Opinion
- 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 marketing
  
  Email 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.
- How reliable are radio ratings?
  
  In this guest posting, Jason ‘Jabba’ Davis wonders how accurate radio ratings can be, since the data is collated from handwritten diaries.
  
  So, the radio ratings season gets underway tomorrow. After a well-earned break, Australia’s commercial radio stations will renew their obsession with figures to see how many of us are listening. Are they winning or losing the ratings war?
  
  The much feared radio survey is the only way to measure the success or failure of a station’s playlist, talent, promotions or even good old Black Thunder crosses. With six-figure salaries riding on the make-or-break nature of ratings, just how accurate are Australia’s radio survey results?

Laziest social media campaign yet?

I used to work in Dubai.

Among the many corrupt things about the media there were the government-funded “awards” that incentivised journalists to write positive things about the emirate. You can read more about that at Fake Plastic Souks.

So I’m just delighted to see that Sydney agency Robot Meets Alien is adopting a similar approach by attempting to bribe incentivise bloggers with the chance of winning a grand if they write something nice about the video camera they’re promoting.

They’ve been writing to bloggers with the following message:

Hi,

I’m from Sydney based agency Robot Meets Alien. Briefly, our work here is about activating offline conversations via our online relationships. Right now we’re reaching out to the online media and marketing community for inspiration. We’re starting a conversation with Australian bloggers in the search of the most innovative social media campaign for the new Samsung U10 camcorder <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grHz0F7QaVk>.

The blogger with the best idea receives $1000 to spend on their blog to run the campaign. You’ll also gain exposure to our Facebook fans (5300+) and Twitter following (1200+).

How to enter:

1. Write a blog post about the U10 Camcorder <http://tinyurl.com/yk3qzks>.

2. Email us with your response to the question: “How would you market the U10 through your blog and social media network?” Your pitch could be made through a video, a text email, a blog post etc. The more creative the better!

3. Email the URL of your blog post about the U10 and your pitch to SamsungCapture@robotmeetsalien.com along with your name and contact number.

4. Wait for our confirmation email to ensure you have been entered.

Feel free to call or email anytime.

And they’ve even been including the blogs of rival agencies in that email.

Still, I think I’ll have a crack. Here’s my response to the question of how I’d market it… I’d go and find an agency with some good ideas. I’d avoid any agency with the word “robot” or “alien” in their name.

Do I win the money?

Tim Burrowes

November 15th, 2009 at 7:19 pm

Comments

Craig
15 Nov 09
7:27 pm

I avoid any agency that uses the phrase “start a conversation”. Most abused phrase of 2009.

Zac Martin
15 Nov 09
7:28 pm

Crowded sourced marketing isn’t such a bad idea if it’s well executed. Obviously their mailing list and prize money and execution in general is woeful.

Matt
15 Nov 09
7:32 pm

Wow. Just. Wow…. That is indeed the most lazy & embarrasing effort in recent times from an ad agency regarding social media whoring oh sorry “marketing”.

If I was the client and they came back with this – which is effectively saying “we have no idea for your product, so we (your chosen creative agency) have NO creativity” I would show them the door….and then kick them through it.

Amos Keeto
15 Nov 09
9:48 pm

You so, so miss the whole point

Amos Keeto
15 Nov 09
9:50 pm

The previous was to Robot Meets Alien, sorry for any confusion

Matt
15 Nov 09
10:47 pm

Ihad never heard of this product until now. The fact you wrote about this lazy campaign shows that it is already working.

Amos Keeto
15 Nov 09
11:16 pm

Matt, I’ve never heard of you before so I guess your campaign is working.

Warlach
15 Nov 09
11:48 pm

Before we can even comment on the program, I have to ask: where are they getting the numbers of Facebook friends and Twitter followers from?

Near as I can tell, they have 754 followers on Twitter and their homepage links to a Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/.....089?ref=ts) with 177 fans.

Otherwise, I don’t know what I dislike most – the cheesy paid for content, or the classic “come up with our ideas for us!” idea.

User Generated Content – You’re Doing It Wrong.

Stilgherrian
16 Nov 09
6:25 am

And even their own content is “wrong”. What the frigging frigg is “activating offline conversations”? Oh, you mean “getting people to talk”.

Is that the robot talking, or the alien? ‘Cos it sure ain’t how actual humans talk. Sorry, how humans “activate their conversations”.

Crowdsourcing = expecting other people to do your work for you, for nothing. Bah.

Adam
16 Nov 09
7:59 am

Is this for real? I know that SOME agency staff simply have no idea. (I say ‘some’ because many are fantastic.) This backs up my thoughts there, what an incompetent so called ‘ creative’ agency. This is daylight robbery if Samsung are paying this Robot / Alien mob!?!!!!!

My advice to Samsung would be to: Sack them.

Lucio Ribeirpo
16 Nov 09
8:48 am

and the conversation has started…the wrong one.

Lou
16 Nov 09
9:55 am

I get it and agree that it’s lame ass campaign but I’m sick of people getting all uppity about the way people approach bloggers like they’re some kind of credible source of news – they aren’t.
By definition they’re just people about shit/stuff they like…they have no obligation or responsibility to get both sides of the story and present an unbiased factual report…
Yes, granted some bloggers are journalists but not all of them so why not incentivise them? or give them stuff? I don’t really care…it’s not bloggers I go to for an unbiased opinion/report is it?
The more parallels we draw between bloggers and journalists the more journalists feel like they can blur the line and go on rants about things rather than report the facts and at the same time we give more power & influence to some beligerant blogger…

Warlach
16 Nov 09
10:36 am

Lou, I certainly wasn’t approaching this from a ‘bloggers are journalists of teh futures!!11!!1!” angle – there’s enough nut jobs to run with that line of thought, but this is a situation where the brands strategy is to secretly buy public opinion.

It is a difficult line to draw, but anything that doesn’t encourage anybody expressing their opinion online and exerting their influence to reveal any conflicts of interest, like a secret competition, is dodgy.

If they put it up on a site, where they actively invited anyone to partake, then it wouldn’t be nearly as dodgy. Still pretty pathetic and boring, though.

@Stilgherrian: I think you’re wrong. I’m pretty sure the old Batman show from the 60′s used to start with:

Robin: “Atomic batteries to power. Turbines to speed. Activating offline conversations.”
Batman: “Roger”

*nanananananananananananananananana… BATMAN!*

Stilgherrian
16 Nov 09
10:41 am

@Warlach: So what you’re saying is that you’re the alien?

Joel
16 Nov 09
10:50 am

If as a blogger you win this, and are therefore paid by a company (Samsung), or its agent (Robot Meets Alien), you would be required by new FTC regs to disclose this on your blog. Just saying.

Aaron
16 Nov 09
10:58 am

So who’s to say that this isn’t one of those reverse psychology posts from Mumbrella that still engages with the audience?

Eriq
16 Nov 09
11:01 am

@joel wrong jurisdiction buddy

Sonny Bill
16 Nov 09
11:31 am

What impresses me most is how quick this industry wants to shoot everybody else ideas down…because it wasn’t theirs. I suggest you take a good look at your own useless social marketing “team” and then throw stones. I am not the alien btw I personally hated this approach. So much hate.

Warlach
16 Nov 09
11:33 am

@Stilgherrian No, I’m not the alien, sadly. It’s an interesting choice for agency name – probing or destroy mankind? The choices are limitless!

Then again, PR and marketing that abides by Asimov’s Three Laws is actually a fairly neat idea…

sven
16 Nov 09
2:10 pm

lame idea aside, i agree with Lou that for the line between editorial and advertising gets crossed much more in the blogosphere because the editor is also the head of sales….

Kevin
16 Nov 09
2:27 pm

We got this ‘opportunity’ to participate, but we don’t plan to do so. Personally I put this approach in the Nigerian email and Russian bride scam, only not quite so convincing or as well thought through.

Rawns
16 Nov 09
2:38 pm

Appalling as it is, is there even any kind of incentive to assist these hapless muppets? A free camera?

Gort
16 Nov 09
2:51 pm

Klaatu barada nikto.

Tom Dodson
16 Nov 09
5:02 pm

Another sad thing is they are an online marketing agency, and nobody has responded to this negative publicity….

Seriously guys, if you were a real online marketing group you would have picked up on this article and gone into damage control….

Stilgherrian
16 Nov 09
5:08 pm

Maybe, Tom, but I reckon I might be hiding under the doona instead.

LOL
16 Nov 09
9:43 pm

LOL Tim

Idea for Samsung
16 Nov 09
10:35 pm

Perhaps next time you approach a 3rd party for your marketing don’t approach an alien!

Blimey, people talk about flying saucers and the like, but never give money to them…(Tom Cruise and John Travolta aside…)

Here is some advise for Samsung: Go to Youtube and search “I’m an alien – fast show” – That’s you that is.

Merry
17 Nov 09
11:45 am

This agency should change their name to Lazy Robot Meets Greedy Alien
Lazy or uncreative Robot can not come up with their own ideas for this campaign, but Greedy Alien wants to keep the client’s money and decides to offer up just $1,000 as a prize – and hey it’s not even a prize really, because you have to put it towards the promotion of the product they are supposed to be promoting.

At least the chip companies running competitions to make an ad or create a flavour are offering a decent $$ prize in addition to a portion of sales or producing the ad themselves.

Simon
17 Nov 09
9:44 pm

I have to agree with Warlach – where are they getting their numbers from?

It reminds me of that PR agency I had a stoush with on another mUmBRELLA story about their ‘social media-led’ campaign for Cascade lager returning to the 375ml bottles. Their Cascade Facebook group had 153 people in it…no doubt most of them employees of Fosters…

Until you’re over 1000 fans/followers or whatever, I’d never blow your trumpet…

DeeDee
18 Nov 09
2:06 pm

Since when is it new for an agency to ask someone else to come up with their creative? In the publishing world it happens all the time – and I don’t think there’s ever been an offer of payment – other than that they might actually potentially buy an ad? Maybe.

alexander
19 Nov 09
1:42 am

Thanks for the linky thing, Tim!

Lou – bloggers get audience. Doesn’t matter if they’re journalists or commentators, sharers of life experience or experts in their fields.

Which is why witless arseholes are starting to look at ways of ‘engaging’ them. Sadly, the thinking seems to be remove ‘media’ from the advertising/PR plan and replace with ‘bloggers’ as if the motivations, relationships and communication flows are the same.

So I’ve seen agencies that want to gather bloggers in a social event where the product in question is demo’d to them and agencies giving products to bloggers in the hope of securing ‘reviews’ or positive mentions.

Just for the record – as a journalist over 10 years, I only ever attended three press events. One company flew me to Lausanne to meet their CEO (lovely), one to Rome to a product gig (smashin’) and one to have breakfast at the Ritz in London (my ad manager shamed me by boshing Heinz ketchup out of the bottle all over their lovely scrambled eggs). That was as an editor. As someone who has a silly little blog as a hobby, the chances of you lot ever getting me in a room with a product are not only zero, I’ll bite anyone who tries.

Like the above example, this stuff doesn’t really work very well. Thank God the Middle East is still behind the curve on this and most bloggers are left untouched because many agencies and most clients still don’t see online as terribly relevant.

Halcyon days, eh?

Rufus
14 Dec 09
5:14 pm

Just to balance out the vitriolic posting from other agencies and Timbo. The following are Robot Meets Alien recent social media project stats:

1. Project Runway Australia (Facebook Fans: 6619/Twitter Followers: 2196)
2. Adore Midori (Facebook Fans: 4572 Fans/Twitter Followers: 735) Ongoing
3. Samsung Capture (Facebook Fans: 6256/Twitter Followers: 1330) Ongoing.

I like what they do and think you’ve all let yourselves get a little carried away.