Damn Wisey – she chain linked me and she chain linked me good. I’m normally averse to any type of chain mail scheme but I also cave easily to peer pressure. Given that I haven’t taken my advertising hat off on this blog, here are seven things you probably don’t know about me:
1. I’m colour blind and short sighted. Destined to be short and long sighted in about 20 years. I am screwed.
2. I drive a girl’s car. It’s a Renault Clio. She’s my bitch. This came about due to …

I’m a Twitter user. I wouldn’t say I was an early user but an earlier user than most. What I’m seeing is that there is a rapidly increasing number of brands, bloggers, bands using Twitter as well. I’ll term this group ‘fan cravers’ – those that rely on fans to survive.
This isn’t new. We saw this on YouTube, MySpace, Facebook and a number of other social networks. However, in the case of the other social networks, most of the fan cravers jumped on once the social network had proved …

I watched four attempted viral pieces today. All were reactions to other video’s that have become popular through online and offline communication. In my opinion, two succeeded and two failed. Naturally, the ones that succeeded got passed on and the ones that failed resulted in the sender getting a swift flick to the forehead for wasting my very precious time. Here’s why:
If the original was popular: jump on it, add to the entertainment and surprise your audience.
SUCCESS:  Real Beyonce here.A ‘fat man in lycra’ was going to be the …

This week I celebrated my 26th birthday. As a kid, birthdays were relatively simple. You would wake up in the morning and rush to your parents bedrom to be given a card and a present. Then, you would be given the card that your grandparents, uncles, aunties and Commonwealth Bank Dollarmites had sent you. This would inevitably be followed by the barrage of cards that you get at the birthday party. Essentially, the cards weren’t that insightful but, along with the telephone, were the only mediums used to say ‘Happy …

Julian Cole’s Australian Marketing Pioneer Blogs list came out yesterday and I am number 79. Not bad for a first attempt. This means I can put this badge on my page and on my letterbox (and could also be to blame for the hatemail and flaming dog turds which are regularly received).
Interesting facts about the number 79:

Jimmy Carter was the president who took the least amount of holidays in his four year term. 79 in total. This is not representative of me.
The element number for gold is 79. This is …

I have been in a lot of meetings lately where the brand is described as being about “love”.The brand makes them “feel love”, it “communicates love” and the brand “is loved”. I call bullshit.
People don’t love a brand. People love their kids, their partners, their family, their pets. A brand, and its products, may play a role in the relationship between two people but it’s not the relationship. For example, delivering a bunch of flowers isn’t love. The love here is the existing relationship between the giver and the receiver …

My original post ‘XXXX Gold For Young and Old‘ created quite a reaction. This was nicely accelerated when it was gotten hold of by Tim Burrowes at Mumbrella.
To recap, I attended the XXXX Gold beach cricket where XXXX Gold promotional material was distributed to children as prizes and handouts. This contradicted the Alchol Beverages and Advertising Code which states:
“Alcohol beverage companies do not seek to promote their products at events which are designed to clearly target people under the legal drinking age.”
“Promotional materials distributed at events do not clearly target …

It’s true, there are still 2.4 million people in Australia who claim to have never been online. That’s 14% of the population. I shall name them ‘nonlines’. While we sit up in out Twitter towers drinking LinkedIn lattes these people claim to have never used the internet. Who are these neanderthals?

54% live in capital cities (and yes, Adelaide was included as a capital city).
In terms of numbers, the most nonlines live in NSW (861,000). However, Tasmania holds the largest percentage of Nonlines with 21% of their population never having used …

POP QUIZ #1
Look at the photo to the right of screen. Is this a sign that;
a) Quicksilver are branching out from their traditional surf marketing to generate wider appeal.
b) It is an athletes image, not profession, which is the main driver for sponsorship.
c) Mark Phillippoussis should retire.
d) I will use any excuse to conjure up a stupid headline. 
Please post all answers below.

On Sunday I was presented the combination of beer, cricket, beach and childhood legends. Of course, this was at the XXXX Gold Beach Cricket. Yes. It was bogan. Yes. I loved it.
XXXX Gold understand and communicate with their consumer segment better than any other beer brand (maybe a little QLD bias creeping in here). Everything from the merchandise to the music to the meat pies created an atmosphere which was spot on for XXXX Gold capturing the ideal summer experience for beer loving males.
But it wasn’t just their core consumers …