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Opinion | Features
Disclosure in Social Media: How transparent should bloggers be?
In this guest post, blogger and digital creative Laura McWhinnie argues for more disclosure in the bloggersphere.
The bloggersphere has always been a bit like the Wild West. Bloggers could post about products to their heart’s content without having to disclose their relationship with the brand. This meant that consumers had no idea who was behind the marketing messages influencing their purchasing decisions. But in 2009 that all changed
Liars, cheats and thieves
Is our industry full of cheats and liars or do people of honour who stand by their word still exist in business? In an article that first appeared in Encore, Cameron Boon investigates. The recent court case involving Paul Fishlock suing his former employer The Campaign Palace brought into focus more than just the struggle of one man. It highlighted that there are some in adland whose word cannot always be relied upon.
Q&A with Adshel's Rob Atkinson
Online trading is the next big thing says Rob Atkinson in a piece that first appeared in Encore. Who is the most powerful person in Australian media and why?
Harold Mitchell because of his influence and the footprint he has left. He’s built a huge brand in Mitchells, offloaded it into Aegis, Aegis has obviously done extremely well to be then sold on to Dentsu. So if you think about it, he is very much a father figure of the industry.
Making it overseas
Is the best way of being successful in Australia not be here at all? In a feature that first appeared in Encore, Lee Zachariah speaks to Aussies making it big abroad.I always wanted to work in New York,” says Julian Cole. “I thought it was the number one place to work in advertising; a lot of the best campaigns were coming out of there. So I moved over and was lucky enough to have a couple of interviews in the first couple of weeks.”
Cole’s story is indicative of the somewhat contentious idea that the best way to be successful in Australia is to not be in Australia any more.
Got a book in you?
From journos to ad execs and PRs, these days everyone seems to have a book in them. But what does it take to get published and will you actually make any money? In a feature that first appeared in Encore, Brooke Hemphill finds out.Attention wannabe authors. Forget big fat advance cheques and living off royalties. The reality of having a book published today is another story altogether. There are only two reasons you should even consider sitting down at your computer to bash out a manuscript – passion or profile.
Savage counsel
In an article that first appeared in Encore, Chris Savage tackles your career and agency dilemmas in his weekly advice column.Hi Chris,
My clients seem to be demanding more and more from us. At the same time, it seems many of the younger people in our industry simply don’t have the client servicing skills my generation grew up with. How do we instill in our executives some of the good old-fashioned behaviours that would keep a client happy and loyal?
Fake it til' you make it... as an ad agency receptionist
From dressing the part to playing the gatekeeper, Leo Burnett Sydney’s Susie Henry tells us how to make it as the face of adland in a piece that first appeared in Encore.What does a receptionist in an ad agency actually do?
Well, there’s the frantic every-day, all-day stuff of deliveries, courier bookings, doing expenses for directors – always challenging – plus arranging all the travel. But one of my main jobs is counselling the account service people. I also keep up with all sports information to discuss with our sports-loving clients – because who wants to be bored while they’re waiting? And I know how they like their coffee. You need to know everyone – from accounting to HR. I’m also the go-to for all catering and sending flowers.
Whose views skew the news? Media chiefs ready to vote out Labor, while reporters lean left
Most journalists lean left-of-centre, says Folker Hanusch of the University of the Sunshine Coast, in a post first published on The Conversation.Most Australian journalists describe themselves as left-wing, yet amongst those who wield the real power in the country’s newsrooms, the Coalition holds a winning lead.
But while the media’s political leanings will no doubt be debated in the lead-up to September’s federal election, our study has also found other largely unscrutinised biases remain – particularly whose views disproportionately shape the news.
It's time for a new New Wave in the film world
Government funding bodies are lazy and decadent, says industry veteran Michael Thornhill but in a piece that first appeared in Encore, Ed Gibbs begs to differ.I vividly remember the time I first saw Animal Kingdom, David Michod’s breathtaking labour-of-love feature debut. The press screening was half empty, despite the film winning the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance just months earlier, in 2010. Yet its superb performances, stylistic flourishes and overall polish left me speechless. Could this really be a feature debut, an Australian one at that, I wondered, almost out loud? It seemed too good to be true.
Going cold turkey on an agency addiction
Life is sweet for freelance writer Max Kitchen, but in a feature that first appeared in Encore, he admits his struggle against returning to the agency fold.I’ve never taken heroin. But I suspect if I had, the temptation to try it again would not be too dissimilar to the lure of returning to agency life.
Can sport save Ten?
First there was the Grand Prix. Next came the reported $500m bid for cricket rights, then Ten secured the 2014 winter Olympics. So, can sport save the ailing network? In a feature that first appeared in Encore, Nic Christensen investigates.The television sports rights bidding process is a bit like a game of poker.
Check, fold or bet. Those were the options for the Ten Network last week when it had to finalise its bid for the cricket rights.
Andy Lark: good for the marketing of marketing
I can still remember the first story I wrote about Andy Lark, when it emerged that he was to be the new chief marketing officer of CommBank.
It was immediately clear that Australia was about to meet an interesting marketer, one who blogged and tweeted and thanks to his time at Dell in the US was digitally savvy. Even two years ago, that was a big deal. The fact that he also had a stint in public relations gave him an absolutely intriguing background before he even arrived.
Storming the media barricades - advice for young journalists
This week Mumbrella’s Nic Christensen, who began his career four years ago, gave the keynote address to would-be journalists at the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance’s Student Day. This is an edited version of his speech.Good afternoon, I can remember distinctly the last time I was in this room.
It was 2009 and I was sitting where you are. I’d come to this event, a friend and myself — from memory we sat up the back — and I can remember at the time wondering if I’d ever get a job as a journalist.
It was only four years ago and then as now getting a job was ultra competitive but I’m not sure there was quite as much media ‘doom and gloom’ as there is now…
Paywalls will help fund campaigning journalism
In this guest post, News Limited’s group editorial director Campbell Reid responds to the views of ninemsn’s Hal Crawford that the company’s push into metered paywalls is about data rather than dollars.Hal Crawford is both right and wrong in his article which argued that our digital subscription plans are all about the data.
Fake it 'til you make it... as a features editor
Cosmo’s Kate Leaver tells us how to bluff it in her job in a feature that first appeared in Encore.What do you do, as a features editor?
Really, play with words and ideas all day. At any one time, we’re working across three issues of the mag – getting one on its way to the printers, pooling all the words together for another, and planning the issue after that. It’s busy but it’s a pretty magnificent process.
Lynx unleashes world’s first invisible ad
Unilever deodorant brand Lynx has launched what it claims to be the world’s first invisible ad to promote its unisex variant Anarchy.
Passers-by were handed polaroid sunglasses and invited to look up at the windows of a terraced house in Darlinghurst, Sydney, which had been fitted with special LCD screens.
The glasses – blue for men and pink for women – gave the viewer ‘the Lynx effect’ with images of couples making out and a dog swimming in a room full of water.
The launch of Anarchy has been digitally led, with the introduction of Spark, a phone app, and activity on the brand’s Facebook page and a YouTube channel.
The agencies behind the campaign were Soap Creative and Finch.
Soap ECD Brad Eldridge said: “Anarchy is the first time LYNX has ever released a female fragrance. We wanted to create something as disruptive and innovative as the product itself. Working with Finch we used a clever hack combining LCD screens and polaroid glasses to create something that extends the campaign in an innovative and unique way.”
Lynx senior brand manager Duncan Robertson, added: “We’re always looking for ways to innovate but not just for the sake of it. It needs to fit in with the message we’re trying to get across and this execution ticks all the boxes. We’re very pleased with the results.”
Comments
10 May 12
9:02 am
Very nice indeed.
10 May 12
9:09 am
That house looks so freaky without the sunglasses.
10 May 12
9:30 am
I would love to see ‘happenings’ like this pop up all over town.
10 May 12
9:38 am
Cool idea and nice variety of images. The crowd did seem a little hand-picked though. But still I like it!
10 May 12
9:40 am
Great to see something so innovative come out of Australia. Well done team Lynx!
10 May 12
10:13 am
V cool, nice to see brands breaking the mould and doing something different to a stunt in Martin Place
10 May 12
10:45 am
Well done Brad and Co, might well have outdone the Lynx Angel Ambush with this one!
10 May 12
10:47 am
I’m sure the 50 people there really enjoyed it.
10 May 12
11:05 am
waste of time and money
this is just the sort of award seeking work that plagues our industry
how does this drive sales
how will this drive brand affinity
as Ron says – life changing to all 50 people that attended and us wankers writing about it
10 May 12
11:13 am
Ron Jeremy understands how events live beyond the people that actually experienced it.
10 May 12
11:25 am
Nice publicity stunt, as long as someone is there to hand out the glasses
How much did it cost? How many pairs of glasses, did you say?
10 May 12
12:03 pm
Well you’re all talking about it you negative Nellys! I think it’s a great campaign and to answer @bouya’s question on how it will drive sales? Similar to the Linx Angel campaign this clip no doubt has legs. It’ll go viral and people like you who talk about it will no doubt consider it next time you’re staring blankly at the deoderant rack at the supermarket.
10 May 12
12:29 pm
(that was the world’s first invisible post.)
10 May 12
1:26 pm
And like the Lynx Angel Ambush, when this campaign is inevitably copied, people will refer back to the original as comparison.
10 May 12
2:25 pm
Really cool and nice to see for Australia but they don’t get to claim ‘World’s first invisible ad.’ Check out Mercedes..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIGzpi9lCck
10 May 12
2:29 pm
I atually happened to wander past and it was quite cool……..I mean I still don’t want to smell like a 14 year old chav or Alan Partridge (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YllyBr_4Kxk) but I liked it
10 May 12
2:44 pm
@Oscar creativity it inevitably linking together ideas. I could say that lynx copied the rejected brief we gave to canon. But there’s no way of knowing that.
10 May 12
2:44 pm
6,500 views so far. Will it reach 9,000,000 like the Mercedes ad? When has it been worth it? 50% of the Australian population? Jeez some of you guys are negative.
10 May 12
2:47 pm
I meant *The brief we answered for the International Advertising Association for Canon.
But never the less, i’m sure this will be refined a cooler concepts are on the way.
10 May 12
2:54 pm
If it doesn’t go viral, it failed (from a sales perspective). Relying on word of mouth of 50 people, and the ad industry, won’t drive sales alone. I bet a TVC is around the corner…mass market medium for a mass market product.
Cool idea though.
10 May 12
2:59 pm
that mercedes work is awesome, the creative idea, execution and strategy all work together to form a whole peice bigger than the parts, i like the lynx work but seems to me that its a nifty peice of technology with a nice execution but no real creative idea or strategy….
10 May 12
3:04 pm
Ignore the hate – a very cool idea.
10 May 12
3:18 pm
Nice idea and execution, but I question moving the brand so close to just (live) porn. Surely the Lynx brand is all about helping teenage boys in the mating game and making them believe they can get the unobtainable hot girl if they just have the right tools. That seems to be the brand’s value.
This just positions the brand as helping turn you into a perv. Teenage boys don’t need help finding videos of people having sex – they have the internet.
Nice innovation though and well done client for having the balls to do it (see what I did there).
10 May 12
3:19 pm
Of course it is all set up and only a few people saw it. Who cares. Good idea. Will go Viral and pay for itself many times over…
10 May 12
3:19 pm
Very cool idea, love it. Very creative and memorable. And yeah, sure, next time I’m in the supermarket I’ll probably think of it when I’m looking at the Lynx product range.
But what really drives sales in that product category?
I’m pretty sure no one is going to buy a product because it had a cool ad campaign if it smells terrible / is twice the price of the competition.
This campaign will no doubt experience great viral success, and it’s certainly got the rest of us talking in here. But to me, it ‘smells’ a little like the Old Spice campaign….
10 May 12
3:38 pm
@Keaton, we worked on the Lynx Angel Ambush with Grand Visual and the creative started in late 2010. I can guarantee you the inspiration did not come from a rejected brief.
How could Lynx have copied your pitch if it was rejected by a completely separate corporation? Your argument is as confusing as your grammar.
10 May 12
3:44 pm
Haha – really nice that.
ha…
Nice to see some Aussie agencies not being so conservative – if not a bit predictable it might be Lynx as the catalyst.
Love the girls comment 2/3 though “yeah that’s what I want to be doing”
Give me buzz
10 May 12
3:55 pm
Lynx now making products for females? Will their next ad feature a pillow fight on a jet between members of Manpower Australia?
10 May 12
3:58 pm
Well done team.
10 May 12
3:59 pm
I agree with Tom. None of their target audience is there…
10 May 12
4:33 pm
Bouya and Underwhelmed are on the money.
I doubt very much this “case study” video has enough wow factor for the average punter to pass it on.
10 May 12
4:47 pm
Soap Creative and Finch….. that’s some cool shit!
10 May 12
4:52 pm
“It’ll go viral and people like you who talk about it will no doubt consider it next time you’re staring blankly at the deoderant rack at the supermarket.”
Okay. Then let’s reserve judgement until it ‘goes viral’. And I’m talking about more than a few advertising people putting it on their Facebook pages and saying ‘hey, look what we did’.
11 May 12
8:12 am
Regardless of how well the product does (and I do not think it will do that great), I think this is a really good technical idea. Yes the crowd was not that big and they seem cherry picked amongst the hipsters, but the idea and execution is still cool. Well done.
11 May 12
10:16 am
Awesome. Agree with Adrianne, can’t believe that came out of Australia.
11 May 12
10:16 am
cool
11 May 12
4:47 pm
‘A’ wrote “Regardless of how well the product does (and I do not think it will do that great), I think this is a really good technical idea. Yes the crowd was not that big and they seem cherry picked amongst the hipsters, but the idea and execution is still cool. Well done.”
Which business are you in? Is it the business of doing clever for the sake of clever? I though advertising used creativity as a way to achieve a commercial result. If you want to create random art, please do it with your own money rather than your client’s.
11 May 12
8:28 pm
I so agree with the senitment from Jose about the need for advertising to elicit a response of some sort, either in change in preference/ perception, willingness to trial or an intent to purchase.
For a launch campaign, especially since this is a NPD, it’s quite strange to have a physical event like this as the lead part of the campaign launch, unless the intention was for this to be a “newsworthy” piece of first, i.e. picked up by major networks, I am unsure if this event justifies the cost that the client would have likely put into an event such as this. I have no problem with the remainder of this campaign since it appears to be quite 360 orientated with pre-rolls, youtube, mobile etc, however this event, if it isn’t going to viral is probably very low in the scheme of ROIs for the cilent’s money.
That being said, on the level of creativity, it is a cool idea.
12 May 12
9:31 am
Excellent idea. This will surely be shared like mad and when young or fashionable men are in a store, which sells this product they will buy it – brilliant! (POS could be elaborate to hit the message home…)
12 May 12
4:20 pm
A really innovative idea….great to see great ideas being shared by client who actually get’ it.
Loved it….45,000 views already…
13 May 12
9:20 am
Very cool idea and I hope it and any augmented ideas make it work.
All too often the technology and “wow” supersedes any recognition of the brand.
How many times have you heard; “saw this great ad…can’t remember what it was for but…”
31 May 12
12:30 pm
The idea to integrate this with instore POS would be cool. Good Luck to the product’s success.
4 Jun 12
10:12 am
Reasonable idea. ROI questionable.
Aside from that I can’t see Lynx being successful with girls (or men) without a name change. Men don’t like reading the label to see if they’ve picked up a female fragrance product by mistake.
I would say that women probably don’t want to buy a product from a company that employs the crude advertising strategies that work with young males.