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Opinion | Features
Why is advertising so much better in New Zealand than Australia?
Ok, so this isn’t a new observation.
But it really hit home after I watched some TV ads for a kiwi supermarket yesterday that advertising in New Zealand is so much better than much of the crap that is being served up in this country at the moment.
Why is it that Colenso BBDO Auckland can turn something as bland as a supermarket chain into a brand I almost like, while Australian agencies succeed only in either irritating me (Coles) or passing me by unnoticed (Woolies) because the ads are so average?
My memo to your boss
So let me guess?
You really want to come to Mumbrella360, but you’ve got to justify the time and cost to your boss?
Good news! I think I can help.
Woz not great
In this guest post Tony Prysten argues that the thousand dollar price of seeing out-of-touch Apple co-founder Steve Wozniack on his Australian tour was a waste of money.
This week, for the cost of two iPads (yep, two) I went to the Woz Live conference in Melbourne. I was not impressed.
What the hell is transmedia?
From advertising campaigns to online video series, the term ‘transmedia’ gets quite the work out. But what does it actually mean? Cathie McGinn trawls the media landscape for a definitive definition.
Transmedia, all media and multiplatform are terms often used interchangeably when referencing modern storytelling techniques. Yet, depending who you speak to, there are distinct differences between them.
According to industry experts Encore spoke to, the key elements that define transmedia can be summarised as follows: platform, time, audience, adaptation, and creative collaboration.
Innovation is the remedy for the ailing magazine industry
With magazine circulations plummeting, FHM closing and rumours rife on future ownership of ACP Magazines, Paul Merrill says the only way forward is launching new titles.Eight years ago in the UK, nearly a quarter of all magazine sales came from magazines that were less than four years old. In Australia, the figure was slightly lower, but still significant. Today, the situation is very different. For a start there are so few new magazines. Yes, Masterchef briefly flared, and Top Gear made an initial impact. But Grazia and Alpha fizzled, and now ACP has shelved their plans to launch Elle.
More than a game: broadcasting the Olympics
The 2012 London Olympics will be the biggest televised sporting event of our time. Brooke Hemphill discovers the logistical challenges and technical requirements of producing the event.
From July 27 to August 12, the Australian media will go sport crazy as the Games of the XXX Olympiad, aka the 2012 London Summer Olympics, unfold. The games will be the most televised sporting event of our time as broadcasters look to master every manner of technology at their disposal.
The Voice - Australia's best example yet of social TV
In this guest post, Sputnik’s Rodd Messent has a theory on why audiences have taken to The Voice .I am an addict of Channel Nine’s hit show The Voice. Such is the extent of my addiction I seriously think my housemate might kick me out of our apartment for the semi-frenzied yelling and tweeting that ensues in our lounge room each time the show airs.It’s the first time in almost three years that such disagreement has resulted in less than civil behaviour towards one another, and it’s made me think it might be a microcosm of the large volume of online debate about the show and, correspondingly, an explanation for its success as a social TV experience.Why brands are the US Army - and culture jammers are the Viet Cong
In this guest posting, Dave Burgess, who painted ‘No War’ on the Sydney Opera House, claims that ‘amoral’ advertisers have copied his idea.
Culture jamming is a 28-year-old term coined by the San Francisco-based band Negativland, who declared that the ‘Studio for the cultural jammer is the world at large’.
Branded content is dead. Long live branded content
In this guest posting, Anthony Freedman argues why branded content is making a comeback.
A few short years ago, probably concurrent with the advent of the PVR, a new term emerged within the marketing communications industry; branded content. This was really synonymous with advertiser funded TV shows where programming was created by brands and deals struck with networks to broadcast them.
There were varying degrees of success with this model.
Shock advertising: 30 ads that would give Australia's ad watchdog a coronary
Is shock an underused weapon in Australian advertising, asks Robin HicksToday, Sydney agency The Cabana Boys used an image of a mouth sewn together to shock people with the idea that problem gamblers lie to conceal their habit. Is it the most disturbing image ever? No. Will it get banned by the Advertising Standards Bureau? No. But it did make me wonder why shock is not used more often in Australia – and not just by charities and government bodies. (WARNING: NSFW)
The making of ratings blockbuster The Voice
Jason Mountney goes on the set of Channel Nine’s talent search series, The Voice, to see how the format, based on an international franchise, has come together. What ingredients have gone into making this certified hit that’s rated more than two million viewers on three consecutive nights?
Mike Goldman has one of the toughest jobs on the set of the Nine network’s new talent show, The Voice. He not only has to narrate the show, but also keep the audience from losing their enthusiasm as they realise shooting TV programs takes a lot longer than the one-hour bursts they see in their lounge rooms. A lot longer.
Nine problems stopping The Global Mail from getting an audience
While it’s a shame The Global Mail has failed to make an impact on the media landscape, the signs have been there for some time.I love the concept of a well resourced, philanthropically-funded independent news site. Anywhere in the world, that’s a rare and wonderful thing. In Australia even more so. So I hope that Grame Wood gets to see his investment make a difference.
And I have no inside info on whether Monica Attard’s sudden departure is linked to the site’s failure to find an audience so far.
Regardless, here are nine areas they can easily start to address:
Journalism’s new model?
Does the launch of philanthropically funded news site The Global Mail signal a new era for journalism or is the model destined to be a passing fad, asks Cathie McGinn in this article first published in Encore magazine.With little fanfare, philanthropically funded news site The Global Mail launched in February this year.
The online-only title received a generous five-year funding commitment from businessman Graeme Wood, founder of accommodation website wotif.com, who donated $15million.
Five things that make a great suit
In this guest posting, Gareth Collins argues that the role of a great account manager is to make the work betterI’m surprised at how many suits I meet who don’t know their role in the advertising business. The question ‘what does an advertising account manager or director do?’ is frequently met with answers such as project manager, relationship manager, plate spinner or go between … and those are the nice ones.
Success is judged on the ability to manage a process, be strong administratively and get stuff done. And while a good suit needs to do all of these things brilliantly, if these are the traits that define a great suit, then I’m in the wrong job.
What the hell is transmedia?
From advertising campaigns to online video series, the term ‘transmedia’ gets quite the work out. But what does it actually mean? Cathie McGinn trawls the media landscape for a definitive definition.
Transmedia, all media and multiplatform are terms often used interchangeably when referencing modern storytelling techniques. Yet, depending who you speak to, there are distinct differences between them.
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:
(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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