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. Read more »
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, Read more »
The audience is right
In this guest post, ninemsn’s Hal Crawford argues that online sites should respect readers’ choice in the news they consume
One thing I find surprising, after a decade in online news and a few years in print, is that the longer I remain a journalist the more my respect for the readers grows. Increasingly the correct attitude to adopt towards the audience seems to be one of respect rather than arrogance. Read more »
How we pulled off the Banksy heist
In this guest post, Megan Aney and Maura Tuohy explain how their social media skills helped them gain the inside information they needed to win the challenge to Steal Banksy‘s art work No Ball Games.
A Sunday night business trip turned into espionage when we scoped out The Art Series Hotels campaign to ‘Steal a Banksy’.
Before we had even arrived at The Blackman we were tweeting @stealbanksy for clues on the painting’s hidden location.
A romantic comedy with serious balls
Has an Australian filmmaker finally cracked the rarely attempted romantic comedy genre? Colin Delaney visits the set of Not Suitable for Children to find out if Oscar nominated first time director Peter Templeman’s flick about testicular cancer has the balls to make it big at the box office.
A mismatched collection of twenty somethings loiter in front of a large old house in Eveleigh, south of Sydney’s CBD. Goths, surfers, hipsters and stoners make up the group. Inside it’s shoulder-to-shoulder with revellers filling hallways and stairwells. The event is not just thrown together either – flashing lights and disco balls suggest the members of this household take their parties seriously. And the amount of drugs and alcohol circulating certainly deem the environment unsuitable for children. Read more »
Niche versus mass market: big just isn’t better at the cinema
Chris Murray laments the demise of independent cinemas and the rise of generic shopping centre multiplexes with their get ‘em in, bang ‘em out culture.
Punters visit the cinema for an exciting communal experience, not the ease of parking.
As the multiplex struggles to keep the candy bar traffic flowing, automated cogs pump out digital images and the passionate few who strive to make their independent exhibition houses a cultural beacon (The Ritz, The Astor, Chauvel and so on) face impending doom. It’s an education problem, to be honest. Read more »
It starts with an insight
On very rare occasions, just three times in my career so far, I get to sit in a different chair and experience what it’s like to be an agency client.
Those few moments have had a big impact on how I understand advertising, and the respect I have for planners, whether from a media or creative background. Read more »
C is for content, no matter how many platforms it touches
In today’s always-on media landscape, content created for one platform doesn’t stand a chance, argues MindShare strategist Cathie McGinn.
Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin. Unlike storytellers of old, I estimate I’ve got about two more seconds to keep your attention. If I lose it now, it’s gone for good. That’s a high stakes play. Read more »
Can Adelaide become a creative hub?
In this guest post, Jeremy Ervine argues why Adelaide can become a world-class creative hub like San Francisco, New York or Paris.
If you were asked to pick the most ‘creative’ cities in the world, where would you name? San Francisco? New York? Paris? Maybe Sydney? Chances are you wouldn’t pick the mid-west American town of Omaha, Nebraska. Omaha has always been a bit of a tired town. Its livelihood has been centred on business, with fur trading, stockyards and railroads. For decades young people have picked up left in search of bigger, more ‘creative’ cities. It’s a story that’s close to home.
For & Against: Can a gig on community television lead to bigger and better things?
FOR: Jess Harris, co-creator, writer and star of ABC2’s comedy series Twentysomething
Josh Schmidt (Twentysomething co-creator) and I wanted to get into the industry but we didn’t really know the gap between having an idea and making it a job. We knew about community station Channel 31 because our friend, Ryan Shelton, had done a show on 31 called Radio Karate. We decided to make a series about being in your twenties, struggling and not really knowing what you’re doing with your life.
It took us about two years to finish the six episodes and we didn’t get in contact with Channel 31 until the very end. We called them up and said, “we’ve got six episodes here of a show we would love to air on your channel”. We had to pay an airing fee so we got RMITV, RMIT University’s media production group, to help us out by sponsoring the show. Read more »
Why home label brands are good news
In this guest post, Tim Riches reckons that the rise of supermarket home label brands may not be such bad news for established brands after all.
Retailers will always need strong, established mainstream brands to drive sales. The key to survival for manufacturers is to look at the market from the retailer’s point of view. Brand managers must show retailers how their brand can grow a category. Retailers don’t care how your brand might take market share from a competitor’s brand. They are only interested in growing sales volume in each product category.
Content versus distribution: who is actually going to invest?
With investors more interested in platforms and broadcasters happy recycling existing content, Ben Shepherd asks what the future holds for the production of online video.
Currently, on online forum Quora, there is a relatively simple question that despite over 300 views has not generated one single answer.
What venture capitalists or angel investors are interested in investing in quality content companies focused on media/internet? Read more »
Agency gifts: the good, the bad and goldfish
In this anonymous guest post, a media agency has some advice for media owners on the sort of gifts they like – and do not like – to receive.
I came into work on Sunday to discover the result of a media owner’s promo gift gone wrong – a dead gold fish.
On the side of the bowl containing said dead fish was written: ‘Be the big fish in a small pond and come test the water’. Not a good look for Advantage SA, which is trying to promote South Australia as an attractive place to advertise.
We get a deluge of gifts this time of year, although not all smell quite as bad. As agency folk, we are forever grateful for the generosity of media owners. But here are some helpful tips on what we see as the good, the bad and the useless corporate gifts.
Show’s over: what’s next for the big names of breakfast radio?
From the unsociable hours to the fame, glory and great pay, Jason ‘Jabba’ Davis looks at faces of breakfast radio past and present and asks, where are they now?
So is there life after breakfast radio? The answer for most showbiz identities would appear to be yes.
Andrew Denton and Amanda Keller have gone on to long and successful careers, as has Wil Anderson. Wil’s peers, including Dave Hughes, Meshel Laurie, Mick Molloy, Tony Martin and Adam Spencer, have also successfully juggled early morning starts with stand up and television. Read more »
There are 12 local jobs right here that wouldn’t exist without the LAFHA
Just over five years ago, I had an unexpected phone call.
How did I fancy moving to a country I’d never visited, to edit a magazine I’d never heard of, for less than half the money I’d just been earning in Dubai?
Fair to say, a move to Australia had not been my plan at the time. But, Sydney had looked good on the Olympics, and B&T magazine sounded like an interesting challenge.
But on paper, it just didn’t make sense. It was a lot less than I could earn in the UK, where I had just returned after my Middle East stint.
But then, over a couple more calls, B&T’s publisher explained to me LAFHA, the Living Away From Home Allowance. Read more »
Q&A: Tropfest’s John Polson
When Tropfest creator John Polson isn’t busy taking the festival to the world, he’s flat out with a host of film and television projects. We ask him about Sydney’s 20th Tropfest, his thoughts on sponsorship and Sydney I Love You.
Did you ever expect Tropfest to become as big as it has?
No, I had no idea. I didn’t know it would last to the second year. It started as a short film screening and I ran with the ball. I never expected it to have the scope that it does in Australia or any of the other places. Read more »
Confessions of a two screening tragic
For today’s TV viewer, one screen isn’t enough. Steve Molk tells us why networks need to take notice of two screening.
My name is Steve Molk and I like to live tweet television shows. A lot. I get a kick from connecting with people who watch the same programs I do and together we discuss, joke, and in the blood sport that is ABC1’s Q&A, compete to see our tweets on screen. Read more »
High summit of cinema?
More than a decade after the controversial film’s release, Bob Ellis considers whether Geoffrey Wright’s Romper Stomper, starring Russell Crowe, has stood the test of time.
It was nine years before Tampa, four years before Hanson, but there it was, ugly, prophetic, violent, Romper Stomper. ‘This is not your country’. A frankly Hitlerist gang of tattooed thugs going after Asians with baseball bats, bricks and knives in Footscray alleys, defending Australia’s racial and cultural purity. ‘Won’t let what happened to the Abos happen to us,’ says Hando, the headshaven pack leader, urging his eager swarm of war-painted dysfunctionals on, despising pasta as ‘wog food’ and smashing up Japanese cars, pushing back the yellow hordes with Howardite gravitas, we will decide who comes here, and tribal pride. He may lose this war against the unceasing invader, but he will give it his best shot. Russell Crowe in the role has the moral force of Brando, with the crisp, succinct charisma common to all great warrior-leaders. Read more »
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