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Opinion
Video: How to win new business
Mumbrella Question Time saw the panel asked the secrets of winning new business. Read more »
Let’s stop the anonymous vitriol
In this guest posting, Peter Bray, boss of The Brand Shop, takes issue with negative comments from anonymous posters on Mumbrella and elsewhere.
There are very few ads that I vehemently dislike. There are also very few ads that I really love. But most ads I see on Mumbrella and other blogs I can usually take something from, whether it is information about the brand, a bit of inspiration or a “watch out”. I’m open to learning as much as I can from others, and encourage those around me to do the same.
My basic assumption, however, is that because an ad has been produced by a professional agency, and had the approval from the client, then the end result must be doing something right. Therefore, without knowing the practical rationale behind the ad, for me to have a strong opinion about whether it is great advertising would be kind of arrogant. There is a reason that awards shows ask for information about why an ad was created: they are rarely judged on end product alone.
So as someone who enjoys watching the work that our industry creates, I am stunned at the level of vitriol stemming from some people’s comments in both this blog and others. Read more »
Read his lips
This is several weeks old, but worth a look. It’s certainly an original way to deal with media criticism.It features Air NZ boss Rob Fyfe responding to weekly current affairs magazine The Listener using the medium of sign language. Read more »
Let’s not be too positive just yet – the nail is still there
It’s more than a year since News Ltd’s marketing boss Joe Talcott used the memorable analogy of a dog whimpering on a nail to describe the structural change the industry needs to go through. Read more »
The AdNews numbers that mislead the market
It’s always a tad tawdry when competitors attack each other, but I hope you’ll bear with me…
Whether cynically or through incompetence, AdNews has been misleading its advertisers by providing them with data that seems to suggest they have six times their true online audience.
Allow me to present the evidence. Read more »
Technology will help us own the agenda – all day, every day
In this opening speech to the Future Forum of the Newspaper Publishers Association, News Ltd CEO John Hartigan argued that news organisations have the opportunity to become more rather than less relevant.
Today I want to talk about a tipping point that heralds the most exciting era for journalism. The most exciting era ever.
This tipping point is already upon us. It has arrived at lightning speed, with the explosion in demand for mobile devices.
I am not consigning newspapers to the scrapheap. Not by a long shot.
But this tipping point is going to change journalism forever. In my opinion, very much for the better. Read more »
The real time shit sandwich detector
In this guest post, Clive Burcham of The Conscience Organisation, relishes the instant feedback of social media.
I’ve been making brand driven content since 1996 and often I’ve been so close to the work that I couldn’t tell the difference between if we were chomping on a shit sandwich or savouring the crème de la creme. From an audience perspective, we wouldn’t know the difference for weeks or months. What excites me most now is that we know within 24 hours if we’ve developed shit or cream. Read more »
SMH shows how to make a home page takeover work
When you’re a commercial organisation, balancing the needs of consumers with the need to make money through ads is tricky.
Among the organisations that sometimes goes the wrong way in my view is Fairfax, with its autostart video ads, for instance.
But today, a bit of unreserved praise Read more »
Inside the Foxtel factory
Having been at the launch of Foxtel’s new season the other night, nine points occur… Read more »
ABC News 24 – a handy service for niche journalists
It may not have many viewers yet, but ABC News 24 saves specialist journos having to leave their desks, argues Delimiter’s Renai LeMay
When media commentators discuss the future of journalism, they usually agree on at least one thing: It will involve much fewer generalists and more reporters dedicated to exhaustively covering niche fields. Read more »
The seven ages of Carlton Draught’s Made From Beer
Today sees the launch of “Slow Mo”, the latest instalment of Carlton Draught’s irreverent Made From Beer series.
It’s been quite a run – from the highly awarded Big Ad, to the comedy of Flash Beer, to the debacle of the abortive banned Tingle campaign. These are the seven ages of Made From Beer… Read more »
Real consumers don’t have ‘brand conversations’. They use search
In this guest posting, Simon van Wyk argues that much as marketers might wish otherwise, most consumers don’t have emotional connections with brands
I have a background in marketing, but my understanding of branding seems at odds with the 2010 opinions I see from social media commentators, marketing and advertising agencies. Read more »
Hot, censoring atheists: Google’s insight into what punters think about pollies and journos
One of the charms of Google is autocomplete, where it takes a punt on what you’re going to ask, based on what the rest of the world has been wondering previously.
And it certainly gives a few insights into the high quality of political debate about the Labor leaders in the run up to the election.
Take NSW premiere Kristina Keneally… Read more »
The copyright-busting election
This is rapidly turning into the copyright-infringing election. Read more »
Digital Fail: The gaping void in digital training is failing our industry
In this guest post, Amnesia Razorfish’s Iain McDonald warns that the industry has fallen badly behind on digital training.
Before I get accused of trolling with that headline, I’ll state what I think is obvious: The current education system isn’t producing or nurturing enough ‘digitally skilled’ individuals to sustain a growing a digital economy. Read more »
The demise of Toyota’s werewolf?
It may be time to stop the contest for the great Toyota Yaris live social media pitch.
Unless the competing agencies have some special tricks up their sleeves, they may just have been beaten with the latest twist in the tale of An American Werewolf in Yaris from Host / One Green Bean.
Followers of his tweets will be aware that Wolfy’s last message yesterday was somewhat abrupt: “bleeding from the chest forgive her I don’t w”.
Fair to say that the video which has just been posted has a twist that Dr Mumbo didn’t see coming. So as not to spoil it, he won’t mention it just yet. Take a look:
An American Werewolf In Yaris from One Green Bean on Vimeo.
(Declaration of interest: Wolfy gave Dr Mumbo a lift to the Opera House the other day)
December 1st, 2009 at 2:09 pm
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Comments
1 Dec 09
2:17 pm
Ahh geeze *slaps face*
1 Dec 09
2:21 pm
that was great! Where did the video go?
1 Dec 09
2:21 pm
video removed.
what a twist!
1 Dec 09
2:23 pm
Seriously? Aligning a brand with a known liar and attention whore who was nothing but a one note joke, a blip on the gimmick radar who’s “15 minutes of fame” have long since faded? SERIOUSLY? and your write “they may just have been beaten”?
I couldn’t think of anything lamer if I tried! … well maybe if they got the “where’s the beef” granny, or got that androgynous Brittany loving hack to ask people to “LEAVE THE YARRIS WAREWOLF ALOOONE!!!” while crying in a closet.
1 Dec 09
2:23 pm
Dammit – sorry about that. As i tweeted it, they took it down for some kind of technical glitch.
Video’ll go up again in half an hour or so I gather.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
1 Dec 09
2:25 pm
Video not working anymore – arrrrgh suspense!
1 Dec 09
2:32 pm
Way to ruin the surprise Ray
1 Dec 09
2:33 pm
Can’t see the video… talk about bad timing…
1 Dec 09
2:36 pm
Hi anonymous,
I’ve edited Ray’s comment for that reason.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
1 Dec 09
2:44 pm
Hey “Anonymous” Why even read commentary about something you haven’t seen if you’re worried about “spoilers”? seems pretty dumb to not expect discussion about what was reported in an area designed for precisely that purpose.
1 Dec 09
2:55 pm
I’d actually seen it Ray but others might not have been so lucky. No need to get cranky now fella
1 Dec 09
3:06 pm
Actually YouTube’s down for scheduled maintenance and doesn’t seem to be allowing uploads at present – I reckon it could be while before the video is back up.
My handy YouTube tip – unless you’re really, really sure you want to delete a video don’t do so, just chance the privacy setting….
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
1 Dec 09
3:11 pm
Thanks Tim – we’re doing everything we can to get this up asap, sorry!
1 Dec 09
3:22 pm
Ridiculous and fun. Really nice end to it I thought. Turning it into a bit of a story makes it more than just a conversation, and therefore more engaging. Neat.
1 Dec 09
4:32 pm
i’ve spoken to many people who aren’t in the industry and they haven’t even heard of these campaigns. Once again proves that PR is primarily written for the benefit of the media / marketing industry and NO relevance for Joe Public
1 Dec 09
5:08 pm
Talk about jumping the gun hey, this has now been released on B&T as well with a Vimeo link which says the video is in the queue waiting for conversion??! http://vimeo.com/7911470
1 Dec 09
5:09 pm
Yep, no relevance. A $15,000 idea pitch, which was clearly designed to show what kind of ideas the different agencies would use, had little relevance to Joe Public. Shocking.
Obviously none of them were likely to be a huge boost to sales on their own – but can we wait to see whichever agency does win does with the account before decrying public engagement.
Besides, despite what certain social media experts would like to tell you, not all social media experiences needs to be ongoing, long term conversations. Yes, that’s how the brand itself should behave, but individual project can just be one off, fun experiments.
Everyone I know, including myself, who had a ride with Wolfy, watched the Hot House’s lego video or had a look at the entries in Saatchi & Saatchi’s film comp at least enjoyed themselves for awhile.
Yes, it was the social media equivalent of a one night stand – but not everyone is looking to settle down with every brand.
1 Dec 09
5:09 pm
“makes it more than just a conversation, and therefore more engaging. Neat.”
What?
Dave, all this really shows is that some PR agencies still have little clue, and the only way they can think of to “go viral” is not to think creativity or be original but to simply copy, steal or repeat stuff that has ALREADY BEEN DONE and got popular/viral on it’s own, and doing so well after the shine has faded and gone from the original phenomenon.
All there is to see here is clear desperation and trying to trade on a has-been meme becasue the original plan gained so little traction.
I KNOW, they should have “the Fonz” jump the yarris on a motorbike in the followup!
1 Dec 09
5:18 pm
Video now live again.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
1 Dec 09
5:22 pm
@Warlach to be fair we don’t know what Toyota’s brief was to these agencies and I think it is possible to have a social media advertising campaign OR a social media PR campaign OR a social media communications campaign. As long as they work towards the objectives of an overall social media strategy and you don’t expect the outcomes for the three different campaigns to be the same. Advertising, PR and comms have all worked together before the web got social, why not after?
1 Dec 09
5:40 pm
Fair point, Ray. Could you post a link to your last viral work? Sounds like you really know how it works.
1 Dec 09
5:49 pm
@Ray if the fonz jumps the car on a bike, I’ll forward that shiz on for sure!
1 Dec 09
5:53 pm
Dave, I see what you’re trying to do… and it’s lame. you’re falling into the old trap of the stupidest of internet counterarguments, “well if you’re so clever why haven’t YOU done better?”
I can’t tap-dance, but that doesn’t automatically mean I can’t easily tell when someone else is shit at it too. and neither of those facts means I don’t understand what it takes to be considered good at tap-dancing.
1 Dec 09
5:56 pm
Oh I don’t know about that Ray. You should try it. I’m sure you’d be an great tap dancer.
1 Dec 09
5:58 pm
again with the assumptions Dave, what makes you think I haven’t tried?
1 Dec 09
6:16 pm
Ray, I don’t give a monkey’s whether you can tap dance or do great viral. Kind of irrelevant, as you point out. I would be interested in your idea of what has been good viral recently, though.
2 Dec 09
3:32 pm
I notice on youtube they’ve gone ahead and lied about their content by using tags like new moon, twilight, eclipse, true blood and vampires, none of which are descriptive of the content at all, and all of which are just trying to SCAM hits from people trying to search for content RELEVANT to those terms.
It’s crap like this that makes people’s lives HARDER when they actually try to find content they WANT, instead we get this kind of dodgy crap trying to SCAM people into watching.
2 Dec 09
3:40 pm
Why you decided to use that chk chk boom idiot is beyond me – she’s racist among many other things. Is that the Yaris demo?
2 Dec 09
4:08 pm
Ray you are funny but I kind of agree – interested to know how many regular people ie not media agency staff are Facebook friends/fans of Werewolf in Yaris.
Have there been any ‘regular person’ entries in Saatchi’s Clever film comp?
I can’t remember the other 2 ideas put forward – is that because they were aimed at the general public?
Vox pops in Pitt Street Mall to determine the winner I say.
2 Dec 09
4:32 pm
Candy, don’t know about the OGB fans, but a quick glance at the ol google Insights suggests there’s been a tiny uplift in ‘Yaris’ and ‘Toyota Yaris’ searches that coincides with the pitch period. the keywords don’t look pitch related. Maybe this all did have a tiny impact on Joe Public.
2 Dec 09
4:45 pm
Ray I noticed that the bootboxing vid used keywords from the stop motion campaign for their tags – underhanded spammy tactics or a fair SEO fight?
30 Dec 09
7:57 pm
Oh dear. This wolf shit is bad and has been done before.
There’s a thing called AWARD school, also RMIT and D&aD school.
Try it. Seriously.
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