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Opinion | Features
Cannes - a reminder that celebs need adland too
The Cannes Lions may have been full of celebrities this year, but that’s because they need brands, argues Profero’s Wayne Arnold
Having only been here for two days, I’ve already managed to soak up some of the glamour of Cannes, witnessing the media scrum around Sean Combs and (very nearly) bumping into Jack Black on La Croisette.
If 2012 was the year of the client, it seems 2013 may be the year of the hard working celebrity.
Melissa Doyle is ready for prime time (but what does it mean for Today Tonight?)
It’s easy to be dismissive of TV presenters – particularly when they’re doing something as fluffy as morning television.
But today’s announcement of the departure of Mel Doyle from Sunrise is a reminder that it’s harder than it looks.
How bosses can build trust by baring themselves to staff
In this guest post, Simon Rutherford, CEO of Slingshot Media, argues that bosses should be vulnerable in front of their staff.
Winston Churchill once said: “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.”
Fake it til you make it...as a radio newsreader
In a piece that first appeared in Encore, Emily Hoskins from ARN tells us how to do her job.
What does a radio newsreader actually do?
A radio newsreader has to be switched on from the moment they sit at their desk. At the Australian Radio Network each journalist writes, researches, edits and reads their own news bulletins under tight deadlines – every 30 minutes during the breakfast shift and every hour after 9am.
Keith Reinhard on freedom to fail, winning back Maccas and how agencies can survive
In an exclusive interview in Cannes today, advertising icon Keith Reinhard, one of the founding fathers of what is now DDB Worldwide, talked to Mumbrella’s Robin Hicks about freedom from fear, his favourite ads of all time, winning back McDonald’s and why the most important thing in advertising is passion.Savage counsel - little white lies
In a piece that first featured in Encore, Chris Savage tackles your career and agency dilemmas. This week, he talks about when it’s okay to lie to clients.
Hi Chris,
I often find myself telling little white lies at work – I tell people on the phone that I don’t want to speak to I’m about to duck into meetings. I told my colleague her new haircut was great when really it wasn’t and I praised someone’s work when actually it was kind of shit. After each of these occasions, I felt pretty terrible and wonder if you could tell me how can I speak with candour in the future – for my sake and others.
How to build a culture
How important is a company’s culture and how do you ensure you are breeding a good one? Matt Smith investigates, in a piece that first appeared in Encore.When production companies Cordell Jigsaw and Zapruder’s Other Films merged early last year, bringing the staff together within the walls of the Zapruder building proved to be something of a challenge. While the two companies weren’t strangers to each other due to six months of talks and negotiations, working together on a full-time basis was a different story.
Q&A Damian Keogh
In a piece that first featured in Encore, Val Morgan CEO Damian Keogh reveals his potential alternate career.
Who is the most powerful person in Australian media and why?
I’d say Kerry Stokes, slightly ahead of Harold Mitchell and Kim Williams. He controls the entity with the largest revenue across free-to-air, online, magazines and newspapers. On pure size alone, his influence and leverage over advertisers, media agencies and consumers is unmatched. Harold is still the king in media, slightly ahead of John Steedman, but Henry Tajer and Leigh Terry are the heirs apparent. Kim Williams controls News and that’s a big base to work from.
If a violent game is okay, then so is using a violent ad to promote it
An ad for video game Dead Island Riptide was banned by the ad watchdog. James Whitehead of online entertainment publisher IGN argues that it was the wrong call.A fortnight ago, it emerged that the Ad Standards Board had banned a television commercial for the video game Dead Island: Riptide, due to its depiction of violence – specifically suicide.
Why content makers are leaving our shores
In a piece that first featured in Encore, Craig Anderson says there simply isn’t enough opportunity for content makers in Australia, especially for those making comedy.Last year I had multiple meetings with production companies in Australia and discovered that apart from the odd commercial campaign, there’s no proliferation of paying platforms for comedy. From my own experience there’s iView, which will buy content once it’s already been made (though I live in hope that it will one day be granted the financial power to commission content). I’ve also had the odd informal commission from the SMH iPad consisting of two narrative series and a comical review show. But none of these endeavours were financially viable.
Managing your management style
In an article that first appeared in Encore, Stephanie Brown says the advertising industry often leaves people ill-equipped when it comes to managing staff, especially when they’re promoted into management roles.Managing people is hard. In fact, I actually think it’s the hardest job in the world. With no disrespect intended, I often joke that if my job didn’t involve other people to manage, it would be a walk in the park. I could get about my day’s work in a nice, linear fashion, happily checking off my to-do list as I go. I’m a process-orientated person. I get a kick out of getting things done.
Why the Facebook chase is making brands treat consumers like morons
You know how we look back at quaintly patronising ads from the 1950s and wonder what on earth the advertisers were thinking?
I’ve got a feeling that in a few years time, we’ll be looking at the behaviour of big brands on Facebook the same way.
An entire generation of marketers – or at least a sizeable proportion of them – have lost their minds.
So many have become so obsessed with generating user interactions at all costs, that all thoughts about overall brand perceptions or long term marketing goals have vanished. All that counts now, is generating likes and comments at all costs.
Blog this!
Paid content, sponsored posts and brand ambassadorships – in theory, today’s blogger can be just as valuable to brands as mainstream media. But does blogger outreach actually work? In an article that first appeared in Encore, Nic Christensen investigates.“I get approaches from PR companies constantly,” says blogger and author Kerri Sackville, with more than a hint of exasperation. “I have never done a sponsored blog, on my own site, but that doesn’t stop them from asking.”
McLennan right man for job
It’s all change at troubled broadcaster Channel Ten with new directions, new executives and a brand new CEO. Managing director of Adstream Peter Miller says Hamish McLennan is the right man for the job, in an article that first appeared in Encore.I am a bit of a schmuck when it comes to movies. I love romantic comedies. My favourite is One Fine Day with Michelle Pfeiffer and George Clooney.
Q&A with Richard Herring
In a piece that first appeared in Encore, CEO of APN Outdoor Richard Herring talks media.Who is the most powerful person in Australian media and why?
I don’t know if there is one person in particular. The fragmentation of traditional media and new entrants has made it a more level playing field with regards to major influencers. As was demonstrated with the recent media reform recommendations, together, the broader media community still has a very influential and powerful voice.
What one medium could you not live without?
Outdoor – clean, entertaining, evocative and informative.
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:
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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.