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Opinion | Features
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You'll struggle with the culture shift, Mat: The DNA of media buying is completely different to earned media
In this guest post, Anthony Freedman argues that media agencies will find it harder than they think to shift into public relations territory because it requires an entirely different culture.
Like a lot of people, I noticed the coverage surrounding Mat Baxter’s reveal of UM’s new “Creative Connections Agency” positioning last week.
It started with a piece in Mumbrella provocatively headlined “Media agencies aren’t our competitors” and continued the following day after Mat was goaded into stating UM “won’t be entering media agency awards any more”.
For anyone who didn’t read the stories, the gist of it is this; UM is no longer a media agency, it’s a ‘connections company’ that is embracing earned and owned media, and thus will herein compete with the likes of R/GA, Google and (closest to my heart) One Green Bean. -
Is content marketing myopic?
Amid the ongoing hype around content marketing Mark Yeow argues agencies and clients are getting too bogged down in the detail and need to look at content more broadly.
Our industry’s fixation on content marketing is keeping us from seeing the bigger picture.
The power of content extends far beyond lead generation, conversion, and other measures of marketing ROI. It is, perhaps the critical ingredient of any brand – essential to the vision of any discipline involved in creativity or communication, and indicative of their healthiness and longevity. -
Why SVOD is the catalyst for a TV evolution
Streaming services have been getting a lot of headlines of late. OMD's Jeremy Gavin looks at what impact such services will have on evolving the television as a medium.
The Netflix beast is a product of its environment. -
Curiosity killed the cat, not the creative
A curious mind is a prerequisite for being a creative. So why don't more youngsters entering the creative world ask questions asks Will Clark.
As a junior creative one of the most powerful creative tools is already at your disposal. Curiosity can be a crucial tool when starting work in an industry you know very little about. After my first few years in advertising I have come to realise the full potential of being a curious creative.
Fresh out of design college and AWARD school, I was ready to get stuck into the world of real briefs, real clients and real award potential. However I quickly discovered that the world of advertising is vastly different to the picture that we often paint in our minds before getting there. -
Will greyhound racing ever get back on track?
Following the expose of blooding and other practices in greyhound racing last week Damian Madden looks at what the sport needs to do to regain public trust.
As an animal lover, and somebody who has been to the dog track occasionally, I was abhorred when I saw the Four Corner’s footage earlier this week of greyhound trainers ‘blooding’ their dogs using live animals.
Watching the fallout in the days that followed I began to wonder if greyhound racing could recover from this catastrophic blow. Has its brand been damaged beyond repair? -
How David Thodey helped restore Telstra's brand
Today David Thodey announced he is retiring as CEO of Telstra after five years in the role. Richard Curtis who worked with the telco during his time with Interbrand, explains Thodey's role in rebuilding one of Australia's biggest brands.
Two experiences bookend recollections of my time working with Telstra, over a seven-year period in which I worked with three different marketing teams.
“Didn’t we do the brand last year?” was how one Telstra executive put it, somewhat taken aback by the idea that the Telstra brand might evolve, let alone have implications for his own business unit’s activities. -
The data is in and Birdman will win the Best Picture Oscar
After predicting the winner of the Best Picture Oscar two years in a row using data Bryan Melmed puts his reputation on the line for a third time.
Our audience data and insights accurately predicted the best picture Oscar winner in 2013 and 2014. So it is possibly foolhardy to put our neck on the line again but as the saying goes, go hard or go home so I’m here to tell you that Birdman will win. Or at least this is what the data suggests. And here is why.
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Doing work just to win awards? That’s worth nothing
D&AD CEO Tim Lindsay argues scam is a disease and doing work to just win awards is worth nothing.
You would expect us to say this, but it has been an exciting year at D&AD. With the help of the Glue Society, Google and others we’ve brought New Blood to Australian shores for the first time, launched our new NowCreate programme and forged new partnerships with creative organisations around the world – such as AWARD - to enable us to better support the global creative community. It has been a good year.
However, as much as we’d like to focus on all the positives about our wonderful business, it’s important we don’t stick our head in the sand and ignore the more difficult stuff.
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Baxter buries the Big Boutique as UM reboots business model
UM is shifting its focus from being the Big Boutique to the Creative Connections Agency. CEO Mat Baxter and chief strategy officer Sophie Price sat down with Nic Christensen to explain why the new positioning is more than just semantic, how it has torn up its remuneration model and why the traditional media agency focus on paid media is broken.
Say what you want about Mat Baxter, the iconoclastic CEO of UM knows how to generate a headline. -
Six tips for a watertight contract to help when ambassadors go off brand
Navigating celebrity ambassador agreements can be difficult, with several high profile agreements ending badly in recent years. Here Stephen von Muenster and his team give some tips on what to look out for when drafting the legal terms. Personalities who become brand ambassadors can be a powerful marketing tool for brands. From celebrities to social media influencers, they have the potential to make brands and products relatable and accessible, increasing exposure and successfully driving sales. Unfortunately for brands, their fairytale relationship with an ambassador doesn’t always end happily ever after. -
Seeking out the pink dollar
Brands are increasingly cashing in on the popularity of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in an attempt to lure the pink dollar with the likes of ANZ's GAYTMs leading the charge, writes Robert Burton-Bradley.
Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras is attracting an ever increasing pool of funding from a growing number of premium ad and sponsorship partners, including social economy booking firm Airbnb, as well as a return of last year’s high profile ANZ Bank GAYTMs campaign.
Ben Mulcahy from specialist agency Pink Media, which targets the LGBTI community, said advertising and sponsorship growth around Mardi Gras had been growing strongly each year.
“It gets bigger every year and from the sponsor perspective there’s huge value to be derived,” he told Mumbrella.
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Across print and digital, newspaper customers are turning away
Today’s newspaper and digital subscriber numbers are the worst yet, says Mumbrella’s Tim Burrowes.
Soon I’m going to stop writing about this each time the quarterly numbers come out. It’s too depressing.
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Want real audience engagement? Move on from snackable content
Listicles, quizzes and cat videos might be the flavour of the moment for content marketing, but it's only through in-depth long form content brands can really engage customers argues Atomic 212's Richard Quinn.
In today’s time-starved world, people just don’t have time to read longer content items. Give them short, quick snippets which can be quickly digested, like snacks on the run.
Or so you think.
In truth there is substantial evidence pointing to the contrary, which could have significant implications for your content marketing strategy. -
Why politicians can't sell
Recently Prime Minister Tony Abbott was criticised for not being a good enough salesman for his policies. Here Elliot Epstein looks at how politicians could improve their sales technique to their electorate.
Law, Unions, Engineering, Journalism, Small Business, Academia and Agriculture have all delivered people to politics.
But the world of high stakes senior sales professionals, steeped in the art and science of winning complex, competitive multi-million dollar deals has not regularly supplied our parliaments with its exquisitely skilled members. -
Calling bullshit on customer loyalty
In this opinion piece Dan Monheit argues people don't buy a brand out of a sense of loyalty, but out of habit.
The current divorce rate in Australia is the lowest its been since 1976 when ‘no fault’ splits were introduced, and still stands at a staggering 40 per cent.
If almost half of the adult population cannot commit to a life partner, next to whom they’ve publicly declared ‘til death do us part’, how much weight can we really assign to studies that track customer loyalty to brands of cars, electricity, canned beans and deodorant?
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SBS gets ready to defend Paul Fenech’s Houso’s from ACA ‘stooges’
SBS is bracing itself for media controversy over bogan comedy Houso’s.
The newtwork this afternoon published what appeared to be a preemptive press release saying:
“SBS is aware of media interest relating to a program currently in production for SBS called Houso’s.
“Paul Fenech, the star and producer of SBS’s long-running, provocative and irreverent series Pizza, is producing this new comedy series for SBS.
“Houso’s is not a reality series and everyone participating in the series is an actor.
“Audiences have always understood Paul’s work to be highly exaggerated parody.
“The program, as with Pizza, is not receiving direct funding through any State or Federal Government funding agency and is being funded by SBS through revenue raised by commercial activities.”
Nine’s A Current Affair is promoting an investigation into the show on tonight’s program as “housing commission uncensored… and it’s funded by the government”.
Fenech issued a statement saying: “I’ll be stunned if the stooges at ACA actually think this show is a reality show, It’s hard not to miss some of the actors which appear in the vision on You Tube; Jabba, Angry Anderson, Ian Turpie and myself without thinking something is up. The unofficial clip of Houso’s which ended up on You Tube has had over 22,000 hits and people seem to like what they see. Basically my show is part of the Aussie tradition of doing comedy about true battlers. Housos’s in still in production and SBS have yet to give an on-air date.”
Comments
17 Feb 11
3:54 pm
I’m interested to see how SBS segregates government funding and commercial revenue… and why it thinks such separation is necessary in Houso’s case.
17 Feb 11
3:55 pm
Good on SBS for doing this show. Looking forward to it.
17 Feb 11
3:56 pm
looks funny, channel Nine might want to get Ben Elton to have a look
17 Feb 11
4:01 pm
Oh I thought this was a documentary.
17 Feb 11
4:05 pm
Tim: I assume SBS separates money by imaginary means, as we all do since money is pretty much imaginary in the first place. And the reason they think it’s necessary is precisely because they anticipate this kind of attack from the likes of ACA.
17 Feb 11
4:09 pm
Another reason to watch SBS. I wondered where Jabba went.
17 Feb 11
4:10 pm
I think ACA is nine’s most consistent comedy show. And they regularly use bogans and ferals as fodder too. Their taste in comedy with Hey Hey, LFPE and Two and a half men does not qualify them to comment on anything comedy.
17 Feb 11
4:24 pm
Look like a bloody ripper mate!
17 Feb 11
4:25 pm
Looks annoying
17 Feb 11
4:26 pm
Housos surely?
What’s with the apostrophe
17 Feb 11
4:27 pm
I must say, I’m most distressed by the apostrophe in Houso’s – what exactly does the Houso own? As for ACA, they’ve no doubt been watching 9 comedies for years and don’t realise that you can make these types of shows out of doors.
17 Feb 11
4:33 pm
Wow what a surprise, another chauvanistic, stereotypical piece of ‘comedy’ from these guys. Cheaper than last night’s $6 pizza and will probably leave you with just as much indigestion. Yuck. Disappointing to see that SBS is wasting their money on this when elsewhere Australian content is always struggling to get funding. Welcome back to the 1970’s, ‘now come on girls get your #its out while we all crack a tinny’. No thanks.
17 Feb 11
4:44 pm
That should go to air instead of ACA boring people they are Houso forever. It’s just Aussies laughing at Aussies and making a statement leave em alone
17 Feb 11
4:54 pm
I’ll be interested to see SBS’s social media approach for this one. Facebook fan page up to 2,156 – might be some interestng characters hanging around on Twitter you might think. Imagine the Twitpics….
As for ACA, well they wouldn’t demonise ordinary battlers, just individual tradies.
http://aca.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8211508
In a funny way, you hope that some people will take Houso’s more seriously than they do ACA. Sadly that won’t be the case. They seem to think ACA is broadcasting reality!
17 Feb 11
4:58 pm
Interesting!
17 Feb 11
5:00 pm
If it wasn’t for government funding the subject and concept wouldn’t exist!!! Give us tax payers a break, we can’t pay for everything…
17 Feb 11
5:00 pm
NotHappyJan – c’mon, smile pussycat.
17 Feb 11
5:08 pm
Nothing like a good old bit of free publicity from your competition.
17 Feb 11
5:24 pm
So looking forward to having a laugh when it airs, go Pauly and mates!!
in these times of uncertainty and BS political correctness, theres a fair bit of cotton wool wrapping going on.
Judging by the teasers, this show looks to be just the medicine needed to get the weight off the shoulders after a hard day and just Laugh!
good luck guys
17 Feb 11
5:34 pm
Nine should buy this to replace Ben Elton!
17 Feb 11
6:51 pm
so its ok when he was taking the piss out of wogs? if you dont like it dont watch it simple
17 Feb 11
6:54 pm
did Paul Fenech just copy the idea from the Canadian show trailer park boys? I mean, its sounds like the exact same premise. Even the name of the suburb in housos ‘Sunnyvale’ shares the name of the ‘Sunnyvale Trailer park’ . Anyway well when i was a teen I did like Pizza, so I hope Paul can do a good job with this show as well.
17 Feb 11
8:16 pm
cant wait… PUMPED!
17 Feb 11
9:11 pm
I grew up in a housing commission suburb in outer western Sydney so I feel ok to comment . I am sure the largest audience for this show will be these same areas .
Aussies have always been able laugh at them selves , think back to “they’re a weird mob ” , early Paul Hogan sketches , Kylie Mole , ect..ect..ect….
No doubt the like of ACA will take issue with the show as there is little else around to report on apparently …..Maybe they should look at The 7:30 report to understand what reporting is …I think they will just follow the Aussie tradition of laughing at them selves as they mimic “Frontline”.
17 Feb 11
9:14 pm
I love aca. It’s ok to have a go at dole bludgers and pension scammers when you are being hateful and vindictive. The minute someone wants to parody this lifestyle in a manner that bogans and some somewhat unsnobby and open minded people with a high iq and an interest in making life not so serious by breaking the mould of mediocrity that is network produced comedy. Good luck to them. The reason for private funding is because of John ” please don’t make fun of me” Howard. He caused a stink about pizza. This type of show is a clear parody on stereotypes and chauvinism. I don’t think sex all over the city was a parody on anything. It just made being promiscuous glamorous. The promiscuity shown in the shorts for this are anything but. If we can learn to laugh at one another and with one another racism and class demography may become something of the past. A chaser affair knew the agenda.
17 Feb 11
9:23 pm
good see some humour about Australian life in the suburbs its actually probably worst than depicted keep up the good work boys……
17 Feb 11
9:24 pm
Pkd you’ve hit the nail on the head. ACA is definitely 9’s best comedy show although Houso’s looks very promising, the trailer is absolutely hilarious. I reckon this will be Oz’s answer to UK’s Shameless and NZ’s Outrageous Fortune. Can’t wait, good on you SBS!
17 Feb 11
9:35 pm
Looks bloody funny. Hope it’s on soon. NoSenseofHumorJan? Your not Germain Greer incognito ?
17 Feb 11
9:39 pm
@NothappyJan So you must live a closed closet with tooth fairies and Black and White 1950’s movies. I could show you a million FB pages and nearly every person I know around my town Kanwal with some simular personalities. Sure it is highly exaggerated but OMG after watching the trailer I couldnt stop thinking of all my mates.
I guess you must be one of the upper class who just doesnt mingle with blue collar workers?
Good to see Aussie larrikins are still alive.
17 Feb 11
9:40 pm
I do agree with NotHappyJan that Fenech’s shows are pretty bloody terrible. When Pizza first started on SBS I thought it was quite good, before realising I’d given it too much credit and thought it was smarter than it was. Soon realised it was celebrating, not satirising, boorish behaviour.
17 Feb 11
10:00 pm
Yes, very entertaining…….not. Cringeworthy ? Definately. We should hang our collective heads in shame that these people actually exist. The part when Paul Fenech runs down the Police doing RBT- if thats humorous, you need help, and I’m not talking just psychology, but psychiatric treatment, including the drugs.
This shit wasnt funny 30 years ago when Hoges did it with Strop.
17 Feb 11
10:17 pm
Its nasty to kick people while they are down… not all people in department of housing are like this. all this show does is segregates upper class and lower class more
Disgusting, there are good and bad people everywhere…
18 Feb 11
12:29 am
Cant wait.
Looks like ACA are running out of stories. We seen the speed camera crap, the weigh loss stuff, boat people, noise complaints, bigger boobs and bras, home brands vs. Name brand stories over and over again. Forgot the coles vs. Woollies junk too!
Enjoy the show!
18 Feb 11
5:51 am
Brilliant – about time someone had a go at this demographic. Aussies are renowned for inappropriate comedy, and this is a great example. I spent time as a ‘houso’ myself as a kid, which is probably why I find it so funny. Of course it’s exaggerated, but the grain of truth really brings it to life.
18 Feb 11
10:24 am
Fuck yes.
18 Feb 11
11:14 am
To all you conservative haters of Paul Fenechs comedies, he takes a fantastic stab at society, although trashy it is fun with a little black humor chucked in where necessary. If you don’t approve because you still voted family first in the last election and life is a taboo for you please do us a favor and go bury your head in the nearest sandpit. Houso’s looks funny as fuck!
18 Feb 11
11:19 am
Finally SBS makes something worth tuning in for… the smelled death looming… nothing motivates like fear!
18 Feb 11
12:46 pm
Why did they copy the name from Trailer Park Boys? Sunnyvale?!? Are they serious? The number one Canadian comedy (7 seasons, 2 movies) and they just copy the name Sunnyvale?
This is very weak – it will never be the Australian version of TPB – Paul, you have missed the mark terribly with the naming of the Suburb and it’s a real shame as I now cannot watch your show without thinking that a large percentage of the ideas were stolen for a unique and timeless classic.
Shame.
18 Feb 11
1:45 pm
The ACA report on this show was very long and confusing. They appeared to suggest it was shameful stereotyping on one hand, but then went out of their way to prove the show’s accuracy by interviewing Mt Druitt bogans (who all thought the show was hilarious). I think “Westies” would be a better name for it.
18 Feb 11
3:14 pm
So what did all the detractors of this think of Kath and Kim?
Wasn’t that a show that revolved around Bogans? All this is doing is giving the lower end socio economic Bogans their fair share of screen time outside of ACA, TT and the Magistrates court.
We all know good comedy is based on some level of fact in some way. Exagerated maybe.. far from the truth? probably not.
18 Feb 11
3:32 pm
Awesome, I’ll be watching. Best promo 9 has done all year! Rescue Special Ops eat your heart out!
18 Feb 11
7:40 pm
Sounds like my cup of tea! Looking forward to the first episode!
19 Feb 11
11:17 am
Looks like a ripper. Can’t wait!
20 Feb 11
9:49 pm
Classic!
The only people who will disslike this will be the snobby city folks who have their heads jammed fair up their a*%es.
Don’t like it ?…go watch friends & stay the heck out of Sunnyvale brah…LOL
21 Feb 11
2:11 pm
it’s all been said above except for one point
we should embrace every Australian made show on our channels. there aren’t enough of them to keep the industry going. Paul Fenech’s comedy may not be to all tastes but it beats endless reruns of Charlie Sheen and Jennifer Aniston. He has had shows on TV for pretty much the last ten years, all of them employing Aussies across the board.
keeping actors, actresses, cameramen, directors etc in work allows us as an industry to have a greater choice of talent to employ in our commercials and marketing activity.
Hopefully this show finds an audience
disclaimer – my sister in law is an actress and is on this show & trailer.
21 Feb 11
4:44 pm
I think Tradie has it a little wrong… People living in housing that aren’t the lower class housos may not like it either… We don’t want to be tarred with the same brush but we unfortunately will no matter what we do…
21 Feb 11
8:29 pm
just have a laugh people, it’s easy!
22 Feb 11
3:03 pm
Good shit,
Housos are mostly fucking losers and it is good to see the piss taken out of them and let good honest tax paying workers get an idea of the type of shit that is out there that there taxes get wasted on
22 Feb 11
3:22 pm
There are a lot of housing department residents that are tax payers :S and many others cant work due to disabilities… there are also the scummy residents but they aren’t the majority but unfortunately many people stereotype people in housing and think the minority are the majority… This isn’t the case and it is the reason why people are taking offense to it.
1 Mar 11
12:24 am
Not to Bad….. Reminds me off a few suburbs in Perth, bring it on
2 Mar 11
4:27 pm
ACA is so used to attempting to scrape the bottom of the barrell for content, that it has walked straight into this one! ha, ha! The joke is on ACA this time. Ye see, Fenech and Co are not attempting to insult anyone. Rather, they are trying to give the best Country in the world a reason to lighten up and have a laugh!
….or…. of course, you could just continue to be depressed by what ACA portrait, night after bloody night ! How much force feeding can one man/woman cope with ?? ….GO HOUSOS !!!
As SBS and Mr Fenech would understand, there is no such thing as “bad” publicity… In actual fact, the producers of housos would be warranted to be at least mildly excited about ACA’s little advertisment/gift relating to this new cracker of a series. Further, any regular ACA viewer worth his/salts, or, with any amount of open-mindedness and inteelect, will surely embrace the SBS series when it arrives. Let’s face it, whether we are “housos” or not is not the point. What counts, is that we are all Australians and are quite comfortable with taking the piss out of ourselves for a laugh…and…heaven knows we could all do with a good chuckle from time to time. Particularly if the content is something we can all relate to. ACA, stop believing that your audience can be led like sheep every day of the week. The truth will become apparent as soon as Housos hits the air and SBS’s rating fly….Happy viewing AUSTRALIA ! Looking forward to the laughs !!
3 Mar 11
4:22 pm
Nine have zero idea about comedy….ACA is their best attemp at comedy…do they really have nothing better to air!!! Seriously!!!
5 Mar 11
11:03 pm
Enjoyed Pizza and Swift & Shift Couriers, the latter being a program that appealed to different generations. My grandfather loved Swift and Shift – in fact anyone whose been in the workplace, even white collar people, can relate to the show. The ACA is hypocritical to take a swipe at Housos, but hopefully Pauly and SBS benefit from the publicity. One of the commenters is spot on when they say that Pauly’s shows have provided work for Australian actors for 10 years now. Yes the humour can be un PC – but being PC is overrated…Anglos, Indians, Greeks, Chinese, Italians, Kiwi’s, Lebanese, Coconuts, obese people, vain people etc all get a serve in some way. The shows are representative of the “cultural microcosm” that is Sydney.