Also, “The End of the Line” made it to the TimesOnline best films of 2009 list. Check out their review. 

The premiere is in Wellington this Thursday and in Auckland on Saturday. The Auckland showing includes guest speaker Dr Steve O’Shea – Director of Earth and Oceanic Sciences Research Institute AUT.

Details:

For Wellington
Thursday 4th March:
7:15pm at the Paramount Theatre, 25 Courtney Place,
Book at Paramount, 04 384 4080
Tickets $20 waged, $15 unwaged (inclusive GST)

For Auckland:
Saturday6th March, as Part of the Documentary Edge New Zealand film festival
Tickets $16 waged, $12 Senior Citizens, $14 Students (inclusive GST)
Bookings, www.documentartyedge.org.nz.

New Zealand Premiere of "The End of the Line"

By Phil Bilbrough

I was born to breathe your air, drive loud, gel hair
I was born to use the road, shove bikes, pull the load.

I was born to drive drunk, make hay, get out of my way
Make me curse give me know cross my heart let it go

My world, it owes, no plants no-doze
Feed dogs cats, shoot dogs rats, and fish the sea clean.

Blog slander,  car meander, sexual gander
beat my dog ride my hog and live for me.

I pretend I’m in Dallas,destroy the old and build my palace.
I know the score, buy the law, get the result – for sure.
Suppress my name buy my time sell your train.

Watch my Lost my super 14 see phoenix and be my queen
I’m man-alone not natural just wild
No sweet bush air, or bird call silence fare.

Don’t tweet don’t connect, don’t XT and don’t report me
Deliver me praise me unto me

Screw being part of your society.
I’m entitled to it.

*************

Phil Bilbrough is a freelance online advertising specialist who is blogging on the subject for Scoop at Advertising.scoop.co.nz. He can be contacted at phil@bilbrough.com.

The decision to merge the two businesses has been driven by continued online advertising industry growth and the desire to provide clients with a full service digital offering.

Founded in 2000, the IB is arguably the most experienced digital advertising agency in New Zealand.  Over the years the IB has been approached to assist almost every media agency in New Zealand with their online media planning.

IB founder John Schofield established another digital media business Catch!Media 12 months ago. In its first year of trade Catch has already secured business from more than 20 new clients and as Schofield explains, the merger brings together the best new digital agency team with the most experienced digital buyers in the industry.

“The IB practically defined the medium in its early years and has been instrumental in creating the dynamic online media industry that we all enjoy today.

“The IB is renowned for effectively integrating online advertising into media agency planning. The structural change we’re making now delivers everything the IB has always done, but with more of a direct to client focus, and at the same time expands on that offer with a full suite of digital services”

Schofield says the merger will be complete next month and that the combined agency will be operating under the Catch brand.

“We’re expecting a smooth transition and we’re excited about the new Catch offer, we think our clients will benefit greatly from these changes and with so much potential for growth, it’s a good time to be working in the digital space”.

For more information contact:

John Schofield

Managing Director

Catch!Media

ddi: +64 9 302 0240

mb: +64 2133 9941

By Phil Bilbrough

As a part time environmentalist I have begun to see a new side of social media – one that niggles and hurts me, yet like a sadomasochist it makes me love it more.

How could I have missed the can-do nature of social media? Social media is written about a hundred times a day in 200 word blogs. Yet strangely I thought that the general public wouldn’t use it for marketing, they would ring a digital strategist like me up. They didn’t call me and they use social media to great affect.

I’ve told clients of the public relations opportunities of social media and I believe that advice, yet now I’m on the receiving end. Its awkward, irritating and fun. I’m not doing it and my adversaries are. My nemesis. Why I never saw that coming – could only be hubris. Anyone can use social networks (that’s their idea). You don’t need to call yourself a digital strategist you just need to be quick off the mark.

I work part time for Forest & Bird (a New Zealand not-for-profit independent conservation society). It is an important society for New Zealand, yet a lot of people really hate you. This is not a personal thing (or it might be) and many of our critics are also passionate about the environment. But their climate changes if we appear to be threatening their lifestyle or taking an approach to conservation that they don’t like. Forest & Bird is a national organisation – there is a lot of land, sea, flora and fauna to protect – its easy to upset someone somewhere. And Forest & Bird supports 1080.

And 1080 upsets a lot of people. This is a poison that DOC and regional councils drop into native forests (and on islands with native forests) to kill possums, rats and stoats. Its effective. Both cost effective (to reach the tens of thousands of inaccessible hectares) and killing effective. Forest & Bird believes that 1080 has saved forests and many birds from nasty cute fluffy animals.

But poison is poison. Many think that it kills birds – and it can – although it is brightly coloured and has cinnamon smell which is meant to put them off eating it. Also, 1080 is dropped from the sky and during that drop it can and has spilled onto private property and it has probably killed animals on some of those properties. Also if you are a hunter 1080 could kill your prey.

This issue is ideal for social media sites. Emotive, both local and national – lots of anecdotes, scientists vs the public, Government vs the people, small fluffy animals getting killed all great elements for sides and trench warfare.

A person told me of seeing 1080 pellets while tramping, on the forest floor and not hearing any birds at all. She equated the silence with 1080 – that is 1080 killed the birds. There may have been no birds, but there were possums. Possums raid nests to eat bird eggs, (they also eat trees) and because there are possums then 1080 gets dropped.

The anti-1080 lobby are all over social media sites and sometime before the pro-1080 group. They stole the march and it has been successful for them. I mean they didn’t talk about social media (like me) they went and did it. All power to them, and they have had great results, the Kaikoura City Council, Taupo City Council and local community boards in the Coromandel are banning 1080. Stunningly stupid decisions. Possibly those councils think that they can manage the forest pest problem now that 1080 has done the hard work, and drops occur every 5 years and that’s a loooonnggg time in politics – ban it this year bring back it in 5 and no-one will know.

Kerre Woodham is anti-1080 as well, and1080 issues are never long out the news media.

Social media sites are the virtual 1080 battle ground. A DOC person has been accused of allegedly editing a Wikipedia page that referenced 1080.

I don’t live anywhere near a 1080 drop (as far as I know) I do live near the town belt in Wellington where poisoning for pest destruction is common place (and a poison much more toxic than 1080), it’s just that this kind of poisoning is under the radar and doesn’t drop out of the sky – that much (a key point). For those living near a 1080 drop  they really may have had an unpleasant experience of 1080, and it will kill pets and livestock if they eat it.

Pro-1080 people are fighting back on social media and news sites. The pro lobby are generally scientists and I suspect, that they may have waited for results from studies of the effectiveness of the pest destruction strategies. I mean, a bird population in a specific area wouldn’t bounce back immediately after a 1080 drop. And now that they have the ammo they are fighting back.

So I am pro-1080, but let’s move on. My advice too you is to kill possums, rats and stoats, don’t put stoats down your pants, and if you have something to say don’t hang about, get it on Youtube.

*************

Phil Bilbrough is a freelance online advertising specialist who is blogging on the subject for Scoop at Advertising.scoop.co.nz. He can be contacted at phil@bilbrough.com.

By St John Craner
Advertising.Scoop.co.nz

By Phil Bilbrough
Advertising.Scoop.co.nz

Where should you take a good idea? When should you let it go?

Years ago I took the first of one of many creative writing courses. The tutor was Sue McCauley (writer of the Other Halves) and she was great and cool. I can’t remember much about the course except (and please don’t quote me quoting her), “Know what your characters did”, and “You don’t get so many ideas when you get older.”

Ideas are key. I watched a Business Management doco that included a piece on Aristotle Onassis. He understood the value of a good idea (marry a President’s wife, break an international embargo etc..). My recollection from this piece is that he didn’t have an office, he just made decisions wherever he was, whenever he needed to, and he wrote all his ideas, thoughts and contacts in a little book. So the office and computer and latest software still only help you collate your ideas and implement your decisions. What freedom Onassis had. No email, RSS feeds or Twitter or chat to monitor.

Another doco that took my interest was about even deader Greeks (Aristotle was born in Turkey, which screws my Greek thing). It discussed how some of the great thinkers had time to think because they had slaves to do the dishes and fold the laundry. No Internet or TV to procrastinate in front of – just the occasional (twice yearly) war. So those Greek lords (Plato, Archimedes, Euclid, Aristotle, Socrates, and the funky sounding, Xenophon) sat, ate, wrote and talked – it does sound like Twitter – and discussed their thinking. Freedom for them at the expense of the incarceration of the slaves. I’m sure that they valued new ideas – thoughts that light up a moment.

Sometimes those ideas are so great, so powerful, make so much sense that they have to happen. In advertising they might be, “We’re No. 2, so we try harder”, or “Just do it”, or “Finger lickin’ good” or   “Because I’m worth it”, “Let your fingers do the walking” and “Mastercard. Priceless.”

Yet a great idea has moment. The power of the idea is self evident and people rise behind and make it happen in its best form. It is happy collision of a great idea, the manner in which it is delivered and the world that it is going into. Ten years ago Mastercard’s Priceless campaign was just this. How long can Mastercard keep successfully reprising this idea? Well the CFO of Mastercard would say, “As long as its doing the business.”

The latest Mastercard campaign is good. By itself it might have been quite good but it feels like another reinvention of the “priceless” idea. Ten years ago the small charges built to the Priceless Moment. Now it is, not knowing what goes into a moment makes it priceless. I don’t think that that is true. In fact I would speculate that it is the opposite. Is it that some people find any bit of hassle regardless of how priceless the outcome might be – too much? Now Mastercard takes the thinking and effort away and puts in front of you aspirational and special off the track ideas for you to book and go straight to.

I think the story of a rock being shot off a mountain by a meteor then carried down by a river and a glacier to a lake shore to be skimmed by a Dad in front of his son has more personality than the campaign’s website which gives you a selection of travel destinations (and interesting ones).

I am nostalgic for the warmth of the old Mastercard campaigns. Ending up in a pub with my Dad (it was a Mum in the old campaign) and his cronies laughing/cringing at their diabolical stories would be one of my priceless moments.

My other priceless moment would be, 1. Someone looking after my kids and parenting them better than I do, 2. Get me and my partner to Aurora Borealis 3. Make sure that we are warm and look cool 4. Make sure that I can take good photos 5. Pop us into Egypt’s Pyramids on the way home (to warm up) 6. Come back to healthy well educated socially independent successful children, And 7. I have some money left.

Why didn’t Mastercard ask us what our priceless moments might be?

It must be hard to let go of a good idea. New ones don’t pop up when and where we need them. They usually pop-up way after we needed them. So if no new idea is bursting out of you or your agencies then one strategy is to stretch out that great idea one more time.

Just maybe Mastercard have run that tyre to its rim now. Once sensational, now it’s good. Time for them to get some slaves, put on some white sheets, grow lots of facial hair, eat grapes and figs, ditch the office, get a little book and start musing on the next priceless idea.

*************

Phil Bilbrough is a freelance online advertising specialist who is blogging on the subject for Scoop at Advertising.scoop.co.nz. He can be contacted at phil@bilbrough.com.

By St John Craner
Advertising.Scoop.co.nz

Telecom seem to change logos more often than superman changes his clothes (only superman is a bit more aspirational) with two significant logo changes in less than 8 years. So why does Telecom do this? Maybe it’s because they don’t have a clue where they’re going. Their latest attempt signals they are lost without a long term vision of who they are and what they stand for. If they did then surely they wouldn’t have to keep changing their identity. At 130 on the 2009 most trusted brands list, 84 spots behind their multi-national rival Vodafone, perhaps they felt they needed to do something - anything (even if it was just changing their logo).

You don’t see The National Bank change their horse. It’s an icon for them. You don’t see BMW, Audi or Mercedes change their marque as they know it conveys excellence. Apple have stayed the same since their inception in 1984. The difference with these timeless brands is they know what they stand for. They got their positioning right the first time so there is no need to change. They know changing who they are or what they stand for only confuses.

This kind of mindless, superficial re-branding activity only gives branding and those involved in brand management a poorer reputation than they already have. Re-branding like this doesn’t add value. It takes it away by reinforcing to the unitiated  that branding is all about pretty logos, identity or aesthetics. No amount of waffly, weasly emotional rationale can win over the man on the street . They see it as wasteful, irresponsible spending. They’d rather you spent the money reducing fees, queues or giving them higher dividend payments.

So drop the crayons guys and save your convoluted rationale. They will never buy your argument no matter how creative, aspirational or clever you think it might be.

What upsets me is the irresponsibility of spending thousands of dollars on developing a new logo, along with the obvious expensive roll out, when you have been laying off significant numbers of staff. I wonder how x-employees of ANZ or Telecom would feel about this? Or how about current employees who have been told to cut back on all unnecessary costs. Seems a little hypocritical.

My favourite comments came from Brian Smaller at Kiwiblog: “It looks like what I do with my pen when waiting on the phone to talk to someone at Telecom’s help desk”. Buggerlugs says: “it’s just the Meridian energy logo after a big night on the piss”. Barry says: “Looks like a childs scribble or a badly dropped birdshit.” (Check out Kiwiblog for more highly entertaining comments.)

The mistake both ANZ and Telecom have made is a text book one. They haven’t launched their new “brands” in conjunction with a BIG customer or staff initiative. That is the only way you will cut through the usual cynicism associated with re-brands. This cynicism has been built up by years of flash harry re-brands that have only tinkered with the surface treatment. Same proverbial, different logo.

Here are 5 golden rules to remember when re-branding:

1. Make it meaningful – make a significant organisational change, not just a cosmetic change
2. Don’t keep changing – not only is it expensive, it is confusing. Do it well and do it once (100% Pure NZ)
3. Stand for something that matters – Volvo stood for safety and became one of the world’s largest selling carmakers which helped them command a high price when bought by Ford
4. Keep it real – don’t be something you aren’t. You’re fooling no one except yourself
5. Be consistent – once you’ve made your promise, deliver on it and stick to it (Avis. We’re no. 2 so we try harder)

When it comes to re-branding you have to demonstrate significant organisational change – not just a cosmetic one. Without a meaningful staff or customer initiative it’s just another logo or worse still – lipstick on the gorilla. And as we all know that’s not a good look.

St John Craner helps businesses market themselves better (beyond the aesthetics). www.distinct.co.nz

By Phil Bilbrough
Advertising.Scoop.co.nz

Some time ago, a time before Twitter (ATBT), I presented my predictions for the online future. I believed that social networking sites would offer loyalty schemes to retain their audiences, that Sky TV would go online, that TV advertising would come under serious stress, that Google would take over the world, that we would lose a large newspaper, and that Micheal Jackson would would become the world’s oldest pop star.

I didn’t get everything right. But an attractive former colleague emailed me recently saying that my crystal ball wasn’t that bad, better than a Wall St Broker even, perhaps I should look into it again and tell Rodney Hide what a super city looks like. Yes Google is taking over the world – and mostly – I don’t mind.

The very recent, www.googleflip.com is kinda cool. I’m an online news freak. I like nytimes.com, news.bbc.co.uk and smh.com.au, now on all the same screen. Announced today-ish was Google Sidetracks – a comments function on every page – which I can’t see me using.

So where else is Google? There is the classy Google Earth (and sea and space), Google Maps, Google Analytics, Google Alerts, the Google Homepage, Google Books, Google Calendar, Google Insights, Google Documents, Google Adsense, YouTube, Gmail, Google Calendars, Google News, Google Reader, Google Scholar, Google Images, Google Wave, Google Groups,  Google apps, Chrome, DoubleClick, and I must have missed something…missed a lot.. and that’s right there is the Google search engine.

In a way Google are where Microsoft, at one time, probably wanted to be. You only need to spend a week as a computer support help desk guy to know that helping people with their computing is hell. It is hell I tell you.  You realise that Microsoft don’t need to be hated as much as they are – I mean they have millions of people testing their products everyday. Millions of people not being able to insert a picture, un-bold a heading style, or they can’t find a file because they are using Outlook to file their attachments.

Google may end up on the desktop as an operating system, but at this moment it is a bunch (a lot) of pretty reasonable FREE services remotely delivered.

And to pay for the delivery of these worthwhile products and services, they sell advertising. They sell well. And this is when Google and I meet in a dark alley and have it out. Except Google, not perceiving that I exist, steps on me and doesn’t bother to remove me from the tread of their shoes.

Advertising on Google – Adsense (SEM search engine marketing) – is effective. Optimising your website for an improved Google listing (SEO, search engine optimisation) is also effective. But is it the only thing? And does it work by itself?

No it doesn’t. No no, on both accounts. I’ve recommended Google Adwords campaigns for many years, and I stand by those recommendations – so what am I saying? I’m saying that there are other games in town.

I doubt that an successful Google Adword campaign has worked by itself. I strongly believe that Google adwords are part of the call-to-action for any offline campaign. That, if some ad appeals to you, you go to Google and search for the product in the ad, the Adword pops up and you are on your way to a purchase. My recommendation is to use adwords campaigns in support of any campaign that you may doing, but its part of the mix – not the whole campaign.

I don’t think that the online advertising industry was fully developed, or some of the sites weren’t offering enough to advertisers when Google stomped in and snatched a large chunk of the online advertising market and held tight. Advertising agencies get cut loose or are turned into 31 character specialists.

I would need to dig deep to see if Google is helping site publishers, they probably are. Unless sites  put up a paywall, they need advertising, or a benefactor, or Google adwords to survive. And with Google adwords you don’t need to convince them to advertise on your site.

So what is the downside to Google? Nothing apparent yet, except there are advertisers (clients) equating online advertising with Google. As soon as a potential client hears that I’m a Digital Strategist they say, “So you do SEO?” “No”. And this is only one reason why SEO bugs me.

So if everyone does SEO, could SEO become a self fulfilling industry? What if, in New Zealand, four five banks, a few loan brokers, twelve financial planners and a few credit card firms chase the same position on Google search results for the same words? Who wins then? The SEO optimisers. That logic already applies to the Google adword auction. Who wins when companies chase the first page of results for their adword? Google.

I think that the SEO/SEM is a dangerous path for brands. They are part of the mix, yet a client risks commoditizing their brand. Turning their brand into fish and chips and serving it to their customers for evaluation and price comparison with their competitor’s. This is anti-brand. A client can chase the click through rates and a great cost per click yet it is that great offer which ultimately drives click through,  and is that good for the brand? Good for the customer, but is it sustainable for your company? I see price fights in my crystal ball.

This isn’t Google’s issue, Google is big, dynamic (for profit) organisation and customers are attracted to it like John Key is to Americans. It kind of the new “You never get fired for buying blue (IBM)” from the seventies.

There are other ways to reach people online. For nervous clients -  those scared of the big budget brand campaigns that fueled the eighties advertising scene – there will always be Google and someone selling it in some form. Yes there are other ways to advertise online or as I say “Give your working audience 20 seconds of entertainment.”

Google is OK. I remember when it first was sent to me – I was using Alta Vista. Google was fresh, clear, not-geek-like and very internet. Somehow it feels that it is one of the drivers of the internet. Just don’t tell clients that it is the only one.

*************

Phil Bilbrough is a freelance online advertising specialist who is blogging on the subject for Scoop at Advertising.scoop.co.nz. He can be contacted at phil@bilbrough.com.

Its Forest & Bird’s “Bird of the Year” and I’m campaign manager for the sensational Kakariki. Check out why I think that the Kakariki is so cool here.

Its time to vote, go to www.forestandbird.org.nz/poll scroll down the page (way past the Kea) and vote Kakariki for New Zealand’s Bird of the Year 2009.

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Phil Bilbrough is a freelance online advertising specialist who has recently begun blogging on the subject for Scoop at Advertising.scoop.co.nz. He can be contacted at phil@bilbrough.com.

By St John Craner
Advertising.Scoop.co.nz

I am astounded by the number of companies who ignore how they’re perceived. Are you the same or are you being delusional because the truth might hurt? Knowing how you’re perceived by your market is absolutely vital. If you’re not self-aware you won’t know how to relate to how customers. And if you can’t relate to them, they won’t buy.

Telecom, KiwiRail, electricity companies and banks are generally seen, at best, as necessary evils.  Hardly flattering, but are they doing anything about it? The answer is probably no. Kiwirail didn’t compensate commuters for recent service failings, banks aren’t passing on OCR margins and electricity companies are still creaming it having hiked prices up 72% over the last 5 years.  Hardly the best way to make friends is it?

Perhaps if they humanised their business more they might be liked more. It comes down to the old age saying: “relationships are everything”. Now more so than ever as your competitors are ready and waiting to charm and entice your customers across. All they might need to do is show that they care more. Customers want some form of basic relationship and relationships need nourishing and nurturing. Making unreasonable demands, sticking to company policy or not making any compromises is commercial suicide. Customers don’t forget easy and soon as they get the chance to remind you of your failings or inflexibility they will. Big time. Contact got a good reminder of this when thousands of customers left them after their directors fee faux-pas. If you can bend the rules every now and then in the spirit of the relationship you will reap the rewards with greater customer loyalty, repeat business and quality referrals.

It’s like the dry cleaner that says the last item’s on the house, your favourite bar that shouts you your first drink or the butcher that gives you an extra cut. Smaller companies have no excuses not to know and service their customers better. Bigger companies need to create deep, trust-based relationships with their customers. Think about their customers before they think about themselves. Ask yourself is this decision good for us or good for our customers? What’s good for them will be good for you. Trust me.

So have a think about your next move – will it help improve or hinder the way customers perceive you. Will it enrich the relationship? Will it make it stronger? Every action has an affect – good or bad. Remember that.

St John Craner helps businesses market themselves better. www.distinct.co.nz