Media Tonic

November 29, 2008. Thousands of West Australians will slap on the suncream and the budgie smugglers in an attempt on the world record for an open water race. It’s a record currently held by the Victorians: BOOOOO! All swimmers will therefore have the chance to become world record holders, with certificates to prove it. Sounds like a great feel-good community event. Surf Lifesaving WA will be one of the beneficiaries.

The promotional program incorporates extensive media coverage from media partners; The Sunday Times, Network Ten and 96fm who will broadcast the event live.

A tiered sponsorship package is available but at this stage naming rights are up for grabs. Contact Mark or Dave for more info: 9388 7844.

In conjunction with Vintage Events and Scout Entertainment.

The drama about the 60s ad industry is becoming a major US television property.

The IGA Perth Royal Show – September 27th to October 4th. Around 400,000 punters, most of whom will spend time in front of the big screen at some point. “Tell you what kids: why don’t we sit down for a bit while you eat those pies and toffee apples? Mummy wants to watch the Hilux Heroes”.

TWO screens this year and packages of 100 spots over the full eight days. Call during early August to discuss/lock it in. Details.

Our associates at IMG are producing Models.Live for Vogue. It’s a series of reality webisodes following the progress of three young models (not that young) as they do their thang.

It starts August 19th and includes a social software component, with a link to Bebo.

Meanwhile, Media Tonic are still waiting to hear from Perth agencies interested in accessing IMG supermodels (such as Tallulah Morton, pictured) for use in local creative.

You’re right: all those cashed-up bogans aren’t interested in supermodels. They just like darts.

From the Pew Research Centre work on the newspaper industry crisis: “The editors expect the financial picture only to worsen, and they have little confidence that they know what their papers will look like in five years.” No such problem for The West Australian of course, which will still be giving away 7 cars in 7 weeks.

Pew conducted face-to-face interviews with newsroom execs from 259 newspapers across America.

Other findings:
… 85% of the dailies surveyed with circulations over 100,000 have cut newsroom staff in the last three years

… Papers are employing young, tech-savvy staff as financial pressures drive out higher-salaried veterans.

… Substantial cuts in foreign, national and business news.

Chin up! Subscription TV and Out of Home continue to grow…

UK research commissioned by Thinkbox and the Internet Ad Bureau looked at detailed behaviour of ‘tech-savvy’ users as an indication of future media patterns. Interesting conclusions:

Our industry partners Foxtel are very strong in this area. If you’d like a briefing on future directions, contact Mark or Dave and we’ll put something together for you.
08 9388 7844.

It’s not that there is anything wrong with the Eagles or the Dockers. Their supporters are the problem and they need to lift. Here is a TV commercial that demonstrates.

'I tried out for the iPhone ad, but ended up in this.'

Gadget blog Gizmodo and the SMH have fairly downbeat assessments of the Tivo offering. No ad-skipping, smaller hard drive etc. Perhaps a bit tricky to get $700 up front when people are buying iPhones like it’s the Ark of the Covenant.

Here is our preferred option: Foxtel iQ.

The anti-siphoning legislation was created to ensure that all Australians had on-going access to iconic sports events, like Wimbledon. Ironically, this legislation ensured that nobody was able to watch the semi-finals or earlier rounds live. Only the two finals were live.

Note to Communications Minister:

If you give a company a monopoly you ought to impose some conditions on them. If Channel Nine want to screen matches later at night for commercial reasons, fine, but why can’t Foxtel also screen the event so that people at least have the option of live viewing?

Note to Channel Nine:

The ad break following the presentation to Venus Williams included two Harvey Norman ads and THREE instances of the Sir Walter lawn ad. A break during the men’s final featured two different executions of the Nurofen ad, one after the other.

Note to the advertising industry:

Subscription Television has for the first time reached the situation where total viewers between 6AM and midnight exceed total viewers of any individual Free to Air network. Some of this success is due to diversity of programming. Diversity in ad breaks might also be part of the story.