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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 »
New digital agency Nucleus: We don’t buy the social media bullshit
A new strategy-only digital agency will launch in Melbourne this week claiming one of its jobs will be “breaking down the bullshit barrier with social media”.
Nucleus Digital Strategy has been founded by MD Anthony Baker, who most recently was GM at Melbourne digital agency Immersive, and director of strategy Chris Fiteni, previously an account director at Clemenger BBDO Melbourne.
The agency officially launches on Friday “providing nothing more than candid strategic advice”.
Baker said that he sees both clients and brands as potential clients. He said: “At the moment we’re helping Telstra, mainly by playing around with public policy stuff.”
He said that social media would be a small part of what the agency did. He said: “There’s a fair bit of breaking down the bullshit barrier with social media. There’s too much bullshit about social media. Not much of it is commercial anyway – it’s a very small portion of the marketing mix.”
He added: “We dont want to do execution at all. There are enough agencies around doing that and they are becoming commoditised.”
November 9th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
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Comments
9 Nov 09
12:12 pm
I see their position of avoiding execution extends to their brand design as well.
9 Nov 09
12:17 pm
+1
9 Nov 09
12:19 pm
fair enough, but all i can think of right now is of their sad bastardisation of helvetica…
9 Nov 09
12:25 pm
tweebs – and also to their Web site: http://www.nucleusdigitalstrategy.com – but no doubt there is an awesome strategy behind the lack of one
9 Nov 09
12:38 pm
I can see clients lining up for “candid strategic advice”. They must be sick of getting the “serious” or “professional” kind. Oh yes, I can imagine lots of clients wanting them to “play around” on their business. FFS.
9 Nov 09
1:14 pm
Oh wow. Their logo is appalling. Reminds me of those password fields that ask you to input some random text to avoid being spammed by web bots.
9 Nov 09
1:25 pm
Funny stuff guys .. especially comment one.
9 Nov 09
1:31 pm
And you have to trademark something before whacking a TM on it (in the right place as well)..
Immersive? Never heard of them, and Google hasn’t either.
9 Nov 09
1:40 pm
This sounds suspiciously like a provocative statement to get some press.
a. What serious digital agency (strategic advice only or full service) would NOT include social media in their suite of solutions.
b. What serious client would even talk to a digital agency that publicly ridicules social media.
#newagencylaunchfail
9 Nov 09
1:47 pm
Now we know what Lynton from The Apprentice is getting up to.
9 Nov 09
1:59 pm
Wow- this bit of PR backfired for them didnt it.
9 Nov 09
2:03 pm
Also- Pink Bear- its the number 1 result- what are you on about?
Google Search FAIL
http://www.google.com.au/searc.....=firefox-a
9 Nov 09
2:22 pm
Great to see they are visually backing up their brand promise – their logo is as bland as their strategies promise to be!
9 Nov 09
2:23 pm
In fairness it’s a couple of juicy soundbytes in a very short interview. Not sure if it’s fair to judge the outfit from that. The people in question obviously have some credentials to have held those roles.
And I think it’s a fair call to say that it’s important to “break down the bullshit barrier” around social media’s integration into marketing campaigns. It can be done well and it can be done badly. And it should be done with a measurable ROI objective at the end of it. Not just because it’s the new black.
9 Nov 09
2:23 pm
Is it possible that they’re just taking the piss?
9 Nov 09
2:23 pm
I thought they might have come up in this search:
http://www.google.com.au/searc.....=f&oq=
I should have kept it simple. My bad. I thought Immersive would have been too common a word to bother with.
9 Nov 09
2:55 pm
Oooh, i just got off on all those big words; nucleus, bullshit, candid strategic advice, public policy and aaahhh, commoditised! Sign me up, I want to be immersed, whoops immersive, no? Immolate, no? Emulate? Okay, fuck it then, just have my nucleic washed, digitised and vomitized, I mean strangelised, no, whatever… tweet, twit, twat!
9 Nov 09
3:11 pm
most strategy is bullshit
9 Nov 09
4:12 pm
Wow! Marketing FAIL!
That logo! My God, keep your 4 yr old off the computer!
Well, some good points addressed badly! Good luck!
9 Nov 09
4:59 pm
I think you might be on to something, perhaps not entirely – but to some extent.
9 Nov 09
6:06 pm
The logo makes me feel sick
9 Nov 09
8:15 pm
Fiteni never worked at Clems – what a fake.
9 Nov 09
8:50 pm
Perhaps check his LinkedIn – Clemenger Group
9 Nov 09
8:53 pm
Lets see what they come up with – they might be onto something
@Davy Adams – good call of the situation
10 Nov 09
3:30 am
There is definitely room (and a screaming need) for an agency that focuses on strategy and moves away from a tactical approach based on individual disciplines. Its one of the prime reasons why I created interactive Mix, and he is right that production is being commoditised, especially at the low end, but rather than focussing on ‘the ‘bullshit’ of a media type, surely the focus should be providing a joined up digital marketing strategy. Clients have had enough of being presented with technology and are now looking for people who focus on providing solutions that will give a clear ROI.
10 Nov 09
3:59 am
If Nucleus was around the 1890’s they would have said “the telephone is bullshit.”
10 Nov 09
8:31 am
@ Evil Banker, To be fair, I don’t think they said that social media is “bullshit”, just that much of what masquerades as strategy is bs. Surely that’s true! @ Tim Nicholas if you read the article you’ll see that they *don’t* say they won’t include social media in their strategies, just that it isn’t the main game. Reasonable comment, wouldn’t you say?
10 Nov 09
9:21 am
As a client the amount of times I’ve been sold the social media line – make some cool widget, game, app, video so people can share it on ’social media’ – is as remarkable as it is lame. Social media is primarily for people to interact with each other, not with brands, branding, or our ‘cool’ shit. The tiny percentage of stuff that cuts through is as brilliant creatively as it is strategically, and we all know that combination is rare. Taking the easy ’social media’ option off the table, or even reducing it as a core focus may actually stimulate some solid thinking around innovative digital strategy.
10 Nov 09
3:44 pm
their actual release is here, its a bit more illuminating than just the grabs here. probably answers some of the things raised…http://www.nucleusdigitalstrategy.com/pdf/nucleus_mediarelease091109.pdf
10 Nov 09
6:45 pm
How cute. Execution is a commodity.
God knows we wouldnt want to commoditise marketing and advertising.
That would be truly awful.
Imagine being able to measure and trade marketing assets versus the nonsense that exists now of claim and counter claim about superior strategy.
Motherhood motherhood motherhood motherhood. Grow up you children.
11 Nov 09
1:29 pm
“There’s a fair bit of breaking down the bullshit barrier with social media. There’s too much bullshit about social media. Not much of it is commercial anyway – it’s a very small portion of the marketing mix.”
What about the bs in traditional media?
- Telling people that millions watched Idol based on a tiny selection of ‘active TV users’ having boxes on their TV’s with channel 10 switched on but were out doing the gardening and did not watch a thing is surely not true clarity to an advertiser?
BS in all media needs to be addressed as online becomes more and more accountable and independent tools like say Analytics from Google allows us to know exactly how many people visit a website etc traditional has a lot to do here although online also needs to be transparent too…
It would be good to have an agency to focus on cutting out the bs in media(.)
Good luck with the launch Nucleus.
12 Nov 09
9:43 am
Not taking social media seriously, oh dear that sounds like advertising agencies several years ago regarding digital! Big mistake boys, I think you need to read some more case studies maybe from overseas on successful marketing using social media.
“We don’t buy the social media bullshit” kamikaze statement!
13 Nov 09
2:23 pm
This is rediculous, I am sorry but there is a time to be ‘Candid’ but attracting new business by cuuting through the ‘bullshit’, hmm I say you are full of Sh*t yourselves.
Anyone who discounts the value of social media is clearly, look at Facebooks penetration and expected growth, there is no other single entity ont he planet that should be as respected.
16 Nov 09
11:01 am
Ha ha, this must be a piss take as nobody would let the drunken spider that fell in the ink pot crawl across PhotoShop to produce such a crap logo and also crap fonts!!!
If this is serious then I’m sure the big clients would want to endorse and align with black and white imagery with no imagination………..
I know there is a gen A on the way and for a 2 year old the logo isn’t too bad