Rookie takes the fight to Foxtel

JULIAN LEE The soon-to-launch pay TV operator Fetch TV has emerged as a mystery bidder for the television rights for the AFL and is talking to free-to-air TV networks about collaborating with them to shut out Foxtel.

Advertising chief attacks free-ride culture

JULIAN LEE The head of the largest advertising body has hit out at companies for hitching a ''free ride'' on his organisation's efforts to fight increasing regulation.

The vampire effect won't say g'day to business opportunities

JULIAN LEE If ''Say G'Day to the Lucky Country'' sees the light of day as a tagline to support a global brand for Australia, I think we can all pack up and go home.

Foster's slips 'offensive' TV ads onto web

NINA HENDY After weeks of indecision, Foster's has finally decided to unveil the latest incarnation of the Carlton Draught Made from Beer campaign on the internet after canning its television debut and admitting to a lapse in judgment.

Commonsense dulls creativity

NINA HENDY The world is dominated by far too much commonsense and conformity, which is cornering the advertising and marketing sector into a worrying state of mediocrity.

Choice and control: recipe for success

KIM WILLIAMS Australians are among the most rapid adopters of new technology products in the world. Think about the take-up of video recorders, the mobile phone and, my current digital favourite, Amazon's Kindle e-reader.

Famous 'friends' lure travellers

JULIAN LEE TOURISM AUSTRALIA is banking on a host of prominent people to spruik the country to potential tourists with up to 80 video vignettes being uploaded onto the internet.

Search giant set for paid ads with a twist

JULIAN LEE The fight for more advertising dollars on mapping websites is heating up as the two dominant players, Google and Sensis, ramp up their activity.

Google charts new territory with ads in maps

JULIAN LEE Google has begun putting ads on its popular maps pages in Australia in a world first - but companies must be ‘‘relevant’’ enough for their logos to appear.

Too soon to judge digital effects: networks

JULIAN LEE FREE-TO-AIR networks are calling on advertisers to cut them some slack over figures that appear to confirm fears audiences of their primary channels are being significantly cannibalised by new digital channels.

Heavyweights set to start swinging in talk-radio title fight

HAROLD MITCHELL All-time radio star Alan Jones is usually reporting the news. Now he is the news.

Judgment puts listings ownership on the line

JULIAN LEE THE federal government is expected to come under increasing pressure to change copyright laws after a court decided that Telstra's Yellow Pages and White Pages directories were not protected because they were work of computers rather than identifiable authors.

Conroy delays bill to rein in telemarketers

NINA HENDY THE bill to extend the Do Not Call Register to include businesses has been struck from the federal parliamentary schedule, representing a clear victory for the advertising and marketing industry.

Apple's future won't be brought to you by the letter 'i'

JULIAN LEE Apple has been dealt a severe blow, having been told that it no longer has a monopoly on the letter ''i'' as a prefix for all its products. A trademarks tribunal has knocked back Apple's bid to stop a small company from trademarking the name DOPi for use on its laptop bags and cases for Apple products.

Toohey's taps into the groove again

JULIAN LEE SIX years ago a roaming tongue and the insistent beat of the soundtrack that accompanied it put Toohey's Extra Dry on the map for hip Australian drinkers.

YouTube pushes the boundaries

YOUTUBE'S first major move away from being a video-sharing site and towards an online TV destination begins early tomorrow when it begins free streaming of Indian Premier Cricket League matches.

Big thinkers line up for a shot at the inaugural title

ONE of the founders of Naked Communications will set out to prove next week that the advertising industry's guiding principle of creating an emotional connection with consumers is a dying premise.

Jones puts up dukes to take on Melbourne

HAROLD MITCHELL Radio personality Alan Jones is usually reporting the news. Now he is the news. Everyone loves a fight and we've got a beauty coming up.

iPhone is the place to do business

DAVID BRAUE iPhone applications offer brand-building, an additional sales channel, a highly measurable marketing tool, and the opportunity to interact with discerning Gen Y buyers.

Online video ads to eat up TV budgets

JULIAN LEE Advertising around online videos could eat up as much as a third of TV budgets within the next five years, online publishers and leading media buyers claim as the definition of what constitutes screen-based advertising undergoes rapid change.

Something for nothing: viewers embrace digital free-for-all

ROBIN PARKES When it comes to television viewing, Australian consumers love choice, and they love innovation. And they love choice and innovation even more when they're free.

Qantas veteran eyes corporate makeover of Virgin Blue's entrepreneurial label

MATT O'SULLIVAN AND JULIAN LEE Virgin Blue will overhaul its brand as it tries to extract itself from no man's land between the low-cost carriers and Qantas in the full-service market.

The Pitch

There are too many cooks in the alphabet soup of industry bodies

JULIAN LEE The terms ''cooks'' and ''broth'' spring to mind when considering how many organisations purport to represent the interests of the marketing industry. There is the Australian Food and Grocery Council, the Australian Hotels Association, the Australian Brewers Association and the Distilled Spirits and Industry Council.

Duncan has monopoly on spraying, wiping

NINA HENDY Colgate-Palmolive will revive after a six-year hiatus one of the most successful ad campaigns to run on Australian commercial television.

PR giant poaches rivals' staff

JULIAN LEE Change is afoot in the Australian outposts of the multi-national public relations industry as Edelman raids the ranks of its rival, Hill & Knowlton, to boost its presence in Australia.

ABC chief strikes back at commercial rivals

ARI SHARP Media companies have only themselves to blame for their woes and should stop attacking the ABC's expanded services, managing director Mark Scott says.

YouTube makes a play for TV

JULIAN LEE Five years ago this week YouTube crept onto the internet and quickly became the world's largest online video sharing site - home to more folksy clips of kittens than you care to imagine.

Game on as AFL comes home to the west

JULIAN LEE It's being hailed by some in the media as the battle of the codes, but the push by the Australian Football League into the rugby league heartland of Sydney's western suburbs promises to be more complex, though no less interesting, a contest.

Grown-up Twitter has to pay its way

GORDON FARRER Its critics complain about the inanity of its content and its ability to suck time and attention from already busy lives, 140 characters at a time.

Volvo breaks out of the boring box by putting consumers in front of the car

JULIAN LEE More than six years after it mocked its own drivers with the edgy Bloody Volvo Driver campaign, the Swedish car company is taking another bold step in its advertising, telling potential buyers there's more to life than a fancy car. After five years of steadily rising sales since the Bloody Volvo campaign first aired in late 2003, Volvo is launching a campaign that declares: ''There's more to life than a Volvo. That's why you drive one.''