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Opinion | Features
How bosses can build trust by baring themselves to staff
In this guest post, Simon Rutherford, CEO of Slingshot Media, argues that bosses should be vulnerable in front of their staff.
Winston Churchill once said: “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.”
Fake it til you make it...as a radio newsreader
In a piece that first appeared in Encore, Emily Hoskins from ARN tells us how to do her job.
What does a radio newsreader actually do?
A radio newsreader has to be switched on from the moment they sit at their desk. At the Australian Radio Network each journalist writes, researches, edits and reads their own news bulletins under tight deadlines – every 30 minutes during the breakfast shift and every hour after 9am.
Keith Reinhard on freedom to fail, winning back Maccas and how agencies can survive
In an exclusive interview in Cannes today, advertising icon Keith Reinhard, one of the founding fathers of what is now DDB Worldwide, talked to Mumbrella’s Robin Hicks about freedom from fear, his favourite ads of all time, winning back McDonald’s and why the most important thing in advertising is passion.Savage counsel - little white lies
In a piece that first featured in Encore, Chris Savage tackles your career and agency dilemmas. This week, he talks about when it’s okay to lie to clients.
Hi Chris,
I often find myself telling little white lies at work – I tell people on the phone that I don’t want to speak to I’m about to duck into meetings. I told my colleague her new haircut was great when really it wasn’t and I praised someone’s work when actually it was kind of shit. After each of these occasions, I felt pretty terrible and wonder if you could tell me how can I speak with candour in the future – for my sake and others.
How to build a culture
How important is a company’s culture and how do you ensure you are breeding a good one? Matt Smith investigates, in a piece that first appeared in Encore.When production companies Cordell Jigsaw and Zapruder’s Other Films merged early last year, bringing the staff together within the walls of the Zapruder building proved to be something of a challenge. While the two companies weren’t strangers to each other due to six months of talks and negotiations, working together on a full-time basis was a different story.
Q&A Damian Keogh
In a piece that first featured in Encore, Val Morgan CEO Damian Keogh reveals his potential alternate career.
Who is the most powerful person in Australian media and why?
I’d say Kerry Stokes, slightly ahead of Harold Mitchell and Kim Williams. He controls the entity with the largest revenue across free-to-air, online, magazines and newspapers. On pure size alone, his influence and leverage over advertisers, media agencies and consumers is unmatched. Harold is still the king in media, slightly ahead of John Steedman, but Henry Tajer and Leigh Terry are the heirs apparent. Kim Williams controls News and that’s a big base to work from.
If a violent game is okay, then so is using a violent ad to promote it
An ad for video game Dead Island Riptide was banned by the ad watchdog. James Whitehead of online entertainment publisher IGN argues that it was the wrong call.A fortnight ago, it emerged that the Ad Standards Board had banned a television commercial for the video game Dead Island: Riptide, due to its depiction of violence – specifically suicide.
Why content makers are leaving our shores
In a piece that first featured in Encore, Craig Anderson says there simply isn’t enough opportunity for content makers in Australia, especially for those making comedy.Last year I had multiple meetings with production companies in Australia and discovered that apart from the odd commercial campaign, there’s no proliferation of paying platforms for comedy. From my own experience there’s iView, which will buy content once it’s already been made (though I live in hope that it will one day be granted the financial power to commission content). I’ve also had the odd informal commission from the SMH iPad consisting of two narrative series and a comical review show. But none of these endeavours were financially viable.
Managing your management style
In an article that first appeared in Encore, Stephanie Brown says the advertising industry often leaves people ill-equipped when it comes to managing staff, especially when they’re promoted into management roles.Managing people is hard. In fact, I actually think it’s the hardest job in the world. With no disrespect intended, I often joke that if my job didn’t involve other people to manage, it would be a walk in the park. I could get about my day’s work in a nice, linear fashion, happily checking off my to-do list as I go. I’m a process-orientated person. I get a kick out of getting things done.
Why the Facebook chase is making brands treat consumers like morons
You know how we look back at quaintly patronising ads from the 1950s and wonder what on earth the advertisers were thinking?
I’ve got a feeling that in a few years time, we’ll be looking at the behaviour of big brands on Facebook the same way.
An entire generation of marketers – or at least a sizeable proportion of them – have lost their minds.
So many have become so obsessed with generating user interactions at all costs, that all thoughts about overall brand perceptions or long term marketing goals have vanished. All that counts now, is generating likes and comments at all costs.
Blog this!
Paid content, sponsored posts and brand ambassadorships – in theory, today’s blogger can be just as valuable to brands as mainstream media. But does blogger outreach actually work? In an article that first appeared in Encore, Nic Christensen investigates.“I get approaches from PR companies constantly,” says blogger and author Kerri Sackville, with more than a hint of exasperation. “I have never done a sponsored blog, on my own site, but that doesn’t stop them from asking.”
McLennan right man for job
It’s all change at troubled broadcaster Channel Ten with new directions, new executives and a brand new CEO. Managing director of Adstream Peter Miller says Hamish McLennan is the right man for the job, in an article that first appeared in Encore.I am a bit of a schmuck when it comes to movies. I love romantic comedies. My favourite is One Fine Day with Michelle Pfeiffer and George Clooney.
Q&A with Richard Herring
In a piece that first appeared in Encore, CEO of APN Outdoor Richard Herring talks media.Who is the most powerful person in Australian media and why?
I don’t know if there is one person in particular. The fragmentation of traditional media and new entrants has made it a more level playing field with regards to major influencers. As was demonstrated with the recent media reform recommendations, together, the broader media community still has a very influential and powerful voice.
What one medium could you not live without?
Outdoor – clean, entertaining, evocative and informative.
Q&A with screenwriter Craig Pearce
Craig Pearce, screenwriter for The Great Gatsby, spoke to Encore about working with Baz and writing for 3D.
How did you get into script writing?
I always loved stories and acting and dressing up and being anything but myself and I never realised that was not something other people did. After leaving high school, I did a three year acting course at NIDA but always thought I would one day write. Baz was a good friend and he had a theatre company. He wanted to extend a 20 minute version of Strictly Ballroom. We got it to 45 minutes then he was approached by producers to turn it into a feature film. I started helping him out on the film while they were looking for a real writer but eventually Baz had to go to the producers and say, “There’s this guy who’s my best friend and he is a really good writer”. To the producers’ credit, they believed in Baz so we had two weeks to re-write it.
Savage Counsel - winning pitches
Chris Savage tackles your career and agency dilemmas in his weekly Encore advice column.
Hi Chris,
It seems we have to increasingly pitch for everything. Even with existing clients, we’re now expected to pitch ideas, competitively, for every project. We’re winning about two out of five of what we’re pitching for. It’s a huge burden on our time and budgets. What is your secret to winning a pitch presentation? How do we make sure our presentations are a knockout?
Liberal Party ditches negative tactics to promise a ‘stronger, 21st century Australia’
‘Hello, I’m Tony Abbott’
The Liberal Party has launched its first ad campaign in the run-up to the elections, fronted by leader Tony Abbott.
The campaign, which debuted on TV last night, dispenses with the negative tactics to present the party’s long-awaited plans to create a ‘stronger, 21st century Australia’.
The party has pledged to create 2m jobs over the next decade by building a ‘world class 5-pillar economy’, better services, lower taxes, lower debt and stronger borders, ‘where the boats are stopped’.
The Liberal Party’s plan has been posted online at realsolutions.org.au.
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Comments
28 Jan 13
2:22 pm
frankly it doesnt really matter what Tony & the Libs say or do.. Julia has lost the support of the public long ago, Labour will lose no matter what
28 Jan 13
3:50 pm
@ Mark…. totally agree. That said, Labor have been utterly dire. Even their initiatives – carbon tax, refugee policy etc the vast majority have hated. There’s only one thing Abbott has to do and that’s NOT f#ck up or say something dumb. So I reckon we’re going to get a lot of nice, fluffy PR stuff from the Libs more so than any policy that can be properly examined….
29 Jan 13
12:01 am
Mark and WD – I do totally agree about Labor’s performance but the thought of Abbott leading the country is still very unsettling. He can make all the promises in the world, but I still don’t believe he is leadership material. Having said that, what other serious and realistic choices do we have?
29 Jan 13
7:43 am
@ Lons,
Vote for an Independent. The libs are hillbillies. Labor are dire. Vote for a decent, credible (are there any credible politicians?) politician.
I can’t vote for Abbott.
29 Jan 13
7:44 am
Tony Abbott as prime minister is not what this country needs,deserves, maybe. Just imagine Cory Bernardi or Sophie Mirrabella in government.
29 Jan 13
8:21 am
@ Lons…. you might need to prepare yourself. The bookies reckon he’s a certainty: http://www.dailytelegraph.com......6563760009
29 Jan 13
8:45 am
I can’t see labor winning the next election, nor can I see punters voting for Abbot’s liberals.
It certainly would not surprise me to see Labor back in power, for no other reason than Abbot is the leader of the libs.
And just to clarify I am liberal voter and I struggle to vote for them with Abbot in charge.
29 Jan 13
8:57 am
As I sip my latte in the inner city I’m sure that Labor will win even though I’ll probably vote Greens or maybe for the independent. As I said during the Mark Latham election: no one can stand the leader of the Liberal party.
Bernardi, Mirabella are just the current day Minchin and Tuckey.
*takes off John Lennon glasses* (yes, I still wear them – the man is my personal totem)
Labor are paying the price for being heartless, cynical members of the political machine without two sticks of ideology to rub together between them. People don’t like selfish arseholes but they won’t vote for heartless liars.
*puts John Lennon glasses back on*
If only the Liberals would vote Malcolm Turnbull back in as leader. Then I could sip my latte in peace.
29 Jan 13
9:06 am
I can’t understand why the Libs would have such a commanding lead in the polls, but be prepared to blow it all with a leader whose unpopularity is possibly the highest for any Opposition leader ever. Labor had the same thing in the early eighties, a commanding lead in the polls but with a deeply unpopular leader. They had the sense to ditch Hayden for Hawk, I hope the Libs ditch Abbot for (insert Hockey, Turnbull, Bishop). If they don’t, I’ll take any bet that Abbot will be leading a one term government.
29 Jan 13
9:41 am
@ Fence sitter that’s pretty crap advice…..look what voting for independents got us this time around – blackmailing minorities trying to push very narrow positions and a government with no choice but to get into bed with them.
I’m hoping for a landslide clear win this time around.
29 Jan 13
9:48 am
Any electorate stupid enough to vote Tony Abbott, Joe Hockey and Julia Bishop into office deserves what they will get. We would be better off with a primary school parliament – more brains, more sense, and better looking. They’ve tried nasty (perhaps their natural state), now they are trying nice. With all the sincerity they can muster.
29 Jan 13
9:58 am
He looks like Ernie from Sesame street in this still. What a muppet.
29 Jan 13
10:02 am
Id vote for libs if turnbull was leader!
29 Jan 13
11:29 am
For me, over and above political allegiances and policy which I agree with, there is a threshold requirement for political leaders in both state and federal government.
those two things are competence and integrity. I’m a liberal voter but could handle Bob Carr because I believe he was on top of his brief. Same thing with Shorten, Wong etc. hate their politics but believe they can run their department/responsibilities well.
The evidence proves that Gillard, Swan and many others are not competent to be running the country or the economy. they can’t even manage the news cycle, let alone bigger issues. they should have been able to handle Abbot but it’s taken them 4 years and they’re still floundering.
like many, I’d prefer to have Turnbull running the country than Abbott, but Abbot was actually a highly effective minister in the Howard Years, handling difficult and complex briefs generally well. His public persona is somewhat repellent but I believe he will run a more effective government than Gillard, Swan etc.
29 Jan 13
12:15 pm
The left loves to play Abbott as dumb and hapless, but he absolutely destroyed Rudd’s career and seems set to do it to Gillard too. The guy has multiple degrees in law and economics and is a Rhode Scholar, making him about the smartest guy in Parliament. Plus, he’s authored a number of best selling books. I think that’s why he’s done so well, because everybody thinks he’s so stupid.
29 Jan 13
12:26 pm
So, basically a generic list of promises every politician across the world makes…they might’s well just say “We’ll make EVERYTHING better!”…
29 Jan 13
12:34 pm
@ Splintered
You think Gillard will win in a landslide?
29 Jan 13
12:57 pm
Well at least he has a good team behind him which is probably what this ad was subtly trying to get across
29 Jan 13
1:02 pm
@fleshpeddler – wish I had said that!!!
29 Jan 13
1:16 pm
Imagine if our decision to vote was democratic.. i.e, people could decide for themselves if they attend the polls, like in almost every other democracy around the world. I wonder how many people would vote for these lying, corrupt, incompetent and uninspiring clowns then. If voting was democratic in Australia then only leaders who could inspire us would get votes. All Australian eligible voters should have the same free and equal right to vote, free from government coercion.
29 Jan 13
1:21 pm
I’d like anti-offence campaigner Nicola Roxon to be Prime Minister and end all the nastiness. Ommmmm! Kumbaya! See you in court!
29 Jan 13
1:30 pm
Hey Cognitively dissonent,
Where did you get your John Lennon glasses? Ive been chasing them for years now.
*sigh of relief and wipes sweat from brow*
And those latte’s that you are drinking? are they caramel ones?
*licks his lips and ponders how to spend the next two hours-coffee lounge maybe- bloody hell I love working in media*
29 Jan 13
1:36 pm
Tony saying ‘Yes’ to ‘No’ is hardly going positive.
29 Jan 13
2:19 pm
Stan,
Your comments help no-one. Whether, its Labor’s Simon Crean, or Martin Ferguson, or the Libs Tony Abbott, or Andrew Robb – Parliament if full of decent, well-educated, hard-working, competent people trying their very best with little thanks, and by advertising standards, for little reward. The truth is, Australians refuse to address the real issues facing this country; nor are they prepared to pay the price to fix them – so parliamentarians are forever working with one arm tied behind their backs – being asked to meet expectations that are not realisable. We have no manufacturing industry, no services industry, no incentive to start a business, no incentive to employ, ridiculously high taxes, a dollar that’s too high, an under-performing education system, breeding an entitlement culture where our young never fail etc., etc. etc. This is our fault – not the fault of the vast majority of politicians. They, like us, have clients – the people of Australia – who want everything, but don’t want to pay anything for it. Its a thankless task – but that doesn’t excuse the over the top abuse they receive with comments like yours.
29 Jan 13
2:52 pm
Fence Sitter- Vote Independent? are you nuts?
29 Jan 13
3:18 pm
So Tony Abbott wants a stronger 21st Century Australia….”Yes of course you do, but why are you stuck in 1950′s 20th Century…”…and imagine Joe Hockey in the treasury that buffoon can’t control his own appetite never mind state spending….
29 Jan 13
4:53 pm
@Fence sitter i expect the landslide to be the other way…..Dullard had her shot and blew it.
But the only thing worse than another term for Labor would be a bunch of self-important independents like Oakeshott and Windsor in any position of power. At the very least i can’t wait to see them smashed into oblivion at the polling booth.
29 Jan 13
7:20 pm
Stan, just a small lesson in democracy.
Democracy’s roots lie in Greece. One of democracy’s first manifestations was the Athenian democracy which held the principle that it was every citizen’s duty to participate (i.e. vote). Australia is one of the 23 enlightened countries in the world to adhere to that principle.
So in a nutshell, if you want to be an Australian citizen it is not only your right, but it is your duty to vote. And if you don’t like ‘pure’ democracy, I suggest you ship yourself off to somewhere else that is more in-tune with your loonie-right Tea Party like ideas.
29 Jan 13
7:59 pm
There’s not a trace of a plan in there – merely populist platitudes.
Or as Fred Daly put it so eloquently during the 1974 Federal election when the coalition was led by Doug Anthony and Billy Snedden … there’s nothing here but Doug-Billed Platitudes. Oh for the days of an intelligent and genuinely witty parliament.
29 Jan 13
10:47 pm
@cognitively dissonant and @mediaman – LOVED your Lennon-loving-latte-sipping antics… literally laughed out loud (btw, I wanna get some of those Lennon specs, too!)
@GreatStrategy – there was nothing subtle about showing the “team” and Malcolm Turnbull facing onto the camera at the head of the table. They know Abbott’s bound to put his foot in it prior to the election, so they’re setting the stage for their Plan B.
29 Jan 13
11:01 pm
@Bonzo – very funny!
@splintered – do you like casino’s playing an active role in every town in Australia?
@John Grono – ship himself off to Greece perhaps? on the brink of bankruptcy…
30 Jan 13
8:55 am
No, Fence sitter – Greece already has enough problems without adding to them.
By the way, has anyone noticed how virtually every country in the world that has followed the ‘austerity’ line (i.e. reduced government sector spending as a way out of these [primarily] global issues) goes backwards and not forwards? By recent reports it looks like we will be able to add England to that list soon. Thankfully, Australia followed the Keynesian line and didn’t fall into that trap.
30 Jan 13
9:47 am
@ John Grono
I hear you on the economics stance.
Credit got a lot of people rich, gave a lot of people the material possessions they ‘want’ and obviously now we pay the price.
I think we will have another major cough and splutter. We were close with the US fiscal cliff and Europe is not out of the woods.
According to the IMF the Howard Government were massive spenders for an Australian government. In contrast to what they say about Labor at the moment.
I am truly a fence sitter. I might vote Lib’s IF I knew what their policies were. They appear to be negative spin doctors, which I detest.
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/.....2cj32.html
30 Jan 13
10:15 am
JG, countries which are that broke don’t have the luxury of Keynesian strategies. Strong economies are relatively austere in good times; countries on the edge find their austerity measures too little too late.
Australia might well have embarked on austerity in 2009 and found itself better off today – and with a lot more space in schoolyards and more money for hospitals to boot.
30 Jan 13
11:40 am
Sorry paul, all the evidence suggests if Australia had embarked on an austerity strategy in 2009 we would have gone into recession. With the economic problems that would bring we would still be stuffed. As a nation we were very lucky to have a government which took the right advice from Treasury and avoided doing anything stupid.
30 Jan 13
12:11 pm
@Mediaman make my latte a decaf hazlenut.
30 Jan 13
1:31 pm
Paul, we’ll never know the answer so it’s all conjecture, but as Lindsay says most of the evidence comes down on the side of ‘pump priming’.
To me the real missed opportunity was in the previous decade when taxation returns were flourishing, and that as a nation we didn’t invest in our future and divert a healthy proportion of those funds to essential and rapidly ageing infrastructure such as schools, hospitals and roads. The positive is that when the pump was primed there were plenty of places to do it!
Now that tax revenues have collapsed (yes , Swan’s tax take is around 2 percentage points less than Costello’s was – so, which is the higher taxing party again?) we are not in a position where we can simply pump-prime again – that is the risk we face.
And if anyone can explain how Fortescue Metals (4th largest iron ore producer in the world) hadn’t paid any company tax up to November 2011 according to Twiggy Forrest, but my little kitchen-table company does despite being about half of one percent of one percent the size of his … then please do! Don’t forget that there are around 2 million small businesses (<20 people) in Australia accounting for 96% of all businesses, and account for just under half of all employment and just over a third of all turnover – yet get none of the perks, hand-outs and subsidies that large businesses do, then I think THAT is where we need to reform business and taxation to keep our economy humming along. The party that has this platform (or closest to it) will get my vote.
30 Jan 13
5:00 pm
Well said John Grono- maybe the Labor parties mining tax was a good idea? Clive and Twiggy were both against it. But I think Swan and Gillard could have sold it better to the voters, from memory Labor was on such a low,(when the mine tax was announced) it would not have mattered what they said or invented, people were tired of their knee jerk, half baked antics.
11 Feb 13
8:56 am
a labor voter:
Id vote for libs if turnbull was leader!
Why? He’s a more polished, better spoken, less derpish version of Abbott. It’s the in-party politics that drive a party’s direction.
I’ve no doubt I’d get on better with Mr Turnbull that I would Mr Abbott, but I’m buggered if I’m voting LNP, even if the former was leading the party.
21 Feb 13
3:28 pm
Nobody can say with certainty what the future holds ,
22 Feb 13
4:05 pm
Alan jones should be charged with slander the way he is insulting julia gillard every time he is on the radio. It’s like listening to Hitler and his propaganda team.
These are the sort of people Tony Abbott is in league with . I hope the Guardian Australia will help stop all this Bias that the other media has caused to this good government.
Someone has just rung me and mentioned how Alan Jones is running the PM down this afternoon on the radio and the sad thing is the ignorant people who listens to him believes every word this tyrant has to say.
I think the Guardian UK should run a headline on its front page stating this conspiracy which is unfolding here in Australia to get rid of this government run by the Murdoch group, the media , MSM and this Alan Jones. not forgetting Tony Abbott and his party. there is a huge story here for the right journo . they are not that bright here in OZ. The Independant Australia .net will give you all their transcrips.