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Opinion | Features
Woz not great
In this guest post Tony Prysten argues that the thousand dollar price of seeing out-of-touch Apple co-founder Steve Wozniack on his Australian tour was a waste of money.
This week, for the cost of two iPads (yep, two) I went to the Woz Live conference in Melbourne. I was not impressed.
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.
XXXX leases Great Barrier Reef island for fans to live the ‘good life’
Aussie beer brand XXXX Gold has announced its lease of an island on the Great Barrier Reef where fans of the brand can win trips to experience what XXXX Gold terms the ‘good life’.
Consumers will be invited to submit suggestions for what should be built on the 15-acre island, which is on the Southern Great Barrier Reef. The website and competition launches at 12.30pm today, and will offer competition entrants a stay for themselves and three friends.
CommBank data chief Chris Carr joins Mediabrands
Interpublic’s media agency group Mediabrands has appointed CommBank’s head of analytics Chris Carr to run its own analytics unit.
Chris Carr joins as MD of Mediabrands Analytics, the research and data arm of Mediabrands, which houses media agencies Initiative and UM.
He starts on 2 April and replaces Clare Fernando, who moves to a new client-facing role as the division’s executive director.
Mediabrands boss Henry Tajer said in a press release: Read more »
Sunrise hammers Today, Ten fails to register a show over 1m
In another dominant showing for Seven in the TV ratings, the network book-ended the day with a win for Sunrise in the morning and My Kitchen Rules in primetime, which won the night with 1.692m.
Please Marry My Boy won the 8.30pm slot with 1.022m, while Seven claimed 25.6% share overall.
Sunrise recorded a big win over Today, eclipsing the Nine show by 90,000 viewers.
The Seven morning show took 373,000, beating Today’s 281,000 across the five city metro region, according to preliminary ratings from OzTam. However, Today won in the key advertising markets Sydney and Melbourne.
After a good day yesterday, Ten failed to register a single show over 1m viewers.
SBS commissions cooking show Destination Flavour
SBS has commissioned a new food and travel show called Destination Flavour.
The ten part series will be hosted by Masterchef winner Adam Liaw, Renee Lim of SBS’s Food Investigators and drama East West 101 and Lily Serna of the network’s Letters and Numbers.
Produced inhouse the show will travel to providores, food producers and the country’s top culinary regions, as well as restaurants and eateries.
Energy Australia ad powers Aussie swim team sponsorship
Leo Burnett Sydney has launched a new campaign for Energy Australia to mark the electricity and gas supplier’s sponsorship of the Australian national swim team.
The ad breaks on national TV from tonight.
‘Flying Objects’ to deter the safest Kiwi drivers from speeding
An ad from the New Zealand Transport Authority highlights the damage done to a driver’s internal organs in a car crash.
Called ‘Flying Objects’, the spot also uses slow motion footage of loose objects in a car hitting the dashboard.
Dulux: the power to protect in every can
The Sweet Shop director Melanie Bridge is behind the camera for a new TV ad for Dulux paint in New Zealand.
The agency behind the ad was Clemenger BBDO Wellington.
Hungry Jack’s Scoopon deal smashes records with almost half a million sales (and counting)
The Hungry Jack’s Scoopon deal was in such massive demand it resulted in a brief site crash, and the sale of 485,332 $2 burger vouchers yesterday.
The total represents almost half of the approximately 1m vouchers sold every month through Australian group buying sites.
The deal launched at noon on the 13th march, and had sold 90,000 vouchers in the first two hours, meaning it has exceeded all Australian group buying records, according to Scoopon.
Scoopon claims the voucher sale is the second most successful ever to have run on any group buying site globally to date.
LinkedIn announces 3m members, opens Perth office
LinkedIn has opened an office in Perth and announced its three millionth member in Australia.
According to figures from the business social network – which launched in 2003 and set up its first Australian office in 2010 – LinkedIn has seen daily unique browsers grow by 92% in the year since February 2011 and a 168% jump in page impressions.
However, the company would not reveal actual numbers or its rate of growth over the last 12 months.
LinkedIn draws 620,000 unique visitors a month and reaches 3.6% of Australians online, according to Google stats.
The company’s MD for Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia Clifford Rosenberg said that LinkedIn’s company search feature and use on mobile devices are the key growth areas for the site.
Grown Ups launches first TV ad – for Youth Projects
New creative collective Grown Ups, which launched just over a week ago by adland veterans Grant Booker, Mick Hunter and Andrew Moss, has unveiled its first TV commercial.
In the 60-second film, for homelessness charity Youth Projects, a guide shows tourists around the laneways of Melbourne, showing them the places where she slept rough, did drugs and had unprotected sex for money.
Booker, creative partner at Grown Ups, commented: “It would’ve been easy to go down the path of showing kids shooting up and living in squalor in order to dramatise their hardship, but we decided to take a different approach with a bit of a dramatic twist to it”.
Simon Hopkins leaves ACP for Brandtology
Simon Hopkins, the national group sales manager of ACP Magazines digital sales, has moved to Sentia Media – formerly known as Media Monitors – as commercial director of social media monitoring platform Brandtology.
Hopkins will run the sales operation for both Australia and New Zealand.
Sentia Media’s Gregg Amies, CEO, ANZ, said: Read more »
ARN’s Mix launches anti-bullying week
The Australian Radio Network’s Mix network is heading up a national anti-bully initiative backed by the Department of Education.
Mix’s Say No To Bullying campaign first started on Brisbane’s 97.3FM three years ago and is going national this year.
The campaign runs throughout this week, ending with a National Action Day on Friday 16 March.
Myer Miss Shop blogger project launches
Myer has launched a blogger collaboration project for its youth fashion brand Miss Shop.
The Myer Miss Shop Blogger Project is a tie-up with pop-culture website Pedestrian.tv and includes fifteen of Australia’s top fashion bloggers.
They are Alexandra Spencer (4th & Bleeker), Nicole Warne (Gary Pepper), Jessica Stein (Tuula), Mandy Shadforth (Oracle Fox) and Zanita Morgan.
According to a press release, the initiative is the largest fashion blogger campaign ever seen in Australia to launch Myer Miss Shop’s Autumn/Winter 2012 Collection.
Match is Australia’s top online advertiser while Facebook publishes 23% of all display ads says ComScore
Several of the biggest online advertisers in Australia are dating sites, data released by online audience tracker ComScore suggests.
The company claims that the biggest online display advertiser in Australia is the dating site Match, with dating site be2 third. Meanwhile Facebook is by far the biggest publisher of online ads.
According to ComScore’s new online display tracker Ad Metrix, InteractiveCorp was the biggest advertiser in January, driven mainly by its Match brand. Read more »
Former News International boss and husband arrested on suspicion of attempting to pervert course of justice
British police have made another six arrests as part of their investigation into newspaper phone hacking. Among those arrested – on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice – was former Sun editor and News International CEO Rebekah Brooks and her husband Charlie.
It is the third time Brooks has been arrested. She is also on bail after being arrested on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications and also under the linked inquiry into police corruption.
After Rebekah Brooks’ previous arrest, the British media reported on a curious incident involving Charlie Brooks and a laptop left in a bin in a car park near the couple’s home. Read more »
Ten has best Tuesday ratings of 2012, but Seven still dominates
It was a good night for Ten in the ratings, with the network securing its biggest Tuesday audience of 2012 – and taking a bigger share of the audience than Nine.
Ten grabbed 17.6% audience share, beating Nine’s 16.3%.
One episode of Ten’s NCIS passed the million-mark, up from 707,000 last Tuesday. Bondi Vet’s ratings jumped from 618,000 to 747,000 – up 30% on its season average.
And The Biggest Loser is holding on to its audience, rating with 830,000 for the contest episode – and was the third most-watched show in the 18-49 and 16-39 demographics.
A low point, however, was the performance of early morning show Breakfast, which pulled in just 26,000 viewers.
There was no way passed Seven, with the network producing the top-five most watched shows of the night, OzTam’s preliminary overnight metro ratings suggest.
The Australian says it has 30,000 paying digital subscribers
News Limited says it has beaten its initial internal targets for digital subscriptions to The Australian, with 30,000 paying subscribers.
However, the company has not broken down how many of those have bought a digital pass, a digital and print package, or made an individual purchase through its tablet apps.
A further 10,000 print subscribers have accepted a free 12 month digital subscription. Read more »
Australian Party declines to name agency behind ‘homophobic’ attack ad
Bob Katter’s Australian Party has declined to name the ad agency behind its controversial attack-ad on politician Campbell Newman.
Australian Party spokesman Scott Barrett said that an agency had been used to make the ad – which has already prompted more than 300 complaints to the Ad Standards Bureau for being homophobic – but would protect its identity “in the name of commercial confidence”.
Barrett also declined to name the stock image supplier for the ad, which features two still shots of gay men among doctored clips of Newman.
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