IS AUSTRALIA CYBER CHALLENGED?
Australia had its worst result of the festival so far with the release
of the Cyber Lions shortlist with only six campaigns recognised.
BMF’s ‘Platiunum Human Testing’ was among the shortlisted Cyber
entries, continuing its dream run having won a Silver and Bronze Lion
yesterday in Direct. Leo Burnett Sydney was shortlisted for Wesley
Mission’s ‘Shelter'.
The other shortlisted entries were 303 Perth for Zu Shoes ‘Girls with
Shoehorns’, Tequila Sydney for Newline Cinema’s ‘Tenacious D in the
Pick of Destiny’, Clemenger Proximity Sydney for Mitsubishi ‘Revolution
4D’ and Host Sydney for Staedlter ‘Mouse v Pencil’.
New Zealand fared evn worse, with only four campaigns recognised.
Saatchi & Saatchi Auckland had two Cyber shortlists, one for Women’s Refuge ‘Sound Bruises’ and the other for New Zealand Army’s ‘Bluetooth Mission’. Clemenger BBDO Wellington had one shortlist for Land Transport NZ ‘Phone Legends’ as did Publicis Mojo Auckland for Coca-Cola’s ‘Spoons’.
There were 2711 entries in Cyber from 49 countries. New Zealand only entered 25 pieces of work and Australia entered 77.
posted by CB @ 6:33 PM
7 Comments:
braodband penetration in oz sits 19.2 subscribers per 100 inhabitants. A fairly good figure. Netherlands and Denmark sit at the top with 31.So it can't realy be blamed on lack of broadband.
Personally I think there are too many old school creatives and creative directors who think the whole cyber thing is below them. the whole above the line, below the line thing is very real in OZ still. It has been changing but not enough.
It's worse than that 9:51 - The "old school" are arrogant enough to think they actually get it. They have reduced digital to a formula (it's like animating a print ad and putting the TV on YouTube isn't it?).
This means that while the rest of the world is reversing the polarity of their campaigns, Australia is still struggling with good old fashioned reductionist ad thinking and trying to accessorize an already thin TV idea.
Apparently EURO RSCGs interactive department keep talking themselves up, saying they'll win a Cyber Lion.
It's tricky to win a Cyber Lion though (especially when you don't have any work good enough to be entered).
There are a few issues.
The broadband takeup isn't one of them however - Brazil has worse broadband than us but its digital creative record is superb.
I can only talk from personal experience, but it is really tough in Australia to get innovative digital work over the line for clients (which probably explains the high level of cyber entries from Oz where the entry is for in-house work).
The reality for a lot of digital in Australia is that online is still an afterthought, which means that the digital is an online extension of work done in other channels, rather than being anything innovative. Digital is often reduced to being simply an entry mechanism for a DM promo.
By the time the budget gets allocated to digital, there is rarely the opportunity to anything that isnt process based (ie fill out a form so we can get your details) instead of thematically based.
Who's fault is this? Everybodys.
As agencies we need to inspire our clients more to take the leap. Brands also could do with a few more people with vision who are prepared to invest for the medium term. No one is going to lose their job over recommending a big ad buy in NW, but they certainly could if a digital campaign didn't produce results.
The reality is the pie is small by the time we get to slice it - you aren't going to see Nike ever give an Ausralian digital agency the chance to roll out a global campaign - our location doesnt help either.
So in summary, we need to lift our game in trying to get brands to allocate meaningful budget to digital, by providing better ROIs and proof of success.
Reality check: most brands will still spend 200K on a print ad with no metrics whatsoever, than spend 20K online where they can track the success.
My guess is that you guys in above the line and DM have been experiencing the same problems for years?
Note: there are a hell of a lot of brands that do invest heavily in digital that really don't need to, which also causes problems - digital isn't the right answer for everyone - so we also need to know when not to push the wagon.
Peter Bray Said
The broadband takeup isn't one of them however - Brazil has worse broadband than us but its digital creative record is superb.
Good point...good point
Does anyone know what this Wesley Mission thing is?
There is a fundamental issue with online work that will forever consign it to the 2nd division as far as main ad agencies are concerned - and it's not just an Aussie thing.
Awards ceremonies.
You could create the world's wildest microsite but until someone works out how to demonstrate it to an audience of rat-arsed egocentrics in a huge hall, nobody will give it the attention it deserves.
TV, Press, Billboards just don't have this problem. Even if you never saw a particular ad before, if it's any good you will 'get it' in 2 seconds - even after a few glasses of Chardonnay.
Digital is definitely the future but the awards dinners just suck - and including digital work at the world's best shows like D&AD, The One Show etc is a waste of time. The work just seems so niche and the chances are you never saw it in your normal daily life (unlike conventional media). Plus, you can't see what's going on up on the screen and can't keep people's attention long enough to demo a simple page takeover, let alone a full-on website.
Anyone out there clever enough to fix this?
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