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Opinion | Features
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Has Dumb Ways to Die been effective?
While Dumb Ways to Die has won more creative awards than almost any other it has not been able to replicate that success in the coveted effectiveness categories. Miranda Ward investigates whether the much-vaunted campaign was ultimately a failure.
Recently AdAge named Metro Trains' Dumb Ways to Die campaign as the 12th best campaign of the 21st century, an accolade largely based on the its creative prowess after it stormed the Cannes Lions advertising festival in 2013 to become the most awarded campaign in the history of the awards.
However, questions have been raised over how effective the campaign was in its goal of keeping Melburnians safer around trains, after it failed to win metal in the Creative Effectiveness category at Cannes last year, and picking up just a silver and two bronzes at the Australian Effies in 2013. -
Streaming won't kill TV, but it's going to make media buying harder
The new range of video streaming services will not kill TV, but will make it harder still for advertisers to reach mass audiences argues Paul Brooks.
In a world where everything changes, nothing changes! I remember a presentation back in 1998 with the opening slide posing the inflammatory statement “The death of Television.”
I cannot recall how many times I have been asked or presented that question in the last 17 years, but what I can recall is only last week I was asked it again by a ‘media expert’. -
Why is commercial radio the last bastion of middle aged white men?
Australian radio networks need to start embracing diversity to stay in touch with the changes in society argues Sunil Badami.
When I first started broadcasting on ABC Local Radio a year or two ago, a listener texted in to say ‘how great it is to hear an ethnic face on the radio.’ I joked that I didn’t realise “our” faces made any noise, though I supposed with “our” mouths open, they made as much noise as anyone else’s.
But for someone like me, born and raised in Australia to Indian parents, it hasn’t always been easy to see or hear faces or voices like mine in the media, especially commercial media. -
Credit where it's due: Nick Baker
Nick Baker has shouldered the responsibility of marketing Australia as a holiday destination not just to the rest of the world, but to Aussies as well. As he finishes his seven year stint at Tourism Australia tomorrow, we give Credit Where it's Due to his efforts.
Imagine coming into a new job as a marketer where the last campaign has just been described as a "rolled gold disaster" by the Prime Minister.
This is what faced Nick Baker when he came into the big chair of chief marketing officer at Tourism Australia, inheriting the infamous 2006 'So Where the Bloody Hell Are You?' campaign that did more for Lara Bingle's career than Australia's image.
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Think you can put social media in a box? Taylor Swift proves otherwise
The Prime Minister might be prepared to shake off social media as 'electonic graffiti', but the traditional media impressions gained by the Taylor Swift Hottest 100 campaign tell a different story, argues Patrick Baume.
The P.M. again called social media ‘electronic graffiti’ over the weekend, after he faced extensive social and traditional media criticism over his decision to award Prince Philip an Australian knighthood, on the same day Triple J shot down the #Tay4Hottest100 campaign. So if both ends of the cultural spectrum are saying it’s ok to ‘ignore’ social media, there must be some truth there, right? -
New gadgets and gimmicks to keep us watching sport live on TV
TV networks are investing in new gadgets, camera angles and social media devices to keep viewers hooked on live sport. In this cross-posting from The Conversation Marc C-Scott of Victoria University looks at what's coming next.
Australia’s love of sport appears to be more from in front of a TV screen than actually attending any event live, and that could be on the increase given some of the new technology heading our way.
Samsung has confirmed that its new Sports Live app – on display at this year’s Consumer Electronic Show in the US – will be available in Australia later this year, but for which sport codes has still to be announced. -
Sustainable competitive advantage: the fallacy
The speed of change in business means the notion of businesses having a sustainable competitive advantage is no longer a reality argues Dan Monheit. Sustainable competitive advantage. What a beautiful, romantic, delusional idea. An idea that somehow still gets plenty of airplay. -
Content marketing predictions: Why I’ve ditched my crystal ball
Last year Cameron Upshall made a series of bold predictions on how the content marketing world in Australia would develop in 2014. Here he bemoans the lack of change.
Australian brands had a fair old crack at content marketing in 2014. But unfortunately the market didn’t mature as fast as I thought it would in 12 months. This means the content marketing milestones I predicted we would reach by now are still a fair way off.
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Why #tay4hottest100 is good for Triple J
The campaign to get a Taylor Swift song into the Triple J Hottest 100 has created a lot of column inches in recent days. Matt Saraceni argues the controversy is good for the station and how it should capitalise on #tay4hottest100 come Australia Day.
If Taylor Swift places Number one in the Triple J Hottest 100 -- I will eat a hat.
Any hat you care to name I will consume it. There is absolutely no way that will happen. I’d bet a nudie run on it. In fact I am.
However, “Shake it Off” appearing in the countdown will be one of the best things to happen to Triple J and its audiences and everybody should be hoping it happens. Let me explain….
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A first look at Stan
Yesterday streaming service Stan invited some members of the public to have a first look at the new platform. Mumbrella editor Alex Hayes looks at what it has to offer.
Of all the streaming services being talked about at the moment (and yes there are a lot - Presto, Netflix, Quickflix etc.) the one that's most intrigued me is the joint offering from Nine Entertainment and Fairfax Media - Stan.
So when I got the invite to have a preview of it which went out to the public yesterday, I leapt at it. However, my initial impressions were not good. -
Suffering from a talent crisis? Get off your backside and grow your own
The industry constantly bemoans a lack of skilled new employees. In this opinion piece David Ponce de Leon argues they need to do more to help nurture the talent.
The skills shortage issue continues to be a challenge for different sectors of the communications industry and at the dawn of a new year the topic seems to be heating up again.
Everybody is talking about how hard is to find the right talent or the right skills for their own particular business needs. It’s almost as if a good old whine about the skills shortage ‘crisis’ has become the norm. -
Never tell anyone outside the agency what you're thinking
It might not be the mafia, but agencies require a cone of silence about their internal workings to the outside world argues Eaon Pritchard.
At the beginning of 'The Godfather', Santino 'Sonny' Corleone is in a clandestine meeting with Virgil 'The Turk' Sollozzo in which they discuss a potential partnership in Sollozzo's nascent heroin business. -
Virtual Reality: changing games or game changer?
Virtual reality technology is becoming a hot property. Here Tyler Greerasks whether it will really have a reach beyond video games.
One day back in the early 90s I switched off the Sega Mega Drive and got myself along to an exhibition touting itself as the new frontier in gaming: virtual reality. Strapped in to a cumbersome, heavy piece of machinery I played Dactyl Nightmare, a dreadful Cubist nightmare which left me disoriented, ill, and disappointed for the state of the machine-human relationship.
Not fast enough could I return to Sonic the Hedgehog and my new-found appreciation for the human-couch relationship. -
Social influencers and the law - where does it stand on disclosure?
After Australia Post was found to be paying for social media endorsements which were not disclosed and with more brands looking to social media influencers in their campaigns, Stephen von Muenster looks at where the law currently stands on the issue.
It is evident from a casual gaze through social pages or comms industry commentary that brands are turning to ‘social influencers’ to promote their products through online social channels with the intent of influencing consumer purchasing decisions in favour of their products. -
The ten ideas from CES I wish I'd had
With over 3,600 exhibitors and hundreds of speakers there were a lot of new ideas and inventions at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas this year. Here Jonathan Pease distills them to the ten he's most jealous of.
B BOOTH – They call themselves ‘The Talent Discovery Company’ and the concept is simple. Imagine a casting booth where anyone can audition for anything they like – modelling, acting, reality TV, singing, etc.
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Why this is NOT the Twitter election
If you read the last few days’ papers, you would think that the Twitterati will decide the outcome of the election.
I’ve almost suggested as much msyelf.
But actually, we’re only half way there. This is not going to be an Obama-style social media-led uprising.
Social media has two potential types of influence on the outcome of an election – firstly, accelerating and magnifying the news cycle, and secondly – and potentially more powerfully – activating the advocates.
The first part is now just a fact of communications, but the second relies on planning and engagement from the political parties. They should have got serious about that months ago – this time round, the major parties have left it too late.
So inevitably there will be some gaffe that goes crazy on Twitter. The speed with which Gordon Brown’s Bigotgate blunder spread on Twitter was a classic example in the UK election.
But less so the planned, focused use of social media demonstrated so well in the election of Barack Obama.
Where social media – Twitter, maybe, but more so Facebook – becomes a huge potential tool is in not just getting getting out the vote, but turning these supporters into an informed and engaged army.
In the US, Sarah Silverman’s The Great Schlep persuaded engaged young Jewish people to travel to Florida and talk to their grandparents about voting for Obama. The state swung from Republican to Democrat.
But that kind of engagement relies on creating your army long before the battle is called so they are already listening when you need them. It’s a bit late to raise your army as you are already charging into battle.
When the PM only started tweeting a fortnight ago and Labor only embedded social media capabilities into its own website a week ago, that’s far too late.
Even chucking up an ad on YouTube and hoping it goes viral and gets you some free media will only get you so far. Particularly if it’s boring, and especially if the song is as bad as this one for the Liberal Party:
The best any party can hope for this time is to not make a mistake that kills them when it gets sucked into the Twitter news accelerator.
Next time round, they may be able to use social media in a positive way. But they’ll have to start now.
Tim Burrowes
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Comments
19 Jul 10
3:44 pm
Agree Tim, its all too broadcast and same-same. Neither party is talking back to any of the voters and debate rages on all the social channels they’ve set up with no responding. It all smacks of social for social’s sake. I’ve done an analysis of the net sentiment Liberal vs Labor up until last night, and there’s not even a point between them. http://www.digitaltip.com.au/i.....h-fitness/
19 Jul 10
4:04 pm
Dude… the song sounds like “stand up Australia, stand up, for RE-ELECTION.”
19 Jul 10
4:21 pm
Obama’s campaign laid out in the easy to understand detail how social media can help to get a rank outsider elected to the most powerful political job in the world.
Surely it’s not that hard for even half aware pollies and/or their parties to get the potential power of social media. AND that it should extend beyond some lame tweets and even more lame YouTube videos.
The UK election and now, seemingly, the Australian election demonstrates that political decision makers don’t get it and perhaps feel that what happened in the US was an aberration and it won’t work here.
Hopefully, we’ll be blown away by a candidate that does get it and does do a meaningful job of leveraging social media in this election. If nothing else, it’s a pretty good way to stand out from the pack.
19 Jul 10
4:27 pm
Check out ninemsn for people response to the question..Tweetrace – Which party Really gets Twitter? http://news.ninemsn.com.au/nat.....home-state
Seems like only Kate Ellis has any understanding, yet ninemsn users think the Libs have a better understanding. Hmmm! What does this say about the 9msn audience????
19 Jul 10
4:35 pm
Come on Bob Brown, get on Twitter, at least you talk sense.
19 Jul 10
4:39 pm
That Sarah Silverman clip is hilarious. I laughed embarrassingly loudly at my desk and everybody looked at me.
19 Jul 10
4:40 pm
Spot on Tim. Build your community before you need it. This applies to brands as much as it does political parties and dare I say both are as guilty as each other i.e. wanting instant results via one-way blasting of messages.
Genuinely engaging people and building trust and respect takes time and considerable effort (both on and offline) so little wonder the major political parties aren’t yet ready to take full advantage of the social web.
19 Jul 10
4:52 pm
But but but…don’t both parties have advertising heavyweights advising and handling their campaigns?
And surely those icons of the advertising world would know how to build communities using social media?
19 Jul 10
5:00 pm
Tim, landed in Sydney Saturday morning from London and had to chuckle about the whole “Twitter election” the TV networks were wanting us to believe.
I blogged about this at http://lc.tl/auelection and compared the hype to what happened in the UK for the recent general election.
Andrew Grill
I’m here for 2 weeks so will be able to see first hand if my theory is correct.
19 Jul 10
5:05 pm
As I outlined on Twitter earlier today, http://twitter.com/martinwalsh/status/18892804463 the fundamental difference in Australia is that the politicians and political parties don’t have a strategy; they simply have a checklist and then hope for the best. And, hope is not a strategy!
The politicians and their consultants do not understand that Social Networking is NOT Social Media Marketing. You will never succeed if you simply have an approach of ticking a checklist of social networking sites.
I also see lots of people from time to time comment about the Obama campaign but they are misinformed and keep perpetuating the myth that Obama succeeded because of social media.
The Obama campaign succeeded because of email first, mobile second and social media marketing third. It was strongly supported by ATL and therefore it was a great 360 degree marketing campaign which used digital marketing in the most effective way to support the campaign goals and objectives. The team who led the Obama campaign has stated this on numerous occasions but it keeps getting lost in translation.
Social technologies are not simply Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and YouTube. It is blogs, forums, communities, product reviews & ratings, RSS, chat & WIKI’s, social media newsrooms, social media press releases, social bookmarks and widgets to name a few.
As Tiphereth points out social influence marketing is about engagement and conversations. Social Influence Marketing is not just another monologue broadcast channel and yet so many marketers (and politicians) continually treat Twitter and Facebook as an RSS feed to broadcast yet more messages.
We’ve moved on from the Conversational Marketplace pre 1949 to the era of Mass Marketing Advertising circa 1949 to 2000 we are now in the current era of Conversational Marketing 2001+. But it seems a lot of people cannot grasp the fundamental changes in consumer behaviour underlying these new rules. If you don’t understand your target audience, where they are and how they use the social technologies then you will fail.
I won’t even go into the art of storytelling and content but simply stories sell, facts and figures don’t and this is particularly true across digital marketing.
Lastly, influence is not about the number of followers a person has or the volume of their tweets or status updates or blog posts. True influence by its very nature is the power of that individual to influence another person’s behaviour or opinion. Sadly way too many people are also using the wrong KPI’s to measure social influence marketing and are spending way too much time on speaking and or engaging with the wrong people.
This failure to understand the power of digital marketing and social influence marketing is probably the single biggest lost opportunity of this election.
19 Jul 10
7:13 pm
TWEET OFF! How dumb of prime media promoting another media over their own.
No wonder more people spend more time online than watching TV or reading newspapers. Think about it. Your client spends $10,000 for a spot in ACA and then ACA tell their audience to go online for more about this story. No wonder clients are leaving TV and Press advertising in their droves. FREE TV, newspapers and radio need to take a good look at themselves. Or they wont be here in this form in 10 years tiime. So then you can forget about your kids becoming news readers and reporters. They will be boring BLOGGERS on Twitter with no income.
19 Jul 10
9:27 pm
@Carole Ann Goldsmith – he is on twitter @SenatorBobBrown
20 Jul 10
10:00 am
@martinwalsh couldn’t agree more. My blog post with an example the social media “gurus” missed. http://jimboot.com/the-twitter-election. @tim I agree I dont think the parties will harness the power of online but individuals may.
26 Jul 10
2:48 pm
What election…
27 Jul 10
8:00 pm
I really think the social media buzz , especially twitter is a bit too hyped – I mean Kevin was all over twitter and look what happened to him – people vote for whos making the best policy decisions NOT on their twitter skills.
30 Jul 10
8:03 am
The usual content of Twitter hashtag streams like #auselection are pretty ignorable but where it does come into its own is when politicians appear on tv programs like #qanda or in a #debate and you get immediate feedback on their performance. Similarly the #insiders tweet stream attracts are a fair selection of larrikan commentators. Journos admit they monitor (and participate) in the tweet streams and this can in turn feed into their articles the next day so in this sense I would say Twitter has an impact. Facebook I would say has had 0 impact.