GROUND RULES FOR CAMPAIGNBRIEF/WA.COM
August 22 2008, 12:39 am | | 9 Comments
This small blog has really started to take off over the past few months, with visitors getting close to 900 to 1000 per day on our more “topical” days.
Campaignbrief/wa.com is a moderated blog site so, with popularity growing, it’s timely to explain a few ground rules that we have been following and also go public on one important change we are introducing to the highly popular ‘comments’ area. 99.9% of the comments on most threads have been in the spirit of what we are trying to achieve with the site. Occasionally, however, the odd person has crossed the line and we have withheld their comment.
Visitors to the site will always be able to comment anonymously. Within reason.
Here are the ground rules: As we have stated previously, comments that are seen to be more abusive than witty and/or constructive will not be posted. Obviously, we do not allow ‘hate speech’ or comments that are seen as a personal attack on an individual. Overly abusive language also adds nothing to any discussion..
One of the reasons we introduced the current Campaign Brief WA blog was so we could cover news that often is stale by the time the magazine came out. We also wanted to start discussion topics and bring interesting items to light that space prohibits within the confines of a 48 page magazine.
Another important reason was that we wanted to show off campaigns and ads as they are released in the media. The freedom of anonymous commenting can tend to bring out the critical side of some people’s personalities so we have found several agencies are a little reluctant to submit new work. Perth is a very small town and egos are easily bruised so to encourage agencies and clients to submit new work to showcase on Campaign Brief WA we are stopping all anonymous comments from future new campaign postings. Comments on these agency/client submitted New Campaign threads will have to be authored and this will be clearly tagged at the end of each story.
There is one important caveat. If an agency does not submit the campaign or ad to us and for some reason we feature it in a story, discussion, or simply because it caught our attention, then bloggers will be able to remain anonymous on that thread.
Apologies if CB comes across a little like a headmaster. As mentioned before minimal moderating of the comments area has been necessary to date, but a little waving of the ruler every now and again doesn’t hurt.
9 Comments
Post any work anywhere with the capacity for it to be critiqued and it will be shredded. Occasionally there is some across the board congratulations, but people (ad people in particular) do tend to attack by nature.
I think you’ll find it hard CB, to keep posts on the thread of your choice, if you restrict comment on some stories. People like the bitchiness, they expect it, what else are you gonna get from an ad-blog? Virtual hugs all round?I suggest those sensitive types need to harden the fuck up.
Marty/Kim
Don’t tell me The Brand have bullied you into this? The comments section is the area that keeps us all coming back. If you restrict it it will effect the traffic to your site. So far most comments I have read have been fine. We all enjoyed sticking it up The Brand over those RAC rip-offs but hey the evidence was pretty damning. What happens if the next RAC ad is also a copy? Will we be able to freely comment?
Its pretty interesting how everyone has gone to town over the Brand for the RAC stuff but only one comment was made over this years Caxton Comp winner.
3:09 there was no pressure from The Brand or any other agency to make this change. It is simply a proactive move of ours to encourage agencies to send in new campaigns. These new campaigns will be in addition to the stories we already carry so it is just to generate more editorial content for the site. As I said before Perth is a small town with just four larger, high profile agencies and we want them (and others) to expose new work through the site.
10:53 is correct in that sensitive types will definitely have to harden up and develop a sense of humour. There will be plenty of opportunity to comment freely on campaigns that agencies don’t submit, but we select to highlight anyway. Just keep in mind the rules. By the way, only once have we had to cut off all comments due hate speech and that was the Carolyn Hall leaving RAC story. We haven’t had a problem on any of the other 200+ stories as anything we deem to be out of line doesn’t get posted.
Marty/Kim. Could please please clarify what “submitting” work to you means? Is it direct to CB (in which case how and to whom), or do you count uploading to Best Ads as submitting by proxy?
Whilst these rules of engagement sound more than reasonable, in some of these cases it’s probably fair to say that where there’s smoke, there’s fire and it’s important these issues come out and can be discussed in this forum.
Submit direct to CB. To do so just email martin@campaignbrief.com and include a bit of a press release on the campaign and the material (jpegs and or Quicktime files).
http://www.bestadsontv.com is treated separately.
So if your campaign is similar to another, the best thing to do is submit it to Campaign Brief quickly. This will ensure that only authored (and inevitably uncritical) comments are posted.
Like most agencies, we review our relationship with clients. Both the client and the agency staff who work on the account are asked to comment anonymously on a range of issues. Why anonymously? Because only then will participants feel comfortable telling the truth. If you only allow authored comments on work submitted by agencies, people will self censor. Perth is too small to do otherwise. You never know whether the piece of work you’re critiquing has been produced by your next colleague, client or employer.
I’ve enjoyed some very intelligent and robust criticism on the Campaign Brief blog. Because it’s anonymous, people tell you what they really think. This can be hard to hear sometimes, but I think it can be invaluable.
There is no other advertising forum in Perth in which this happens. Don’t enfeeble it.