A newsworthy event is happening right now. And another, and another — it never ends.
This is vital not just for feeding our 24-hour news cycle and hungry media corporations, but increasingly also for…
ANZAC Day once was a day to commemorate the sacrifices made by Australian soliders in war – but is it now being hijacked by companies with a profit motive?
Australian War Memorial
Australian brands are increasingly looking to exploit national holidays like ANZAC Day. Given soft retail conditions, such efforts are understandable. But is it welcome?
Sure, there is no law against…
A woman reads the Sydney Morning Herald in its new tabloid-sized format while a neuro test monitors her reaction.
Fairfax/AAP
If there’s one thing that could be observed from Fairfax’s move to publish its first tabloid-sized broadsheets it was a surprising level of neuro-illiteracy.
Fairfax’s head of advertising, Sarah Keith…
Can on-field adulation translate to off-field trustworthiness?
AAP Image/Dean Lewins
Darren Lockyer knows a thing or two about conversions, having banged hundreds between the posts and over the crossbar during his rugby league career.
He retired on a high in 2011, having captained the…
Tobacco advertising laws must be adapted to keep up with new media.
jfin.ch
“Every time a door closes a window opens.” This clichéd greeting card sentiment must be the catch-cry of tobacco marketers globally. Every since tobacco advertising was first forced off our television…
Are any of these fish sustainable? A seafood guide might help you figure it out, but it might not…
Diarmuid Fisherman/Flickr
Whether at the supermarket or the local fisho, most people find it difficult to know what seafood is sustainable. To help consumers make more informed choices, conservation organisations have been busy…
Green has become the new black for some companies, but often there is more at play than environmental consciousness.
davesag/flickr
Civilisation is doomed. If Guy Pearse’s Greenwash doesn’t convince you of this then you’re a more optimistic person than me. That, or you’ve been led down one of the most dangerous marketing blind-alleys…
Ever wonder why Australians spend half a billion dollars a year on something that comes from the tap?
slinky2000
By Marnie Crook, Swinburne University of Technology
Water is just water, right? To some, yes, but many consumers spend inordinate amounts of time considering which brand they should buy and are willing to pay many times more than the price of humble tap…
We want our pets to be happy, but how much luxury do they need?
nezitic[x]/flickr
People around the world are worrying about their carbon footprint. But what about their furry friends' carbon pawprints?
Consider the numbers: there are currently around 1 billion pet cats and dogs worldwide…
The future of advertising: Coca Cola have launched an Australian campaign as part of their joint venture with music streaming service, Spotify.
Flickr/Sorosh
The Australian launch of a joint venture campaign between soft drink behemoth Coca Cola with Swedish music streaming service Spotify and Universal Music, represents the new world of advertising.
The…
Athletes competing in the Paralympics don’t have a level playing field.
Julian Stratenschulte/EPA
Have you detected the not-so-subtle difference in the coverage afforded to our Paralympic and Olympic athletes? A sense that the marketing budgets are worlds apart for the two sporting events? It wouldn…
A focus on money rather than sport is tarnishing the Olympic brand.
Shawn Carpenter
Nothing is sacred and nothing can’t be bought, sold or sponsored in the modern era of the Olympics. If you can’t afford it, then you won’t win it.
Sport in 2012 has become a massive global industry. The…
Poverty of vision: the carbon tax is about more than individuals' hip pockets.
AAP/Julian Smith
July 1 has rolled past and Australia has a carbon tax. As Government Ministers prepare to hit the road to spruik the benefits of the tax, it’s worth shining a spotlight on the kinds of messages they love…
The Lingerie Football League is coming to Australia … and it needs you to be outraged to pay the bills.
AAP Image/Wayne Heming
I’m a fan of the retention of pubic hair. I don’t much like the idea of breast implants. Thoughts of vaginoplasty coax me into an involuntary Kegel exercise. I’ve no idea why any woman would bleach her…
Businesses sponsor schools to increase sales and generate product loyalty.
Elizabeth/Table4Five
The furore following the announcement that Jenny Craig CEO Amy Smith would address a gathering of hundreds of girls' school teachers has once again brought the uncomfortable issue of corporate presence…
Kony2012 seemed to be everywhere, but attention has now turned to the makers of the video.
Reyhan Dhuny
There have been enough social media disasters of late to make one thing clear: manipulating sentiment through social networks is next to impossible.
The McDonald’s #McDStories campaign in January was…
Coles is among a number of companies that have misjudged social media campaigns.
AAP/Alan Porrit
My central problem with branded clothing is my reluctance to actually be branded. Why on earth would I pay to advertise someone?
When a Kiwi can make a motza from auctioning her buttock flesh to a strip…
Sending the same message to everyone at once is an old-fashioned approach.
Boston Public Library
The Federal Government is once again hitting difficulties in communicating its carbon pricing proposal, with polling finding Australians don’t like the word carbon. The government is reconsidering its…
Protests such as the Occupy movements are no longer considered fringe as consumer resistance goes mainstream.
AAP
Traditionally, the work of marketers has been to encourage the shopper to buy. For decades, marketers have focused on understanding, segmenting, or empirically dissecting a product or brand’s existing…
What if there were an algorithm that could guarantee marketing success?
Hanga Girl
Creating a 30 second YouTube movie that goes viral is the holy grail of marketing. So how is it done?
Ensuring the success of a viral-produced movie is still largely hit-and-miss. Some of the more well…
Qantas will now have to work very hard to persuade people to trust their brand again.
AAP
In 2011, brand is everything in the corporate world.
While the rest of the business operations are considered a cost, marketing makes money.
And central to so much of modern marketing is the brand, built…
Doctors' wining and dining by drug companies distort prescribing patterns and may influence them to recommend less-than-ideal drugs.
PhillipC/Flickr
This week Radio National’s Background Briefing looks at how pharmaceutical companies market their products to doctors.
The program is presented by Ray Moynihan, an award-winning journalist, columnist…
Marketing in the 2011 New Zealand Rugby World Cup will be different to previous years.
Flickr/Sandy Austin
RUGBY WORLD CUP – As the All Blacks and the Wallabies prepare for Sunday’s semi-final showdown, Deakin University’s Adam Karg discusses how to make money from the competition.
The Rugby World Cup has…
The emerging field of neuromarketing exploits the gap between what we say and what we think.
Flickr/DierkSchaefer
How do we choose? Consumers imagine themselves as rational decision-makers, able to weigh up the relative costs and benefits of decisions to arrive at reasoned choices.
Yet, a growing body of research…
Kevin Rudd used to manage his brand well, but was toppled after an advertising campaign against him.
AAP/YouTube
MEDIA & DEMOCRACY: Today, Andrew Hughes looks at how voters have become consumers of political marketing, as part of The Conversation’s week-long series on how the media influences the way our representatives…
Celebrities may inspire and help advertise products, but they have no place in politics.
AAP Image/Paul Miller
MEDIA & DEMOCRACY: Today, The Conversation launches a week-long series, looking at how the media influences the way our representatives develop policy. Robin Canniford explains why advertising spin…
Can political debates be won with a chequebook instead of politicians' backing?
AAP
The mining industry, led by the Minerals Council of Australia, has written to members asking for funds to under take a new advertising campaign to attack the carbon tax.
In his letter to members, Minerals…
Maria Sharapova has managed to move her appeal beyond sexiness.
AAP
BUSINESS OF SPORT: The marketing of women in sport in Australia in 2011 is simple: sex sells.
Don’t take my word for it though. Google the name of any female athlete and chances are the top search results…
Peer recommendations are credible because they are unrewarded and unpaid.
fb a o/Flickr
Research shows mothers prefer advice from their peers about health-care providers and medication. Such referrals are more trusted than practitioners or the paid marketing messages about health-care products…
Despite bleak predictions, bricks-and-mortar retail does have a future.
AAP
The news that clothing and footwear chain Colorado is to close its doors will no doubt be greeted as further proof of bricks-and-mortar retail’s imminent extinction.
Coupled with Small Business Minister…
Plain packaging could spell the death of the cigarette brand in Australia and beyond.
thana/flickr
British American Tobacco Australia has launched yet another attack on the Australian government’s plain packaging legislation. On top of its latest “Where’s the proof?” campaign, launched today, it is…
