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Opinion | Features
Disclosure in Social Media: How transparent should bloggers be?
In this guest post, blogger and digital creative Laura McWhinnie argues for more disclosure in the bloggersphere.
The bloggersphere has always been a bit like the Wild West. Bloggers could post about products to their heart’s content without having to disclose their relationship with the brand. This meant that consumers had no idea who was behind the marketing messages influencing their purchasing decisions. But in 2009 that all changed
Liars, cheats and thieves
Is our industry full of cheats and liars or do people of honour who stand by their word still exist in business? In an article that first appeared in Encore, Cameron Boon investigates. The recent court case involving Paul Fishlock suing his former employer The Campaign Palace brought into focus more than just the struggle of one man. It highlighted that there are some in adland whose word cannot always be relied upon.
Q&A with Adshel's Rob Atkinson
Online trading is the next big thing says Rob Atkinson in a piece that first appeared in Encore. Who is the most powerful person in Australian media and why?
Harold Mitchell because of his influence and the footprint he has left. He’s built a huge brand in Mitchells, offloaded it into Aegis, Aegis has obviously done extremely well to be then sold on to Dentsu. So if you think about it, he is very much a father figure of the industry.
Making it overseas
Is the best way of being successful in Australia not be here at all? In a feature that first appeared in Encore, Lee Zachariah speaks to Aussies making it big abroad.I always wanted to work in New York,” says Julian Cole. “I thought it was the number one place to work in advertising; a lot of the best campaigns were coming out of there. So I moved over and was lucky enough to have a couple of interviews in the first couple of weeks.”
Cole’s story is indicative of the somewhat contentious idea that the best way to be successful in Australia is to not be in Australia any more.
Got a book in you?
From journos to ad execs and PRs, these days everyone seems to have a book in them. But what does it take to get published and will you actually make any money? In a feature that first appeared in Encore, Brooke Hemphill finds out.Attention wannabe authors. Forget big fat advance cheques and living off royalties. The reality of having a book published today is another story altogether. There are only two reasons you should even consider sitting down at your computer to bash out a manuscript – passion or profile.
Savage counsel
In an article that first appeared in Encore, Chris Savage tackles your career and agency dilemmas in his weekly advice column.Hi Chris,
My clients seem to be demanding more and more from us. At the same time, it seems many of the younger people in our industry simply don’t have the client servicing skills my generation grew up with. How do we instill in our executives some of the good old-fashioned behaviours that would keep a client happy and loyal?
Fake it til' you make it... as an ad agency receptionist
From dressing the part to playing the gatekeeper, Leo Burnett Sydney’s Susie Henry tells us how to make it as the face of adland in a piece that first appeared in Encore.What does a receptionist in an ad agency actually do?
Well, there’s the frantic every-day, all-day stuff of deliveries, courier bookings, doing expenses for directors – always challenging – plus arranging all the travel. But one of my main jobs is counselling the account service people. I also keep up with all sports information to discuss with our sports-loving clients – because who wants to be bored while they’re waiting? And I know how they like their coffee. You need to know everyone – from accounting to HR. I’m also the go-to for all catering and sending flowers.
Whose views skew the news? Media chiefs ready to vote out Labor, while reporters lean left
Most journalists lean left-of-centre, says Folker Hanusch of the University of the Sunshine Coast, in a post first published on The Conversation.Most Australian journalists describe themselves as left-wing, yet amongst those who wield the real power in the country’s newsrooms, the Coalition holds a winning lead.
But while the media’s political leanings will no doubt be debated in the lead-up to September’s federal election, our study has also found other largely unscrutinised biases remain – particularly whose views disproportionately shape the news.
It's time for a new New Wave in the film world
Government funding bodies are lazy and decadent, says industry veteran Michael Thornhill but in a piece that first appeared in Encore, Ed Gibbs begs to differ.I vividly remember the time I first saw Animal Kingdom, David Michod’s breathtaking labour-of-love feature debut. The press screening was half empty, despite the film winning the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance just months earlier, in 2010. Yet its superb performances, stylistic flourishes and overall polish left me speechless. Could this really be a feature debut, an Australian one at that, I wondered, almost out loud? It seemed too good to be true.
Going cold turkey on an agency addiction
Life is sweet for freelance writer Max Kitchen, but in a feature that first appeared in Encore, he admits his struggle against returning to the agency fold.I’ve never taken heroin. But I suspect if I had, the temptation to try it again would not be too dissimilar to the lure of returning to agency life.
Can sport save Ten?
First there was the Grand Prix. Next came the reported $500m bid for cricket rights, then Ten secured the 2014 winter Olympics. So, can sport save the ailing network? In a feature that first appeared in Encore, Nic Christensen investigates.The television sports rights bidding process is a bit like a game of poker.
Check, fold or bet. Those were the options for the Ten Network last week when it had to finalise its bid for the cricket rights.
Andy Lark: good for the marketing of marketing
I can still remember the first story I wrote about Andy Lark, when it emerged that he was to be the new chief marketing officer of CommBank.
It was immediately clear that Australia was about to meet an interesting marketer, one who blogged and tweeted and thanks to his time at Dell in the US was digitally savvy. Even two years ago, that was a big deal. The fact that he also had a stint in public relations gave him an absolutely intriguing background before he even arrived.
Storming the media barricades - advice for young journalists
This week Mumbrella’s Nic Christensen, who began his career four years ago, gave the keynote address to would-be journalists at the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance’s Student Day. This is an edited version of his speech.Good afternoon, I can remember distinctly the last time I was in this room.
It was 2009 and I was sitting where you are. I’d come to this event, a friend and myself — from memory we sat up the back — and I can remember at the time wondering if I’d ever get a job as a journalist.
It was only four years ago and then as now getting a job was ultra competitive but I’m not sure there was quite as much media ‘doom and gloom’ as there is now…
Paywalls will help fund campaigning journalism
In this guest post, News Limited’s group editorial director Campbell Reid responds to the views of ninemsn’s Hal Crawford that the company’s push into metered paywalls is about data rather than dollars.Hal Crawford is both right and wrong in his article which argued that our digital subscription plans are all about the data.
Fake it 'til you make it... as a features editor
Cosmo’s Kate Leaver tells us how to bluff it in her job in a feature that first appeared in Encore.What do you do, as a features editor?
Really, play with words and ideas all day. At any one time, we’re working across three issues of the mag – getting one on its way to the printers, pooling all the words together for another, and planning the issue after that. It’s busy but it’s a pretty magnificent process.
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.
“Hey guys has anyone seen a Kitty? I know that I’m like the only one with Kitty as my real name please can someone try and get or even print a kitty please please pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese.”
There were more than 300 comments like this one, interspersed with protests from regular Mumbrella readers wondering what the hell was going on. It felt like an invasion of screeching zombies.
And it made me think two things:
1) Consumers are not, contrary to the popular view, all that bright. I could almost sympathise with one Mumbrella reader who posted: “Why not print one with ‘Stupid Twat’ on it then these people will be happy.”
2) This is the best ad campaign of recent times.
Not because it’s brilliant, creatively. It’s the idea – which, as has been pointed out in the comment thread, is about tapping into ego in the all-about-me age of Facebook and Twitter. The part of us that goes hysterical when we see ourselves on the big screen at a footy match.
Here’s another typical comment: “PLZ PRINT MY NAME ON A COKE BOTTLE PLZ PLZ PLZ COKE FACTORY.”
It got just a bit creepy.
Coke’s comms manager Lauren Thompson told me this week, after the final phase of the campaign saw 50 more names added to bottles, that ‘Share a Coke’ is more about “building brand love” than sales, and would only share fairly meaningless stats with me – 126,000 personalised cans printed at kiosks in Westfields, a 926% increase in posts on Coke’s Facebook page, etc.
But it was a squabble I saw between two mothers rummaging through Coke bottles in Coles that makes me think sales will have been brisk this Christmas. It also made me question the words of David Ogilvy, founding father of the agency behind the campaign, who said: “The consumer is not a moron, she is your wife.”
The most awarded campaign of 2011, NAB Break Up, deserved its glory. But it cannot touch Coke for hitting a vein in the human condition that has got so many people so unreasonably excited about a bottle of fizzy sugar water.
Robin Hicks
- An earlier version of this article first appeared in Encore magazine. To subscribe, click here
Comments
20 Jan 12
11:24 am
BAM
20 Jan 12
11:48 am
I still don’t get it. The footy match analogy doesn’ t help/work because it’s unique ‘you’ on screen and thousands of people are watching. This is only a name you share with millions on the planet and once you buy it how many people see it in your possession and are impressed by that? I can’t go on living without knowing why this campaign got real people so excited. There’s something here I’m missing. Lauren?Anybody?
20 Jan 12
12:21 pm
I dislike Coke and it everything it stands for, BUT I couldn’t help taking a photo of my husband holding a bottle with my name on it. Chalk one up to Coke!
20 Jan 12
12:22 pm
I didn’t see a single Noni bottle or can.
I am totally okay with, no, PROUD of this fact. It meant I didn’t contribute to the huge amounts of “ZOMG! MY NAME! ON A BOTTLE/CAN! THANKS COKE!!!” posts in my feed.
NON-conformist-I.
20 Jan 12
12:27 pm
also the brilliant element of the ‘ego’ you spoke about which results in people getting their branded bottles – and uploading a picture to their social media profiles…
the ‘viral element’ was massive
20 Jan 12
12:27 pm
Deep down, everybody wants their name in lights, especially the consuming masses. It’s why Gamification works so well. All people want to do is see their name up on top of the leader board, it makes them feel like a winner. Consumers who tag themselves in a picture of a Coke bottle with their name on it, on Facebook, do so because to them it’s like a trophy.
20 Jan 12
1:26 pm
what was brilliant about the NAB Break-up campaign?
it was a short-term tactic that hurt long-term credibility
20 Jan 12
1:31 pm
“A man’s name is to him the sweetest and most important sound in the English language.” – Dale Carnegie
It’s that simple.
20 Jan 12
1:40 pm
can i have “anonymouswanker” on a bottle PLZ?
20 Jan 12
1:54 pm
The point of being avant-garde is to know what will be popular way up front, perhaps years ahead of the pack. It’s a lonely alien position to be in.
20 Jan 12
4:21 pm
Not brilliant creatively, who cares. It sold product and as a client of ad agencies, that’s what matters. Didn’t hurt the equity & wasn’t untrue to the products positioning.
Brand managers don’t get measured on creativity. Sales pay the bills, the brand managers’ and the agencies.
20 Jan 12
4:48 pm
God, people in advertising are such wankers. The thing sold. Did it suck? yes. But to call the very people — who you often try to trick into buying the shitty product some company overpaid you for your services to do — morons, smacks of arrogance and a touch of irony considering the crap you guys churn out on a regular basis. has anyone seen a tampon ad recently? You call yourselves “creative” when the best ad campaign seen in Australia this year was when Coke put names on bottles. If that’s the peak of creativity I’d giggle at myself next time I tried to call myself a creative.
20 Jan 12
7:15 pm
“small things amuse small minds”
20 Jan 12
9:11 pm
Okay agency wankers – I can’t believe this, but I’ve just read through ALL the comments in the original story. Just you remember that these people pay the bills, and we have to listen to them ALL THE TIME. So suck it up.
Client
20 Jan 12
10:21 pm
Agree completely.
20 Jan 12
10:51 pm
It worked, or so it appears.
And that is the true judge of advertising, PR and communication.
Having an ad with amazing production values, a flawlessly executed flash mob or a clever message are useless if they do not influence hearts and minds.
Well done Coke.
Now let’s move on to the next brilliant campaign – if we can find one!
22 Jan 12
7:18 pm
i dont drink coke
i havent bought one for as long back as i can remember (besides for about 4 weeks ago when i saw one with may name on it)
the novely, impulse, and $3 (or whatever it was) cost – was worth buying a product that i ultimately gave away purely for the social content it allowed me to generate.
23 Jan 12
11:46 am
We’ve hidden two of the cans in the Ultimo Temple Of Doom studios to see how long it takes to find them. One says JONATHAN. The other says SHIER.
(someone on mumbrella will get that).
27 Jan 12
12:32 pm
I love how on Mumbrella W&K get blasted for their OId Spice campaign being creative, but not shifting product, and Ogilvy get blasted for their Coke campaign shifting product but not being creative enough.
27 Jan 12
1:59 pm
While all the ad wankers sit in the comments section of Mumbrella & CB bagging this campaign & “the moronic masses” (which they don’t seem to think they’re a part of), Coke & their agency decided it might be good business to tap into a pretty fucking basic human behaviour, rather than criticise it…and are no doubt laughing all the way to the bank while the internet thinks they can do better (without actually doing so).
Love it.
1 Feb 12
1:31 pm
Job well done.
And you are still talking about it….
1 Feb 12
6:46 pm
Creative campaigns and effective campaigns are not always the same thing.
While this is perhaps a simple concept, the execution was quite effective and they definitely understand the best approach to their market (i.e. basically EVERYONE)
I really hate drinking cans that say “mate”, yet I’m still drinking them…
1 Feb 12
10:07 pm
I found one with my (real) name on it. I made a bong. Thanks Coke!
2 Feb 12
1:25 pm
I think the Coke campaign was incredibly creative, in that it was so freaking simple. Ever heard the term “beauty of simplicity”?
What Coke has done is they have branded our lives. I don’t shifting product was even part of the goal – short-term, maybe, but in the long-term they have cemented their image as the one of the most recognisable brands in history.
Our names are Coke, our summer is Coke. I think it’s brilliant.
4 Feb 12
5:43 pm
and after all that there was not one can/bottle with the name “mumbrella”!!!