Opinion

• The score in the retail war: David 2, Goliath nil

  Last night, online electrical retailer Kogan got the sort of advertising that (quite literally) money can’t buy.

  The Gruen Transfer spent more than seven minutes discussing the merits of a PR strategy involving taking on the retail behemoth Harvey Norman.   Read more »

• The Gen X media has misinterpreted Stephanie Rice’s Gen Y ‘faggots’ tweet

  In this guest post, Mat Baxter comes to the defense of Stephanie Rice over her much criticised “faggots” tweet.

  We should all be ashamed. I certainly was as a gay guy this week as Stephanie Rice, a perfectly decent and respectable Australian, was subjected to a totally indefensible attack from a small minority of gay people who desperately need to get a grip on generational reality.   Read more »

• Google – powered by Bob Dylan

  Google is currently rolling out the latest iteration of its search, with instant results as the user types.

  While this might be a rather minor improvement in the scheme of things (2-5 seconds per search apparently) the video to promote it is rather good too.   Read more »

• Video out of the box – literally

  Last time I had something good to say about a Fairfax Digital ad execution, I appeared to be in a minority of one.

  But here goes with another.

  I rather like this execution with the Fairfax video player integrating what’s going on inside the ad with the rest of the page.   Read more »

• The History Of New

  Here’s a really nice piece of advertising work for Vodafone out of New Zealand.   Read more »

• How to win awards (and why ad agencies are backslapping knob jockeys)

  PR agencies need to get better at making awards videos if they want to beat creative agencies in the public relations category of the Cannes Lions – and adland is the home of awards-obsessed, “backslapping knob-jockeys”, the Mumbrella Question Time panel heard.   Read more »

• 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 »