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Opinion
The keyboard warrior of Twitter
In this guest post, NBN staffer Scott Rhodie writes an unofficial, personal view on his experience with a hostile Twitter critic.Last night I had a strange incident. While on Twitter I noticed someone saying that Australia’s NBN is already outdated. I wrote a small note back explaining they were incorrect.
And their response? The lovely gentleman (whose Twitter profile says: ‘Father of 5 kids, Loving Grandfather of 10 Grandchildren,and 2 Great Granddaughters. love to give heaps to Pollies and Poofters’) said to me: “Go and lick Gillards C*** out U commie Prick”
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.
Sack the copywriter
Here’s a nice innovation from consumer watchdog Choice, rounding up the best of the month’s Aussie ad blunders.
Among the highlights:
- A full size world map (think about it…)
- Teaching driving kills
- The clairvoyant who’s a guaranteed con
- Cops struggle with maths
- The joys of do it yourselfery
January 24th, 2010 at 2:01 pm
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Comments
25 Jan 10
12:24 pm
That was the best of the month? Man the fun they must have in that office.
25 Jan 10
12:29 pm
In fairness, it’s only the second time they’ve done this. I’m guessing they hope the examples will come flooding in now they’ve started…
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
25 Jan 10
12:53 pm
hey chris, its so easy to put people down. why not appreciate the work that goes into these items.
27 Jan 10
10:08 am
Thanks for the backup, guys.
But Chris’ response is fairly typical of an online audience that has broadcast TV expectations, and you can’t produce online video without having a thick skin (I got a comment describing me as ‘boring as f*ck’ – and there’s probably some truth in that!)
The Hard Word is based on stuff sent in by CHOICE readers who are typically an older, more conservative demographic than your typical YouTuber, so the content is probably a bit out-of-context here.
PS – Comments don’t piss me off. Seeing a cat on a roomba getting over 4 million views pisses me off
27 Jan 10
11:03 am
@ Laurence,
I actually found it amusing. Good job.
27 Jan 10
12:45 pm
Actually, with media converging and more and more we see print or online content producers branching out into broadcast, albiet on the web, I think it’s vital that such products are met with the same scrutiny.
There’s a lot of shitcanning that goes on regarding TV production (some of it warranted), but harsh as it might sound, why we should suddenly give lacklustre content giant passes simply because it’s “not their usual gig” is quite beyond me.
Max, I appreciate the work gone into it, but it’s a product in the public space, and thus is up for critique. Your comment is as helpful to me as “Why can’t we all just get along and be nice to eachother?”
27 Jan 10
1:19 pm
I think calling your comment ‘critique’ may be stretching the definition, Chris, but I take your point. I’m not expecting a free pass. You want the content you choose to watch to be entertaining. We all do.
I’m happy to see people call me out on the stuff I produce – so keep doing it. But forgive me if I pay more attention to my target audience than to the Internet-at-large. This was produced for CHOICE readers using content that was sent in by them, and I really wouldn’t expect it to dovetail with the crowd here at mUmBRELLA.
Frankly – I’d love to be more like Zero Punctuation (Ben Croshaw is the model of how budget needn’t be a barrier to success), but given that I got complaints for using the phrase ‘we make shit up’ in a previous video, I’m not sure using phrases like “I’d have more fun swallowing a bale of razor wire and flossing myself to death” would go down all that well.
27 Jan 10
1:23 pm
@Chris,
You make some good points, but let’s remember that often times, managers need much persuasion to get involved in ‘that new online stuff like Youtube’. If the result of their first effort is that it gets met with derision by people like yourself, then they will surely be turned off. While the space is new, cut a little bit of slack to those giving it a shot – it’s in everyone’s interest.
@Laurence,
Perhaps you can do a mumbrella version?
27 Jan 10
1:36 pm
It’s just a bit of fun. I like it.
28 Jan 10
3:23 pm
Good start, but may I suggest entries accepted via email rather then just snail mail may help their cause?
28 Jan 10
3:39 pm
I hear you, Simon. CHOICE has a pretty tight verification policy that extends to all of its stories, and I guess the grown-ups are worried that email evidence could easily be faked. Not only that, we need high-res versions to run on the back page of the magazine.
I’ll pitch the idea that we loosen the strings a bit on this and see how far I get.
Thanks for the feedback!
31 Jan 10
7:38 pm
Many years ago Choice did a big expose that found Aussie Post wasn’t delivering a lot of o/night interstate mail on-time. Trouble is they forgot to declare they’d done their research during an airline strike! Choice has selective hearing, selective vision and is just as political, narrow-minded and nasty as any right wing pressure group.
1 Feb 10
9:35 am
@choice memory – wow, did we run over your cat or something? You seem to be very angry. Can’t say I’m familiar with the events you describe (I’ve only been here for a year and a half), but it doesn’t mesh with my experiences as an employee.
Perhaps I need to be here for at least two years before I get invited to the right-wing rallies they hold in the basement
Sure we have an agenda – we’d be a pretty crap consumer advocacy group if we didn’t. But we make our processes, policies and testing as transparent as possible, and I can honestly say that I’ve never worked at any media company (here, or in the UK) where verification is taken so seriously.
2 Feb 10
1:00 pm
@Simon – realising, of course, that you’ve most likely wandered off to more interesting topics, I thought I’d just mention that I’ve got the powers-that-be to agree to email entries. The Hard Word video will still use the print content as backup for content, but I’ll be inviting viewers to offer up their own submissions in whatever format they like.
Thanks for the suggestions!
:l
2 Feb 10
1:10 pm
nice, well done, look forward to the next installment ….put together a Facebook group yet?
2 Feb 10
6:23 pm
Yeah, I totally agree with you Other_Andrew, the video is exactly amusing and interesting.
I’m impressed more about the way the video is being created. It captures my attention with curiosity.
Very creative video!
17 Feb 10
4:45 pm
Enjoyed it, glad that you have reviewed the email rules, you will certainly see an increase.