, in the hope of changing their minds about the country.
The campaign, which was built on a media deal with Nine secured by PHD, is the biggest marketing offensive Air NZ has launched in 10 years.
The four films feature four differents sorts of Australians.
The Bali girl:
Julian Lee returns to The Herald as media writer
Julian Lee, the former marketing editor of The Sydney Morning Herald, has returned to the paper in the role of media writer.
Lee left The Herald to join the National Times, where he was deputy editor, in April 2011.
He will cover consumer media issues.
Lee will work with Kirsty Simpson, media editor of BusinessDay, and Bianca Hall, who is reporting on media in the Canberra bureau.
The Straits pulls in 542,000, ABC loses time slot to Seven and Nine
The second episode of The Straits pulled in 542,098 viewers – down slightly on last week’s debut – according to preliminary five-city metro ratings from OzTam.
It was beaten in the 8.30pm time slot by Grey’s Anatomy on Seven, which rated with 845,000, and RBT on Nine, with 570,000.
Fairfax first to move on releasing detailed data on app usage – slow start for The Age and The SMH
Fairfax Media has attempted to counter negative perceptions around its falling print circulation by releasing a snapshot of its audiences for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age across all platforms.
The data includes the most detailed information to date about its audience on tablet apps. The number of readers using the apps on a daily basis are currently a small fraction of those buying the newspaper or reading the mastheads online, although the growth is 300% up on last year.
Australia’s audit bodies do not yet include app audiences, so the figures are self declared. According to Fairfax, The Sydney Morning Herald is averaging 3,576 daily users of its app, while The Age is averaging 2,924.
However, more consumers are using tablets to view the sites each day – 26,684 for the SMH and 22,780 for the Age.
The newspapers digital editions – effectively PDFs of the print edition – are running at just over 3,000 a day for The SMH and nearly 4,000 for The Age. Read more »
Roxy Jacenko on art imitating life with new book Strictly Confidential
Roxy Jacenko, founder of fashion PR agency Sweaty Betty, talks to Mumbrella editor Tim Burrowes about:
- Her novel Strictly Confidential – is the PR world really that shallow?
- Getting into PR
- Does she undercut rival agencies?
- Ros Reines – love-hate
- What became of Seven’s Sweaty Betty reality TV show?
- Ending up in the papers herself Read more »
Mumbrellacast: Super Bowl verdict | John Butler vs yoghurt | media agency innovation | Excess Baggage axing | What went wrong for FHM?
Featuring Bob Goodge, managing director of Starcom Sydney, Mumbrella editor-in-chief Tim Burrowes, Mumbrella managing editor Robin Hicks and producer Colin Delaney (46:27)
- Bob Goodge on Starcom (0:57)
- The Straits struggles on screen, flourishes on Twitter (13:10)
- Jumptank – can media agencies be innovative? (16:52)
- The best ads of the Super Bowl (22:07)
- John Butler vs John Stamos and yoghurt (29:06)
- Excess Baggage bumped (31:47)
- The ABCs of magazines and newspapers
(40:37)
January’s Ad of the Month: shortlist revealed
The finalists for the latest round of Mumbrella’s TV Ad of the Month can now be revealed.
The shortlist for January’s ads is based on self nominations, Mumbrella’s own selections and reader submissions. The winners are decided by Mumbrella readers who vote by taking part in the survey at the bottom of this item. The deadline for voting is Thursday 16 February.
Campaigns are eligible whichever screen format they first ran on including TV, cinema and the web.
Lachlan Murdoch becomes Ten chairman
Lachlan Murdoch has been appointed chairman of Ten, with CEO James Warburton joining the board.
Murdoch was Ten’s interim CEO until Warburton started work last month. He replaces Brian Long in the chairmanship.
The announcement appears to contradict Monday’s prediction that Murdoch would return to News Limited as chairman. Read more »
ABCs: Zoo, People and Picture all lose quarter of their circulations
A
CP’s soft porn titles Picture magazine and People magazine and lads mag Zoo magazine all lost a quarter of their sales in the latest set of sales figures released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations today.
Zoo had the biggest fall – down by 27% in the final quarter of 2011 compared to a year before.
People fell by 26% and Picture dropped by 24%.
Six of the seven biggest falls in the weekly category were for ACP titles. However, ACP’s OK! was the only title to achieve an increase above a single percentage point, rising by 4.6%. And Grazia, which had gone through a series of significant drops, has stabilised just above 50,000. Read more »
Newspaper ABCs: SMH drops 12%, rival accuses Fairfax of “abandoning” print
The Sydney Morning Herald was the biggest major casualty in the latest round of figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, losing 12% of its weekday circulation in a year.
In another difficult period that saw newspaper circulations atrophy by 4% overall, the Fairfax title’s circulation fell from 209,644 to 184,613 between December 2010 and December 2011.
By contrast, The Herald’s main rival The Daily Telegraph fared ok, down by 1.84% to 347,722 between Monday and Friday.
Paul Whittaker, editor of The Daily Telegraph attacked the performance of his rival: “These results prove that there is plenty of life left yet in print even though our main competitor has effectively abandoned the field for their print products.”
Australia’s largest circulating newspaper, The Sunday Telegraph, was among a handful of winners. The title added over a thousand readers, nudging up its circulation by 0.18% to 618,950.
Its main competitor, the Sun-Herald fell by more than 8% to 406,470.
ABCs: FHM loses 50% of circulation in one of biggest magazine sales drops in media history
FHM magazine – once one of the most dominant brands in the dynamic men’s magazines sector – has suffered one of the biggest circulation drops in Australian media history.
The ACP magazine lost half of its circulation in the final six months of last year compared to the same period a year before. Its circulation dropped from 50,154 to just 26,026 according to new figures released today by the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
In its analysis around the latest set of figures, ACP did not mention FHM at all. A spokesman told Mumbrella there were no changes planned for FHM closing “for the foreseeable future”. The drop for as significant a brand as FHM is virtually unprecedented.
In a statement, Matthew Stanton, the newly appointed CEO of ACP Magazines after the sudden departure of Phil Scott, claimed: “While all publishers are bearing the brunt of subdued consumer spending, many ACP mastheads have gained circulation and/or category share in the latest audit.” Read more »
Roamz and ImageBrief make BRW start-ups ranking
Two companies in the media and marketing space have featured in BRW’s table of Australia’s top ten start-ups of 2011.
Salmat Digital-backed location based mobile service Roamz tops the lot. In 7th was ImageBrief, which is taking on Getty Images and Corbis in the image procurement space.
NRMA Insurance puts car stereo in bus shelter
NRMA has placed a car stereo in a bus shelter as part of an outdoor campaign to remind consumers how much car stereos mean to them – and why they should get insurance.
Using a QR code or URL, people can ‘like’ the NRMA Insurance Facebook page and pick a track to play live in the bus shelter – the track then plays instantly through the speakers in the bus shelter.
Gavin Larkin to be celebrated in Sydney event
Gavin Larkin
A celebration of the life of Gavin Larkin will take place at The Standard in Sydney on March 23.
Larkin was a former boss of the Brand Shop and the co-founder of anti-suicide initiative R U OK? Day. Shortly before his death in September he featured in ABC1′s Australian Story.
He was posthumously honoured in the Australia Day Awards and also named GQ magazine’s man of inspiration.
Further details will follow on the celebration, which will also be a fundraiser for the medical treatment of his son Gus.
ABC’s Wednesday night season fails to worry commercial broadcasters
What has traditionally been the ABC’s strongest day of the week in the ratings – Wednesday night – saw the public service broadcaster fail to offer a major challenge to the commercial networks.
The ABC’s 20th Anniversary special of Absolutely Fabulous was the broadcaster’s highest-rating non-news show of the night, pulling in 654,000 in the 8pm time slot – almost half the regular audience of last year’s hit series Gruen Planet.
Adam Hills on Gordon St Tonight drew 587,000 for the ABC, while its premiere of Outland, a comedy about a gay science fiction club, took 324,000 and placed well out of the top 20.
The return of At the Movies at 10pm took 271,000. ABC News was broadcaster’s strongest show, rating with 891,000.
Foxtel edges to 1.66m subscribers
Foxtel’s subscriber growth has continued to edge forward, according to the latest numbers released from the company.
According to Foxtel’s update on the final six months of 2011, the company’s number of subscribers including those awaiting installation was 1.66m households. This marks a fractional improvement on the set of numbers released six months ago which was 1.65m households. Read more »
Ogilvy PR hires ex-adman Mike Beckerleg as group director
Ogilvy PR has looked to an ad agency to bolster its creative offering with the appointment of ex-Ogilvy & Mather Sydney executive director Mike Beckerleg as group director.
Beckerleg will be based out of Sydney and report to Ogilvy PR CEO Kieran Moore.
His brief is to give client and creative advice and integrated strategies across Ogilvy PR’s five Australian brands - Howorth Communications, Ogilvy Impact, Ogilvy PR Health, Parker & Partners and Pulse Communications.
Besides Ogilvy & Mather, Beckerleg has worked client-side, with Sony, Vodafone and Seiko, and has also run his own consultancy – Rubberband, a communications, creativity, innovation and training firm. Read more »
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