Tongue in cheek
Ikon’s digital spin-off New Dialogue is relaunching, as Mumbrella predicted back in July.
The new name for the agency, says B&T Today, will be Tongue.
Naturally the buzz words are covered in the announcement – which also features a very fine boy band style shot of the fab four agency principals all dressed in black and white. They’re going to be an “ideas agency” and “format agnostic” (media neutral is now a bit 2004).
But they may want to look at their digital basics before they start conquering the rest of the advertising landscape. The New Dialogue blog has been abandoned without a new posting for more than a month, Dr Mumbo notices. And its Twitter profile is even sadder, looking like it was something of a passing fad for the agency, which managed a grand total of 14 tweets, with one in July and one in August, and no more since then.
Still, it’s a fresh start, so Dr Mumbo looks forward to big things from the new team.
Update 18 September: A few minutes after this item was posted, the agency pulled down the website and deleted its Twitter feed. A shiny new Tongue website is now online which does not include a blog, but happily does include the boy band picture.
as if by magic they are no longer on the tubes
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Jonathan Pease? Anyone who thinks they are a style guru has to be knob don’t they? In tests, 8 out of 10 users thought so.
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Format Agnostic? You have got to be sh*tting me
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What the? on slagging Jonathan – do you know ze dolphin? Does he call you at home?
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What the?… Anyone who can’t write a proper sentence is clearly the bigger of the two knobs!
And please say hi to ze dolphin when he calls.
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I don’t know about ze dolphin, but I just had ze tuna for lunch and it was very nice thank you very much. Whilst I am food-type agnostic, I am partial to a bit of seafood, but in a completely unbiased and objective kind of way.
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I don’t know what’s worse, is it the term ‘format agnostic’ or the B&T cover shot? Noone’s wearing shelltoes for a start. The silver Nike trainers are passé, so 1984, just like the skinny skinny tie. Oh, and a major lack of cuff showing out the end of the jackets the lads are wearing is simply a faux pas.
Perhaps the photo styling will reflect the attitude, nouvelle cuisine, shoulder pads, all facade and no depth.
When’s the first single come out btw?
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RE: What The? I hope the tuna was dolphin friendly.
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Shaggy Doo – Seriously dude – regardless of the photo and the contents within – anyone who pulls out “the silver nike trainers are so 1984” and the words “shelltoe shoes” – is the biggest knob of the blog.
You and you’re french faux pas need to go back to which ever “ho hum” office you came from and give the dudes a go.
Clearly these guys have created something that you’re a little bit jealous of – so you’re bumed… i understand. But you may as well lighten up pumpkin and go with it cause they’re only going to get better.
be a licker not a hater.
(Edit From Tim, Mumbrella: When you say “these guys” are you sure you should be talking in the third person, as you appear to share an IP address with Tongue? )
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Snap!
(Tim Burrowes – Mumbrella adds: Assuming that your somewhat inane comment is agreement with a previous commenter then you do seem – based on you IP address – to be talking to yourself.)
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Booyah!
(Tim Burrowes – Mumbrella adds: Assuming that you’re agreeing with a previous commenter then you do seem – based on you IP address – to be talking to yourself.)
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So is it K Fed or Robbi W who will be having conversations at the Top table?
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@ Lambchop you are actually using the word “dude” and expect to be taken seriously? I wonder where you work? If you do work at Tongue, when can we expect the new single?
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Pity the poor digital buyer who has become a platform agnostic ideas generator overnight!
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Loving nice simple, slick websites. Good stuff.
(Edit from Tim – Mumbrella. Glad to hear you like it. Why don’t you tell your colleagues at Tongue? I see you share an IP address with them)
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Yeh i’ll give them that.
(Edit from Tim – Mumbrella: That’s big of you, what with you sharing an IP address with “them” and everything)
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website looks great – slick
i’m glad they didn’t lead with boy band. Looks great.
(Tim Burrowes – Mumbrella adds: Glad you think it looks great. Is that, by any chance, because you work there? You IP address certainly implies that’s the case.)
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Yeh. Damn it. It is good.
(Tim Burrowes – Mumbrella adds: And damn it, you should know, as this comment comes from a Tongue IP address)
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I like it all. Good work guys.
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Tim Burrowes, you have just made my day.
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hahahaha GOOD JOB TONGUE EMPLOYEES! GOLF CLAPS FOR ALL
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Classic. Nice work Tim 🙂
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Definitely the most amusing Mumbrella comment section I have read for a long time.
Seems ironic that I.P tracking uncovered a digital agencies self-promotion commenting.
Seems another 90s saying is in order ‘fake it until you make it?’
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This is pretty hilarious. Mumbles, take it as a compliment that these lickspittles care so much about the perception of themselves on this blog they bothered to have a crack at trying to ‘managing’ said perceptions.
Marketers – take this as a demonstration that these guys are digi-clueless, trying to spam comments on a blog is a rookie move that anybody with an understanding of the web would know about logging IP addresses in comment systems.
Don’t mind the logo.
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Read the comments with much interest. Wonder why staff at a digital agency aren’t tech savvy enough to send their emails of support from other addresses? Doesn’t seem to say much about their strategic minds. Mental note not to consider using them – a box of rocks would appear to be more strategic.
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I see that two of them came from Naked.
Looks like they brought some of that special social media authenticity with them.
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Great work Tim. Next thing is to get rid of anom postings alltogether so people have the balls to put their name to their opinions
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hehe, Tim 🙂 excellent
once again, social media experts bomb in the soshal meejah. I love mumbrella 🙂
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I love how this has turned into a comment barrage around “social media”. (they don’t get it, what idiots, how clueless etc)
Collingwood lost to Geelong by 70+ points on the weekend. Was social media the cause? Probably.
Gold.
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I like this new, edgier Tim Burrowes.
It’s not every day that you get to see a bunch of SOCIAL MEDIA EXSPURTS!!!1 get owned so hard. What a pack of n00bs.
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Love your work Tim. Guess these guys are about to find out what ‘viral’ means – Twitter is abuzz with it, and it’s still Sunday.
Once again, we see how crucial authenticity is.
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Tim, I reckon you’ve licked The Tongue pretty well. Keep exposing (them, not you).
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Evening everyone
I’m Lyndon Hale, Managing Partner and Exec Creative Director at Tongue.
I’ve been watching this post with equal parts amusement and dismay over the past couple of days, but on the record i can promise you that no-one from the senior team at Tongue had the slightest thing to do with any of the comments that supposedly came from Tongue IP addresses. Just to be clear that means we neither posted nor asked anyone else to post any of the comments on this thread up to now.
My guess is that it’s a case of enthusiasm within the company and a desire to speak out for a company that people here feel very passionately about. People who work here are very excited about what they’ve built and with good reason.
I totally agree with 28 Fraser Thompson about posting anonymously, it would be great if everyone could be held accountable for their comments, I think the quality of the debate would rise.
Congrats Tim for providing the platform for this debate- and thank you for the boyband comment, you made my partner and daughters day.
Cheers all
Lyndon
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Pffffffffffffft.
Furious backpedalling masked with casual cheerfulness.
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Oh no he didn’t!!!!
The ol’ blame the juniors trick? Seriously!
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Remember when BWM got caught? https://mumbrella.com.au/bwm-busted-talking-up-their-own-work-4093
This was what Rob Belgo had to say then: “The comment came from a younger member of the team. There is nothing wrong with our staff being proud of their agency’s work. No one from BWM instructed her or advised her to post this comment.”
Sounds familiar?
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That noise? It’s the sound of a truck reversing…
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God forbid i say anything negative about my current employer and mumbrella black mails me. Wrong.
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You should be able to post anonymous no matter what it is. I don’t see anything wrong with employees who probably had little to do with the “relaunch” being happy and excited about being part of something they are proud of.
If you’re going to start making public certain ip addresses then make them all public so we can see who the real negative people are too. We are so quick to cut people down. It’s quite sad.
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@Anonymous,
The issue, as I stated above, is authenticity. Post what you like, but don’t pretend to be someone you’re not, or feign impartiality when you work for the organisation in question.
I suspect that your refusal to see an obvious truth may be because you are indeed from Tongue and have decided to post from a separate IP address.
The hopeless back-pedalling and comments from those like yourself are just going to add fuel to the fire and ensure that this thing gets even more attention.
Consider how much more quickly this would die away if they came out and said ‘You know what, you got us Tim – and full credit to you. But we’ve invested and heart and souls into this, and believe we have a great product. Naturally we felt hard done by watching it get trashed publicly, so we came to our own defence – a wrong tactic, we admit and humbly apologise. Lesson learned. But we still believe in the value of what we offer, and ask for a second chance to present ourselves to the market, taking on board a) your original criticism and b) your response to the above commenting.
Thanks guys, and our apologies again – you got us good and proper.’
Amen, anyone??
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Did Lyndon really do that? Oh no. There are so many things wrong with this launch that I almost wish the guys well.
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Brace yourselves, tongue. Here comes the monday rush.
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Does anyone think their logo is a bit reminiscent of Lifelounge’s Big Mouth Project earlier in the year?
Same idea with a tongue as the script.
http://unstrungstudio.com/?p=577
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My previous post had nothing to do with the Mr. (or Miss, or Ms. or whatever) Anon comments. I was commenting on Tim’s insight that a digital agency should probably have their digital basics in place and then the speed at which those digital basics disappeared.
But all these anons. There’s no place here (and in my opinion, anywhere) for anonymous comment. Sure, you might work at Tongue and want to chuck a couple of bones in the ring, because you’re a) enthusiastic & passionate or b) childish & antagonistic.
Whatever it is, have the spine to stand on your opinions and why. Have enough conviction in your opinion to say who you are. Nobody’s going to shoot you for saying “I’m from Tongue and I think they’re boss”. Well, they might but that’s part of being in a free, liberal democracy. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, unless they take it anonymously, in which case it belongs to nobody.
Posting anonymously just shows you to be a protagonist who probably doesn’t believe what you’re saying and haven’t got the guts stand on it anyway.
That’s what I believe for ANY forum.
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@Lyndon Hale
Be interested in hearing what thought was given to Google when building the new site.
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@Jim Stewart I’m sure Google will still take their money for PPC, regardless of the format of their site 😉
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They don’t understand the platform at the core of their business. Further, Jonathan Pease has styled them to be a boy band, not as people who take marketing seriously.
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@Tom KelshawLOL I’m sure! THere’s seems to be no regard for organic though. They may have blow away any link love they may have had as well. Just curious if this was something considered when moving to the new site. Going from text rich to no text will kill you in the SERPs everytime.
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