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Opinion | Features
Why is advertising so much better in New Zealand than Australia?
Ok, so this isn’t a new observation.
But it really hit home after I watched some TV ads for a kiwi supermarket yesterday that advertising in New Zealand is so much better than much of the crap that is being served up in this country at the moment.
Why is it that Colenso BBDO Auckland can turn something as bland as a supermarket chain into a brand I almost like, while Australian agencies succeed only in either irritating me (Coles) or passing me by unnoticed (Woolies) because the ads are so average?
My memo to your boss
So let me guess?
You really want to come to Mumbrella360, but you’ve got to justify the time and cost to your boss?
Good news! I think I can help.
Woz not great
In this guest post Tony Prysten argues that the thousand dollar price of seeing out-of-touch Apple co-founder Steve Wozniack on his Australian tour was a waste of money.
This week, for the cost of two iPads (yep, two) I went to the Woz Live conference in Melbourne. I was not impressed.
What the hell is transmedia?
From advertising campaigns to online video series, the term ‘transmedia’ gets quite the work out. But what does it actually mean? Cathie McGinn trawls the media landscape for a definitive definition.
Transmedia, all media and multiplatform are terms often used interchangeably when referencing modern storytelling techniques. Yet, depending who you speak to, there are distinct differences between them.
According to industry experts Encore spoke to, the key elements that define transmedia can be summarised as follows: platform, time, audience, adaptation, and creative collaboration.
Innovation is the remedy for the ailing magazine industry
With magazine circulations plummeting, FHM closing and rumours rife on future ownership of ACP Magazines, Paul Merrill says the only way forward is launching new titles.Eight years ago in the UK, nearly a quarter of all magazine sales came from magazines that were less than four years old. In Australia, the figure was slightly lower, but still significant. Today, the situation is very different. For a start there are so few new magazines. Yes, Masterchef briefly flared, and Top Gear made an initial impact. But Grazia and Alpha fizzled, and now ACP has shelved their plans to launch Elle.
More than a game: broadcasting the Olympics
The 2012 London Olympics will be the biggest televised sporting event of our time. Brooke Hemphill discovers the logistical challenges and technical requirements of producing the event.
From July 27 to August 12, the Australian media will go sport crazy as the Games of the XXX Olympiad, aka the 2012 London Summer Olympics, unfold. The games will be the most televised sporting event of our time as broadcasters look to master every manner of technology at their disposal.
The Voice - Australia's best example yet of social TV
In this guest post, Sputnik’s Rodd Messent has a theory on why audiences have taken to The Voice .I am an addict of Channel Nine’s hit show The Voice. Such is the extent of my addiction I seriously think my housemate might kick me out of our apartment for the semi-frenzied yelling and tweeting that ensues in our lounge room each time the show airs.It’s the first time in almost three years that such disagreement has resulted in less than civil behaviour towards one another, and it’s made me think it might be a microcosm of the large volume of online debate about the show and, correspondingly, an explanation for its success as a social TV experience.Why brands are the US Army - and culture jammers are the Viet Cong
In this guest posting, Dave Burgess, who painted ‘No War’ on the Sydney Opera House, claims that ‘amoral’ advertisers have copied his idea.
Culture jamming is a 28-year-old term coined by the San Francisco-based band Negativland, who declared that the ‘Studio for the cultural jammer is the world at large’.
Branded content is dead. Long live branded content
In this guest posting, Anthony Freedman argues why branded content is making a comeback.
A few short years ago, probably concurrent with the advent of the PVR, a new term emerged within the marketing communications industry; branded content. This was really synonymous with advertiser funded TV shows where programming was created by brands and deals struck with networks to broadcast them.
There were varying degrees of success with this model.
Shock advertising: 30 ads that would give Australia's ad watchdog a coronary
Is shock an underused weapon in Australian advertising, asks Robin HicksToday, Sydney agency The Cabana Boys used an image of a mouth sewn together to shock people with the idea that problem gamblers lie to conceal their habit. Is it the most disturbing image ever? No. Will it get banned by the Advertising Standards Bureau? No. But it did make me wonder why shock is not used more often in Australia – and not just by charities and government bodies. (WARNING: NSFW)
The making of ratings blockbuster The Voice
Jason Mountney goes on the set of Channel Nine’s talent search series, The Voice, to see how the format, based on an international franchise, has come together. What ingredients have gone into making this certified hit that’s rated more than two million viewers on three consecutive nights?
Mike Goldman has one of the toughest jobs on the set of the Nine network’s new talent show, The Voice. He not only has to narrate the show, but also keep the audience from losing their enthusiasm as they realise shooting TV programs takes a lot longer than the one-hour bursts they see in their lounge rooms. A lot longer.
Nine problems stopping The Global Mail from getting an audience
While it’s a shame The Global Mail has failed to make an impact on the media landscape, the signs have been there for some time.I love the concept of a well resourced, philanthropically-funded independent news site. Anywhere in the world, that’s a rare and wonderful thing. In Australia even more so. So I hope that Grame Wood gets to see his investment make a difference.
And I have no inside info on whether Monica Attard’s sudden departure is linked to the site’s failure to find an audience so far.
Regardless, here are nine areas they can easily start to address:
Journalism’s new model?
Does the launch of philanthropically funded news site The Global Mail signal a new era for journalism or is the model destined to be a passing fad, asks Cathie McGinn in this article first published in Encore magazine.With little fanfare, philanthropically funded news site The Global Mail launched in February this year.
The online-only title received a generous five-year funding commitment from businessman Graeme Wood, founder of accommodation website wotif.com, who donated $15million.
Five things that make a great suit
In this guest posting, Gareth Collins argues that the role of a great account manager is to make the work betterI’m surprised at how many suits I meet who don’t know their role in the advertising business. The question ‘what does an advertising account manager or director do?’ is frequently met with answers such as project manager, relationship manager, plate spinner or go between … and those are the nice ones.
Success is judged on the ability to manage a process, be strong administratively and get stuff done. And while a good suit needs to do all of these things brilliantly, if these are the traits that define a great suit, then I’m in the wrong job.
What the hell is transmedia?
From advertising campaigns to online video series, the term ‘transmedia’ gets quite the work out. But what does it actually mean? Cathie McGinn trawls the media landscape for a definitive definition.
Transmedia, all media and multiplatform are terms often used interchangeably when referencing modern storytelling techniques. Yet, depending who you speak to, there are distinct differences between them.
Papworth loses, Acidlabs wins in battle of the Aussie marketing blogs
One of Australia’s best known social media commentators has seen a dramatic decline in the popularity of her blog, according to a new ranking published today.
Laurel Papworth has dropped from number 4 to number 26 in just three months, according to The Marketing Pioneers list, run by Julian Cole, a digital strategist for Sydney-based agency The Population. The decline could be because she recently moved to a new blogging platform with a new url.
Other dramatic moves in the list saw the Copyright blog, written by Jonathan Crossfield, fall from number 6 to number 13 and the Crikey-hosted Corporate Engagement, by PR expert Trevor Cook, fall from number 7 to number 21. The highest new entry into the list of 129 sites was Acidlabs, which was new in at number 4.
Bannerblog, which showcases online banner advertising remains the number one rated site, while the Sydney-based Servant of Chaos is still at number two.
The ranking methodology includes figures from Google’s Page Rank score, Alexa traffic data, Technorati and Coles’ own ratign of the frequency and quality of content.
January 20th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
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Comments
20 Jan 09
2:12 pm
I suggest Laurel’s fall is 100% due to changing blogging platforms. Links in to your site take time to re-establish on the new site and so you tend to lose all your Technorati authority (2 parts of the Pioneers equation). Happened to me when I moved to WordPress last year and I am still recovering.
Still, there are some great sites on the list and its growing each quarter which is a good thing.
20 Jan 09
3:43 pm
I guarantee you Laurel’s change is completely due to her risky (and gutsy) change of domain. I imagine she still has plenty of traffic and is getting a heap more leads than I am.
My transition to being seen as a marketing blog is odd. I understand where the view comes from, but I still struggle to reconcile it internally. I talk about marketing-related stuff, sure. But I’m no marketing expert.
I still feel that what I’m talking about is better communication – internally and across the wall. If that’s marketing, I’m delighted to take on the mantle.
20 Jan 09
4:34 pm
How about the rise and rise of Julian’s own boss Tony at the Population who is now in the Top 50 just under Matt Granfield whose blog . What do we attribute that to? hmmm
And the Pioneer rankings are becoming a bit of a joke they are so subjective. If B&T publishes is should at least be credible and more independent. eg. Top 100, and then peer vote/review on the innovation scores.
20 Jan 09
4:48 pm
i think the list is a good thing – it brings attention to blogs that are out there – but there needs to be more attention paid to the pioneer score. there are some blogs ranking at 7 and above that just aren’t worthy of that score.
I understand it’s hard to critique blogs – especially when some of these blogs are active supporters of Julians – but maybe it’s worth taking out the pioneer score and basing it purely on external data. Still, I don’t think Jules has ever claimed it to be exhaustive – I’d say he more does it to raise awareness of other blogs rather than a contest.
20 Jan 09
5:11 pm
Talking Digital you are right on the money with it being more about highlighting the online marketing bloggers. The pioneers score is my own personal score, which is subjective. I am really sorry if you do not like it.
Anon, the only thing that I control is the Pioneer score, Tony being in the Top 50 has nothing to do with me, the only thing I can control is the Pioneer score which I gave him an 8 for.
Stephen, I think you deserve to be on the list because communication is a vital part of marketing. If you would like to be taken off, please let me know.
20 Jan 09
6:40 pm
I agree with Talking Digital (not sure whether it’s Ben or Liam under that login) – _if_ the list is to become something that is held up as an actual ranking, as opposed to how Julian intended just as a list of interesting marketing-related titles, then it needs to be based on objective data.
If though the intention is just to highlight blogs in the area, and encourage people to read them, then scrap the rankings – maybe just triage them as that’ll make it clearer it’s as much opinion as data, while maintaining the objective of simply highlighting breadth.
20 Jan 09
6:41 pm
Julian, I think its a good initiative, better to have it than nothing at all even if someone thinks its imperfect.
20 Jan 09
7:05 pm
@ talking digital and anon
‘rise and rise of Julian’s boss’
‘active supporters of Julians’
You guys are making him sound like a bloody supervillain!
People read marketing blogs for all sorts of reasons. some are going to be like The Age. Others like The Herald Sun. Some like Perez Hilton. Each to their own.
All I know is that list would’ve taken a long time to compile and it raises the profile of a lot of interesting people.
20 Jan 09
7:56 pm
I actually built Julian’s bonus structure and succession plan around me making the top 50. Looks like he has a bright career in front of him!!!
20 Jan 09
8:31 pm
Julian, I don’t want to be taken off the list at all! I’m honored to be amongst such company. Just expressing my internal intellectual conflict, which I need to get over.
20 Jan 09
9:42 pm
Julian gave me a good score. Who cares what Google and Alexa and Technorati think?
Mumbles, you are very naughty: enjoy the mileage at my expense. Heh.
For the initiated, I moved from blogspot to wordpress a few days ago, didn’t lose readers, just lost the robotic linky goodness
20 Jan 09
9:56 pm
Yes Laurel’s rating purely due to the hundreds of links into the old SilkCharm.blogspot domain now down the pan – but here in the background of the SilkCharm household, I can hear the music from Rocky, and there is Laurel running up those big bright blogosphere steps, fists in the air, she will be back!!! chants – laurelpapworth.com, laurelpapworth.com…
BTW Julian my GPR is still 5 not 4
but that would put me ahead of you 
Don’t we love lists – creates such a warm, camaraderie and hardly any competition…how about we compare ourselves with the rest of the world rather than bickering with each other…but where be the fun in that 
21 Jan 09
9:22 am
Laurel clearly you need to disable comments in your blog to get your ranking back up.
21 Jan 09
11:10 am
@matt hazel – no. i think julian is great … all i said was there are people out there that support him (ie linking, promoting his blog) that might cloud his ability to rate their blogs based on his own opinion.
“All I know is that list would’ve taken a long time to compile and it raises the profile of a lot of interesting people.”
couldn’t agree more.
21 Jan 09
11:56 am
@eunmac Agreed, Laurel, please disable comments as soon as possible, Seth recommends it. I did it last year and became so famous I had to get body guards to protect me from the throngs of bloggers.
I’d to say, its nice to have a reference list of Australian only bloggers, but we do need to be careful that we don’t become self indulgent and self centered.(When I say we, I’m not actually on the list, but wouldn’t mind it)
29 Jan 09
5:15 pm
I was fully expecting my score to drop having spent two months getting married and honeymooning around Europe. In that period, my Technorati score halved as the lack of activity didn’t attract fresh links in. So the only surprise to me is that I only fell back to 13. Woohoo!
Now I’m back and with the fresh Moggie Award under my belt, I’m ready to start clawing back those links and making some noise. (Then again, I swear Technorati is more unreliable now than ever).
In the end, it’s all fun, not to be taken too seriously (otherwise we’d be saying Alexa is worth stressing over!) and encourages us to read and support each other’s blogs.
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