Digest: Droga 5’s Telstra community project revealed?; Word-of-mouth wallies; Media agencies grow a pair; Masterchef – the magazine

With regards to Piracy….

I have always thought those Piracy ads were too strong on the front of kids DVDs.

I had to turn off the TV screen when my four year old twins listened to meaningless audio, whilst the footage showed kids burning DVD’s using real fire. If anything I think they promoted the idea of pyromania in children. Serioulsy the Piracy trailer should have been rated PG or M.

Shoebridge, always first with the news. And by first I mean a week late and recycled.

With the possible Droga5/Telstra thing…who knows what that could be about. Maybe a new online community type thing?

A “little birdy” told me that Telstra maybe paying a “customer satisfaction bonus” (possibly $1000) for all employees who are permanent/or contract based on a customer survey that will measure customer satisfaction based on various targets..etc

An interesting day for newspapers Tim. Did you read the piece on Crikey today with CEO Brian McCarthy seeking input on strategy from staff in preparation for a senior management talkfest? In true Crikey style, they’ve published an email address and invited readers to send in their own thoughts on the subject. Given the substantial ex-Fairfax employee numbers amongst the Crikey faithful, it could make for compelling reading.
On the subject of newspaper readership data I’m with Nick Keenan. Having worked on the buying side, and on the sales side (at Fairfax), like Nick I’ve seen both sides of the argument. I believe that the time is ripe for newspapers to do something that makes them more accountable, that puts them back on a parity footing with their competitors. Readers are not going to pay for their current online content offering; circulations will continue to decline, albeit slowly; classified advertising revenue will continue to decline, perhaps even faster for the next ten years than in the past ten years; display advertisers are demanding more for less, and asking for greater granularity of information (pre and post campaigns) to justify their investments.

For what it’s worth, my “advice” to my old employer, is this – be bold, be brave, be leaders – drive change whilst you can, not follow it when you have no other choice.

Tim:

We had Ted Royer, droga5’s ECD in New York, up in Toronto for a sister publication’s event (i’m with Boards) and he mentioned in passing that the NZ government had expressed an interest in Million, as had several other US state education authorities. Perhaps he had it wrong or it’s unrelated, but the writing on the wall sounds pretty similar to Million, albeit with some tweaks. Would certainly be a coup for Droga to see it on that scale.