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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.
Sean Cummins to challenge anonymous blog commenters
Sean Cummins – one of Australia’s best known, and most outspoken – creatives is to speak out against the culture of anonymous criticism within the advertising industry.
Cummins, whose latest venture is full service agency Cummins Ross which launched in January, will issue the challenge at next month’s Mumbrella360 conference.
In the session – Cummins vs Anonymous – he will talk about his own experiences at the hands of anonymous commenters on industry blogs, including Mumbrella. And he will offer up his own suggestions on how to move forward.
Cummins is one of Australia’s most awarded creatives. He was at the helm of Cummins Nitro, now Sapient Nitro, when the agency created the multi-award winning Best Job In The World campaign for Tourism Queensland.
Cummins has worked on some of Australia’s biggest brands including creating Tourism Victoria’s ‘You’ll Love Every Piece Of Victoria’ jigsaw piece positioning, Virgin Blue’s ‘Keeping the air fair’ and Holden and RSPCA. Cummins also previously worked at Mojo, Y&R and George Patterson Bates.
Mumbrella360 takes place on June 7 and June 8. Tickets are available at the Mumbrella360 website .
Fairfax fights back in row with newsagents over new TV guide
Fairfax has responded to frustrations voiced by newsagents last week over its new two-in-one television guide, telling Mumbrella that newsagents stand to gain an extra $1.5m a year from selling and distributing The Guide, a merged publication from the The Sun-Herald and the Monday edition of The Sydney Morning Herald.
The main concerns for the Newsagents Association of NSW and ACT is that The Guide will prove to be a costly and labourious excercise for which it feels newsagents will not be fairly compensated.
Peter Fray, publisher and editor-in-chief of The Sydney Morning Herald, said: “We will be paying newsagents an extra $1.5 million per year for selling and delivering The Guide. At a time when publishers elsewhere are reporting falls in home deliveries, we are introducing a new revenue stream which will be paid on total copies supplied to newsagents, not just home delivered copies. Fairfax also has the highest cover prices as well as highest commission and fee rate card of any publisher.”
AFP loses out to Masterchef and Australia’s Got Talent
One of the most competitive nights of the 2011 TV schedule to date saw Nine’s second episode of AFP squeezed to 856,000 by Masterchef’s 1.593m on Ten and the return of Australia’s Got Talent (1.563m) to Seven.
The setback for AFP – made by Gruen Transfer producer Zapruder’s Other Films – follows a debut last week of 1.248m.
The show – following the work of the Australian Federal Police across eight countries – has been two years in the making. Read more »
Virgin Blue rebrand revealed
This is the Hans Hulsbosch-designed logo of Virgin Blue’s re-branded airline Virgin Australia, Mumbrella can reveal. Read more »
Faustus production invites theatre goers to befriend satan on Facebook
The Queensland Theatre Company production of Faustus, a character who sold his soul to the devil in exchange for limitless knowledge, power and pleasure, is inviting people to befriend satan on Facebook.
Once Facebook friends with the devil, who in the production is played by John Bell, people will be asked to trade something with him for a chance to win tickets to the opening night of Faustus at the Brisbane Powerhouse on 2 June.
Mumbo Report: Oh my dog, Hyundai goes the hard sell, KFC’s Double and super cheap Supercheap auto
In this episode of The Mumbo Report from Studio 33:
- We count down last week’s most played ads including the KFC double, the Hyundai hard sell, the super cheap Supercheap Auto ad and Donut King’s ‘Oh my dog’ deal. Read more »
Melbourne blogger Louisa Claire launches blog-brand matchmaking service
Melbourne blogger Louisa Claire has launched a matchmaking service for brands and blogs.
Called Brand Meets Blog, the service will fill a gap in the market for companies that take a strategic approach to blogging and build “trust capital” with bloggers, Claire told Mumbrella.
“At the moment in Australia, there’s too much mass messaging of large groups of bloggers, rather than targeted campaigns that find a good fit between brand and blog,” she said.
Masterchef host George Calombaris in ad for Western Star butter
Western Star butter has used Masterchef’s gesticular host George Calombaris in an ad to promote the product’s use in cooking. The ad, developed by OMD Fuse Melbourne, was shot at Calombaris’s restaurant Hellenic Republic restaurant in Melbourne.
Hell Pizza welcomes Bin Laden death
Hell Pizza in New Zealand has run a tactical ad that makes reference to yesterday’s death of terrorist Osama Bin Laden.
“Come in, Osama, we’ve been expecting you,” reads the ad copy, which runs beneath an article in the New Zealand Herald on the response to the Al Qaeda leader’s death in the US, plus a number of news websites.
The ad was created, and media planned and bought, by full service agency Barnes Catmur & Friends.
Mumbrella announces first Brisbane Question Time
The first Brisbane Mumbrella Question Time breakfast will take place in a fortnight’s time.
Ryan
Forth
The event will feature Kenny Stewart, MD of media agency Mitchell & Partners Brisbane; Sean Ryan, MD of radio station Nova 106.9 Brisbane and Stephen Forth, managing partner at ad agency Banjo Advertising Brisbane. They will also be joined by a fourth panellist, to be announced shortly.
Previous Mumbrella Question Time breakfasts have taken place in Sydney and Melbourne.
The Brisbane Mumbrella Question Time takes place on Tuesday May 17 at the South Bank River Room at Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre. It runs from 7.30am to 9.30am.
The format of the event sees Mumbrella editor Tim Burrowes moderate questions from the audience.
Tickets for the event – priced at $95 – are available via this link. Further details are available from denise@focalattractions.com.au or on 02 8296 0229.
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Journalists union: By axing hundreds of subs, Fairfax is reneging on quality journalism
The boss of journalists’ union the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance has accused Fairfax Media of deciding to “renege on its commitment to quality, independent journalism” by axing hundreds of jobs through the outsourcing of copy subbing. Read more »
ANZ set to kill Barbara the bank manager
ANZ appears to have given up on nightmare bank manager character Barbara from the ‘Barbara lives in Bankworld’ campaign, and is now running ads produced more than two years ago while it searches for a new advertising vehicle.
An ANZ spokesperson told Mumbrella: “The Barbara concept has been a very successful and iconic campaign for ANZ and the decision to put it on hold is simply about looking for a fresh approach in our advertising.”
This weekend, the bank ran an old ad featuring former Sale of the Century host Tony Barber, which was created by M&C Saatchi and adapted by DDB, the agencies which lost the ANZ business to Whybin\TBWA Melbourne after a global review in March.
Fairfax Media set to outsource copy subbing
Fairfax Media is set to outsource most of its copy subbing to AAP’s Pagemasters in a move which will see radical changes to the way the company produces its newspapers.
The changes will include news, business and sports pages in the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Canberra Times. Although the company has not said how many jobs will be affected, it is likely to impact a large number of sub editors, many of whom will have been with the company for many years.
CEO Greg Hywood said that the company planned to spend about $25m on redundancy pay offs although this may also include printing staff as it seeks efficiencies in that area too. Read more »
The Biggest Loser finale wins Monday
The finale of The Biggest Loser topped the Monday night ratings, with 1.682m viewers tuning in to see Emma Duncan, who lost 46% of her body weight, win the show.
The Network Ten program pipped the second night of MasterChef, which pulled in 1.656m, according to preliminary overnight rankings from Oztam.
Fresh from his Logies triumph, Karl Stefanovic’s Today recorded a rare victory over Sunrise, pulling in 441,000 viewers.
Woolworths’ Masters logo designed to resemble power tool drill bit
The name for Woolworths’ new hardware retail chain, Masters, was chosen because it stands for strength, intelligence and artistry, according to its designer Hans Hulsbosch, who also worked on the Woolworth’s rebrand in 2009.
The Masters Home Improvement logo, an italicised letter ‘M’, is meant to look like the drill bit of a power tool, he explained to Mumbrella. The name was chosen over a number of options, including Jobos.
Connect Furniture: it’s what separates humans from animals
A print and outdoor campaign for online furniture retailer Connect Furniture positions their product as what separates humans from animals.
In one execution of a series created by GPY&R Melbourne, a naked woman licks herself clean in her bathroom. In another, a couple eat their dinner off the floor. The strapline reads: ‘furniture: it’s what separates us from animals.’
Unilever Australia increases digital agency roster to three
Unilever has expanded its digital agency roster from two to three as its ramps up spend online.
In addition to Deepend and Soap, the consumer goods giant has appointed Holler Sydney, which will handle Jif, Domestos and Comfort, traditionally light spenders on digital.
Twitter’s blow torch effect on crisis PR to be debated at Mumbrella360
Moderator: Moses
The “blow torch effect” of Twitter and other social media in rapidly turning an issue into a PR crisis will be discussed at next month’s Mumbrella360 conference.
A session curated by PR agency Burson-Marsteller and moderated by SMH technology journalist Asher Moses, will discuss “the collective truth” – where instant reporting and commentary can see a point of view on a brand or event shaped in hours or even minutes by online consumer discussion.
Hudson
Yanco
retallick
Panelists will include Rob Hudson, the national digital director of George Patterson Y&R; Carly Yanco, head of digital, at Burson-Marsteller Australia and Nikki Retallick, head of online and mobile at media agency Mindshare.
The session will cover how to manage reputations online; how to prepare for a crisis; offer an analysis of how crisis communication has changed in the past 10 years and the impact of the changing news cycle; tips on what not to do, based on recent case studies. Read more »
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