Blogbook
Here’s a hump day freebie – Starship’s Financial Calendar for 2015-2016! Enjoy 🙂
Download the Financial Calendar
Printable version
Screen version
Where did you guys get the dates?
From the ATO, among others. It’s a schedule of key upcoming economic events in Australia that may be relevant to your business. Dates may be subject to change.
Starship Freebies
We’ve also put up a basic Talent Release Form in our Resources section, relevant for any film/creative project that your company might be engaged in to ensure a more hassle-free production. Note that the form is quite basic: should your project be more complicated than normal, please consult a lawyer.
In the early 2000s, Lego was close to being bankrupt. Today, it’s one of the world’s most loved and successful toy companies, with a profit of $1 billion in 2014. This dramatic turn around was partly attributed to Denmark’s corporate culture, which is more open and self-critical than most, but also largely because of the company’s decision to open itself up to its huge fanbase. From FastCoCreate:
“As documentary filmmakers, often you’re trying to encapsulate what people say,” says Junge. “Not necessarily feed them lines but try to get them to say things in a concise way. And when I heard executives talking about some achievements in the company, I would ask them, ‘Are you proud?’ Or, ‘Would you mind saying that you’re proud? Can you discuss the pride you have in the product?’ And whenever I said that word, they would sort of get rankled. Finally, one of them pulled me aside and said, ‘You know, in our culture, we don’t like this word ‘proud’ or ‘pride.’ And that’s a very Danish thing. It’s not at all how we reflect ourselves here in this country.”
Davidson says, having spent a good amount of time now in Scandinavia, he absorbed the “we” nature of business there, which was key to the Lego turnaround, and making the film. “It’s generally frowned upon to be about the ‘I.’ It’s always about the ‘we.’ We as a collective group, as a think tank, have accomplished this together. So the ego is kind of left at the door, which is different from businesses here.
After some weeks of end-of-financial-year spirit, I turn my unfocused eyes to the tricky bit about TV. The bit you can’t fathom or explain. The price of TV ads. And how those selling it smother what is essentially horse trading with a lot of pseudo-scientific rubbish designed to fool 22 year old marketing graduates.
Keep in mind we are dealing with eyeballs. Putting your message in front of peoples eyes with a moving, hopefully emotional story that gets them to do something, whether its buy a car or donate to a charity or stop beating their kids. TV is just one way to get that message to those people. It’s not a big deal anymore, like it used to be before we got You-tube and Netflix.
Also remember where are dealing with a short-life product. Like oysters out of the fridge, it goes off really fast. They can’t sell an ad on yesterday’s show. Which makes it a very negotiable commodity – no one actually knows what it’s really worth. Airtime has no value other than what someone like you is prepared to pay for it.
Buy on the R&F’s, not tarps.
Tarps, or Target Audience Rating Points is an easy way to confuse a 22 year old media buyer. He/she thinks multiplying the reach (proportion of the ‘population’; your core target audience demographic, that’s watching the show) by the Frequency (the number of times they see the ad) works. It don’t. People seeing something only once or twice is useless. You want 60, 70 or 90% (or whatever proportion of your audience you can afford to hit) of your targets to see the ad at least 5 times. Yes I’m serious, five times – we are over-loaded with information so only heavy repetition works.
Frequency is fundamental
Very few customers buy on seeing an ad once. They only buy when the promise is burned into their brains. When in doubt, go for more frequency with a lower reach than the reverse. You have to have absolutely sensational creative to trade reach for frequency. Better to have 50,000 people see an ad 5 times (250 tarps) than 100,000 see it three times, (300 tarps).
Buy Peak and Off Peak
Peak Time gives you heaps of viewers, which means wide reach. Lots of people seeing the ad. Off peak gives you a limited number of viewers whom you can afford to hit several times, which gives you frequency with them. Over a campaign, you’ll find you’ll also pick up quite a few of the peak customers, but slowly. Thus you build up reach & frequency most efficiently over a campaign with both.
Road Block – buy many stations at the same time
On the basis that they’re running the ads at the same time, which is most often the case, if you want to hit everyone you can, it’s a nice idea to book an ad on all the relevant stations to run in exactly the same ad break. Then you know you’ve got at least one solid ‘frequency’. (See Flick Factor)
Appropriate shows
Show selection is critical. You are associated with the content – so if you’re on a stupid show for your target market, they’ll think less of you. A traditionalist will tell you to buy on the shows that best suite your target market demographic and that add something from a psychological or ‘environment’ sense (ie. The Money Show, for an on-line broker’s ad etc.) Yes, if you can afford to, please do. But it’s not value for money if you can hit the same audience for a third the cost on other shows. Use your judgment and don’t be conned into paying full whack for a ‘key’ show just ’cause your boyfriend likes it. And you don’t need to tell the rep which in your eyes is a key show – better to have the really important shows as almost ‘add ons’, so they don’t charge you more next time.
Regularly on the shows
If you buy regularly on a show, you become associated with the show. Sometimes nice for credibility. For some strange reason, a regular time-slot works really well.
Buy the Top and the Tail
This is the usual buy with the most seasoned TV advertisers, such as Telstra, the banks etc. Because people channel surf, the best spots are the top and tail of the break. That’s a 30 seconder at the start of the break for those who don’t use their remote to surf the other stations, and the 15 at the other end to remind them and get the message to those who did surf, but saw the first bit of the first ad and see the last bit of the 15. This also works better if they are watching the show on a time warp thing like Tevo, cause while they are running the ads faster, they still see a bit of both of the ads.
Buy the cheapest in the slot.
If you can’t afford to buy the top and the tail in the show you want, buy the cheapest ad in that time-slot, knowing full well that with the flick factor /channel surfing you’ve got a better than even chance of getting the audience anyway – if they surf, they may hit that station. If you’re paying less than the average cost, you’re getting the better deal.
Buy Unsold Time
As the time gets closer, the panic sets in amongst the sales force. If you’ve got ads already running on a station, occasionally you can get them to up the number of ads they run in a particular period, which suits you, for only a very small additional cost – if air-time is not pre-sold, it can be very, very cheap. I’m talking ‘I’ll shout you lunch’ cheap.
Buy Direct
The Stations are prepared to sell slices of time at whatever rate they can get (as long as the big buyer’s clients don’t get wind of it). And the stations will provide whatever research you need. They all get it from the same sources.
Buy Calendar Off -Peak
There are many weeks where you’re not paying to compete with an excess of other advertisers. If you’re in retail and it’s Xmas week, you have no choice, but if you’re building a brand, choose weeks/days which are less full. In all months there are softer weeks. In all weeks, softer times. But people are still at home with their eyeballs open.
Avoid ROS
Run Of Station means Spots We Can’t Sell. Unless you have a product that is wanted by people who can’t sleep or security guards, or stoners, don’t bother with late night, unless it’s ridiculously cheap and I mean only a hundred bucks.
Screw them on price
They will screw you to the wall when you want something, so do the reverse when you get the opportunity. Trade them off against each other and dutch auction rates. By that I mean say ‘they other guys only want x’. At the end of the day, a spot on a show is worth whatever you get it for. And that’s it. They will still deal with you as a buyer next month and they’ll only respect you more if you’re tough.
On length
TV stations often push buys for large numbers of short length ads (Wow, they’ve offered me 100 x 10 second spots!) on bunnies because the bunnies have heard of the concept of ‘Frequency’ and don’t understand that with no impact frequency means nothing. Unless they are very powerful and simple, short ads do not allow the punters to get the message, (brand, positioning or whatever). Our brains take more time to react than you think. Just cause you can see the logo in the ten second sponsorship, because you’ve seen it in the edit suite 100 times, don’t expect more than a small percentage of your customers to take it in. So don’t be talked into paying for short ads at a pro-rata rate. They are not worth it. They are nice as a value-add gift as part of your buy and to put the brand in front of the public, but have a history of being virtually useless to actually build the brand profile.
If you can, buy a 45 or even 60- second ad. I’ll bet your agency will be able to re-cut the footage you have and it will sell it’s tits off over a 15 or 30 seconder. You can also use this same longer version in Cinema….
Flighting
You must flight; re-run the ads regularly during the year. Start off with a heavier buy, to build awareness, then flight or run the ads every second week or month or so to keep awareness and sales levels up. All agencies have different theories on how to do this. It does vary dramatically in certain markets, the more competitive the market, the more frequently you need to flight. Run ads when your dashboard says sales may be waning. Don’t wait for confirmation from your stores or warehouse – that often costs companies like yours millions in lost sales.
What to do?
If I was you, I’d decide how I’d like to buy the TV, I’d then get an agency to negotiate it on an hourly rate, and ignore all the fluff the industry tries to use. In the end, you’re buying access to people’s minds. Pay for good advice, not prime time rates at full whack. TV time is not rocket science. It’s simply air time sold to the highest bidder.
Further reading on TV buying can be read here.
For the Malta Street Art Festival, Dutch artist Leon Keer (previously) painted a stretch of sidewalk with an illusion straight out of a fairy tale: giant gummy bears converging together.
From up close, the 3D painting seems skewed and random, forcing curious passers-by to take a closer look. But when seen from above 10-metres, the illusion suddenly comes to life, showing a group of gummy bears gathering around their fallen friend, green gummy bear. It’s a delightful sight until you see the grim story behind it.
And the cause of death? Unknown, but most likely it had too much sugar. Get it? Get it? Head on over here to see more of Keer’s works.
These beautiful, colourful 8-bit GIFs by illustrator Toyoi Yuuta depict everyday life in Japan, from bullet trains, vending machines, skyscrapers to the food and the old-and-new architecture. Toyoi, who normally specialises in animation videos, created these gifs using the touchpad on his PC laptop, and has published them under his pseudonym 1041uuu. Most of his work apparently depicts Tokyo or nearby towns, and combine 80s/90s nostalgia with a love for Japan.
For more on the Japanese GIF life, check out his tumblr here.
What is 8 Bit Art?
8 Bit can refer to music and to art, and both are associated with 1980s-early 1990s video games. 8 bit music, also known as the synthesized form of electronic music ‘chiptunes’, is usually made from sound hardware from old video game consoles or systems. Gameboys in particular are quite popular for live chiptunes performers, being portable and easy to use. Chiptunes bands often perform in game-related events like Pax: if you’re curious, check out the yearly PaxAUS in Melbourne (usually in November), Day 2 should have a chiptunes band.
In contrast, 8 bit art, or pixel art, had a resurgence after the site Eightbit.me appeared on the net, which allowed people to create a full body 8 bit avatar in their own image. There are now tutorials online for anyone interested in creating their own 8 Bit contribution to the world from ordinary images.
For #ThrowbackThursday last week, Buzz Aldrin knocked everyone else’s entries out of the park with scans of his travel vouchers and forms from the Apollo 11 mission. As Gizmodo mentions, it’s probably the most exciting government form you’ll ever see:
It’s an unassuming document: a travel voucher for Col. Edwin E. Aldrin for a round trip originating in Houston, Texas. But the whole story of the most historic space mission to date is right there, listed matter-of-factly as a series of destinations in the right-hand column of the first page: Cape Kennedy, Florida; Moon; Pacific Ocean (USN Hornet); and Hawaii.
On the next page, the voucher spells out the details of travel arrangements for a business trip to the Moon. Aldrin drove his own car from his residence to Ellington Air Force Base outside Houston, Texas. From there to Cape Kennedy, he flew on a government aircraft. Nothing unusual so far, but you’ve got to wonder what the typist thought while typing out the next two lines:
The most historic space mission is listed right there in the Points of Travel column:
From: Houston, Texas
To:
Cape Kennedy, Flo
Moon
Pacific Ocean
Hawaii
For more forms and pics, check out Buzz Aldrin’s facebook account.
Animator makes a beautiful tribute to Hayao Miyazaki. Love the opening sequence!
About Hayao Miyazaki
Miyazaki is probably the most famous Japanese animator and director in the world, renowned for films like Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle and Ponyo. Often called the Japanese Walt Disney (though apparently he hates the title), his film Spirited Away was the first Japanese anime film to win an Academy Award. The protagonists of his films are usually strong, young independent women. The majority of his films at his studio, Studio Ghibli, are hand-drawn:
The majority of Studio Ghibli films are made using traditional animation techniques. So what does this mean? EVERY SINGLE FRAME is hand-drawn by animators, before being put together to give the illusion of movement and create the film. This is a very repetitive and time-consuming process but the studio’s co-founder Hayao Miyazaki believes that “hand drawing on paper is the fundamental of animation”.
Despite Miyazaki’s preferred choice being hand-drawn animation, CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) has been used in several Studio Ghibli films. CGI can help animators with scenes that would otherwise be overly complicated to create using traditional animation techniques. In Princess Mononoke, digital paint was used to speed up the process and finish the film on time. My Neighbors the Yamadas is the only Studio Ghibli film to be entirely made using computer animation.
Animals are voiced by kids, in this bottled water ad. Cutevertising at its best.
Want more? Here are some of our favourites in the genre:
1. Budweiser Puppy Ad
Because horses. And puppies. Winning combo.
2. Dear Kitten, by Friskies
This insanely viral ad series has been a huge hit for Friskies.
3. Volkswagen: The Force
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R55e-uHQna0
And finally, our favourite of the lot, Volkswagen’s ad about a very little Darth Vader. More on using cute animals in ads:
The most successful ads featuring animals have become ingrained in the national psyche. The old English sheepdog introduced by FCB in 1961 for Dulux became so fondly regarded that people still often refer to the breed as “Dulux dogs”. JWT’s Andrex puppies are still going strong after 42 years, while the VCCP meerkat, Aleksandr Orlov, is credited with boosting Comparethemarket.com’s market share by 76 per cent within a year of his 2009 debut.
Nevertheless, animals are no panacea, as Cadbury found in 2005 when it unveiled “your happiness loves Cadbury” by Publicis. Using animals as metaphors for human happiness, the campaign had to be scrapped as consumers couldn’t understand it. […]
“Of course using cute animals in ads is an easy fix – which is why we shouldn’t shy away from using them. You only have to see the number of YouTube videos featuring cats and dogs to understand people’s endless fascination with them,” [said Craig Mawdsley, joint chief strategy officer, Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO]
Amazing video of Robbie “Maddo” Maddison, riding a dirt bike into the unchartered saltwater terrain of the Pacific Ocean in French Polynesia. DC Shoes gives the world a chance to witness history being made as Maddo rides his dirt bike on the powerful and iconic waves of Tahiti. Via Surfer Mag:
In the video above, you’ll see a madman take off on a sizeable wave in Tahiti on a highly-modified motorcycle. His name is Robbie Maddison, and he’s a surfer-slash-stunt-rider from Australia. “Maddo” seems to know no fear, as he’s backflipped the Tower Bridge in London, jumped the Corinth Canal in Greece, and acted as the stunt-double for Daniel Craig in James Bond films. But looking over the ledge in Tahiti, while holding onto two handlebars, is another level of madness. We caught up with Maddo to ask him, well, why?
Well, let’s take it from the top. Where the hell did this idea come from?
Well, I grew up surfing, and my wife is a big-time wakeboard champion, so every time we’re home in Australia we’re in boats, on the water, etc. I guess the idea originally came from—well I mean I’m obviously a motorcycle guy—but I was on the back of a boat and we were cruising along the river and I’m looking at the wake coming up the back, watching her wakeboard, and something clicked in my head. I fantasized putting skis on a bike and riding on water. It was a stupid vision at the time, but I kept toying with it, playing with designs and concepts, and eventually it became a reality.