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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?
Rove calls end to TV show in a year of weak ratings
Rove McManus last night announced the end of his long-running Channel Ten variety programme which has this year suffered from lacklustre ratings.
Last night it attracted just 707,000 viewers, lower than the 1.5m peak it has previously enjoyed this year. On Sunday of last week, it had 678,000 viewers.
However, the network points out that on average, this year it has attracted an audience of 922,000, which is in line with its performances in 2008 and 2007. This is also above 2005 and 2006 levels when it recorded an average of 825,000 and 807,000 respectively.
His 10-year-old show has also not been helped by the fall in ratings experienced by Australian Idol, which is aired in the timeslot before Rove. Last night Idol attracted 923,000 viewers.
There is already speculation that McManus may make a return to radio, after being recently spotted dining with Merrick Watts from Nova 969. Watts’ on-air partner Tim Ross last week announced that he would not be returning to the station on their Merrick & Rosso breakfast show next year.
McManus’ production company Roving Enterprises will continue to work with Ten through The 7pm Project and Before The Game.
November 16th, 2009 at 9:33 am
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Comments
16 Nov 09
9:39 am
10 years too late.
16 Nov 09
9:39 am
No one saw the show, hence relying on the media to talk about the end of a show. It shows how people don’t really care
16 Nov 09
9:48 am
Interesting how it was done. No announcement + the usual weeks of promotion about the finale, which would have surely boosted last night’s ratings. To his credit, I guess he really did say goodbye on his terms.
16 Nov 09
9:51 am
Amused that more than 700,000 people can be categorised as “no-one”. To put that into perspective, that’s 3% of the nation’s population — or about 9x as many people than the Liberal Party has members, or 4x the ALP.
16 Nov 09
10:10 am
The problem wasn’t Rove, it was the time slot – late Sunday night after big weekends when people just want to go to bed for work Monday… Why do all Australian stations put good Aussie shows to late time slots, only for ratings to then fall and then the show gets axed? We then end up with some American crap in its place and our Aussies are put out of work (this also happened with channel 7′s ‘All Saints’”)?
But thanks Rove for your entertainment and for being a great guy…..
16 Nov 09
10:16 am
I seriously doubt he wants to take a step backwards to move to Sydney morning radio.
16 Nov 09
10:21 am
Rove’s not funny, never was. Good riddance!
16 Nov 09
10:24 am
I love it how there are always haters. It’s these same people who complain about the lack of diversity on TV.. how there are too many American shows.. why there are endless re-runs of simpsons and two and a half men.. why we bring back dated ideas (Hey Hey).. It’s a pity in a country of such diverse talent, our top TV shows are usually the the news or border security (sic). I guess we like to take down people who we precieve as tall poppies.. Congrates to Rove for an entertaining 10 years. All you haters can now enjoy endless repeats of NCIS..
16 Nov 09
10:27 am
Rove was great. This is sad and the show will be missed for sure. Australia doesnt have anything else like this. Some things about the show did become more polished over time, but other nice elements were lost-I’m assuming because of higher powers-like the Pete factor. Why did he end up with a good 2 minutes a week? It used to be Pete and Rove together all night.. Also could Channel 10 be scared of a Hey Hey return?
16 Nov 09
10:38 am
Man I miss rove already. It’s pretty sad
16 Nov 09
10:40 am
I LOVE rove funny show
16 Nov 09
10:49 am
Sadly the demise of Rove on Sundays does leave the door open for Ch9.
‘Hey, Hey its Sunday’ perhaps
16 Nov 09
11:44 am
I seriously don’t understand the Rove haters. The guy is a massive talent, spontaneous, smart and a great interviewer, what is it that you don’t like about him? I for one will surely miss his show but also agree with some of the comments above re: time slot.
16 Nov 09
11:47 am
Bye Bye Rove. You will not be missed on my Television
16 Nov 09
11:56 am
rove had become a sunday night regular on my TV. I will miss the show and all the Aussie talent showcased. It is sad that by ending the show many good people will be out of work. I hope rove can re-group and rise again before his crew disperses….
16 Nov 09
12:14 pm
Rove, nerd humour at its most banal.
16 Nov 09
12:31 pm
i was watching re-runs of Safran vs God and discovered Rove put in hard yards on channel 31 back in the day, that put him up a notch in my book. leaving him at notch one. him off the air now puts him at notch 2. kudos
hopefully they will give micallef the slot – that is a sure fire way to fix those sunday night blues
16 Nov 09
12:58 pm
Rove was such a great Australian show that he and Australia should be proud of. After all that he has been through over the years, he and his show have still remained entertaining over each and every year. Now who is going to attract such an array of global talent from the music and acting industry to Australia? He had built such a rapport with so many big names that it’s a shame to see him go.
I agree that a lot of the “lower than usual” ratings would be due to the Sunday time slot as well. Tuesday night was so much better! 9:30pm on a Sunday evening is just such an awkward time for any show and yet he still managed to pull good ratings as quoted by Stilgherrian.
I wish Rove the very best in whatever he does decide to do. He deserves the rewards of his hard work and dedication.
16 Nov 09
1:13 pm
Amazing how many “haters” there are out there. If you didn’t like Rove you shouldn’t have watched and if you didn’t watch, how can you have an opinion?
16 Nov 09
1:54 pm
I didn’t get Rove, I never understood his appeal. He’s a love him or hate him type of personality, I fall into the latter. I tried to watch the show on several occasions but found no humour whatsoever, laughing at your own jokes or saying them really really LOUDLY doen’t make them funnier. I hope now that when asked by my flatmate on Sunday night, what’s on? I can give a better response than shit-all on 10. Goodbye Rove, please never bother our screens again.
16 Nov 09
1:58 pm
Not haters, just not Rove admirers.
16 Nov 09
2:29 pm
Happy to see Rove go, it was time to take him out to the paddock and put him out of his misery. The show got particularly shit this year with that forced “everyone sitting together on the couch just having a convo” thing they had going on. I just hope to christ that this opening doesn’t incite channel ten to give Hamish and Andy their own show. Oh god, that would be painful. The nations’ “wackiest” ex-private school boys are as about as funny as a dead baby.
16 Nov 09
3:10 pm
Points well made Luan. You know the worst thing about the the Rove critics? in my opinion They’ve never got off their fat arses and tried to do anything themselves. It appears that even reaching for the remote to was too much effort for them.
16 Nov 09
3:37 pm
I used to watch Rove……but then it all got a little beige really, and I didn’t like being “yelled” at through the TV on a Sunday night. Why did all the comedians on there yell at the camera? So I just stopped watching it. Good run though Rove, will be very interesting to see what they replace him with.
16 Nov 09
4:02 pm
It is obvious that there was pressure coming from Ten managment and it was not a choice he made unto himself. last night he made quips regarding Ten managment saying ‘if you’re going to do the same thing each week with What The, you can’t have the same people on each week too’. This is obviously referring to Carrie Bickmore, Dave Hughes etc who were on regularly, and were given the boot for 2009. I think Rove would have felt guilty in regards to this, thus backing the new ’7pm Project ‘of which many of his old staff feature – a Roving Enterprises production.
He wanted to keep his friends on the show, Ten didn’t – they wanted something new each week. I think this pushed him to call it quits, along with the poor ratings.
The timeslot factor was a stupid move which he more or less admitted was a mistake.
16 Nov 09
4:13 pm
Perhaps we all thought we were funnier, taller, of higher wit, faster, sharper, smoother, more handsome, a faster runner, better connected, harder workers, hell just better than Rove (and his team). I mean I dont have a TV show and a little bit of fame now do I? Why does he deserve it more than I do? He’s just another guy….
Truth is from humble media beginnings (remember those tripple j mornings) he built a rather successful TV show and entertainment company, endured true human hardships, evolved and kept making some of us smile. Which is more than a lot of us can say…… Cheers to the laughs Rove.
16 Nov 09
4:27 pm
Why has Rove been the only variety show on a Sunday night for 10 years?
No wonder everyone is over Rove… and Idol, for that matter.
BTW, now the TV ratings season is just about over as well, is everyone looking forward to repeats and loads of junk that 7,9 and 10 wouldn’t play during weeks 7-49?
16 Nov 09
4:35 pm
I personally think that Rove is one of the best Australian made programmes – however, that was not supposed to be a compliment.
16 Nov 09
4:47 pm
Hmmm… I never said that Rove Live‘s ratings were “good”, just that 700,000 people isn’t zero. I was merely objecting to the sloppy language of “no-one watched it”. Still, it’s presumably a lot fewer people than TEN wants to pull on a Sunday night.
I’m fascinated by the people who say they didn’t like the show and are glad to see it go. I mean, if you don’t like something by all means don’t watch it — but why stop others who may enjoy it doing so? It’s not like there’s a shortage of entertainment this century.
16 Nov 09
5:48 pm
I really like to see how several dedicated fans have whole heartedly supported him, and to set the record straight, I can too be classified in that category. Rove was refreshing, light entertaining, and a joy to watch and hence I agree with the comment about how Rove haters hate him so much to have an opinion and publicly declare it on this site. However guys, even though they THINK Rove sucks, we KNOW he rules and is probably the best thing that ever happened to Pure Aussie television. Roving enterprises co-produces the Aria awards, logies and of course 7pm project which has suffered heaps of unjustified online vilification. We all know you watch Rove and there’s no point publicising your hatred if you can’t seriously be bothered to press a button on your remote.
Anyhow, let’s just let the Rove haters have their opinion, if it really gives them that much satisfaction. Let them be entertained and fulfilled by their unjustified and condemning vilification and of course the perpetual recycling of US Cop dramas. I’m sure its what they live for.
16 Nov 09
10:07 pm
I am not a hater. Rove was not very good though. I remember an appalling interview with Adam Sandler and Chris Rock. Even Sandler looked bemused at Rove’s 3rd question because he had given Rove a total gift, yet Rove just kept on asking the questions in order, which were probably written down… I don’t hate him – he would be good for children’s TV. He could be the Noel Edmond’s of Australia. (Noel was a UK presenter and appealed to the kids / simpletons…)
16 Nov 09
10:15 pm
p.s.
Matty Johns is very good at questioning techniques. He is not as good as Andrew Denton who in my opinion is extremely fantastically the best around in Oz by a long shot. Nevertheless John’s is bright, spontaneous and witty. Shame about his shenanigans because he could have hosted a fantastic chat show, similar to Rove, however blown it out of the water…
16 Nov 09
10:49 pm
Say bye to your Mum for me.
16 Nov 09
11:58 pm
“The guy is a massive talent, spontaneous, smart and a great interviewer”
Hahahaha thanks for the laugh!
17 Nov 09
6:49 am
Yep, one of the worst interviewers of all time. Wooden, predictable and most unforgivably doesn’t listen to the answers.
17 Nov 09
7:12 am
Andrew Denton!!!! The MOST sycophantic interviewer I’ve seen for some time. When he is not grinning like a lapdog, he is trying to be a smarta****.
He is incredibly hard to watch – that stupid grin.
17 Nov 09
9:55 am
I liked Rove in the early days, but the changes in the last three or four years have made it fairly embarrassing to watch. Ren, I agree with you – the jokey conversational tone they were aiming for with the huge couch didn’t work (and produced a bunch of embarrassing moments where the guests sat around doing bugger all for the entire show, except for cut away reaction shots). Even the set was less inviting.
Maybe the worst crime in terms of comedy was that it became all too predictable by the end: the blonde girl reading out her one-two joke news lines, Pete showing blurry Youtube clips, Ryan Shelter introducing a pre-recorded clip in his usual style, Rove making jokes about how short he is and so on. (Those jokes were cute ten years ago when he still had a boy-ish face, but he’s too old for that now). The interviews were hit and miss. The Barry Humphries one a few weeks ago was fairly embarrassing.
If only for that reason, I’m glad to see the peaceful end to the show. At least Rove was able to end it on his own terms (or at least say that was the case).
17 Nov 09
10:09 am
Come on – the jokes were bad from the very beginning. Even since he left Channel 9 and got rid of Dave Callum things went downhill. He culled away his old posse, (Corrine Grant another casualty) in favour of ‘Carrie Bickmore’, whatever she is. Interviews – if you can call sitting around sharing a laugh with a celebrity an interview – were appalling. Pre-recorded bits are not good. This was marginally an inch better than Hey Hey. Which is not a good thing.
17 Nov 09
12:42 pm
It’s sad to hear that Rove won’t be back. I really enjoyed his show…I liked that he had others in that show such as Ryan Sheldon, Pete Space, Hamish and Andy.
I’m not originally from Australia, I came to live here 2 years ago and one of the things I loved the most about Australian television was Rove. He had a different comedic approach to his show and that’s what made it fun.
Rove will be sorely missed….
18 Nov 09
10:30 pm
I think he was fired.
As if he wouldn’t have done a massive send off. He was sacked, sacked, sacked.
19 Nov 09
1:42 pm
Mary. Andrew Denton asks the best leading questions, better than many global interviewers in fact.
Rove – not talentless, however should be dressing up as a clown as opposed to interviewing or cracking jokes off the cuff…
20 Nov 09
7:56 pm
Love ROve!!! So dus NZ ,cm make a show over here lol
22 Nov 09
10:03 am
GIVE HAMISH AND ANDY THEIR OWN SHOW YOU SUCK!
25 Nov 09
4:17 am
Well…I didn’t hear about it until it was on the news.
To be honest, the whole Rove show in my eyes went downhill in the episodes following the death of his wife Belinda…
I was absolutely glued to the show in I think 04-07 but after that I really hate to say that it just became too embarrassing and awkward to watch.
Perhaps it was the Channel 10 executives or whoever getting a grip on what the show entailed, he was probably told to read the questions the way he did for the interviews by whoever was handling the script, who we all know was terrible, sorry.
I think that he was much more humorous when Belinda was around and perhaps because of her illness he was always so spontaneous and funny because that was his way of coping?
Someone definitely caused the show to change though and I will bet that wasn’t Rove. I was incredibly surprised when most of his supporting team went onto the 7pm project…it made absolutely no sense to me. I think Rove needed that last good team because they worked so well together and especially after all his recent personal life experiences, he needed those people in his workplace(!) who would respond well to the conversation/humour. Why on earth would HE tell them to leave, it was a perfect team?? Stupid channel 10 is all I can say.
Anyway, I think the best years of Rove were 04-06, for memory they were spontaneous, very funny, and much more intelligent than the ones I have seen recently.
Perhaps this is all sounding too personal/emotional but this was a variety show after all and their personalities were out to play…just a shame that the show couldn’t have stayed on a Tuesday night and that the creative changes became so primitive and embarrassing rather than lightly entertaining.
And lastly from an outsider’s point of view I am glad Rove and Tasma have found each other, hope they stay together for life, perhaps now Rove has conquered his life dream he can make a new life dream or several in fact and soar to new heights in whatever it might be…
I hope he stays in the media light, and it would be so great for him to succeed with something inspirational even if it isn’t with a show or simply being a comedian. Thats just my thought.
27 Nov 09
11:48 pm
Rove, Sorry mate but won’t miss you at all.