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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 While on Twitter I noticed someone saying that Australia’s NBN is already outdated.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.
Is a kettle boiling a good ad?
So would you watch a kettle boiling? The weekend magazines carriedied an unusual ad.
It was a plain, unbranded address for the url Life is too short.com.au.
When you go to Life is Too Short page you simply see a video of a kettle being put on the ring, coming to the boil and 
being taken off the hob, followed by the message “Life is too short”.
Afterwards, you get offered further videos – one of a jug of water chilling in a fridge. And another of a water filter doing its thing.
Only at the end of each video do you see that the brand behind the product is the Billi home water filter system.
It’s an unusual approach, and a long way from the hard sell one would usually expect when a brand is investing in full pages of Sunday magazines. I see that they’ve also invested in paid search on Google on the phrase “life is too short”.
I suspect that the approach delivers a much smaller number of people to the website than a more traditional ad. But I also suspect that those who do make it get much more fully engaged with the message.
It’s the work of Victorian agency Cornwell Design.
Good stuff.
Tim Burrowes
July 21st, 2010 at 12:40 pm
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Comments
21 Jul 10
12:57 pm
i’m in two worlds.
on one hand, it’s bold, brave – and very different from usual fanfare (both the press and the vid). On the other hand, the life is too short message was too esoteric and the vid – if you watched the whole damn thing – was the most boring experience of my life despite that that being the point they were trying to make.
21 Jul 10
2:03 pm
So that’s what that site was.
I clicked through to the site when someone posted a link watched 10 seconds of it then skipped to the end of the video and when it was still just a kettle I left.
My honest feeling is that this probably won’t work due to the low number of users who would stay through even the first video. I only bothered skipping to the end of it to see if it was branded and thats because I work in the industry.
I’d love to see some post analysis around numbers after the campaign. I just cant imagine the branded message getting enough reach to drive a return for the client.
21 Jul 10
2:09 pm
Of course without knowing what the brief or goals are who can say whether or not it will make the client happy.
21 Jul 10
2:10 pm
i liked it.
21 Jul 10
2:39 pm
joel pearson’s right, it won’t work. the few people who go to the site won’t wait, or will miss the brand message. And there’s nothing that will compel those who see it to act on it – and even if they do the ad doesn’t tell me why i should prefer that brand.
21 Jul 10
2:53 pm
Too long. Nice message (not unique, but clear at least) but this should be after about 10 seconds, not 90 seconds! As Joel says, I only looked to the end because I’m in the industry and am being made aware of this campaign through Mumbrella – if I was the average punter, no way – boring as bat poo.
Can Billi please provide their figures that support the ROI on this campaign? I will happily watch a kettle boil if they are favourable!
21 Jul 10
3:01 pm
That’s why Designers should stick to Design.
21 Jul 10
3:03 pm
They are doing outdoor ads on trams and I looked at it on my iPhone, but hey, no flash. What a waste. #fail
21 Jul 10
3:20 pm
I agree with Jodes…Cornwell Design are designers (very good ones too) but they’re not an ad agency. A very clever idea with great production values but probably too clever.
21 Jul 10
3:57 pm
Life’s too short to go to a website without purpose. Can only imagine their numbers will be pretty poor. Cornwell should surprise us all with a compelling case study once the numbers are in.
21 Jul 10
4:38 pm
Ohh dear, I lasted 14 seconds on the first vid, hmmm sorry guys, but clearly I am either not the target market, as in my life IS too short to spend watching Vids like this and try to work out what the hell it is your trying to tell me…or you just bored me !
21 Jul 10
5:38 pm
On one hand this ad is quite clever, I saw it on the side of a tram a few weeks back and found myself driven by the intrigue, needing to know what the site was all about.
In the end I have to admit I was amazed to discover it was an ad for a boring old kettle.
The whole way through I was expecting a big climax, but never even got close to one. It felt a hell of a lot like an awareness campaign for a cause, never would of expected kettles.
21 Jul 10
8:49 pm
Tim, you realise that the ads not for kettles right?
21 Jul 10
10:02 pm
Awwww Anonymous (3:03pm) … don’t be too harsh about your iPhone being a waste and a fail for not being Flash capable.
22 Jul 10
9:30 am
It’s clearly a clever way to drive interest, but i think it broke a cardinal rule of not giving people a pay-off/reward for watching.
Having just felt duped into wasting 2mins watching a kettle boil, there is no way I’m about to reward the company with any of my money.
I’m going to find another way to wash the bitter taste away!
22 Jul 10
1:24 pm
Errr….Maybe the brief was:
Let’s do a really left field, slightly esoteric ad that, due to its being so different then other ads, will get picked up by the media (like Mumbrella) so the ROI will come from the PR results.
22 Jul 10
1:46 pm
Interesting and in product messaging and as an idea it’s very strong as it’s true to its USP but here’s where it all goes wrong and as pointed out already a comms agency rather than a design agency would have taken that idea to the next level in customer satisfaction, interaction and reward. Once people land on the site, the campaign idea of; Life is too short could be pushed further to; saving time, here’s what others are doing or what would you like to do? Answer and win – they could have build a whole campaign that pulled people in to participate around that thought – missed opp but at least they had a go
22 Jul 10
5:26 pm
It’s a clever way to fail.
24 Jul 10
10:18 am
Hopeless. I looked at it 2 weeks ago and had no idea what it was for until I read this article. Now it has just annoyed me!
27 Jul 10
9:47 am
WOW – in a world where customer attention is scarce and hopefully valued it would be interesting to see how many customers shared and raved about that ad!
27 Jul 10
1:48 pm
Snoring. I wanted something like a tropical destination or at least something funny / engaging. Talk about not meeting consumer expectations.
28 Jul 10
3:08 pm
We live in age where blip verts are too long. Someone using the 12 times function on their Foxtel IQ have a greater recall of the ads in the breaks than the someone who sits thru the break. I would have throught if your premise was that lifes too short then speeding an ad up too 24x faster would have delivered a better result.
28 Jul 10
3:09 pm
Also can anyone who watched all the way through put aside their disappointment and remember who the ad was for.
29 Jul 10
5:22 pm
I thought it was clever initially and then disappointing. I saw the FPCs in the Herald and wsa curious so I googled Life is Too Short – only to watch a kettle boil and find out it’s a water system. Which I forgot the name of until I read it again in this post. Clever idea, pity it wasn’t for a travel company or something.
29 Jul 10
5:24 pm
Oh, and I also watched about 10 seconds then skipped to the end in case it got interesting. It didn’t.
2 Aug 10
3:43 pm
Fail…
10 Aug 10
4:59 pm
Claire, you missed a word.
MASSIVE Fail
10 Aug 10
5:10 pm
Zip Industries must be LTAO
10 Aug 10
5:27 pm
@Lisa, thanks, so I did!!! EPIC could also be used
10 Aug 10
8:12 pm
Well its certainly created some awareness for Billi – so job well done Steve, Kate et al…. R