Australia tends to saunter through Summer so there’s not a lot happening in the marketing world and I’ve been rather quiet on the subject lately. I had a blissful two weeks off over Christmas driving and flying around the country and didn’t pick up a single business book or journal. In fact I didn’t even check my email, which was fantastic. Despite a quick bout of food poisoning I’m actually really enjoying getting back into the swing of things in 2010 and I’m looking forward to seeing what predictions come true.

On that note, I’m really interested in finding some new summer reading of the blog variety. Karalee has been going off lately (in a good way) and she put me on to Annik Skelton’s Neekersneakers which, next to I Am The Client, is my new favourite thing in the world. It was also great to see a new blog pop up from my friend and dear brisvegan Susan Lambe.

I *may* have also started another, personal blog of the literate musings variety. If you like Zakazukha Zoo but get a bit bored reading about marketing all the time, pop over to www.mattgranfield.com and you can read about me breaking up with rice, regalling silverfish, explaining to my mum why I swear and explaning to my neighbours why I was trying to kick my back door down the other morning at an ungodly hour.

Anyone got anyother hot, new blog tips?

@karalee asked me to guest-post on her new blog yesterday and since it was her birthday I was only too happy to oblige. The piece is a Seth Godin-esque overview of why marketing, advertising and PR are going wrong and how they could be working together much better. Long-time readers, first time callers may have noticed that I’ve been a little quiet in here lately. Sorry about that, I’ve been busy finishing up the year, putting case studies together for a new DP Dialogue website and writing over at Marketing Mag. Stay tuned though, there’s some big things happening next year.

The thing with Brisbane is, the weather is just so unpredictable.

Saturday      Chance of late thunderstorm.           Min 19    Max 30
Sunday        Chance of late thunderstorm            Min 20    Max 31
Monday        Possible afternoon thunderstorm        Min 21    Max 32

I wonder whose job it is to write the updates on the official Bureau of Meteorology website. I wonder if they get any copy writing training. I wonder if there’s a style guide for what they do.

Regardless, I hope the chance of late thunderstorm doesn’t impede Breaka Poolies. With 3000 kids, some famous rock and roll bands, a theme park and a hell of a lot of flavoured milk, it’s the biggest social media marketing project we’ve worked on so far and I dearly hope it comes off without a hitch. Expect some pretty decent case studies out of it shortly.

ABC TV news is free. It always has been, it always will be. Same thing goes for ABC Radio. But news programs on the ABC don’t rate very well. They don’t rate very well because:

• The ABC hasn’t got enough money to pay for the hottest weather girls (no offence Jenny Woodward, I love you)
• ABC news programs don’t undertake large-scale branding campaigns and if they try, they are dwarfed by the commercial networks
• The programs they put on before the news programs don’t rate very well
• Commercial news tends to be more ‘tabloid’ and appeals to a broader audience

This makes sense. It’s rational. People don’t doubt the quality of the journalism on the ABC, or the talent of the reporters, they just prefer other news because it’s more exciting. And if they’re in front of the idiot box at 6pm they’ll just flick to whatever channel they usually watch. Which is why Channel 7 and Channel 9 news on Sunday nights are consistently some of the highest rating programs in Australia.

Which is cool, except that more and more people are getting their news online these days. At the moment online news channels fall into pretty much the same sort of categories as TV news. You’ve got the ABC, and you’ve got the commercial networks. Except that online, the newspapers and the broadcasters and the ABC all compete for eyeballs. Which kind of flies in the face of media-ownership laws, but no-one seems to care because it’s the Internet.

I’d argue that because it’s the Internet there are an infinite number of potential news channels. Actually, that’s a lie, there are 6 billion potential news channels. Presuming animals can’t write news stories. Although bears can play ice hockey, so who knows, maybe there will be a bear news channel soon. Either way, it won’t be long before citizen journalism actually really properly happens in a meaningful way. Follow the Twitter feed of any major news story and you’ll get information more up-to-date than any major news source because chances are, you’ll be reading eyewitness accounts straight from the plane crash/riot/party room, whatever.

Murdoch’s idea that people will pay to get online news from News Corporation is completely misguided. It’s a simple case of supply and demand. Demand for news is high. Very high. But supply is infinite. People might read News Corp websites at the moment, but if news.com.au has a subscription cost and smh.com.au doesn’t, people will flock in droves to the free choice. It’s not a matter of choosing a ‘tabloid’ over a broadsheet either. Online newspapers are virtually all pieces of populist proletariat shite. As soon as one publication charges money, people will flock to the one that doesn’t. And there will always be an entrepreneur or a government department somewhere along the line with a free news website. (Or a free celebrity gossip website, or a free sports website, or a free travel website; you get my drift).

Journalists argue that unless publishers make money, they won’t get paid and the quality of journalism will suffer. That’s a bit like the warning at the start of the DVD which says that if you watch a pirated DVD you’re hurting the future of the film industry. It’s like a record company saying that pirating music hurts artists. It’s a load of bollocks. News, and opinion, like art, is in the hands of the creators. Before there were big movie studios and big record labels everyone flocked to the town square to be entertained by a talented groups of poorly paid artists. The town square is now online, we’ve actually come full circle. News is the same. I can now get my news straight from someone who was there and my opinions from whoever has a blog at hand. Credibility of the sources is quickly decided by the public. I don’t need Bill O’Reilly, Laurie Oakes or Richard Wilkins to enlighten me, I have Mike Wilson, Alizera Sedaghat and Perez Hilton.

You could argue that. like movie studios, Government news channels and commercial networks still have a place producing ‘blockbuster’ journalism. You could argue that without professional reporters there would never be another Watergate, and you’d be right. But the revenue to pay those reporters isn’t going to come from individuals. Individuals as a group just don’t care enough. It needs to come from taxes. But to avoid the government having a monopoly on the news (which would be cool if you could trust your government, but populations inherently don’t) there needs to be publishers from the free market.

Free-market publishers can make their money any (legal/ethical) way they choose. Donations and subscriptions from happy customers and subsidies work OK, but they’re not ideal. The best way we’ve figured out so far is advertising. It’s a pretty sweet deal to be honest. People are, in general, pretty happy to sit through some ads if they know they get a good content pay-off. Hell, if the content is that good people will happily head to JB HI-Fi to buy the whole DVD series. The problem is, news just ain’t that entertaining. No one is going to want to pay for it, unless it has a direct bearing on their wallet, as is the case with The Wall Street Journal.

The Punch, News Corp’s blog, did a pretty good job with their Liberal Party coverage today, but they were still beaten to the punch by the Twittersphere. I found out Turnbull hadn’t lost the leadership from @warlach, not David Penberthy. Unless News Corp has a monopoly on news, something they’ve always wanted, something they’ll never ever get, no one is going to part with cash to get it online. And as long as we have other free Internet distractions, and I’m fairly certain we will Rupert, you’re stuck with an advertising model. Learn to love it.

mUmBRELLA tipped me off to a new blog called ‘I Am the Client‘. It’s a collection of humorous perspectives on the ad industry from the client side. It’s British, it has swearing. I fucking love it because it’s true. You will too.

It’s graduation time again. I hate this time of year. It’s quiet for a bit, while all the third and fourth year students drink themselves into comas and pretend for a few more weeks that they don’t actually have to ever join the real world. But, like a Powderfinger song, soon enough it comes - the realisation that it’s now time to get a proper job. In about a week the resumes are going to start piling up. They think a straight-A record and a weekend manager position at Baker’s Delight qualifies them to work in an agency. It doesn’t sweetheart. There’ll be a lull over Christmas and New Years of course. Some travel. Time spent with family. Then the resume deluge will begin again on about January 28, two days after Australia Day. By then it will be too late. Employers won’t be interested and business will be a little slow so thoughts of hiring will be furtherest from our minds.

You, you silly things, have chosen to study a degree in which supply of graduates outstrips demand by, literally 1,000 to one. Your chances of making an impression are about the same as a wave on your favourite beach. You might as well have studied arts and had a good time. You should have done something for society and got into nursing. You’d have gotten paid more as a graduate. As smart as you are, and let’s face it, you’re not dumb, but you’re not Secretary General material, you’re, basically, fucked.

If you can fight off disillusionment for a little bit and still want to hold out hope of getting a job, specifically, a job in social media, here’s what you have to do. And do it quick, before everyone else.

1. Find an advertising, PR or social media agency and offer to work for free for a little while to ‘learn’ and help out. Make a list of the best ones. Start at the top.
2. Turn your computer off and network; socially. Facebook is not a social network. Facebook is a place to stalk hotties. Go to industry events and ask lots of questions. Learn how to use a fucking phone and don’t be afraid of it. Phones get things done.
3. Get good at grammer and seplling before you applies or you will be ignoreded, or worse, laughed at.
4. Once you land an unpaid gig, give it a set time limit. Have goals you want to achieve. Have obligations they have to meet. Don’t take no shit.
5. Make sure you get your hands on briefs and your arse in meetings.
6. Work harder than anyone else. Be proactive.
7. Prove that you can help make the agency money. Find a way to do this. If you can do this you will go a long way. If you can’t do this, go work in Government.
8. Be awesome and extremely likeable. Be the kind of person people want to have around.
9. If you do happen to be a thought leader, you should be blogging.
   1. It is highly likely that you are not a thought leader.
10. Be patient. Do not give up. Hassle, nicely. Hassle again. Do not give up.

And yes, I’ve used Comic Sans. View the site in all it’s glory at http://www.cleverfilmcomp.com.au/

I’m watching the Yaris social media campaigns with interest.

a) Because I run a social media agency

b) Because none of the ideas coming out seem very original or groundbreaking so far. In fact, they’re straight out of AWARD school. Literally. Here’s an idea my girlfriend (who now works at Sapient Nitro) put in her book a few months ago. I’m not accusing One Green Bean of stealing the idea, because they clearly (surely) didn’t, it is uncanny though. I was hoping for better from the pitching agencies. At least One Green Bean are putting people in the car - surely any campaign that doesn’t do that gets an instant fail. Saatchi and Saatchi’s idea of a film contest bores the fuck out of me to be honest.

We were doing some research for a food client this afternoon. They want everyone to buy their product (it’s a fruit) but can’t afford to spend a gazillion dollars raising awareness above the line. If I had my way I’d get them to pay a bunch of celebrities to start spruiking  the ‘insert fruit name here’ diet on Rove and Sunrise, but sadly (and for the greater good of humankind) that’s not going to happen. Luckily they don’t need to do that anyway. With five years of search data setting a rock-solid precedent the spike in ‘recipe’ searches on Google caused by MasterChef is impossible to ignore. The strategy is obvious. Gosh I love digital.

Crazy isn’t it!

Nathan Bush has some analysis here…

And here’s what we sent the press:

Hey Hey It’s Saturday’s reunion show steamrolled the debut of Celebrity Masterchef Australia in an online ratings whitewash last night, reaching a peak of almost 7,000 Twitter conversations an hour versus 1,600 for Masterchef.

The data, collected by Brisbane-based social media monitoring company Dialogix (http://www.dialogix.com.au) showed that Twitter users mentioned the words “Hey Hey It’s Saturday” and tagged conversations with the hashtag #HeyHey more than 22,000 times while the show screened.

Celebrity Masterchef Australia generated 2,740 Twitter conversations, or less than 15% of Hey Hey It’s Saturday’s total.

The influx of tweets made Hey Hey it’s Saturday the number one trending topic on Twitter, which attracted global attention from the social network’s 19 million followers*.

The #HeyHey tag then became popular with American users throughout the night who noticed the trend and began using the words #HeyHey in unrelated conversations.

Dialogix Director Matt Granfield said Hey Hey It’s Saturday’s Twitter success was given a boost early on in the day when host Daryl Sommers (http://twitter.com/darylsomers) joined the network. His first tweet was “make sure you tweet about Hey Hey tonight, using the hashtag #heyhey”.

“Traditional TV ratings give you the number of people who watched a program, but if you measure people who spoke about a show on Twitter you get a better analysis of who actually ENGAGED with the show,” Mr Granfield Said.

“The show had more than 200,000 Facebook fans on the day it went to air and messages were posted on that network alerting people to the fact that host Daryl Somers had just joined Twitter. Within 24 hours Daryl had 1,383 followers.”

Twitter is the fastest-growing social network in Australia with around 800,000 unique Australian users each month.