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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 first in the great Yaris social media race – meet Wolfy
The race is on for what may prove to be one of the oddest brand experiments in social media yet.
As part of the Toyota social media pitch, five agency campaigns will go live in the coming days, all for the same brand. Each have been given a limited budget of $15,000.
It appears that One Green Bean’s effort, which launched a few minutes ago, is first to market.
Tapping into Halloween, it will be called An Amercian Werewolf in Yaris. It will feature “Wolfy”, an actor in werewolf costume driving around Sydney in a Toyota Yaris offering lifts to people who have connected via Facebook and Twitter. They will also be able to follow him via GPS and flag him down if they want a lift.
The lifts will start tomorrow to get people to Halloween parties.
Meanwhile campaigns from Hothouse, Saatchi & Saatchi, Iris and a joint effort from Oddfellows and The Population will follow int he coming days.
October 30th, 2009 at 11:22 am
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Comments
30 Oct 09
11:33 am
Now this is cool.
30 Oct 09
11:49 am
Tim, it’s not actually an actor in a costume – it’s a werewolf. And he is American too.
30 Oct 09
12:06 pm
Uncool
30 Oct 09
12:11 pm
Pascal, if you ask Wolfy if he’s wearging Levis will he give you his pants?
Dave.
30 Oct 09
12:12 pm
oops – “wearing”
30 Oct 09
12:12 pm
In time, this type of activity might not seem ‘odd’ at all I would venture. Good on Toyota for shaking it up with this methodology.
Although it does feel like the conusmer is playing second-fiddle somewhat, it’s a pretty progressive way to unearth a winning agency based on some solid data… After all, there’s no shortage of social media efforts out there that have failed to make themselves a blip on the radar – so not much to lose for the brand by experimenting here, so long as they adhere to some fundamentals.
30 Oct 09
12:26 pm
I bet this gets more airtime as a PR piece than an actual social media play. Our industry will talk about it more than the punters will. How do people follow on GPS? Sounds like PR spiel as this feature isn’t available.
30 Oct 09
12:28 pm
Always love these small production campaigns. Great ideas in a hurry. I can only imagine the looks on some of these ‘top’ creative agencies having to pit their skills against unknowns at the same level. EgobashT hard
30 Oct 09
12:31 pm
Well played Toyota, convincing 5 agencies to go head to head can’t have been easy.
Is this your handy work Chris Parker?
30 Oct 09
12:33 pm
Really? Vampire’s are so hot right now that the thinking was to freshed it up with the new angle of a werewold??? Original. And the tie in with Halloween to close the loop on the idea? Sorry was this meant for the US?
Disppointing effort, really weak. How does this enhance consumers experience? It isn’t even egaging. Where is the google maps real time plug in? Hope for the sake of the pitch let alone consumers that this isn’t it.
30 Oct 09
12:36 pm
Hm, I’d say Saatchi & Saatchi’s was the first to come out actually – I saw its Toyota Yaris short film competition website yesterday: http://www.cleverfilmcomp.com.au/
30 Oct 09
12:44 pm
Just saw the Saatchi microsite. Getting a bunch of unpaid students to create your content for you?
That IS clever. Isn’t it?
30 Oct 09
12:45 pm
@Dave King you may have to try it out, you are in for a hairy ride in any case
@ those waiting for the GPS tracking, it will be available when Wolfy is taking the streets for the first time tomorrow
30 Oct 09
12:50 pm
Hahah you can’t beat a good pun. And american werewolf in Yaris…
30 Oct 09
12:59 pm
Wow the Saatchi’s one is bad. How did they manage to give away 10 grand in a total budget of 15 grand. 5 grand for all production, service and creative? Looks like Toyota were duped by the bait and lure.
30 Oct 09
1:09 pm
Love the saatchi idea – on such a small budget it is genius getting everyone else to do the work!!
30 Oct 09
1:24 pm
wonder how much these campaigns will crossover into the market known as ‘non media douchebags’.
i like it but i am a media douchebag … what would joe smith from pakenham think about it?
answer – they probably wouldn’t
30 Oct 09
1:28 pm
so no time or distance limits? i can’t find any guidelines or restrictions.
30 Oct 09
1:39 pm
Saatchi’s should be ashamed of that effort particularly with everyone watching this public pitch (which I’m loving thanks Toyota…).
30 Oct 09
1:40 pm
Five agencies. Five agendas. Five different messages. What’s the end customer supposed to think? They don’t understand that five different agencies are pitching for the business.
Would you go out with five different advertising messages at once Toyota…?
30 Oct 09
1:57 pm
Hey Earl, can you not add up?
The Saatchi campaign is giving away $7,000 + $3,000 +$1,000 = $11,000
30 Oct 09
1:59 pm
@Jame Duthie I doubt they are handing over the keys to the castle. They will still need to get ideas signed off I’m guessing to assure alignment. If that happens no problem, if it isn’t happneing then yes major problems.
30 Oct 09
2:08 pm
Wolfman wont reply to my tweet. Is it because its not full moon until Tuesday?
30 Oct 09
2:19 pm
@ Scott You are right, I can’t add up, we blue bloods aren’t the smartest people in the world. So that leaves only 4K for the entire campaign. Who knew Saatchi’s were so cheap.
30 Oct 09
2:45 pm
Who is Joe Smith from Pakenham?
30 Oct 09
2:53 pm
Excellent stuff actually. Now I might not exactly be in the market for a yaris, but i love the out of the box thinking.
30 Oct 09
2:54 pm
Hi my name is Joe and I live in Pakenham ….. I don’t get it
30 Oct 09
2:55 pm
Wouldn’t it be smarter for Toyota to actually listen to hear what customers are saying about their brands they want to use Social media for, rather than a blatant PR exercise. Social media isn’t just about telling people information through WOM / social networking / PR type media. It is also about listening to hear what customers are saying about the said brand. What would have been impressive, is that they focused on the reason why they should use social media, then developing the concept. A case of putting the horse in front of the cart. For all we know, customers might say that the Yaris is crap and the Corolla is the way forward
30 Oct 09
3:11 pm
seeing the ROI on these campaigns would be interesting.
generally auto marketers and especially dealers value selling cars quite highly and generally above blogcred … but things might have changed in this world of ours
30 Oct 09
3:20 pm
Great idea, but whats the long tail of the back of the green bean execution? After this weekend it’s dead… or rather, the suns risen.
30 Oct 09
3:37 pm
This is AWARD School thinking. Literally. http://www.dpdialogue.com.au/z.....o-far-meh/
30 Oct 09
5:39 pm
@paul, I couldn’t agree more.
The idea of pitching 5 agencies against each is other fine. In a public forum? Well that’s for the consumers to decide.
But the idea of researching, monitoring and devising a solid strategy seems to have been thrown out the window here. @paul, your “horse and cart” analaogy is great. The cart carries the tools (or flashy social media ideas) to execute the strategy, but the horse takes you to your destination.
However, there are a few more to come, so watch this space, we may eat our words
31 Oct 09
7:09 am
How does this interesting but ultimately trivial story muster 32 comments, yet the Fosters Boonie story none?
I’m confused.
31 Oct 09
7:34 am
Hats off to the agencies involved – It would be all too easy not participate and stand on the sidelines (or on mumbrella.com.au) and make commentary about a subject that we all know far too little about. The 2 ideas so far are pretty cool.
At least we’re not just looking at a bunch of half baked Facebook Apps which seems to be the common go to for digital agencies trying to be social!
31 Oct 09
10:08 am
Gee Matt. You sound like a sulky kid who didn’t get invited to the party. No wonder social media gets a bad wrap.
Surely you would actually need to read the brief and understand what was required before you pass and fail these campaigns in your blog.
Maybe if you spent more time doing some work rather than assessing other people’s you might actually get your ‘social media’ agency included in the pitch. Or was it bease of this piece of work you or your girlfriend did that they decided against your agency?
http://www.coldrock.com.au/
1 Nov 09
8:05 pm
Wow, some split opinions here. George Best, it is weird and a tad confusing.
aplet, seems like it’s touched a nerve with you? Your comments are very directed, is there more to it? Perhaps you are involved with one of the competing agencies, or even Toyota. Care to divulge your identity and cut to the chase?
2 Nov 09
8:00 am
Well that ended up being a total dud.
2 Nov 09
4:21 pm
what does an of this have to do with a Yaris? I reckon it looks more like an ad for Movember than for Yaris! The Yaris brand is one of the few well defined car brands – atleast Saatchi’s cleverfilm idea, whilst not original, links to the brand’s clever car positioning.
3 Nov 09
10:02 am
Good to see Saatchi have correct grammar!
“Make a original film”
It’s make an original film dufuses
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