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Opinion | Features
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.
The top seven...most patronising pieces of communication
Sometimes brands have big ideas. Sometimes marketers get so caught up with a grandiose idea that instead of finding engaging ways to sell breakfast cereal, they start to believe their own rhetoric. And sometimes it’s just lazy marketing. Here are my top seven inadvertently patronising pieces of communication…
1) Last night thousands of women gathered in Sydney’s Centennial Park to take part in She Runs the Night, an event created by Nike.
TV audience measurement – why big isn’t always beautiful
In this guest post, Chris Walton argues that the media industry needs to take a new approach to TV tradingThere has been a significant amount of coverage recently about how successful The Voice has been. Indeed, audience figures of 2.6m+ people are very impressive these days. Based on reports, this is apparently double the size of audience that Nine was hoping for in the lead up to the programme launching.
Wrigley uses ‘Bad boys’ in Extra ad
Wrigley has launched a new ad campaign featuring a reworked version of Inner Circle song ‘Bad boys’ to promote the dental health qualities of gum brand Extra.
The agency behind the campaign was DDB Sydney.
Credits:
- DDB
- Creative Director: Simon Veksner
- Creatives/ Creative Group Heads: Steve May, Nils Eberhardt
- Planning Director: David Chriswick
- Business Management: Rebecca Crawford, Susan Bennett
- TV/Radio Production: Amy Hansen and Harriet Burton Taylor
- Print Production: Lila Trajkoska
- Production House: Platigue
- Sound Design: Song Zu
- Wrigley: Tia Notermans, Alexandra Skolarikis, Kym Bonollo
February 13th, 2012 at 10:36 am
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Comments
13 Feb 12
11:36 am
great idea, nicely done….albeit with some clumsy client involvement visible in the execution. i like it.
13 Feb 12
12:24 pm
Seriously, why include this type of ads on Mumbrella? This is exactly why people hate advertising, and why the commercial breaks are as much fun as going to the dentist! It’s mindblowing that an A-list agency is behind it. The whole idea and subsequent execution is based on a pun, as is the case with so much Australian advertising. And people still think it’s clever….”Great idea…” duh. I think client involvement is the least of its problems robbo
13 Feb 12
12:57 pm
@Adverb it’s a great extension of a long-running campaign……they’ve already set up the donuts and other nasties as “bad boys” and this punny execution reinforces the positioning of the product nicely. On brand, consistent over a long period (a quality sadly lacking for most clients) and has cut-through.
I don’t know what you expect from advertising but let’s face it we ain’t creating art here, just trying to get viable attention from punters to buy stuff. and with the “freshen my breath after eating” positioning I’d say Extra owns it, so someone has been doing a decent job.
and i have nothing to do with the client or agency, I just like the ad in all of it’s catchy obviousness.
I’d love to know what sort of ads you’d have mumbrella arbitrarily decide not to include here…….it’s an industry blog, not a museum or gallery.
13 Feb 12
12:58 pm
I put this in the Not Good / Not Different category (to borrow from @faris)
13 Feb 12
1:11 pm
I love it – have found that pink doughnut bloody adorable since the first of these ads came on.
13 Feb 12
3:10 pm
The song is great.
13 Feb 12
3:59 pm
Rob:
There’s a lot of space between art and this ad, so it’s meaningless to meet criticism with saying how this isn’t a museum. An attitude like that is the definition of mediocrity. Have a look at any selection of Cannes or D&AD winners and while you’ll find neither Fellini nor any Extra ads, you’ll find good quality strategic and creative thinking. Which I guess is what I’d like to see here at Mumbrella. Original, intelligent, creative, inspirational…If I want ads like this I can turn on the telly.
I’m sorry to hear this is only the latest execution of many. Did you love the first one as well, or is it just that you value consistency above all? I’m sure the client is terrified of killing of the animated donuts they’ve invested so heavily in, but I doubt many consumers will react or notice if they do.
Your defence is based on a comparison with the rest of the campaign and obviously the assumption that the campaign is a great one. I’m sure that can be debated. While being on brand is usually preferred, it doesn’t mean that the branding is great to begin with! Maybe, just maybe, it’s time for something new from Extra? After decades of assaulting us with extreme blandness I guess they do own that position, but they don’t leverage it. There is no reason, even according to your text book, surely, why they can’t make something vaguely entertaining and intelligent which stands a chance at connecting with actual human beings.
I know it’s scary to criticise, and I bet you say ‘yes, I agree’ a lot during a day in the office. I would love to hear what ads you don’t like though. If this is ‘great’ it can’t be a whole lot
13 Feb 12
5:00 pm
@Adverb – get over yourself
Ad made me almost chuckle first time, I’ll probably hate it the second time i see it and it will become bloody annoying, but it’s still an effective ad in terms of selling sticks of chewing gum. who cares if it’s not art. As for what belongs on Mumbrella, why not start your own blog and you can post whatever the hell you want on it? Think Mumbrella editors can decide for themselves.
13 Feb 12
5:27 pm
@Adverb, is it really necessary to be so nasty and get personal like that?
I agree that the ad isn’t ground breaking, but it’s simple and light hearted.. I don’t think gum should be taken too seriously anyway!
13 Feb 12
5:49 pm
@ Adverb your dissertation speaks of award-winning creativity and “maybe it’s time for change” for Extra after the era of the animated donuts, but I’m not sure where the rationale lies? Change for it’s own sake is not a great reason to ditch an established creative platform.
The opportunity to make “entertaining and intelligent” ads is pretty loose and vague, and sounds more like it would be of interest to bored creatives than based on any hard evidence or expected business benefits.
I do value consistency as part of a strategy – most campaigns have such a short shelf life these days a lot of work might as well be generic category stuff as the client gets lost in the constantly changing messages.
There are other considerations too, such as not spending your budget every year reinventing the message when you can invest more in media placement while reinforcing a consistent message to consumers. Is that such a flawed strategy?
I agree that no-one outside the client will give a second thought to the animated donuts disappearing from the ads if Wrigley changed direction, but the flip side of that coin is the characters are identifiable and associated with the brand and so offer a bit of brand association as a starting point…..if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
Clients and the industry give far too much weight to the idea of creative burnout in consumer minds, because outside the client building no one gives a crap about your business or your advertising, especially in a low involvement category like chewing gum.
Oh and btw i’m the exact opposite of a yes man and very contrarian in my views on lots of subjects. I love great creative work and i am also quick to criticise stuff that in my mind misses the mark……but more often than not this is based on business and strategic considerations, not purely creativity (which as a measure shouldn’t exist in a vacuum in this industry – it’s a means to an end, not an end in itself).
Lets face it, some clients push boundaries and some don’t – in my business i accept that some jobs pay the bills and some jobs are ball-tearers. You can pick and choose what goes in the folio.
Sounds to me like you want mumbrella to become an ivory tower of (your view of) creativity and ignore the vast bulk of the work that’s done in the industry – you’re better off addressing that to Tim, not me. I like the egalitarian environment here that lets all work get put forward and potentially debated, as in this case.
13 Feb 12
6:02 pm
@Adverb – in this industry, it is more scary to be complimentary than critical. And when you are posting under another name, then being critical is just plain easy.