Crocodile Dundee Man unearthed again.

We were interested to find out from Saturday’s [18/6/2005] Sydney Morning Herald that according to Dr Clotaire Rapaille, a self styled marketing guru and “cultural psychologist”, Australian’s can be defined by the “key word”, “invincible”. Dr Rapaille says we are tongue in cheek Crocodile Dundee men, due to our origins [think convict settlers], our participation in various wars and, of course, “the bush”. Whether or not his views are based on any actual research, Jungian style, or simply his own deduction, the article does not make clear. ‘Crocodile Dundee Man’ is an archetype that we would like to see the early death of, not because it is outdated, or because its sexist, or because it is an artificially created Americanised version of Australian national identity, but because it is simply incorrect.

As Hugh McKay so rightly points out in the same edition of the SMH, “our identity is still evolving and we’d be foolish to try and define it prematurely”. We would like to think, together with McKay, that we side a little closer with Canada [even if we do lock our doors in some suburbs of Sydney] who completed the statement “as Canadian as...” with “...it’s possible to be in the circumstances”.

Yes, we are undergoing a time of self assessment - what does it mean to be Australian? Or, for that matter, un-Australian. But this is all part of our coming of age. Hopefully our sense of humour will not be lost when we finally get there, though I’ll be happy to plant a cross on the grave of Crocodile Dundee Man sooner rather than later.

Place branding. Not so new.

We were recently sent an article by a Canadian contact from enRoute magazine [‘This Brand is Your Brand’] on the ‘new’ profession of place branding. Not so new, we say. Place branding, whether a country, city, region, suburb or development, has been here for some time. Consider this 1938 quote, “A great city goes out beyond its borders, to all the latitudes of the known earth. The city becomes an emblem in remote minds; it exerts its cultural instrumentality in a thousand phases”. While we now have a more formal approach, the development of place brand strategies, understanding places as brands is not really new...we just now want to overtly manage them, or in some instances, such as a recent project we completed in Newcastle Australia, create them.

But yes, there is more discussion about places as brands. In part, this is because we are starting to more fully understand the holistic nature of brands but also because as people, we are now defining ourselves by where we live. Some interesting research has been undertaken to support this by Richard Florida, ‘The Rise of the Creative Class’, Professor at Carnegie Mellon University.

A true sign of the longevity of place branding is the recent outbreak of place brand generics...MCentral apartments in Sydney, recently claimed “genuine New York apartments”. The key is that even to those who have never been to New York, a style, emotion and mood is evoked by use of the term “New York”. Place branding can also be used effectively to re-generate an ailing geographic area. Parramatta Australia tried this in 2002, only to be thwarted by town planning problems.

What is vital, as with all branding, is that the brand is not artificially created, but is based on research and reality. When undertaking place branding for Lee Wharf Newcastle, we conducted multiple site visits, interviews with Newcastle residents [the true owners of a place brand] and lots of ‘digging’ in the historical section of Newcastle library. Place branding is also subject to the co-authoring processes of its inhabitants, who over time, assist in the shape and fashion of the place brand.

enRoute also refers to the importance of change in regards to place brands and even national identities; “radical thinking about our national futures is precisely the mindset required”. Which only supports Florida’s argument that “quality of place” is closely linked with our view of ourselves, hence we now define ourselves by where we live, not what we do.

Satellite image of Sydney copyright NASA 1996

Not the end of print.

In 1995 American designer David Carson famously declared the end of print. Not so, it seems somewhat resilient as a media form. According to TNS Media Intelligence, US advertising spending in major media in the first quarter of 2005 increased 4.4 percent to $33.5 billion from $32.1 billion in the same period last year with the major focus still on print. Local magazines led all media categories in percentage growth, rising 26.2 percent to $103.7 million from $82.2 million. By total dollar amount, local newspapers led the categories, at $5.869 billion, followed by broadcast television, at $5.845 billion.

Is this signalling a change back to more personal hands-on media? Certainly the trends in Australia reflect more of a prediliction for media planners to focus on electronic media.

According to the Magazine Publishers of Australia, media spend estimates here for 2005 vary from a low of 4.2% to highs of over 11%.

Media agency Zenith predicts the Australian ad market will grow by 5.3% in 2005 with the internet leading the way with an estimated 30% increase in ad spend to $390 million (compare this with the US magazine increase of 29%).

Zenith predicts television and radio ad spend will grow by 5% followed by magazines (4.4%), newspapers (4%) and outdoor (3.7%).

Consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCooper predicts in a range from 4.1% to more than 10%, while Citigroup analysts predicted only a 4.2% increase in ad spending in 2005.

Perhaps Australia is a less literate nation than we pretend to be, or maybe it's because advertising agencies see the lure of more $$ in electronic media than print, and steer their clients appropriately.

So we are a little ahead of the US in terms of spend but perhaps that's because economic conditions here have been more favourable. But yet it does suggest a trend that local brands need to be aware of, the swing away from electronic media to more locally focussed media. People want to know what's happening around them and want products and services advertised which are relevant to their daily lives.

Image from David Carson's Fotografiks, courtesy Ginkopress