Recent Entries

News Ltd excelled itself this weekend with a piece of journalistic sleight-of-hand designed to deceive readers in the quest for more website clicks. The story - Erotic dancers at charity launch for sick kids - first appeared on the front page of the NT News and their website. It wasn't long before other websites in the News Ltd group picked up on the story's "click potential", resulting in the piece appearing at The Australian and becoming the featured story on the home page of News.com.au.

In their efforts to avoid accusations of bias, the modern news media has become more biased and more distorted than ever before. A perfect example of this 'biased impartiality' occurred this morning on Channel Seven's revamped Sunrise program. In a segment on the climate change debate, Kochie interviewed Dr Ben McNeil - Senior Research Fellow for the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales - and Lord Christopher Monckton. Who isn't.

How did Verbatim's marketing team approach a tech-savvy audience with their functional and boringly inanimate digital storage offerings? By bringing them to life in a gladiatorial fight to the death, of course!

The best marketers have always known that strong cut-through isn't just about meeting a consumers need but also creating an emotional connection as well. Especially in markets where brands and products are closely competitive in pricing and benefits, an emotional edge can be immensely powerful in converting more sales.

I've done many, many different jobs in my twenty-odd years of working life - from the fun (working in night clubs) to the disgusting (drawing lots to see who would unpack the hamper from the old folks home in an industrial laundry). But by far the worst job I have ever done was back in 1996 when I spent three horrible months as a door-to-door salesman.

Probably the most overused cliche in digital marketing today is referencing Minority Report when discussing augmented reality (AR). AR is on many marketing prediction lists for 2010 as the proliferation of 3G smartphones and the convergence of GPS, cameras and applications means location-specific informatin can appear on your phone.

Thank you Stephen Conroy! Thank you so much for keeping my family safe. By announcing that your new internet filter is a measure "to improve the safety of the internet for families", I feel reassured that you only have my, and my daughter's, best interests at heart.

I just have a comment - I didn't know the internet wasn't safe!

I'm a parent. Therefore, according to the news reports, I should be scared about the prospect of extremely violent video games - or ones that portray sexual imagery or drug use - being made available in this country. The argument I continue hearing from parents in these news items is that - even with an R18+ classification system for video games - their children may still be exposed to these unsavoury pixilated adventures.

Sure, okay, I can see there is a risk that R18+ games can still find their way into a school bag. We all know what little tykes our kids are. So here's what I propose.

If you want to make me chuckle, talk to me about how social media is something new - a recent innovation or modern cultural phenomenon. The only thing that's new about social media is the standard suspicious business reaction to something that - quite frankly - ain't all that surprising if you have a sense of history. The technology may have changed, but technology is merely the delivery system. The principles are exactly the same as they have been for millenia. Do CEOs and managers really believe listening and responding and building relationships with their public is a controversial new concept?

Is there another industry with such a wide disconnect between client and professional as web and digital design? These professionals seem to have client horror stories so bizarre, so out of touch and so hilarious that we love to swap stories of unrealistic requests, ridiculous comments and terrifying payment negotiations.

If the mark of a good product is being able to demonstrate its effectiveness, Mortein's long running Louie the Fly campaign is an interesting twist!

Louie the Fly has been popping up in their television commercials now for over fifty years.