-
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.
Speak English, morons
In this guest post, Jon Holloway has a short rant about industry jargon
Plain English. Is it really that hard? As an industry we are obsessed with baffling, the whole one-upmanship of this crazy advertising and marketing world is making us all look like clowns.
Einstein was right; ‘if you can’t explain it simply you don’t understand it enough’. Does that sum up our industry; do we not care enough to actually understand what we are talking about?
It is so easy to become a social media guru, a marketing Jedi or a digital ninja by spending 10 minutes on twitter, reading a few blogs and some out dated books. Then vomiting them all back up in a random order over unsuspecting people who come to you for advice.
The access to information we now have at any time in any way we need it (or as we might say it, access to the knowledge superhighway in hyper-real-time) means that everyone is becoming more educated, although education in the marketing world is a fluid concept, dispersed between the doers and the bullshitters.
Transmedia – what you mean an idea that isn’t reliant on media channel?
Social media – connected people talking about stuff, probably not about you?
SoLoMo – fuck me, really? Why do we need this crap? Yes everything is social, everything is local and my god, everything is mobile. You must be a genius! Yawn.
At what point in our transition to working in advertising do we stop thinking like normal people on the street?
Share your favorite ‘Ad-English’ phrase and my top choice will win something special.
Jon Holloway is strategy director at The Works Sydney
-
-
Email Newsletter
Latest Jobs- Account Manager – Top Media Agency – To $80 package
- Client Service Manager – Fantastic Media Agency – To $80 package
- Business Development/Marketing Manager – Consumer Tech Experience – $100-150k
- Top Jnr to Midweight Creative Team
- Digital Copywriter with big thinking
- Super Art Director/Copywriter Team with 360˚ thinking
- Junior Community Manager | Sensis | 6 months contract
- Mid Level PHP Developer- Creative- Up to $67K + Super Ref 6488
- Account Executive
- Communications Manager
-
RSS
Comments
30 May 12
6:31 pm
Leading behaviour change agency, Stop It Now Or You’ll Get A Smack (SINOYGAS), today announced a major campaign designed to change behaviour.
Experiential activity leveraged by social media will generate virtual flash-mob gatherings that will stage culture jamming-style protests tailored for multiplatform dispersal.
‘Contemporaneous storytelling is key in today’s world,’ SINOYGAS spokesrobot Weg Haackesabre said. ‘That’s why ours is virtual. We couldn’t actually do it in reality.’
The agency will not be post-analysing the campaign, nor disclosing which aspects of behaviour it was targetting. ‘Numbers are so ugly,’ Ms/r Haackesabre said. ‘Culture jamming is never captive to ugly accountability. We’re not selling peanut butter, or cars you know. Hacks do that. In ads,’ s/he added, grimacing.
Budget is $10 million.
30 May 12
7:20 pm
John, you could have closed-the-loop on this piece – I’m not sure I have alignment. I mean, it’s not like we’re trying to turn an oil-tanker here. Practicing some betapreneurialism and crowd-sourcing among your cohorts could have been an easy solve. THAT is how this piece could have gone from good to great. Maybe just run it up the flag-pole moving forwards and see who salutes in terms of buy-in.
30 May 12
7:23 pm
Packcepts, because people have run out of time to say packaging concepts.
30 May 12
7:30 pm
Is this irony or is this piece riddled with English errors?
e.g
Transmedia – what you mean an idea that isn’t reliant on media channel?
BTW out dated is spelt outdated.
DB
30 May 12
7:49 pm
Less is more . . .
31 May 12
8:43 am
these guys send it up well.
http://www.collegehumor.com/vi.....rt-up-guys
31 May 12
8:46 am
Doughboy I just love it! Your little awesome observation landed you 3 “English errors”.
Since when does e.g. not end in a full stop?
Since when do you quote someone’s sentence and not let your readers know? “:p”
FYI – I don’t know of any good English words that start with BTW.
I’m sick of reading comments online and coming across this shit. Stay on topic and grow a brain! It’s people like you that slow the world down and hinder progress because all the smart people have stay back and “edumacate” you!
Get a job.
31 May 12
8:57 am
Technically the Einstein quote is “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough”.
31 May 12
9:01 am
Ubiquitous Connectivity
31 May 12
9:15 am
You guys all need to stop drinking the Kool Aid
31 May 12
9:21 am
Jon transmedia planning means something like telling the whole of the story across many mediums. Not trying to tell the whole story in each medium. Got a better name for it (what you’ve suggested above is longer and not accurate).
Adam
Ps its a derivative from the term transmedia storytelling
31 May 12
9:36 am
@Schmoopie Technically you are right
31 May 12
9:48 am
Doughboy, you must be so much fun at parties.
I don’t think it’s just advertising or marketing suffering this. And I don’t think it’s a recent trend either. People have always used overcomplicated words to sound smarter than they are.
Perhaps it’s a trend of education, whereby meeting a word count is valued moreso over actually getting your point across in a simple and clear way.
31 May 12
10:05 am
@Adam Ferrier, agreed, and I know where it comes from, and is a fair point.. Wasn’t the point I was trying to make, but note to self to be more accurate in future
31 May 12
11:02 am
More accurate or more pregnant!?
31 May 12
11:05 am
We singing from the same song sheet on with this article… now we just have to leverage the synergy.
31 May 12
11:06 am
*We’re
31 May 12
11:40 am
This comment thread is a case of ‘united we stand, divided we fall’ – how ’bout we share some jargon-wank and all have a laugh rather than point out each others errors.
31 May 12
11:53 am
Also, you could learn too f***ing spell.
http://iampaddy.com/spell/
Also….
This month we’re really going to break through the clutter with this campaign and deliver some paradigm-shifting news that, at the end of the day, should capitalize both on our core competencies and on your hunger for change.
Things in advertising lately have been all-business, all-the-time. So we’ve decided to spin-up a new communications initiative that I’m calling – and this is a real game-changer – Adwording.
Our messaging this month is all new and standards-based. It’s a bit of a thought experiment right now, but we’re going to run it up the flagpole and see who salutes it. If we can get buy-in from a majority of our 300,000 key stakeholders then we may just make Adwording a tentpole of our core messaging strategy and a key differentiator of our value proposition.
Make no mistake – this is some real blue-sky thinking here. We wanted to keep you in-the-loop so that, moving forward, we’re all singing from the same sheet music.
We hope to leverage your interest in what’s new at our organization and align that with our propensity to eat our own dog. FOOD! Dog food. Sorry, I’m still getting the hang of this.
See, that’s an example of what we call “pushing the envelope”. Also “bad business practice.” It’s really just a matter of us honing in on which levers we need to pull to enhance the end user experience, and which levers are really just avenues to fostering user detachment.
PS Ecosystems. Feedback loops. Transmedia.
31 May 12
12:07 pm
People who set up their own thing, have 1 – 3 employee’s and call themselves:
CEO, Social Media Expert, CSMO (Chief Social Media Officer), UEAD (User Experience Architectural Director); are all FIGJAM…
31 May 12
12:22 pm
CAN’T…
think of a relevant example that will deliver the ROI required to push the brand beyond the normal boundaries that have effectively been established by our creative forefathers!
31 May 12
1:40 pm
New media – are you serious about “employee’s”?
31 May 12
2:33 pm
GUYS TAKE IT OFFLINE!!!
LET’S PARK THE SENTIMENT AND TAKE A MORE BLUE SKY APPROACH!!
31 May 12
3:09 pm
It’s the job titles that get me, as you pointed out in your article those that self-style themselves as ninjas, gurus or Jedis; one of my favourite is the person on LinkedIn who has called herself “The Queen of Social Media” however my favourite by far is a life/business coach helping businesses with Twitter since only Nov 2010 who calls herself “The Queen of Twitter”
31 May 12
3:23 pm
I met a lady the other day who sold herself (personally and on LinkedIn) as an “Internet Visionary”, upon investigation she had been in her “visionary” role for about 4 years…
31 May 12
3:26 pm
This thread is going gangbusters.
31 May 12
3:36 pm
Transmedia??? Isn’t it a case of simply telling a good story, and it’ll be retold across whatever medium is best for the storyteller and the audience?
Reminds me of that whisper marketing fad, where marketing gurus contrived promises that people would talk about products in social places.
Never understood that concept, because the social places I frequent are filled with pretty good live music, so when I’m pontificating about mUmBRELLA’s ‘quantum leap progress in real-time knowledge aggregation ‘to my mates, I fail to remember to whisper. And then a flash-mob of gen-yers forms celebrating this child of a baby boomer! (If only it would form and they would flash…)
My all-time favourite nomination is: ‘cross-vertical’
On enquiring what it meant I was informed in terms that reminded me of ‘horizontal’
31 May 12
3:42 pm
FML guys! Stay on topic FFS!
:–)
31 May 12
4:45 pm
Guilty as charged sometimes. No surprise my inner child wants to kick me in the arse.
Also:
“the whole one-upmanship of this crazy advertising and marketing world is making us all look like clowns.”
When I showed my inner child the above thread, she said that’s not the kind of circus she was talking about… and kicked me in the arse.
31 May 12
5:04 pm
Barry White – sinze wen dose “because all the smart people have stay back” knot have a “too” in it ?
Soz Baz – could’nt help my self… smiley face
31 May 12
5:14 pm
Contemporaneous – it’s a combination of contemporary and anus – for use when talking about arses in the now.
31 May 12
5:31 pm
Who said there wasn’t any creativity left in the world?
31 May 12
8:22 pm
anyone who uses the word ‘gamification’ can gamifyTFO.
1 Jun 12
7:27 am
Thanks for the heads-up.
1 Jun 12
10:16 am
Jon (not John),Doughboy,Barry White, et al you seem to have got it all.
I could not find anyone suggesting this could for “our new platfom” but the quintessential elements seem to have been covered.
Well done,can we get back to the work we were doing to improve our collective productivity goal
Otherwise we could low perform on our KPIs and reduce the (already stated )ROI
1 Jun 12
10:52 am
Solutionising
Emotionality
Concepting
Meal occasion
Ideation
All words clients have used in meetings.
All words I’m not really fond of.
1 Jun 12
12:50 pm
There’s lots of things that make us advertising people look like clowns, Jon. Things like most of the advertising. And really serious PR photos. One day you’ll grow to accept that we are all clowns. Then we hope to see you smile.
1 Jun 12
2:29 pm
@Clown 2,425 – I look like a clown in all photos, this one took 15 shoots, 3 art directors, make up and many months of photoshop editing.. finally, I look normal, yet miserable.. Madness
1 Jun 12
11:01 pm
Ha- great post and comments,recently had a bet with a colleague as to how long it might take to hear “end to end solutions” at a trade exhibition, answer was in few minutes…
2 Jun 12
8:49 am
and let’s try not to steal ideas for out column from the ‘Words Douchbags Say’ facebook page
2 Jun 12
10:06 pm
@Butt-boy. Love it. Freakin’ hilarious.
3 Jun 12
2:50 pm
lets just park that, we can take it offline later and just put it on the back burner
3 Jun 12
9:57 pm
I hope I win Jon –
social currency content platform.
4 Jun 12
9:40 am
Another, more simple, and even more infuriating misuse of language is the continued use of words like ‘digital’ ‘social’ and ‘transmedia’ as nouns.
These are adjectives.
4 Jun 12
10:13 am
‘Digital’ and ‘social’ are ‘skunked’ words. They’ve been used wrong-like enough that their meaning changes.
Like hopefully, presently, decimate, anxious, disinterested and nauseous.
Also called ‘pedant catchers’.
4 Jun 12
1:38 pm
For all those who like to criticise pendantry, trying reading one of Don Watson’s books. Suggest ‘Bendable Learnings’ and ‘Weasle Words’. Both will encourage you to speak and write so you can be understood the first time. After all, we are in the communications business!
4 Jun 12
1:51 pm
Baudrillard uses the term “Transmediade appropriation” to denote not discourse, as the dialectic paradigm of expression suggests, but subdiscourse. Reicher implies that we have to choose between predeconstructivist textual theory and neocapitalist cultural theory- as we see here in Jon Holloway’s article .
And while this piece could be seen as a simple case of raging against the perceived wrongs of the modern (or indeed post modern) ad/digital industry, if one examines semantic transmedia one is faced with a choice: either reject predeconstructivist textual theory or conclude that the industry is capable of significance. It could be said that many deconstructions concerning mythopoetical transmedia paradox may yet be discovered.
4 Jun 12
2:21 pm
Dan, I preferred his book “Weasel Words”.
4 Jun 12
6:15 pm
Guilty as charged Peter P!
4 Jun 12
10:30 pm
“Lets focus on managing the clients expectations and caveat it”
5 Jun 12
4:51 pm
Masstige
6 Jun 12
1:25 pm
Reading through the comments, I’m astounded that we’re so far up our own arses that nobody has called out the word ‘space’ as insufferable wank. Same goes for ‘price point’ rather than ‘price’ and the inexorable use of the word ‘diarize’ – I don’t care that it’s in the dictionary, saying it still makes you sound like a cock.
6 Jun 12
3:55 pm
Solution.
Advertisers seems to have a ‘solution’ for everything.
6 Jun 12
4:20 pm
a certain formerly-KKK-run chicken house heralding the term – and accompanying website – “goodification” springs to mind…. Makes me realise just how dire the situation must be in terms of sourcing unique domain names…
But then, the other day, I saw a beauty salon with a painted proclamation that promised cheap and painless “Eyebrown Waxing” and have often wandered past the “Phone Assessories” outlet near my work, so perhaps innovation should be recognised for “all intensive purposes” in an abbreviated world of spellchecking abbreviations…
8 Jun 12
8:05 pm
Almost anything that requires ‘verbing’ nouns …
12 Jun 12
10:11 am
Speaking of reading blogs and vomiting it up pretending to be an expert…
This article sounds very similar to one written by Dave Trott a week earlier.
http://davetrott.campaignlive......hye-story/
Pot calling the kettle black?
12 Jun 12
3:34 pm
@Nick #24, I take it she’s never met the REAL Queen (of Twitter)… https://twitter.com/#!/Queen_UK
12 Jun 12
4:09 pm
Harry’s comment is a bit harsh. The article by Dave Trott was aimed at people posing as “creativea” to enter the induatry. This thread concerns the over use of jargon by those in the industry.
All industries have jargon that is used as “shorthand” When I was performing surgery I would ask my assistant for a “piece of steel with a cutty bit on the end and a sort of scissors but blunt”.
We lost many patients before we got on the same page by saying scalpel and forceps.
JRJ
12 Jun 12
4:14 pm
I meant “creatives” and “industry”
LMFAO
JRJ
12 Jun 12
4:31 pm
@JRJ I think the two articles are discussing different manifestations of the same problem – the use of jargon in an attempt to sound more intelligent.
This piece even misquotes the misquoted Einstein quote in Dave Trott’s piece.
Seems to me, a bit audacious to then call your readers “morons”.
12 Jun 12
7:49 pm
Harry
I did not know about the Einstein misquote.
My point was that jargon is part of any job and advertising is no exception.
As long as it is used by those that know what it means and are using it to convey an idea I don’t have a problem with it.
JRJ
14 Jun 12
2:09 pm
Yippee. Some new words to add to “wank word bingo” for my next meeting. Interesting also to note that many still confuse education with intelligence. Ho Hum.
14 Jun 12
3:09 pm
Someone said to me “Jean you are such a trendsleeve”.
14 Jun 12
3:45 pm
Every (pseudo-)profession tries to develop its own jargon to confuse outsiders and exclude the out-crowd. That’s how they justify the high charge rates.
Doctors do it with Latin, IT with acronyms, and marketers are just the latest group to seek respectability through in-house language. Or should I have quoted ‘Thieves’ Cant’ as an example?
14 Jun 12
3:53 pm
http://www.dack.com/web/bullshit.html
15 Jun 12
12:48 pm
“Identify relevant and compelling hooks for the audience, create content around the hooks and integrate it into their social repertoires”
“Target influencers with engaging assets to act as platforms for conversation”
22 Jun 12
2:03 am
I just learned of the phrase “manage the optics” — which I guess is related to properly “spinning” something.
Kill me. No wait, let me kill whoever came up with that
25 Jun 12
10:10 pm
Compelling behavioural research into digitally penetrated subsets show strategically aligned paradigm shifts incentivise opthalmic influencers through extra-syllabic group sessions using sexually suggestive linguistics.
Basically, sex sells.