-
Opinion
How to debunk media myths
In this post, UWS’s Ullrich Ecker, John Cook and Stephen Lewandowsky argue that cognitive science can help PRs form strategies in managing media misreporting.
A growing cohort of commentators has bemoaned the descent of contemporary political “debate” into a largely fact-free zone.
How about simply focusing on what consumers want?
In this guest post, Peter Mountford argues that brands should think more about what is really going on for consumers
Who here is hoping their favourite brand of toilet paper is going to be organizing a flash mob on their way home from work today?
What the Optus web copyright victory means
In this analysis first published on The Conversation, RMIT’s Marita Shelly examines the implications of Telstra’s defeat over the online rights to the AFL broadcast deal
This week’s Federal Court ruling that Optus customers are able to view sporting matches minutes after they are streamed live without breaching copyright is a landmark decision that alters our understanding of copyright law, and has significant implications for the AFL’s broadcasting rights deal.
Does Gina Rinehart’s bite of a chunk of Fairfax make her an oligarch?
In an article that first appeared in The Conversation, Mark Rolfe wonders whether the mining magnate’s move could turn Fairfax into something resembling America’s Fox network.Australia’s richest person Gina Rinehart has moved to increase her stake in Fairfax Media, owner of The Age, Sydney Morning Herald and a number of radio stations. Rinehart has already shown her desire to play a role in public life, campaigning against former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s aborted mining tax. She has also demonstrated a willingness to make media investments to ensure her pro-business worldview is promulgated.
What does this latest move by Rinehart mean?
Gillard's Australia Day crisis
PM Julia Gillard’s media adviser Tony Hodges has been forced to resign over the Australia Day tent embassy debacle.
It came after it emerged he had revealed opposition leader Tony Abbott’s whereabouts, leading to both politicians being rescued by police in ugly scenes.
Mumbrella editor Tim Burrowes and advertising practitioner Jane Caro debate the topic on Weekend Sunrise’s masters of Spin segment:
The biggest cock-up I made in business
In this guest post, Chris Savage urges agency staff to live the brand.I still shudder when I think about how incredibly stupid I was when I made the biggest stuff up of my career. And then, 18 years later, I did it again. Do not make this mistake with your clients. Ever.
Hey Groupon. Thanks for fucking up email
In this guest post, Daniel Monheit warns that group deal overload is devaluing email marketingEmail marketing used to be fabulous. Back in the heady days of 2010, brands would work hard to build up well qualified databases, upon which they’d bestow carefully crafted correspondence filled with information, offers and incentives. The recipients, of course would be delighted: “Oh look! An email! From one of my favourite brands! And it’s 40 cents off at Woolies this week!”.
The staggering sway of Harold Mitchell
The Power Index today names Aegis Media chairman Harold Mitchell as the most powerful person in Melbourne. Andrew Crook profiles him.
Harold Mitchell takes pride in dispensing with the niceties. When The Power Index visited his South Melbourne private office before Christmas, fresh remains were scattered all over the boardroom table.
Share a Coke with… the moronic masses
The most-read story on Mumbrella last year, with not far off 100,000 page views, was a fairly humdrum yarn about the launch of Coca-Cola’s name-on-a-bottle campaign.The headline, “Coca-Cola puts people’s names on bottles in ‘Share a Coke’ campaign”, though hated by any self-respecting sub-editor, was loved by Google. And in rushed what can be politely described as the public.
Assumptions kill creativity
In this guest post, Gual Barwell disagrees that the sales success of the Old Spice social media campaign was overstated.Yesterday’s post from Cathie McGinn suggested the Old Spice campaign failed to connect with consumers. Based on the facts and figures, I disagree.
What Old Spice and Wieden + Kennedy has done and done phenomenally well is to create a franchise.
The SMH's readers (are wrong) editor
We are now about five months into the reign of Australia’s first readers’ editor. And I don’t think it is working.
It struck me at the time of Judy Prisk’s appointment to the Sydney Morning Herald that the fact that her boss was editor-in-chief Peter Fray was not going to be ideal if she was going to be the independent voice of the reader.
The emperor's new fragrance: Old Spice’s campaign failure
In this guest post, Cathie McGinn slays a sacred cow of 21st century marketing – the highly awarded Old Spice campaign.One of the biggest myths of recent times (by which I mean a story of great heroism and triumph we’d all like to believe but deep down know to be untrue) is the Old Spice social media campaign. It’s been much lauded and awarded as an example of outstanding content, a creative and collaborative way of connecting with consumers and driving a record increase in sales.
How reliable are radio ratings?
In this guest posting, Jason ‘Jabba’ Davis wonders how accurate radio ratings can be, since the data is collated from handwritten diaries.
So, the radio ratings season gets underway tomorrow. After a well-earned break, Australia’s commercial radio stations will renew their obsession with figures to see how many of us are listening. Are they winning or losing the ratings war?
The much feared radio survey is the only way to measure the success or failure of a station’s playlist, talent, promotions or even good old Black Thunder crosses. With six-figure salaries riding on the make-or-break nature of ratings, just how accurate are Australia’s radio survey results?
One-eyed Willy’s rich stuff: brands as movie heroes
I have just spent an entire day on a plane. I can’t sleep on flights, even after heavy sedation. So I watched seven films, back to back. Most of the new ones were truly awful and I couldn’t finish them. So I watched an old favourite, The Goonies. I have probably watched this film more than 200 times since I was a kid. But this time, with work in the back of my mind, one thing stuck out – how much brands were the stars of the film.The gospel of participation is making brands forget about mass reach
In this guest post, Simon Lawson argues that brands are becoming obsessed with getting consumers to participate, rather than remembering to deliver mass exposure.I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but a lot of brands are wasting significant amounts of time and money on ineffective marketing. Large sums are being put behind tactics which end up being too small to have much chance of influencing total brand preference.
Viewers turn away from TV in 2009
Total prime time TV audiences have fallen below 5m in Australia, according to a new analysis of viewing data so far this year. This is despite the arrival of the new Freeview and subscription TV channels to tempt viewers.
According to the analysis of figures across the prime 6pm to 10.30pm slot, the average audience has fallen from 5,027,868 in 2008 to 4,969,810 in 2009. This marks a decline of around 60,000 prime time viewers per evening – or a fall of just over 1%. This is despite the Australian population growing by more than 2% during the same period.
The comparison of OzTam data from the beginning of this year until October 17 was carried out on behalf of the pay TV industry. It covers both official ratings and non-ratings weeks.
The decline was concentrated in free to air television, which saw a fall of 1.8% in the prime time period.
The fall was greatest for Seven, which has seen an audience decline of 4.3% compared to last year. This can mainly be attributed to the network’s Olympics-driven ratings performance in 2008. The ABC’s prime time audience has fallen by 3.8% so far this year. Nine’s has fallen by 1.4%.
The biggest winner, according to the analysis, is Ten, which saw a peak time audience growth of 6.5%. This was mainly because of the breakout success of Masterchef, which helped the network compete across all audiences rather than the younger demographics it usually focuses on. Subscription TV’s prime time audience grew by 2.7% in the year to date. SBS grew by 1.7%.
October 26th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
-
Follow Us
-
Email Newsletter
Latest Jobs- Account Director - Sydney
- Exhibition Manager - Sydney
- Online Media Sales Executive - Sydney
- Software Architect (M2504) - Melbourne VIC
- Digital Producer - Sydney
- Innovation Project Leader - bringing ideas to life! - Sydney
- Ruby on Rails Web Developer - Sydney
- Ruby on Rails Web Developer - Sydney
- Solutions Architect - Sydney
- Digital Account Director - Sydney
Comments
26 Oct 09
12:23 pm
I’m shocked! That’s it’s only 1%.
26 Oct 09
12:45 pm
interesting headline for what is a 2% decline
26 Oct 09
1:25 pm
1% decline- talk about the market share of TV in freefall!
I find Mumbrella, more and more lately, relies on tabloid style headlines to get click throughs.
26 Oct 09
2:17 pm
@Art & Larry
I disagree. In the context of media & marketing, if media buyers consequently move 1% of their spends away from TV it could make a huge difference to the medium(s) that pick it up.
26 Oct 09
2:24 pm
@jamie – cos TV has dipped 1% there should be a 1% decline in spend? how does that work.,
that logic is flawed … it’s not quantity of time it’s quality of engagement.
26 Oct 09
2:35 pm
@ Larry
I should have been clearer. I know the decline in viewers doesn’t and shouldn’t mean an automatic like-for-like shift in media spend. My point is simply that 1) this isn’t exactly a good news story for TV and 2) TV budgets are comparatively so large that any shift in spends can mean a great deal to emerging media. Therefore, many Mumbrella readers will find this piece newsworthy.
26 Oct 09
2:40 pm
I certainly find it newsworthy, certainly given the financial climate. We are told that more people will be staying at home so I would have expected a significant rise in viewing figures. i suppose it says a lot for the quality of programmes on free to air this year.
26 Oct 09
3:10 pm
Considering the absolute arse has fallen out of mags and newspapers- I wouldve thought a 1% decline is a pretty tame figure in comparison.
26 Oct 09
3:19 pm
Why is it that every media writer gleefully predicts the imminent decline and fall of TV in spite of the data portraying exactly the opposite. If anything your headline should have read: ” TV viewers stay tuned in”
26 Oct 09
3:23 pm
Its definately newsworthy, but I do think the header was a little… shall we say, inflamatory for a 1% drop.
26 Oct 09
3:36 pm
Gezza- its usually the bloggers- who rely on a mass internet audience to perpetuate their own online popularity.
Less people watching TV =
Obviously more people reading their blogs =
More (bullshit) news stories to try to change media buyers perceptions =
Can I have more money for those banner ads now? No one watches TV anymore, havent you heard?
26 Oct 09
4:24 pm
I think you are all right and all a little wrong.
The interesting thing to me is that TV still reaches a mass audience. The other media (Newspapers, Magazines & Cinema – I’m looking at you) are suffering bigger much bigger declines.
The really interesting thing from a mass media standpoint is that there are going to be fewer and fewer TRULY mass mediums. Given the vagaries of supply and demand, I suspect that these 1.5M people plus audiences are going to become more valuable rather than less valuable in the future.
Despite all the change that the “experts” talk of when discussing media fragmentation the interesting thing is that TV will emerge from this with a stranglehold over the “Mass” in mass market.
26 Oct 09
4:30 pm
I cant believe it is at 2%…. especially when each month the figures for online video is outdoing the month before… Wait till 3 and 4g mobiles become the norm..
“There are currently four* billion mobile phones in use worldwide and there are almost seven billion people. Mobiles have exceeded the number of TVs and computers and unlike those devices, mobiles are carried everywhere and are hardly ever turned off. Achieving this milestone confirms there is continued solid demand in the mobile industry and it puts the global market on a path to reach a staggering six* billion connections by 2013. A captive audience of four billion people represents an awesome opportunity for advertisers to grab their attention, even though it’s on a small screen, with well targeted relevant advertising messages via mobile websites.”
26 Oct 09
4:40 pm
Chris A- If you spent more time actually reading the article before throwing yourself into some astrix ridden diatribe about how many mobile phones there are in the world, you’d realise the figure’s 1%, not 2%.
26 Oct 09
4:40 pm
What about the rise in uptake of PVR’s and other digital TV recording devices that allow viewers to easily break free from the TV Networks broadcast schedule and watch shows in their own time.
These viewers are still watching free-to-air TV, they are just not being counted by OzTam at present. Perhaps because they can easily skip the ads.
26 Oct 09
4:42 pm
Please please please no adverts on the mobile. It pains me to watch a 30 second Special K ad to get to the video of the 27 second news report on SMH.com
26 Oct 09
5:01 pm
TV has become “cheap.” Many nights is simply a wasteland – both Freeview and Pay TV. And as for the new digital channels…….
26 Oct 09
5:05 pm
Regardless of how many people are watching TV, the advertising dollars the medium attracts should be linked directly to how much TV is contributing towards various advertisers sales. Indeed, if fewer people watch but those that do watch buy more stuff then actually more money should flow into TV. It is now possible to analyse TV (and other media) in this way, and actually far more appropriate to do so. The ‘mine is bigger than yours’ approach to selling media is what we should be doing away with.
26 Oct 09
5:28 pm
One factor that isn’t showing in YOY comparisons is time shifted viewing.
OzTAM’s 2009 panels only capture and report live viewing, but from next year they’ll also release As Live (viewing on the same day) + Timeshift (viewing after the day of broadcast but viewed within seven days). Based on overseas data there’s good reason to believe the net effect will show an increase in total viewing in 000s and time spent viewing.
That’s only one additional consideration. Even with the current data we could look at changes by channel, variance across the year, commercial FTA vs total FTA, and so on. The real picture is complex and nuanced, and “viewers turn away from TV in 2009″ isn’t a particularly deep summary of the trends.
26 Oct 09
6:08 pm
have to say Art Vandalay makes for good reading.
chris a – nice figures but what do they actually mean. conference speak is lovely but falls down when it comes to real world scenarios generally.
26 Oct 09
6:20 pm
Want a simple explanation?
The OzTAM data is for LIVE viewing only. Anyone who uses a DVR, their Foxtel iQ, their TiVo, burns to DVD, or records to VCR (yes they still exist) and then watch the programme back aren’t counted.
With the explosion in sales of DVRs, Foxtel’s push on iQ, and Seven backing TiVo this simply HAS to be having an effect.
The good news is that starting with the 2010 television year, OzTAM will be reporting any playback that occurs within seven days. All that unreported viewing will be reported, so expect 2010 to show growth on 2009, simply because the “lost” time-shifted viewing will be incorporated.
If you look at US data (Nielsen) around about 5% of all viewing is time-shifted (with a PVR penetration rate of around 25%), and in the UK around 4% (BARB) of all viewing is time-shifted (with a PVR penetration rate or around 23%). Given that Australia’s PVR is around the same, I’d expect to see around the same lift in 2010.
I wonder what the headlines will read this time next year? Don’t forget what Mark Twain is reported as saying upon reading his own obituary in the New York Journal … “the reports of my death are greatly exaggerated”.
26 Oct 09
9:49 pm
I can’t find the numbers so I can’t quote them but I thought the bigger story was the decline in time spent watching TV and the increase in time on the Internet. I know in the UK there is more time spent online that watching TV. I think in this country this is still controversial.
26 Oct 09
9:50 pm
I am surpised the figures aren’t higher I’d like the programmers to see if they can appreciate the programme they broadcast in between the advertisments, infomercials and station promos. No wonder we station switch or record to replay were we can manage the barrage. Surely the bean counters can work a better balnce , where the advertiser gets a better deal, and so to will the the viewer. SBS has a good balance.
27 Oct 09
9:29 am
Yeah, cause everyone watches the ads on their timeshifted PVR’s so they are a REALLY valuable audience for advertisers.
One of the big advantages of a PVR is to skip the ads. Isn’t it? So you can discount 90% plus of these people surely?
27 Oct 09
9:34 am
Carrob: I think the point he’s making is in regard to overall audience numbers, not necessarily the penetration of the ads.
Trackbacks/Pingbacks