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Opinion
What's in a name?
In this guest post, Moensie Rossier wonders about the power of names for brands and marketers.
Brands have been having a bit of fun with names lately, not to mention a fair bit of success. Interbrand just named a headhunting firm Cloak & Dagger. And ‘Share a Coke’ showed how much power there is in a name.
The Coke campaign effectively short-circuited the usual mechanics of communication. It undoubtedly stroked people’s egos. But, I believe, its success stems from the fact that it directly and automatically affected people’s behaviour, rather than doing so indirectly by shaping attitudes.
Best ads from Super Bowl 2012
The Super Bowl is all done and a team from North America won. But as well as some sort of sporting event, it’s the world’s biggest advertising showcase. See the best of them right here… and please tell us what you think.
How to debunk media myths
In this post, UWS’s Ullrich Ecker, John Cook and Stephen Lewandowsky argue that cognitive science can help PRs form strategies in managing media misreporting.
A growing cohort of commentators has bemoaned the descent of contemporary political “debate” into a largely fact-free zone.
How about simply focusing on what consumers want?
In this guest post, Peter Mountford argues that brands should think more about what is really going on for consumers
Who here is hoping their favourite brand of toilet paper is going to be organizing a flash mob on their way home from work today?
What the Optus web copyright victory means
In this analysis first published on The Conversation, RMIT’s Marita Shelly examines the implications of Telstra’s defeat over the online rights to the AFL broadcast deal
This week’s Federal Court ruling that Optus customers are able to view sporting matches minutes after they are streamed live without breaching copyright is a landmark decision that alters our understanding of copyright law, and has significant implications for the AFL’s broadcasting rights deal.
Does Gina Rinehart’s bite of a chunk of Fairfax make her an oligarch?
In an article that first appeared in The Conversation, Mark Rolfe wonders whether the mining magnate’s move could turn Fairfax into something resembling America’s Fox network.
Australia’s richest person Gina Rinehart has moved to increase her stake in Fairfax Media, owner of The Age, Sydney Morning Herald and a number of radio stations. Rinehart has already shown her desire to play a role in public life, campaigning against former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s aborted mining tax. She has also demonstrated a willingness to make media investments to ensure her pro-business worldview is promulgated.
What does this latest move by Rinehart mean?
Gillard's Australia Day crisis
PM Julia Gillard’s media adviser Tony Hodges has been forced to resign over the Australia Day tent embassy debacle.
It came after it emerged he had revealed opposition leader Tony Abbott’s whereabouts, leading to both politicians being rescued by police in ugly scenes.
Mumbrella editor Tim Burrowes and advertising practitioner Jane Caro debate the topic on Weekend Sunrise’s masters of Spin segment:
The biggest cock-up I made in business
In this guest post, Chris Savage urges agency staff to live the brand.I still shudder when I think about how incredibly stupid I was when I made the biggest stuff up of my career. And then, 18 years later, I did it again. Do not make this mistake with your clients. Ever.
Hey Groupon. Thanks for fucking up email
In this guest post, Daniel Monheit warns that group deal overload is devaluing email marketingEmail marketing used to be fabulous. Back in the heady days of 2010, brands would work hard to build up well qualified databases, upon which they’d bestow carefully crafted correspondence filled with information, offers and incentives. The recipients, of course would be delighted: “Oh look! An email! From one of my favourite brands! And it’s 40 cents off at Woolies this week!”.
The staggering sway of Harold Mitchell
The Power Index today names Aegis Media chairman Harold Mitchell as the most powerful person in Melbourne. Andrew Crook profiles him.
Harold Mitchell takes pride in dispensing with the niceties. When The Power Index visited his South Melbourne private office before Christmas, fresh remains were scattered all over the boardroom table.
Share a Coke with… the moronic masses
The most-read story on Mumbrella last year, with not far off 100,000 page views, was a fairly humdrum yarn about the launch of Coca-Cola’s name-on-a-bottle campaign.The headline, “Coca-Cola puts people’s names on bottles in ‘Share a Coke’ campaign”, though hated by any self-respecting sub-editor, was loved by Google. And in rushed what can be politely described as the public.
Assumptions kill creativity
In this guest post, Gual Barwell disagrees that the sales success of the Old Spice social media campaign was overstated.Yesterday’s post from Cathie McGinn suggested the Old Spice campaign failed to connect with consumers. Based on the facts and figures, I disagree.
What Old Spice and Wieden + Kennedy has done and done phenomenally well is to create a franchise.
The SMH's readers (are wrong) editor
We are now about five months into the reign of Australia’s first readers’ editor. And I don’t think it is working.
It struck me at the time of Judy Prisk’s appointment to the Sydney Morning Herald that the fact that her boss was editor-in-chief Peter Fray was not going to be ideal if she was going to be the independent voice of the reader.
The emperor's new fragrance: Old Spice’s campaign failure
In this guest post, Cathie McGinn slays a sacred cow of 21st century marketing – the highly awarded Old Spice campaign.One of the biggest myths of recent times (by which I mean a story of great heroism and triumph we’d all like to believe but deep down know to be untrue) is the Old Spice social media campaign. It’s been much lauded and awarded as an example of outstanding content, a creative and collaborative way of connecting with consumers and driving a record increase in sales.
How reliable are radio ratings?
In this guest posting, Jason ‘Jabba’ Davis wonders how accurate radio ratings can be, since the data is collated from handwritten diaries.
So, the radio ratings season gets underway tomorrow. After a well-earned break, Australia’s commercial radio stations will renew their obsession with figures to see how many of us are listening. Are they winning or losing the ratings war?
The much feared radio survey is the only way to measure the success or failure of a station’s playlist, talent, promotions or even good old Black Thunder crosses. With six-figure salaries riding on the make-or-break nature of ratings, just how accurate are Australia’s radio survey results?
Nine calls in Plagiarism Special Ops
It must be very flattering if you’re Discovery Networks.
First there was the similarity between the There’s Nothing Like Australia ad and the Discovery promo.
Now Nine has a similar idea for Rescue Special Ops that certainly seems to draw inspiration from another Discovery show, this time Bear Grylls. For maximum comedy, press play on the top video, wait 30 seconds, then hit play on the bottom video…
Update: Or to save you the trouble, a kindly soul has now edited the two together side by side…
Update 2:
June 10th, 2010 at 11:36 am
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Comments
10 Jun 10
11:40 am
wow…that’s the most obvious rip-off I’ve ever seen!
10 Jun 10
11:47 am
“i know, lets copy this UK promo, nobody will ever know…”
10 Jun 10
11:52 am
Channel 9 should be embarrassed and ashamed- what a joke.
10 Jun 10
11:54 am
And the show is nothing like Police Rescue either #freshdramapremisepleasefreetv
10 Jun 10
12:02 pm
Who’s actually genuinely shocked to find out the Channel nine folk have absolutely no ideas of their own? All one needs to do is look at their “original content” they produce to see they’ve never done anything they haven’t nicked form overseas.
10 Jun 10
12:35 pm
‘Steal the One’….
10 Jun 10
12:38 pm
OMG! That blatant? almost shot for shot?
Seriously, if this is what Aussie free to air is coming to, it really is time for a shake up!
10 Jun 10
12:39 pm
I guess things never change…
I remember working on a Nine news promo 20 years ago (omg… !) in TCN’s Studio 2 where the promo department were using an American news promo as a “template”. We’d set up each shot so the panel of suits could fuss over how close they were to the original. The end result was a frame accurate, carbon copy of the American ad with no creative input whatsoever.
It was embarrassing then, and in today’s connected world, even more embarrassing now.
10 Jun 10
1:49 pm
Very speshial…
10 Jun 10
1:57 pm
as if this is a shock. We steal so many ideas from the UK such Ar Spicks and Specks and most of Hamish and Andy’s ideas used on Rove. There’s no shame in admitting that the Britts have better telly then we do.
10 Jun 10
2:07 pm
Was that even legal?
Worst television station ever.
10 Jun 10
2:43 pm
Bear Grylls is a god.
I call this a dignified offering to a higher power, for channel 9 know they are nothing…..
10 Jun 10
2:44 pm
Who is running the promo team at 9?
Lame.
10 Jun 10
2:49 pm
WHO IS THE POST HOUSE THAT THIS ATROCITY?
10 Jun 10
2:49 pm
lol at zeff (and that’s hilarious)
10 Jun 10
2:54 pm
Clearly 9 need an agency to conceive their promo’s.
10 Jun 10
2:54 pm
that is absolutely ridiculous…
10 Jun 10
3:02 pm
Just a coincidence, surely.
10 Jun 10
3:08 pm
Easy tiger, you’ll most likely find that Spicks & Specks is a licensed version of a UK show, not a copy. And hopefully this ad is a licensed version of the Discovery ad. Hopefully.
10 Jun 10
3:09 pm
Wow…..
10 Jun 10
3:18 pm
i just subscribed to foxtel
10 Jun 10
3:22 pm
It ain’t the first time.
Nine’s “Still the One” promo from 2006 is a straight rip off of Michael Buble’s video “Spiderman”
Buble:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PXPoBroFEY
Nine:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WQJg5fP0U8
Channel Nine – The Home of Unoriginal Ideas
10 Jun 10
3:22 pm
As if there was ever anything on Australian TV that was truly original.
10 Jun 10
3:23 pm
Perhaps the first episode is Les Hill rescuing the Chl 9 creative team from captivity
10 Jun 10
3:26 pm
Ms Pants – great to hear from you.
10 Jun 10
3:39 pm
Wow, most blatant rip-off I’ve seen.
10 Jun 10
4:05 pm
It’s not the first time.
9 ripped off a UK Spook’s promo for their launch of the mentalist
10 Jun 10
4:10 pm
Steal the One or maybe Steal more, how about Steal the lot.
10 Jun 10
4:43 pm
and then there’s this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WW8flwpH-Q – the original weapon of choice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYuiS-3ilAc – the other weapon
If they were serious about their craft though, surely they’d be turning this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owGykVbfgUE
into a getayway promo… if they were serious about their craft.
10 Jun 10
4:52 pm
not surprising at all. i dont know how they continue to get away with it….idiots
10 Jun 10
5:38 pm
Ha yeah.. some good examples there. I don’t think you could count the weapon of choice one as a rip off. I would definitely call that one Parody. But this latest one is a great example… love it!
10 Jun 10
6:00 pm
what a bunch of muppets.
Channel 9 are a bunch of cunts.
10 Jun 10
7:15 pm
Wow its almost like if you drunk and seeing doubles.
10 Jun 10
11:32 pm
These promos are produced for Nine by an external production company.
If anything, the same production company has probably sold on the same idea to two different networks. Hardly a big deal given that the two promos aren’t even being aired in the same country.
11 Jun 10
1:03 am
The last time Australian TV had an original idea was “Sale of the Century” not surprising that “Steal the One” continues to copy. . . Discovery has some of the best docudramas on the box.
11 Jun 10
3:30 am
@ Tara: Actually I understand the Bear Grylls promo was produced inhouse by Discovery Channel in London for international release. They would hardly undermine their own international campaign by selling the center piece promo to such a low rent broadcaster. The blatant knock off – whoever actually produced it – is precisely that, a knock off.
11 Jun 10
5:33 am
It’s clear that these two ads have nothing in common. Bears ad just has him, the Nine ad has a whole bunch of people. In Bears ad, the word is Discovery while the Nine ad is Rescue. For those of you who think these two are similiar are on drugs. The creative staff over at Nine have probably worked on this ad for months now to ensure that it is a true representation of the show. They should take all the credit for this terrific ad……..anyone note the sarcasm! Nice job Nine!
11 Jun 10
7:30 am
A flagrant and very obvious copy of the Discovery Channel promo. Someone at Nine, the worst broadcaster in Australia, deserves to be sacked for this.
11 Jun 10
7:40 am
In Nine’s defence I think everyone knows that their show will be different in one major way. IT WILL SUCK.
11 Jun 10
7:55 am
Hence the reason I do not watch much free to air tv – all the originals that they rip off have been on cable for years
11 Jun 10
7:58 am
Only thing worse than the morality of that promo is the watchability of the series with that male lead. I mean… LOL
11 Jun 10
8:14 am
Who watches TV promo’s anyway??? Care factor ZERO…
11 Jun 10
9:23 am
Sack them. thats is a blatant ripp off. I bet they get paid big dollars for what? nothing.
11 Jun 10
9:29 am
@42.
Laiza No.40 does. Even pays for it!
11 Jun 10
9:37 am
Hey, is there any way we can send this to Stephen Conroy? Probably he needs to edit his rationale on the FTV content generation gift & let off Murdoch for once.
11 Jun 10
9:53 am
The sad part is that, it is a bad copycat. At least they should have got the Discovery actor to do the promo for them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL
11 Jun 10
10:05 am
All the originality of a house brick.
They stuffed Top Gear too….
I switched off Nine after Ep1 of TG. They just plain suck.
11 Jun 10
11:09 am
…and the guys at Nine still cash their cheques for being creatives.
Good luck putting that one on your showreel.
11 Jun 10
12:56 pm
Taking ideas from overseas is not uncommon. 99% of punters in Australia won’t have seen the UK Disco promo, and never will. Such a blatant ripoff is lame obviously, but essentially not a huge deal.
But comparing Les Hill to Bear Grylls? Seriously? Don’t let Bear find out, he kill you real good.
11 Jun 10
1:46 pm
Like hello!!! I have worked in the industry for over 30 years for different networks and indeed promotion departments. No matter who I worked for there was always a launch from CBS, NBC or ABC that we re-worked for the Australian market. Take the time to go back through history and dig out all plagiarism…trust me you will be very very busy, there is a lot. But hey I guess it gave everyone something to whinge about for a day or so!
11 Jun 10
2:15 pm
@jeff
So if everyone does it, it’s ok?
Were you just ‘following orders’.
11 Jun 10
2:17 pm
…and now the Tele has picked up on it
http://www.dailytelegraph.com......5878162690
so it’s clearly doing damage when ‘Steal the One ‘ is starting to stick.
12 Jun 10
4:14 am
Sounds like a for Media Watch
12 Jun 10
9:43 am
Following orders….hmmmmm I think it was more to do with, who wants to spend money with an agency to design something new. It’s not a matter of it’s ok because everyone does it….it’s just a fact that everyone does it!!! In earlier years it was just a matter of putting a Seven, Nine or Ten logo on top of the original source and changing the voice tag. Copying anyone else to make your product sell, gee let’s look around the entire franchise world and have a real hard look, actually come to think about it, the look isn’t really all that hard. We all do it to some degree and just because it’s somebody like the Nine Network and not Fred’s Rescue Service from Wagga Wagga it becomes a big deal.
12 Jun 10
8:35 pm
@Jeff
You don’t need to spend money with an agency to get an original idea. Clearly Nine had a decent budget, or free reign on facilities in house in order to create that spot.
If the money/resources were spent on an original idea, that would have taken, I don’t know, about a few days to a week longer – Nine would have had a decent original promo to promote the show with.
What really sucks is that it’s clear the people who executed this spot have absolutely no idea about what their doing. The energy, music, audio design, photography, direction, pacing are all wrong. Attention to detail is clearly not Nine’s strong suit. I have worked in the industry too, and yes, I have REPOSTED a promo or two from a different network before. REPOSTING can mean that you use the promo that was used for the show when it launched in the states or wherever, putting on your own endpage and voice over. There is nothing wrong with doing that – if they have sold it better, than by all means use it, and it’s one less promo you gotta make. US networks often send out their promos with the shows they’ve sold you. But stealing a promo from another channel and *trying* to copy it for a completely different show, with a lot of the same shots, is not OK. It’s fucking lazy, and I would never even fucking consider it, unless it was a spoof or something.
23 Jun 10
2:29 pm
zeff – “Steal the One” – bahahahahaha!
2 Jul 10
12:59 pm
anon – “Steal the One” – bahahahahaha!
3 Jul 10
9:09 pm
This thing happens often by bankrupt creative directors but we should not accept it. here is another incident and how it was managed http://bloganubis.com/2010/06/.....ir-stride/
The worst ever case of TVC copycat (as far as i know) is the stealing of 14 TV promos http://bloganubis.com/2009/08/22/old-fart/ and Mc Donald’s http://bloganubis.com/2009/05/31/fish-caviar/
7 Jul 10
5:01 pm
Did Phillip Adams have a hand in this? He can be very light-fingered.