Marketing news

After a contaminated baby’s milk product made thousands ill, the Chinese Government has vowed to restore faith in the ‘China’ brand. This announcement comes as the European Union banned imports of Chinese products containing milk. “It’s not just food or dairy,” Prime Minister Wen Jiabao has told a World Economic ...

As per usual, I’m part of the way through a really great book right now. Rohit Bhargava’s ‘Personality NOT Included’ (link to Amazon) looks closely at the benefits of brands having a discernible personality and of companies no longer being faceless. The challenge for brands who have spent huge amounts of money and ...

New media a sham? That’s what Andrew Marsden, the former Britvic marketing director, believes. He has delivered a stinging attack on ‘so-called new media’, urging marketers to question its commercial relevance. He also says that brands are still using the same ‘new’ tricks, such as branded websites, 15 years on. In ...

Despite research showing more Australian consumers believe their buying choices can have a positive impact on the environment, almost nine in 10 are sceptical about the environmental claims companies make about their products and services. The research compiled by Mobium Group, a Melbourne-based consumer research ...

We’ve heard it whispered in doorways and have seen graffiti with suggestions that it might be true. But now agencies need to prepare for the ‘death of the campaign’ and embrace direct digital marketing, say delegates of the Ad:Tech Conference in London. The Brooklyn Brothers partner George Bryant has predicted the ...

Interactive media company ninemsn has appointed Joe Pollard as its new chief executive officer. The company is a joint venture between Microsoft and PBL Media, hosting Windows Live Hotmail, Live Messenger, Live Search and delivering content from Nine Network programs like Getaway, the Today Show, A Current Affair ...

Adshel has announced the appointment of Elvira Lodewick as the company’s marketing director based in Sydney. Lodewick joins Adshel with an extensive background in the online media and publishing industries, most recently responsible for Nielsen/NetRatings’ marketing and communications in Asia Pacific and Latin America. ...

Move over rover, let Sixty40 take over. M&CSaatchi/Mark ...

Rapp Collins Melbourne has appointed Glen Dickson and Ruben Cirugeda as group creative directors. Joining Rapp Collins Melbourne this month, Glen and Ruben will be merging their creative juices with current group creative director, Fiona Davison, responsible for leading the agency’s creative output. Davison says, ...

Who said that alcohol advertising can be culturally insensitive? A Jim Beam TVC, ‘The Stalker’, has been pulled of the air after a complaint by health agencies was upheld by the Advertising Standards Board (ASB). ‘The Stalker’ is part of an ongoing Jim Beam advertising campaign entitled ‘The Bourbon’, which features ...

OK, no more bad pastry puns I promise. The fight in Australia over who will be top dog in the donut franchise stakes is heating up between the two major players. Donut King has been in Australia since 1981, so has the longevity case on its side. But after an incredibly effective word of mouth campaign and with ...

Wonder which Australian brand has the most loyal following? Wouldn’t expect it to be Hells Angels, eh? Brand communication and marketing company, Belong, begun its BE Brands study in 2006 where it conducted over 1000 brand interviews, as well as hundreds of informal discussions based on its criteria set out in the ...

You can't move these days for people trying to show you their fancy new iPhones (jealous? Moi? Well, ok, just a bit!), but within mobile circles there's probably more buzz right now around the recent announcement that Google will be releasing the first handset to feature their long-awaited Android mobile operating ...

If you’ve been keeping up with the online auction site world, eBay has been in everyone’s bad books. Its attempts to force users to adhere to a ‘PayPal-only’ policy has left many wondering why they are slaves to the big E. This is giving local online auctioneers an opening to get their case in. Oztion and others ...

Rumours are rife that magazine publisher POL Publishing has folded, perhaps evidence of yet another company succumbing to the pressure piled on by the world economic crisis. Reliable sources have indicated that staff were notified late last week that the company’s publications will not plan for further issues, and ...

With Taxi a distant memory and Twins and Junior gathering dust in milkbar video sections, Danny DeVito has decided to get back into the game. To celebrate DeVito’s TV show It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, ad agency Modernista! is putting seat covers with DeVito’s face on them on women’s bicycles in a campaign ...

No, it’s not mail sent by tiny interactive kids' toys. I assure you that this is completely different. According to this company, the shotgun approach to email marketing could become obsolete due to the new software developed by Melburnian Ben Dyer. Learning to paint on the family Mac Plus computer before he could ...

An Amethon Solutions mobile internet study has found that browsing habits and data consumption for users of the recently released Apple iPhone 3G is significantly higher than the average mobile device (possibly because every one of the handsets that went on sale in Australia were sold out in the first five seconds ...

The Foundry has promoted Annie Price as its creative director in Melbourne. With over 18 years in the industry, Price will now work with The Foundry’s Melbourne-based clients as well as working closely with the company’s executive creative director, Ian Brown. “Annie was no slouch when she joined us, but in just ...

Home to one of the coolest industry sites around, Robot Meets Alien has announced the winner of the second phase of its award-winning site samsungpeople.com.au. The competition required 10 people to capture and share their own unique stories using the new Samsung MX-10 Camcorder and blog for votes to win the trip ...

Mother is an agency that’s been appearing on the radar quite a lot lately, though there seems to be a credible reason why – it keeps getting massive clients! Coca-Cola has appointed Mother to handle its £30 million 2009 pan-European summer campaign. Mother won the business after a two-way pitch against the Spanish ...

We all know and love the venerable ‘out of home’ strategy, but Bebo has taken it one step further – welcome to ‘out of Earth’ marketing. The project enables Bebo users to create and vote for 500 digital messages to be broadcast into space. The extra-terrestrial communication project, ‘A Message From Earth’, set ...

So you’ve got a brilliant idea for a campaign – the creative, the production, everything is great… except for the music. And really, who has the time to trawl the net for hours looking for a suitable song that the client will probably tell you is rubbish? The Australasian Music Publishers Association (AMPAL) has ...

Dominic Rowell has been named global marketing director for Lonely Planet, a newly created role responsible for coordinating all marketing activities and developing a global brand strategy. He brings extensive experience in building consumer brands and driving sales in FMCGs and retail, more recently as marketing ...

Independent brand valuation consultancy Brand Finance has revealed the impact of the economic downturn on the 100 leading global brands. The company has released this information in its report on the 500 most valuable global brands. The world economy has been hit by commodity price rises, the credit crunch, job ...

Companies invest millions of dollars every year trying to make deep and lasting connections with their customers. TVCs and other above the line spend to grab the attention of their target audience and beyond, to entertain and thrill, direct mail to remind their customers of their product features and benefits, loyalty ...

While news of Google’s attempts to foil its archenemy, Microsoft, from purchasing Yahoo! still lingers, an advertising alliance between the number one search engine with Yahoo! is under review by the European Union competition regulators - this is on top of the existing scrutiny from the US antitrust authorities. The ...

LinkedIn, the business-oriented networking site that has received criticism for restricting its members contact numbers, could have ignored the ‘ad network’ craze according to an iMEDIA Connection report. But to do so would have apparently ‘stymied’ demands from advertisers, who are increasingly looking to the social ...

EYE, everyone’s favourite out of home media operator, has appointed Leonie Collins as the company’s marketing director of regional business units. This follows EYE’s US office naming Michelle Schiano as its vice president of marketing in New York. Based in Sydney, Collins will be responsible for the strategic direction ...

oOh!media has unveiled the first of its large format signs that will feature on major Melbourne roadways as part of VicTrack’s outdoor advertising. This comes as no surprise considering the company has also just completed the acquisition of Victorian company, Country Wide Outdoor, as part of its strategy to expand ...

If you thought that burlesque star Dita Von Teese couldn't get any sexier, take a look at her new ads for the Wonderbra range! Taking on the role of a scientist who discovers the gene for sexiness in a mock sci-fi-styled TVC, Von Teese plays the part of a mousy blonde called Heather, an uninspired scientist who ...

Acclaimed Prodigy director, Dael Oates, has used a new technique to explore the meaning of an individual’s ‘projected’ reality in a new campaign for Sony’s VAIO notebook brand. In the 30-second spot, projected images visually represent the empowerment of a VAIO notebook. The TVC seems to address the need for people ...

In an effort to change people’s view of the Windows Vista operating system, software giant Microsoft has invested $300 million in a series of ads starring comedian Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates. Vista has been slammed for allegedly being 20 percent slower, its functionality has been questioned and a number of other ...

For all those lactose-intolerant pop music fans out there, Delta Goodrem has signed on to become the public face of Sanitarium’s So Good brand with a new advertising campaign to hit television screens. Created by advertising agency Belgiovane Williams Mackay (BWM), the campaign includes two 30-second TVCs, ads in ...

In early 2008 ABI Research concluded that the value of the mobile search sector would increase to $5 billion globally over the next five years. Along similar lines, research by Nielsen Mobile found that Yahoo!, which has struggled to bypass Google’s 61 percent dominance in the internet search sector, had 18 percent ...

I hear a lot of you thinking “Oh great, yet another reality show”. But now here’s something completely different. Optus has announced the launch of its ‘Yes Coach’ online reality TV series aimed at small business. The online webisodes, broadcast on Optus’ website BizThinkTank.com.au, will follow the three finalists ...

Canon is reviewing its £50 million (AUS$110,000,000) pan-European media planning and buying business. Brand Republic reports that the review, which covers media across Canon’s range of photography and computer products, was launched by the company’s European headquarters in Amsterdam, ahead of a possible brand relaunch ...

Fremantle Media and Vodafone Australia are now partners in the current series of Australian Idol, airing on the Ten Network. This means you can take your love for warbling Aussies with you wherever you go (probably not such a great thing if you’re the person sitting next to a fan on the train). Official content ...

For those waiting with bated breath for digital radio to start, the industry announced today that the national ‘switch-on’ will take place on 1 May 2009, following a resolution of infrastructure issues relating to the rollout of transmission equipment. Commercial Radio Australia and ABC Radio believe the introduction ...

Nielsen Online has added to its local management team, gaining the talents of Matt Bruce as research firm’s new national sales director. Bruce will be responsible for devising the structure, systems and processes throughout the sales teams that will support the company’s revenue growth as well as adding to its client ...

Just when you thought that all channels of advertising had been utilised to their fullest, Telstra BigPond has come up with a brilliant, if not culturally insensitive, idea. The telco has come under fire for placing advertising billboards on its SecondLife island - right in front of a virtual Uluru. The company ...

Google – massive internet search engine and corporate web ‘good guy’ – has celebrated its 10th birthday. We’ve all used Google for all of our searching needs (in fact I’ve used it right now to research for this report!) and it’s become so much a part of our daily lives that it is even used as a verb in the Oxford ...

Australian parents have the chance to vent their spleens about ads targeted at their kids. The Parents Jury has announced the nominations shortlist for the 2008 Children’s Food Marketing Fame and Shame Awards, formed to gauge parent’s favourite and most disliked children’s food marketing campaigns. The categories ...

For those of hoping to put something shiny in the middle of the boardroom table, the judging of entries into the 2008 Caxton Awards for excellence in newspaper advertising is complete. The result? 74 finalists across 26 categories, with the number of entries up by 10 percent on last year. Finalist nominations were ...

Heard of the new trends in digital radio? Absolutely you say? Ok, so the pun wasn’t great, but music and entertainment brand, Virgin Radio, has changed its name to Absolute Radio. TIML (part of the all-powerful Times Group) announced that the brand has radio and digital at its core, a new presenter line up and will ...

After years as one of the most memorable soft drinks in Australia, Coca-Cola has announced a new campaign called Pemberton, after the Atlanta pharmacist, Dr John Pemberton (he invented Coke 122 years ago, allegedly as a form of health tonic). The main points that the campaign is aimed at is reassuring consumers ...

Google ad chief Tim Armstrong has talked up relationships with agencies, claiming that it will step up its work with them in the future. Recently Google’s bid to measure media itself and initiatives such as its partnership with Publicis Groupe to target digital opportunities, has sparked agency concern. It has ...

On the back of the tricky ‘green marketing responsibility’ issue, ExxonMobil is considering a challenge to the UK ad watchdog after a TVC it produced promoting its liquefied natural gas (LNG) development was banned for claiming the fuel was one of the cleanest sources of energy and environmentally friendly. According ...

With traditional print media said to be lagging behind in its ability to connect with men, advertisers need to be online where masculine eyeballs reportedly are – rich media advertising. Gone are the days when gamers were thought of as geeks – just ask any brand manager or executive who needs their website updated, ...

You may have come across the latest web-lebrity (web + celebrity), but if you haven't he has to be seen (and heard) to be believed. Thanks to David Barrett over at The Daily Telegraph for this one. "This is 'Trent from Punchy', the YouTube sensation watched by more than 10,000 new viewers online a day. With no ...

DDB Sydney and Wrigley’s have launched a TVC campaign for a new Extra chewing gum Fruit Bottle. Returning to the campaign will be the happy little ‘Food Creature’ characters – animated fatty foods, cigarette butts and a little coffee cup that get blown away by Extra-labelled products. The 15-second TVC depicts ...

Last month down in Adelaide, Marketing Week’s headline was “Forget what you know. New rules. New Ideas.” I went down there to listen, probe and oppose this point of view and I found that it's not the ideas and rules that are the problem. It's the habits. Listen to some of the comments from people who attended Marketing ...

Ever hear about a job that someone you know might be good for, but they aren’t actively looking to move on? Now you don’t have to keep it to yourself. Employers will be able to find the ‘hidden’ candidates for vacant jobs with 2Vouch, a company that describes itself as Australia’s first social recruiting website. The ...

The ‘Great Google Employee Snatch’ continues with Bebo nabbing the search engine's head of industry marketing, Nicole Vanderbilt, to head up Bebo’s international expansion from its London base. Vanderbilt will be responsible for driving Bebo’s business and membership internationally, focusing on France, Spain, Italy, ...

Has the illustrious world of captioning slipped through the cracks? Aussie agency The Foundry wants to make sure that it hasn’t, with a campaign for captioning service provider Red Bee.   Appearing in a range of ad industry publications, the campaign has the tagline, ‘Without captions, you’re just not ...

And who says DM isn't sexy? CEO of the Australian Direct Marketing Association (ADMA), Mr Rob Edwards, said recently that ADMA in no way endorses a pornographic catalogue that has been mailed to a large number of consumers. “We do not endorse this material, to the contrary it is extremely offensive and we will ...

It seems that not everyone was boycotting Beijing’s Olympics. Online teen hangout Habbo has released a poll of over 2000 teenagers that has revealed 77 percent of Australians aged 13 to 17 watched Olympics events everyday. Of the responses, 49 percent from guys and 51 percent from girls, the poll showed Australian ...

We all assume the worst when we see ads being misplaced or unfortunately placed online. However, the extent of the damage caused is worse than you think. If you want to check out some great examples of not very great ad placement online, check out The Barber's recent Over the Hump ... posts which looks at poor ad ...