Business of Media
A barage of online ads is coming as election goes into blackout mode
Labor is using the final days of the campaign to blast Facebook and Instagram with negative ads attacking Scott Morrison’s character, as part of a digital strategy that has poured vastly more dollars into its online campaign than the Coalition, reports SMH’s Lisa Visentin.
The digital barrage is expected to intensify as the broadcasting blackout kicks in from midnight on Wednesday, banning election advertising on television or radio until the close of polls on Saturday, but leaving a free-for-all online. Print media is also not covered by the blackout, which is mandated by federal broadcasting laws.
Labor has spent more than $1.4 million on ads promoted by its official ALP Facebook and Instagram pages in the past month – half of it splashed on a flurry of ads over the course of last week ending May 14, according to the latest available data from Facebook’s Ad Library.
By comparison, the Liberal Party has spent just $270,000 through its central social media accounts over the past 30 days, of which about $126,000 was spent in the seven days to May 14 – the second last week of the campaign.
Marketing experts deride ‘highly irritating’ political ads
Unimaginative advertising campaigns by the major parties could turn voters off rather than winning them over, say experts, who have described the Coalition’s leaky bucket advertisement as highly irritating and Labor’s anti-Scott Morrison tropes as boring, reports AFR’s Miranda Ward.
Australian National University marketing lecturer Andrew Hughes said repetitive ads – such as the bucket leaking coins and repurposing the old children’s rhyme There’s a Hole in My Bucket to suggest Labor cannot manage money – were sometimes effective but risked turning audiences off a brand, in this case the Liberal Party.
“It gets to the point where we’re just getting sick and tired of it and then we blame the brand,” he said.
“That’s been noted in past research. If you run them too much, for too long, they work against you as it turns people off the message and turns them off you.”
Dr Hughes also noted the major parties’ failure to properly engage with newer social media apps such as TikTok and Snapchat.
Netflix cuts 150 jobs after subscriber exodus
Netflix is cutting 150 jobs as the streaming company seeks to reduce its costs after revealing it expects to lose millions of subscribers in the first half of the year, reports The Guardian’s Mark Sweney.
The widely expected cuts are mostly focused on its US operation, affecting employees in its sprawling film and TV divisions.
This month, Netflix’s market value was slashed by almost $60bn as investors panicked that the decade-long boom in the streaming sector had come to an end, after the company reported its first loss of subscribers in 10 years.
As of December, Netflix had about 11,300 full-time employees, meaning the cuts represent 1.3% of its global workforce. Last month, it laid off about 25 employees in marketing-related jobs, including contractors who had been there less than a year.
See More: Why an ad-supported Netflix tier would be “Nirvana for advertisers”
Anti-vax mandate ‘fake union’ to sponsor Kennedy journalist awards
A “fake union” which fundraised for nurses seeking to block vaccine mandates has resuscitated the Australian Journalists Association and has secured name rights to the 2022 Kennedy Awards, reports News Corp’s David Ross.
The AJA has put $50,000 into the 2022 Kennedy Awards as part of the unveiling of the new group, which is claiming to offer an alternative labour association to the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, the registered union for media professionals.
The sponsorship also sees the Kennedy Awards secure $50,000 from TNT Radio, an online news site that publishes on such topics as “Control, Government Tyranny, Corruption, Propaganda, Democracy” and which has shared stories linking “higher mask usage and Covid-19 deaths”.
Disney’s direct-to-consumer ESPN would be “different offering” than ESPN+, CFO says
When Disney eventually transitions its linear TV channel ESPN into a direct-to-consumer version, the resulting product would be a “different offering” from ESPN+, Disney CFO Christine McCarthy said on Wednesday at an investor conference, report The Hollywood Reporter’s J. Clara Chan and Caitlin Huston.
“What ESPN+ is today is a complement to, not a substitute for, ESPN linear, so it doesn’t make any sense to just port over all of those linear rights — which come with rights expense — to an ESPN+ at the price point that it currently is,” McCarthy said at the MoffettNathanson Media and Communications Summit.
Disney has for years been talking about pivoting from linear programming to direct-to-consumer, with sports projected to be the first sector to make the transition. During the company’s last quarterly earnings call, Disney CEO Bob Chapek also teased ESPN’s DTC future but noted that the hesitancy to make the transition sooner is because linear TV channels continue to be “cash generators.”
TikTok launches tools to credit original creators of trends
TikTok is launching a set of tools that will allow creators to more easily credit the original creators behind viral trends on the social media platform, the company said on Wednesday, reports The Hollywood Reporter’s J. Clara Chan.
The tools, which will roll out over the coming weeks, will allow TikTok creators to directly tag and credit the original videos and creators who originated a trend on their own iterations of the video. The credited video will then appear as a mention in the caption of the newly uploaded TikTok video, allowing viewers to click through to view the tagged video.
As part of the rollout, TikTok is also adding more user prompts to encourage those uploading videos to credit to the creators and original videos that may have served as inspiration for the new work.
The long-awaited crediting tools come after BIPOC TikTok creators have spoken out for years about not receiving proper credit for being the creators of viral dances, trends and sounds on the app. Last summer, Black TikTok creators even staged a virtual “strike” to call attention to the matter by refusing to create dances to a song that was poised to be the next viral hit on TikTok.
Agencies
CHEP Network appoints Nick Zonnios as director of PR
CHEP Network has announced the appointment of Nick Zonnios director of PR for the agency.
Zonnios joins from Clemenger BBDO where he was general manager. He also established and led the Clemenger PR team for the past five years.
In the new role with CHEP, he will oversee the growth and development of the company’s PR on a national scale.
Throughout his career, Zonnios has worked across clients including ANZ, Barbie, Carlton & United Breweries, Doritos, Flybuys, Officeworks, Origin Energy, Telstra and more.
He has led comms on a range of locally and internationally awarded campaigns including helping ANZ transform into GAYNZ in support of the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras, launching VB Tea to hijack the Ashes series, helping Melbourne’s economic and cultural recovery through Let’s Melbourne Again, launching the world’s first peer-to-beer energy program with VB’s Solar Exchange, and most recently, supported 7-Eleven’s first foray into the world of beauty with the launch of its coffee body scrub.
Shuttlerock appoints Kirsty Traill as global chief customer officer
Shuttlerock has announced the appointment of Kirsty Traill as their chief customer officer tasked with leading the global customer team and overall customer strategy.
Traill will be responsible for defining the ideal client experience and aligning resources to achieve client outcomes, driving operational efficiencies and building for scale.
The new hire comes off the back of the company’s recent global success that saw the business transition from an a-la-carte rate card to a subscription-based Creative as a Service (CaaS) model.
This has enabled Shuttlerock to shift from a traditional unit of production cost to provide scalable creative at a fixed monthly investment that delivers price certainty for marketers.
Traill will continue to be based in the United States, working with Shuttlerock’s global teams in North America, Asia Pacific and Europe.
Television
Karl, Ally deny report of “tantrum” over election night hosting
Karl Stefanovic has come to the defence of Today co-host Allison Langdon following a media report she was unhappy at missing out on election night hosting duties for Nine, reports TV Tonight.
The Sunday Telegraph reported Langdon was so aggrieved over Alicia Loxley hosting with Peter Overton, she vented her frustration with Nine’s director of news Darren Wick.
“Nine robustly denied this yesterday, a spokeswoman insisting there had been no ‘tantrum’ — their word, not ours — from Langdon,” it reported.
Speaking to Kyle & Jackie O on KIIS FM, Karl Stefanovic said, “I was actually disgusted at the story that (they) would paint my co-host, who, who is the hardest working person at Channel Nine, who’s come in to work with a broken leg almost for the last two years, who’s punched out more great political interviews than anyone else at the network over a longer period, would have her credibility … fashioned into this kind of diva person for missing out on an election. I just think that’s absolutely disgusting.”
ABC, Streaming dominate children’s viewing
94 per cent of Australian households still used television sets to watch children’s shows, but the top 10 most popular “channels” were almost exclusively streaming services, reports TV Tonight.
Swinburne-based research team, Australian Children’s Television Cultures, have completed a nationwide study of parents about how Australian audiences discover, consume and value local children’s content. The report, Parents’ Perspectives on Australian Children’s Television in the Streaming Era, covers parents’ ideas of what makes “good” Australian children’s television, the use of media platforms and the importance they place on diverse representation.
The ABC was a trusted source of children’s television; nine out of 10 parents identified that they use at least one of the ABC’s services, with 65 per cent of parents selecting iView.
Other highly ranked services in this research included Netflix (77 per cent), YouTube (69 per cent), and Disney+ (56 per cent). Streaming services without clear and well-organised kids’ sections – such as Amazon Prime Video (13 per cent) and Apple TV+ (6 per cent) – were not used as often to view children’s content.