Opinion | Features

• How the Sydney Design festival poster competition went horribly wrong

  In this piece which first appeared on The Conversation, UTS design academic Kate Sweetapple highlights the risks of running crowd-sourced design competitions.

  Each year, Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum commissions one of Australia’s best design studios to create a poster and accompanying marketing material for the Sydney Design festival.

  This year they went for a different approach. They put an online call out for entries to design a poster for the 2013 event, offering A$1000 for the winning entry.

• An answer for Adam: Looking at the bigger picture

  Each fortnight, Naked’s Adam Ferrier poses a question to the industry. This week, in a piece that first appeared in Encore, he ponders good corporate citizenship.

  I have three related questions for you this issue. I was in a meeting the other day and remarked that because of ‘transparency’, social media, and general people empowerment, many new successful brands have a socio-capitalistic business model at the heart of their business. This allows these businesses to chase unfettered growth as, in general, the more money they make, the more money they give.

• The keys to the digital publishing kingdom

  It’s still early days for tablet publishing but in a piece that first featured in Encore, Reddo Media’s Shane Mitchell says that several lessons have already been learnt. 

  As more magazines (like Encore) take the leap from print on to tablet, more publishers and agencies are weighing up the pros and cons. With any new digital trend there are risks, myths and opportunities. 

• Why there is creativity left in the media

  Forget A/B testing, in a piece that first appeared in Encore, Telstra’s Christopher Whitmore says the future of media lies in the hands of creativity.
  

  In a recent meeting I attended, a senior business leader stated “there is no creativity left in media”.

• 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.