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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.
Toyota withdraws award for ‘sexist’ Yaris ad and launches internal review
Toyota has deselected the controversial “Clean Getaways” video as the winner of its Yaris film making competition but has failed to say whether or not it will honour the $7,000 prize that was due to be awarded to the winning entrant.
The Clean Getways video was part of the Saatchi & Saatchi-organised Clever Film Competition, which was the ad agency’s entry into Toyota’s live social media pitch. It is one of five social media campaigns being run for the Toyota Yaris.
But following a public backlash against the Clean Getaways ad which features a girl’s father and boyfriend having an innuendo-laden discussion about taking her virginity, Toyota pulled the video down from public view and today told Mumbrella that it has now taken it out of the competition. Originally a jury consisting of Saatchi & Saatchi and Toyota staff had declared it the winner.
Toyota spokesman Mike Breen said whether or not it will pick another winner from the Clever Film Competition is “under discussion”, with a decision to be made “over the next few days”.
He said however, the social media pitch would “continue” but could not confirm the exact timing of a decision on a winnign agency, which had originally been planned to be made about now.
Breen added: “The processes are under review for signing off any sort of information that goes into the public domain which includes the marketing department.”
The social media pitch was launched by Todd Connolly, Toyota Australia’s manager of direct marketing and social media. When an online backlash first began he told Mumbrella that Toyota stood by the film.
Breen said there were “no changes to staff” as a consequence of recent events which has seen the PR disaster reach the US and UK.
December 15th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
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Comments
15 Dec 09
5:32 pm
It isn’t really sexist, it’s just plain vile. She’s depicted as being a sexually-empowered young woman and depicting a woman actually being OK with sex and embracing it with gusto really shouldn’t be seen as degrading to women.
The only positive thing about this video is that the young girl is portrayed as having a keen interest in participating. That’s liberating for women, not sexist against them.
The rest of the ad however, is utterly repugnant and degrading to MEN actually, as it portrays them in a much more negative light than it does the young girl.
I think a little too much is being made of this though – and the complaints themselves are sexist. If this ad causes such an enormous backlash, then I for one would like to see a dramatic reduction in ads featuring women perving at shirtless men, or featuring the term ‘cougar’.
If objectification is wrong, it’s wrong for everyone, not just wrong for men.
15 Dec 09
6:18 pm
Stop making so much sense Milorad, this is a place for people to come to vent their sheer rage at this dispicable act by writing angry letters to nobody.
15 Dec 09
6:33 pm
My mistake
15 Dec 09
7:10 pm
This is to all the kiddies who’ve tried in vain to defend THAT video.
This fiasco is symbolic of a generation who’ve never learnt, or understood that actions have consequences and that the public domain is not a place where you can say and do anything you want, when you want.
I hope some people lose their jobs over this simply to put a stop, however temporary, to all those GenY’s who continue to think otherwise.
15 Dec 09
7:41 pm
Toyota had a lovely sound bite on Sunday saying it was taken down as soon as there was a complaint.
Within hours of the offending link being taken down, the “ad” was again available for more people to be outraged, just in case they had missed it.
If you mean it, Toyota, delete it.
15 Dec 09
8:42 pm
Exactly toyota, you control the internets. Delete it!
15 Dec 09
11:55 pm
@In conclusion:
Surely almost everyone involved at any kind of senior level in the production of the video would likely not have been Gen-Y?
16 Dec 09
8:56 am
Lets put this in context … Jan 1st … Yaris “Clean Getaways” forgotten and the next ‘disaster’ campaign has been revealed that we are all following / commenting on.
What this does show is the true power of Social Media … we just need to harness it in a way that doesn’t do damage to the brands we are working with.
If the winner of the pitch was marked on viral wom / exposure. Saatchi WIN. Sorry for all those who are offended though its the truth.
16 Dec 09
9:09 am
Good point Hamish, and if the winner of the pitch was based on completely fucking up they would also win.
16 Dec 09
9:35 am
I say we are becoming too civilised.
I bet the people who are so negative about this are not getting any. And I dont mean to be spitful. I am just curious about this statistic.
Anyhow, the ad fails in my opinion anyway… I fail to remember anything about the car…far less that it was safe…which was supposed to be the point…. Sell the cars safety point…. the idea was cool i must admit… but it was not intune with the times… the word acceptability score was very low..too many distractign words. a bit more tweaking and a bit more focus on the car…would have achieved a great job.
this ad was like walking in to the porn shop and asking for sex.
what you really want is to supermarket…smile….and walk out with a date …smile some more…
16 Dec 09
9:35 am
@Hamish
I think most of the communications planning world has moved on from volume of impressions / exposure / TARPs etc being how a campaign’s success is judged. All those measures only help you understand how many eyeballs saw your message and the real estate value of the exposure.
Far more important is how the communications impacted on the business objectives, whatever they might be. I’m fairly certain Toyota wasn’t hoping for this kind of exposure when they launched their Social Media pitch comp.
16 Dec 09
9:45 am
Hmmm, I was born in 1981. Does this make me a Gen Y? If so, I think that I need to step up to all the haters out there, who continue to bang on the anti-Gen Y tin cup. Cast not the first stone peeps…
16 Dec 09
2:27 pm
What astounds me is that Saatchi’s managed to come up with the absolute weakest idea out of the 5 and then they got and mess it up! Double fail if you ask me and something tells me they won’t be working with Toyota next year.
16 Dec 09
2:43 pm
Poor Mike Breen, Oh what a feeling!
16 Dec 09
4:51 pm
Not a lot of target market consideration (I’m guessing young fairly well-off women?) – a hard sell to say the least getting men thinking a Yaris is “cool” apart from the male miniature dog owning demographic.
Who believes Toyota had no say in the selection process? Could it boil down to a lack of quality entrants? The criteria might have been to get as closest to a TVC as possible with some spice added for the “could go viral” rubber stamp. Pity the spice seemed to offend the target market!
Perhaps Toyota could do a Tiger apology:
“We have let our target market down and we regret those transgressions with all of our hearts. We have not been true to our values and the behavior our target market deserves. We are not without faults and we are far short of perfect. We are dealing with our behavior and personal failings behind closed doors with our target market. Those feelings should be shared by us alone…”
Hmmm didn’t seem to work for Tiger though!
16 Dec 09
9:41 pm
Hey S&S I think it’s great and I’m not even Gen Y. It’s funny (aparently I’m one of the rare people who have a sense of humour); it’s definitely viral (I’ve sent it to at least 30 friends who I think can take a joke) and yup it sure has talkability. Glad Toyota had the balls to actually run with something that wasn’t just BLAH.
17 Dec 09
10:04 am
Another day and still we’re talking about Yaris
i didn’t approve of the AD and question Ive been asking is what were the quality of entrants like?Perhaps there was little to choose from?
In any respect Toyota has worked it well and the power of social media has ensured that they have received more brand recognition for Yaris than they probably would have otherwise.
AHA – perhaps that was their plan ?
17 Dec 09
10:14 am
Yeah like Toyota, Tiger’s got balls too (and there’s a few who could verify this). You could even say he wen’t viral and if he’s a brand he just managed most recognition he’s ever had (as eye balls).
But what effect does it have on the brand? Is it good / bad for sales? Who knows?
18 Dec 09
10:57 am
Has anyone bought a domain name recently from Godaddy.com ?
Sexist definitely. Wrong probably. Does it work? They’re not #1 for any other reason.
Maybe the ad agency in question can get some work with them and get featured on the superbowl. Recent work ‘too hot for tv’ :
http://www.godaddy.com/Shared/.....d=speeding
Whether it works for Toyota or not is another question.
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