-
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 »
Media agency MPG takes the blame for using ‘Abo’ search term for Tourism NT
Media agency MPG has issued a grovelling apology taking the blame for a blunder that saw client Tourism NT buying the Google paid search term “Abo”.
As Mumbrella revealed yesterday, the offensive term linked to Tourism NT’s Travel NT website.
In an apology published this afternoon, MPG said:
“MPG wish to unreservedly apologise for the inadvertent selection of the word as a search term. MPG recognise that it was a mistake, an oversight and is unacceptable.
“Tourism NT did not specifically approve this search term as part of 128,000 search words employed for their business.
“MPG recognise that this term is highly offensive and apologises for any offence caused and its search procedures have been reviewed in order to prevent such errors reoccurring.”
May 12th, 2010 at 1:03 pm
-
Follow Us
-
Email Newsletter
Latest Jobs- Junior Producer - Sydney
- Senior E-commerce Marketing Specialist – Travel sector - Sydney
- Product Manager - Online Media Company - Sydney
- Marketing Executive - global technology company - Sydney
- 1192 Account Director, Melbourne - Melbourne
- Communications Strategist - Sydney
- Brand Strategist - Sydney or Melbourne
- Senior Account Manager, Sports Marketing - Sydney
- Graduate Analyst - Digital Media, $35,000 to $50,000 depending on experience - Sydney
- Head of Content & Ideation - Sydney, NSW, Australia
Comments
12 May 10
1:13 pm
“Tourism NT did not specifically approve this search term as part of 128,000 search words employed for their business.” That would indicate either MPG did or no-one did. Both of those are a slight on the agencies ability at paid search.
Come on guys – sort it out
12 May 10
1:42 pm
Whilst this should not have happened in the first place, and they will need to assure the client a repeat can’t happen, good on them for doing this.
12 May 10
1:52 pm
Chris, agreed that the best policy was to stand up and be counted but within paid search the devil is in the detail and one of the most important things in managing a brand is the negative keyword selection so that they don’t appear against terms like this and also the initial keyword selection.
This should have been picked up on both counts.
but yes, fair play for hands up.
12 May 10
1:57 pm
Come on – the client also needs to take responsibility.
12 May 10
2:18 pm
The term shoud have been proposed as a negative keyword OR the client should not have signed it off…..
But fair play to MPG for c’arrying the can’
12 May 10
2:26 pm
surely you hire an agency to manage your search to prevent these things happening and the agency should have controls in place to make sure these words are not even included.
If the client is expected to trawl through 128,000 keywords and approve each surely this negates part of the reason for having someone manage the search?
12 May 10
2:31 pm
I highly doubt there are 128,000 keywords…..there is not that much to say about NT!!!
12 May 10
2:46 pm
Kind of agree. Whilst good on MPG for taking the blame, i think us clients can’t hide behind the agency when things like this happen. The agency only has as much autonomy as they are allowed, and therefore – like – all things the client is permitting that autonomy. And therefore is responsible.
Doubt MPG would get the credit for all campaign successes. We can’t have it both ways, i think!
12 May 10
2:48 pm
As an exercise in PR Crisis Management good on Media agency MPG for standing up or carrying the can depending on how you look at it.
However also feel that NT Tourism should have issued an apology or at very least a statement.
Someone at NT Tourism signed off these keywords / SEO campaign and should issue an apology on behalf of organisation.
At end of any crisis PR event you ask what damage has been done and who comes off carrying egg on their face. So far it looks a little like NT Tourism….
12 May 10
2:50 pm
Shane , have you been up here recently.. you should come up sometime..there’s plenty to say!!!
12 May 10
2:56 pm
I don’t know 128,000 different words.
I’d be shit at search marketing.
12 May 10
3:01 pm
Come on, it’s the responsiblity of the media agency to professionally represent their client. In this case, they have failed to do while being offensive along the way! A search term doesn’t just get inadvertantly selected.
12 May 10
3:04 pm
I agree Shane, I doubt there is 128,000 keywords and if there is I bet 100,000 get 0 impressions.
I also bet that not many client actually are asked to approve keywords by any agency, generally campaign ads are the only thing clients get to approve.
12 May 10
3:05 pm
128,000 this is Bad bad use of PPC campaign.
Of course client didn’t approve – Who has the time and intelligence to select 128,000 keywords?
Have your heard about negative keywords?
Too easy.
12 May 10
3:06 pm
i’m politically correct but my boyfriend isn’t. we’ve fought over this in the past, and he says that abo isn’t an offensive term, but an abbreviation. keeping an open mind, can it be interpretted as that?
btw, he’s not a racist. he’s in an interacial relationship and has aboriginie friends. the word does get to me, though.
12 May 10
3:09 pm
At least someone said sorry about something for once.
12 May 10
3:10 pm
Actually I think they missed a tricked by not issuing a statement mimicking Kevin Rudd’s sorry speech when I think about it.
12 May 10
3:14 pm
I doubt very much that NT buy 128,000 keywords, the Oxford English Dictionary contains full entries for 171,476 words in current use.
What a waste of money and time! You should employ an agency who is focused on your target market.
12 May 10
3:26 pm
The term keyword is deceiving as it can relate to individual words but also phrases, in the context of search marketing. So, 128,000 keywords is a lot, but nothing compared to say an airline who might have over a million keywords.
I get the feeling a lot of agencies build out search campaigns with so many keywords to justify the fees they are charging, even if the majority of keywords get zero impressions. And of course approving this many keywords is a joke, but they should definitely have approved a negative keyword list.
12 May 10
3:34 pm
This is mental.
It’s fine to use “wog boy” as the title of a movie but it’s front page news on SMH and other news sites that some random dude picked up on an agency were bidding on “abo”.
Come on Australia…sort it out.
12 May 10
3:39 pm
Let’s remember that this was brought to light by a guy who works at an agency that is likely out there looking for SEM business (and he’s done very well out of this by pointing everyone to his blog and the company’s site). So of course any errors they find they want to highlight as “incompetence” as he says. Which is fine, all competing companies try to find errors with each other, but lets not all be so critical and quick to point the finger.
I don’t think I have seen one SEM campaign that is perfect and error free or couldn’t be done better. So I suggest a few of you get off your high horse and deflate your egos as to how good you think you are 100% of the time. MPG admitted the error and I am sure they will move on and learn from it. This is a SEM process error, yes potentially a PC issue too, but it’s hardly bringing down the stock exchange is it. Move on people.
12 May 10
3:43 pm
Thumbs up to the agency for taking the fall on this – as they should. If I had time to run my own SEM campaigns I wouldn’t emolpy an agency – the responsibility sits with them.
Gem, the social connotations of ‘wog’ and ‘abo’ are entirely different. Wog can still be highly offensive if misdirected, abo is always a term of offence.
12 May 10
3:53 pm
so…are we going to the NT or what??
12 May 10
4:18 pm
Dar wins everytime
12 May 10
4:57 pm
I find it funny people think its impossible to use 128,000 keywords. I have seen clients in the past use 600,000+ keywords. I guess it sounds a bit funny for some one who does not work in the search marketing game, you must remember theirs the dictionary terms, you mix those up with keywords and then you also add in some miss spellings.
The problem is mistakes can happen, this one has been a costly lesson for MPG, yet I commend them highly for comming out and appoligising in full.
You see companies like Nestle facing a big problem and they run and hide and bring in the lawyers to remove negative comments.
12 May 10
4:58 pm
(Edited by Mumbrella)
12 May 10
5:17 pm
Have to agree with Michael – 128,000 search terms in a PPC campaign is far too many. That is like firing at a target blindfolded, hoping something hits the bullseye – a sheer waste of advertising budget.
12 May 10
5:18 pm
You don’t need 128,000 words to trigger reasons to visit the Northern Territory; just one: “Barramundi”. Mind you, you could also throw in the abbreviated version: “Barra”.
12 May 10
5:29 pm
true – 128,000 is OTT – what did they do upload a dictionary?
12 May 10
5:41 pm
@Jono ……….
“have seen clients in the past use 600,000+ keywords”
“you must remember theirs the dictionary terms, you mix those up with keywords and then you also add in some miss spellings.”
Obviously in your SEM experience you target people with webbed hands
12 May 10
7:51 pm
Seriously, 128k keywords is not that much when, as people have mentioned they are actually key phrases with multiple words and often including misspellings and their combination in the phrases.
Just the phrase “tourism in northern territory” could generate 200 misspellings.
If you understood search you would understand.
Also, for those searches with zero impressions, they may have an impression now or in the future and if you are the one with your ad there when others have ignored it then the consumer has a higher propensity to click on your ad as you’re likely the only one who is appearing.
Anyway, 128k is not the issue, in fact it is like the agency is using that as an excuse. It was a cock up, they have seen it and fixed it and admitted to the issue. It goes to show some of the issues of running a search campaign with large volumes of keywords/phrases but also shows the level of quality control that should be in place on both an agency and client side.
12 May 10
8:03 pm
Add to that if you have the exact phrase it is more cost effective than having the broad match then it makes sense to build the whole thing out to all possibilities of phraseology to give the most cost effective result.
13 May 10
8:19 am
NT Tourism is desperate to show any sort of progress or to
justify their relevance.
The ad agency would have been asked if they would like to continue with their
contract and to take One for the revenue stream…i mean team.
Do TourismNT marketing managers ever get fired?
I bet this issue, woke a lot of people on the fourth floor of Moonta House as well as the
Hon Malarndirri Barbara Anne McCarthy who says about 4 words a year.
13 May 10
8:50 am
“Gem, the social connotations of ‘wog’ and ‘abo’ are entirely different. Wog can still be highly offensive if misdirected, abo is always a term of offence:
So if I call someone an f”ing wog or f’ing abo one is more offensive than the other it? Of course this is all about context and personal interpretation.
One thing I find amazing is that every Aussie I know doesn’t think the term “paki” is offensive for example. I think it says a lot.
On the PPC 128k keywords…definately overkill – I would think there are probably 30-40 head terms that drive 90% traffic and I would be amazed if the remaining “long tail” accounted for the other 10% on a consistent basis. The perception that quantity of keywords is a huge factor to look at in a PPC campaign is prehistoric online marketing and if that is what your agency thinks, sack them immediately – My mum knows more about PPC that they do.
13 May 10
9:02 am
So in summary:
It’s not that big of a deal, it is a minor process issue between client > agency being leveraged by others for personal gain
Number of key words is irrelevant and does not incur the client additional cost – as long as the campaign is being optimised to the right metrics of course
Terms ‘Wog’ versus ‘Abo’ – far too many shades of grey/acceptability to come to a definitive conclusion
Fionn is clever and likes his giant iPhone…..
13 May 10
9:21 am
I’d like to hear from more PR professionals on your point of view on this issue. I completely agree with am’s recommendation that NT Tourism must issue an apology. By keeping quiet & letting the agency take the blame is poor PR, as publics (including media) will make a link back to NT Tourism. A statement apologising for the error is important to maintain their reputation & to diffuse the situation. This is crisis management 101.
13 May 10
9:34 am
I thought it might be that Fionn!
13 May 10
10:07 am
Well it’s not like there are that many Fionn’s out there!
And it’s not a giant iPhone, it can’t make calls
)
13 May 10
11:10 am
I just want to know how many hits they actually had on the blunder!
13 May 10
12:12 pm
Is Comment 15 trollin or stoopid?
14 May 10
4:51 pm
HAH! Love it austen tayshus (1)
Really, just how much can we Koalas bear?
Enough already mUmbrella and let the “news-cycle” go…
Trackbacks/Pingbacks