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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.
Legal firm launches social media reputation protection agency En Garde
The battle to lead marketing strategies within social media – which has seen PR, social media, digital, and even media agencies lay claim to the emerging turf has a new challenger – law firms.
Sydney legal firm Turner Freeman has created a joint venture with comms agency SR7 to launch a joint venture – En Garde - in what it claims may be a world first.
En Garde will target corporates, government departments and institutions and offer auditing and monitoring of social media networks “for potential threats” including helping “prevent social media marketing campaigns from becoming a platform for inappropriate content or attacks on brands”.
Turner Freeman partner Steven Penning said: “The management of online risk should be approached with the same diligence afforded to traditional risk factors such as financials, operational and material. Social Media risk can be managed properly if appropriate mechanisms and procedures are put in place and legal counsel who understand the medium are used.”
James Griffin, who is a partner and head of Monitoring and Analysis at SR7, said: “Clients are being panicked by their agencies into creating social media marketing and PR campaigns often without due diligence being performed,” Mr. Griffin said. “Clients must know what people are saying about them or their products on Social Media before campaigns are launched.”
At yesterday’s Australian Marketing Institute conference in Sydney, Melinda Upton from legal firm Blake Dawson warned that marketers need to keep a tight grip on the legal issues around social media.
October 30th, 2009 at 10:53 am
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Comments
30 Oct 09
11:02 am
The old adage “You have two ears and one mouth…” applies in social media as well. I would hazard a guess that social media offerings coming out of PR agencies would involve a period of listening prior to any engagement tactics being recommended anyway.
It will be interesting to see the flavour that a law firm adds to the mix and whether this joint venture will be functional given how opposed the two philosophies can be at times. Best of luck though, it’s always good to see new perspectives.
30 Oct 09
11:52 am
Makes sense to us. Many of the large businesses we are pitching to are getting increasingly worried by the growing examples of stuff ups and not having their own correct procedures in place to deal with social media issues.
Any company to not consider it from this angle is mad. Its a logical step. Good on them.
30 Oct 09
12:22 pm
Don’t mess with the internet man
30 Oct 09
12:27 pm
Great to see Stop.Edit. featured on mUmbrella for the second time this week…first Frasers Property, now en garde….
30 Oct 09
12:47 pm
Anyone who jumps into a social media campaign without conducting monitoring first is asking for trouble. What En Garde is offering is not new – all good agencies (regardless of discipline) have been doing this for some time, years in fact. To suggest it is a world first is well, just rubbish.
30 Oct 09
12:47 pm
Isn’t this just a function of having a thought-out PR strategy, executed through so-called, social media (digital, conversational channels)?
30 Oct 09
12:50 pm
has this idea been researched with the target client group?
other than a new layer of cost, it doesnt seem to add anything to the existing market research, digital media monitoring and legal services already used by consumer-focussed companies
as for the emergency response- this is already handled by PR agencies, who will tell you that lawyers and media don’t mix and only damage your reputation even further
the fact that neither Turner Freeman nor s7 realise this speaks volumes about their suitability or lack thereof when it comes to online reputation management
30 Oct 09
12:55 pm
internet usage policy, email policy, social media guidelines…logical.
I think this is their market.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tech.....ook-arrest
30 Oct 09
1:23 pm
This initiative will likely come to nothing unless En Garde can attract the kind of uber-connected geeks who can stay ahead of the pack. Otherwise they’ll be flying blind just like everyone else, and it won’t be long before everyone sees they’re full of it.
The other aspect to this is that high risk and short time-to-market is more-or-less required online. The most successful companies release early and release often, and do little to manage what people are saying about them.
There was a time when you could manage reputation in this heavy-handed kind of way because of the lead time in getting messages out through traditional media. That time, I believe, has passed. Anyone who takes the time to do diligence will always end up being overtaken by a small, agile, risk-taking company that just doesn’t care about that kind of thing. And people will love them for it.
Well, that’s my 2c anyway
Dan
30 Oct 09
1:57 pm
@sven: spot on!
I can only see this process further slowing the process in the space. Being agile is key in the space.
30 Oct 09
2:33 pm
This is a potentially dangerous route they are treading. Monitoring is fine, most agencies do that for their clients. However, stating as a goal to “prevent social media marketing campaigns from becoming a platform for inappropriate content or attacks on brands” makes their monitoring seem like a business development platform to source reasons for litigation. Not a great development, and if you are going to have a conversation with consumers, you have to be prepared for some of them to not like you and say so. Censoring opinion is not a great look for any brand, not to mention being a fairly futile endeavor.
30 Oct 09
2:59 pm
social media in many circumstances isnt a conversation, its just consumers yelling. I think you’re missing the point of what this mob are trying to provide. Censorship? hardly.
http://www.thepunch.com.au/art.....ial-media/
30 Oct 09
3:12 pm
Hi Changa
I am happy to put my name to my posts and disagree fervently with Ferrier, as anonymous posts are important to the workings the constructive arguments that form great content, even though many of them are purile. I’d be happy any time to debate this with Adam, and in fact around 3 years ago stated a case for anonymous comments in Campaign Brief as a response to Nobby.
Yes in many circumstances social media is simply yelling, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to engage in real conversations. Social media causes a lot of brands headaches, but we can’t pretend it isn’t there.
For the record, I believe social media is overhyped, but such is the nature of the Gartner hype cycle, and would recommend a client spend no more than 8% of their digital media budget on SMM. However, we shouldn’t dismiss it, and smart brands understand the need to engage with the voices in the crowd, no matter what the content.
30 Oct 09
3:54 pm
I knew it wouldn’t take long for the lead weights of society to jump on the social media bandwagon.
Does this mean lawyers will be changing their pricing model?
Rather than charging $200 for sending a letter…they’ll be charging $200 for 140 characters or a retweet!!!
30 Oct 09
6:46 pm
errr….shouldn’t they be monitoring this conversation and chipping in by now with a response to some good comments above?
Personally, I think it’s a good idea as long as it’s the right kind of law firm (culturally). Clients are likely to value a service that allows them to respond to an issue quicker with good advice from what has often been two opposing views. If they get it right, they’ll be able to engage communities with confidence and with best practice.
At the end of the day, they’ll be pitching it strongly as a more professional and ‘safer’ service. There’s enough fear out there in corporate Australia for that to be compelling I would have thought.
30 Oct 09
7:13 pm
is this just lawyers looking to earn revenue on the time their staff are spending on social web channels
twitter x 24 mins = $160.12
facebook x 2 hours = $526.78
client phonecall x 13 mins = $91.45
30 Oct 09
11:57 pm
Thanks for all the input guys. Matt Lawton, you put it best! appreciate that you saw the value add side of it.
Will take the rest of the comments on board!
Have a good weekend everyone.
James Griffin.
SR7
31 Oct 09
2:19 am
I’m not sure I agree that agencies are panicking clients into campaigns without due diligence. The point of social media is that the conversation is happening with or without you and it is a much better idea to oin in the conversation than not to. With that in mind it doesn’t make sense to ignore what is currently happening. On one level I don’t think that the offer put forward quite ‘gets it’, and on the other if what they say is true then there are clients who are going about this all wrong and agencies who are guiding clients whilst not having a clue themselves. I hope that isn’t the case.
Social media should be a part of the overall digital marketing strategy for a company. The agency should be supplying exactly the service that is described in the article and so I would be very unwilling to deal with an agency that didn’t do this. Similarly If the agency is doing this along with offering the rest of the services, then there is no need for lawyers to be involved.
Its reminding me a bit of the early days of the web when everyone dreamed up reasons why they were web designers. In the end it was the web designers who provided a service combining creative, technical, business, user experience and standards that survived, and everyone else produced a few bits of rubbish and then faded from view.
11 Nov 09
4:00 pm
Sven…Target market…
http://www.smh.com.au/technolo.....-i3js.html
http://www.smh.com.au/technolo.....-i9a1.html
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