‘As an Australian, I was patronised every day by the Brits’

In terms of innovation and creativity, agree, yes….

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Another poor-mannered, foul-mouthed agent provocateur from the UK. Just what the world needed, a Gordon Ramsey for marketing. Hemlock, please.

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Are Kylie Minogue and Neighbours not Australian brands?

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To vouch this is no proof, without more certain [wider] and more overt test.
Shakespeare.

Thus spoke the duke when replying to the accusations against Othello. It is true that the claim does not make it so, but then neither does the denial.

Beware the man who, in refuting, stoops to the old “mate maker” technique of disparaging the Poms.

I think it a point against, that the panel were unanimous, and almost single voiced in denial, when any criticism is worthy of consideration and informed reply, especially by a team supposedly employed in a profession that demands diversity and creative thinking. It is one thing to be patriotic, but quite another to rally around the flag and bolster each other to ease the pain.

I am sorry, but I do not buy such specific and short sighted claims as- No other country has embraced technology ( I Pad etc) as we have,or how innovative our collective was 30 years ago, or wild predictions, and perhaps less wild but no more responsible strikes about the Euro and USA financial situation compared with our own. Without more comment or “more overt test” they sound like counter jibes and carping, rather than replies to the accusation.

I have often found myself wishing for a more innovative and a more classy form of creativity in marketing, I have often cringed at the low level that some marketing companies are willing to peddle, that producers are willing to disseminate and into which clients are willing to invest.

If marketing were about technology or university degrees or media ownership, then the job would be left to a half dozen firms globally, but it isn’t , it may be about all of them in part, but it is about creativity to a larger degree, than it is about any one of them, or indeed about anything else.

“The dirty balls ad” mentioned here recently, is in my opinion, a good example of our short fall. The wise creative and theatrical approach to the original US product, is overblown into crudity by an absence of taste and by re-creative bungling.
The banner under which it perished was “ageism ” in my opinion, it was not remotely ageist, but it was tasteless in the extreme. The tasteless banner seems to have gone missing.

There is a tendency to give less time and energy to retail or “hard sell” marketing and to radio in general, as if it were the cheap alternative, and there is a definite fear across the board, of art, nostalgia and of just about anything that might attract ridicule as “airy fairy ” yet, not surprisingly I guess, Kitsch seems to flourish.

I am not painting us as “Bad” and the British view, though not entirely wrong, is overstated, but we do have a void… a very big space into which we should be prepared to expand and experiment .

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Sass & Bide are doing pretty well!

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I have often found myself wishing for me effectiveness and less talk of creativity.

I have often found myself wishing for an agency that started with how to measure effectiveness and not with how to win awards or the favour of like minded sycophants.

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International Brands only need to worry about markets its sold in, the rest don’t mean a pinch. You either market to churn revenue for you client or you market for awards.

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@ I wonder

I think you are bound to continue to wonder, if you think, as I hope you do not, that effectiveness and creativity are mutually exclusive.

I agree that winning awards or the favour of sycophants is a bad result to be aiming for alone, but when striving for effectiveness works, the awards and sycophants often come with the resultant success. This is all down to marketing ability, of which creativity is a big part.

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@ Richard Moss

Of course effectiveness and creativity aren’t mutually exclusive.

My issue is that every campaign needs to be effective. Every campaign doesn’t have to be creative. If the campaign is effective and happens to have awesome creative that’s fantastic but far vital.

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As an Australian working in UK/global media for the past five years I’ve seen little to no evidence to show that the UK is any better than Aus at advertising. Sure there are particular strengths (UK comms work is, Aus trading for example) but there is no ‘better’ overall country. The UK has the population scale and awards/publications to give the better campaigns more exposure than Australian ones (or indeed any non-US/UK markets).

That being said – Mark in his article makes a very good point about global brands moving in on ‘weaker’ local brands. This is definitely true – just look at the launch of brands such as TopShop, Zara etc into Oz and their quick market gains. A lot of that is down to positive online sentiment being ‘overheard’ by Australians over the last few years and now they can finally buy the product – the local brands have been caught napping and not innovating on the same level as overseas players as that global pressure from online/social hasn’t really been there before.

Although I should point out that – I was in Westfield London when it opened a couple of years ago and the UGG store had the biggest queue out front by some margin..

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This was always going to be a topic that would get people’s back’s up, however i think that Mark Ritson makes a point, but one that seems to have been missed by the panel in the classic Aussie vs. Pom kind of way.

The reality is that the advertising industry (and media) in Australia are right up there with the best in the world, you only need to look at Cannes and other awards to see how Australia (and NZ) punches well above its weight on a per capita basis when it comes to both creativity and effectiveness. The fact that a large proportion of agencies here are attracting such good local and international talent is a testament to this.

However when you look at client-side marketers (in my experience working in an agency, with supposedly top-tier clients) their is still a lot to be desired. Brand is a dirty word for many clients, who don’t fully get the power of brand and would rather continue to differentiate through price or other non-defensible tactics. You only need to watch TV to see how, as a mass-generalisation, unsophisticated Australian marketing can be.

That is not to say that people are not doing good work, there are many local brands, MJ Bale, Art Series Hotels, to name two, who get it, and campaigns for multi-nationals (Coke, Audi etc.) that are produced locally that are challenging this status quo.

There does seem to be change taking place which Droga’s recent work with Woolies is is a good example of (but this has taken bringing in a team of international marketers to shake things up and stop producing shit retail comms). This will hopefully take things up a notch and inspire other marketers to commission creative and effective brand campaigns, and up there with what anyone else in the world is doing.

I think we do need to get our heads out of our own arse’s and stop defending the mediocrity and both inspire and challenge clients, it is afterall the “head in the sand” syndrome that is causing local businesses to fail vs. the onslaught of international brands entering the market.

Oh, and smartphone penetration and the fact that Google developed Maps here has nothing to do with how good a marketers we are – and i thought Google only employed the smartest of people?

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Friendly Aussie v Pom banter delivered appropriately has built a fantastic bond between the English and Australians in my mind. I feel that offices with a good mix of both nationalities thrive and our mutual interests result in understanding and respect. I love working with Aussies and Pom’s!

Now, there are gaps where the Poms do things better than the Aussies (in places.)

Free to air TV for example is so much better in England.

Newspapers are so much better in England.

Radio is so much better in England.

Could the standard of English media (being heads and shoulders above Australian media) have an effect on the standard of advertising produced for these respective channels?

(I am not saying that we are producing poorer work than our English cousins, however could this be a factor..?)

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Pom,

If you have your head in the sand and up your arse at the same time, no wonder the international brands find you an easy target!

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Google maps started in Sydney. But the brand Google did not start in Australia. truth be said Australian brands aren’t known outside Australia. Awards mean nothing, the whole point of business is to make sales. If you are making sales then you will be popular

The panel does not even answer the question.

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No-one understood the point and no-one answered the claim.

What have a Google technology, smart phone penetration, innovation, advertising spend per capita, talent in ad agencies, claims on inventing media buying or inventing digital agencies, the state of the world economy or anything else mentioned got to do with marketing capability at home or internationally.

The points made in the clip are arrogant, partisan, insular, defensive and irrelevant.

Ritson’s article – QED

ps We love the cricket… england beat Australia in Australia to win the Ashes.

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