Advertising & Promotion Campaigns

Big sell to focus on environment

The Australian Financial Review
Page: 4 : 22 July 2008
Original article by David Crowe and Neil Shoebridge

LexisNexis Summary: Advertising & Promotion Campaigns

The Australian Government has begun its $A9 million advertising campaign on climate change. Advice from the Auditor-General about the appropriateness of the campaign's funding was released on 21 July 2008. The ads were approved in line with recently-issued political advertising guidelines. The second stage of the campaign is scheduled for September, for which approval has yet to be granted

Wicked slogans irk Qld Premier

Adbrief
Page: 1 : 18 July 2008

LexisNexis Summary: Advertising & Promotion Campaigns

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh is one of a number of people to have lodged a complaint about an advertising slogan on a campervan. "Save a whale, harpoon a Jap" was spotted on a campervan belonging to Wicked, a Queensland-based budget-priced campervan rental company. The Advertising Standards Bureau is expected to announce in the week beginning 21 July 2008 whether or not it believes the slogan is in breach of racial discrimination guidelines

Deer killed to make beer TVC

Adbrief
Page: 1/4 : 18 July 2008

LexisNexis Summary: Advertising & Promotion Campaigns

Lion Nathan has cancelled plans to screen a TV commercial that promotes its new "green" beer. This follows complaints that a dead deer featured in the spot was not sourced in a manner consistent with Lion Nathan's guidelines for the treatment of animals. The commercial was shot in New Zealand by Sydney-based company Goodoil, and a stuffed or dead deer was required. The company heard of a farmer who was planning to cull one of his deer because of old age and dispatch it to the local meatworks, but instead it was killed and used in the commercial

Campaigns

Adbrief
Page: 1 : 18 July 2008

LexisNexis Summary: Advertising & Promotion Campaigns

Sydney design agency Moon is using a rather different approach to recruit designers from Melbourne. With the latter city currently hosting the Melbourne International Design Festival, Moon has released posters with the phrase "Melbourne Sucks" on them. They direct people to a web site, melbournesucks.com.au, at which Moon extols the benefits of working for it. Anouk Darling, the MD of Moon, hopes the campaign's tongue-in-cheek nature will appeal to Melbourne designers. Meanwhile, Saatchi & Saatchi's latest campaign for Aussie Home Loans, "Stop thinking, start acting", aims to persuade would-be borrowers to seek help from one of Aussie's brokers, rather than rely on the advice of friends and family

Broderick focuses on age

Discrimination Alert
Page: 4 : 18 July 2008

LexisNexis Summary: Advertising & Promotion Campaigns

A campaign entitled "Mature workers mean business" has been launched by Elizabeth Broderick, the Australian Age Discrimination Commissioner. The employer and community education campaign will appear online and in print. It refutes stereotypes and myths about older workers. Employment-related complaints accounted for 78 per cent of the 106 age bias complaints made to the Human Rights & Equal Opportunity Commission in 2006-07

Products & Services

Magazine market tough, but ACP's Pat Ingram expects "Grazia" will be welcomed

Mediaweek
Page: 3/10 : 21 July 2008

LexisNexis Summary: Products & Services

ACP Magazines will publish the first Australian issue of "Grazia" in late July 2008, under an agreement with Mondadori. Pat Ingram, a senior executive with ACP Magazines, notes the new title is being launched at a challenging time for women's magazines in Australia. Ingram says she believes that "Grazia", a fashion magazine that will be published weekly, will be favourably accepted by Australian readers. ACP Magazines was one of a number of magazine publishers that expressed an interest in publishing "Grazia" in Australia, with News Magazines and Pacific Magazine also making a pitch to Mondadori

AFR TV gives Fairfax a business channel

Mediaweek
Page: 8 : 21 July 2008
Original article by Rachael Bolton

LexisNexis Summary: Products & Services

Andrew Birmingham says that Fairfax Digital has adopted a low-key approach to promoting its latest product, AFR TV. Fairfax Digital launched AFR TV as an adjunct to its afr.com service in May 2008, and Birmingham says around eight to 10 per cent of its afr.com users appear to be accessing AFR TV. Birmingham, who worked at IDG before joining Fairfax Business Media in 2004, says that most of the promotion of AFR TV to date has been via afr.com and other Fairfax web sites, with very little external promotion

"Men's Fitness": new entrant in men's mag market

Mediaweek
Page: 9 : 21 July 2008
Original article by Rachael Bolton

LexisNexis Summary: Products & Services

Odysseus Publishing will publish the first Australian issue of "Men's Fitness" on 16 July 2008. The company will publish the title under licence from American Media, which it entered into an agreement with in 2007. Todd Cole, the editor of "Men's Fitness", is a former editor of "Men's Health", with which the new title will be in competition. Cole notes that the US version of "Men's Fitness" has a circulation of between 700,000 and 800,000. He says that most of the other key personnel involved in the new title have a background in men's magazines

E-Business

Zettabytes call the internet traffic future

The Age
Page: B7 : 22 July 2008
Original article by Graeme Philipson

LexisNexis Summary: E-Business

IT giant Cisco Systems has released a new report which forecasts huge growth in internet traffic. Cisco expects total traffic to be around 28 exabytes per month in 2012, while global IP traffic is set to double every two years until 2012. Online video is expected to account for almost 90 per cent of consumer-based internet traffic by 2012, compared with around 25 per cent at present. While Cisco expects the internet infrastructure to come under pressure as a result of this growth in demand, it is also confident that upgrades and technological advances will ensure that the infrastructure is able to cope with this growth

Marketing Strategy

ASX calls in ex-ASIC boss to sooth conflict concerns

The Age
Page: B3 : 22 July 2008
Original article by Danny John and Ruth Williams

LexisNexis Summary: Marketing Strategy

Australian stock exchange operator ASX announced the appointment of Alan Cameron as chair of its Markets Supervision arm on 21 July 2008. Cameron will replace outgoing chair, Maurice Newman, when he stands down on 1 August 2008, and will take responsibility for overseeing major trading players and brokers. Cameron said he remained unconvinced about the need for greater market regulation, particularly with regard to short-selling, although he said he would reserve his decision until assessing "all of the issues"

AWB rules must change, says report

The Age
Page: B3 : 22 July 2008
Original article by Philip Hopkins

LexisNexis Summary: Marketing Strategy

Australian wheat export marketing and rural services group AWB must overhaul its system of two classes of shareholders. Otherwise it will be unable to free itself of the stigma stemming from the Iraq bribery scandal under the UN oil-for-food program, argues consultancy Value Enhancement Management. It has handed its report, commissioned by AWB, to the board in time for a renewed attempt to change the entity's constitution accordingly. The vote is scheduled for late August 2008. At least three quarters each of the A-class and B-class stakeholders must agree to the move

Race is on to score Olympic-sized deals in China

The Australian Financial Review
Page: 49 : 22 July 2008
Original article by Jason Clout

LexisNexis Summary: Marketing Strategy

Australian businesses will use the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games to promote trade with China. The activities of Austrade will focus on small and medium enterprises. This will include a delegation of a dozen businesses as part of the Business Club Australia program. John Ninness, of Ninness Consulting, says businesses cannot ignore China because of the large size of its economy. However, he says exporters must embrace the Chinese way of doing business, which requires more consultation. He says the backing of Austrade provides small businesses with credibility

Consumer Behaviour

Shopping habits give food for thought

The Age
Page: B2 : 22 July 2008
Original article by Ruth Williams

LexisNexis Summary: Consumer Behaviour

The economic slowdown has had a great impact on the shopping habits of Australians. Consumer confidence reached a peak in 2005, with retail sales of over $A214 billion in 2006-07. However, in 2008, consumer sentiment has fallen to its lowest level for 16 years. Australians are shopping less and more is spent on food than any other retail category. Nearly $A8.3 billion was allocated to food in May 2008, compared with $A1.3 billion for clothing and soft goods

Retailers consoled by big games sales

The Australian Financial Review
Page: 31 : 22 July 2008
Original article by Chris Jenkins

LexisNexis Summary: Consumer Behaviour

Despite an overall slump in consumer spending, one segment of the Australian retail sector continues to be buoyant in mid-2008. Sales of video game consoles and related software are thriving, with the Wii product of Nintendo also having widened the market substantially by being more accessible to female and older players. There are three strong competitors in the market, with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's Playstation 3 making up for their less general appeal by using cutting edge technology. Chain stores such as Harvey Norman note that traditionally the video games segment has been resilient in times of economic downturns, and the current one triggered by the global credit crisis and higher petrol prices shows the same trend