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Opinion
The keyboard warrior of Twitter
In this guest post, NBN staffer Scott Rhodie writes an unofficial, personal view on his experience with a hostile Twitter critic.Last night I had a strange incident. While on Twitter I noticed someone saying that Australia’s NBN is already outdated. I wrote a small note back explaining they were incorrect.
And their response? The lovely gentleman (whose Twitter profile says: ‘Father of 5 kids, Loving Grandfather of 10 Grandchildren,and 2 Great Granddaughters. love to give heaps to Pollies and Poofters’) said to me: “Go and lick Gillards C*** out U commie Prick”
What's in a name?
In this guest post, Moensie Rossier wonders about the power of names for brands and marketers.
Brands have been having a bit of fun with names lately, not to mention a fair bit of success. Interbrand just named a headhunting firm Cloak & Dagger. And ‘Share a Coke’ showed how much power there is in a name.
The Coke campaign effectively short-circuited the usual mechanics of communication. It undoubtedly stroked people’s egos. But, I believe, its success stems from the fact that it directly and automatically affected people’s behaviour, rather than doing so indirectly by shaping attitudes.
Best ads from Super Bowl 2012
The Super Bowl is all done and a team from North America won. But as well as some sort of sporting event, it’s the world’s biggest advertising showcase. See the best of them right here… and please tell us what you think.
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.
What’s good for Jetstar isn’t necessarily the answer for other brands
While yesterday’s announcement from Jetstar is interesting, I’m not sure just yet how much of a canary in the coalmine it’s going to be for other brands shifting their spend to social media.
If ever there was a brand and marketing strategy designed for social media, it was Jetstar.
Its young, mobile customers are the sort of people most likely to consume social media.
And its price-driven campaigns – generally short term, bargain seat offers – are exactly the types of thing that work well on the likes of Twitter.
So it makes sense for Jetstar to go where its audience is. (And I loved the coincidental timing that it was announced on Twitter’s fourth anniversary).
But for advertisers who are primarily about longer-term branding rather than a direct call to action, social media cannot be the whole answer.
The other issue of course is that Jetstar is at the front of the pack on this. Once every brand is involved to that extent in social media, it gets as cluttered as any other channel.
Getting those messages out then becomes hard work. And a new cut-through will have to be found.
Right now though, it makes sense for Jetstar. And News Limited and Fairfax will be wincing.
But this isn’t, in my view, as significant for marketing as a whole as it may seem.
Tim Burrowes
March 23rd, 2010 at 8:27 am
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Comments
23 Mar 10
8:49 am
You make some good points Tim. But I think there is another dimension to this shift.
Over the last 18 months or so most of Jetstars TV budget was directed to launch their overseas routes. The job was mass awareness of a new product and offer. Therefore TV was the correct media channel. For the moment the job appears to be tactical and retail and therefore digital and social media channels have a greater role to play. As and when Jetstar have another major new product message or they need to fight a new entrant in the discount flight segment with some brand support then I bet TV will be back. The big loser here is print – as I think someone said on the origional post yesterday.
23 Mar 10
8:51 am
Good, calming piece on getting the mix right Tim.
I predict evolution, not revolution with social media and, as I’ve written previously, you’ll know the media has arrived when announcements like this aren’t news at all.
23 Mar 10
9:41 am
Agree social and digital media isn’t the whole answer and branding is very important. But the fact is that media is becoming more fragmented and we as consumers are consuming media differently.
Its the job of the marketer to look at all options and evaluate the best communications mix for their brands. If that means more of the budget goes to digital and social media because it works – who can argue!
The problem with the current advertising and media industry is that their business models are not changing with the times and will suffer if more of the advertising dollar switches to online.
There is no right or wrong answers to the current changes in our media habits – there is just successful businesses and unsuccessful businesses.
23 Mar 10
1:38 pm
Shazam. I don’t think that could have been put any better. Nice.
23 Mar 10
1:57 pm
Tim.
Love your article. And your view.
Not really intending to be a canary in anyone’s coalmine. Just doing what’s right for us. Or at least attempting to.
As ever love the quality of the comment.. Missing in so much of what passes for trade media. Keep it up.
Dave M – JQ
23 Mar 10
2:29 pm
Nice one Gordon, a little common sense goes a long way.
Social media is just another tool, albeit a pretty critical one. It doesn’t provide a short cut to consumers hearts and it isn’t the magic cure all solution.
It’s a natural part of the mix now and no longer a question of should I or shouldn’t I be in this space…but it’s just one part of a complex story.
23 Mar 10
2:44 pm
Tim your comments are spot on. I think for Jetstar, as a tactical strategy, social media and especially Twitter works really well. As stated the challenge is to define the best marketing strategy for each particular business. As I see it Twitter is great for tactical in the travel sector but Facbook for example might lend itself more to brand.
Great comments all round.
23 Mar 10
4:01 pm
The critical point here is that people are massing online and the savvy marketers are working out ways to reach and influence them. Any shift in media spend will not only just include social media, but a broad range of online activity to reach different people in different online environments. Marketers who make a reasonable investment in online marketing now will reap the benefits against their competitors who don’t. Particularly in retail, many retailers have lagged in adopting online marketing and e-tail. Big retail brands like Jetstar, Kmart, and JB HiFi are being clever by staking claims across particular web properties and learning how they work now.
24 Mar 10
10:37 am
Absolutely, social media as a large portion of the budget makes little sense for many brands.
However I absolutely disagree with you about this point:
“But for advertisers who are primarily about longer-term branding rather than a direct call to action, social media cannot be the whole answer.”
Social media can and shold be about long term branding strategies, not just calls to action, particularly for smaller brands where often their largest connection is through their social media network, where they slowly build a reputation with every tweet and blog post.
24 Mar 10
10:44 am
Hi Emma,
I’m not sure we actually disagree, although you may have misunderstood my point slightly.
Absolutely social media can be used as part of branding and relationship building, but by “not the whole answer”, I mean that for most brands, you probably shouldn’t abandon longer established media, and put all of your eggs in the social media basket. It’s useful but it’s not the whole answer.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
30 Mar 10
12:59 pm
The ROI of New Media Campaigns are extremely cost effective compared to Old Media and all measurable with accurate views.
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