A couple of weeks ago, QUT lecturer Ingrid Larkin invited me to speak to a group of students in the final stages of their advertising and marketing degrees. It was a bizarre experience being on the other side of the lecturn for the first time but one which was actually really comfortable. Predictably, out of the three presenters I was the only one to turn up with my notes written on the palm of my hand while Cat Miller from P4Group and David Frangiosa from the Ekka had very …

I just contributed to a post on The Oyster Project which is run by Daniel Oyston – sports fanatic, funny bugger and ridiculously good looking guy. It’s no wonder we get along, we have so much in common.
The post is can be found here: ‘Direct Mail: The Cool, The Lazy and The Stupid‘.
It will provide explaination for this photo which I took at last Friday night’s football game at Suncorp Stadium… 

As you might have seen, there is an election going on in Queensland. Voting is tomorrow actually. We get to choose between Anna and the Borg. Seriously, there’s more life at The Cure’s afterparty.
Naturally the front page of Brisbane’s only daily newspaper, The Courier-Mail, is all about the election…
 
 
But what’s that little grey box? It reads…
“Given the choice between a politician (Ms Bligh) who wants taxpayers to keep paying for government inefficiency and one who wants to seek out waste (Mr Springborg), the choice is simple. The Courier-Mail believes …

I had a “that’s why I’m in advertising” moment this week. It was a moment that made me feel that I could make a difference and use my powers for good over evil.
One of the clients that we do pro bono work for is Children’s Hospital Foundation Australia. The foundation is a partnership between the five major children’s hospitals in Australia. They do great work in conducting research, providing new equipment and making children’s stay in hospital a little more enjoyable. They are amazing people who do amazing work.
So when …

Matt Granfield and I received a tonne of feedback from our previous post regarding the allocation of funds for the Starlight Foundation’s new social networking project Livewire. Basically, the project has cost $14.7m with a $7.2m contribution from Senator Stephen Conroy’s Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy.
As far as we could see the project could not have cost more than $1.8m max. This was reflected in the feedback we received. Surely, as a government funded initiative we should be able to access a full breakdown of where …

I think we’ve all suffered through it this week. I’m not talking about the Pauline Hanson nude pictures or the reformation of over the hill 80’s Australian bands. I’m talking about the Facebook outcry.
Logging onto Facebook this weekend I was greeted with a wall of messages protesting the new layout such as:

These have been followed by a “We Want The Homepage Back The Way It Was” group with over 8,000 members and 135 comments after 5 days.
Sure the layout is different but it’s not dramatic. And this is nothing that …

Go to your back office. Or to your IT corner. Or to that door that is being held ajar by a little black box. See that little black box, it’s called a modem. And it is sending messages to customers that are at your doorstep. What is yours saying?
Like millions around the world, my new phone has internet capabilities which means that I am now exposed to hundreds of wireless connections. Here are some of the more interesting ones this month:
And my personal favorite…
These are funny for a home …

This post is a collaboration between myself and Matt Granfield of Zakazukha Zoo and DP Dialogue fame. It came about when we were talking to our client, Children’s Hospital Foundation Australia, about social media marketing. The client highlighted this example which triggered some thoughts and questions for us…
You may have heard about the new social networking site for sick children produced by the Starlight Foudation called Livewire. It is similar to a Facebook or MySpace application but only available for children in hospitals or with serious illness. As Daniel …

The music industry fascinates me. Especially over the last decade as they fight their war with illegal downloads. We see the labels clinging onto them for dear life. I have an idea which may help them maximise their legal sales and kick start their online relationship with the consumer.
Artisits and labels are making their money from legal album sales and tours predominantly (and if you’re a one-hit indie wonder it’s royalties from car ads). The trend is that legal sales are decreasing but tours, concerts and festivals are increasing …

The definition of ‘expensive’ is wrong.
As I haven’t ever bought a dictionary, I’ll list the first three definitions from a Google search (stay with me, it’s credible):
ex·pen·sive 1. Requiring a large expenditure; costly.2. Marked by high prices: expensive stores.(The Free Dictionary)
ex⋅pen⋅sive [ik-spen-siv] –adjective entailing great expense; very high-priced; costly: an expensive party. (Dictionary.com)
ex·pen·sive Pronunciation: \ik-ˈspen(t)-siv\ 1: involving high cost or sacrifice 2 a: commanding a high price and especially one that is not based on intrinsic worth or is beyond a prospective buyer’s means b: characterized by high prices (Mirriam-Webster)
As …