XMedia Lab Mobile Greats: Neeraj Roy and Jason DaPonte

You cannot hold an  international-focused cross-media conference without pulling examples from the greats in two different worlds, London and India, and pulled they did!

Neeraj Roy

One of the world’s ’50 Most Influential People in Mobile Entertainment’; Managing Director & CEO, Hungama Mobile (Mumbai)

For some reason, he titled his presentation to be about distributing content on digital platforms as opposed to distributing content on mobile platforms.  Was this related to semantics of the word digital compared to mobile?  It’s just that digital seems to be a broad term and I felt that mobile was much more appropriate.

Neeraj uses Bollywood as case studies on how content is distributed as a “new storefront for engaging”.   His stats are big and that’s one of the reasons why I love the mobile space:

• 800 mobile operators
• 200+ connected countries
• 3 billion consumers daily
• 4.5 billion consumers by 2010
• A bllion smartphones

Data driven revenues focuses on content and applications.  Mobile operators will look for the appropriate partners which can give them access to this content.

Device and connectivity means that there is more memory and bigger capability for storage.  Mobile is convering into an entertainment device and I have added that it is converging into a lifestyle device that encapulsates personal and work (or a distinct barrier between the two).

The component of brands participating in the mobile space is only starting but there are numerous factors such as the developmental stage of the mobile industry and the lack of know-how.  Even then this does not stop the next billion online consumers who will be on the phone let alone predictions of video being the next big frontier.

Jason DaPonte

Managing Editor, BBC Mobile Platforms (London)

In a whole new country (and a whole new climate!) was Jason DaPonte of BBC Mobile Platforms.  There is an average of 1.3 mobiles each but for the sake of being practical, I want to put forward to – how can you have a 1/3 of a mobile?!  49% of the UK adult public has used mobile data, 25% are browsing the mobile web, 22% are playing games, 17% on email, and so on.

BBC mobile states are also looking at a share of 51% views on sports, 23% on news and 14% on their iPlayer (which can be safely categoried as music).  An interesting statistical revelation for BBC Mobile is that countries such as Nigera have depended on the humble mobile as the primary way of accessing the BBC website.

I am personally keen to see how the 2012 London Olympics will be embracing mobile during their coverage and interactivity with all participants involved.

Jason DaPonte’s predictions for the mobile space are:

• Mobile will take centre stage
• Everything is connected
• Filtered by location
• Mass participation and creativity

…I already know this though.

Overall, good presentations however I have found an elephant in the room and that is cloud computing and/or cloud social networks.

Rob Bare of R&B // How to win an AIMIA Award

Rob, Digital Director and Founder of R&B, gave us a great walk-through of his entry for the AIMIA Awards which is the Champagne Gallery website and here are his bullet points based on his presentation based on his personal experiences of the AIMIA Awards:

The Process of Entering:

• Entering the AIMIA awards is a simple process online
• We took our flagship project of the year and fortunately it corresponded to an available category at the AIMIA awards
• Just entering was great exercise as it was acknowledgement to our team that what we created was something to be proud of.
• Our application went back and forth among our team several times as we polished it for submission

Some key things that we tried to achieve when writing our application were:

• Keep the entry driven by facts and proven results which were referenced.
• Strictly keeping to word limits requested.
• Ensure you include appropriate supporting material of results
• Refer to the original brief/objectives and prove how this was delivered on completion
• Keep to relevant information only and make sure answers are succinct and correspond to the criteria.
• Spell check, grammar check – you may have put together a professional project, but if you can’t communicate it in the same manner, it won’t reflect well.
• If all else fails, just get an epic copywriter to help you with it.
• Expressing your point of difference in your application is important.
• Although not part of the criteria our site had done very well from a SEO perspective. We saw this as a worthwhile point to include in our application as an indicator of it’s success.
• It validated that the work we had done for them was of a high calibre.

There are many great reasons to enter the awards, even if you don’t win….

• You can generate hype and publicity with your clients just on entering a project.
• Extra web traffic is also received.
• It’s a great publicity opportunity — both for your clients and for you — and the rewards are ongoing.
• The nomination process forces you to hone your writing skills.
• It’s a fantastic opportunity to practice promoting yourself.
• Entering awards boosts team morale.
• The very act of entering is rewarding and inspiring.

The AIMIA Award event in Sydney was fantastic, a great morale boost for your team and networking opportunity.  The spin offs from the win have been ongoing and have included:

• Increased web traffic
• Great to be able to say award winning agency in our promo
• Shiny trophy for our meeting room
• Has strengthened our relationship with our award winning client.
• Gave us an opportunity to send out a media release
• Gave our company more awareness in the industry
• Massive morale and confidence boost to our team
• Ignited interest from our current and new clients
• Given us a key selling point from a business perspective
• Appeared in the Adnews Digital Media magazine nationally
• Combined with our client we featured on the cover of NETT magazine
• We had a full interview published on the NETT website
• We were commissioned to do another ecommerce site for wine.
• I’ve been asked to speak today and also asked to speak next week in Sydney at the Australian Marketing Institute’s annual conference on online retail.
• We received an article in the Brisbane City News

The judges praised the multi-faceted Champagne Gallery website for its versatility in not just offering consumers an online store, but an online destination for lovers of Champagne:

“This is more than just retail, This is shopping, education, and knowledge combined. I could spend hours on this.”

Nominate Candidates for the Qld Pearcey Award 2009

Who will be successful this year?

The key criteria for nomination is that they are 40 years or under and have contributed to the development of the ICT industry in Queensland beyond the demands of their normal job.

David Barbagallo was selected for the inaugural state award in 2003, Adrian Di Marco was the recipient in 2004, Kon Kakanis in 2005, Brett Hooker 2006, Tammy Halter 2007 and Raeleen Gillett in 2008. Professor Bill Caelli was awarded the National Medal in 2002.

Last year’s short list included Mark Bathie, Liesl Capper, David Clarke, Andrew Eddie, Paul Gampe, Phillip Nyssen, and Simon Williams.

To nominate:

You (or the nominee) should send their contact details (name, email address and phone number) to the national secretariat at qld@pearcey.org.au and copied to Pearcey@conferenceit.com.au We will approach them for a bio and some background.

Applications close at 5pm on Monday 26^th October, 2009. There will be no extensions of time.

Who was Trevor Pearcey? Did you know that the oldest surviving computer in the world is in Melbourne? It was built between 1947 and 1949, and was the fourth operational computer ever constructed.  Only the US and the UK beat Australia into the computer age.

The project team that built that computer was led by Dr Trevor Pearcey.  A foundation has been established in his name which makes awards to outstanding individuals in our industry. For more information go to: http://www.pearcey.org.au/index.php/Awards

The selection criteria are as follows:

Innovative and pioneering achievement and contribution to the development of the information technology industry in Queensland, early in his or her career

The key considerations which will be brought to bear in the Queensland Pearcey Award selection, are:

• a contribution which is above and beyond what could be considered appropriate to the job functions performed,
• a contribution which has included some elements of  research, industry, and professional development,
• a contribution characterised by confidence and a willingness to make sacrifices to achieve the desired results, and
• an individual able to be an ICT industry ambassador and hence provide a role model to young people.

Candidates do not need to have been born in Queensland, nor do they need to be residents now. But they will be expected to have made a major contribution to the Queensland ICT industry as set out above. And they have not yet attained their 40th birthday.

A local committee has been established to review the list of candidates. This includes: Anne-Marie Birkill, Bill Caelli, Tammy Halter, Raeleen Gillett, Sam Higgins, Brett Hooker, Kon Kakanis, Martin Lack and Bill Walker chaired by David Merson. This group will review the preliminary list of candidates using the supplied bio information and their own local knowledge. The committee may call for more information, if required, to select between the final list of candidates.

A formal event will be held in Brisbane on Wednesday 25 November to announce the winner. It has always been a most prestigious occasion.

This is the sixth time a Queensland Pearcey Award has been given although the National Pearcey Foundation Medal has been presented each year since 1998. The criteria for the national medal is different to the state awards and they are seen to be completely separate. The national medal is typically awarded to a candidate who has had a long and distinguished career in Australia.

Profiles // Young People Creating Queensland Book & Creative Industries Prospectus 2010

I am saving the date, November 18, for the Young People Creating Queensland launch (book, website and project) at a yet to be disclosed venue.

From QMusic:

Young People Creating Queensland will be a hard-copy publication produced by Youth Arts Queensland. The publication will feature 150 profiles and images of young artists and their work and provide a snap shot of what kind of creative things young people in Queensland do.

It is not just artists though as they have included people engaging as artsworkers and also creative entrepreneurs (ie me!).

Things move at lightning speed for me when it comes to projects and milestones.  There are bound to be additions to my current profile but that’s just life.

On a similar note, I will also be in the Queensland University of Technology Creative Industries Prospectus for 2010!  It’s an honour and I’m really happy to add this on my list of ways to keep in touch with QUT Creative Industries and the students, staff and lecturers (it is probably a lot better than using LinkedIn and Facebook)

X Media Lab: Global Media Cultures // Sydney

Occasionally, we  participate or have participated in these super-connector type of events.  These events have helped you connect with speakers, attendees, staff, and/or even sponsors long after the event has passed.  Your perception about a certain sector or issue has dramatically.  You are inspired and invigorated after it.  And of course, you can’t help referencing back to it.  It doesn’t have to be a $500 event in a major city, it can also be a free talk in your local cafe.  One of those supper-connector events is the internationally acclaimed  X Media Lab which will be at iconic Sydney Opera House (the Studio) from November 27 to 29 with the full day conference to be on the 27th.  Have a look at my write-up of their Serious Games event on Brisbane Creative Industries.  I’m a classical music AND digital media/creative industries buff so it’ll be interested mix of being in ‘both worlds’ at the same time!  Make sure to check out Dr JoAnn Kuchera Morin,. one of the mentors, and her TED 2009 demo of the Allosphere:

From their website:

XMediaLab Sydney Opera House “Global Media Cultures” is the must attend digital media and creative industries event of 2009.

In the emerging multipolar media world, the rise of the ‘new geographies’ (China, India, the Middle East, North and South Asia), innovations in ‘new media’ are combining to create new stories, new platforms, new forms of interaction, and new opportunities for co-production.  XML Sydney “Global Media Cultures” will explore the emerging business models, and partnership and growth opportunities for digital media companies across these exciting new markets which have the highest growth rates, the biggest numbers of consumers, the largest youth markets, the greatest emerging talent pools, and increasingly, the financial resources.

XML Sydney Opera House celebrates this fusion of global cultures, media, and technologies, and the exciting ways we can be active and creative participants in this new, and genuinely interactive, sensibility.

Join some of the world’s leading story-tellers, technology innovators, game makers, and media producers to explore these new worlds, new platforms, and new partnerships.

In terms of the topics, I really am more interested in the use of innovative new media with these in mind:

1. Livestreaming and global events from my thoughts last night last night
2. Exploring my ideas for a creative industries niche travel agency/network,
3. Exploring the ‘digital heartbeat’ via looking at Brisbane Festival’s Riverfire tags/tweets

Public relations on a tight budget

According to this Public Relations Society of America article, PR budgets are still tight despite optimism in the economy.  In another context, PR budgets are tight for start-ups and small business owners.

Being involved in both ends (consulting for start-ups/SMES and for my own) here are some tidbits that I have picked up:

Pitch Engine

Pitch Engine has a free function where you can create a social media release and this is kept online over a period of a month.  The features are great and you can create a professional and thorough social media release.

I have made one recently for a client and they received 300+ page views in total over a month.  The Australian rep literally whisphered in my ear about Pitch Engine at Barcamp and since then I have been recommending the use of it to my own networks.  Most recent social media release that I have seen this implemented is the Digital/Comms office of QUT Creative Industries.

Pro: You can include a link to the release in your emails, it’s an interactive alternative to downloading .PDF or a text-only release, great for visually-oriented clients and Pitch Engine has WOM in mind by including in a Twitter pitch section and links for SM accounts.

Con: Free account only lets you have the release for a month, Social media releases may not be suitable for all industries.

Work on search

More will find your site via organic search and I have recently attended an event where an individual operator turned up in the radar of major companies because his website (his reviews of their products to be exact) started appearing in search.  This is relevant on both sides of the coin – you will need to see what is being written about you and vice versa.  The reason why I am not using SEO (search engine optimisation) is because I want to cover both search engines and being searchable via semantic search, social media search etc.

Here’s a useful Australian Anthill article on search.

Austrade/AIMIA Digital Webinar Series

Austrade and AIMIA are holding a digital webinar series taking place from 1pm to 2pm EST (or 12 midday to 1pm for us unfortunate Queenslanders).

October 15: Online

• Michelle Pflaum, USA Business and Government Team Leader, Austrade San Fransisco
• Shuman Ghosemajumder, Senior Product Manager, Google
• Grant Straker, CEO, Straker Interactive

October 27: Entertainment Media

• Tony George, Senior Director of US Market Development, Austrade Los Angeles
• Leonardo Zamboni, Managing Director, Soap Creative
• International guest (TBA)

November 24: Advertising and Mobile

Simon Hill, Director of US Market Development, Austrade New York

Richard Mergler, CEO, MIA International

International guest (TBA)

• Simon Hill, Director of US Market Development, Austrade New York
• Richard Mergler, CEO, MIA International
• International guest (TBA)

Direct from the site:

Austrade and AIMIA TradeStart present a fresh perspective on the enormous opportunities in the online, entertainment media, and advertising and mobile sectors in the US.

US Digital Media expert, Levi Shapiro, will emcee the webinars and invite specially selected guests to discuss the opportunities for Australian digital companies seeking to break into the US market, and the keys to succeeding in this highly competitive and dynamic market.

1. US market overview and specific sector opportunities
2. Interview with selected industry guest presenter
3. Case study presentation from a successful Australian digital media exporter.

Recommendations: Rather than filling in a total of 6 forms to register for this webinar with 1 form at the start and another to confirm my registration, having just one form that incorporates a checklist on which webinars that the person is interested in would be less time consuming…otherwise, I look forward to participating.

The webinars are in great timing considering the upcoming Austrade/AIMIA 2010 Digital Media Mission to New York (with options for additional missions in Silicon Valley or Los Angeles!).

C&binet Forum | Creativity & Business International Network

Here is an event of great interest taking place on the opposite sides of the globe called C&binet Forum. The event will take place October 26 to 28 and I trust that there’ll be opportunity to take part ‘remotely’ from other parts of the globe.

About c&binet (the following info is from their site)

Creative Britain: New Talents for the New Economy contains 26 commitments designed to put culture and creativity at the centre of our national life and bring the creative industries into the mainstream of the UK economy. Commitment no 24 is ‘We will initiate the launch of the World Creative Business Conference’.  This was the working title for c&binet.

The vision for c&binet

• Access to finance for creative industries What do creative businesses need to do to attract investment and demonstrate reliability of future cash flow? How do you tackle the lack of understanding between investors and creative companies?
• New business models for online content How can a viable business be made out of online content without relying on advertising?
• Developing Talent What can be done to create opportunities for the next generation of creative talent? How can creative businesses make sure tomorrow’s employees have the right skills to thrive?
• Securing creative rights How best to ensure that those who generate and fund creative product are able to secure its value? Both regulatory and non-regulatory methods will be examined.

The future

While DCMS have taken steps to initiate c&binet it is the clear desire of Government that it should become a not-for-profit initiative run without direct government control.

Ambassadors

Click here for the full list of Ambassadors and it is good to see Australian representation in the form of the Melbourne-born Chris Clarke of the Nitro Group with offices in Melbourne and around the globe. Very proud and happy to have someone from industry and also an entrepreneur with Chris starting Pure Creative at 23 and developing it into a creative agency with several offices.

I look towards international, particularly UK-based, programs such as these and see how it can be adopted with the creative industries strategy in Australia.

Somewhat related to this is the Public Sphere event (Creative Industries and ICT Development) when the Brisbane node occurred and Pia Waugh has just posted recent developments located at http://wiki.katelundy.com.au/PublicSphere3 and http://www.katelundy.com.au/2009/08/31/public-sphere-3-wrapup/.

Conversations and facilitating pro-active attendees.

I tweet underneath several Twitter accounts (a few of them are ‘inactive’ now because they are events-based accounts) and it is always interesting to see what conversations surround the feed of a particular account, which users are more likely to be receptive to what you tweet out (either as replies or as retweets) and what users tell you…well, not you exactly.  Yes, not you as an individual.  You as in the organisation or the brand that is being represented to the public sphere.

I have found this most recently tweeting for a major, general public event.  It has enabled me to converse with other users that I know I won’t be able to talk to underneath my other accounts because if the same users ‘enter’ these accounts, there’s already going to be a set of assumptions and attitudes that they will predict I’ll take on board.

The great thing about this experience is to be able to get into the essence of what the organisation and the vision is all about and immerse oneself in it.  I know, it’s just Twitter…but I have gone to 14 events held by this major festival on top of what I do in my own time – the usual fact-checking, social media research into certain hashtags and keywords etc.  If that is not immersing oneself into an organisation’s vision then what is?

Another great thing is to see who else have organically grown into promoters of the organisation (with me being one of them) and the vision online.  There were the Givens – the Artists, Facilitators, Media, Volunteers and other people directly involved such as staff and sponsors.  And then there were the Attendees.  There were attendees who were active in blogging, posting photos online in public (ie via twitpic, not Facebook as it’s private), active in promoting and participating in the event/s, commenting on the events, etc.

How do you seek out, encourage, reward your pro-active attendees?

• Thank them publicly or privately for participating.
• Seek out what the inherent value is in the attendee to participate and to be pro-active.  Are they stating that to publicly show their appreciation, to let other people know that they can buy tickets at rush prices…
• Provide them an option not to participate (don’t be pushy) if they do not want to.
• Encourage them to use ‘protocol’s (ie use of a certain hashtag) – I have found that hashtags can be a good way to link displaced, disconnected tweets across various users underneath one umbrella.
• Use certain keywords to seek out who the pro-active attendees are

How to win an AIMIA Award

Register for the event here.

The Annual AIMIA Awards are the longest running and most prestigious Awards in Australia’s Interactive Media Industry. Celebrating the very best in digital content innovation across all genres and interactive media platforms, the AIMIA Awards showcase the industry’s finest.

Year after year the AIMIA Awards continue to grow in size and success. The entries are ever increasingly inspiring and the Awards night a dazzler, reflecting the truly unique and innovative industry we proudly represent.

Speakers (Speaker bios here)

• Guy Gadney (National President of AIMIA and Director of The Project Factory)
• Rob Bare (Digital Director and Founder of R&B Creative, Gold Coast based 2008 AIMIA Award Winner)
• David Smerdon (MD of McCann Worldgroup Brisbane)
• Brett Wiskar (Director of Speedwell, former AIMIA Awards Judge)

Who should attend this event?
All current and prospective AIMIA members. The AIMIA awards allows you to stand out in the crowd. It’s the one night of the year that you get to see the entire digital media industry in all it’s glory in one place, at one time.

Hoping to have a Queensland presence and to witness my first AIMIA Awards in Melbourne next March!

Key Dates:
Entries Open: Oct 1
Entries Close: Nov 4.
Judging Starts: 24 Nov
Judging Ends: Dec 12
Finalists Announced: Mid-January
Winners announced: On the Night, Friday March 5 2010

@BrisFestival and QBE Riverfire

Not sure if I’ll be doing this again for the next Riverfire although being a social networking enthusiast and with Twitter Being So Hot right now, I figure that it wouldn’t hurt if I stay in this year…and..erm…Watch and Take Part in the Conversation around #riverfire.  For those not in the know, it used to be a separate event and now it officially marks the beginning of the biggest event in the calendar, Brisbane Festival or @BrisFestival.

One of the reasons why I have decided to focus on something like Brisbane Festival (and at the time of this blog post, Riverfire especially) is to see what it’s like monitoring conversations on the social networking platform Twitter for a major event targeting a bigger audience. I am used to seeing what the Twitter Scene is like with  niche audiences and groups that share a collective interest ie design, social media, interactive media.

The questions that I have in approaching this:

• Who will most likely say what?
• What types of groups can be identified? How are these groups clustered together – ie who they do their @ replies to?
• Will there be patterns or trends in tweets regarding activity vs time?
  • In the lead up the #riverfire, the conversation was centred around people organising themselves to attend and with accounts being maintained by Courier Mail, OurBrisbane, Brisbane Times etc posting links to relevant news items and articles.
  • By the time @BrisFestival account became active, the focus was on relaying information such as road closures, vantage points, practice fly-over times etc etc.
  • Two hours before #Riverfire, people started tweeting about the crowds, Roulettes air show, other activities that they were doing during that time.
  • During the fireworks, many were twitpic-ing or tweeting about the fireworks and the F-111 jets and a few posted live videos online and live uploading took place over this time.  The photos aren’t high quality though because people would only have their mobile phones unless they have immediate access to a PC/laptop (ie they’re in their apartments and they’re super keen getting stuff online).

Interactive Minds Notes: Search Engine Marketing Uncovered

Wednesday September 9 was my firs Interactive Minds event!  I have been to a few search engine marketing/search engine optimisation events around Brisbane but there is always something new to learn with each one.  The following speaker presentations are available for download:

Brendan Forster, Relationship Manager – Financial Services, Google Australia
Download Presentation (6.4MB)

Emma Croston, Director of Marketing – Direct, AOT Holidays
Download Presentation (1.4MB)

Llew Jury, Managing Director, Reload Media
Download Presentation (2.3MB)

Nadee Atherton, Marketing Project Manager – Digital Marketing, Eagle Boys Pizza
Download Presentation (3.6MB)

I have just registered myself for the Hitwise Australia Computers and Internet – Social Networking and Forums Industry Report that was available to all attendees.  Writing this, I have just received the copy in my inbox and they have also included a couple of links which would deem useful and I have decided to share these links out:

Data Center- Data samples from the Hitwise Online Competitive Intelligence Service including the Top 20 Websites, Leading Search Engines, and Industry Statistics.

Analyst Blogs<- Regular insights into market trends from our team of analysts around the world. You can also subscribe to our RSS feeds for automatic updates!

The next Interactive Minds event is on early October:
Learn how to move beyond traditional focus groups to understand and identify your customers. Understand how to find, engage and determine the needs of your customers by using the latest online research, social media and technologies.

Australian Marketing Institute Awards 2009

Last AMI event that I want to was a long time ago – last year I think! So I am quiet happy to finally have a chance to check out their work as a great institution and also to see who will be recognised as Queensland’s marketing excellence.

Have a look at their 2008 eBook which details judges, winners, etc:

$115 is quiet a good price for an AMI member as well- anyway, will be working in this event temporarily. Who went to their huge conference in June? I missed out as I had another event that day.

So the categories are:

• Brand Extension
• Brand Revitalisation
• Corporate Social Responsibility
• Education
• Experiential and brand experience
• Incentive Marketing
• Internal Marketing
• Loyalty Program
• Marketing Communications (B2C)
• Marketing Communications (B2B)
• Multimedia & Interactive
• New Brand
• New Product / Service Launch
• Relationship Marketing
• Social Marketing
• Sponsorship

This is a 2 hour event (that excludes the post presentation entertainment and the post-awards drinks).  Some of them look interesting/interest me – experiential and brand experience, multimedia and interactive, CSR and the branding ones.  Full description of their awards categories.

They also have a section during the lunch dedicated to emerging marketers (the AMI student marketing plan competition).

We’re currently working on doing an event in relation to the 2010 AIMIA 16th Awards in late October so it’s good timing for me to see what this is like!

AIMIA Business Growth Event: AIMIA, Enterprise Connect, AusIndustry, IP Australia.

Business Growth: Help is out there!

Really quiet happy that we are engaging more and more with government representatives – this time it’s IP Australia, AusIndustry and Enterprise Connect.  FREE for AIMIA members and a guest.  $25 for non-members. See here for more info.

One of their centres services the Creative Industries and is responsible for the Creative Industries Innovation Centre which I first heard about at the start of the year when the news outlets announced the funding of $17 million over four years.

AIMIA Queensland is proud to bring you an event that is a little bit different, but is guaranteed to open your eyes – HELPING HANDS. Australia’s federal and state governments have schemes in place to offer incredible amounts of support to eligible interactive, digital and creative industries businesses – even yours. Representatives from Federal departments (Enterprise Connect and AusIndustry) will be presenting their range of services, from business reviews and support, to tax concessions and intellectual property. John Butterworth from AIMIA will be delivering information for AIMIA members regarding services on offer such as legal services.

Presenters:

• John Butterworth (AIMIA CEO)
• Sonya Henderson-Edbrooke (Business Adviser, Enterprise Connect)
• Anthony Merrilees (Business Adviser, Enterprise Connect)
• Jenny Dillon (Assistant State Manager Qld, AusIndustry)
• Paul Loeffler-White (Manager, QLD State Office – IP Australia)

Speaker Bios(pdf)

Sponsored by:

Interactive Minds and Thoughtworks: Wed 9 Sept

Haven’t been to a breakfast event in a really long time – actually I think morning/afternoon events might work well in my favour as I haven’t been 100% well in the past couple of week.  Back to breakfast events, I think the last one I went to may have been the Thoughtworks quarterly technology briefing with APN and News Digital speaking in December.  They have an upcoming event with Lonely Planet speaking later this month and details are at the end of this blog post (SEE BELOW)

Louisa who runs the events management company organising this, Interactive Minds, was a panel speaker for another event, the AIMIA August one.

Details are (and this is straight from their site by the way):

Search engines can play a critical role in delivering targeted and qualified traffic to your website. How can you leverage search engines to get the best results for your business? What focus should you have on SEM vs SEO? What role does social media play in search?

Most companies use search marketing tactics to varying degrees to drive measurable results. This month we will explore the complex yet powerful world of search marketing and hear from dedicated search specialists.

IM Speakers:

• Brendan Forster, Relationship Manager – Financial Services, Google Australia
• Emma Croston, Director of Marketing – Direct, AOT Holidays
• Nadee Atherton, Marketing Project Manager – Digital Marketing, Eagle Boys Pizza
• Llew Jury, Managing Director, Reload Media

Creative Briefs

I’ve only written one recent brief and that was for Roundhouse who were developing the web, graphic design and overall branding for the Brisbane Creative Industries site, logo etc.  Having worked as a designer before and was previously on the recieving end of these briefs, I felt that I can input my own experiences whenever we met up and discuss.  Saul/Roundhouse were the comissioners and I was comissioning them to develop this work for and with Brisbane Creative Industries.  That’s not something that I just made up of thin air by the way, having seen the Australian Graphic Design Association Qld Barbara Glauber talk and first mention her use/preference of the word comissioner over the use of the word client.

Here’s an example of a brief for a copywriting-related client job by Snappy Sentences (provided by Networx).  I was unable to attend that event due to sickness (and I still am as well – though have been able to do what I need to do during the day but not so much at night due to the hours).  Still waiting on those notes But for the meantime, check out tips from the speakers.

I had a good opportunity to chat to Letitia from Feedia – I think we started exchanging tweets when I was doing the @semipermanent twitter account but I didn’t meet her until the August AIMIA event.  She too wrote a blog post about the event and it is great to see staff of these companies go out there and be productive (I know other agencies do this such as BCM Partnership and having run into a couple of their guys at Qld Barcamp in July).

Google: A Digital Nervous System

Google: A Digital Nervous System

View more presentations from Hannah Suarez.

Google’s capacity to innovate is a characteristic of both their internal and external environments. An internal environment that fosters innovation will develop external products and services for the market that are deemed innovative. It is these characteristics that make Google the leader in terms of web based products and services.
This lecture will be divided into two areas – so we will look at the internal and external side of Google.

Internal

Google is innovative in its products because the system allows innovation and creativity to foster. A heavily-bureacratic organisation will not also dampen innovation but the innovators themselves will either be frustrated at the rules and regulations and either give up or move on to organisations that can foster innovation.

For conventional organisations, Ulrich Nettesheim suggested that, if innovation is to be fostered, “the role and practices of management require innovation as well.”

Organisations that recognise this are those where the senior management fosters innovation – it needs to happen from top to bottom approach.

As Dan Hoch put it, “… the real question revolves not around whether the managers have the courage, but does the CEO have the vision and fortitude to stand before the board and defend the opportunity to explore and fail?”

With Google, one of the two Co-Founders Sergey Brin makes an observation about staff who have accomplished in the company

“Somebody who has a success under their belt has really demonstrated accomplishment and in that case we will give them generally more liberty.”

Google is a huge company. Huge companies normally decrease their ability to be nimble, like small and medium sized enterprises, however Google counteracts this by running and encouraging their staff members to engage in special projects to work on their innovation capacity. This is evident with Google Labs.

AIMIA Qld: Online Consumer Behaviour Technologies

Many thanks to fellow events manager, Nicole Jensen, who have written these notes for me! I was working during the discussion so probably can’t contextualise the disjointed writings (compared to me making notes during an event) so I will just write it in dot points:

• Sitecore did a presentation/demo of their new product
• With e-business, all leads back to analytics
• Personalisation is all about the right story for the right consumer (someone made a comment, when I walked in on the last 10  minutes of the discussions, about writing each page according to a certain personality)
• 87% of retailers want personalisation – customer loyalty, satisfaction
• All about auto-changing web content for the user details by actions on site in real time.
• Automated site testing makes analytics actionable
• Barriers in Australia (I am guessing with these sorts of technologies) would be budget and spending.  There’s also the question of ROI – how do you track sales? Writing from her notes reminds me of what was discussed in the Are Consumers Outgrowing Advertising event in June.
• Budgets are developed by marketers telling businesses what their customers want.
• Pitfalls would be the demographics approach not always correct on interest (HS: good point there)
• There was also a big privacy debate as well during the event – need to make users aware of how information is used.  Be upfront about it.  (HS: I think that privacy is going to be a big issue everywhere really – Facebook, policy, telemarketing etc)
• The future – ‘noisy’ lifestyle.  Personalisation in other mediums such as browsers.  Also connection of websites/social networks like Facebook Connect, Open ID, etc
• Tip: Don’t analyse useless data
• Greg of Sitecore agrees with commercialisation of data and that payment for personalisation is in the future.  Opt-in marketing.

Books in the Digital Age: The Future of Writing

Recently forwarded the event information to Red Hill Publishing (met Rob at another event) and it’s relevant to Media Suarez.  Might do a write up about digital publishing etc on the Brisbane Creative Industries blog as well as it’ll be relevant to the readers there.

The Queensland Writer’s Centre is holding an event:

Books in the Digital Age: The Future of Writing

With the rapid changes in Australia’s writing and publishing industry, where will books fit in the digital future and how will this affect how we read and write?

As part of QWC’s Wordpool series of three lectures for 2009, we’re looking at the the future of… books, writing and journalism.

Digital publishing invites writers and readers to think differently about the dynamic relationship between content and the container in which it’s consumed and shared.

Join Mark Bahnisch in a discussion as to what this means for Australia writers and readers, as he attempts to answer… what is the future of writing?

Date: Tuesday, 11 August 2009

Time: 18:30 – 19:30

Location: Room B304, Kelvin Grove Campus, QUT Victoria Park Road, Kelvin Grove
Cost: Free for QUT students, or $15. Bookings required.  Bookings: Phone QWC on 07 3839 1243, or via www.qwc.asn.au.  Facebook event page.

I have listed a number of Queensland Writer’s Centre events in the past but haven’t had the opportunity to attend.  I read a lot about the publishing industry in relation to digital, primarily through the likes of Twitter users such as @thecreativepenn.

AIMIA Queensland: Behave! Online Consumer Behaviour Technologies

New website marketing content management technologies are giving marketers better tools for influencing their target audience’s behaviour online. The technology can now automatically identify site visitors and target messages in real-time based on their onsite behaviour.

Sponsored by Sitecore and together with a panel of experts, join us for a roundtable discussion and presentation on the latest technologies and trends in this area. Get the full story on how these developments and other usability principles can increase returns and conversion at this unique AIMIA Qld Roundtable Seminar.

Event Details:

Date: Thursday 20th August 2009

Time: 3:30pm – 5:30pm

Venue: Icon Theatre, Central Eagle Street Conference Venue (in the Credit Union Australia building at 175 Eagle St)

It would have been nearly 2 months between the last event (June 25: Are Consumers Outgrowing Advertising?) and this one on August 20 due to a brief pause in events, to have a breather (or a drink, July 8 which was the sold-out Cloudland networking event). Looking forward to  link my research into this topic with AMB251 ‘Innovation and Brand Management’ and perhaps a standard media/communication research unit to make my time worthwhile and more productive.

PS: May need a photographer to record this event. Go to the Photos section in the Facebook Event page for an archive of photos from past events.

Networx: Working the (Real & Virtual) Room [Updated with post-event photos]

Really liking the name of the event – I actually took a CC screenshot (from FlickR) for my slideshow presentation recently and called it that.  Information from their site.

Networx Marketers Meetings: July Event

Working the (Real & Virtual) Room

Networking tips for both REAL LIFE and the virtual world!

We all need to network – some of us prefer face-to-face over social media, others prefer linking up virtually.  Either way, social media mimics real relationships.  Here is your chance to brush up on your skills in both and make some new contacts (both real and virtual!) at the same time!

Come along for Lisa Butler, author of “Networking Exposed” who will help us mix and mingle over a drink, give us some good face-to-face networking etiquette tips, and help you make some real life contacts.

BarCamp Brisbane | July 18 2009

I confess, I forgot about BarCamp Queensland (hence the absence of it in the previous post about the upcoming events that I am going to) until a received a tweet from @earleyedition reminding me.  Some highlights (I was there for the last half of the event):

One Laptop Per Child (OLPC)

There were about five of these laptops available to be tried out by the attendees.  If you haven’t heard of this initiative, you should.

MEITech 2010 Conference (by David Tangye)

View the conference proposal here.  Please get in contact with David if this interests you – whether you wish to be a sponsor, a speaker, an attendee or if you wish to be involved in other ways.

Web 2.0 Government Taskforce (by Des Walsh)

One of the few touchpoints for me concerning this has been through Twitter and it is good to have Des talk about the Government 2.0 Taskforce and add a bit of local flavour to it by recommending Queenslanders to get in contact with for those interested in this initiative.  You can also read more about the presentation from Des’ words here.

Mobile Monday Brisbane | Networx ‘Working the Real (and Virtual) Room

As one of the first entries written exclusively for Media Suarez regarding future events that I will be attending, here are the two specific to Media Suarez:

Mobile Monday Brisbane

July 20 2009 | i.Lab, Data #3 Building, Toowong | 6.00-8.30pm (or earlier)

Mobile Monday Brisbane will be on i.Lab, Data #3 Building, Toowong.  It is a free event starting at 6pm and the people that have attended in the past were; developers, entrepreneurs, digital profesionals, creatives, students.  The two co-founders are currently in the UK but I will be coming along to blog/take notes in case anyone misses out!  Also, the Twitter account is @momobne.

Networx: Working the Real (and Virtual) Room

July 28 2009 | 6.00-8.30pm | The Fox Hotel, South Brisbane

Brisbane Advertising and Design Club: Richard Maddocks Talk

Some notes from the talk by Richard Maddocks (ECD Clemenger BBDO)

‘isn’t it great when we have no idea what the f##k we are doing’
Don Blackley did a small talk about the latest win from Cannes about the Best Job in the World campaign!
Richard Maddocks:
For 10 years, creatives had control in the film industry until the blockbusters came due to the ingrained formula of a blockbuster.   Similar to the Hollywood film industry, for years advertising had formula for the perfect advertising.

Source: http://www.scientificadvertising.com

This formula took in the form of ‘Scientific Advertising’ by Claude Hopkins.   This was approved by advertising magnate, David Ogilvy:

“Nobody, at any level, should be allowed to have anything to do with advertising until he has read this book seven times. It changed the course of my life” (source)

“Claude is a wanker” – RM

CCI Session 3: Broadband Futures Project (Trevor Barr)

Please go here for the morning session of the CCI Symposium.

I’ve decided to place the NBN presentation in my Media Suarez blog..

Trevor Barr presentation

Rudd government announced NBN network – national fibre to the premises network to connect 90% of homes, schools, and work places with speeds of 100 Mgps.

Much of the discussion of NBN has been about investment, infrastructure, regulation which is all important but there has been no discussion for services. One panellist wants to know the value proposition for the consumers and the nation.  If 100 Mgps – fast file transfers, architecture projects, financial data.  Cultural collaboration is important, particularly video streaming and IPTV.

Broadband access and Internet access are related but different.  The broadband access carries Managed IP services while the Internet access carries unmanaged (from oeprators point of view) IP services.  Trevor now showing diagram of managed/unmanaged IP services.

eHealth, eGovernment (rich potential), eEducation (one of Trevor’s skeptism is that videoconferencing hasn’t worked in trad services – is telepresence different to video conferencing?), Media Arts, Community services are the public benefit or publicly supported services.

The Story of Google Maps and Google Wave

Image from SMH.com.au http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2009/05/29/1243456712775.html

On June 30, I attended the Warren Centre Innovation Lecture: From Australia to the World – The Story of Google Maps and Google Wave.  It is wonderful to hear this sort of success story that is home grown (Sydney to be precise).  So my notes from that event:

Google Maps have changed the way we now view maps.  When disaster struck by Hurrican Katrina in the US, we scrambled to obtain satellite images to help the disaster teams.  In Victoria this year, we obtained live feeds from the Victorian fire department about the ravenous reaches of the fires.  We are now able to expand our geographical reach and knowledge of the world and with increased accuracy.  The Google Map team is big – going from a few team members right through to a large team base.  From being a prototype where you download the software and install it (Lars said the reason why is because the Internet/web browsing wasn’t powerful enough then) right through to being what we now know as Google Maps.  This is a great example of passion being important in innovation.

Are Consumers Outgrowing Advertising?

So here are my notes, mixture of speaker answers and some added by me, from the AIMIA Are Consumers Outgrowing Advertising event. The questions that the chairperson/Peter compiled are located here.

We society are more fragmented and from point of view of ads that we sell, this fragmentation can only continue.

Banner ads have become just like wallpaper. Some people can find ways to gloss over ads or be more selective about which pages to view. For example, subscribing to RSS and if the content interest the reader, they will access the page (which has the ads).

The global financial crisis has allowed social media to take through and also performance advertising. In terms of clients, they are not just looking for relationships. They are also looking for a solid solution that will deliver results.

In terms of tools to measure advertising… I found that the speakers got a bit fired up over this. Are we still hiding reach and frequency where it should be something else? As someone said, metrics has gone crazy. You can out engage yourself till you fall off to the end of the earth. When it comes to metrics, instead of raising bar higher, do we need instead lower the bar. Make it realistic perhaps.

Questions – Are Consumers Outgrowing Advertising? Discussion panel

Here are most of the questions compiled by Peter Luetjens and BCM Partnership’s Kevin Moreland for the event yesterday.

HOW ADVERTISING IS/ WAS CREATED (NOW & IN THE PAST)
Are consumers less tolerant of advertising than before? And is the way in which advertising is being developed, with all of the specialists I just mentioned helping or hindering the where when, how and what consumer’s are being exposed to?

Is it easier now or was it easier 20 years ago to reach consumers, get traction and achieve results for clients?

THE CONSUMER
We hear that consumers are much more sophisticated than ever before. More time poor, more educated. We know they have access to more channel and more tools to avoid commercial messages. And of course we hear that their bulshit-o-meter is more highly tuned. Are all of these forces conspiring to spell the beginning of the end for marketers and what should marketers do about this?

MEASUREMENT/ METRICS
Is too much measured and do we read too much meaning into the results?

Networx: How to win links and influence people

Peter Neucom, Matthew Burgess and Matthew Henders (stand in for Darryl King) spoke at the event about SEO so here are some points that I have gained out of it (based on iPhone notetaking):

• To know your pagerank, Google has a toolbar that you can download.  You can find which items can be best in terms of page ranks
• If linking to an association or a competitor, it may not be a good idea.  Try linking to site authorities
• You want to create deep links in your site – so take care of the internal links
• To win links, it’s all about having good quality content.  To rank for a keyword, they need to continue mentioning the keyword [NB: Although heard an opposing view that there is no point in keyword targeting]
• Try to get a link from an education or government-based website that is relevant to yours
• Check out http://www.seomoz.org – They have a web 2.0 awards and badges where other sites can link to theirs.  Great link strategy.
• Search engines crawl blogs regularly [Wotnews is awesome - it's not a search engine but a great news aggregrator, so check it out]

Links provided by the speakers.

iReckon blog post about the event and the Sitemost post.

AIMIA QLD Speakers (Are consumers outgrowing advertising?)

Here are their bios:

Paul Byrnes – General Manager, Emitch Brisbane

With over 17 years in mainstream media and 9 years digital, Paul is passionate about measurement and the holistic planning of all media, has owned and operated a full service digital shop and is now heading up Brisbane’s largest digital media company Emitch as part of the Mitchell Communication group with services incorporating Search, Digital media strategy planning and buying, analytics, development and social media.

Paul Fisher – CEO, Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Australia

Paul has been involved in the media industry over the past 12 years. Having held numerous sales and management positions in radio and television at Austereo, DMG Radio and WIN Television, Paul has spent the majority of this time in the online advertising industry, most recently as National Sales Director of NEWS Digital Media. Before becoming NDM’s Sales Director, he was previously News Limited’s head of integration, and has also held sales and management roles at Ninemsn, including representing ninemsn on PBL One, PBL’s first foray into integration 10 years ago.

AMMC: Cos there's more to the industry than your class (Pt.2)

For Advertising, Marketing and MediaComm students.

Online Reputation Management

I came across this human resource article by Brisbane-based Marketing Manager, @screamr, yesterday which is about social media use in human resources.  You do realise that Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and any other site under the sun that Google can cough up can be used by recruiters?

For Advertising, Marketing and MediaComm students.

So chances are, you are doing pretty awesome already – following industry twitteratis, reading blogs, bookmarking relevant sites, purchased your domain name or at least own the top Google search terms for your name (have you?).  If you haven’t, here is a list of staples to get you started…

Mobile Advertising Guidelines Launch

It’s like a start-up business in a well-oiled machine.

Some excellent points that I will take back to Brisbane with me for at least one upcoming project.  Also, the speakers have raised some issues that I can relate to in terms of education (internal and external) about this platform when I was involved in a festival.

Are Consumers Outgrowing Advertising?

Oz Mobile People

Presenters | The Great Debate: Can your mobile phone save the planet?

Oliver Weidlich, Cameron Reilly, Tim Lovitt and Andre La Porte will battle / gentlemanly debate it out on Monday 18th May! 

Let's think about time. Your time, my time.

We have our own preferences when it comes to time and days to work.   The challenge here is knowing what they are when working with other people (even organisations as a whole) and using the knowledge to get things done.

The Update Cycle.

There are three main things about me that most likely make me trigger (as in mouse button) happy…

Digital PR: Managing PR in the Digital Channel

Profiles for this event: http://www.aimia.com.au/i-cms?page=5815

And the profiles are as follows…

Can your mobile phone save the planet?

New media and online personalities

Quote from Marketing Mag, ‘A Glimpse into the future at SXSW and Web 2.0‘

“New brands and personalities via new media…

Interestingly, brands are becoming blurred by the power of the Web 2.0 personality.”

AIMIA Queensland Networking Event 2009

If you click on the image above, it will take you to the Facebook event page with a lot more photos.

Photography by Glenn Kelly.

Callout for a Mobile Showcase Event

Yeah, that’s right.  4 minutes.  8 slides.  Present your mobile startup/project/idea/business to a group of like-minded people in Brisbane.

Why do this?

• Feedback from your peers
• Opportunities for collaboration

Mobile Monday Brisbane will again be on at the i.Lab Incubator, 80 Jephson St in the Data #3 building.  Mobile enthusiasts and developers, creative and marketing agency representatives, or digital people that are just interested in what is happening in BrisVegaz when it comes to all things mobile.

One day I am going to present in one of these when I am ready…

RSVP at rsvp@mobilemondaybrisbane.com

Website at http://www.mobilemondaybrisbane.com

From the Mobile Monday BNE troopers: Mark, Chris, Hannah, Dale

Internships and Showcases

To the digital, marketing, PR, advertising, mobile, gaming and creative industries students,

Some questions that I have in mind:

• What kind of role do you want to do in your internship? Or what about, what role do you do NOT want to do during the internship?
• What kind of organisation/company are you interested in working for?
• What do you want to gain out of the internship?
• What other internships (interstate or overseas) inspire and interest you?

Student showcases:

For those who have been involved in one, what are your thoughts on the experience? Did you benefit from it? What can be improved?

If you have not been involved in a student showcase…there are some cool examples out there. What showcases inspire you?

Some feedback (copied and pasted for when I published this as a Facebook note):

Profiles for the Search Engine Optimisation and Internet Marketing Panel!

I have some of the speaker profiles of our lovely panellists for an AIMIA Queensland panel event, ‘Search Engine Optimisation and Internet Marketing’ which is on April 1 (3.30pm to 5.00pm) at 175 Eagle St.

QUT AMPed Panel session

Spoke at the QUT Amped Panel session with Chris Kettle (my247), Ben Johnston (Josephmark) and Edwina Luck (QUT IMC Lecturer) tonight.  Talking mainly about new media and business.

15th AIMIA Awards

So…what has been happening? Last night was the 15th AIMIA Awards in which me and a bunch of us QLDers will next year definitely attend. This year, however, I kept track at the start via Twitter. The Award Winners were:

QR code in my card

Branding and logo by Roundhouse

Software application to manage multiple projects.

Musings from job seekers.

For job seekers…

A recent mistake that I have made with a job seeker has prompted me to mull over my approach to job seekers and change my response to them.

ACMI Part 2

Met up with Michael (Head of Media and Technology). Before the chat, had a brief tour checking out the studios and workshop places. I’d like to see what their roadshow equipment would be when they do the roadshows around regional Victoria.

Lonely Planet Wireless and Innovation chat

Had a tour and a chat with a guy from Lonely Planet working at a certain department that I am interested in – Wireless and Innovation. It’s exciting as to how much new technologies today are changing the way they are servicing travelers by providing new features or new products. Can’t wait to see the responses from both virgin and die hard Lonely Planet peeps when they come out later on in the year.

And the QR Code for Brisbane Creative Industries is…

Generated thanks to http://qrcode.kaywa.com/

This will go on my business card and it will link to the official Brisbane Creative Industries website.  I’m also thinking of doing a mailto: version as well…

QR Codes

Who else have seen them?

Mobile Monday BrizVegas: January 19

This installment of Mobile Monday had an extension to what I previously blogged about for MoMoBNE on December 16 in that it was not just Mark White (MoMoBNE Co-founder) of Locatrix speaking but also Tom Adams of MoGeneration and Chris Kettle (MoMoBNE Co-founder) of my247.    The turnout was fourteen people and it can only grow (double at least?) when you guys find out what MoMoBris has in store for this coming February!

MobileMonday Brizvegas Dec 15

Second MoMoBNE kicked off a couple of late afternoons ago   It was small, but the people present represented the following orgs: Hoodlum, MoGeneration, SMSfun.com.au, my247 and Moket

My thoughts on ThoughtWorks

I came across this Thoughtworks event (December 11) via Twitter.

Thoughtworks is a global IT consultancy firm.

The two speakers were Hugh Martin (General Manager for APN Online Australia) and Sue Klose who is the Head of Corporate Development for News Digital Media. This event has enabled me to learn about the Australian interactive media industry from the perspective of these guys.

AIMIA QLD Christmas

Ok, so it has been only two days ago where the event happened so this entry is a bit out of date.  Nevermind that

I had my challenge which was to organise more students to showcase their work for the event.

AIMIA QLD: The Global Financial Crisis – What will it mean for your business?

AIMIA Queensland is holding a seminar focusing on the threats and opportunities the global financial crisis may bring to Queensland’s Interactive Industry.

Hosted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) this event will discuss the current turmoil and what it might mean to Queensland’s digital industry. It will highlight what you could do to protect your business and discuss ways in which those threats can be mitigated.

Springspotters.com/trendwatching/newidea?

From Twine.com, I was led to a very helpful website called Trendwatching.com which further led me into a very interesting site called Springspotters.com at http://springspotters.com/springspotters/

Twine.com appreciation

The thing about my Twine subscription (check them out if you can, but I think that they are still in beta mode) is that it always arrives at around 11.30pm.  The issue about that time of the night is that usually, I’ll be rounding off the work that I need to do (oh yes, I do a lot and I frankly don’t have an exact timetable but I do).  And then *bam* my Twine feeds for the day go through and I usually give into the temptation of checking out the articles and end up trying to read the subscribed articles.

Social, social, social!

Here is a small compilation of links that I have gathered from the Wikipedia website. There is bound to be more floating around the Internet but for the meantime…gather as much as I can in the space of about half an hour!

Digital Ministry's Mobile theme for May

I’m signed up to a website called Digital Ministry and their current theme for the month is anything….mobile!

What are the differences between commercial production and community produsage?

Businesses are increasingly using community produsage, in line with commercial production, for the purposes of driving their economical growth in areas from brand asset management to product consumption. However, there are some key differences between the two:

1. Hierarchy/potentiality
2. Intellectual Property
3. Organic/probabilistic approach

How do online communities organise themselves?

I believe that the following factors contribute to this issue of how communities organise themselves:

1. Digital Divide
2. Social movement theory
3. Individual motivations
4. Environmental conditions for both online and offline realms

#1 Digital Divide

The Next Creative Frontier

THE NEXT CREATIVE FRONTIER
Warren Tomlin
Chief Creative Officer
Fuel Industries

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read or write; they will be those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. — Alvin Toffler

People Meter.

Out of about 6000 sample households (out of a population of about 20.4 million in Australia), AGB Neilsen Media Research has placed a “People Meter” (not to be confused with Arbitron’s personal people meters) into our household. 

What would I do without media for a week/month?

Cook excessively.

Invite friends over, drink, eat, have good conversations. I’m probably going to have to use the ‘word-of-mouth’ tradition to get the invites through, haha.

Take walks in the park or at a beautiful location.

Sandbox.

You are three years old. Your mother has just placed you in a sandbox to keep you occupied while she talks to Sally, her gossipy neighbor with the bad dye job. You are told you cannot leave. You are not happy with this, but have no choice.

AdNews – 14/12/07 – Agencies of Change

Thoughts on the December 14 2007 issue of AdNews based on the article “Agencies of Change” by Nikki MacLennan

Changing Structures

The Australia creative market strikes me as something different (unfortunately, not in an entirely positive sense) compared to the other markets and this was something that I first experienced when I did my occasional mass-trawling of AdsofTheWorld.Com advertising archives. I expected Australian creative agencies to have a far more richer production (richer not in a financial sense but in the overall creative sense) and more recognised/respected within the industry but it seems as if the industry here is as isolated as its geography. Agencies within Singapore and China, London and certain parts of North and South America had excellent outputs for their campaigns. Yet, when I run into advertising campaigns generated by Australian agencies, they only come few and far in between.