ISSN: 1329-878X

Marketing on the Internet No 86 February 1998 Order form Abstracts

Contents

Abstracts

Beyond commercials: Television program sponsorship in France and the United Kingdom -- Peter Meech and Alastair Duncan

This article deals with varieties of sponsorship, with regulation, with the number and types of programs sponsored on terrestrial television, and with the types of advertisers who sponsor them. In France, the 1980s were characterised by expansion and experimentation in sponsorship which outpaced regulation; by contrast, the first network program sponsorship in the United Kingdom was in 1989. The effect of the European legislation of 1989 was to tighten control in France and ease the regulatory framework in the United Kingdom. However, the perceived power of commercials and the strict regime imposed by the British ITC Code of Television Sponsorship, although further liberalised in 1997, continue to limit the penetration of sponsorship in the United Kingdom. Given that in 1995 only 2 per cent of television's advertising income in Britain, and 6per cent in France, came from sponsorship, there is no evidence to date that sponsorship has had an adverse effect on program quality or diversity.

Global marketing and the new Hollywood: The making of the 'Always Coca-Cola' campaign -- Cynthia B. Meyers

In 1992, the globally distributed soft drink maker Coca-Cola jettisoned its long-time advertising strategy of 'one sight, one sound, one sell'. Looking to tap into the American youth culture zeitgeist and shore up its market among youth worldwide, Coca-Cola hired a Hollywood talent agency, Creative Artists Agency, because it would provide an 'enormous resource to popular culture'. CAA shaped the initial 'Always Coca-Cola' campaign as a diverse array of images 'style-sorted' in order to attract and retain remote control-wielding audiences. Despite advertising industry concerns that a talent agency was encroaching on its turf, Coca-Cola continues to pursue the CAA-originated strategy of diverse, clever, high-concept advertising (now managed by former CAA staff members) in order to stay relevant to American youth culture and its international variants.

Transborder television: The response of advertisers in Asia -- Amos Owen Thomas

With the advent of the transnational medium of satellite television in Asia, the long-debated issue of globalising advertising is being revisited in the region. The pioneer broadcaster StarTV sought to convince international marketers and their advertising agencies of its uniqueness as a Pan-Asian medium. However, in its early years, there was little response from either Asian consumers or advertisers. This paper explores the views of advertising agencies, domestic broadcasters, market researchers and media regulators about transnational satellite television in the two key markets of Indonesia and India, as well as Hong Kong, the regional hub for advertising and broadcasting. It finds that interest in regional advertising varied from country to country, depending on such factors as language barriers, alternative domestic media, non-standardisation of products and government restrictions.

How will new media affect television? -- Tony Branigan

The next two decades will force major changes on existing media and leave them with a significantly smaller share of voice, mind and advertising dollars. Pay TV in various forms will be the main challenge, but the Internet and other interactive media also seem certain to change traditional media use and advertising practices.

In the United States, cable television has taken large numbers of viewers from free-to-air TV, and is expanding its share of advertising revenue. Pay TV's prospects in Australia are promising, though the largely American program content of advertiser-supported channels may limit their appeal. Pay TV may be in as many as 20 per cent of homes within three years, but its impact on television viewing levels will be only a fraction of that. Free-to-air viewing may decline by as little as 4 per cent by 2000, while television revenue may be unaffected by Pay TV.

In the medium term, digital technology will make various forms of interactivity practicable for both free-to-air and Pay TV. This may prove to be more significant than competition for advertising dollars, as it will allow both media to compete for marketing expenditure currently made outside normal advertising media.

Promotional desires: Popular media's presence on the Internet -- P. David Marshall, with Susan Luckman and Sean Smith

For a variety of reasons, the traditional popular or 'mass' media have attempted to position themselves on the Internet through the establishment of often elaborate Websites. The potential future delivery of film, television and radio through the Internet represents a serious challenge to the continued viability of media companies and their vested modes of delivery and exhibition. Their Internet sites represent their reaction to a possible computer/media converged future. At present, these sites play with the different interactive aesthetics of the Internet and tend to emphasise the use of the Internet as primarily a promotional tool. This article analyses the Websites of selected national and international media corporations, identifies the promotional quality of their presence, and charts their organisation of desire.

The development of digital television in Europe -- Stylianos Papathanassopoulos

This paper discusses the recent development of digital television in Western Europe. It traces the players and the outcome of the new television revolution as it is considered in Europe and argues that, as in the case of cable and satellite TV in the 1980s, the development of digital television is mostly associated with hype and 'technorazzamatazz' rather than with realistic estimates and most importantly not taking into account the reaction of the viewers.

Communication policy in Asia: Limited democracy and the public sphere -- David Birch

Communication policy in Asia has been, and is likely to remain, a highly exclusive, non-participatory, localised means of expressing and maintaining power and control. If it defines democracy, it defines a very different and limited one compared to the ideal envisioned, for example, by Habermas. This paper explores some of the issues involved, particularly with respect to communication policy studies in Asia, and argues for an approach to the development of communication studies and theory which is prepared to engage with the political and economic rather than just with the technical and social as is still the case with so many 'mass communication' approaches.

Community, demagogues and the South Pacific news media -- David Robie

On 19 October 1995, the Governor-General of Papua New Guinea issued the terms of reference for a Constitutional Review Committee's (CRC) Subcommittee on Media Accountability: to examine 'whether changes need to be made to ensure that, while freedom of the press is maintained, owners, editors and journalists of all elements of the media are accountable and that persons aggrieved by media abuses have reasonable redress'. The CRC held a public seminar in January 1996 to explore the issues and the Media Council of Papua New Guinea held a 'freedom at the crossroads' seminar the following month. Public responses were overwhelmingly in favour of the traditional 'free' press in Papua New Guinea, as guaranteed under Section 46 of the Constitution. The report of the Subcommittee on Media Accountability to Parliament in June 1996 essentially came to the same conclusion. However, the CRC introduced three draft media laws in November which introduced a controversial system involving a Media Commission, registration of journalists, licensing of media organisations and serious penalties for transgressors. The proposed legislation was widely condemned and was eventually shelved in February 1997. A general view is that the media debate was manipulated by a small group of politicians out of self-interest. This paper examines the developments in the context of the erosion of the news media and free expression in the South Pacific generally.

Sourcing the Wave: Crime Reporting, Aboriginal Youth and the WA Press, Feb 1991-Jan 1992 -- Steve Mickler and Alec McHoul

This paper reports on some initial findings from the Print Media Project, an investigation based on a large database consisting of over 600 items of news reportage. In particular, it examines a supposed 'crime wave' in 1991 and early 1992 and the presumed involvement in it of Aboriginal youth. While it finds some evidence for a mismatch between the news coverage of youth-crime and actual crime data, the report also argues that a complex set of relations between news sources, news participants and the press itself is responsible for this effect. It also finds equally complex issues surrounding (a) reportage on Aboriginal youth and (b) participation by Aboriginal individuals and groups in the production of news.