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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.
You say mistook, I say misled
Sydney’s Daily Telegraph Confidential column had a nice little scoop, with Chris Lilley confiding that his follow up to Summer Heights High will soon air on the ABC.
But how on earth can the paper have landed such a scoop for the man it describes in the article as “uber-shy”?
The clue comes in the phrase: “Lilley mistook a Confidential staffer for a punter in Melbourne”
Dr Mumbo suspects that Lilley isn’t in the habit of accosting random members of the public to tell them his plans, what with him being uber-shy and all. So perhaps a more accurate phrasing would have been ”Our Confidential staffer pretended to be a punter”.
August 26th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
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Comments
26 Aug 09
7:36 pm
Yes Dear Dr. Nothing’s changed; never has and never will with this tabloid “scrag”. Even though Lilley’s humour is not quite mine; we all recognize that he is a brilliant innovative world-class talent that should be nurtured, sustained and supported. No wonder the media’s reputation is going downhill fast; there was indeed a time when newspaper, radio and television “writers and reporters were proud to call themselves journalists. But this type of gutter journalism, mis-reporting and/or gross mis-representation is all too prevalent in the media today – witness THE SYDNEY DAILY TELEGRAPH, A CURRENT AFFAIR and TODAY TONIGHT as prime examples of mass media representing themselves as something else. The standard of reporting, sticking to the AJA and OZ PRESS COUNCIL standards as the ones to aim for and attain are, sadly, long since gone.
Why doesn’t the management of the “TELE” take a leaf out of its sister tabloid THE HERALDSUN in Melbourne. It had a reputation of “running fast and loose with the truth” before the turn of the century, but has now evolved to a stage where it is at least on a par, if not ahead of the pondorous MELBOURNE AGE for standards of truth in reporting and quality of journalism. And because of its stature as the largest-selling newspaper in Australia, thrashing Sydney’s tabloid flagship and achieving this in a much smaller marketplace,
If anyone doubts me, just ask the “old heads” in the press area. Not just the Laurie Oakes of this world; also try the ‘grizzled’ sub-editors and Leader writers of any paper, who will certainly back this up convincingly. The HERALDSUN has certainly regained respect ; sadly the TELE hasn’t and doesn’t even look like getting close to it. The citizens of NSW are much the poorer for it.
26 Aug 09
10:05 pm
Crikey.
It takes quite something for the first comment to be longer than the original article, even on Mumbrella.
Gossip Reporter In Tawdry Lie Scandal Shocka!
becomes a polemic on the decline of journalism.
The ugly bit which guts me to the core is that people buy / watch this stuff. If they didn’t, it wouldn’t be there.
Now let the “race for the bottom” debate start…
26 Aug 09
10:21 pm
ADGRUNT; you are so right. But upon reading that garbage; as one who is more thn a bit “old-fashioned” (obviously), I took great offence at that scurrilious report. We all know ;that it is just another crappy one in the annals of so-called ‘journalism”; but society must take a stand sometime. But I bet that it will not even draw more than another one or two responses; if that. Let’s hope; and see.
26 Aug 09
11:02 pm
Graeme,
I’ll momentarily take my acerbic hat off. Your response is correct and heartfelt as I echoed, but I suspect that the place we should both start is at the top, not the bottom.
Telling anyone that gossip columns are full of bottom-feeding, rumour mongering, moronic twaddle is obvious and indeed why they’re read and have been in various forms for millennia. Hey – I read them occasionally, but expect lower professional standards than say the cartoon strip or the horoscope.
So the greater and more serious issue that you touch on of journalistic dumbing down, tabloid sensationalism, political sway etc is sadly unlikely to get much comment around this topic – right site, wrong article.
Wait until the morning. It’ll be Thursday, so everyone should be alert by now…
26 Aug 09
11:12 pm
Thank you ; again you are “spot on”. It is only, after all, a “sleaze page” dressed up and falsley promoted “as news”. But it says two things to me, being: 1) the standard of reader is lower than ever, and 2) even though this is a “goss” section unreservedly, the whole mis-representation of the paper to the poor young man was typical of the “gutter journalism” practised in Ezra Norton’s heyday. and when One adds that this standard is replete throughout the pages of that paper with headlines that the Washington Post would be proud of; I just shake my head sadly.
Let’s hope that the new young “journos” coming through now do at least aspire to far higher standards of reportage, and, more importantly, are allowed, even encouraged to by some of their muck-minded editors and seniors.
28 Aug 09
11:20 am
What’s your problem? Journos are members of the public too. Do you always announce your profession first up when chatting casually with people you dont know? If Lilley wants to keep this secret then how about he keep secrets to himself instead of balbbing to someone he doesnt know who could well be a journo or -increaisngly likely these days – a blogger, or an employee from a rival network?
Secondly, how do you know the Tele hack misrepresented him/ herelf?
Thirdly, the story seems to have elicited the truth from Lilley, rather than a lie that he’s been instructed to parrot by the PR department. The problem with this being…????
Baffled.
28 Aug 09
11:45 am
That’s probably one you should take up with the Australian Press Council, Eyes Wired Open. Here’s what its rules say:
“Generally, journalists should identify themselves as such. However, journalists and photographers may at times need to operate surreptitiously to expose crime, significantly anti-social conduct, public deception or some other matter in the public interest.”
I’m not sure that the news that the ABC has recommossioned Chris Lilley quite counts as investigative journalism being conducted in the public interest.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
28 Aug 09
12:22 pm
Tim- Mumbrella, you’re not answering my point. Do you always announce your profession first up when chatting casually with people you dont know? “Hello , Mrs Lilley who’s just moved in Next Door, my name is Tim and I must first of all inform you that I work for a website called Mumbrella before you decide to speak to me either on or ff the record as I’m about to politely ask what your husband’sp to. Get real.
28 Aug 09
12:37 pm
Thank you MUMBRELLA.. “eyreswiredopen” doesn’t even have the guts to put their full name to their comment; let alone their publication or suburb. Typical. So THAT ALONE tells us just how much belief or truth we can place in his/her comments.
As for them falling back on the old chestnut of “blaming the PR department”; what a joke. HE, because it’s probably a gutless “he”, totally ignores the fact that information WAS AGAIN OBTAINED BY DECEPTION; a favourite trick of lazy and incompetent so-called “journalists” and those wankers who stick up for them. As as for “slamming” journalists, which he says I did by (at least) inference; “just wake up to yourself man, and get your hand off it”. I did no such thing. Sounds like you could either work as a supposed “journo” on that paper, or are maybe one of their hack bosses. Or should that read “boss hacks”. Or alternately; are you “a failed” real journo? We don’t know; because you hide under a pseudonym. Oh well; . . . . . , that’s Life in the 21st Century; I suppose..
Lastly, and for the record, as someone who has known and worked with serious journos over a number of years, AND for leading publishers and orgnisations where I had to firstly pass their unspoken but known “ethics and standards tests,” let me tell you that I have the greatest respect for good decent honest and hard-working (genuine) journalists; they are indeed almost the last safeguard and bastions of society. And the real ones certainly don’t stick up for lazy easy-to-write- snippets that attempt to pass for real journalism.. Since you obviously disagree with this, why don’t you come clean to all of us in a reasoned, clear and concise manner, instead of just “waffling” on. And while you are at it, have the guts to put a name, publication and/or suburb to your scribbles here, so that we all can see not only just who you are and your “interest” if any in all this, but put any reputation you have on the line as well. I, like many other people, look forward to seeing this, writ large in good old black and white. Her; and very shortly. “C’mon baby; c’mon”. JUST DO IT!
28 Aug 09
12:53 pm
Chill man. You still havent answered my point. Try doing that before foaming at the mouth one more time.