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Opinion | Features
My memo to your boss
So let me guess?
You really want to come to Mumbrella360, but you’ve got to justify the time and cost to your boss?
Good news! I think I can help.
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.
Fairfax does the double at Newspaper of the year, but News Ltd rules digital
News Ltd won the digital boasting rights but Fairfax papers picked up the major print trophies at last night’s Newspaper of the Year Awards.
Despite being only just over three months old, News Digital Media’s The Punch won specialist news site of the year at the PANPA (Pacific Area Newspaper Publishers Association) event, while news.com.au was named metro/ national news site of the year.
But the most prestigious trophy – for daily newspaper of the year with a circulation over 90,000 – went to Fairfax Media’s Sydney Morning Herald. And Fairfax’s Sunday Age was named Sunday newspaper of the year.
Accepting the award, SMH editor Peter Fray told the audience: “We’ll be back next year.”
(The table closest to the cameraphone footage above includes Daily Telegraph editor Garry Linnell and other senior News Ltd staff as they applaud their rival’s victory).
Other winners:
- Newspaper of the year 90,000+ – Sydney Morning Herald
- Newspaper of the year 25-90,000 – Geelong Advertiser
- Newspaper of the year up to 25,000 – The Daily Examiner
- Non daily 90,000+ – Melbourne’s Child
- Non daily 25-90,000 – Wentworth Courier
- Non daily up to 25,000 – Busselton Dunsborough Times
- Sunday newspaper of the year – Sunday Age
- News site metro/ national – news.com.au
- News site rural / regional – leadernews.com.au
- Specialist news site – The Punch
- Hegarty Prize – Nathan Wayne, South Western Times / Bunbury Herald
- News photo of the year – Justin McManus, The Age
- Sport photo of the year – Steve Christo, Sydney Morning Herald
- Features photo of the year – Janie Barrett, Sun-Herald
- Lifestyle photo of the year – John Selkirk, Dominion Post
September 11th, 2009 at 9:36 am
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Comments
11 Sep 09
10:43 am
Does anyone know who all the nominees for “Specialist news site” were?
The Punch is an OK blog at times, but hardly prizeworthy
11 Sep 09
11:00 am
Hi Neerav,
If memory serves, Fairfax’s Business Day was highly commended in that category. But as sites have to be run by a newspaper owner, I suspect it was a somewhat limited category.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
11 Sep 09
11:22 am
thx for the clarification Tim
so it’s a “print newspaper spinoff” award which would exclude the real innovators in specialist news like Eureka Report, Business Spectator, New Matilda, Online Opinion and Crikey
11 Sep 09
11:31 am
Yep, an entirely meaningless bauble.
11 Sep 09
1:33 pm
I’m not totally surprised that News took the digital honours over Fairfax. Last time I walked into a Fairfax office, one of their managers said to me “Come and meet our digital arm”..I was met by a filipino in a trench coat who showed me the most amazing watches that I had ever seen.
11 Sep 09
1:53 pm
Can a Filipino get a job at News Ltd?
11 Sep 09
2:04 pm
the value of whatever John Sands had to say was obscured by his racism. Ugly and surprising in this day and age. And why someone called Marie who seems to work at a charity would support this is beyond me
12 Sep 09
4:38 pm
As long time industry veterans who attend PANPA events will know, the event is – and always has been – totally staged. That is, awards are handed out in “turns” to the big players. If one side makes a particulatly big spend or marketing push in a ceratin direction, then PANPA will obliges with an award.
Just so things don;t look too fishy, some categories will be “won” two years in a row. But that is always balanced by the other side picking up some of the little prizes.
I was closely connected with the event for many years and can tell you that many “winners” were genuinely stunned at their award since they knew full well that they weren’t putting out the best product.
But that’s not how these things are judged.
12 Sep 09
11:50 pm
Neerav, please climb down from your blogging high horse and re-read the article.
This is not just some award for “print newspaper spinoffs”. The awards are given out at an annual event, the Newspaper of the Year Awards, run by the Pacific Area Newspaper Publishers Association – which means it’s a NEWSPAPER body, and they give awards to NEWSPAPERS – so of course the Web sites which get the awards are associated with newspapers (can you see that connection?) rather than stand-alone Web-only ventures.
Honestly, sometimes I am SO over the Johnny-come-lately bloggers who think they’re so sh*t hot and the world should revolve around online and that anything involving ink on paper is so second-rate…
14 Sep 09
3:31 pm
Sorry jack, no high horse here & im not anti-newspaper either, been an SMH subscriber for 11 years
As Tim says “as sites have to be run by a newspaper owner, I suspect it was a somewhat limited category”
So in essence “The Punch” got an award for turning up – last time I checked simply existing shouldn’t be good enough to win an award
15 Sep 09
11:20 am
I personally find it ironic that I see more innovation online coming out of New Zealand versus Australia around news, sport & entertainment let alone what obviously comes out of Europe and the USA as a result of intense competition and more sophisticated experiences.
The sad reality is that we largely have an oligopoly online which encourages zero innovation in the online space and sadly there is almost no pressure for any innovation from advertisers who should be asking for more. I deliberately don’t put ninemsn in this bucket as they have always seemed to be a simple online reflection of the more ‘sexy’ traditional assets – TV’s and magazine etc and they have largely existed because of default browser settings in Microsoft Internet Explorer and a vague and schizophrenic relationship with Windows Live. (They have little integration with traditional channels, little identity of products / properties, little understanding of engagement, their audiences and importantly the changes transpiring through social media, broadband and mobile etc.) Small case in point – have any of you seriously used the news.com.au and SMH iPhone apps compared to Wall Street Journal etc? They are terrible!
These online properties exist to be monetised so any discussion must raise the issue of advertising and therefore the advertiser’s part in this lack of innovation. As a marketer and advertiser I have always been reluctant to simply purchase display inventory based upon the very tired and old world model of CPM rates and impressions and of course the very old ‘creative ad unit’ designs and their placements on the Australian sites.
It is terrible that in a land of such creative and innovative talent (and opportunities) that we (media organisations, advertisers and the public) simply choose to reduce our online & digital channels to be mere slaves of the traditional TV, radio & print channels which is counterintuitive to shifts in audience behaviours.
I have never understood the thinking behind media organisations who baulk at innovations like Hulu or those who still espouse the ‘cannablisation’ line because their heritage has been print, radio or TV etc. As a media outlet or broadcaster my monetisation opportunity is around engagement with my audiences wherever they are. As an advertiser if you offer me engagement with my audience via the TV (free-to-air or cable) AND live / on-demand online (Hulu) I see this as a plus not a negative. If you offer me an ‘integrated’ cross channel package (print, online and mobile) which combines reach, engagement and conversion then I don’t see a dividing line between the channels – they are supporting each other and exploiting the strengths / weaknesses of each medium. If ratings methodologies haven’t kept pace then I really don’t care.
So, maintaining separate sales teams, separate marketers, separate product development teams and maintaining siloed organisational structures which simply reinforce the channel divide does nothing for me as an advertiser (let alone audiences and consumers). Importantly, all it does is keep restraining the experience, skills and understanding of these media teams and therefore continues to stifle innovation in online media.
P.S. I am glad that new sites like The Punch are being developed and supported but they still seem to be few and far between and very one dimensional channel wise.
15 Sep 09
3:29 pm
Geez, Sven – it was a joke…I think
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