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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.
SMH shows how to make a home page takeover work
When you’re a commercial organisation, balancing the needs of consumers with the need to make money through ads is tricky.
Among the organisations that sometimes goes the wrong way in my view is Fairfax, with its autostart video ads, for instance.
But today, a bit of unreserved praise for the home page takeover currently running on smh.com.au for American Express.
It appears to be frequency capped at one impression so it’s not going to be too intrusive for readers, and I suspect that the cut-through will be big.
Tim Burrowes
August 25th, 2010 at 11:38 am
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Comments
25 Aug 10
11:43 am
why would a user would be happy with this? they come to read the news and get a big annoying irrelevant ad ruining the page as soon as they enter.
not sure it’s a fair trade off.
25 Aug 10
11:52 am
I’ve got some fairly curmudgeonly views about page takeovers, but I suspect that the point is not to make a user happy. It’s to command a few seconds of the user’s attention without pissing them off. And in that respect, people’s browsing habits aren’t going to be shifted by one intrusive takeover ad. I can’t think of a reason why Fairfax would turn this one down… I hated it, but I’ll still be back at their site at least once before the end of work today.
25 Aug 10
11:55 am
It certainly made me unhappy and I won’t be back today (although I will be hitting up the mobile site). I don’t even know what the ad was for.
25 Aug 10
11:59 am
Traveller,
Given the choice between experiencing high impact advertising for ten seconds or a pay wall, which would you choose?
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
25 Aug 10
12:18 pm
All the homepage takeover haters would obviously be happier to hit the SMH page and enter their credit card details instead .
25 Aug 10
12:42 pm
Pay walls vs takeovers?? What a cop out argument.
Are you homepage takeover fanboys saying you cant acheive big impact without pissing the user off, and starting some annoying animation just before I’m about to click on a story?
I didn’t even hang around long enough to look at what the ad was about- just looked straight for the X.
Yeah… What cut through!
25 Aug 10
12:55 pm
Hey Tim. I would choose neither. The Internet (still) has a rich source of free news sites and I’d take my business elsewhere.
25 Aug 10
1:00 pm
Hi Traveller,
But what are your thoughts on how those “free news sites” will afford to bring you that news in the long term? Either somebody pays for it or in the end, it goes away.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
25 Aug 10
1:05 pm
Tim – if paywalls hit you can bet your house Fairfax will still be serving up these over the page executions to users, regardless of whether they’re opening their wallets.
Never have I heard anyone talking paywalls talk about less advertisements. If anything they will want to charge MORE CPM as there will be a flimsy argument around improved user quality.
And I bet the way the ad is tracked someone will be claiming x/close button clicks as legitimate click through.
25 Aug 10
1:32 pm
Hey Tim
It will be interesting to see what happens to ABC/BBC if the whole online news world goes pay. They are currently my preferred source of online news (with SMH as I am from Sydney).
General news has been shown to not work on a pay to view model as there are too many other alternatives. Pending Murdoch convincing all the news outlets to charge, of course.
Niche news site like AFR and WSJ work well because they are the only source.
25 Aug 10
2:07 pm
From a digital creative perspective I feel it fails, simply because the takeover doesn’t allow the current news areas to fall over. Therefore the idea fails. Seeing the switch to some old/alternative content before the wall falls feels awkward.
This is why you don’t see many concepts doing anything with the news areas that is this specific or tied to the current content. It’s too hard to achieve plus make the execution look 100% quality.
25 Aug 10
2:37 pm
It got my attention. I was facinated enough to sit through it without hitting the close button.
The downside is I cannot remember the advert and would seriously consider clicking the close button second time around.
It would add to cost, but an advert that evolved and offered something new to capture and hold one’s attention each day might be worth the investment in the longer term.
One could definitely do some cool things with the space.
25 Aug 10
2:56 pm
i agree with Tim – it got my attention and was short enough to withstand viewing. Amex have also done well with their creative SMH DBS print ads.
Those born before 1980 are well aware that nothing in the world comes for free, including news. While the payment model for news is taking a while to sort itself out, Tim’s right – someone has to pay for real news to be gathered as opposed to scraped, linked or stolen. In the end this will be the user – one way or another.
25 Aug 10
3:02 pm
I like it, but I can’t help but think a bit of better branding would’ve helped – I’m in the industry and it took me a while to realise Amex where the client.
And this is surely better than those “please look at this advert for 5 seconds until your page loads” kind of things. And plus points for the frequency capping – so those people who are saying “they won’t go back today”, well what’s the point in that? You’ve already done your single view of the ad.
8/10
25 Aug 10
3:07 pm
Found it a clever idea, but too intrusive for my taste.
25 Aug 10
3:10 pm
Have you ever known Fairfax to frequency cap? Not only is it poor creative execution, it keeps on giving, every time I go back to the home page…..all part of the race to the bottom. The term “creative” should be licenced, and granted only when its true meaning is fulfilled.
25 Aug 10
3:17 pm
Very much agree with OzDean – if the concept can’t be executed perfectly, don’t do it.
Apart from that, IMO takeovers are not a positive way to get users to consider your brand. Web browsing is a fast-paced exercise and the last thing you want to do is interrupt a user’s activities by taking away control of the browser, then show them a big shiny logo of the company that just pissed them off and wasted their time.
The element of ‘surprise’ is why users don’t remember what the ad was about. The ad is over before they have had a chance to consider the message. But I wonder if, after being so rudely interrupted, they have a subconscious negative emotion toward that brand?
There are far more positive ways of using animation and flash to create ads that people want to view and indeed interact with. Give users a positive, unobtrusive experience and I guarantee you, while your CTR might not be as “impressive”, the quality of your leads certainly will – and you won’t have a negative impact on perception of the brand. Your message will also be absorbed better because you have gained the users voluntary attention and they are therefore prepared for, and receptive of, your offer.
25 Aug 10
3:48 pm
check back in 3 days with everyone who visited the SMH site today and lets see the unaided/aided recall for this ad
25 Aug 10
3:48 pm
Don’t even bother looking at pop up ads like this so I agree that the cut-through is poor. Understand that money needs to be made from online advertising but this is a really poor way to do it…all is does is piss me off and send me to a site like the ABC for the news…
25 Aug 10
7:45 pm
From a publisher POV I’d take an intrusive OTP over a production-heavy integration any day
26 Aug 10
8:11 am
Sweet advertorial.
26 Aug 10
1:38 pm
Yeah, I clicked the x, and then left. No idea what the ad was for until I read this. Now I now to avoid Amex. Cheers!
28 Aug 10
10:42 pm
This was a good one ? really ?? The fold down news was old, and i’m not sure what the tents had to do with signing up for an Amex Card. I asked a room of 26 people today if they’d seen it and could remember the brand, almost all had been annoyed by it, but only 1 person remembered the brand. SMH annoyed everyone, and the advertiser didn’t seem likely to sign up many additional members.
If publishers are looking for interruption style advertising combined with the paywalls to be their silver bullet, they’d better hope that news outlets like the ABC and the BBC get shut down pretty soon. Since the SMH started auto-starting their 30 second bits of video that are preceded by 30 second ads, i’ve moved most of my news consumption to either the ABC or blogs (for sport). Interruption models, forced pre-roll videos and auto-refresh aren’t the answer for revenue – unfortunately i don’t know what is, maybe it is the paywall – but if newspapers don’t get smart soon, they’re going to have few customers to convert, and fewer advertisers to pay for the ads.
29 Aug 10
12:45 pm
Hi Mike Zed,
Actually, I must admit that I missed the fact that it was old news on the fold down.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
1 Sep 10
8:45 pm
Sorry I missed this discussion at the time, especially the opinions of ANON333, Traveller, MikeZed and Amy. I am always hungry for news but recently found myself actually picking up a newspaper rather than facing another website like SMH.com.au. (Then I remembered I live in WA and flung the horrible thing down before it scarred me.) After reading these opinions, however, I am now wondering if news sites are using tactics like page takeovers to annoy customers back to printed copy?
8 Sep 10
1:43 pm
If the creative agency had used Page Morph technology (from Eyewonder, but with a similar product offering from Eyeblaster), which takes a screenshot live and then interacts with it, this would have been much more effective. Lazy creative/technology used.
8 Sep 10
2:16 pm
I like Morph too, Jeff
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSMRPKM1evk