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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.
Vegemite’s Cheesybite neck-and-neck with none of the above
About the same number of people who took part in the public vote on the new name for Vegemite’s disastrously launched iSnack 2.0 did not like any of the names on offer as voted for the winning Cheesybite, Mumbrella can reveal.
When Kraft announced the winner earlier today, it said that 30,357 people had voted for a name, with 36% choosing Cheesybite. This would amount to about 10,900 people.
But in the online vote, as well as six names, a seventh option had been to say that none of the choices appealed. But this option was not included in today’s announcement.
However, after questions from Mumbrella, the company has said that a total of around 40,000 people took part in the weekend’s online vote, with approximately 25% not choosing any of the six names on offer. This would also amount to roughly 10,000 people.
Although he declined to share the exact numbers, Kraft’s corporate affairs head Simon Talbot insisted that Cheesybite had still come out just ahead of those who did not like any of the names.
He said: “It came out in front, just. Otherwise I’d have thought that we would have had to go back again.”
October 7th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
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Comments
7 Oct 09
12:08 pm
It’s not surprising. Whenever you put names in front of focus groups there are always one or two ‘don’t like any’ attitudes in the group. It’s human nature to be afraid of something new.
7 Oct 09
12:10 pm
I bet you that had iSnack2.0 been in that list, it would have won. Aussies love a battler.
7 Oct 09
12:24 pm
I suspect they will be changing it again, Cheesybite is way too close to Cheesymite, which means that Bakers Delight will be after them – if McDonalds can go after MacJoy and win (amongst others), then what hope a single letter change?
7 Oct 09
12:33 pm
Needed preference voting perhaps? Could’ve had a run off…
7 Oct 09
12:58 pm
I’m still gutted “#vegefail” wasn’t an option.
7 Oct 09
2:08 pm
Hey Kraft, Stop asking everyone else to do the work – make your own decisions, come up with your own ideas and grow a f*cking spine!
7 Oct 09
2:17 pm
Good point Clinton.
I believe the gutsy Aussie name ‘Tim Tam’ was not popular when introduced.
It’s lame name doesn’t seem to have been a sales problem at all.
7 Oct 09
3:08 pm
Kraft..Still a crap name
7 Oct 09
3:31 pm
I’m going to start up a bakery chain. I’ve got the perfect name: Maker’s Delight. 36 per cent of my friends really liked it!
7 Oct 09
3:40 pm
That’s very very close to Bakers Delight’s product ‘Cheesymite’……. Bakers Delight will be all over that and rightly so. I predict a third re-brand from the Kraft masterminds.
7 Oct 09
3:44 pm
Just another example of companies paying peanuts by not investing in a professional branding process and getting monkeys in return. Where is the originality ? is Kraft just another follower? They took the recipe of cheese and vegemite that the customer invented, chose a first name that was an adaptation of the Apple i pod and now are ripping off Bakers Delight ! What do the shareholders of Kraft think about the amateurs in the Marketing Department ? The only professionals in this pathetic branding saga is the PR company that’s being paid to minimise the reputation damage.
7 Oct 09
3:54 pm
I think Kraft wanted “Australia” to contribute to the naming of the new spread..but it seems a number of “us” are pretty thick like Vegemite and come up with lame names like iSnack 2.0
With Cheesybite…I can picture the cheese but what about the bite?
7 Oct 09
3:56 pm
I’m astonished about how truly ignorant many of you are.
in case you hadnt noticed, the iconic product ‘vegemite’ predated Baker’s Delight’s vegemite-containing product ‘Cheesymite’ by a good half century or so
it is Kraft that could have taken action against BD but obviously chose not to because its brand benefitted from the association/reinforcement
to suggest that BD would now have a cause of action against Kraft when it was the original intellectual property thief is ridiculous. If BD was stupid enough to make a peep, Kraft’s lawyers would tell them to cease and desist with the name Cheesymite in a heart beat.
“those b*stards at kraft have counter-claimed against Cheesymite
7 Oct 09
4:03 pm
Sven – that really depends on how much you can defend the ‘mite’ of Vegemite, which they cant, because it was a response to Marmite, originally a British product, the Aus/NZ rights of which were then bought by the Sanitarium outfit – 15 years before the ‘invention’ of Vegemite
Honestly, its the ones that throw the ignorant label around that really are the ignorant one. Next up, the ignorance of those that call other ignorance accusers ignorant….
7 Oct 09
4:09 pm
back to school, Dickens
irrespective of the truth of your historial assertion, and without going into the legal detail, Kraft dont need to defend the originality of ‘mite’ – only that Baker’s Delight with its Cheesymite product sought to benefit from the association with Vegemite – which shouldn’t be too hard considering that the baked good contains…er…VEGEMITE
7 Oct 09
4:15 pm
Well Sven, I would say that Kraft might have the right to stop BD using Vegemite in their product, but they have no say on the use of the phrase Cheesymite
The answer is that the lawyers will sort it out, but there is little doubt that the trademark ‘Cheesymite’ and the ‘Cheesybite’ alternative are too close and no responsible business would put it out there.
Do you work for them Sven, or the PR company? Personally I am now awaiting the long overdue Marmite action against Kraft
7 Oct 09
4:16 pm
Sven – you’re a tool. That’s about as strong an argument as a chocolate tea-pot.
7 Oct 09
4:24 pm
Helen – you’ve turned up a sandwich short to this bush lawyer’s picnic.
7 Oct 09
4:52 pm
Vegemite isn’t that original a name either – Marmite preceded that. So who knows which company mite have rights over the mite bit!
7 Oct 09
5:01 pm
i am off to trademake it now before anyone else does
7 Oct 09
5:02 pm
erm, trademark
7 Oct 09
6:24 pm
Do you not think that before Kraft announced the new name there would have been some serious consideration of a) if Bakers Delight are likely to take action and b) where Kraft would stand if that were the case?
I may be foolish for saying so after this iSnack 2.0 business but I would like to assume that Kraft would give it a little more thought than that, particularly seeing as this is round 2 of the naming game.
I’d put money on the fact that they will get away with this.
7 Oct 09
6:30 pm
oh come on Nitro. How can you defend those dumb-arse middle aged marketing fools when it’s far easy to be a 20 year old undergrad non-achiever who can snipe anonymously?
7 Oct 09
6:34 pm
To quote the Simpsons; “I’d have called it a Chuzwazza”
7 Oct 09
6:41 pm
Yeah well.. maybe they were considering milking it again more for what its worth. My comments here http://greatstrategy.blogspot......-said.html
I kept wondering… did Bakers Delight seize the moment and start putting up a sign saying something like “Try the now-famous Cheesymite”. Maybe they need some help from the PR team behind Vegemite.
8 Oct 09
11:04 am
Who cares what it’s called, most tourists will still call it ‘shit’ or ‘eeeeeergh’ or ‘ewwwwwwwww’ or ‘grosssssss’ or ‘aaaaaaaaaaghhhhhh i can’t feel my legs, i can’t feel my legs!!!!!’ anyway.
8 Oct 09
9:22 pm
this is why monkeys shouldn’t be in marketing. and why kids shouldn’t be allowed to vote.
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