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Opinion | Features
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 top seven...most patronising pieces of communication
Sometimes brands have big ideas. Sometimes marketers get so caught up with a grandiose idea that instead of finding engaging ways to sell breakfast cereal, they start to believe their own rhetoric. And sometimes it’s just lazy marketing. Here are my top seven inadvertently patronising pieces of communication…
1) Last night thousands of women gathered in Sydney’s Centennial Park to take part in She Runs the Night, an event created by Nike.
TV audience measurement – why big isn’t always beautiful
In this guest post, Chris Walton argues that the media industry needs to take a new approach to TV tradingThere has been a significant amount of coverage recently about how successful The Voice has been. Indeed, audience figures of 2.6m+ people are very impressive these days. Based on reports, this is apparently double the size of audience that Nine was hoping for in the lead up to the programme launching.
Viewers fail to tune in for ACP doco Park Street
Foxtel’s insider documentary on ACP’s magazine editors Park Street barely drew on audience on Arena on Wednesday night.
The audience was so small that OzTam was unable to detect any viewing at all in Melbourne and Adelaide, while it estimated that it had 76 viewers in Perth and 856 in Sydney. Meanwhile, in Brisbane, it recorded 5,357 viewers.
In total the show averaged an estimated 6,289 metro viewers.
Because the TV ratings system relies on information from panels of homes, zero ratings can occasionally be returned when viewing patterns are very low.
February 24th, 2011 at 10:17 am
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Comments
24 Feb 11
10:38 am
I was one of those 6,289 and I want my 30 minutes back !
24 Feb 11
10:45 am
I hope they sell it to the ABC, I’d quite like to see it…
24 Feb 11
10:48 am
http://gobarbra.com/hit/new-56.....8fae4c124c
24 Feb 11
10:49 am
The Devil Wears Nada…
24 Feb 11
10:53 am
No one cares though that’s the thing. It’s like some of these blogs, only other journos, publicists and TV producers read them! Who wants to see the dull arse magazine editor moaning that Jess Mauboy didn’t rock up to the shoot. YAWN. I caught the last 10 minutes of it…dull as.
24 Feb 11
11:21 am
The credits are the give away to why it won’t be a hit. It’s produced by ACP execs and plays like nothing more than an ad for the company. If this is an insider documentary, then so are those morning show advertorial spots for carpet shampoo… and Big Kev is MIchael Moore… hang on a minute.
24 Feb 11
11:24 am
For a start, many of us don’t have Foxtel.
24 Feb 11
11:39 am
It’s a great ad for getting rid of your Foxtel sub. Pretty woeful original programming, lucky Gyngell is picking up the bill.
24 Feb 11
12:02 pm
All the women in it looked like clones and none had any personality – you need conflict in shows like this and there wasn’t any.
24 Feb 11
12:46 pm
I like it!!!
24 Feb 11
12:56 pm
Pointless exercise to begin with. There was no freakin’ way ACP would dare show what ‘really’ goes on over there. Controlled PR stunt for advertisers, more like!
24 Feb 11
1:14 pm
It’s on cable, what do you expect?
24 Feb 11
1:34 pm
How can 5,437 people watch in Brisbane and nobody watches in Melbourne?
I would’ve thought this would be almost impossible.
24 Feb 11
1:37 pm
They didn’t do much to drive awareness for the show, despite having all those titles.
24 Feb 11
1:52 pm
I found this rather amusing: http://video.dailytelegraph.co.....ark-Street
24 Feb 11
1:52 pm
What a waste of 30 minutes & that dreadful woman in the black glasses. Does not make me interested in the magazine industry or buy mags
24 Feb 11
2:05 pm
Gotta Love the quality of TV Audience measurement data. Perth has a UE of 1.856m people from 15.4m (5 Cap city), or 12%. Nat Subs TV has a UE of 7.154m. Being kind and saying all WA Sub TV is Perth centric, then Perth Sub TV UE’s equal 858k. Sample size is 451 from Nat Sub total sample of 3762 (based on 12%). This equates to 1 box per 1900 people. Based on this, 4% of 1 actual person watched the show (Was it a hand/foot/ear) or 1 whole person watched for ~72sec. Quite reliable don’t you think???
24 Feb 11
2:27 pm
I’d definitely watch it if it wasn’t on at the same time as Adam Hills AND Big Love.
24 Feb 11
2:27 pm
what would have been interesting would have been how they are facing/addressing the real challenges facing the magazine industry today ie. the interweb,
24 Feb 11
2:31 pm
Utterly. Mundane.
And while I’m at it, enough with the advertiser love. We know you need them, but we don’t care. We care about cat fights. Bring on the cat fights!
24 Feb 11
2:37 pm
What a shame ! I think the viewing figures would have been much better if we’d known about it ! There was NO publicity and therefore no interest ! Obvious really !!
24 Feb 11
3:15 pm
The reality of this is that it might be slightly interesting to those in the industry if it is a true in depth look at how ACP runs (although most already know this). However, by positioning a show like this towards the public expecting to see behind the scenes glamour of the glossy mag world is only going to lead to disappointment. As we know, publishing is publishing. It doesn’t matter if you work on Plumbers weekly or Grazia. Its the same old s**t! To me its a good example of the media industry thinking the public give as much of a toss about it as they do……which clearly, they don’t!
24 Feb 11
3:51 pm
If you saw the ads to promote this, you can understand why it tanked. Flashing up (in big letters) that you get to see “editors; stylists; interns” – WTF? These 3 professions (if you can call a teenage work experience kid a profession) are not the type of people and careers that generate excitement. Womens mags are the domain of the eternally stupid to begin with – made and read by shallow muppets, so expecting people to be riveted by the fake-tanned camera chasers and their stories on Botox/handbags and shoes was a bit too much to ask.
When are Australian producers/media going to wake up to the fact that the majority of Australians (especially Sydneysiders) are simply not interested in the fake tits and tan crowd from the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, nor reality based shows that are more akin to vain self-promotion vessels for these wannabe’s? Ch7 woke up to themselves when they canned the ridiculous idea of filming the obnoxious Roxy Jacenko and her PR harpies, but they are going to have their Waterloo with this proposed show around Jackie Franks or whatever her name is.
24 Feb 11
4:59 pm
Yawn
24 Feb 11
5:23 pm
Are we treating OzTam figures as serious now? Doesn’t the huge gap between Bris figures and other states scream, “These figures are unreliable”? I thought Foxtel had a way to measure exact viewer numbers? How do we find those that?
24 Feb 11
5:46 pm
Utterly disappointed yet not surprised. Those women in magazines are all the same: institutionalised and all believe as my smart guy friend said ‘their own BS’. That’s what’s so cringeworthy.
24 Feb 11
6:07 pm
What do Australian shows rate on Foxtel normally? Can we have some comparison?
24 Feb 11
7:05 pm
I want more drama!
24 Feb 11
7:15 pm
Looked like an advertising stunt to me – take a look at the last credits featured and see the ‘creative director’ in the black glasses came up with the ‘concept’. yeh—right. And oops – shouldn’t her credit have read ADVERTISING creative director? I did like the client plug and the lovely display of her work on her ipad and folio….thrilling.
start again please – and with real editorial insights and dramas
24 Feb 11
8:41 pm
I loved it
) but did not notice much advertising for it, I was lucky to spot on a blog that it was going to air
24 Feb 11
10:19 pm
It was pretty average. And I don’t know any of these people personally, so I don’t really want to come across as bitchy, but the Cleo editor is clearly the bogan one, and the Cosmo one must be the narky one? Is this reality or scripted?!?!?
24 Feb 11
10:20 pm
Clones, you’re all a bunch of inseperable clones.
24 Feb 11
10:39 pm
Maphs and NW.
To try an clear a few things up. Yes OzTAM is a sample (well, actually a panel but that is a different story). And yes around 1 in every 2,000 people are in a home with an OzTAM box. To put that sampling ratio (which is actually a high SR) into perspective, with around 17.15m people of voting age in Australia if we sampled them with the same ratio we’d need a sample of around 8,500 to get voting intentions. Last election the majority of polls predicted either a hung parliamant or a cliff-hanger election – and they were using sample sizes of n=1,000 in the main.
Put simply, sampling works. And good sampling works even better. As a matter of fact the last time I had a blood sample taken for testing the doctor took 5ml of the 5+ litres of blood in my body – I didn’t insist that he take it all as 1/1000th of my blood was more than sufficient, and in fact they used as they only used a few drops of that sample or around 1/100th of the 1/1000th
Now NW, Foxtel (and EVERY cable company in the world) does NOT have a way of measuring VIEWING. They can (technically) measure all the channel TUNING – but they have no way of knowing who in the home is viewing the programme being tuned. So how does the MultiView system work? Well (and Murray Love leap in here), they use a people-based sample to project the tuning from a sample of metered viewers. Yes, the dreaded sample again is the only way to get robust estimates.
Now some data. Yesterday across the 5 metros there were n=867 Subscription TV homes with n=2,403 people in those homes contributing to the ratings. Focussing in on Perth for Maphs benefit there were n=351 people in the ratings. Of these 1 person of those n=351 watched the first two minutes of the program. As they only watched 2 off 30 minutes they counted as 1/15th of a full viewer. Don’t forget that in Perth because of daylight savings it was on air at 6:30pm (Foxtel don’t delay broadcasts) up against the current affairs programmes and not the 9:30pm it was broadcast here in Sydney.
Now when this all got projected it ended up as 76 viewers in Perth. Do i seriously believe that there was exactly 76 viewers … no way. But I am pretty darned sure that with 350 of the 351 NOT watching the programme in the panel, and the one who did watched just 2 minutes (before probably switching to a current affairs programme – I haven’t dug that deep) means that something in the order of magnitude of a hundred people seems pretty fair to me. The point is, that there is not a single person on this planet that does know exactly how many did watch in Perth and that there is no known way to actually do this … then 76 is an OK estimate by me.
Regarding Melbourne and Adelaide with zeroes, well none of the n=492 people in Melbourne and none of the n =254 people in Adelaide watched any of the programme so an estimate of zero audience based on the observed viewing of these around 750 people seems OK to me again.
So why was Brisbane so high? No idea. It appears that 2 or 3 people of the n=524 people in the sample watched it on and off across the half hour. Also, due to daylight saving it was on an hour earlier so facing different competition onthe FTA channels – maybe that is a reason. Maybe there was local promotions or advertising that tweaked a few people’s interests.
The bottom line is that we do have the viewing data for n=2,403 people in Subscription TV homes for last night. Only a handful watched out of the number hence the estimated rating was so low.
It all seems pretty fair to me when you take all the above into account.
24 Feb 11
10:43 pm
P.S. Sorry for the s***house typing. And just to clarify, those sample counts such as n=351 people in Perth. means n=351 people in homes with Subscription TV. The total sample is much higher than that – I looked simple at those people who were capable of watching the programme.
24 Feb 11
11:04 pm
What is everyone talking about no advertising for it?? If you have Foxtel there were lots of promos for this dismal show. If you don’t have Foxrel then you couldn’t have watched it anyway.
If this were on free to air it would be axed before the second episode.
25 Feb 11
9:01 am
@Sal, thanks for sharing (http://video.dailytelegraph.co.....ark-Street) they all look boring or annoying and seem to have no idea what’s going on.
25 Feb 11
9:29 am
Holy moly. Check out Carolyn Innis two minutes in on the video. They should just give her a show.
25 Feb 11
9:42 am
I’m no statistician, but the hugely disparate results from the different cities just shows how flawed sampling actually is WHEN you’re dealing with such a fragmented media market.
John > sampling works great when your dealing with a limited set of options, like your examples. But when there are 100+ channels to measure, clearly with the number of people on the panel currently, it struggles to get an accurate result whenever the viewer levels get low.
I’m sure the people looking after the numbers would be able provide some confidence or error margins based on standard statistics methodologies.
As for ‘Park Street’.. I guess it’s a bit of fun. Did anyone expect it to rate higher?
25 Feb 11
10:40 am
Foxtel, give John a show, he’s engaging, entertaining and informative! I look forward to that promo! Excellent explaination, while I often question oztam numbers I appreciate your methodology and ability to speak to me = A+Simpleton
25 Feb 11
10:56 am
The problem is the belief that magazine publishing ceases to exist once you leave the editorial office. The comment from one of the editors about the magazine bouncing back and forth from her to the sub-editors “then off to the printer” is typical of the attitude from editorial teams. Where were the ad managers, circ staff, marketing team, production staff, printers, distributors, even retailers etc? This is where the real drama and conflict lives – not an individual moping about the office because it is raining at an event.
It seems that in the blinkered desire for ‘glamour’ they have completely forgotten that it takes a huge team of people across many business units to get a magazine on to the retail shelves, not just a few girls choosing photos and creating the layout.
25 Feb 11
10:57 am
I dont buy the magazines because who really cares that such and such of a celebrity is caught on a beach in a bikini? Not exactly stimulating reading so why would it be a stimulating tv show?
27 Feb 11
11:38 pm
@Ivory Tower – this show was completely dull as it was, but I couldn’t think of any way to make it MORE boring than by adding in segments about the circulation department. Are you serious?! All this show needs is a plot, real or manufactured – whatever. Just stop telling us what a sub editor does and stop stop explaining how your ads “associate with the demographic”. Urgh. DULL.
28 Feb 11
9:30 am
I’ve heard from a source with connections to the top of PBL and Fox that they’re making a spin off focused solely on the ACP circulations department. And it’s going straight onto fox8 in prime time.
It’s going to be called “The Circ-us” and is destined to replicate the success of Park Street.
1 Mar 11
3:01 am
Loved the sampling and statistics 101 John. I think Andre has a point though. The long tail of cable, digital and satellite TV channels is making the current TV audience measurement panels ineffective and rather blunt instruments for accurate and effective measurement.
As the audience migrates to the smaller channels (refer to the recent article here about where the Thursday peak audience has gone) it becomes clear that the old FTA TV measurment model needs to evolve.
It is obvious that Australia needs to incorporate return path data measurement in some form to its television ratings. This would ideally be at census level or alternatively a huge panel (tens of thousands of homes). This would give a much more accurate measure of the audience for the smaller channels and even allow some level of profiling of these channels/programmes audience. You may sacrifice some of the finer qualities of a peoplemeter panel that requires total respondent compliance. What you gain from the huge sample is an ability to measure smaller channels and in an increasingly non-linear world they will all be smaller channels.
20 Mar 11
10:17 pm
It’s obvious this show should never have been made as a doco – the material was begging for a bitchy Sex In The City type of treatment. Having worked for No Idea (as we affectionately/cynically dubbed it!) earlier in my career, I know the terrain and would be willing to have a go at writing or co-writing a script for such a show, if any producers are reading this (I’ve just joined Starnow, if you want my details.)
22 Mar 11
3:18 pm
the concept for this show came from ACP hype tapes
shown at conference… ACP liked them so much THEY
bought it; sadly no one else did! What are we, stoopid?