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Opinion | Features
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Media agency remuneration: It's the smaller nimbler agencies which will thrive
As huge changes blow through the Australian media agency landscape Nikki Retallick argues the smaller more collaborative companies will be the ones to thrive.
It’s a great time to be in the Australian ad industry. The winds of change are blowing. With the recent launch of Department212 and the success of earlier start-ups such as Bohemia, there’s some real momentum towards the rise of the independent, performance-based media agency.
The big agencies are starting to follow suit, having seen the ‘race to the bottom on price’ hit their bottom line. It’s all about delivering measurable value now and being able to move the dial on the clients’ business. -
Content marketing moves to centre stage
Last night ANZ launched one of Australia's biggest branded content plays to date. Mumbrella's Tim Burrowes was at the launch.
It took a few minutes too long last night for it to dawn on me why there was a jazz band in the corner of the room at ANZ's Melbourne conference suite. Blue Notes - gerrit?
And what last night's event did make clear is that the opportunities of that developing subset of branded content, brand journalism, are beginning to dawn on local brands. -
Answers for Adam: Is reality TV the way to tackle climate change?
Recently there was another report from the scientists of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) telling us that climate change (what used to be called global warming) is upon us and there are real changes happening now (I bet I’ve lost several readers already!)
The scientists are urging us to heed their warning and change our behaviours, yet we ignoring them in droves. Even though information they are giving us is dire. -
The Tele's textbook example of how to run a winning newspaper campaign
The Daily Telegraph has delivered a great piece of old fashioned campaigning journalism, argues Mumbrella's Tim Burrowes
Back when I worked in newspapers, I was taught that if a newspaper is going to embark on a campaign, it has to pass three tests. -
Piracy: At least the Lannisters pay their debts
Following a series of special reports on piracy on Mumbrella this week Foxtel's Bruce Meagher explains why the company is airing Game of Thrones as it is.
Much has been made in the past few days of the fact that fans of Game of Thrones are unable to acquire the series through services other than Foxtel until after the final episode airs. Unfortunately, there has also been much misinformation about how Foxtel is making Game of Thrones available to the public. -
Why hard-to-win awards are good awards
This year's Mumbrella Awards are going to be tougher to enter than ever before. Which makes winning one worth even more. As the call for entries goes live, Tim Burrowes explains the changes for this year.
Please don't hate me.
I hear a common complaint about some industry awards, and I'm afraid it's mostly my fault. -
Encore Score: The newsreaders
With the battle for early evening eyeballs increasingly important for commercial TV networks Amanda Meade looks at the numbers to see if the most popular newsreaders are the most watched.
Despite dramatic changes to the media landscape in the past ten years, the traditional 6pm commercial news bulletin on free-to-air television remains a key building block in a network’s schedule - get it right and you can carry big audiences over to your primetime shows. Some bulletins have even expanded from 30 minutes to an hour in the main markets of Sydney and Melbourne.
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Answers for Adam: Should PR agencies and creative agencies be combined?
This week Adam Ferrier asks whether PR is starting to mean everything and nothing, and whether it is any different from traditional advertising.
I've been thinking about the PR industry lately and where PR fits in the broader communications landscape. I've thought about it a lot, and worked with most models from integration under one roof to partner agencies, and a few things in-between.
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Australia's class system of brands
After a rare business class flight, Mumbrella's Tim Burrowes argues that brands may miss opportunities when staff treat customers according to their perceived value.
So over the weekend, I finally got to make the metaphorical left turn getting onto a Qantas flight. And it was everything I could have wanted. -
Answering Adam: Agencies need ideas as their engine
This week in his Answers for Adam column Adam Ferrier asked whether agencies should imitate startups. Here Nic Hodges argues agencies need to focus on their ideas, but modernise processes.
In his column this week Adam Ferrier asks "would your agency be doing better work if it put data, behavioural sciences, and technology up on pedestal along with creativity? Or is a single-minded focus on creativity still the answer?".
Here's a secret - nobody at a startup is sitting around caring about acting more like an advertising agency.
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PR agencies will not exist in a decade
After Graham White's response to Joe Hildebrand's CommsCon speech generated some heated debate on the state of the PR industry, Rob Lowe argues 'PR agencies' are already dying out.
PR agencies will cease to exist in the next ten years. Is that shocking enough for you? Well it’s true. Too many PR agencies are outdated, the traditional media landscape is shrinking, and with increasing numbers of advertising, social media and even SEO agencies getting in on the action, we need to smarten up. -
Why you should pull an all-nighter to get to Cannes
With Cannes Young Lions entries closing on Friday former winner Iggy Rodriguez has the reasons why you should pull an all nighter to finish your entry.
Okay, sure it’s the last minute, but plenty of famous campaigns have been written right before a big meeting or on the night before a pitch. You’ve got a few days, so you’re laughing. -
Answers for Adam: Is creativity still the answer for ad agencies?
This week Adam Ferrier asks whether ad agencies should be embracing startup culture more, or continuing to focus single-mindedly on creativity.
“The thing I hate the most about advertising is that it attracts all the bright, creative and ambitious young people, leaving us mainly with the slow and self-obsessed to become our artists”. Banksy (apparently?!)
The above quote is around ten years old and I wonder if it’s still relevant. I’m getting the sense that the new breed of creative folk who want to make a buck are not entering advertising – but rather being seduced by the technology fuelled ‘start-up’ culture. For example is it cooler to attend the Cannes Lions or tweet about the latest gadget unveiled at SXSW? -
Making the Mumbrella Awards matter - what you can tell us
It’s nearly time for the call for entries for the 2014 Mumbrella Awards. But before we publish this year’s categories and criteria, Mumbrella’s content director Tim Burrowes invites you to have a say...
I can still remember in excruciating detail the night we lost. -
Is total re-branding the only means left to end Network Ten's torment?
While the Ten Network's ratings woes well documented Luke Devenish asks if their best way to turn it around is a brand overhaul. We all find it difficult to get out of bed of a morning, but spare a thought for the powers-that-be at Network Ten, who must surely be belting the snooze button on a daily basis. Their annus horribilis is now nudging half a decade thanks to a waking nightmare that is two pronged in its torment.
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We’re not like Barbara the bank manager, ANZ tells consumers
Barbara the unhelpful bank clerk features in a new ANZ ad from M&C Saatchi Melbourne, in which a customer discovers that in bank world what you see is rarely what you get.
The Paul Middleditch directed ad, which broke at the weekend, features comedian Genevieve Morris.
Credits:
- CLIENT Paul Riley (Head of Retail Product Marketing); Linda Manos (Senior Manager Brand & Advertising); Melissa Hendrickson (Senior Manager Marketing Deposits); Lucy Gribble (Senior Advertising and Integrated Campaigns Manager)
- CREATIVE Steve Crawford (Creative Director); Doogie Chapman (Senior Copywriter); Tony Leishman (Senior Art Director)
- ACCOUNT SUPERVISOR Kimberley Milburn (Group Account Director) Daniel Loukidis (Account Director)
- AGENCY PRODUCER Karen Muxworthy
- EDITOR Peter Whitmore. The Editors.
- POST PRODUCTION The Editors
- DIRECTOR Paul MIddleditch, Plaza Films
- PRODUCTION CO PRODUCER Peter Masterton, Plaza Films
- SOUND Barry Stewart Sound Reservoir
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Comments
18 Jan 10
9:37 pm
I would actually suggest that Barbara is an excellent representation of an ANZ staff member.
FAIL – due to reminding me why I don’t bank with ANZ
18 Jan 10
9:40 pm
It’s a good ad but another example of a product/service that simply doesn’t live up to its promise.
19 Jan 10
5:24 am
This is definitely the ANZ bank
19 Jan 10
8:52 am
a bank doing this ad is like a doctor using a band-aid on my severed arm……totally failing to address the real problem
19 Jan 10
9:49 am
Smiling ANZ staff welcoming customers??? Where??? Barbara simply reinforces most normal peoples perceptions of the real world of Australian banking and even highlights the great fee rip off that they all indulge in… Weird strategy … no wonder a stretch target for all banks is to be the least hated
19 Jan 10
10:37 am
“Maybe if we say we’re not like every other bank, then people will believe us, even thouhg we’re not”
Again the marketing department trying to address consumer issues via advertising whilst leaving the actual issues in the too hard basket.
Everyone knows that every Bank and Telco’s main priority is to extract every last cent from us whilst smuggly smiling at you from behind ads like this.
19 Jan 10
12:16 pm
Better off spending all the production & media money on branch staff bonus payments for consumer rated feedback on their smiles, attitude, friendliness and general customer satisfaction.
Don’t boast about it, actually DO IT.
19 Jan 10
11:32 pm
UNBELIEVABLE!
Barbara personifies what all my experiences in ANZ have been like. No joke. I have had this EXACT conversation with different ANZ staff a number of times!
Way to kick dirt in a customers face.
Well produced and witty ad -wrong product/bank! FAIL
20 Jan 10
9:01 am
ANZ’s new brand strategy is obviously trying to make ANZ seem more approachable with the ‘We live in your world’. The problem is that the only way they’re trying to prove that is by saying ‘We live in your world’ there are no specific, tangible prove points that make that believable, if anything it alienates me because I think, do they?
Westpac’s ‘local branch manager’ campaign is achieving a brand position of approachable, understanding & they live in our world but by inferring it and talking about the tangible reasons – Local branch managers name, personality, face & what that branch deals with specifically – creative & media working well together.
Westpac WIN – ANZ FAIL!
20 Jan 10
9:02 am
If the ad above simply included 5 seconds about what ANZ are changing to be more like this, then maybe we’d believe & try them out.
20 Jan 10
9:14 am
This is a risky approach, as the negativity of the Barbara message often stays with the customer, especially for those who have had bad experiences with the bank.
As SimonT said, Westpacs ‘real staff’ approach, though done 1000 times before and launched at the same time as an ill advised rate rise, is better. Maybe more focus on benefits, rather than the competition, would have stood them in a better place in the consumers mind.
21 Jan 10
9:58 am
It’s just lippy on a piggy. Away with your aspirational nonsense please, give me something real.
21 Jan 10
10:37 am
i thought the ad was good – i’m an ANZ customer and am always really happy with the service I get which is a welcome change from my old bank
21 Jan 10
10:56 am
freaking hilarious though not sure if it can live up to it’s promise.
21 Jan 10
11:13 am
Seems a bit hypocritical on ANZ’s part, I received service that very much resembled the lady in the ad. I’ve had an ANZ card for 3 years and now that my debt is nearly zero, I cant wait to dump them, St George IMHO better by a country mile. Well at least the St G staff at Newtown are.
21 Jan 10
2:43 pm
The colour scheme of the “Bank” that Barbara works for looks remarkably similar to the CBA colours….
Subtle dig at the competition, eh? LOL!
22 Jan 10
11:40 am
I absolutely love Barbara.
27 Jan 10
9:46 pm
Babara you are so awesome! well done fantastic acting unbeliveable….. a ha ha lol
“when i said no i ment no with a silent k…. ha ha genious
27 Jan 10
9:51 pm
OMG!?!? I just saw the secound add to this and it is sooo funny…. classic quote….. Guy: “i would like to speak the manager…”
Barbara…. “umm yer(she looks around behind her) that would be me”
LOL! ver hard to explain have to see it 4ur self..
29 Jan 10
12:35 am
Great Ad…actually i came across this article which has ANZ as one of the leading for customer service.
http://www.smartcompany.com.au.....tings.html
2 Feb 10
9:02 pm
Does anyone know where I can view the second ad online with Barbara sitting in the office with the guy in a green shirt? It is too funny.
3 Feb 10
12:38 pm
Babs is the perfect representation of an ANZ branch manager! Similarly to the ad, I approched a branch manager about lodging a complaint (after several months of email wars). The response I got was:
“There are several ways we can address your issue :
Phone : Customer Response Centre on 1800 805 154 ( 8.00 am – 7.00 pm weekdays )
email ; yourfeedback@anz.com
or write to ; ANZ Customer Response Centre
Locked Bag 4050
South Melbourne , Vic 3205″
She really should have followed up with a “…not my problem!…”
Must admit though…the ads are a cracker!!
5 Feb 10
4:05 am
This is why I’m with as credit union. This ad just sums up the reason I’ll never end up with a bank. Barbara represents pretty much every bank manager and most head offices when you call them on your home phone.
Fail = ANZ
ANZ = Fail