Tag Archives: australian association of national advertisers

Effies open for entry, 2012 case studies on show

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The 2013 Australian Effie Awards for creative excellence open for entry today, with awards in 19 categories up for grabs.

Announcing the Effies open, chairman of the awards Matthew Melhuish stressed the importance of continuing to build Australia’s culture of accountability and effectiveness. “The Effies saw strong performance in 2012 in terms of the quality and quantity of entries and we hope to continue that this year.

“The Effies provide our industry many compelling stories coupled with off the charts results and they remind us all about the effective, innovative and creative power our industry can deliver to clients.”

Entries close on 3 May with judging to take place in June and July before winners are announced at a gala dinner in Sydney on 5 September.

To share the learnings of the results Australian agencies produce for their partners, The Communications Council, in cooperation with sponsor Millward Brown, will expose some of the trends and insights from winning Effie case studies.

Trends and insights from the 2012 finalists will also be presented in a series of ‘Effies Exposed’ workshops across several states in April and May this year.

The Effies are jointly presented by The Communications Council and the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA).

Categories open for entry are:

  • Retail/Etail,
  • Food
  • Confectionary & Snacks
  • Beverages – Alcoholic & Non-Alcoholic
  • Other Consumer Goods
  • Healthcare
  • Financial Services
  • Other Services
  • Travel, Leisure & Media
  • Government, Corporate And Social Services
  • Best State Campaign
  • Multicultural/Indigenous
  • Return on Investment
  • Long Term Effects,
  • Short Term Effects
  • Most Original Thinking
  • New Product or Service
  • Small Budget a) Under $500K b) $500K – $1Million
  • Digital Platforms

Last year’s new ‘Transformational Digital Business Platform’ category, which celebrated successful digital platforms for marketing, communications or commercial activity which are not one-off campaigns, has been renamed to ‘Digital Platforms’.

For further information about the Effie program and to enter visit www.effies.com.au

AANA releases Christmas wish list

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The Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) has released its second annual Christmas wish list, describing the key areas in which the association feels change or improvement is needed.

Here is the AANA’s list of wishes it hopes will be granted over the next 12 months and how they plan to address them:

  • Government recognition of the role of advertising in economic growth and discouragement of “heavy-handed restrictions on advertising freedom”.
  • Lower TV production costs by developing benchmarks and guidelines to help marketers determine fair and reasonable charges.
  • Boardroom recognition for the role of advertising in driving business encouraged by the establishment of the Warner Awards to give greater recognition in the marketing industry.
  • More young talent that is industry-ready.
  • Greater credibility in online audience measurement and audit following the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s welcome appointment of Nielsen to develop an industry-preferred measurement system.
  • More scrutiny of shonky research so it can’t be used to support pressure groups’ calls for advertising bans, particularly in the food and alcohol space.
  • A new actors (talent) agreement to replace the out of date existing agreement that doesn’t allow for the multiple screens of today’s media landscape.
  • A renewed industry commitment to responsible advertising to children following a 2012 review of the AANA’s ‘Code of Practice for Advertising and Marketing Communications to Children’.

Last year’s wish list was not fully granted, but AANA’s CEO, Scott McClellan, does claim partial victories in several areas, including auto-refresh on websites: “Although we didn’t bring a complete end to online auto-­‐refresh, we were encouraged when two of Australia’s top web publishers, Yahoo!7 and Sensis Digital Media, agreed to stop the practice, which we believe inflates audience numbers.”

“Meanwhile, we heralded the launch of a Guideline for Online Behavioural Advertising. OBA enables advertisers to send messages more effectively to the right online audience at the right time… It was important to put in place an effective system of industry self-regulation before government felt compelled to act on emerging privacy fears,” continues McClellan.

Additionally, the AANA is pleased the past year saw improvement in the reporting of circulation data by the major Australian publishers, Fairfax Media, West Australian Newspapers, APN News & Media and News Limited.

 

Homepage image by Genealogyphotos on Flickr (Flickr) [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons.

Online measurement to be standardised

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Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Australia has initiated a tender inviting applications for an online audience measurement (OAM) provider.

The decision is supported by Media Federation of Australia and Australian Association of National Advertisersand highlights the need for a company to be the sole supplier for the planning, buying and reporting of OAM. The contract will extend for three years.

Paul Fisher, CEO of IAB Australia explained that IAB have been looking overseas to gain more knowledge about OAM technology providers. “It is clear that a standard OAM currency is one of the most significant contributors to the growth of online advertising and we have been working hard to assist industry to arrive at such a result.”

All submissions will be reviewed by the Technical Review Group, to be chaired by Ian Muir. Muir brings expertise from his work on audience measurement in print, television, radio and outdoor media in both Australia and overseas.

The decision of the winning tender is expected to be finalised in the first half of 2011.

Hungry Jacks breaks the rules

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Fast food chain Hungry Jacks has come under fire for admitting that it screened ads showing high fat food for children, breaching advertising’s voluntary code of practice.

The breach has also brought into question the usefulness of the industry’s code, with critics citing the Hungry Jacks incident as proof that a self-regulated system will be abused.

The chain’s marketing director Jim Wilson indicated that it knew that it was breaking the code, to which it is a primary signatory, because it “had commitments we had to meet contractually”.

Of those most red faced over the incident is the Australian Association of National Advertisers, which has been resisting attempts for an government body to oversee advertising regulation and is itself supposed to act as the regulator.

“I have sought and received assurance that Hungry Jacks is committed to the Quick Service Restaurants initiative. I am confident they will meet their obligations going forward,” said AANA chief executive Scott McClellan.

According to a report in The Australian the chain had a contract with the US-based licensor of The Simpsons that specified how and when the childrens meal promotion was to be advertised.

AANA says no to Do Not Call register bill changes

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The Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) has urged the Federal Government to reconsider its plans to widen the eligibility requirements of the ‘Do Not Call’ register bill.

The association has voiced its concern that the current proposal, which advocates a range of extensions to the register including only allowing small business telephone and fax numbers, is not based on an adequate assessment of the impact the changes will have on all businesses in Australia.

The AANA also challenge the government’s estimate of how many businesses will join the register.

“Business-to-business telephone contact is a fundamental business activity and the proposed changes could have the potential to interfere with normal commerce, hinder business growth, increase business costs and reduce profitability and innovation,” said AANA CEO, Scott McClellan.

“A more comprehensive cost/benefit assessment for all business and organisations, including small, medium to large businesses, not-for-profits and Industry Associations, is required for this bill.”

Ad association adds ad man

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The Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) has appointed Mike Connaghan, CEO of STW Group, to its board of directors.

I was thrilled to be asked, honoured to accept and really looking forward to working with such an esteemed board and influential organisation, said Connaghan.

Connaghan has formerly worked for Clemenger BBDO, Singleton and JWT.

“Mike Connaghan and STW have been active supporters of AANA, hosting a key industry leaders forum on advertising and the economy recently,” said Scott McClellan, AANA CEO. “He will bring a unique supplier-side perspective to the management of important industry issues.”

Other board members include:
Name Position Company
Joe Talcott Group marketing director News Ltd
Mark Buckman Chief marketing officer Commonwealth Bank
Rebecca Boustead Senior manager, corporate communications and regulatory affairs Kellogg Australia
James Tait Corporate affairs director Lion Nathan Australia
Sarah Gibbons External affairs manager Mars Australia
Ian Alwill Director, group marketing and communications Nestle Australia
John Sintras CEO Starcom MediaVest Group Australia
Matthew Hall Partner SWAAB Attorneys
Amanda Johnston-Pell Executive director, brands and marketing group, Telstra strategic marketing Telstra
Peter Webster Divisional manager, national marketing Toyota Motor Corporation Australia

Green advertising code released

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The Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) has published a new industry regulation, Environmental Claims in Advertising and Marketing Code.

The move comes in response to the growing number of ‘green’ claims made by Australian advertisers. AANA consulted with its own members, community groups and environmental advocates in preparing the regulations. It said a majority of those consulted were in support of the code.

“This code of practice establishes a clear framework for advertisers and marketers on the use of green claims and sets the benchmark against which these claims will be judged. It gives consumers a simple, transparent mechanism to assess the environmental merits of a product or service, and provides the means for them to easily make a complaint in the event that they believe they’ve been misled by an environmental claim,” said Scott McClellan, AANA CEO.

The code lays out a set of principles to be considered in relation to any environmental claims an advertiser may want to make about a product or service:

  • Claims are truthful and factual
  • They are relevant to the product or service and its actual environmental impacts
  • They can be substantiated and verified
  • Claims are not misleading, vague or ambiguous
  • Claims reflect relevant legislative, scientific and technological developments, and
  • Claims demonstrate a genuine benefit to the environment and are backed up by current evidence.

The Code will form part of AANA’s existing self- regulatory system and will be adjudicated by the Advertising Standards Board. Complaints against the Code will be considered from 1 January 2010.

Twitter kills the agency star? Not quite says Talcott

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News Limited group marketing director and AANA chair, Joe Talcott has questioned whether Twitter and other social technology will make agencies and professional message makers obsolete.

In a presentation at The Cannes Lions Advertising Festival, Talcott prophesised to delegates that technology in advertising is risking traditional marketing roles and driving the need for new business models.

“Technology is changing at an ever-quickening pace and with it, the way people communicate with each other. This has major implications on advertising, marketing and media. But while these changes are massive, they are not unprecedented,” Talcott said.

During his seminar, Talcott spoke about the history of human communications and the four main implications of technology.

Talcott said that audiences are fragmented, sophisticated and cynical, and that the lines between content producers and content consumers are blurred. For the first time marketers are trying to connect with consumers who are individually and en masse connected with each other.

Talcott also indicated that there was hope for ‘traditional’ message makers in this new world.

Ad industry dismisses childhood obesity link as myth

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Not sure who did the stats on this one, but the advertising industry has denied there is any link between food advertising and childhood obesity.

The news.com report says that at a federal parliamentary inquiry into obesity in Australia, held in Brisbane, MPs were also told that advertising standards prohibited food being advertised as healthy in Australia.

Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) executive director Collin Segelov claims yet to be released CSIRO research will show no significant increase in childhood obesity since the last study in 1995.

“This makes the notion of an obesity epidemic, as continually put forward by academic activists and others – quite irresponsibly in my opinion – quite misleading, if not an utter nonsense,” says Segelov.

“I’m not only arguing that advertising is not the cause of a childhood obesity epidemic, but that there is no epidemic.”

Mr Segelov said food advertisers remained committed to a broader, more holistic approach to obesity.

Foundation for Advertising Research founder Professor Glen Wiggs says an Australian food standard specifically forbade the use of the word ‘healthy’ in food product advertising. 

Advertising is an easy and cheap research target for authorities, but very little research was undertaken into how the home affected food choices. Prof Wiggs believes that “children tend to imitate their parents”.

Let’s see if there is a sudden surge in sugary breakfast cereal and McDonald’s TVCs following the release of the CSIRO report.