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Opinion
The keyboard warrior of Twitter
In this guest post, NBN staffer Scott Rhodie writes an unofficial, personal view on his experience with a hostile Twitter critic.Last night I had a strange incident. While on Twitter I noticed someone saying that Australia’s NBN is already outdated. I wrote a small note back explaining they were incorrect.
And their response? The lovely gentleman (whose Twitter profile says: ‘Father of 5 kids, Loving Grandfather of 10 Grandchildren,and 2 Great Granddaughters. love to give heaps to Pollies and Poofters’) said to me: “Go and lick Gillards C*** out U commie Prick”
What's in a name?
In this guest post, Moensie Rossier wonders about the power of names for brands and marketers.
Brands have been having a bit of fun with names lately, not to mention a fair bit of success. Interbrand just named a headhunting firm Cloak & Dagger. And ‘Share a Coke’ showed how much power there is in a name.
The Coke campaign effectively short-circuited the usual mechanics of communication. It undoubtedly stroked people’s egos. But, I believe, its success stems from the fact that it directly and automatically affected people’s behaviour, rather than doing so indirectly by shaping attitudes.
Best ads from Super Bowl 2012
The Super Bowl is all done and a team from North America won. But as well as some sort of sporting event, it’s the world’s biggest advertising showcase. See the best of them right here… and please tell us what you think.
How to debunk media myths
In this post, UWS’s Ullrich Ecker, John Cook and Stephen Lewandowsky argue that cognitive science can help PRs form strategies in managing media misreporting.
A growing cohort of commentators has bemoaned the descent of contemporary political “debate” into a largely fact-free zone.
How about simply focusing on what consumers want?
In this guest post, Peter Mountford argues that brands should think more about what is really going on for consumers
Who here is hoping their favourite brand of toilet paper is going to be organizing a flash mob on their way home from work today?
What the Optus web copyright victory means
In this analysis first published on The Conversation, RMIT’s Marita Shelly examines the implications of Telstra’s defeat over the online rights to the AFL broadcast deal
This week’s Federal Court ruling that Optus customers are able to view sporting matches minutes after they are streamed live without breaching copyright is a landmark decision that alters our understanding of copyright law, and has significant implications for the AFL’s broadcasting rights deal.
Does Gina Rinehart’s bite of a chunk of Fairfax make her an oligarch?
In an article that first appeared in The Conversation, Mark Rolfe wonders whether the mining magnate’s move could turn Fairfax into something resembling America’s Fox network.
Australia’s richest person Gina Rinehart has moved to increase her stake in Fairfax Media, owner of The Age, Sydney Morning Herald and a number of radio stations. Rinehart has already shown her desire to play a role in public life, campaigning against former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s aborted mining tax. She has also demonstrated a willingness to make media investments to ensure her pro-business worldview is promulgated.
What does this latest move by Rinehart mean?
Gillard's Australia Day crisis
PM Julia Gillard’s media adviser Tony Hodges has been forced to resign over the Australia Day tent embassy debacle.
It came after it emerged he had revealed opposition leader Tony Abbott’s whereabouts, leading to both politicians being rescued by police in ugly scenes.
Mumbrella editor Tim Burrowes and advertising practitioner Jane Caro debate the topic on Weekend Sunrise’s masters of Spin segment:
The biggest cock-up I made in business
In this guest post, Chris Savage urges agency staff to live the brand.I still shudder when I think about how incredibly stupid I was when I made the biggest stuff up of my career. And then, 18 years later, I did it again. Do not make this mistake with your clients. Ever.
Hey Groupon. Thanks for fucking up email
In this guest post, Daniel Monheit warns that group deal overload is devaluing email marketingEmail marketing used to be fabulous. Back in the heady days of 2010, brands would work hard to build up well qualified databases, upon which they’d bestow carefully crafted correspondence filled with information, offers and incentives. The recipients, of course would be delighted: “Oh look! An email! From one of my favourite brands! And it’s 40 cents off at Woolies this week!”.
The staggering sway of Harold Mitchell
The Power Index today names Aegis Media chairman Harold Mitchell as the most powerful person in Melbourne. Andrew Crook profiles him.
Harold Mitchell takes pride in dispensing with the niceties. When The Power Index visited his South Melbourne private office before Christmas, fresh remains were scattered all over the boardroom table.
Share a Coke with… the moronic masses
The most-read story on Mumbrella last year, with not far off 100,000 page views, was a fairly humdrum yarn about the launch of Coca-Cola’s name-on-a-bottle campaign.The headline, “Coca-Cola puts people’s names on bottles in ‘Share a Coke’ campaign”, though hated by any self-respecting sub-editor, was loved by Google. And in rushed what can be politely described as the public.
Assumptions kill creativity
In this guest post, Gual Barwell disagrees that the sales success of the Old Spice social media campaign was overstated.Yesterday’s post from Cathie McGinn suggested the Old Spice campaign failed to connect with consumers. Based on the facts and figures, I disagree.
What Old Spice and Wieden + Kennedy has done and done phenomenally well is to create a franchise.
The SMH's readers (are wrong) editor
We are now about five months into the reign of Australia’s first readers’ editor. And I don’t think it is working.
It struck me at the time of Judy Prisk’s appointment to the Sydney Morning Herald that the fact that her boss was editor-in-chief Peter Fray was not going to be ideal if she was going to be the independent voice of the reader.
The emperor's new fragrance: Old Spice’s campaign failure
In this guest post, Cathie McGinn slays a sacred cow of 21st century marketing – the highly awarded Old Spice campaign.One of the biggest myths of recent times (by which I mean a story of great heroism and triumph we’d all like to believe but deep down know to be untrue) is the Old Spice social media campaign. It’s been much lauded and awarded as an example of outstanding content, a creative and collaborative way of connecting with consumers and driving a record increase in sales.
Government calls creative tender for new $20m Building Brand Australia project
The Federal Government has announced plans to spend $20 million revamping Australia’s international identity and will call a tender for creative agencies to submit their proposals for the Building Brand Australia project in the next two weeks.
In a statement released today, Trade Minsiter Simon Crean said Australia was in need of a brand which sells the country to the rest of the world.
“We need a cohesive brand that captures the essence of Australia and underscores the quality of all that we have to offer in sectors such as trade, investment and education,” Crean said.
He added: “We must find a better way to define our identity, and brand it.”
DDB Worldwide currently holds a three-year account with Tourism Australia which began in July of last year.
“I have an open mind and do not want to pre-empt the outcome of the creative process. We want our best creative minds on the job and we want them to engage the Australian people in this exciting project,” Crean said.
“Australia is a global trading nation with unique and popular products, services, art and culture. However we have not done as well as we could in stitching it all together,” said Matt Hingerty, MD of the Australian Tourism Export Council. He added: “Today’s buyer of wheat could be tomorrow’s business delegate and next year’s leisure tourist.”
The Building Brand Australia project is expected to be launched in February of next year, with an international launch in May at Expo 2010 in Shanghai.
August 26th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
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Comments
26 Aug 09
2:56 pm
The problem with this project, like DDB’s work, is that it is likely to focus on brand tactics like image and taglines rather than actually focusing on a long term brand strategy. This has long been the problem with almost all of this type of work for the past 10 year and why the recent Baz Luhrmann Australia campaign and DDB’s followup work failed to attract a single additional tourist to Australia. Secondly, it’s going to be about export and tourism dollars and the focus will be purely external and is doomed to failure. Everyone knows the best brands are built on the basis of an engagement with all stakeholders and, in this case, what the Australian people think and feel about their country. If this is going to be the focus Building Brand Australia would do well to look at the work setting done by Tourism Victoria, at least they have a strategy and are now Australia’s leading tourism state.
http://www.diffusion.com.au
26 Aug 09
4:19 pm
Is this Rudds attempt at “Cool Britannia”? We had The Clever Country back in the 80′s – that didn’t do much for us. Why not just go with The Lucky Country. Everyone in the world knows it’s true – and what’s wrong with being luck I say.
Also this sounds like a very short deadline to me. Launch brand in Feb 2010 after a call for tenders in mid September and presumably submissions some time in November before Canberra shuts down for Summer.
26 Aug 09
6:43 pm
“The Lucky Country” would be great…
if the complete and contextually correct quote from Donald Horne wasn’t:
“Australia is a lucky country, run by second-rate people who share its luck.”
Intrigued to see how this kick-bollocks-scramble-urgent-brief-review-design-by-committee shitfight plays out.
26 Aug 09
9:34 pm
I just had this evil vision of KRudd deciding to front the campaign, Aussie John Symonds-style……
26 Aug 09
9:43 pm
“The Land of No Worries”
Or …
Sun, Sea, Sand, Snakes & Spiders
Now … I’d like my $20m in unmarked $100 notes please
27 Aug 09
8:58 am
Simon Crean says he’s got an open mind, doesn’t want to pre-empt the outcome of the creative process and calls for the best creative minds for the job.
Why do I think this will end in tears?
27 Aug 09
11:58 am
What, DDB couldn’t come up with one themselves?
Just like they couldn’t think of a TV ad?
27 Aug 09
12:05 pm
How about ‘Fuck off we’re full’. Or has Cronulla already taken that?
28 Aug 09
4:46 pm
It will be the usual tactical applications from ad agencies from around the land. Seemingly without a strategy as much as anything that came out of Tourism Australia and DDB did. What was it that was a measure of the success of the Baz Luhrmann Australia campaign? Oh, it was the number of mentions and hits to the website. Gee, as if engagement built around “awareness, consideration, purchase intent, purchase and loyalty” would somehow translate magically into tourists with a more sophisticated awareness of what Australia now represents.
30 Aug 09
10:50 pm
Why does Australia always have to be so cliche…Australian’s are smarter than
“No worries’ or G’day. Does the UK brand itself on ‘fancy-a-cuppa’ or ‘How do you do’
The sooner Advertising agencies crawl out from behind their bullshit ‘smoke and mirrors and start delivering the better. Awards may look nice to impress the clients but results are what count in this competitive brand ruled world. ‘Plagiarising Agencies’ need to rethink. Nitro have based their mandate on brand success and indeed have been successful with this approach. Australia needs to get a more sophisticated approach. The outback-wards tarnish of simpletons scrambling with kangaroo pouches to buy a VB with a shrimp from the Barbie may just fail to ignite the investors and tourists of the future. Unfortunately, I fear that the government themselves have been too slow in protecting this magical country with environmental issues. What happens when the Great Barrier Reef dies, the tacky Gold Coast sinks, Noosa’s stolen sands disappear, Byron Bay becomes the new Noosa. And that’s just Queensland.
So why travel to Australia in the future. The government should spend $20m on saving the country not re-branding it. The future relies on todays actions.
The Australian is key to the country.
2 Sep 09
4:18 pm
Wow. 3 months to complete this task?
Good luck! A proper ‘identity’ process takes time.
Time to develop, execute, grow, toss away, start again….
Disaster in the making…
Lucky country! – bit cynical I would say
Come to our Lucky Country, you country sucks???????
2 Sep 09
4:20 pm
sorry!
your country sucks!!!!!
got carried away
what about:
200% Australia
5 Sep 09
7:01 pm
It needs a cunning stunt. Something that will trick the world into thinking ‘they aren’t the racist bastards that beat minorities up on the beach, only allow anglo saxons to get permanent residencies and charge overseas students through the roof. No, they’re actually sophisticated, and sometimes have running water (when it’s not a drought).’
6 Sep 09
4:50 pm
Wow so many negatives.! stop bagging everything chaps and come up with something better.? although there could be one problem.? maybe, just maybe Australian adland may keep doing the same old same old.? why not open the idea up to the public.? we need something out of the box, something that says we’re ready for the 21st century, (no guys in prawn suit’s please) we can do this.! i actually have an idea a TVC if anyone’s interested. The $20 mill is dragged out over 4 years, as for Michael’s comment re: the time frame, i agree if they stick to that it might look a tad undercooked.
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