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Opinion
Video: How to win new business
Mumbrella Question Time saw the panel asked the secrets of winning new business. Read more »
Let’s stop the anonymous vitriol
In this guest posting, Peter Bray, boss of The Brand Shop, takes issue with negative comments from anonymous posters on Mumbrella and elsewhere.
There are very few ads that I vehemently dislike. There are also very few ads that I really love. But most ads I see on Mumbrella and other blogs I can usually take something from, whether it is information about the brand, a bit of inspiration or a “watch out”. I’m open to learning as much as I can from others, and encourage those around me to do the same.
My basic assumption, however, is that because an ad has been produced by a professional agency, and had the approval from the client, then the end result must be doing something right. Therefore, without knowing the practical rationale behind the ad, for me to have a strong opinion about whether it is great advertising would be kind of arrogant. There is a reason that awards shows ask for information about why an ad was created: they are rarely judged on end product alone.
So as someone who enjoys watching the work that our industry creates, I am stunned at the level of vitriol stemming from some people’s comments in both this blog and others. Read more »
Read his lips
This is several weeks old, but worth a look. It’s certainly an original way to deal with media criticism.It features Air NZ boss Rob Fyfe responding to weekly current affairs magazine The Listener using the medium of sign language. Read more »
Let’s not be too positive just yet – the nail is still there
It’s more than a year since News Ltd’s marketing boss Joe Talcott used the memorable analogy of a dog whimpering on a nail to describe the structural change the industry needs to go through. Read more »
The AdNews numbers that mislead the market
It’s always a tad tawdry when competitors attack each other, but I hope you’ll bear with me…
Whether cynically or through incompetence, AdNews has been misleading its advertisers by providing them with data that seems to suggest they have six times their true online audience.
Allow me to present the evidence. Read more »
Technology will help us own the agenda – all day, every day
In this opening speech to the Future Forum of the Newspaper Publishers Association, News Ltd CEO John Hartigan argued that news organisations have the opportunity to become more rather than less relevant.
Today I want to talk about a tipping point that heralds the most exciting era for journalism. The most exciting era ever.
This tipping point is already upon us. It has arrived at lightning speed, with the explosion in demand for mobile devices.
I am not consigning newspapers to the scrapheap. Not by a long shot.
But this tipping point is going to change journalism forever. In my opinion, very much for the better. Read more »
The real time shit sandwich detector
In this guest post, Clive Burcham of The Conscience Organisation, relishes the instant feedback of social media.
I’ve been making brand driven content since 1996 and often I’ve been so close to the work that I couldn’t tell the difference between if we were chomping on a shit sandwich or savouring the crème de la creme. From an audience perspective, we wouldn’t know the difference for weeks or months. What excites me most now is that we know within 24 hours if we’ve developed shit or cream. Read more »
SMH shows how to make a home page takeover work
When you’re a commercial organisation, balancing the needs of consumers with the need to make money through ads is tricky.
Among the organisations that sometimes goes the wrong way in my view is Fairfax, with its autostart video ads, for instance.
But today, a bit of unreserved praise Read more »
Inside the Foxtel factory
Having been at the launch of Foxtel’s new season the other night, nine points occur… Read more »
ABC News 24 – a handy service for niche journalists
It may not have many viewers yet, but ABC News 24 saves specialist journos having to leave their desks, argues Delimiter’s Renai LeMay
When media commentators discuss the future of journalism, they usually agree on at least one thing: It will involve much fewer generalists and more reporters dedicated to exhaustively covering niche fields. Read more »
The seven ages of Carlton Draught’s Made From Beer
Today sees the launch of “Slow Mo”, the latest instalment of Carlton Draught’s irreverent Made From Beer series.
It’s been quite a run – from the highly awarded Big Ad, to the comedy of Flash Beer, to the debacle of the abortive banned Tingle campaign. These are the seven ages of Made From Beer… Read more »
Real consumers don’t have ‘brand conversations’. They use search
In this guest posting, Simon van Wyk argues that much as marketers might wish otherwise, most consumers don’t have emotional connections with brands
I have a background in marketing, but my understanding of branding seems at odds with the 2010 opinions I see from social media commentators, marketing and advertising agencies. Read more »
Hot, censoring atheists: Google’s insight into what punters think about pollies and journos
One of the charms of Google is autocomplete, where it takes a punt on what you’re going to ask, based on what the rest of the world has been wondering previously.
And it certainly gives a few insights into the high quality of political debate about the Labor leaders in the run up to the election.
Take NSW premiere Kristina Keneally… Read more »
The copyright-busting election
This is rapidly turning into the copyright-infringing election. Read more »
Digital Fail: The gaping void in digital training is failing our industry
In this guest post, Amnesia Razorfish’s Iain McDonald warns that the industry has fallen badly behind on digital training.
Before I get accused of trolling with that headline, I’ll state what I think is obvious: The current education system isn’t producing or nurturing enough ‘digitally skilled’ individuals to sustain a growing a digital economy. Read more »
Macquarie: We’ve closed Livenews because it wasn’t making enough money
Livenews.com.au – Macquarie Radio Network’s attempt to break into online news – was suddenly closed today.
Readers were informed with a brief note on the site’s home page saying: ”The Macquarie Radio Network has decided to close down the livenews.com.au website. We thank you for your support and loyalty over the past couple of years.”
The company issued a statement to Mumbrella from sales director Mark Noakes saying: “MRN conducted a comprehensive business review at the beginning of 2009. It was determined that the company would pare back its digital commitment to assets that were a direct extension of the radio offering. Livenews.com.au was successful from a traffic perspective but this was not translating into incremental revenue that justified its costs of operation. The renewed focus on core assets is already reaping significant revenue rewards.”
According to Nielsen Market Intelligence, in August the site was averaging just under 11,000 unique browsers a day or just over 220,000 UBs a month. It recorded just over 2m page impressions last month.
MRN’s main media assets are Sydney talk radio stations 2GB and 2CH.
September 16th, 2009 at 11:39 am
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Comments
16 Sep 09
12:42 pm
Those UB numbers don’t look right, but shows how tough the australian market is when 2 million content pageviews/month are not much of anything.
businessspectator has been the big success story and interesting that thepunch looks like it will have quite a small regular sydneyish audience and be dependant on breakout content that gets picked up and reflected around the online echo chamber for periodic bigger numbers.
16 Sep 09
1:00 pm
those numbers make sense
2m PV’s would translate roughly at 50% sell through at around $20k a month in revenue max … and I would doubt they would have been at that level.
Key thing these operators need to focus on is exclusive audience … if they just reach the same people you can get elsewhere in similar contexts then what’s the point?
That’s the challenge for The Punch – can it bring new users to the NDM stable or is it pushing the same people across a new environment?
16 Sep 09
1:21 pm
It’s a real shame, I loved livenews.com.au!
Cheers,
Renai
16 Sep 09
2:35 pm
Just wanted to clarify the traffic numbers.
As at 15th Sept Uv’s daily average 20,000 and monthly is 400-500 UV’s & PI 2,000,000 to 3,000,000
This was a 30% increase on last month with only two staff.
News is competitive space but Livenews.com.au is a general news site and as such is not your typical 2GB audience, therefore not cannabalising radio audience.
If this were a new entrant to the media space you would expect them to struggle to sell inventory, but considering MRN is the number one radio station they have a very good exisiting sales force.
I suppose you cant teach an old dog new tricks and they couldnt sell digital advertising to the market.
So they decided to stick to there knitting.
Shame is, once Rupert starts charging for content a play like this would only benefit.
Now all those readers have scuttled off to the competitiors news services.
16 Sep 09
3:28 pm
full of rednecks and morons.. who would want to advertise on there?
16 Sep 09
4:32 pm
Page refresh is a wonderful thing for page impressions. Ask Fairfax and News….
16 Sep 09
5:08 pm
I am not at all surprised they shut it down. I understood from a past employee that at least half the UBs were international searches – hard to commercialise when your up against News and Fairfax.
Either way a general news site attracts $1 cpm – do the maths!
17 Sep 09
10:47 am
I’m surprised by this move.
It also says a bit about picking the right content category to be in.
Business Spectator is employing 24 journalists on 264k UVs.
18 Sep 09
3:32 pm
It was an open secret that this site was headed for the chopping block.
The radio stars hated it and the sales team did too.
And as far as management at the station is concerned, anything digital is no good.
They should have given it to Austereo, at least those guys would know how to sell and market it.
Half the staff got the chop in Janaury and by the end 2 journos were generating 500,000 plus UV’s. Someone should pick those guys up because they were doing a bloody good job.
18 Sep 09
4:47 pm
The purpose of any commercial business is to make money.
It didn’t.
End of story.
18 Sep 09
6:57 pm
Unfortunately this site and this digital business FAILED. It was given a big chance, three years to get it right and lots of money down the drain. They turned over a number of specialist digital sales reps who just kept quitting because the site was too hard to sell. In the end it must seem easier to blame management, radio stars and sales teams etc… the cold hard reality is that the site was mediocre at best and not a spot on the real competition. Regarding the above comments on Business Spectator – Apples and Oranges – a very different proposition run by people who understand their product – they didn’t have unlimited radio ads to pump them up either!
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