We’ve published several election themed posts lately – about how the candidates should have campaigned digitally, about broadband, we’ve even published a designers guide to the election. Overkill? Not for a second – here’s another one.

This time, the focus will be a bit less specifically digital. if there’s a big story to emerge from this election, it’s the speed with which the ALP was able to turnaround the mountain of goodwill they generated by ousting of John Howard, saying Sorry to the Stolen Generations and steering Australia through the global financial crisis remarkably unscathed. Even the potentially disasterous sacking of Kevin Rudd as party leader was offset by a wave of goodwill for Julia Gillard. How did they turn this into a disaster?

The reality  is that there are hundreds of reasons reasons, and they’ll be debated  for a long time, in forums more relevant than this one. This is not the place for policy. It is the place, however, to look at campaigns and brand  Brand was a huge factor in this campaign and  it really stuck out for me the way the ALP, particularly the Prime Minister, stuck to their message so closely. They hammered the same lines over and over again, and eventually it was to their detriment. In fact, they stuck to their message so closely they trashed their brand. (more…)

I have blogged a few times lately about attempts publishers are making the price of content on the internet (here and here, if you’re interested). Traditional media sources and content producers have always struggled with creating a profitable online model, and the rise of the smartphone and the tablet both highlights the issues they are facing, and presents new opportunities for a solution.  Two more attempts at this solution have been getting publicity recently. First, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp has announced it’s plans for a new, national US publication designed specifically for the iPad. The publication is will feature short, snappy news stories (take this to mean lots of pictures, little in the way of analysis) and has been created with the goal of “having young people read newspapers”.   The second thing which got me thinking about it was a story about a series of new magazines created specifically for tablets, called Nomad Editions. Basically, the idea behind is that they’ll produce 5 “editions” around specific topics (food, movies, surfing, viral video, etc), published weekly, which users will be able to subscribe to. It will be built using an interesting technology called Treesaver , which allows users to view ther same content, using the same addresses, on their desktop or mobile device.

These are both nice ideas, but they both seem inspired by a premise I’m not sure I agree with. Mark Edmiston, CEO of Nomad, claimed that Nomad was borne of that fact that “…people reading on their iPads, they’re reading a different way”. Rupert Murdoch made similar claims about his national newspaper concept. The implication in both cases is that the new technology necessitates new content, as well as new content delivery. (more…)

It ran on Gruen Nation on Tuesday night, again on Wednesday night is now all over the web from the age to the tube and within a few hours has no doubt become the ad that will help The Greens pinch a bit of power in what has been a lackluster, negative and uninspiring election campaign. Todd Sampson called it “the best ad the greens have ever done” and to top it off, the ad finishes with a line the Greens could run with for the next 20 years “If you think, vote Greens” Bang!

I think the success of what we have just witnessed, and what we may see on polling day, can be summarised by three key learnings;

1) honesty, integrity, positivity and a great idea will always win people. Watching the Labor and Liberal party slam each other only makes them look amateur.

2) You don’t need a big (any) media budget if you have a great idea. If idea and timing are right, the digital world can do it for you. This ad, will become ‘The Ad’ for the Greens despite ABC not allowing it to be run as on official campaign Ad. They don’t need to. With the election in just over a week, news stations, youtube, twitter and blogs just like this will deliver an effective and free media spend. Nothing beats people actually wanting to watch your ad and an ad you want to watch only needs to be seen once.

3) Owning the digital space can play a big part in election campaigns. 95 tweets to Julia Gillard and 47 to Tony Abbott at the time of writing tells me that neither of the majors have a strategy around digital. Good on ya Bob Brown, at least you have tweeted 327 times! The greens, without event meaning to, are now probably going to have the most impact in digital.

And, talking digital, why have I not yet been clicking on any compelling online election ads?

@tonyprysten is the creative director at igloo

I wasn’t among the 4 million odd Australians who tuned in to the Masterchef finale . Watching grown men cry because 3 portly gentlemen, one seemingly headed dressed as Oscar Wilde, think they put too much butter on a sandwich is a bridge too far for me.  By not tuning in, I missed the major launch of the TAC’s new “Everybody Hurts” campaign (a nice summary from Campaign Brief here), a 3 minute commercial which aired right in the middle.

The campaign is powerful stuff, especially in contrast to the mawkishness of Masterchef. Advertising a serious issue, the campaign illustrates the impact of speeding in a way that’s emotive , insightful and touching. Despite the fact that the REM track it uses has been TV’s go-to “moving” song for the past 10 years, and despite it’s overtness , it manages to maintain taste while having a real emotional resonance. It works better online than as in the 3 minute TVC , because despite the long running time, some of the (albeit very strong) content feels crammed in, and a bit sound-bitey as a result.

Where this campaign stands out against a lot of recent behaviour-changing campaigns Ihave seen is that it doesn’t set out to shock. This is not to say it doesn’t have the capacity to shock. I found the vision of the very disturbed “slightly removed” people like the mortician and friend from work made a particular impact. Nor is it to say that campaigns designed to shock can’t have be effective has definitely played a major role in changing people’s behaviour – the TAC in particular has been moving in this direction with some success for many years. (more…)

It was just one remarkable factor in a remarkable campaign, but it’s still surprising just how effectively Barack Obama was able to utilise social media and digital campaigning in his 2008 presidential campaign. He pushed his message and brand, generated support and mobilised financial backers. He attacked and diminished his opponent, without cheapening himself or tarnishing his image. Through this success in the “new media” he was also able to highlight the age difference between himself and his opponent, and add credence to his message of being the harbinger of change and innovation.

In considering the lessons this offers for the upcoming Australian election, there are a few qualifiers. The Obama social media campaign, particularly My Barack Obama, were primarily fund raising exercises. As well as financial factors, the length of the American campaign and the reliance on volunteers to facilitate their campaign rallies (occasionally quite elaborate affairs), so mobilization of supporters is vital just to keep the campaign running smoothly. As well, the Australian campaign is (mercifully) significantly shorter than it’s American equivalent and at a set time, which brings significant planning advantages.

Despite this, there’s a lot both sides can learn from Obama’s campaign, and from what’s happened since. Here, then, are the 5 tips we would give both parties, should they ask, about how they should conduct themselves digitally during the campaign. We are offering the advice to both parties because we are wise and benevolent like King Solomon and Quentin Bryce.

1. The Normal Rules of Twitter Don’t Apply (for the campaign period only)

I’m going to get slightly controversial with this one. For the next week or so, before the campaign hots up, expect to see several stories about Gillard and Abbott’s presence on Twitter. 90% of these will be bookended by a quote from a “social media expert” of some description, who’ll advise them that they are “broadcasting” too much, and that they need to “engage in conversation” (never “have more conversations”, for some reason) with their followers. Ordinarily, fine and sensible advice. Post-election, it’s just what they should be doing.  But right now, I’m not so sure. (more…)

Sometimes a random shot can say a lot. And the above shot, taken of my living room one arvo and loaded to facebook quickly gained comments from my friends without kids about how a shot like this would put them off having kids forever. Its a far cry from what our living room is supposed to look like, but that’s the reality of kids confined to a small space on a cold day.

This got me thinking. We so often take a shot that would accidentally just work its pants off as a real ad – hence the term ‘real ads’

So this post and following posts in the real ads category are just that. Shots of real life experiences that could form a tangible, real ad campaign and sometimes, the beginning of an idea. No models, no clever copy and no contrived shots. Just the power of a real life, original shot and a logo. We already have a heap ready to go so keep your eye on this space.

In my post last week, I mentioned a report which blamed the lack of spending on internet advertising in part on the low quality of online advertising campaigns. It’s a claim that you hear from time to time working in the field,  either in the form of stray”I hate those pop up things” comments,  or from serious sources like this 2009 article from TechCrunch, which claims that “the internet is about freedom… and a truly free population will not be forced to watch ads”

The comment stayed with me through the week. I knew it was wrong and could thing of a lot of reasons, but didn’t post about it as I couldn’t think of a succinct way to explain it. Then the Old Spice Man exploded, and it dawned on me. It’s wrong because people LOVE internet advertising.

If you’ve been in a sleeping pill induced coma for the past week, the Old Spice Man is a deodorant campaign which has exploded. It’s mildly amusing bit in the Chuck Norris/ Barry “The Cougar” Dawson vein (you could almost call the humour Anchorman-lite)  which has exploded across the internet. It has 55 million YouTube views, and the campaign’s been given legs with the having the character uploading personal responses to users from various social media sources, answering questions on Yahoo, and so on.

The campaign’s not a great one, but it shows just how deeply internet advertising can penetrate if it is popular – or more correctly, how deeply a popular campaign can disseminate with proper integration and some momentum. This is advertiser created content as a legitimate entertainment source – people are engaging because they like the campaign in and of itself, not the product. Advertisements – not advertiser funded content, advertisements – are now a legitimate form of entertainment. (more…)

When you hear the phrase “Queen of the Internet”, you’re probably inclined to think of Lady Gaga or, if you are a traditionalist Tia Tequila.  But the title’s also been given to Mary Meeker , a Managing Director at investment bank Morgan Stanley. Meeker, who heads up the bank’s global technology research team, earned the title after the publication of her ground breaking  if unimaginatively titled  The Internet Report in 1995. The report successfully predicted much of the dot.com boom, and despite the bubble’s bursting in 2000, has been highly regarded and closely followed by investors and the tech industry every since.

Meeker’s 2010 Report was released to the public last month, and again, it’s full of fascinating information.  It’s particularly strong on the rise and rise of mobile computing and the flow on effect this boom is having on innovation and customer expectation. It finds:

- The growth of mobile internet is unprecedented, with the inflection point where the number of smart phones shipped surpasses PCs predicted to be reached as soon as 2012. Smart phones shipments have already overtaken feature phones in the USA. They have been the biggest growth drivers of computing devices in history. The report notes that wireless options are growing rapidly to meet this demand, and that the demands of wireless consumers have expanded massively year on year since the device’s launch. (more…)

Not really related to anything, but as the office is beginning to be gripped by World Cup mania I thought it fitting to include this awesome ad by Nike.

Is it just me, or are Nike and Coca Cola 2 companies that consistently make really good ads?

Not that I’d needed it, but my recent trip to Japan late last year confirmed all the hype I’ve heard about Japan being the ultimate “cute paradise”. You simply can’t get away from all the visual cuteness. On the streets, ads plastered all over the trains, tv commercials, websites…

Nothing is safe from the cute invasion. Police stations and blood banks have their own cartoon mascots,  and airplanes are decorated with colourful anime characters, they even have official cute ambassadors. It’s embedded into an array of situations that may even be considered inappropriate in other cultures, things like public service warnings, office environments and military advertisement. (more…)