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Opinion | Features
Why is advertising so much better in New Zealand than Australia?
Ok, so this isn’t a new observation.
But it really hit home after I watched some TV ads for a kiwi supermarket yesterday that advertising in New Zealand is so much better than much of the crap that is being served up in this country at the moment.
Why is it that Colenso BBDO Auckland can turn something as bland as a supermarket chain into a brand I almost like, while Australian agencies succeed only in either irritating me (Coles) or passing me by unnoticed (Woolies) because the ads are so average?
My memo to your boss
So let me guess?
You really want to come to Mumbrella360, but you’ve got to justify the time and cost to your boss?
Good news! I think I can help.
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.
Will Pepsi’s social media gamble pay off?
Pepsi is taking an enormous gamble this year by relinquishing the Superbowl ad spot it has held for 23 years, instead trading it in for a $20m social media campaign.
But with only 250,000 actively engaged Facebook fans compared to Coke’s 4 million plus, Ideaworks’ head of digital Aden Hepburn ask, will it work?
January 5th, 2010 at 4:15 pm
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Comments
5 Jan 10
5:33 pm
Of course it will work (that is, get more fans registered), people will jump on almost any bandwagon. One has to wonder why 4 million people have declared themselves fans of Coke. The question is, will the campaign sell more Pepsi? Pepsi is a pretty good cola, but has a crappy brand image, Coke is a pretty ordinary drink, but has great brand presence. I’m not sure Pepsi will ever close the gap created by US government policy during WW2.
5 Jan 10
7:01 pm
Or they could just wait a few years and buy Twitter for $20 million
6 Jan 10
10:10 am
it is scary to see that after 2 years of relentless salesmanship and half truths marketing people are starting to buy into some of these ridiculous social media scams.
6 Jan 10
10:41 am
This is a great move by pepsi… it was time for a change. This will drive the product across a more international market as well, and with hit the younger generation also.
6 Jan 10
11:31 am
“250,000 actively engaged Facebook fans compared to Coke’s 4 million plus”
can i ask who wrote this article a question – what does ‘actively engaged’ actually mean?
let’s walk through what is required to become a fan on facebook.
1. click ‘become a fan’
end
after that – where is the active engagement? what is this figure based on? how many people that are ‘fans’ of something have done anything more than just click ‘become a fan’. It’s like saying that everyone who has once said to someone or thought to themselves ‘gee this tastes good’ is a brand ambassador/advocate.
i always thought metrics used in marketing where things that mattered commercially … not irrelevant ambiguous things like ‘friends’ ‘fans’ ‘retweets’ etc.
6 Jan 10
1:38 pm
…And do these people become fans by finding the brand and adding it because they like it? or does Pepsi have to spend more money on Facebook ads in order to prompt them to become fans from there?
7 Jan 10
2:45 pm
It’s not just about the fans, well in the US anyway – the campaign is aimed at users sharing an idea and persisting their ‘friends’ to vote for their particular project, where the projects with the highest number of votes receive funding. Once these users share this information on their social networks – they have created their own personalised Pepsi advertisement on their page. I believe this campaign will have phenomenal success in the US, not just with the amount of applicants, but down to brand awareness, the philanthropic perception and to sales.
If it is successful, don’t be surprised to see it launched in Australia within 6 months. Currently Australia’s campaign is a dumbed down, yet more complex version of the above.
7 Jan 10
6:08 pm
Bravo Pepsi. They laughed / sneered at Galileo too!
Rather than initially try to debate the merit – & quality – of their social media strategy, perhaps it’s prudent to consider the ROI of Pepsi’s previous Super Bowl TV advertising. Sure it had all the ad types tittering (maybe even twittering if they were truly evolved) but did it move the propensity to buy &/or sales needles? I’m not sure. But the good people at Pepsi are no doubt pretty smart so for them to walk away from the jewel in the US’ advertising crown something must not be working. So what to do.
Tipping $23 mill into social media IS a ballsy thing to do. But what responsible marketer can afford to ignore or merely dabble in something that has captivated 100millions of people? There are many ways to support the worth of an integrated & strategic social media program. The problem is, because social media is so new too few people have the experience or understanding to be able to do so convincingly.
Google ‘Social Media ROI’ and read some or all of the 2.8million articles / blogs / case studies and then talk to me about scams and half-truths.
8 Jan 10
12:57 pm
@ Larry
I think the whole “engaged” thing came from Igor on ViralBlog, they run a social media agency / tracking app (not sure how they actually calculate – almost looks like it’s just their fan number!). But I agree with the 1 click = fan doesn’t really equal an “engaged fan” and not sure how that was equated. But I’m sure some would argue on FB that with the ability to broadcast into your stream as they like once you are a fan that they are engaging you on a frequenty basis.
8 Jan 10
1:03 pm
Peter – you don’t, by chance, have involvement in a company that is operating in this social media space do you?
OMG you do.
Well there you go.
8 Jan 10
1:05 pm
Digital Buzz – that’s the problem right there. We accept terms like ‘engaged’ but the people saying it don’t really know what it constitutes.
“TV is great because Jim at blahblog said it engaged hundreds of millions and I’m sure that is true.”
I’m not saying either is correct, or whether there’s even a Blahblog or a Jim that works there … but I am sure we can do better than this.
9 Jan 10
1:33 am
@ Peter
You can actually see the twittering responses from last years superbowl here: http://bit.ly/FSsp (on NY times) – interesting to see they run 2 ads – one at the very start with almost NO tweet response on the west coast and then another at full time that gets noticed on the east coast, but still NOTHING compared to Hulu + Career Builder
Food for thought.
Cheers
Aden
9 Jan 10
1:34 am
Hmmm, did I just say twittering responses… clearly it’s too late to be awake!
10 Jan 10
6:14 pm
Aden, that’s a great chart. Having said that, I’m amazed that there was any meaningful mention of ads in the twittersphere at all. I mean c’mon, we think what we do is important but in the scheme of things it’s an irrelevance to the vast majority of people – particularly compared to watching the Super Bowl.
Re engagement Larry, I completely agree with you that measuring this via the number of friends / fans / followers / views you have on social media platforms is questionable. While they’re important metrics, it would be like saying, well ,150 people walked in to my shop today. OK, but how many people bought?
While there is still much to learn, the proven key to effective social media programs – & yes, I proudly run a company in this space – is putting an on-going, longer-term strategy in place that incorporates tactical implementations to maintain / build engagement leading to sales. Plus, of course integrating with other marketing activities.
I’d be interested in your thoughts, Larry as to what Pepsi should do instead of investing in social media.
10 Jan 10
11:09 pm
i’d probably use the money to invest in a better core creative concept personally – one that can work across all channels. pepsi hasn’t had one for years.
it appears (from an onlooker so take it for what it’s worth) that pepsi is doing what it think is ‘cool/clever’ and maybe hasn’t been as diligent as it could be in working out what the real potential end gain could be.
11 Jan 10
2:22 pm
Maybe if they were really going for the philanthropic angle, the best action would be to stop creating a product full of sugar (or chemical sweetener) and completely lacking in nutrients, that is contributing to an obesity crisis in the Western world.
11 Jan 10
3:14 pm
To Belinda – I’m intrigued by your input, albeit that it’s quite a bit off the point. Please qualify your remarks by directing us all to the public statement, doubtless one that you’ve found somewhere in Pepsi’s marketing and advertising history, where Pepsi makes the distinct claim that it’s products are “nutritious”.
Your right to have your say is not in question here, just a pointer that it’s probably the wrong forum to push your medical agenda. Staging your views from atop a biodegradable fruitbox would probably reduce the carbon footprint applied by your use of the Internet. I like your assertiveness though. You believe skim milk has less carbs than full-cream don’t you? Hhmm!
To Larry – You speak strongly against Pepsi’s market research prowess, its courage to “test & measure” then act upon the data in a pragmatic way while you fail to table any real substance in your argument. Never let the facts get in the way of a good Blog!
I wonder if the reason why you can’t boast Pepsi among your clientele might be 50/50 between your adherence to “the old ways”, an inflexibility to embrace modern methods just because you don’t know them very well, and your “punctuation deficit disorder”. Just kidding Larry – we’re all friends here
I’m sure Pepsi knows what its doing, specifically when perusing the latest and greatest ways to engage a demographic that is probably primarily teens. I’m the first to admit that I have no data to back this next comment up, however, I’d bet real money that more teenagers use social networking sites than watch football.
To Peter – Thumbs up to you pal! You qualify your remarks with facts that you obviously make your living on, and aren’t hiding that fact. Integrity and professionalism such as yours will get points of view across further and faster than most who hide behind anonymity. I’m sure your client base is confident in what you’re doing for them.