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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 »
Murdoch and Google redux
I wouldn’t blame you for being bored of my views on the Google versus Murdoch debate by now.
But if you’re not, last week’s opinion piece on why Murdoch may have a point, which was triggered by his threat not to index on Google, led to an invitation to write a piece on the issue for The Australian.
Tim Burrowes
November 16th, 2009 at 10:57 am
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Comments
16 Nov 09
11:49 am
Nice piece! Still no link love for you though
16 Nov 09
11:51 am
Funny how a change of heart suggesting Rupert might be on to something leads to an invitation to write about the issue in the Murdoch press, huh?!?
Nothing against your piece, Tim. I think you make a good point and it’s an interesting addition to the debate.
I just very much doubt that someone who added to the debate, but didn’t come around to Rupert’s way of thinking would ever have received a similar invitation.
16 Nov 09
11:56 am
i’m curious whether they paid for the piece … seeing how they want to be paid by the search engines for indexing their content.
mumbrella?
16 Nov 09
12:18 pm
Hi Larry,
I was delighted to be asked to write the piece, and didn’t ask for payment, as the potential exposure made writing the piece worthwhile on its own. The same has previously applied when writing for the likes of the Walkley magazine, Crikey, ABC online and others.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
16 Nov 09
1:54 pm
Tim
Think Matt’s point is worth revisiting. i read your Crikey piece, which was rivetting. I haven’t gone to da Oz as yet. However, if the outcome of the Crikey piece was that Rupert was up himself (as everyone else thinks), do you think da Oz would’ve asked you to write for them?
Cheers
Gavin
16 Nov 09
1:55 pm
“But this bonus Google traffic was going to be of little interest to our advertisers.”
Because the people involved aren’t in the target audience? If so, this is unlikely to be much of a factor in Murdoch’s thinking, given the relative broadness of most of his properties.
16 Nov 09
2:08 pm
yeah, and is it normal for da oz to not give link love?
16 Nov 09
2:27 pm
Murdoch Vs Internet. Ive got my money on the Internet being around longer, and being stronger, even without him!
16 Nov 09
2:30 pm
If News Ltd ceases all it’s printing tomorrow, would we notice? or would we care? Will the internet survive? Murdoch seems to think it wont without him. The ‘internets’ is already writing his obituary, and News LTD’s. Well, actually, he’s writing the Obit’ for News LTD each time he opens his mouth.
16 Nov 09
3:00 pm
Jeff … good to see you’re willing to gamble your money away, but not pay for online content. I bet you were also one of those people who said they’d never pay to use a toll road.
16 Nov 09
3:55 pm
No John;
I dont pay for online comment, my visits to the sites I do frequent gives them the numbers they need to reach advertisers they need to exist, like a free publication, twhich even News LTD owns a few around the world.
And why would I want to pay for Tolls when the fuel taxes we pay with every litre are suppose to go into making roads. Why is it ok to take our taxes for roads via the bowser, and then charge us to use the road that our taxes are suppose to produce, that’s a double tax. Good on ya Labor! and all those ’special’ deals you do with corporations to ream everyone, you know, all those blue collar workers your suppose to represent and think about….
16 Nov 09
4:05 pm
who let grampa simpson on here!! and when did he change his name to jeffD
“a … then b … c would usually follow”
16 Nov 09
4:06 pm
Hi Gavin,
I suspect not. But there again, the tide of outside opinion has tended to be that Murdoch’s plan doesn’t stand a chance. So to have yet another person write that would be pretty boring.
Cheers,
Tim
16 Nov 09
4:21 pm
@ Larry, says the guy who can’t even follow a thread. A thread..? What’s a thread, doh! You must be one of the News LTD Shills sent out like a good republican just like the rest of Fox (Faux) news, to insult anyone that dares says the truth about News LTD, even if it is bad.
16 Nov 09
4:57 pm
Nice article Tim. While I’m working at considerably lower volume than you are in terms of readers, I’ve still been giving these issues some thought myself recently. I see your point about the wave of sudden readers not being in your advertisors’ target market, but I’m still not sure that the long-term benefit was modest. For example, how many of the extra 25k might have added you to an RSS feed? I’ll bet there was some kind of jump resulting from the surge. Analytics for blogs still seem to be pretty hard to figure, but I think that at minimum we need to be measuring both hits and feeds. Figuring out how the two interact for a particular blog will end up being quite valuable.
17 Nov 09
3:39 am
I tend to agree with your comments in the article. I think a lot of people obsess about how their material appears in google, but the reality is that better traffic comes from other sources, and building up a readership of people who value your content. One of the problems google seems to be creating more broadly is that it encourages people to create low-cost, low-value content monetised by low-value advertising (ie. adsense).
17 Nov 09
8:35 am
… in other words Holgs … it’s a race to the bottom. I wonder why Murdoch doesn’t want to play that game?
17 Nov 09
9:55 pm
Good on you Mum, enjoyed the Oz article but it cost me $1.50. BTW why don’t you write an article – “Cynicism – a comparison of US and Australian blog respondents” – something like that. Could be amazing findings…….
Oh, and something for you to mull over – while it may be possible for Rupe to save the day the problem he has is too many advisers who understand too little about the Internet. and have too little imagination. Some even have a proven track record of sending top non Rupe properties downhill. And look what is happening to Myspace……. Let’s hope quality journalism isnt flushed away in the fall-out.