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Opinion | Features
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.
Savage counsel - JFDI
Hi Chris,I run a medium-sized agency that is doing pretty well. As the leader, I am finding my workload just seems to go up and up. I am struggling to stay motivated and particularly to tackle the bigger and tougher challenges I have to face every day. How do I keep up the energy when there just seems so much to do? How do you do it?
Productive, successful executives are those able to consistently tackle difficult and big challenges. It’s a constant struggle for me so I know how you feel. How do the successful leaders do it?
Q&A with Brett Clegg
Brett Clegg, group director – business media, Fairfax Media, in a Q&A that first appeared in Encore, on the journo who refuses to work with him – his wife.Who is the most powerful person in Australian media and why?
Hard to go past Rupert Murdoch. He controls the single largest and most diverse portfolio and is intent on leveraging its scale (and, of course, influence). He’s an innovator and his will to win is obvious to all.
The experiential experience
Anyone can throw up a tent in a high-traffic area and harass the general public, but what does it take to pull off an effective experiential event? In a piece that first appeared in Encore, Matt Smith investigates.A television commercial can easily be muted and ignored, but try ignoring a purring, squirming cat in your arms. That was the experience awaiting passers by in Sydney’s Martin Place in October last year when Mars Petcare built Whiskas Kitten Palace.
The News Limited paywall isn't about revenue. It's about data
In this guest post, ninemsn’s editor in chief Hal Crawford argues Fairfax Media and News Limited’s new paywalls won’t draw much revenue, but will generate data. And they’re late to the data party.When I first learned that ninemsn’s major digital competitors Fairfax and News Ltd were going to introduce paywalls across their mainstream properties, I was excited.
Every obstacle thrown in the way of their audiences is an opportunity. People hate friction and anything that makes life difficult on a rival site is a chance to get them on yours.
Is this the worst time to be a journalist?
With scores of redundancies in 2012 and a mass exodus of experienced journos, is this the worst time to be a journalist? In a feature that first appeared in Encore, Nic Christensen asks the question.In June last year a tsunami of redundancies began to sweep across Australia’s media landscape. They came in a series of waves and in the 12 months that followed, an estimated 1,200 journalists departed the mainstream media.
Are you a conscious leader?
As the advertising and marketing industry struggles to address the issue of rocketing rates of staff churn in their businesses, Slingshot CEO Simon Rutherford argues that today’s ‘conscious leaders’ should be more focussed on creating ‘staff wellness’ in order to deliver high performing teams and healthy profits.
A conscious leader believes the business has a greater responsibility towards the community it operates in. To ensure sustainable long-term profits, people must come first. Awareness, trust, authenticity, transparency, 100% responsibility, connection, compassion, and love: these are the tools of the conscious leader.
Suits: less popular than pest controllers
Advertising suits have a thankless job that is currently being eroded by the changing industry says Naren Sanghrajka in a piece that first appeared in Encore.Not in my wildest, craziest nightmares would I ever have thought I’d say this. But I’m going to. Being a bean counter is far more appealing than starting as a suit in advertising. There it is. I said it. I actually said those words.
Yes, it’s incredibly depressing. But it’s true.
An answer for Adam: What's the future for creatives?
Each fortnight, Adam Ferrier poses a question to the industry. This week, he asks about the future of the creative.
Who or what is a creative? It’s an old thought, but as I continue on my merry journey in advertising I wonder if there is a role for a ‘creative’ and if there is, what that role is?
In the world of film and TV there is not a ‘creative’. There is a director, a writer, a producer, a DOP and so on. From this mix the creativity happens. But no-one is charged with being ‘the creative’.
Australian films stand on their own merit
The argument that Australian audiences only embrace local films once they’ve picked up a gong at an international festival is inherently flawed says Lee Zachariah in a piece that first appeared in Encore.As much as we like to pretend that we collectively fulfil the world’s need for a country comprised entirely of laid-back, mellow beach dwellers, we do seem to get disproportionately excited when someone else mentions us. Our cool exterior drops away as our local news bulletins breathlessly report that CNN or the BBC or really anyone in one of the ‘real countries’ acknowledged our existence.
We feel detached from the world, and therefore crave its validation.
The vindication of Paul Fishlock
Wow.You may have noticed that not much went up on Mumbrella over the last couple of hours.
That’s because I’ve been reading the judge’s findings in Paul Fishlock’s case against The Campaign Palace.
I’d always known that agencyland can be a brutal place. But the picture of the cynical, ego-driven, unsentimental world that comes through in the findings of Justice John Sacker is something else. I recommend you take the time to read it yourself.
The reputation of Young & Rubicam’s global creative director Tony Granger certainly takes a battering in my view. The word “bully” is a hard one to come back from.
And former Campaign Palace CEO Mark Mackay comes across as someone you might think twice about either hiring or working for, based on the evidence presented. The judge calls him contemptuous of both Granger and Fishlock.
Mad Mex plants Dictator lookalike in Sydney restaurant
Mexican food chain Mad Mex has launched a tactical stunt around the visit of British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen to Australia by putting a lookalike of his latest character The Dictator in its Crown Street restaurant in Sydney.
Magnum PR was behind the stunt, which has just been hired as Mad Mex’s new PR agency, replacing incumbent 6dc.
The stunt is part of Mad Mex’s ‘Big Burrito’ campaign, a challenge for Aussies to try to eat a burrito weighing 1kg, a repeat of a promotion that first launched last year.
The stunt comes two years after Melbourne’s The Sphere Agency highjacked the premiere of Sacha Baron Cohen film Bruno for client Nando’s.
The Sphere Agency boss Michael Abdul said of the Mad Mex stunt: “They should have called The Sphere Agency.”
Baron Cohen appeared on an uncut version of the Fitzy & Wippa show earlier this week in character as The Dictator.
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Comments
3 May 12
2:57 pm
That is possibly the worst stunt I have ever seen. What a horror start for a new agency. What were they thinking? Did anyone stand up in the brainstorm and ask, “Why are we going to waste people’s time on this?”
3 May 12
3:09 pm
Very funny guys – beating Sacha at his own tricks!
3 May 12
3:13 pm
Cameron, why is it so bad? It’s garnered social media buzz and media attention and cost next to nothing.
3 May 12
3:16 pm
I think it’s smart! What a great way to cash in on the current buzz around General Aladeen! And it’s got people talking.
3 May 12
3:16 pm
New agency?? Magnum PR has been around for years. Usually generating a survey to get PR, at least it is a different campaign this time (not that I think it is a good one).
3 May 12
3:19 pm
Sweet lord, what a shocker.
Seahorse, it’s so bad because the PR agency involved apparently tweeted that The Dictator was making an appearance in store, fans turned up expecting the real thing and got a side order of shoddy knock-off with their pork burrito instead. That’s a bad customer experience right there.
3 May 12
3:20 pm
@ Seahorse… although cheap, it was totally pathetic and made the PR company and its client look like utter dicks! If I was the Mexican place I’d fast be parting ways this afternoon.
3 May 12
3:28 pm
I think the previous posters have already said what I was going to say in reply to your question, Seahorse. Cheers.
3 May 12
3:31 pm
I think it’s a pretty funny low cost tongue in cheek stunt. Could have been a lot worse if it looked more like him and wasn’t him and it seems to be generating interest which I thought was the goal of PR. I’m guessing it probably won’t be highbrow enough for a lot people but I’m guessing a lot of those people take themselves way too seriously to notice simple fun these days.
3 May 12
3:33 pm
Waiting for Tim to say that comments 2,3 and 4 are all from the same IP address.
3 May 12
3:39 pm
I love the Dictator and I love burritos! What’s not to like? Seems like a bit of harmless fun to me.
3 May 12
3:39 pm
Pretty good stunt….. Baron Cohen trades on over the top bad taste… so taste doesn’t come into it….. publicity – any publicity is what he aims for and that is what this stunt has also achieved…. most of the negative comments above sound like sour grapes…. “now why didn’t we think of that?”
3 May 12
3:43 pm
I agree with Bored. It was a quick, low-cost stunt that has got people talking. Seems like a good result to me.
3 May 12
3:45 pm
Mad-Mex should be hosting in store Lucha Libre fighting.
That would get me buying more Quesedillas.
3 May 12
3:49 pm
Hardly, Hillbilly. Any self-respecting agency wouldn’t seek to piss off punters with a bogus celebrity appearance and then, on top of that, have those pissed off punters looking fairly and squarely at their brand new client as the #1 reason they’re pissed off. This whole mindset that any publicity is good publicity is so wrong, you have to wonder where some folk learned their trade. Certainly not from anyone who knows what they’re doing, that’s for sure.
3 May 12
3:50 pm
Mad Mex should call The Sphere Agency
3 May 12
3:55 pm
I agree ‘bored of creative bores’ – it looks like it was meant as a light-hearted story to get people talking, which it’s done.
3 May 12
3:55 pm
Lame.
3 May 12
3:56 pm
This journalist clearly loved it:
http://www.news.com.au/enterta.....6345828909
NOT.
3 May 12
3:56 pm
Now I await the survey results on how 9/10 people who watched ‘the Dictator’ thought he was Mexican
3 May 12
4:00 pm
One last thing – Any publicity is NOT good publicity if you had to deceive media to get it. PR is a relationship business – please explain how you maintain a relationship if you are not trusted by the very people you are meant to serve.
‘Got people talking’ – are you serious? If that were true then Slippery Pete would be in a very different situ right now…
3 May 12
4:01 pm
Did I miss a meeting. What the hell does a dictator have to do with Cinco de mayo or Mexico? Great brand. Dumb PR stunt. The brand has an energetic and authentic quality that doesn’t take itself too seriously. But this PR stunt doesn’t relate in any way to what mad mex is all about. Weird. Stay true to your story Mad Mex as you are much loved.
3 May 12
4:03 pm
If I were the producers of the film I would be looking at a lawsuit based on theft of intellectual property.
3 May 12
4:15 pm
agree with james….. this was “in fun”…. Cameron – you seem to be rather bitter about this? Were you there – to have such in-depth knowledge about the experience of (who you call) “punters”??
3 May 12
4:22 pm
Hillbilly, if you can’t see the issue with a strategy that relies on deceiving members of the public, and the media, to attend a fast food outlet, with zero pay-off when they get there, then I’d seriously have to wonder if you even work in this industry.
3 May 12
4:30 pm
This is awesome! Pretty smart, low cost PR stunt which seems to have generated a lot of exposure. Mad Mex should be stoked with this result.
3 May 12
4:37 pm
From the tone of most of the negative comments it has turned into a PR bitch fest/pitch.
“we could do so much better”.
I’m amazed at how much venom is being thrown at a little harmless stunt. It’s a little depressing to be honest.
3 May 12
4:43 pm
I thought it was a decent stunt. Seems like Mad Mex is a fun brand that doesn’t take itself too seriously (how could it with a name like that?!) so I can see the link here for sure.
3 May 12
4:45 pm
I didn’t realise they tweeted and said he was appearing, that’s a little out of order.
Either way, for the cost of (I assume) a fake beard they’ve managed to get the word out about Mad Mex and that new campaign thing they’re doing. The deceptive bit was shitty, but if it was just a look-a-like spontaneously then that would’ve been pretty alright. I’m torn.
3 May 12
5:08 pm
it’s shitty when any agency rides the coat tails or rips off another persons crative idea, whether it’s art, music or Sascha’s character…poor effort, keep racing to the bottom
3 May 12
5:15 pm
I don’t really think either of these stunts were good (The mexican restaurant or the film premiere by Sphere). Sure, they got publicity, but am I left feeling positive about the brand after either of them?
Publicity has to be relevant and for the right reasons. Anyone can make headlines – even Charles Manson.
3 May 12
5:16 pm
I saw the PR company go in an eat at Mad Pizza next door after it was done… True story!!
3 May 12
5:19 pm
Where’s the fit with Mexican food and the Dictator? Very random and ‘tactical’.
3 May 12
5:58 pm
Did I miss something? Did we take a trip back to 1999, complete with gimmicky Austin Powers look-a-likes? Groovy baby!
3 May 12
6:32 pm
All I can think about now is Mexican food… Is there a Mad Mex is the Melbourne CBD?
3 May 12
7:40 pm
This is so lame…. I’d be pissed off if I was promised to see Sasha baron, and ended up being greeted by this monkey…. Bad Pr move
3 May 12
9:04 pm
Terrible…………are they a real PR company?
4 May 12
10:18 am
With Cinco de Mayo actually happening this week.. and gee I don’t know. some sort of RELEVANCE to the brand.. perhaps the “creatives” at Magnum could have made a connection… somehow… and come up with an idea around that?? .. “You give PR’s a bad name” * Full acknowlegement & credit to Bon Jovi for ripping off and reusing their lyrics
4 May 12
11:55 am
Pity, I always liked Mad Mex. But this makes me like them less. Lame, cheap and tacky.
Grill’d does the whole interesting PR thing so much better.
4 May 12
12:40 pm
Ok this doesn’t seem like the best idea ever but I think a lot of you need to get some air and lay off the coffee… its clearly a quick photo stunt that has been blown way out!
My first reaction was to laugh because it looked so stupid and doubt that anyone has been put off a brand because of a funny looking picture. Funny thing is the last PR story I read on here was the Grill’d one where their PR team tried to run a mile from the idea when the PR bitches got stuck into them.
As a designer I understand that an idea counts for a lot but sometimes it feels nice to enjoy a silly idea for what it is and reading the comments most of the negative ones aren’t even constructive it just sounds like a few people have been waiting for a chance to have a pop at another agencie.
I dont normally comment on these post but when you see 39 comments for a PR photo and no comments on the posts that actually impact the industry you have to wonder if people actually care about the impact an image has or they just want a bitch.
Enjoy our weekend people a lot of you seem to need one.
4 May 12
1:06 pm
@Duck & cover fair points. Still want to see Lucha Libre on Crown St though.
4 May 12
1:30 pm
the reason people get cut down when lamo stuff like this makes the press is because they went out of their way to promote it within the industry. if agencies want to do some “light-hearted, harmless, fun” activities they should STFU about them in industry press.
but everyone is such a shameless self-promoter in this biz that we can’t help ourselves, hence you run the risk of being smashed.
4 May 12
1:51 pm
In response to “Duck & cover”, I think even a cursory read of Mumbrella shows a lot of good adverts, PR campaigns, etc, getting praised in the comments section — WHEN THEY’RE WORTH PRAISING. But this just isn’t praise worthy at all. Anyone who thinks it’s praise worthy is agreeing that it’s OK to piss off members of the public and the press so long as there was a “fun” photo taken and people talked about it later — even though at least half that conversation, if not more, is flat out criticising the campaign and, by association, people are now feeling less love for the brand for letting it happen in the first place.
4 May 12
2:52 pm
Hi Cameron how are you doing today? I think you need a hug.
Your clearly an industry expert and you make some very valid points but I doubt the public even took much notice to be honest. I know us creatives love to think we are changing the world but i’m sorry to tell you that were not.
When you say people feeling less love for the brand I take it you mean the people who have read this post and seen the “stunt” (yes I said stunt because I very much doubt this is a campaign) and seen it as pretty much the end of the world when it comes to PR. I’m guessing a lot of the public just saw a funny picture and the name Mad Mex and went on with their day and didn’t let it bother them at all.
Anyway i’m going to go… Oh and Cameron you keyboard seems to have a fault as the caps lock got a little stuck, or was that you screaming at the top of your voice at the injustice of it all.
I dare you not to reply go on with your weekend and start the healing process of getting over this.
Take care big fella
*hug*
4 May 12
3:36 pm
Sarcasm directed at me doesn’t change that what was done here was a shit strategy that pissed off the media and members of the public. Ask anyone if they think that’s a good starting point in a campaign and see how far you get *shrug*
4 May 12
9:16 pm
This is a terrible PR stunt. I’d be firing my PR if they did this to promote my restaurant.
5 May 12
11:42 am
Personally it’s just cringeworthy, and that’s speaking from a consumer’s point of view. You announce some sort of celeb visit, and when people turn up it’s just some lame ass lookalike (and he doesn’t even look alike!).
Too cheap to afford the real thing…it’s like those generic products “inspired” by the real thing…