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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.
Gruesome Central Institute of Technology ad goes viral
A gory tongue-in-cheek sci-fi themed ad for the Central Institute of Technology in Perth has gone viral, amassing more than 1m views since it was uploaded earlier this month.
The ad was written and directed by CIT grads Henry Inglis and Aaron McCann.
Head of marketing at CIT, Kenley Gordon said in a press release: “Free reign isn’t supposed to mean dismembered limbs. If there’s a next time, I’ll stay on set till the final scene wraps. The youth market is what Henry and Aaron know and judging from the hits, they nailed it.”
February 20th, 2012 at 1:47 pm
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Comments
20 Feb 12
1:53 pm
To make a popular reference..
OMG.
Witty, shocking… and rememberable.
20 Feb 12
1:54 pm
The top comment on youtube is brilliant. CIT made a good choice letting them do their own thing.
20 Feb 12
1:55 pm
Gold.
20 Feb 12
1:57 pm
That was amazing.
20 Feb 12
2:00 pm
Wow, and not in a good way.
20 Feb 12
2:01 pm
Good on them, but no client would let an agency do this.
20 Feb 12
2:07 pm
Funny, I saw this last week but didn’t get past the second ‘”snap” cause it looked amateurish and dodgy. More fool me. Good on the creators, and good on CIT for letting them do it.
20 Feb 12
2:08 pm
It’s majestic.
20 Feb 12
2:08 pm
awesome
20 Feb 12
2:16 pm
Fucking 22 year olds right?
20 Feb 12
2:25 pm
Stands impaled head and shoulders above anything else in the category. Most uni advertising is woeful.
20 Feb 12
2:35 pm
lame strategy, Award school idea, brilliant execution.
That’s what happens when everyone who thinks they know stuff tells kids to be sensible and act like grown ups…..awesome.
20 Feb 12
3:13 pm
Somebody hire them!
20 Feb 12
5:23 pm
Pretty good job fellas.
20 Feb 12
9:29 pm
What a wank. Any message gets lost in the SFX and where are you going to run it, on the Zombie Television Network?
21 Feb 12
12:38 am
This will reel in the prospective students! What a wonderfully awesome clip!!!!
21 Feb 12
9:36 am
Danny thinks that 17/18 year old tech kids are sitting around watching TV, and therefore won’t see this because it’s “only” on the internet.
Wow.
21 Feb 12
12:10 pm
^this. Seriously, does he mean that? It has over 1m views already.
Also it is well done, and the message isn’t lost, especially due to the end board.
21 Feb 12
2:11 pm
Respect.
And I agree….fuck’n 22 year olds.
21 Feb 12
2:21 pm
Regardless of whether you like the execution or the idea, this really shows that when you take conservative ‘strategic’ marketers (aka ‘idea killers’) out of the mix, even uni students with a handicam can generate better, more engaging content that most creative agencies can ever dream of.
This is a great example that if both clients and creative agencies took more risks, it may just pay off.
21 Feb 12
2:51 pm
i see tonnes of ads for uni students – they’re all gay and show a smiling student happy with his and her decision in life.
this ad actually gets their audience.
21 Feb 12
2:52 pm
FFS, perspective please.
A film like this might get a whole bunch of junior ad creatives applauding its creative freedom on a blog because they’re all stuck doing retail catalogues, but this spot will persuade precisely no-one to attend this school. It’s sensationalist for absolutely no reason whatsoever, which is a advertising strategy that never works.
Welcome to advertising 101.
21 Feb 12
2:55 pm
It appeals to me. Viral adds are so hard to achieve and hats off to these guys. 1m hits is epic. Maybe the ending was over the top. Seeing the guy yack was enough, see decapitation, maybe a bit over the top
21 Feb 12
3:42 pm
Jeremy (Feb 21 at 2.21) is on the money. I’ve been a ‘strategic’ uni marketer paying big money to agencies who didn’t always deliver on their ‘idea’. These former students came to me with a bit of drive to get things done and they did it with basically a hand held and a bunch of mates and it takes off. I saw the script and wanted to meddle a little but thought that would just diminish their energy.
Take a risk, let ‘em go, sometimes it works out.
21 Feb 12
4:34 pm
Heh, talentless haters will hate. 1.3 million views can’t be wrong.
And the last globally viral campaign you did was … ?
21 Feb 12
5:36 pm
Mr/Ms Sharks,
I’m taking a wild guess here, but I’m pretty sure that at least some of the (to date) 1.4 million people who’ve viewed this 90 second commercial on youtube AREN’T junior advertising creatives.
Some of them are probably 17 year olds from Western Australia, who just viewed a 90 second commercial about the CIT.
Once again, this proves the point that if you make your work watchable enough, you don’t need to spend a bomb running it.
22 Feb 12
12:38 am
To circling Sharks – I don’t think Dan Harmon (creator and show-runner of Community) is a junior ad creative. And he seems to like it. Of course, his is just one opinion but a valid one if you’re judging comedy.
On your point of getting people to attend the school – does any university advertising really transmit to direct enrolments (especially when universities now days are becoming increasingly more fragmented in the courses they off)? Stuff like this is just to build awareness of the campus and, from what I can see, the capabilities of its students based on what they learn there.
Advertising 102? See you next semester. Don’t sleep with your teacher.
22 Feb 12
9:49 am
Hey @iselect guy
Ads don’t have sexuality so cannot be ‘gay’. I’m pretty sure you also weren’t saying the ads are ‘happy’.
Please don’t use that word to reference something you find lame. Yes I know you’re not the first one to do it and I’m not picking on you as I see and hear it a lot….but we’re all adults here (I think) and it is an abuse of language which is not to be encouraged.
22 Feb 12
2:05 pm
Dear Ricky,
Gay used to mean happy, cheerful, light of heart.
Then a whole bunch of people appropriated the word, and completely changed its meaning. Gay then meant homosexual.
Which made a complete mockery of any film dialogue pre-1950, and a bunch of brands including Golden Gaytime and Ben Gay.
Now a whole bunch of people have appropriated the word once again, to mean lame.
I hardly think the gay community can complain, given they pinched the word in the first place.
Maybe if they invented their own word, they’d have a case.
24 Feb 12
5:48 pm
Haahah this made my day!
24 Feb 12
10:21 pm
@Hmmmm I’m not ‘the gay community’. I’m me, and I find it offensive. I’m the one complaining.
28 Feb 12
1:27 am
Thank you CIT, you have made my life as an employer so much easier. From now on if I see a CV which indicates a person has attended your uni, I will throw it straight in the bin…. Well done Kenley Gordon!
28 Feb 12
2:03 pm
Hey disLIKE, if you take such an approach to hiring I doubt graduates from CIT would want to work with you anyway.