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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 While on Twitter I noticed someone saying that Australia’s NBN is already outdated.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.
Yellow Pages goes the testimonial route
Yellow Pages has launched Testimonial – a new campaign created by Clemenger Proximity Melbourne featuring real business owners who have benefited from advertising in the directory.
The TVC builds on the brand’s strategy of justifying to its advertisers that their investment in being in the directory is money well spent.
The ad features 23 real business owners from all over Australia, who advertise with Yellow Pages. No paid talent was used . They describe in their own words how they have benefited from it. They paint numbers on a large yellow canvass which relate to the results they have achieved.
The TVC launched yesterday and will also be supported by press advertising. As the deadline for being in the Yellow Pages directory approaches, the campaign will include a cut-down 15-second TVC reminding people to book. This will be supported by press, radio and direct marketing.
Credits:
- Agency: Clemenger Proximity Melbourne
- Creative Team: Matt Stoddart and Stefanie DiGianvincenzo
- Production Company: Fiction Film Company
- Director: Jake Robb
- Media agency: OMD
May 11th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
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Comments
11 May 09
11:04 pm
Its nice and all, but by no means a classic like “not happy Jan” and “Goggo Mobile”. I guess some markets’ advertising needs to be pragmatic…
12 May 09
11:28 am
Um… I didn’t see that kind of response. I just listed with a new site.
http://www.bloo.com.au I think it’s brilliant.!
They’re advertising everywhere in Perth, They listed me in google and have a “click to call” product where my customers can contact me for free.
This is my little plug for them.
12 May 09
1:41 pm
cant remember the last time i actually opened up the yellow pages.
businesses are better off spending that money on paid search on google and using true local. take advantage of the google stimulus package with $75 free credit too.
12 May 09
3:34 pm
I have no barrow to push. Don’t work for the agency or the client. Don’t work on any direct competitors.
This ad works for me on a number of levels and I think it’s a really good effort at maintaining the relevance of the YP in the current marketplace, certainly within specific business examples and target groups. It feels to me that the use of the talent demographics and the selection of businesses is highly deliberate and in keeping with the relevance positioning, as well as being a reflection of who the current users of the print YP most likely are (i.e. older, stick to their local environment etc). There’s no one here who’s hip, planning global domination or walking around with a bluetooth ear piece. Nice strategy and casting.
So, does it work for everyone? No, and I don’t think it’s meant to. Obviously as time and technology goes by, products like the printed YP will need to adapt further or perish under the Google juggernaut.
12 May 09
3:35 pm
Thats my comment above. I don’t mind giving my name to my opinions…just pushed the button way too quickly!
12 May 09
3:48 pm
The Yellow dinosaur, ads great they always are as they have $$$ and want to keep people paying to be listed.
I get these books wrapped in plastic dumped at my door each year and i guess that proves reach when your selling ad space.
But like most people reading this, it goes in the bin[recycling after plastic removed]
This year i even emailed the dont send me one next year list..I wonder if I’ll still get one?
Keep the spin going, but i think little businesses are getting smarter and dont just have local paper and yellow pages to promote their business any more.
12 May 09
4:07 pm
mal,
“…most people reading this” are not the target market as per the point I made above about specific business examples. If you’re reading this you probably don’t run a local driving school or contract out mini-skips. I’ve run my own business and for me YP weren’t relevant because all my business came from personal referral as I would expect from the industry I’m in.
No one said local paper or YP are the only options for small business. Not even the ad says this. To clarify, the ad is targeting listings and I think reflects the demographic of the user. Obviously, thats not you.
12 May 09
4:17 pm
Rachael,
sorry I think you missed what i was saying. We are not in disagreeing.
I was saying people like you have wised up.Why pay inflated ad rates when it doesnt deliver clients. [in your case WOM]
Or they may deliver 8 million books. [so you pay to advertise to that many people] when only a fraction of those are actually used.
My point was people have now have so many more channels and options than 10 years ago.
I think we are really talking about two different things.
12 May 09
4:27 pm
Mal
Coupla things.
The ad focuses on response, not reach as a metric, which is something I fundamentally agree with and I think somewhat lessens the impact of your argument.
Secondly, like I said, I don’t have anything to sell that might lead me to use words like ‘dinosaur’ or ‘spin’ in relation to this conversation. I was trying to take the conversation away from the barrow pushers and inject some independent critical thinking.
And you?
13 May 09
8:23 am
Rachael, no need for the condescending tone.
We seem to be talking about different things, which i have tried to show.
I wasn;t referring to Yellow pages ad..which i said is great creative etc etc.
Each of those[real] people in the ad pays to advertise in the YP.
That amount is based upon the reach, so my point is YP has massively overstated reach as they deliver YP books to all households and businesses if they want them or not. Therefore inflating the real numbers of people the person business will reach.
So businesses are paying a premium they dont need to.
Secondly i was calling the Yellow pages the the yellow dinosaur NOT you,meaning the print version is extinct.
Independent thinking…i have no problem with, but we were talking about different topics.
you the ad , me the ad rates charged to customers by yellow pages. clear
13 May 09
9:05 am
Rachael & Mal,
By being front of mind, your debate has achieved one small, positive outcome for the brand. When I got home last night, there was a large pile of Yellow Pages Local sitting in my building’s mail room. For the first time in the two and a half years I’ve been in the country, I took one.
Cheers,
Tim
13 May 09
9:39 am
Tim,
great outcome and I’d expect you to be appearing in stage two of the news ads.
real people real books
13 May 09
2:47 pm
Your points are well made Rachael – well considered and well expressed. I make it Rachael 1 – Mal 0.
Regarding the “rate based on reach” issue, isn’t this a lot like the difference between CPC and CPA in the online world? It’s not how they set the ratecard, it’s how much they charge that is the issue. At the right price I’d buy a medium that would reach all 21.5m people – you’d be mad not to as you just never know who might be interested in your brand, product or service.
A little maths. Typical click-through-rate is 0.3%. With around 7.25m households and 21.5m people, you would only need 21,750 households around Australia or 64,500 people to “act” and you’re on par.
13 May 09
3:05 pm
My yellow pages is sitting under the monitor. Don’t think I will be using it any time soon while I still have online connectivity!
In fact I don’t even use Yellow Pages Online because it’s so difficult to find what you are looking for and they just keep shoving paid adverts in front of you.
If your business targets 60+ people, the book would work for you. But I would like to see a study showing how many under 30′s have even opened a Yellow Pages book in the last 5 years.
It’s over priced and it under delivers. Even if they have testimonials from 50 different business people, that’s just a drop in the ocean when compared to how many other people have used it and it’s not worked.
13 May 09
3:52 pm
Mal, it’s not personal but I do I tend to become condescending when I am being patronised by commenters who clearly have a vested interested in the subject but don’t openly disclose that fact. This topic for some reason had become a broad decrial of the YP as a product versus the whole of the internet…and in my view, this misses the point. Also your comment ‘people like you have wised up’ threw me a little because I always thought I was pretty smart in the first place but there you go. BTW, It never occurred to me that you were using the word ‘dinosaur’ as an insult to me, although of course the ‘kids’ in my office will find it hilariously on point no doubt! I was trying to point out that when you use words like those you are exposing your lack of objectivity.
To clarify the clarificating of the clarifications….my previous comments were about the advertising. In terms of the product, which is a different subject entirely, like any mass medium, it lives and dies by it’s ability to deliver the right level of response (right numbers of the right people), at the right price, with the right intention. In the ad, they’re implying that they can deliver on a cost per response metric. Personally, I’m a cost per acquisition kind of gal when that is the goal. Does YP do either? I would imagine it depends (right people, right price, right intention…).
No doubt for many, the price is too high (because there is too much wastage etc) and for others (depending on their target market and offer), the price will be right.
For the record I don’t own a copy of the YP either. I also don’t listen to Alan Jones, watch Australia’s Funniest Home Videos or listen to new music on Myspace.
13 May 09
4:10 pm
Sarrah, So’s you know Roy Morgan looks at use of directories vs demographics as part of their media consumption survey if you want to look it up. If you’re targeting 30′s and under though, you’re almost certainly right that it would be a waste of time.
13 May 09
4:29 pm
Five will get you one that Rachael has forgetten more about media (traditional and digital) than Mal has ever learned.
13 May 09
4:38 pm
whenever we talk about yellow pages on our blog (frankmedia.com.au/blog) there is usually an impassioned response from some YP cohort.
All said and done there has to be a more user and environmentally friendly option. As twitter gains pace its worth considering twibs…twitter’s business directory. Embryonic at the moment with approx 12,000 listings.
By the way if you no longer wish to receive YP then call 1800 810 211 or emai bookdelivery@sensis.com.au
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