Australian Advertisers Warned

Australian advertisers bring home four golds, seven silvers and 13 bronze Lions from the Cannes International Advertising Festival this year.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23905102-7582,00.html

However, reporter Lara Sinclair points out that if Australian’s broadband infrastructure is not improved, our $12 billion advertising industries will not be able to compete on the world stage.

For us the winners this year were the divisions of Press, a ‘traditionally weak’ area that received a gold, silver and three bronze and Direct Marketing which also received gold, a silver and three bronze.

Advertisers won two gold Lions; one for a citizenship campaign starring rapper Snoop Dogg, and the Olympic campaign.

In Film, the impressive Schweppes balloon bursting slow motion also won a gold.

However, the worry concerning broadband came when only one silver was awarded in the Cyber section, particularly when ‘ almost every speaker at Cannes’ spoke about the ‘importance of incorporating digital thinking into advertisers' communications strategies’. It was also made clear that the future of advertising lay in ‘digital thinking’ and ‘storytelling’

Adding to this concern was any addition of an Australian finalist in internet TV and mobile TV categories.

Ms Sinclair points out that while ‘internet film is not a big feature of Australia's advertising scene’ it quickly needs to become one, to remain viable in the future.

More concern that Australia isn’t pulling its weight in the world arena. Not only are we lacking in new and inventive ideas in terms of internet programming, it seems advertisers are following suit. As Ms Sinclair points out, this may be due to the lack of support given by the government to expand on a fast-speed broadband infrastructure. It seems to be a continual concern, throughout this blog, that the government has not responded quickly enough in the areas of broadband or digital television. Hopefully the future will not see Australia being left behind because of these oversights. On the other hand, it could be a case of Australian culture not willing to try and fail in terms of new ideas or in this case, innovations on different platforms of advertising.