-
Opinion | Features
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.
Q&A with screenwriter Craig Pearce
Craig Pearce, screenwriter for The Great Gatsby, spoke to Encore about working with Baz and writing for 3D.
How did you get into script writing?
I always loved stories and acting and dressing up and being anything but myself and I never realised that was not something other people did. After leaving high school, I did a three year acting course at NIDA but always thought I would one day write. Baz was a good friend and he had a theatre company. He wanted to extend a 20 minute version of Strictly Ballroom. We got it to 45 minutes then he was approached by producers to turn it into a feature film. I started helping him out on the film while they were looking for a real writer but eventually Baz had to go to the producers and say, “There’s this guy who’s my best friend and he is a really good writer”. To the producers’ credit, they believed in Baz so we had two weeks to re-write it.
Savage Counsel - winning pitches
Chris Savage tackles your career and agency dilemmas in his weekly Encore advice column.
Hi Chris,
It seems we have to increasingly pitch for everything. Even with existing clients, we’re now expected to pitch ideas, competitively, for every project. We’re winning about two out of five of what we’re pitching for. It’s a huge burden on our time and budgets. What is your secret to winning a pitch presentation? How do we make sure our presentations are a knockout?
Public trust in Australian media among worst in the world
The Australian public’s trust in the media is lower than in virtually any other country, research released today by Edelman Public Relations suggests.
According to the survey, only 32% of the Australian public trusts the media, compared to a global average of 49%.
However, the situation is a slight improvement on last year’s figure, which was 30%.
The only major countries in the survey – which involved 5000 interviews across 23 countries – where distrust in the media was worse were the US and UK.
Trust in the media was higher in countries such as China, Singapore and Indonesia.
Globally, media is the least trusted of all of the industries examined in the survey with just 28% having faith. At the top of the list was technology with 68% trust.
Meanwhile,when it comes to sources of information about companies, magazines are the most trusted medium, according to the survey.
And the most trusted media brand when a consumer wants to know about a company is Google, says the survey.
Public trust in Australia’s banks is also low, according to Edelman, with just 33% of the public saying they have faith.
However, public trust in CEOs, government and wider busienss is on the up in Australia.
Edelman Australia CEO Michelle Hutton discusses the findings:
Further details of the sruvey are available here.
-
-
Email Newsletter
Latest Jobs- Search Executive -up to $60K
- Online Marketing Customer Retention Executive $75K Hot new role
- Are you a HUNTER? Melbourne- Digital Business Development Manager OTE $170K+ Pos
- Ad Operations, Campaign Manager, Traffic Manager
- Jane Austen fans listen up! Tech Sales Manager Wanted – $270K Package!
- Account Director – $95K
- Digital Community Manager
- DIGITAL SALES EXECUTIVE | http://www.redwolfconsulting.com.au/
- Media Account Manager
- Beat Advertising Sales Consultant
-
RSS
Comments
14 Feb 11
2:00 pm
Google at the top, eh? Maybe they surveyed the same people who think Internet Explorer is “that icon that makes the internet go”.
Wolfie!
14 Feb 11
2:05 pm
Nice pick – up i blogged about this research last week too.
14 Feb 11
2:32 pm
Have to agree – listing Google (an aggregator) alongside actual content sources seems to imply a malformed survey.
14 Feb 11
2:55 pm
Hi Wolfie and Tim,
Matthew here – I work at Edelman.
The survey question that generated the table above asked:
“Please tell me the names of specific sources you rely on most for information about companies”.
The question required an unaided response.
Whilst I understand your comments about Google not being a content producer, it does highlight how highly people consider Google a source of information.
The outtake for me of this is that companies should be focused on ensuring the results returned on searches around their name are positive. If they didn’t realise that already of course…
14 Feb 11
3:31 pm
“Trust in the media was higher in countries such as China, Singapore and Indonesia!” Aren’t they all state run monopolies that shoot you if you dare disagree? Having travelled to a lot of these countries with heavily government censored medias, I’ll take the ‘dodgy’ Aussie variety any day of the week! (Now if The Herald could just bring back ‘Bristow’ in the comics!)
14 Feb 11
3:57 pm
Not necessarily malformed. This could be seen to imply that a large number of respondents did not care about (or know of or remember) the actual content providers. All they know is that Google got them that info.
14 Feb 11
4:15 pm
Maybe I’m being picky, but the question that was actually asked that led to Google being the top response was about who the respondents relied on, not trusted. The actual question was:
“Please tell me the names of the specific sources you rely on most for information about companies”
People rely on Google to search for information. I think that’s very different to “trusting a media brand”.
14 Feb 11
4:51 pm
Interesting findings and makes one wonder if company CEO’s/management and government are being credited with riding their cos and countries thru the GFC’s faster and relatively unscathed in some instances. However, the headline (~possibly from Edelman’s press release) as well as reference to “Australians” and “Aust public” might be a bit misleading – see this link – http://www.scribd.com/doc/4751.....-Barometer
Edelman interviews a SEGMENT of the public that it calls the “informed” public (as opposed to mis-informed and un-informed !!) – that too the top quartile by income. Nothing wrong with that if that was the objective, except it may not be representative of the wider public or population of Australians!!
14 Feb 11
6:08 pm
Trust in politicians and CEOs is up? What part of FAIL planet does this survey come from?
14 Feb 11
10:24 pm
I’m really surprised Yahoo!7 is in the top 10 list for sources of company information. News.com.au isn’t even on the radar, which is fairly bizarre given the top-tier media brands that sit within it.
Also, on the subject of search reputation management, does Edelman provide support around SEM programs for clients or even some form of consultation as to where to place news and stories for the most SEO friendly results? Recognising the value of search results to a company’s reputation is one thing, providing the counsel to improve it is another.
The AU results Trust Barometer video has great production values, but maybe an auto-prompter would be a good next investment for your production team?
Michelle’s a great speaker, so it’d be great to see her in action rather than reading from paper. Just a thought!
15 Feb 11
7:15 am
SK – you’re right the survey only represents a portion of the Australian population not the Australian population at large. If you want to see how we represented the research check out – http://edelmanaublog.com/2011/.....barometer/
Brad – the 2010 survey was conducted at the height of Stimulus Spending which was highly polarizing. Likewise the last survey was conducted when the threat of a double dip recession loomed large across the world from a business perspective. I was at first surprised to see the increase of trust amongst government, but the results are what they are.
Internetz – I suspect Yahoo7! Is there in its search engine capacity. On your search comment we certainly do provide advice. I wouldn’t position ourselves as SEM or SEO experts, but we definitely consult on this and seek the advice of experts where the need requires. On the video – I will let Michelle know. We have already been giving her a hard time about her reliance on the paper!
15 Feb 11
9:16 am
Sucko mendacious marketers!
15 Feb 11
11:27 am
Thanks Mathew. I do understand how Edelman have tried to represent the survey findings. What I am referring too is eg the headline “PUBLIC trust in Australian media among worst in the world”
and the content itself ” The AUSTRALIAN PUBLIC’s trust in the media is lower …….” (presumably this is only following your press releases and Mumbrella has not edited bits and pieces out )
As a result most comments here at Mumbrella and elsewhere, seem to infer that these findings represent the Australian public (and other countries too) –
This could also be one of the reasons why many of the comments are circumspect about the key findings related to governement and CEOS !! Does Edelman ever plan to interview the larger Australian public or do they think that the public is not well informed / not eleigible to participate?
15 Feb 11
1:12 pm
I’m surprised it’s that high. The Australian media is just like a dog turd, to be avoided.
15 Feb 11
2:23 pm
So state run/censored media like China and Singapore rank highest for trust over countries that have an uncensored media with relative freedom?
It’s an interesting result, but without the actual methodologies, this survey is hard to interpret, much like most surveys emanating from PR companies.
Assuming an even split between countries, the sample size per country would only be 220 or so. That’s not that big.
Where’s the measurements of standard error, for example? Is the SMH result actually statistically different from the AFR result, for example? Who knows!
15 Feb 11
4:47 pm
SK – The headline here was developed by Mumbrella – presumably Tim. As much as us PR people may think otherwise, it is rare the headlines on press releases are used by the media. You can see our media release here – http://bit.ly/eTVUrv . The rise and fall in the stats is against data collected in previous years. We have been doing the Trust survey here in Aus for three years and 11 globally. This particular study only looks at a portion of the public, but that of course doesn’t mean the rest of the population matter less.
Nick E – you can read about the methodology here – http://www.scribd.com/doc/4751.....-Barometer
16 Feb 11
10:00 am
Thanks Matthew. It would be interesting to see in future surveys how the public view (that matters no less, as you say) measures up to the opinion influencer’s views. From the (public) comments here, it seems the views are likel;y to be quite different.
16 Feb 11
10:04 am
Thanks Matthew. It ‘d be interesting to see how the views of the public (that matter no less as you say) compares to the views of the so-called influencers. Going by the comments here the wider view is likely to be very different to the survey findings !!
17 Feb 11
12:38 am
Another shocking example of how not to publish research.
As soon as I saw the sample size I dismissed the findings out of hand. 5,000 interviews across 23 countries. This included countries like China. I would probably be just about comfortable if 5,000 was just the sample for China. If the sample for each country was proportionate to the population of each of the countries included the sample for Australia could be counted on my fingers with the possible inclusion of a toe.
This is shameless use of research to generate PR.
I also have a nasty feeling the survey was conducted with an online access panel which makes any cross media comparison (particularly if that includes online) redundant and extremely unsafe.
Tell us what the sample size is and tell us how the survey was conducted. Don’t sell your readers short by publishing this rubbish.
17 Feb 11
10:08 am
Researcher – we have always been transparent about the methodology used. Evidence in the fact I have already posted it in the comments above. You can read it for yourself here – http://www.scribd.com/doc/4751.....-Barometer