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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?
Repeat after me: Bus stop ads aren’t for the passengers
I always find it faintly depressing when I see examples of poor use of outdoor as an advertising medium.
Particularly bus stop posters where you suspect that there’s a complete misunderstanding at both creative and media planning level about who actually looks at the posters.
So let’s explain it one more time: most of the audience for bus stop posters are not on the bus, and they’re not waiting for the bus. If they were, they’d be incredibly expensive to reach. Most of them are in cars.
If you really want to reach bus passengers, then advertise on buses. Otherwise, write the ads for the audience you’re actually reaching.
How hard can that be?
Here’s a classic misunderstanding of the medium brought to us by Hahn Super Dry and Saatchi & Saatchi.
April 11th, 2010 at 7:17 pm
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Comments
11 Apr 10
11:22 pm
I do somewhat agree.. however they can talk to the passenger.. what Fx me off is when I see a QR code slapped at the bottom of a poster.
You wonder why take-up of your mobile campaign isn’t good when you expect your customers get on your knees to scan it – they need slapping with the dr. mumbo kipper.
12 Apr 10
9:47 am
Hmm.
Maybe this ad is targeted towards people driving by?
They drive by, see 3 young men sitting down, a few old ladies standing, see this ad and smirk and think ‘yeah, they should offer their seat up. I sure would. Coz Im mutha flippin’ Premium.’
I think it’s a nice use of the medium that takes people sitting into account as part of the ad targeted to those driving by.
XD
(no, I don’t work at Saatchi & Saatchi)
12 Apr 10
10:24 am
Ha, sure you don’t, Mr Truth!…
I agree that many outdoor ads don’t seem to get that the majority of the audience has mere seconds to absorb the message, let alone respond there and then to it. Billboards with tiny complicated headlines and minimal branding seem useless to me as do the QR codes most of the time.
12 Apr 10
10:32 am
I saw this ad from my seat on the bus, out the window.
12 Apr 10
1:16 pm
While I agree in part, I can’t help but think i’ve got the general gist of the campaign by just driving / walking past.
What i can’t help but find difficult to appreciate is the locations i’ve seen this creative displayed on the panel located on the opposite side to the bus seating area…
12 Apr 10
1:16 pm
I agree re the small text size etc, but Bus Stop ads are read by vehicle drivers who are crawling along in slow traffic or in a queue of traffic stopped at the traffic lights (in background of photo).
(Still doesn’t make me want to catch a bus in Sydney.)
12 Apr 10
1:25 pm
The Truth – no, too implausible for the ad to have been conceived of that way. Most of the time there is no one sitting at bus shelters anyway.
The problem with bus shelter ads are that they’re always too damn small to read. Even the images are sometimes too complex for people whooshing past in their cars to take in. Half the time I have no idea what the brand or product are.
A lesson for evaluating bus shelter ads:
1. Flash the ad in front of you for 2 seconds at a distance of 20 metres
2. Did you seriously take in the message in that time?
3. If not, go back to the KISS principle
Bus shelters are basically the same concept as large billboard, just shrunk down a bit.
12 Apr 10
1:40 pm
Emma – who ‘whooshes by’ in Sydney traffic?
I was there for two days last week and there wasn’t much ‘whooshing’ happening in any of the traffic that ensnared me for hours.
And it’s not just one glimpse of one Bus Stop billboard; it’s repeated viewings at numerous locations day after day.
But hey, I’m with Ogden Nash (or was it e.e.cummings?):
I think that I shall never see a billboard lovely as a tree
in fact, unless the billboards fall,
I’ll never see a tree at all
Happily, I live in Bathurst – plenty of trees, few billboards, and the traffic ‘whooshes’.
12 Apr 10
2:02 pm
I both drive and catch the bus. Call me strange, but I have NEVER read a bus ad while driving, but read plenty while on/waiting for a bus.
12 Apr 10
2:08 pm
Truth,
Look at the size of the seat, and then the size of the shelter. If there were 3 men sitting and old ladies milling around, you wouldn’t see the poster as it would be blocked by 3 nasty young men, and possibly some of the grannies. Lucky not many people catch the bus as the panels would always be blocked.
Fact: 87% of all urban km’s travelled in Australia are in a car, (Ausroads).
Fact: 2% are on a bus.
This creative is rediculous, no thought of the environment. 90% of people driving past would not even see the bottle, let alone read the text – FAIL
What a shame that a medium so perfect for the product is ruined by creative geniuses…
12 Apr 10
2:08 pm
I agree with Emma. About everything!
12 Apr 10
2:11 pm
I’m actually a planner, and I should know better, but I walked by this ad on a bus shelter yesterday and thought… “Hey, what a clever little tactical execution” although now I read the rational arguments above, I see that that that thinking is flawed. I doubt the rest of Australia has read that thinking above, or realize that bus shelter audiences are mainly transient. I reckon they think, it’s pretty clever.
12 Apr 10
2:31 pm
Two massive problems.
Most of us drivers are not going slow enough to see the ad at the bus shelter. Most of us find it hard to capture anything but a logo at 60kmh.
And secondly if you are in that maddening rush hour traffic crawling along outside of the free bus lane, can you actually read the creative?
Sorry Mate there is no creative execution that I am going to stop my car to go back and read anyway. So if you aren’t targeting the bus passengers then you are dead in the water. Name one piece of creative that has beaten those parameters and reached the humble car driver and I might change my mind.
12 Apr 10
2:41 pm
Best outdoor ads are the ones for bands posted on electricity poles. They highlight the name of the band, location, date and time…all on an A3 piece of paper
12 Apr 10
2:42 pm
I agree with Lee
12 Apr 10
2:51 pm
Here’s the thing:
The MOVE system measures ‘Likelihood To See’ rather than ‘Opportunity To See’, which is what all other media is measured on. Therefore planners can understand exactly how many people have been ‘Likely’ to see a specific campaign.
It’s not like press etc where for example if you pick up the magazine you’re assumed to have seen every page. MOVE will register that a bus shelter is smaller and therefore less likely to be seen and adjust the R & F based on this, (it will even adjust R & F based on side of the road). This means Out of Home R & F is now far closer to reality than for any other medium.
This means that if the campaign doesn’t work, but MOVE is showing a satisfactory LTS – we can now pinpoint the failure on the creative – not the medium.
(no i don’t work for JC Decaux).
PS: Average speed of cars in Sydney is anywhere btwn 30 – 38kms per hour depending on what road and what part of town you live. Source: SMH Sydney’s morning traffic getting worse
Posted Tue Dec 9, 2008
12 Apr 10
3:10 pm
The thing that makes me sad and I don’t like being sadL, is that this execution is one of the better creative offerings to go to market.
With the exception of a few who get it right e.g. Apple and Fairfax, the outdoor industry is riddled with advertisers deploying press ad’s in the misguided hope that they will pass as effective outdoor creative.
To maximise the value and generate greater campaign results creative agencies and clients should see the ad in situ before signing off and implementing. Only then is it possible to see if the creative offering can deliver the required consumer outtake.
More often than not creative is signed off in PDF format via computer screen with no regard for media property or environment….enough said.
12 Apr 10
3:10 pm
Classic and oft-seen f*ck up – hmmm…that print ad would make a great Adshel. Just because it’s the same shape as a FPC doesn’t make it great bus shelter creative – no wonder I see so many of them smashed.
The best outdoor for me is one that contains:
No. More. Than. Five. Words.
(full-stops optional)
12 Apr 10
3:16 pm
Love your work Shane and WTF.
Nov / Dec’s creative for UV Triplegard on Billboards, Buses, Retail and Mobile Billboards – Ward 6 really thought about the environment and tailored creative to it. Sales went up as a result of good placement and good creative, it’s not hard!!!
12 Apr 10
3:30 pm
I totally agree with zeff
12 Apr 10
3:51 pm
Outdoor Guy me thinks you may be a little biased. But let’s go with your rationale anyway. 35km an hour is 583 metres a minute or 10 metres a second. Let’s presume that you are travelling that speed because you have a Morris Minor or like driving slowly. Let’s also presume that you can look sideways at the bus stop coming towards you at 10 metres a second and have been eating lots of carrots.
Now if you have really good eyesight you should be able to read a bus poster headline from 30 metres away. I’ve done a few voiceovers in my time and 3 seconds doesn’t give you many words my friend.
So make your creative execution so interesting that I will look away from the road for 3 seconds. Entertaining enough to get past the good looking sort waiting for the bus, my radio and the fifty distractions in 30 metres of city streetscape. And yes you have got me.. Otherwise I might just spend my advertising buck where I do have the punters attention.
By the way how the hell do you measure likelihood??
12 Apr 10
3:53 pm
I tend to notice bus stop advertising the most when I’m walking past it, followed closely by when I’m waiting at them (I tend to be looking out for the bus instead). In slightly the same vein as the three motorcycles driving around the city with the same ad, I’ve found the series of ads (one after the over in spots where there are multiple bus stops) to be quite memorable.
Most of the writing is too small to see from your car going past or you go past too fast.
12 Apr 10
4:17 pm
http://moveoutdoor.com.au/
12 Apr 10
4:49 pm
Everyone reads these at bus stops – apart from housekeeping the mobile and avoiding drifting cigarette smoke what else is there to do? Can’t they make the ad backgrounds transparent though? I’ve nearly missed my bus several times as you can’t see through the damn things.
12 Apr 10
5:00 pm
I disagree with Alison M. About everything!
12 Apr 10
5:03 pm
outdoor advertising needs to adopt the less is more approach. Less words, bigger client logo. If the average person can’t recall the ad, or strain to read the copy then go back to the drawing board.
12 Apr 10
5:08 pm
Like Posted Comments… Less is more…
Bus Stop ads the same.
So Sell me; you got fifteen words. Go for it.
12 Apr 10
5:11 pm
I agree with paul
I think Alison M is mad as she likes to hide behind bus shelters or is tring to develop X-Ray vision….
12 Apr 10
5:32 pm
I am biased, but i can assure you its not toward bus shelters, it’s toward OOH as a whole. Agree that you have 3 seconds for bus shelters and anything else viewed from a car. Driving past a small metrolite sized panel will not be effective unless the creative is right.
OOH is best viewed when you walk past it. Walking past that same sized panel in a retail environment, airport or in the CBD will be far more effective.
FYI – LTS is based on size of panel, eccentricity to the road, (is the sign perpendicular or parallel), distance of viewing, and position (what side of the road is it on).
12 Apr 10
6:30 pm
Thanks Outdoor Guy. But the author is prescribing creative useage aimed at those driving past adshel sites etc. The creative that I see is so convoluted that the Homer Simpson grab where he stops on his way to work to read the new months change out ads would need to come to fruition before they would gain any cut through.
As for likelihood to see I’m skeptical that anything but a very small percentage of the general public actually see and are affected by the outdoor furniture they go past. Would be very interested to know what percentage of passers by are claimed as likely to see’s!
I’m just as skeptical of radio diaries, readership figures and even 24/7 people meter panel numbers. Don’t even start me on the 83 million active browsers and convuluted measurement of online.
In the end we need a currency but not sure we can so evangelical about the efficacy of current measurement metrics.
12 Apr 10
7:06 pm
The biggest challenge that outdoor currently faces isn’t the size, location or quality of any of the panels, but the quality of creative that is put on them.
Cut in half the amount of information in most executions, and cut it in half again, and we will be approaching something that has the most effect.
12 Apr 10
9:00 pm
I also agree with Emma
I think maybe the comments section needs a recommend or like feature. Then I wouldn’t have to post this comment.
13 Apr 10
2:47 pm
Bruce – I am from Melbourne there is plenty of whooshing here as well as in Bathurst! Do agree with you about the repeated viewings having an effect at multiple locations, however I have been frustrated with seeing the same ad over and over and never being able to pick up the product or brand.
Mark – I can recall many bus shelter ads, mostly for easily recognisable brands with a simple and distinctive looking product. Tiffany ads that year after year pop up on bus shelters around Christmas immediately jumps to mind, as well as some perfume ads.
Definitely a case by case issue.
13 Apr 10
5:24 pm
The best advice is design for the worst case scenario – ie people in cars travelling at speed.
This is because the majority of people are in their cars and not catching public transport and more cars are travelling past your sign outside of peak hour not in peak.
Short copy and large branding allows the message to be distilled in under 3 seconds enabling more people to see your brand more often. Including those over in lane 3 furthest from the sign.
And it works even better when you’re everywhere on lots of different OOH formats not just on an expensive footpath in the CBD.
Small products should be supersized to fill the space and large objects like cars should never be minimised as they’ll just end up looking like toys.
Busy scenes with lots going on trying to tell a story also never work. Vibrating colours, CAPITAL letters, faint, fine or unusual text are also a big NO.
Optimal viewing distance of an outdoor static sign is calculated by multiplying the width by 20 metres. Another thing to note is the viewers (both pedestrian and motorist) natural eyelevel is on the top half of the bus shelter panel.
The Super Dry product shot can’t be deciphered even at 5 metres and is most definitely a FAIL
13 Apr 10
10:25 pm
Those bus shelters showing a big ass Big Mac work. Even if I catch a glimpse it’s enough to make me want one and take a detour into a Macca’s drive thru . Why not I’m already in my car…?
14 Apr 10
11:20 am
Outdoor Avenger, BINGO BANGO! Now get around to all the creative agencies and give them what for. AND to the end clients. Clearly they aren’t understanding what’s needed from a lot of the arse gravy seen around on outdoor these days. Or should I say, amended magazine ads slapped up because it’s already the oh so handy portrait format!
14 Apr 10
4:47 pm
Not a bus stop ad but it appears a billboard had an incredible effect on this guy:
http://www.couriermail.com.au/.....5853693950
Best defence in a DUI case I have ever heard.
14 Apr 10
6:47 pm
I saw that advert the other day and though that ‘Hahn’ was some sort of ticket for the elderly… The picture of beer I thought was just the norm (Aussies love their beer…)
I am learning.
15 Apr 10
10:02 am
Emma & WTF – I love you. From our office here in Pyrmont, we have a big front window onto the pavement. Approximately 30m is an Adshel. And most of the time we cant read a bloody thing on the posters. It’s dreadful. And we’re SITTING here (hard at work of course and most definitely not dithering around on the interweb).
Thankfully this week we have Berocca. 6 word headline and a bloody great big packshot. There’s some tiddly writing at the bottom (bad client, bad) and the headline is light orange on white (bad art director, bad) but otherwise a generally good example.
19 Apr 10
11:54 am
Seriously, everyone knows bus stop (and Public telephone) ads are for Pedestrians. F__k knows they piss us off as much as tourists taking photos of the bloody QVB at peak hours by hampering us as we strive to get the next bus/cityfail train before the blasted thing goes without us.
So we can’t help but noticing the b______s