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Opinion
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?
One-eyed Willy’s rich stuff: brands as movie heroes
I have just spent an entire day on a plane. I can’t sleep on flights, even after heavy sedation. So I watched seven films, back to back. Most of the new ones were truly awful and I couldn’t finish them. So I watched an old favourite, The Goonies. I have probably watched this film more than 200 times since I was a kid. But this time, with work in the back of my mind, one thing stuck out – how much brands were the stars of the film.The gospel of participation is making brands forget about mass reach
In this guest post, Simon Lawson argues that brands are becoming obsessed with getting consumers to participate, rather than remembering to deliver mass exposure.I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but a lot of brands are wasting significant amounts of time and money on ineffective marketing. Large sums are being put behind tactics which end up being too small to have much chance of influencing total brand preference.
For proof the Press Council is a toothless tiger, see the bottom of page 104 of the Tele
Today, Sydney’s Daily Telegraph had an excellent opportunity to show off just how well voluntary press regulation works.
The newspaper published an adjudication from the Australian Press Council.
The APC found that the Tele had given the National Broadband Network an entirely unjustified kicking in three different stories. The complaint was upheld in all three cases.
There are only two interpretations to be drawn from the finding,
TV revenues down across the board
Advertising revenues for the free TV networks are down virtually cross the board, the latest set of data from industry body Free TV indicates.
According to the data, collated but not audited by KMPG, every single metro market was down in the final six months of 2011, compared to the same period in 2010.
Revenue was also down in every regional area of the country with the exception of South Australia.
The worst performer was the Sydney market – down by just over 7%. Read more »
Clinique to open Mardi Gras pop up store
Skin care brand Clinique is planning to erect a pop up store selling men’s products in the run-up to Sydney’s Mardi Gras festival.
For ten days, the Skin Supplies for Men Pop up Store will be sold with DJs served with Nudie coconut water and free SSFM samples.
The Straits’ disappointing debut pulls in under 600,000
The ABC’s The Straits, which has been heavily promoted this week, debuted with a disappointing audience of under 600,000 last night.
The show’s ratings of 599,000 fell well below the ABC’s hit show The Slap, which was pulling in not far south of 1m in the same 8.30pm time slot last year.
The night was won again by Seven’s My Kitchen Rules, which pulled in 1.4m viewers – well ahead of the weight loss shows on Ten and Nine.
Mumbrellacast: Louie the Fly, squashed | The AACTAs | Foxtel’s Smith on agencies | Excess vs Loser | Cancer Council’s fat attack | Butchering songs is Coles’ cash cow
Featuring James Wright of The Red Agency, Mumbrella editor-in-chief Tim Burrowes, Mumbrella managing editor Robin Hicks and producer Colin Delaney (47:07)
- James Wright on saving Louie the Fly… and Mortein’s name – 0:49
- Life and death of a PR agent – 13:45
- What was president Geoffrey Rush thinking? – 22:05
- Foxtel’s Ed Smith on the problem with agency briefs – 28:39
- Excess Baggage vs The Biggest Loser… – 33:54
- … as the Cancer Council urges marketers to cut the fat – 40:00
- A butchered classic leads to impressive beef sales – 45:00
Ex-Mojo digital creative head Clint Nielsen launches new agency – Pixel Demon
The former digital creative head at Pubilcis Mojo has launched his own agency.
Clint Nielsen is the man behind Pixel Demon, which offers “devilishly-good creative and design services for a digital world”.
The new agency will offer support for clients directly, or on a project basis for other agencies.
Nielsen’s career to date includes stints at MRM, where he was digital creative director, and freelance roles at Tribal DDB and Clemenger BBDO.
Most recently, Nielsen had a short stint at The Works, where he was creative head of digital.
Lampooned Normie Rowe remix leads to record beef sales for Coles
One of most heavily criticised ads of the last 12 months has resulted in best-ever sales for the advertiser.
The TV ad for Coles hormone-free beef, featuring veteran crooner Normie Rowe and a reworked version of his 60′s hit single Shakin’ All Over, saw beef steaks sales jump by 25% and barbeque beef sausages rise by 79% in a week of record meat sales for Coles.
A survey of the Australian public the advertiser found that 25% of people felt better about Coles having seen the ad; 15% said they felt worse about the brand having seen the ad.
Brand awareness for Coles ‘no added hormones’ beef had reached 85% in the week after the ad, it was revealed by Coles general manager, marketing, events and sponsorships Tony Phillips at the Mumbrella Marketing Summit this week.
“Most of the commentary [on the Normie Rowe ad] is coming from the industry,” said Phillips. “That’s fine. Some of it we laugh at. Some of we think maybe we pushed the boat out too far.”
Ooh! Media woos adland with Mr Big competition
Dinner in New York with Sex in the City star Chris ‘Mr Big’ Noth is the prize in a competition by outdoor media company Ooh! Media to convince agencies of the benefits of using big billboards.
To win, entrants need to upload photos of themselves “doing something big” to the Ooh! Media’s Facebook page.
SGIO: things often look good until you compare them
Whybin\TBWA\Tequila is behind a new campaign for SGIO car insurance. The new works build on ads currently running in Western Australia based around the advertiser’s 10% price guarantee.
Mindshare’s Cathie McGinn moves to Mumbrella
Cathie McGinn, currently strategy director at media agency Mindshare, is to join the staff of Mumbrella.
Her last day at Mindshare is today.
McGinn will join in an editorial and marketing role – working across both Mumbrella and sister title Encore magazine.
She currently writes a column on content creation for Encore. She also curated one of the most talked about sessions – on marketing ethics – at last year’s Mumbrella360.
Prior to Mindshare, McGinn was with digital agency Reading Room and before that in search, social media and marketing roles at former Photon Group company Geekdom. She has also studied as a video documentary maker. She is a co-founder of Social Media Club Sydney and more recently Digital Citizens. Read more »
Saatchi & Saatchi NZ launches new ad for Tui
Three mates go on a stealth mission to get their hands on some Tui in a new spot by Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand.
The ad was shot by Stuart McDonald at The Sweet Shop.
Eharmony launches Valentine’s Day love letter campaign
Dating service eHarmony has launched a social campaign to make contacting loved ones easier this Valentine’s Day by converting social media messages into hand-written letters.
The campaign will allow fans of the eHarmony Australia Facebook page to enter a message to an intended recipient online, which will be written out by calligraphers who will personally address and send the envelopes to the recipient.
The Love Letters campaign comes after an eHarmony survey found that only 13% of the estimated 24 million Valentine’s Day messages that will be sent this year will be hand written.
Dentsu brings in Mike Thomas as creative director
It has emerged that Dentsu added to its Australian presence with the signing of advertising veteran Mike Thomas as creative director.
The appointment, which was quietly made last year, is the first major creative signing since the Japanese advertising network officially opened for business in 2011.
Dentsu Australia now has five staff servicing key client Toyota.
The ex-McCann and Singleton Ogilvy & Mather ECD joined Dentsu last year after two years running his own creative consultancy.
Ex Bebo chief Cordero leads InMobi Australian launch
Head of marketing Fine
General manager Cordero
InMobi, which claims to be the world’s largest independent mobile ad network, is to finally launch in Australia with an initial staff of around 20.
Among those on the launch team is digital veteran Francisco Cordero, whose previous roles have included launching the Australian operations of networking site Bebo and most recently local vice president of sales at group buying giant GroupOn. Cordero has also worked at Yahoo!7 and NineMSN.
Also on the team is former Optus staffer Mark Fine who will be head of marketing. Prior to leading the strategy for Optus’ mobile and online portals, Fine worked at Vodafone.
InMobi’s head of strategy is Brendan Watmore, previously in commercial roles at NineMSN and Yahoo. He also worked at ad agency BWM. Read more »
Weight Watchers introduces “True Year”
Weight loss brand Weight Watchers has created a campaign that aims to recognise people’s weaknesses to sticking to their weight-based New Year’s resolutions.
Called True Year, the idea is that people can enjoy the festive season beyond 1 January – and their resolutions begin on 1 February.
Louie the Fly campaign killed off early after plant closure backlash
Reckitt Benckiser has taken the decision to end early its Mortein ‘save him or kill him’ Louie the Fly campaign after consumers responded angrily to news of the closure of the Australian plant that makes the insect spray.
The campaign, which had reached the final phase when Louie the Fly took to the streets to win public votes to save himself, closes two weeks early. Unsurprisingly, the number of public votes has been more than enough to save Louie, although the final number has not yet been tallied.
A statement from the company on its Facebook page read:
You may have seen the announcement by the owners of Mortein, Reckitt Benckiser, about the planned closure of manufacturing in Australia. Some of you have commented on this page and your frustrations have been heard. Out of respect for the current situation I have been told that my campaign has ended. Public voting to date and online sentiment have clearly demonstrated your support for me – there’s no need to vote any further. I want to thank you all for your messages.
Today, a Facebook page had been set up called Unlike Mortein & Sacking Aussies calling on members to boycott Reckitt Benckiser products. The page already has more than 300 fans.
Micah Walker joins The Monkeys
The Monkeys have made what could prove to be the creative signing of 2012, hiring ex-Mojo ECD Micah Walker who joins after a period freelancing for the agency.
Walker, who left Publicis Mojo Sydney after a four-year spell in July last year, joins The Monkeys as creative partner.
Interflora launches gay and lesbian Valentine’s Day campaign
Interflora has launched a national digital campaign that targets the gay and lesbian community in the run-up to Valentine’s Day.
The campaign – devised by Pink Media Group and The Sphere Agency – will include web banners running on sites including lotl.com, gaynewsnetwork.com.au, dnamagazine.com.au and starobserver.com.au and in Facebook fan page feeds.
My Kitchen Rules wins third night in a row
My Kitchen Rules won the ratings for the third night in a row for Seven on Wednesday.
It’s the strongest performance so far this series from the cooking show, taking 1.5m across the five city metro, according to preliminary ratings from OzTam.
Nine’s Twenty/20 Cricket match between Australia and India came second with 1.46m, with Seven News coming third, rating 1.176m.
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