National ratings race. Source : David Dale Sun Herald Blogs

Sound the alarm and call out the bloodhounds — nearly half a million Australian viewers have gone missing.

Last year the premiere of Ugly Betty attracted 2.05 million in the mainland capitals. Last week Betty’s second season opened with 1.03 million.

Last year Sea Patrol averaged 1.6 million. Last week’s episode drew 1.2 million.

Last year the Logies broadcast held 1.7 million viewers for four hours. Last week it held 1.50 million.

Grey’s Anatomy managed 1.3 million against the Logies last year and this year 1 million.

At this point in 2007 Big Brother at 7pm was drawing 1.1 million. Last week it was lucky to get 900,000, despite the presence of Corey Worthington (who proves to be disturbingly bland).

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Newcastle TV ratings week 19, 2008

It seemed like old times last week when NBN dominated the overall Newcastle TV ratings. NBN and SC TEN were up slightly on last years result while Prime slumped badly. Eight of the top 10 programs last week were on NBN, the other two were Prime.

Probably the biggest surprise of the week was that the final of Underbelly wasn’t the No.1 show. It came in 7th for the week in Newcastle despite being the ratings winner elsewhere.

At this stage of the year NBN have a commanding 8 point lead over Prime. SC TEN have improved from their bad start last year to be of to a much better start in 2008.

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My colleague The Marketer regularly posts regarding marketing and media job vacancies in the Hunter Region. It is one of the more popular topics on his site.

Today he has come across a job ad that really caught my eye.

Apparently this ad is doing the rounds via email at the moment.

Seems you go to a website they have created (with a rather colourful URL) and find out more about the position. And the  creativity doesn’t stop there. But check out the site to see what I mean.

Good to see someone taking a different approach to the standard industry approach. Maybe another industry is beginning to apply some creative thinking to their model.

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Universal McCann has recently published its comparative study following Social Media trends by three waves: September 2006 (Wave 1), June 2007 (Wave 2) March 2008 (Wave 3).

Research highlights:

1. Social media is a global phenomenon happening in all markets regardless of wider economic, social and cultural development.

2. Asian markets (not including Japan) are leading in terms of participation, creating more content than any other region

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I am not usually one to blow my own trumpet, but I am proud to announce that Media Hunter is
Australia’s No.1 Media News blog.

How and why can I say this? Well its all actually about strategic positioning. I have recently launched a sister site called Sticky Branding. Sticky Branding discusses brand issues such as brand personality, taglines, corporate identity and positioning.

You see, branding is a lot like real estate. Its all about position, position, position.

Most brands try to compete in big, blurry categories against the giants of their industry. In doing so they are usually fighting a losing battle. Clever brands find a category niche and position themselves as the leader of that niche. From there they can compete and grow.

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Media Hunter has a new sister. A sister weblog that is. I am proud to announce the birth of Sticky Branding, a dedicated brand advice and analysis site.

Here at Sticky Advertising we are passionate about strong branding. Not just brand and logo design, but carefully positioned, well-articulated brands. We believe in communicating the brand personality and crafting a powerful and memorable tagline.

Its all part of effective branding. And its all discussed in detail at Sticky Branding.

In fact, the site will even go so far as to explain a step by step process for creating effective brand communication.

So drop by and meet Media Hunter’s sister.

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But Don’t Get Sidetracked Into Third-Screen Thinking

We are on the verge of witnessing the birth of a new mass-communications medium. It’s the second new mass medium to appear in the last two decades.

The internet arrived in the 1990s, joining the other four mass media: 1) The book 2) The periodical 3) Radio 4) TV. Each new mass medium has created enormous upheavals in society.

   
* The book ignited the knowledge explosion.
   
* The periodical furthered the growth of democracy.
   
* Radio created a celebrity-oriented society.
   
* TV homogenized the culture.

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Newcastle TV ratings week 18, 2008

Southern Cross Ten enjoyed their best week in a long time when the finale of The Biggest Loser and launch of Big Brother saw them finish even with Prime in the the latest Newcastle TV ratings. NBN was the easy overall winner again while SC Ten was well up on last year and Prime was down.

Most popular programs:
1    The Biggest Loser Finale    TEN    97000
2    NBN Evening News Sunday    NBN    96000
3    NBN Evening News Monday to Friday    NBN    90000
4    Doc Martin Finale    ABC    89000
5    Underbelly    NBN    89000
6    NBN Evening News Saturday    NBN    82000
7    RSPCA Animal Rescue    PRIME    81000
8    A Current Affair    NBN    80000
9    The Biggest Loser (Aus) The Final Weigh In    TEN    76000
10    David Attenborough’s – Life in Cold Blood    NBN    75000

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Source: David Dale, Sun Herald blogs

It was a week of fond farewells and lukewarm welcomes. Farewelling The Biggest Loser,
in which contestant Sam Rouen, 20, shed 46 per cent of his body weight,
Channel Ten got the biggest audience of any series this year — 1.89
million in the mainland capitals. This topped the 1.85 million who
farewelled Ten’s So You Think You Can Dance Australia on Sunday.

But only 1.51 million welcomed Big Brother on Monday — the
worst opening in the show’s history, although better than the welcome
afforded to Dannii Minogue and her two boobs on Tuesday, when Seven
managed only 1.36 million for Australia’s Got Talent. BB
had small audiences during the week and only 1 million saw the smallest
contestant, Rima, break her leg during the Friday night games. With her
in hospital, there will be even less reason to watch BB this week.

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Just saw this on AdAge.com Fascinating insight into advertising’s relationship with social media by Ian Schafer:

Technology is a funny thing. It enables humans to be capable of so
much. It raises our potential to improve our lives and the lives of
those around us.

But so much of technology is hidden from plain view because
it doesn’t make money. Financial gain is arguably the most important
aspect of technological innovation, because without it, all but the
most altruistic of reasons cease to exist.

We are living in a time in which the media we consume are
undergoing the most rapid technological transformation since the advent
of TV. Back then, there was a lot for companies to gain by having a TV
in every home in America. It gave advertisers the ability to pitch
their wares to TV’s captive audience. And over the years, those
advertisers have shelled out billions upon billions of dollars
continuing to do so because it was perhaps the best-performing media,
but one that delivered a passive audience.

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