The Gruen Transfer

Wednesday 22 September at 9pm on ABC1

Wil Anderson is joined by Todd Sampson (Leo Burnett), Russel Howcroft (GPYR), Dan Gregory (The Impossible Institute) and Bridget Taylor (Contagion) for the last GRUEN TRANSFER for the year.

Next week, through a process known to scienticians as televisual parthenogenesis, we give birth to GRUEN PLANET.

But first, on tonight’s show:

Sports betting

In a few short years, sports betting has grown into a $3 billion business, the fastest growing part of the gambling industry. TV sports are now carpeted with betting ads. The odds and dividends have even worked their way into the commentary. The panel pulls apart the normalisation strategies of the modern bookie.

Virtual product placement. As if there weren’t enough consumer goods being shoehorned into movies and TV shows, now there are companies specialising in digital product placement, adding products to scenes where previously there were none. Products can be changed to suit timeslot or audience type.  A character can drink a Coke in a movie in Brisbane and Pepsi in the same movie in Perth.

The Pitch:

Why have so many of our Pitch suggestions this year come from Adelaide. We don’t know, but this week there’s another. Craig Palamountain wants a campaign to convince us all that politicians are underpaid.

RedHanded Vs Fenton Stephens.

Wednesday, September 14 at 9pm on ABC1

Wil Anderson welcomes back Todd Sampson (Leo Burnett), Russel Howcroft (GPYR), Dee Madigan (Socket), along with another new Gruen face, consumer psychologist and partner at Naked Communications, Adam Ferrier.

On tonight’s show:

Shampoos. No joke, Australians spend a massive $440 million on shampoo and conditioner a year. Bad hair is big business. According to one report from the US, 25% of women having bad hair days consider not leaving home. We have two key questions. Is the whole category based on dodgy “science”? And can Sunsilk’s Hair Superheroes save us all?

Advergaming. Corn chip company Doritos wanted to give its product some edge. So it came up with an idea specifically targeted at teenage males. Asylum 626 is a mashup of movie and online game. You log on via Facebook and Twitter. It uses your real life, harvesting photos of your Facebook friends and asking you to decide who gets to live. It this example of what they call advergaming perfect product engagement or a ploy to harvest personal information?

The Pitch:

This week’s Pitch comes from Adelaide’s Dave Willanski. He asked for a campaign to privatise the ABC. This made Wil just a wee bit nervous!

JMK vs Loud.

9:00pm – Wednesday, September 7 on ABC1

In the fourth season of The Gruen Transfer, inimitable host Wil Anderson will once again pick apart the seams of advertising with the extraordinary Russel Howcroft and Todd Sampson, ably supported by our rotating panel of Dan Gregory, Dee Madigan, Jeremy Nicholas, Bridget Taylor, Jane Caro, Rowan Dean and Carolyn Miller.

Old favourite segments including The Pitch where two agencies compete to sell the unsellable will return, along with another End Of Show Quest. Last year we voted for The Worst Ad Of All Time. This year, we’re pushing that idea further, hoping to identify and celebrate… (drum roll)… The Worst Product Of All Time.

The Gruen Transfer will be repeated on ABC2 – Thursday, September 08 at 9:35pm

WED SEPTEMBER 7 9PM ON ABC1,

THURS SEPTEMBER 8 AT 9.30PM ON ABC2

MC at Gruen HQ, Wil Anderson, is joined at the desk by Russel Howcroft (GPY&R), Todd Sampson (Leo Burnett), Bridget Taylor (Contagion) and newcomer Sunita Gloster (Omnilab).

On tonight’s show:

The Billboard.  There are about 9,000 billboard sites in Australia. It’s one of the only form of advertising we can’t switch off or turn the page to get away from. It’s also adopting technology, breaking free of its old-fashioned rectangular straightjacket. So, is it visual pollution or a highly effective way to hit your target market?

Random Acts of Kindness. One of advertising’s hottest trends, particularly in social media. Brands are now targeting their customers to promote their products, showering them with gifts ad then hoping they’ll become ambassadors, spruiking to their friends and contacts. Is it stalking or building brand loyalty?

The Pitch:

In four seasons of Gruen, we’ve suggested bringing back child labour, invading New Zealand, euthanasing everyone over 80 and many more ridiculous ideas. This week, we finally found a subject so untouchable that we had agencies actually decline to take part. Adelaide’s Jim Stapleton came up with the controversial Pitch suggestion: a campaign to ban religion.

Loud & Clear and Play were the agencies ultimately brave enough to take on the brief.

9:00pm – Wednesday, August 31 on ABC1

Wednesday,31 August 2011 In the fourth season of The Gruen Transfer, inimitable host Wil Anderson will once again pick apart the seams of advertising with the extraordinary Russel Howcroft and Todd Sampson, ably supported by our rotating panel of Dan Gregory, Dee Madigan, Jeremy Nicholas, Bridget Taylor, Jane Caro, Rowan Dean and Carolyn Miller.

Old favourite segments including The Pitch where two agencies compete to sell the unsellable will return, along with another End Of Show Quest. Last year we voted for The Worst Ad Of All Time. This year, we’re pushing that idea further, hoping to identify and celebrate… (drum roll)… The Worst Product Of All Time!

WED 31 AUGUST 9PM ON ABC1

Wil Anderson, Todd Sampson (Leo Burnett), Russel Howcroft (GPYR) are joined by Dan Gregory (Smart) and author and advertising lecturer Jane Caro.

The topics for this week are:

How Do You Sell Snack Bars? Fifteen million school lunches are eaten in Australia every week. Meanwhile, adults are snacking between meals more than ever. The “healthy” snack bar is a tempting offer, but is it less than it appears? Choice magazine recently tested 31 snack bars and wasn’t prepared to label even one of them as healthy. Most have more than 20% sugar and some more saturated fat than a packet of chips. So how come they’re almost all marketed as nutritious?

Ad Crunch: KFC’s Darren Simpson premium burgers. Ready Steady Cook chef Darren Simpson has been copping flak from other chefs for spruiking the fast food chain’s new gourmet burgers (even more calories than the non-gourmet ones). Why has KFC, a company that sells its food in buckets, decided that now is the time to appear classy? And aren’t we over the whole chef-as-salesman thing?

The Pitch:

This week’s challenge comes from an anonymous Twitterer, PersonaRedacted.  He would like to see a campaign to convince the tens of millions of teenagers around the globe that Facebook is uncool. Can our agencies step up?

Ogilvy Vs Arnold Furnace

9:00pm – Wednesday, August 24 on ABC1

In the fourth season of The Gruen Transfer, inimitable host Wil Anderson will once again pick apart the seams of advertising with the extraordinary Russel Howcroft and Todd Sampson, ably supported by our rotating panel of Dan Gregory, Dee Madigan, Jeremy Nicholas, Bridget Taylor, Jane Caro, Rowan Dean and Carolyn Miller.

Old favourite segments including The Pitch where two agencies compete to sell the unsellable will return, along with another End Of Show Quest. Last year we voted for The Worst Ad Of All Time. This year, we’re pushing that idea further, hoping to identify and celebrate… (drum roll)… The Worst Product Of All Time.

The Gruen Transfer will be repeated on ABC2 – Thursday, August 25 at 9:35pm

THURS 18 AUGUST AT 9.30PM ON ABC2

Wil Anderson is joined by Todd Sampson (Leo Burnett), Russel Howcroft (GPYR), Jeremy Nicolas (BMF) and Jane Caro.

How Do You Sell? Animal Rights In a week when parliament discusses Live Export, the Gruen panel dissects the sometimes controversial communication strategies of organisations such as RSPCA, Animals Australia, PETA  and Greenpeace.

Ad Crunch: Tontine. 53 year-old Melbourne-based pillow company Tontine decided it was time to for an ad campaign. Its agency suggested another idea. Having seen research which showed people keep using old pillows long after they’re brown and stainy, the agency suggested stamping pillows with ‘Use-by dates’, then creating a campaign to make us all scared about the microbial ecosystems that sleep with us every night. The result: sales increased by 345%.

The Pitch:

Tonight’s challenge comes from Mitchel Huffa from Adelaide. The multi-million dollar industry for bottled water is proof how easy it is to sell us stuff we don’t need. Tonight, we ask our agencies to make us all want to pay for bottled air.

9:00pm – Wednesday, August 17 on ABC1

Wednesday,17 August 2011 In the fourth season of The Gruen Transfer, inimitable host Wil Anderson will once again pick apart the seams of advertising with the extraordinary Russel Howcroft and Todd Sampson, ably supported by our rotating panel of Dan Gregory, Dee Madigan, Jeremy Nicholas, Bridget Taylor, Jane Caro, Rowan Dean and Carolyn Miller.

Old favourite segments including The Pitch where two agencies compete to sell the unsellable will return, along with another End Of Show Quest. Last year we voted for The Worst Ad Of All Time. This year, we’re pushing that idea further, hoping to identify and celebrate… (drum roll)… The Worst Product Of All Time.

The Gruen Transfer will be repeated on ABC2 – Thursday, August 18 at 9:35pm

9:00pm – Wednesday, August 10 on ABC1

Wednesday,10 August 2011 The Gruen Transfer returns…

…because we’ve been away long enough and really, because we’ve missed you. And there’s so much to catch up on: crazy mining ads, Big Tobacco campaigns, gambling messages invading every sport program on TV, the social media monster of Vodafail, NAB pretending it has no friends…

In the fourth season of The Gruen Transfer, inimitable host Wil Anderson will once again pick apart the seams of advertising with the extraordinary Russel Howcroft and Todd Sampson, ably supported by our rotating panel of Dan Gregory, Dee Madigan, Jeremy Nicholas, Bridget Taylor, Jane Caro, Rowan Dean and Carolyn Miller.

Old favourite segments including The Pitch where two agencies compete to sell the unsellable will return, along with another End Of Show Quest. Last year we voted for The Worst Ad Of All Time. This year, we’re pushing that idea further, hoping to identify and celebrate… (drum roll)… The Worst Product Of All Time.

The Gruen Transfer will be repeated on ABC2 – Thursday, August 11 at 9:35pm