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Opinion | Features
What the hell is transmedia?
From advertising campaigns to online video series, the term ‘transmedia’ gets quite the work out. But what does it actually mean? Cathie McGinn trawls the media landscape for a definitive definition.
Transmedia, all media and multiplatform are terms often used interchangeably when referencing modern storytelling techniques. Yet, depending who you speak to, there are distinct differences between them.
According to industry experts Encore spoke to, the key elements that define transmedia can be summarised as follows: platform, time, audience, adaptation, and creative collaboration.
Innovation is the remedy for the ailing magazine industry
With magazine circulations plummeting, FHM closing and rumours rife on future ownership of ACP Magazines, Paul Merrill says the only way forward is launching new titles.Eight years ago in the UK, nearly a quarter of all magazine sales came from magazines that were less than four years old. In Australia, the figure was slightly lower, but still significant. Today, the situation is very different. For a start there are so few new magazines. Yes, Masterchef briefly flared, and Top Gear made an initial impact. But Grazia and Alpha fizzled, and now ACP has shelved their plans to launch Elle.
More than a game: broadcasting the Olympics
The 2012 London Olympics will be the biggest televised sporting event of our time. Brooke Hemphill discovers the logistical challenges and technical requirements of producing the event.
From July 27 to August 12, the Australian media will go sport crazy as the Games of the XXX Olympiad, aka the 2012 London Summer Olympics, unfold. The games will be the most televised sporting event of our time as broadcasters look to master every manner of technology at their disposal.
The Voice - Australia's best example yet of social TV
In this guest post, Sputnik’s Rodd Messent has a theory on why audiences have taken to The Voice .I am an addict of Channel Nine’s hit show The Voice. Such is the extent of my addiction I seriously think my housemate might kick me out of our apartment for the semi-frenzied yelling and tweeting that ensues in our lounge room each time the show airs.It’s the first time in almost three years that such disagreement has resulted in less than civil behaviour towards one another, and it’s made me think it might be a microcosm of the large volume of online debate about the show and, correspondingly, an explanation for its success as a social TV experience.Why brands are the US Army - and culture jammers are the Viet Cong
In this guest posting, Dave Burgess, who painted ‘No War’ on the Sydney Opera House, claims that ‘amoral’ advertisers have copied his idea.
Culture jamming is a 28-year-old term coined by the San Francisco-based band Negativland, who declared that the ‘Studio for the cultural jammer is the world at large’.
Branded content is dead. Long live branded content
In this guest posting, Anthony Freedman argues why branded content is making a comeback.
A few short years ago, probably concurrent with the advent of the PVR, a new term emerged within the marketing communications industry; branded content. This was really synonymous with advertiser funded TV shows where programming was created by brands and deals struck with networks to broadcast them.
There were varying degrees of success with this model.
Shock advertising: 30 ads that would give Australia's ad watchdog a coronary
Is shock an underused weapon in Australian advertising, asks Robin HicksToday, Sydney agency The Cabana Boys used an image of a mouth sewn together to shock people with the idea that problem gamblers lie to conceal their habit. Is it the most disturbing image ever? No. Will it get banned by the Advertising Standards Bureau? No. But it did make me wonder why shock is not used more often in Australia – and not just by charities and government bodies. (WARNING: NSFW)
The making of ratings blockbuster The Voice
Jason Mountney goes on the set of Channel Nine’s talent search series, The Voice, to see how the format, based on an international franchise, has come together. What ingredients have gone into making this certified hit that’s rated more than two million viewers on three consecutive nights?
Mike Goldman has one of the toughest jobs on the set of the Nine network’s new talent show, The Voice. He not only has to narrate the show, but also keep the audience from losing their enthusiasm as they realise shooting TV programs takes a lot longer than the one-hour bursts they see in their lounge rooms. A lot longer.
Nine problems stopping The Global Mail from getting an audience
While it’s a shame The Global Mail has failed to make an impact on the media landscape, the signs have been there for some time.I love the concept of a well resourced, philanthropically-funded independent news site. Anywhere in the world, that’s a rare and wonderful thing. In Australia even more so. So I hope that Grame Wood gets to see his investment make a difference.
And I have no inside info on whether Monica Attard’s sudden departure is linked to the site’s failure to find an audience so far.
Regardless, here are nine areas they can easily start to address:
Journalism’s new model?
Does the launch of philanthropically funded news site The Global Mail signal a new era for journalism or is the model destined to be a passing fad, asks Cathie McGinn in this article first published in Encore magazine.With little fanfare, philanthropically funded news site The Global Mail launched in February this year.
The online-only title received a generous five-year funding commitment from businessman Graeme Wood, founder of accommodation website wotif.com, who donated $15million.
Five things that make a great suit
In this guest posting, Gareth Collins argues that the role of a great account manager is to make the work betterI’m surprised at how many suits I meet who don’t know their role in the advertising business. The question ‘what does an advertising account manager or director do?’ is frequently met with answers such as project manager, relationship manager, plate spinner or go between … and those are the nice ones.
Success is judged on the ability to manage a process, be strong administratively and get stuff done. And while a good suit needs to do all of these things brilliantly, if these are the traits that define a great suit, then I’m in the wrong job.
What the hell is transmedia?
From advertising campaigns to online video series, the term ‘transmedia’ gets quite the work out. But what does it actually mean? Cathie McGinn trawls the media landscape for a definitive definition.
Transmedia, all media and multiplatform are terms often used interchangeably when referencing modern storytelling techniques. Yet, depending who you speak to, there are distinct differences between them.
The top seven...most patronising pieces of communication
Sometimes brands have big ideas. Sometimes marketers get so caught up with a grandiose idea that instead of finding engaging ways to sell breakfast cereal, they start to believe their own rhetoric. And sometimes it’s just lazy marketing. Here are my top seven inadvertently patronising pieces of communication…
1) Last night thousands of women gathered in Sydney’s Centennial Park to take part in She Runs the Night, an event created by Nike.
TV audience measurement – why big isn’t always beautiful
In this guest post, Chris Walton argues that the media industry needs to take a new approach to TV tradingThere has been a significant amount of coverage recently about how successful The Voice has been. Indeed, audience figures of 2.6m+ people are very impressive these days. Based on reports, this is apparently double the size of audience that Nine was hoping for in the lead up to the programme launching.
How do you solve a problem like Blunty?
So if you were the proposed News Standards Body, how would you regulate Blunty?The News Standards Body, in case you didn’t notice, is the new organisation proposed by the Convergence Review this week to regulate news and commentary, regardless of platform.
Blunty, in case you didn’t notice, is the video blogger who this week went viral after he filmed a guerrilla marketing demo outside Apple’s Sydney store apparently as a coincidental bystander, but later admitted he’d been put up to it by BlackBerry.
Jason Davis to moderate at Mumbrella360
TV and radio presenter Jason ‘Jabba’ Davis is to moderate next month’s Mumbrella360 conference.
Davis also writes a monthly column on the radio industry for Mumbrella’s sister title Encore magazine and is an occasional guest on the Mumbrellacast.
Davis on the Mumbrellacast, 9/12/11:
He co-stars in SBS’s Paul Fenech comedy Housos with a live stage version currently in Sydney.
Davis’ broadcasting career has included various stints with Nova along with music channel [V]. He hosted the live video stream of this year’s ARIAs music awards.He signed with Harry M Miller Management Group earlier this year.
Mumbrella360 takes place at the Hilton Hotel in Sydney on June 6 and 7. Taking place across five streams and featuring debates and presentations around media, marketing, advertising, PR and digital, around 800 attendees are expected at the event.
Details of sessions and how to book are available on the Mumbrella360 website.
Baidu International launches Australian office led by Dean Capobianco and Paul Christy
Hyndman
Capobianco
Chinese search giant Baidu has entered the Australian market with a launch team featuring several well known players from the local digital market.
Fionn Hyndman, best known in the Australian market from his time as CEO of performance marketing company dgm, is Baidu International’s executive director, based in Singapore.
Locally, Dean Capobianco – previously group commercial and operations director at ninemsn and director of sales at Yahoo Search Marketing – will help establish the Australian office in an advisory role. Capobianco left ninemsn in January.
Paul Christy, a previous GM of Telstra’s mobile strategy and innovation unit, will be GM of the Australian office of Baidu International. Read more »
University students’ web series win at LA screen festival
A Sydney based web-series has won best international web series at a screen festival in America.
The youth-orientated web drama SYD2030, by production company Cheese On Toast Productions, won Best International Web-series at the recent LA Film, TV and Webisode Festival. It was one of 15 films to be selected to screen.
The 12, five-minute series stars AFI Award winner Sophie Luck and a crew of university students.
Read more »
‘Agencies failing clients in their attitude to digital’
Hollands: Frustration
The outgoing boss of the industry body for newspaper publishers has accused agencies of failing to understand the digital publishing market.
The criticism came from Mark Hollands, chief executive of PANPA (the Pacific Area Newspaper Publishers Association), which is currently being merged into marketing body Newspaper Works, as he unveiled the shortlist for the organisation’s advertising awards.
Speaking about digital, Hollands said: “I would have hoped for greater progress in this area, especially among the metro and national titles.
“There is pent up frustration – in newspapers here and overseas – about the general attitude of agencies towards news publishers and their digital properties. Read more »
Liquid Ideas hires first agency director Samantha Allen, the ‘best credentialed PR in Australia’
Public rel
ations firm Liquid Ideas, whose culture has been dominated since launch by popular boss and founder Stuart Gregor, has hired its first agency director.
Samantha Allen, formerly founder and MD of Pulse Communications in the UK, joins from Ogilvy PR in New York, where she was managing director, global consumer marketing.
Gregor describes Allen as “quite possibly the best credentialed public relations professional in Australia.”
Magnum Infinity launches ‘Australia’s first’ facial recognition billboard
Ice cream maker Streets has launched a facial recognition billboard for brand Magnum Infinity, which the advertiser claims is an Australia first.
After smiling to activate, users are instructed to pretend to bite the Magnum. A camera in the billboard registers the user’s mouth movements and imitates it by biting the ice cream on screen. Users can also smile for their photo to be uploaded on to the Streets Magnum Facebook page.
Tim Tam orchard replaces Lego forest at Martin Place
Arnott’s brand Tim Tam is filming a TV ad at Martin Place today, with an ‘orchard’ where the famous biscuits are hanging from trees.
The idea was taken from Tim Tam’s Facebook page, where consumers – who will be filmed in the TV ad – said their wish was for the biscuits to grow on trees.
The Truly, Madly Tim Tam Orchard will see more than 30,000 Tim Tam biscuits hanging from trees in Martin Place until 7pm this evening.
The campaign, devised by PR and experiential marketing firm Mango and DDB Sydney, comes just a fortnight after Lego erected a pop-up forest at Martin Place to celebrate the toy-maker’s 50th year in Australia. Read more »
Packed to the Rafters gets lowest ratings in show’s history
Seven’s Packed to the Rafters recorded the lowest ratings in its history last night.
The Logie-award winning family TV series, which launched in August 2008, pulled in 1.118m in the 8.30pm time slot, ranking sixth for the night.
The show was hammered by The Voice on Nine, which aired from 8pm to 10pm, rating with 2.259m, according to preliminary results from OzTam.
“You have to hand it to Nine for turning The Voice into the phenomenon that it is,” said media analyst Steve Allen of Fusion Strategy. “Packed to the Rafters is doing better than most shows against The Voice, but Seven will have learned their lesson for ending the series early last year.”
“If Seven had let Rafters run on, and ended with a cliffhanger, then they could have re-started the series this year with the answer to the cliffhanger. But instead the storyline has been awkward and clunky.”
Nine also claimed the top three shows – The Voice, The Block and 2 Broke Girls – in key advertising demographics 18-49 and 16-39.
Sydney aerial advertising firm Branding By Air launches in California
Branding By Air, a Sydney-based aerial advertising company, is launching an office in California in time for the summer.
Apple protest video blogger Blunty admits he was in on BlackBerry ‘Wake Up’ stunt
Video blogger Nate “Blunty” Burr has admitted that he was in on a marketing stunt for BlackBerry when he shot a video of the “Wake Up” protest at Sydney’s Apple Store which has now gone viral.
Blunty – who is one of YouTube’s most subscribed Australian bloggers with more than 180m views to date – gave the impression in the video that he was at the George Street store by coincidence.
However, he has now admitted that he had signed a non disclosure agreement before the event and an agency working for BlackBerry’s parent company RIM had organised for him to be there. He insists he was not paid. Read more »
Antony J Bowman begins production on Almost Broadway in LA
A new production by an Australian writer, director and producer is underway in Los Angeles.
Almost Broadway is written and directed by Antony J Bowman, director of Paperback Hero, and produced by Bowman and Paloma Felisberto Bilson for Tigertail Films, has just finished its first week of production.
The film also features an Australian cast that including Cameron Daddo, Ella Bowman and Bernard Curry as well as American actors Taryn Manning, Dov Davidoff, and Canadian actor Currie Graham.
Aussie consumer confidence falls to pre-GFC levels, 1/3 of Aussies think we’re in recession
Consumer confidence in Australia has fallen to its lowest point since the global financial crisis, according to a Nielsen study.
The global study saw confidence in Australia fall further than in any country except for Poland in the first quarter of 2012.
And more than a third (36%) of Australians think the country is in recession.
The biggest worries Aussie consumers have are rising utility bills and job security.
Chris Percy, MD of Nielsen Pacific, said in a statement:
Mamamia hunts for community manager who knows what zeitgeist means
Mamamia, the website founded by ex-Cosmopolitan editor Mia Freedman, is looking for a content/community manager.
The position, advertised as “not a clock-punching job”, will be based in Sydney.
The job ad reads:
Can you tweet and Facebook like a demon? Write clickable headlines and identify sharable content? Do you trawl the net constantly? Do you know what zeitgeist means? Read more »
Y&R’s comms director Lynda Gray departs after 10 years
Y&R Australia’s communications director Lynda Gray is leaving the agency after a decade in the role.
Gray handled communications and PR for Y&R agencies including GPY&R, IdeaWorks, The Campaign Palace and newly launched digital agency VML.
In an email, Gray said: Read more »
Convergence Review: Dramatic changes on the table for Australian media
The government-commissioned Convergence Review into the regulation and future of Australian media has been published, offering a string of wide ranging recommendations.
However media minister Stephen Conroy is yet to comment on the proposals, which would see wholesale change in the media sector if enacted.
Among the key recommendations are a loosening of rules restricting media ownership, a new regime for regulating the press across all platforms, attempts to create new means of subsidising Australian TV and film content and a change to broadcasters’ licencing arrangements. The review was led by Glen Boreham.
Conroy said: “The release of the report provides an opportunity for stakeholders to engage with the Committee’s recommendations. I expect the recommendations will generate robust public debate. The government will respond to the report in due course.”
Further coverage:
- Drive to promote screen content production
- New rules for the big boys
- Protection remains for free TV sport
Read the Convergence Review:
Convergence Review: Protection remains for free TV sport despite ‘competitive advantage’
The anti-siphoning legislation – designed to keep sporting events on free to air television – will remain untouched under the scope of the Convergence Review.
The review states: While sport on free television is highly valued by Australians, the anti-siphoning scheme creates commercial benefits for the free-to-air television broadcasters at the expense of other platforms. Having the first opportunity to acquire exclusive premium sports rights gives the free-to-air broadcasters a competitive advantage in the market.” Read more »
Convergence Review: New rules for the ‘content service enterprises’ big boys
The Convergence Review into Australian media has proposed a new regulatory regime for Australia’s largest media players, with organisations that bring in more than $50m revenue a year on the back of professionally produced local content and reach more than 500,000 Australians a month falling within its remit. These organisations would be known as “content service enterprises”.
The figure is dramatically higher than the 15,000 “hits” per month proposed by the Independent Media Inquiry which in March had proposed the setting up of a News Media Council.
Content Service Enterprises: Source - Convergence Review/ PWC
Read more »
Convergence Review: Drive to promote Australian screen content production
Much of the focus of the Convergence Review into the media is on ensuring that Australian content appears on screens, and producers have incentives to go on making it.
However, there is also a proposed loosening of the local content quota which would see the free to air networks able to spread their local content quota obligations onto their digital channels. The review proposes a new set of rules for Australia’s major media owners (those with revenues of more than $200m) – labelled content service enterprises – when it comes to screen content:
- Content service enterprises that meet defined service and scale thresholds should be required to invest a percentage of their total revenue from professional television-like content in the production of Australian drama, documentary or children’s content or, where this is not practicable, contribute to a new converged content production fund.
- The government should create and partly fund a new converged content production fund to support the production of Australian content. Read more »
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