Via Media Communications

Belgium's Agencies on Strike (Kinda)

2010-02-12T12:29:00.001+10:30

In an interesting twist, Ad Age reports that Belgium's creative shops have taken down their websites in protest at client-side marketers ignoring 'pitch rules' negotiated by the industry some time ago.

Spiralling pitch costs are point of industry debate globally, and following talks a charter was penned containing 'rules of engagement' to make the process fairer, including things like clients inviting no more than 3 agencies to pitch for work, and contributing to pitch costs where reasonable.

Its sounds like things haven't panned out as expected, and agencies have taken the unusual step of taking down their sites and replacing them with a linked open letter that takes people on a journey from one site to the other to read the whole thing. You can start it at Famous, and continue from there, or if you're short of time, I've posted screen grabs below. Interesting stuff, and no doubt going to get tongues wagging around the world - what do you think?

ADMA Awards Making Waves

2009-11-29T23:32:00.000+10:30

Not many people know this, but ADMA is far and away the largest marketing industry association in Australia. Historically, perhaps unfairly, seen as the less sexy side of marketing discipline, the industry has really hit its straps in recent years and the recent ADMA Awards highlighted how far the organisation has come. A black tie affair on the Pyrmont wharves in Sydney attracted over 800 of the industry's guns from both agency and client-side, and the awarded work was bloody inspiring. Make sure you check out the website to get a look at the winners. There's perhaps not as much performance/effectiveness information as I would like - participating companies are usually (understandably) pretty cagy about campaign financial data so only the judges get to see the full breakdown, but we know effectiveness is one of the main criteria for many of the award categories.

Clemenger Proximity scooped the Grand Prix with their 'salad made of plate' (catch mUmbrella's article with the full award list here) along with around a dozen other awards to make them a clear winner with daylight second.

All the winning campaigns were notable for the fact they weren't stereotypically DM campaigns, but were great combinations of creative strategy and multichannel execution. Top marks for innovation should go to Tequila CD Russ Tucker and the TBWA gang for their augmented reality campaign for Nissan. Amazing stuff - check it out here.

Closer to home, congrats to Lauren Halliday from SA Lotteries for picking up the state Young Direct Marketer of the Year award. I also wrapped up this semester's ADMA Digital Marketing certificate course with the exam on Wednesday night - hopefully one of our graduates will pick up a gong or two in years to come. Already looking forward to next year.

Marketing Week 2009 Wrap-Up

2009-09-02T16:06:00.012+09:30

Now that the dust has finally settled, the tattered streamers and bits of burst balloons have been picked up and the empty bottles sent off for recycling, let’s take a look back at the week that was…

But before we delve into the recap, I should take a moment to introduce myself. My name is Rob Frost and I am currently interning at Via Media. I am studying Writing and Creative Communication and UniSA and will be contributing to this blog whenever I can think of something pithy to say.

And so back to Marketing Week.

Marketers, advertisers, communicators, business managers and students of all of the above from around the country convened on Adelaide’s Holiday Inn Hotel to learn, gain inspiration, network with their peers and colleagues and, importantly, have fun. Whilst I do not have any definitive numbers at hand, I can tell you that it was a very busy conference, with many of the sessions at, or near, full capacity.

The hotel proved once again that it was more than up to the task of accommodating the throngs of attendees over the five days. Event organiser Virginia Webb, of the Australian Marketing Institute, and her team, did an absolutely magnificent job of ensuring a smooth registration process as well as keeping the break out sessions, workshops and lunches running on time.

Renowned professionals from all over Australia (and beyond) presented ideas and strategies about how the creative industries can lead a valiant charge towards recovery from the global financial meltdown.

I particularly enjoyed Malcolm Auld’s typically candid presentation (although I wasn’t the only one in the room who spotted the irony in Malcolm downplaying digital marketing trends whilst proceeding to provide, almost exclusively, digital case studies of his own recent work), as well as listening to insights from Jenny Williams and Phil Smith from Ideagarden.

I also found the presentations from Michael Ebeid (ABC) and Gus Seebeck (Network 10) fascinating as they detailed how they built up their respective media brands from conception to launch, both in the online and digital TV mediums.

Guest speaker Rod Redenbach offered some sage words during a sumptuous closing lunch: "Action beats reaction". Reactive companies miss opportunities, instead wondering what they should do and where they should go. Active companies seize opportunities and make mistakes, always learning and innovating to differentiate themselves from the competition. How did I do in his 3-second leadership test? Well, I hesitated and, to borrow from an old cliché, ‘he who hesitates is lost’. Time for action, I think.

All in all, it could be said that Marketing Week 2009 was another great success for the industry, and for Adelaide. The entire Via Media team enjoyed participating and we look forward to continuing to support the event in 2010.

Stay tuned for more blog posts and the kick off of the Via Media newsletter very soon! Please send all spelling, grammar and syntax issues to the contact details below.

Cheers,

Rob Frost

email: rob.frost@viamedia.com.au

mobile: 0439 884 131

twitter: @robfrost618

web: http://www.viamedia.com.au

Marketing Week 2009

2009-07-08T15:07:00.004+09:30

Planning is well underway for the annual Marketing Week conference/love-in at the Holiday Inn in Adelaide - with the theme of 'A Marketing-Led Recovery' likely to generate a fair bit of interest both here and interstate.

Whether touched by the GEC/GFC/FinancialArmageddon or not, many businesses are seriously questioning the currency value of traditional marketing methods and looking for more measurable ways to connect with today's customers - whether in a B2B or B2C environment - and SA's flagship marketing event is a good place to get a rounded view on some of the opportunities available.

Marketing Week's speaker list is fairly impressive, with a lot of focus on consumer research and accountability to follow up last year's digital bent. I even heard a couple of comments last year that the event should be renamed Digital Marketing Week - which is kinda puzzling. Specialisation and niche markets are one thing, but as an industry we need to stop treating 'digital' and 'traditional' as two different animals. There will always be a place for both - digital may be on the steeper growth curve, but ultimately all clients want to know is how to make meaningful connections with their customers, regardless of the channel. And that's what Marketing Week is all about.

And in the theme of traditional marketing activity, there's a fat business lunch on the Friday. Got your tickets?

A Marketing-Led Recovery

2009-06-03T21:56:00.003+09:30

It's been a little while since our last post, perhaps a function of increased activity in the marketing sector - specifically the digital and direct marketing sector - over the last couple of months. It provides food for thought - are people turning to more accountable methods of marketing because of the GFC, or is it simply a continuation of the trend of the last few years? Logical thinking dictates that remaining visible in a time when everyone else is slashing budgets, means cut-through should improve. But the age old question is where to direct our efforts?

Recent consumer preference research from Open Mind showed consumers still prefer to receive marketing information via personalised direct means over any other form. Email was the big improver since the benchmark version of the study in 2003, with newspapers and television showing the most rapid decline.

The study, commissioned by Australia Post, supports a move towards information-based marketing at the expense of broadcast media. Perhaps not surprising given the sponsor, but the research group and its methodology is well regarded, and it importantly offers the comparative benchmark against the same survey framework from five years ago. Trends + Statistics = Guidance.

So at the risk of sounding self-serving (being in the information-based marketing industry and all...) I'll sign off for now, but with Marketing Week coming up and a recent lecture by MercerBell principal Nic Mercer reinforcing the issue (150 marketing bods at a breakfast in Radelaide - who would have thought?!) it seems like a topic that's not going away any time soon.

Skill Up in a Downturn

2009-03-02T23:29:00.004+10:30

It's that time of year again. In case you've been ignoring all those new year notions of self improvement for a month or two, it might be worth checking out the ADMA Certificate in Digital Marketing (of for that matter, it's original sire, the Certificate in Direct Marketing). Both are related, and having been through each of them I can honestly say both are worthwhile.

With all the hoo-hah about the technology, people often forget that digital is really just a pure form of direct marketing - the same basics apply. (As Phil Smith from IdeaGarden pointed out in last semester's course, all digital is direct, just not all direct is digital...yet..)

I also caught up with Phil's business partner Jenny Williams (p.s. the ideagarden blog is worth a read) at the ADMA board meeting in sunny Glenelg last week where part of the focus was on building on ADMA's strength in the digital space. Much is often made of industry bodies being very Sydney-centric, but I think the fact the meeting was here in Adelaide is testament to the association's commitment to supporting members and marketers from around the country.

And back to the education focus of this post, both Certificate courses start next Wednesday and run for 14 weeks if anyone is wanting to make their marketing dollar a little more accountable!

Media planners twitch over new publically accessible stats tools

2008-12-18T14:46:00.002+10:30

A few years ago I brought to the attention of a certain Media Agency the growth in online media buying in the US and Europe, allowing advertisers to access inventory on tv, radio and in newspapers and magazines.

Now digital publisher, Social Times , has released a new tool that allows you to look at the demographics of Facebook users in real time across countries.

Just a few minutes playing with the tool you can see the power of open accessibility to statistical data, made easy through a simple interface design.

Information overload? It may be your fault...

2008-11-17T08:12:00.005+10:30

If your like me and you don't know how you're going to get away from the fact that your email inbox is just never going to empty itself, and your blog posts need responding to, and your Twitter feeds need a read, and your Facebook status needs an update, then you'll be delighted to hear from Clay Shirky, Author of "Here Comes Everybody", as he addressed the Web2.0 Summit in San Francisco last week. (Lance Armstrong also spoke of his pending return to cycling)

Using some terrific personal anecdotes from acquaintances experiencing the dilemma of the blurring of the lines between public and personal life in the Post-Facebook world. He identifies that it is not the overload of information that is the problem, moreover the failure of the various systems, (technological or human), that lead to information overload.

With a philosophical approach to describing the evolution of the publishing model since Guttenberg, Shirky highlights that information overload is not fixable by putting a linear publishing model solution onto a non-linear (Facebook) publishing world.

The reason why it is popular is because it offers something new.

The old guard need to recognise that now new solutions need to be found.

More from the summit via BlipTV here. (Australian bandwidth limitations considering).

More on Clay here .

Many Happy Returns (on Investment)

2008-11-07T15:26:00.004+10:30

With the growth in Social Networking, widgets, onlinePR and the search behemoth, many pundits have predicted the death of email as a marketing tool.

Not so, according to the latest economic impact study from the Direct Marketing Association in the US. While Email ROI seems to be slowly declining, the DMA estimates that marketers earned $45.06 for every dollar spent on email marketing in 2008. And while this might drop to $43.52 next year, its still so far in front of the rest of the pack that you can understand why most marketers are fighting tooth and nail to keep the CFO's hands off the email marketing spend in the current economic downturn. An article from Direct magazine comments further - you can read the rest of it here.

Even if email remains the holy grail of DM, its not without its challenges. Email Service Providers once relied on relationship management with the major ISPs to make sure their servers (and their client's email efforts) stayed off the spam blacklists, but the proliferation of web-based email accounts with auto spam feed back loops (FBL) and the automation of the spam reporting process, means that deliverability has become a bigger challenge than ever.

Sender Reputation (find out your email server sender score at www.senderscore.org) is now the biggest challenge to email deliverability, and it gets more complex when the different ISPs and webmail providers use a different mix of content and reputation scores to decide whether to deliver the email.

So just when you thought email was easy, think again. . So, read blogs, download reports, talk to your agency and work hard at keeping your content fresh and your list current. Email marketing will be an ongoing - sometimes fairly labour intensive - process of improvement. But at $40-odd dollars back for every buck you spend, the rewards look worthwhile to me.

Digital Marketing Course in Full Flight

2008-10-08T23:11:00.008+10:30

We're just over half way through the ADMA Certificate in Digital Marketing course, and after last night's great chat with Shai Coggins of B5Media fame, it struck me that we've been pretty fortunate so far.

Our small class allows for a pretty interactive (pun?) session each Wednesday, and the guest lecturers we've shared the boardroom with read like a who's who of new media.

Shai has just returned from BlogWorld Expo in Vegas, and is a global expert in the development of communities (and commerce) through blogging. We had Lee Hopkins take us through managing corporate conversations online, as well as the subject of both his PhD and his passion - Second Life. Our own Anthony Coles made sense of the myriad paid media channels available online, and ex OgilvyOne MD Phil Smith held sway on the topic of Digital Strategy. Next week we've got Kevin Wohling from search technology leader eChannel, to be followed by ex Fosters senior marketing exec Georgia Rasmussen's guidance on database and CRM strategy.

Only 6 more weeks to go, and with some of the shared insights from the sessions so far I'm expecting some pretty good strategic campaign plans as part of the student assessments (they get to take a fictional product launch and make it a household name through the - well argued - use and execution of digital marketing strategy).

Heaps of healthy debate, lots of lessons learned, and expert opinions a-plenty. Now I'm starting to wonder what next semester's course will hold.

When marketing goes full circle.

2008-10-05T14:00:00.000+10:30

Planes are great to force you to read things. Whilst sitting on CX104 on my way to Hong Kong, I managed to eat up Geoff Livingston's Now is Gone in which Executives and Entrepreneurs get a primer on Web2.0.

The foreword was written by Futureworks CEO Brian Solis, who highlights the evolution of communications that we are going through, and indeed the Darwinian, "Survival of the Fittest" regarding changing skillset of marketing professionals.

They have Podcast a few of their discussions, but what struck me the most about his observations were how similar they were my mantra to our guys that:
Listening is marketing
Participation is marketing
Media is marketing, and
Conversations are marketing

Markets, like the flourishing Farmer's Markets, ARE conversations.

The growth of new SOCIAL media are just an evolution in democratising our markets so that We The People are in control.

Blog smog

2008-09-24T10:53:00.005+09:30

I'm forever adjusting my radar between the global phenomenon of inter-connected conversations facilitated by the Internet, and the microcosm that is the South Australian marketing community.

The tsunami of change has to eventually crash upon our shores.

Our isolation and ignorance is not a unique phenomenon though, as new findings from the Technorati "State of the blogosphere" report highlights.

I remember it was only a couple of years ago while I was doing some consulting for Starcom that we had a representative from Google in to share with the planning team some of their products and services offerings.

"I never click on links on Search Engines", was the defensive cry from the room.

Well someone does.

Business Week this week just published its Top 25 "Web's Most Influential People " report, and although they're only No 5., they talk about their key task managing the breakneck growth of the company, now comprising more than 18,000 employees and expecting $16.2 billion in sales this year - up 53%.

Even the declining economy has not yet seemed to slow its dominance in Web search and search-based advertising.

But that very success is creating challenges, namely a backlash against their increasing power online from competitors, advertisers, and government regulators. Now, their main job will be convincing the world they mean it when they spout their informal corporate motto, "Don't be evil."

iMedia Brand Summit distant memories

2008-09-21T21:35:00.007+09:30

Wow, a week goes fast these days.

This time last week I was cramming to get jobs out the way before I rushed off to the Blue Mountains for the iMedia Brand Summit. My last post was about the presenters from Tuesday morning, and its now Monday after already.

I loved Jenny Williams' summary of the greatest challenges for the industy - motivating change.

It is however still all about the creative idea and with the lines blurring between media, creative and strategy, that idea can come from anywhere - its just about the conversation that helps we service providers gets to the core of the business challenge.

The challenge for many marketing service providers today though is that despite the "20+ years" in the industry, they don't have the same value proposition in the fast-changing digital media landscape.

Jenny provided a great example of a simple stone-masonary business leading the charge with his use of web 2.0 tools to grow his business beyond the yard he's working in and into Education, (for those that haven't seen it, he's using Ning as a platform - something we've used on a few solutions this year).

And as a great Jedi once said, "Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to the Dark Side". It is certainly time for clients getting advice on this space from traditional agencies to look around for more qualified help.

The Summit format offered many opportunities for conversations with peers in the Australian Digital Marketing industry and I had a great chat with Christian Bartens from Datalicious in the break. A very clever dude doing some amazing things with data and analytics.

Sat in on a few 'spotlight' sessions after lunch.

Fionn Hyndman from DGM gave a tannin-impared presentation on customer acquisition strategies. Their speal is that they are a wholly owned subsidiary of Deal Group Media Plc UK. To quote the website, the company's principal activity is the provision of online marketing services through the mediums of performance based marketing, search engine positioning, optimisation and marketing services, including the provision of competitive intelligence gathering services.

Ian Gardiner from Viocorp showed the crowd why their business has doubled in size in the last 12 months. Their tools are driving some of the best examples of integrated video content in Australia.

Nice to be representing them West of the Blue Mountains.

Trolling through my notes from the Summit, there were many "Nuggets" that I hoe to share over the weeks ahead.

More iMedia moments

2008-09-18T15:47:00.003+09:30

"Stay relevant" said Dave Cormier from StrongMail. Stay relevant, test & monitor, keep things in balance and add a sence of urgency to your email.

"Grow or go" said Mehrdad Baghai of Alchemy Growth Partners in an awesome presentation that highlighted the elevated discussions of the corporate strategists considering "Where to compete", vs the day-to-day dilemas of most marketing practicioners worried more about how to execute. Granularity of growth a great book if you want to purchase.

"Know your customer, digitally" professed Anthony Goldman of NextDigital. A challenging thought for those of us not skilled in proctology. Pretty good overview for his Ten Commandments for digital strategy. The 4 P's have become 10 P's in the uber-complicated digital world.

Ed Smith from News Digital Media cracked open the 2nd day with his inspiring presentation on the global trends from his recent visit to Cannes. Whopperfreakout and HBO Voyeur campaign blowing people away with its scope and breadth.

And wrapping up Tuesday morning was Jenny Williams from IdeaGarden nailing the need for internal organisational change and a commitment from industry to bridge the skills gap.

Awesome crew.

iMedia Brand Summit is all action

2008-09-16T06:36:00.002+09:30

The iMedia Brand Summit kicked off in the Blue Mountains last night with Mark McCrindle from McCrindle Research giving a very entertaining overview of the changing social landscape, and how that is fundamentally affecting how brands connect with consumers.

Of note were the key trends of a post-life stage, post-structure, post-linear and post-rational society.

Shifts from the drawing to Tradition to a drawing to Innovation. From Reputation to Recommendation. Sit and Listen, to Try and See. Long-term needs to Short-term wants. Content, to Process. Authority, to Authenticity, and from Tech IQ (a given), to Emotional IQ.

These changes best reflected by an observation of a friend of his trying to offer a Gen Y-er a job. Highlighting the generational gap the Boomer saying "You're ignorant and Apathetic", to which the Gen Y-er said "I don't know what you mean, and I don't care"...

Good luck to us all.

Some interesting downloads from his site.

No Such Thing as an Average Joe

2008-09-10T23:33:00.004+09:30

When it comes to discussions about email marketing I often get asked the same question: What is the average click through rate?

Without wanting to be too flippant with the standard 'piece of string' comparison, its important to get past what the Average Joes (or Joneses) are up to. Benchmarking is one thing, but in the world of digital media the cost of entry is so low, and the quality of measurement data so high, that there's no real excuse for not putting a toe in the water and creating your own INTERNAL benchmark. Then all you need to do is test some variables, look at the results, and apply the information in a cycle of continual improvement.

In a blog post at Email Insider, Jordan Ayan notes that 'industry average' metrics can be so broad a range as to be totally useless, and that companies should look in their own backyard to find that starting comparison. Trust your own stats, and improve on them from there.

The Adelaide Crows Inner Circle

2008-09-02T20:54:00.004+09:30

Fanatical Adelaide Crows supporter, Rebecca, had a real MCB (Money Can't Buy) experience on Saturday when she belted out the Crows team song arm in arm with the players after a nail biting win against the Western Bulldogs.

Rebecca was one of more than a thousand punters who risked the life of their mobile phones in a deluge of biblical proportions when she texted her entry in the Carlton Draught Text'n'Sing promotion at AAMI Stadium.

Via Media was engaged by the Crows and Fosters to manage the interactive side of a test campaign that looks like running through to season 2009 after positive feedback from club, sponsor and fans alike. With co-operation from partner 2moro Mobile, Via Media set up an inbound mobile number to capture entries, before bouncing back an unexpected voice message from superstar Crow Nathan Bock, thanking fans for their support and asking for help to get the Crows over the line in what was a tense final quarter.

Not quite the Big Ad, but targeted, relevant, timely, contextual, engaging communication. Maybe just what Fosters was after?

Marketing Week Goes Digital. Finally.

2008-08-31T23:36:00.005+09:30

Last week saw the Marketing Week roadshow hit town, and refreshingly, 'Digital' got it's fair (i.e. dominant) share of the speaker calendar. Themed The Marketing Revolution, 'non-traditional' communication was collectively endorsed as the future of marketing, effectively giving advertising agencies as we know them the life expectancy of a needle-sharing Baghdad mortorcyclist.

Our own CEO Anthony Coles had two speaking spots, IdeaGarden's Jenny Williams painted the big picture in her inimitable way, and industry leaders like Matt Baxter (of Naked fame) and ex Singo's MD Phil Smith underlined the opportunities available to marketers who embrace the changes we're seeing (and thanks also to Phil for adding a guest spot at our ADMA Digital Certificate course to his list of presentations - a rare opportunity for an appreciative audience).

I'd like to think that Marketing Week has galvanised a few people who've been meaning to 'join the revolution', so it will be interesting to see who in Adelaide steps up, and who falls back into the comfort zone of yesterday. Telling times ahead...

Google Adwords Makes a Few Changes

2008-08-25T10:48:00.001+09:30

You might have seen some news on changes to Google's Adwords service.

In a post on the company blog, Google has advised that changes to the Quality Score metric means that ads will no longer be tagged 'inactive for search' if they don't meet a minimum bid value. What does this mean? Every ad will now remain live regardless of their maximum bid settings, but it's unlikely to have much/any positive effect on your campaign given the ad is still unlikely to rank on the first page or two. Google will also introduce a metric that indicates the minimum bid value required to be on the first page of paid listings, effectively aligning their metric to a marketing objective, rather than a nominal active/inactive setting. Quality Score will also now be applied dynamically at the time of each search, rather than in batch on setup, to enhance the user experience and ad relevance for people using the search engine.

In a nutshell, be aware of the changes but don't expect any revolutionary difference in the way you use Adwords. You still need a high Quality Score (relevance) to keep bid values low, and still need competitive bids if you want those valuable rankings near the top of the list. Pretty simple, eh?

Read more on the detail here.

Inside AdWords: Quality Score improvements

ADMA Digital Certificate Kicks Off

2008-08-14T08:16:00.003+09:30

Last night was something of a watershed moment for digital media education in Adelaide - the intro session to ADMA's certificate in digital marketing.

Part of Via Media's charter, and the reason for our involvement with the course, is using education to bridge the disconnect in SA between companies "knowing we need to do digital" and them actually doing it.

There's belief in the potential of the media, but - without the baseline knowledge required to develop a strategy - uncertainty about where to start. And that translated with the group last night. The key takeout was that digital marketing IS direct marketing, and while I expected a few eyes glazing over with the statistical analysis that comes with 'DM', it was evident that Digital offered these marketers accountability and clarity, as well as the chance to be creative.

A marketing campaign with looks AND brains? Maybe not such a rare creature after all...

Certificate in Digital Marketing in Adelaide at last

2008-07-28T16:54:00.002+09:30

The Australian Direct Marketing Association announced today that they would be offering their Certificate in Digital Marketing in Adelaide, facilitated by Via Media.

The nationally accredited 14 week course will be run in the evenings, and starts on August 13.

Throughout the course students will work together to learn the key concepts and principles of digital marketing and how they apply across the myriad of media channels available, from simple email campaigns, to website project management, to leveraging social networking tools and online advertising.

Via Media has been pushing to bring courses in this space - that run regularly in the Eastern States - to the SA market. The recent cancellation of the B&T Digital Bootcamp program was the latest disappointment.

“Too many of these courses don’t head West of the Blue Mountains” says Jason Neave, ADMA State Councillor and facilitator of the digital course in SA. “Access to a recognised certificate course in SA is imperative for local organisations if they want to remain competitive nationally, and internationally. The program is standardised across the country, and students get to mix with other local practitioners and learn from case studies from Australia’s biggest brands”.

“There is a huge need for this in the local market”, says ADMA Education manager Alex Pye, “and ADMA’s role as the premier industry association in this space is to help SA companies re-skill in order to participate.”

More information is available on the course from the ADMA site.

Digital media makes The Advertisers Round Table

2008-07-23T16:02:00.006+09:30

The Adelaide Advertiser hosts regular Round Table's with industry heavyweights to bring expertise on different topics to their readers. Today they just happened to invite 5 internet & media industry-related people (including yours truly, Via Media CEO Anthony Coles) to the table under the multi-media gaze of their AdelaideNow audio and video production team, (and a couple of work experience bods to boot).

After happy snaps and card swapping, discussions opened on the topic of "will the Internet have any impact on business in SA".

Biting my lip I glanced over to catch newly appointed SA Tourism GM of Marketing, Steve Kernaghan, ease back in his seat and break into a grin.

"The Internet is ALREADY having an impact on business in SA", we all chimed in unison to exclaim.

Steve gave space to a few local lads to lead the charge in response.

Adam Internet CEO Scott Hicks lamented the challenges to their considerable investments in Internet-related infrastructure here in SA in the face of the huge Telstra/ Australian Government conflict-of-interest.

"How can business benefit from our infrastructure (ie - better content), if our playing field isn't world-competitive", cried Scott. "We have the demand. How can we move beyond the infrastructure constraints of a poorly advised Government and cross-ownership confilct?"

My thoughts raced ahead to a Facebook Group, "Help Raise $400M to fund Adam Internet's fibre-optic roll out". More on that later...

SATC's Steve K finally added his weight to the debate with his international perspective, (Steve's new to SA from a Tourism Australia gig in the US).

His experience with mobile internet, Tivo, and direct-to-consumer transaction opportunities presented by the internet were refreshing in this market.

"The internet is the single most important channel in our marketing planning for the year ahead" says Steve.

"Don't jump up and hug him here", says the little guy in my head who stops me doing silly things!!

"But where is all this content going to come from?", asked Business Editor Cameron England insightfully. "Do we have the talent here to produce it?"

"Absolutely", states OMD CEO Gary Jaffer, "we have some of the best talent in the world here in SA".

Er, then why can't I find an experienced digital Account Director or gun Creative Director with web 2.0 campaign experience for my business, I thought?

As conversation progressed, we weaved from technical Internet issues to consumenr and Media issues.

"The role of the media with any advertising campaign is the same", noted KWP! Media Manager Matt Rawnsley. "Each needs to be considered within the context of what it is the client is trying to achieve, and its value evaluated against those objectives".

Quite right I thought, couldn't have put it better myself if I was a media manager with and Ad Agency.

But what if your 'media' is someones Facebook profile, and your ad is a "Had a Top Stay Here" widget promoting some local B&B you stayed at, offering a 'free bowl of soup' to any of your friends if they click on the widget?

Then Me becomes the Media.

Word-Of-Mouth blurs with Direct (Marketing) via the mass media of the Internet. Facebook currently has a Gazzillion* page views per day. (*note - Nielsen NetRatings does not recognise gazzillion as a media planning term).

Creative (Content) has just become a Transaction (Customer).

Where does 'the Media Agency' and the evaluation of relevant 'Paid Media' channels fit into this model?

Lucky I never let that mind rant leak out publicly amongst the group, or I'd have been shipped off in a tight white jacket with long sleeves!

And so on it went for an hour or so. More reality checks from Scott (Hicks) (not the Film director), more international tourism-industry perspective from Steve (Kernaghan) (not the former Carlton and Glenelg great), and more ad-land fundamentals from Gary (Jaffer) and Matt (Rawnsley).

And more Blue Sky from me.

Overall, hosts Meredith (Booth), Cameron (England) and Chris (Russell) were all on-topic and enthusistic with the industry participants at today's Round Table.

Did we find a solution to the growing gap between the have's and the have-nots?

Maybe not.

Did we contribute to combating Climate Change?

Well Rupert's building is very Green, and I did walk to the meeting.

But was I excited to have this topic, (one that I've been beeting my head against a brick wall over for 15 years now), finally reach the Business Section of The Adelaide Advertiser, and have an opportunity to participate in the discourse?

You bet.

Can't wait until it appears in the paper next week.

Oh, but now you already know what happened because of this blog. Doh!

What was that again about the impact that the Internet was going to have on business in SA?

Oh well....let's go to the video...

2.0 the go in Enterprise Knowledge Management-land

2008-07-21T19:04:00.002+09:30

There were more cliche's and acronyms than a orthodontists convention at the KM (knowledge management) Australia Conference in Melbourne today.

It seems enterprises (ie - organisations, private and Government), far and wide are looking for ways to integrate these new user-generated tools into their communications.

The KM Australia Conference has been going for 5 years now, and is the largest of its type in the Southern Hemisphere (their speal).

Some good insights from 'the Vignette dude' (Carl Jones) today about the way forward with the big guys. Funny to hear though that 90% of their clients (Fortune 500's), don't start with the simple question of what business are we in?, and what do our clients want from us?.

Just as we try to say to our clients, let's get the strategy right first, then the tools (ie - 2.0 technologies), can be selected on their merit in meeting the organisations goals.

Can't wait till tomorrows talk from those Via Media guys on their 2.0 work for DEFEEST...;-)

Get higher open rates with the right welcome

2008-03-12T00:10:00.000+10:30

Here's a nice 'back-to-basics' article on email marketing from Lindsey Secord at Premiere Global Services, one of the worlds largest e-marketing technology service providers and one of Via Media's partners. Too many businesses fall into the trap of thinking that email is cheap, and if they have an opt in email list that they might as well blast every message to every person (and think of all those hours saved on segmentation and targeting strategy...)

Lindsey offers a few examples, and a number of tips you can use pretty easily in your own eDM program. Click on the link below for the full article from iMedia Connection, and please sing out if any of it needs translating into (South) Australian.

iMedia Connection: Get higher open rates with the right welcome

Avoiding Facebook Follies

2008-03-11T08:22:00.002+10:30

An interesting article by Evan Gerber from Molecular, commenting on the huge disparity between successful brand forays into social networking, and those that miss the mark (even though the brand itself might be a household name). A key tenet of the article is that engagement is vital, more so than the supporting media spend regardless how heavy. It comes back to core strategy - are you jumping into social networking because its the flavour of the day, or because there's a real alignment with your brand strategy? And once you've made that call, how can you give your campaign the best chance (and it's true, some of it comes down to chance) of flying instead of flopping. The full article is worth a read.

iMedia Connection: Avoid these Facebook faux pas

Net users multitasking in front of telly | Australian IT

2008-02-28T12:16:00.000+10:30

An article popped up in the Australian IT section yesterday that showed some interesting stats on internet use in Australia and in NZ. Nielsen Online is reporting that 80% of internet users here and across the ditch are engaged in publishing to the web (posting photos, videos, blogging etc) - not just surfing it.

The 'always on' home broadband access also seems to be responsible for a new phenomenon of 'multimedia tasking' - either working or interacting socially online while watching TV. Makes you wonder where their attention goes during the ad breaks...

Click below for the full article.

Net users multitasking in front of telly | Australian IT

Eye Movement Across a Web Site

2008-01-07T11:43:00.000+10:30

Check out this article from VirtualHosting.com - its a great resource titled "Scientific Web Design: 23 Actionable Lessons from Eye-Tracking Studies" about how visitors view sites, and makes a fairly complex topic simple in terms of things you can do to maximise performance of your own site. We've listed them below, but go and read the post to get the full picture.

Text attracts attention before graphics. Contrary to what you might think, the first thing users look at on a website isn’t the images.
Initial eye movement focuses on the upper left corner of the page.
Users initially look at the top left and upper portion of the page before moving down and to the right.
Readers ignore banners. Surprise?
Fancy formatting and fonts are ignored.
People generally scan lower portions of the page.
Shorter paragraphs perform better than long ones.
One-column formats perform better in eye-fixation than multi-column formats.
Ads in the top and left portions of a page will receive the most eye fixation.
Ads placed next to the best content are seen more often.
Text ads were viewed mostly intently of all types tested.
Bigger images get more attention.
Headings draw the eye.
Users spend a lot of time looking at buttons and menus.
Lists hold reader attention longer.
Large blocks of text are avoided.
White space is good.
Navigation tools work better when placed at the top of the page.

Many of them are obvious, but its nice seeing the traditional view path 'heat map' translated into an actionable list.

Digital Trends for 2008

2008-01-07T09:35:00.000+10:30

Always following the festive season is the rush of hit predictions for the coming year. This one from Advertising Age's Digital publication, by renowned digital industry commentator Steve Rubel. Read it here and at http://adage.com/article.php?article_id=122886

Three Trends That Will Shape Digital in 2008
The Big Picture: Customers, Consumers and Content
By Steve Rubel

Published: January 07, 2008

The new year is when people like to make predictions. However, I find it more valuable to look at the bigger picture -- the trends that will play a role in shaping digital media and marketing over the next 12 months.

MEDIA-ADVERTISER COOPETITION
Conventional wisdom says never compete with your biggest customers. But that's exactly what's happening in the ever-changing dynamic between advertisers and media partners. Thanks to the web, brands are becoming their own media companies, vying for the same constricting field of attention the media long have dominated. This will force the media giants to increasingly become launch pads for advertiser-created content even as they carefully navigate the resulting Chinese-wall issues.

LIVING ROOM 2.0
For many, the living room is no longer the hub of a household. We spend more time today in front of computers tucked away in bedrooms and home offices than we do gathered around a single TV. That said, the living room is slowly undergoing a revival as consumers buy HDTVs. Early adopters are adding Windows Media Center PCs or Mac Minis to their home theaters so they can view photos in glorious hi-def.

Mainstream consumers are not there yet. However, they will join the geeks as the technology gets easier to use and connectivity finds its way into existing devices, including TV, digital cable boxes, TiVo, Xbox 360 and Wii. All of this will make the living room a place where families gather again, particularly as TVs connect to social networks.

CURATORS COLLECT AND CONNECT
During the past 10 years, content has become a commodity. So has data. Information overload makes it difficult for anyone to separate essential air from smog. Search engines don't really help -- it's hard even for them to separate gems from junk.

Enter curators. Brands, media and consumers who relish information will prosper by aggregating mountains of information and distilling those down to their most essential parts.

A nice digital/enviro combo

2007-12-17T21:32:00.001+10:30

Here's a little something close to our hearts on two fronts: someone using the power of digital media to make a point about climate change. Interesting from another perspective too - 'dumbing down' the argument to appeal to the lay person - which in terms of the science of the issue, most of us still are. Tell me to get off my soap box at your leisure, and only click if you've got a spare 5 mins (the one shortfall of the video is perhaps it's length, but if you're cramming 10,000 years of climate cycles and 20 years of debate into 5mins, I guess you've done OK).

Google - the mind Boggles

2007-11-29T12:10:00.000+10:30

Seems google releases something new every day (amazing what they can find to spend those untold billions on). Here's their latest news - Google will pinpoint your location on the mobile version of their Google Maps application, using triangulation from mobile phone towers to show where you are. Not new techonolgy conceptually, but probably the first time someone has made it available en mass in a simple usable format. We've all heard about location marketing, but what are some of the other (maybe less 'salesy', more community driven?) opportunities that this development represents?

Your thoughts? Download it yourself at www.google.com/gmm

SA Moments

2007-11-25T18:09:00.000+10:30

Nothing like a little web 2.0 to start your day.

Getting SA Great to get behind this one was a special moment.

Mobile mayhem...

2007-11-21T11:32:00.000+10:30

Have you sent a text messages to your kids, signed up for football updates on your BlackBerry, started browsing mobile Web sites while waiting at the lights?

If not, you might want to consider what's happening in mobile marketing.

But if you don’t know a WAP (wireless application protocol) site from an MMS (multimedia messaging service), or have any idea what the difference is between 2G, 3G and 4G. Well you're not alone.

The South Australian creative industries are leading the country in assisting with the increase in the understanding about mobile with the successful extentition of the MEGA (Mobile Enterprise Growth Alliance) from SA to be run nationally in 2008.

If you want to know more visit megasa.org.au

Applications for 2008's program close Feb 1st.

The Facebook Conversation

2007-10-24T07:17:00.000+09:30

Can't help but raise the "Facebook" question when out and about. Interested in the range of responses and the 'evolution' of societies embrace of new social network tools. A great slideshow on the platform from a not-tech point of view is attached.

| View | Upload your own

Great Content (with no educational relevance)

2007-09-27T16:13:00.000+09:30

This post is less about the wonders of digital media and Web 2.0, and more about, well, the stuff we think is pretty cool. The first entry is actually from about 5 years ago, but still ranks right up there on our 'tip top' leaderboard - and it goes to show that you don't need cutting edge rendering technology and million dollar server farms to produce engaging content. Warning: contains explicit lyrics and a high level of political incorrectness.

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/end

Crank up the speakers and hit play. And stay tuned for postings from other Via Mediarites (in fact, you could go right out on a limb and subscribe to the RSS feed via the links below).

What is it about digital media?

2007-09-20T23:27:00.000+09:30

Ever wondered what is different about the fluid digital media publishing model from the manufacturing-model' traditional media?

Here's a great clip from a Professor in the US to explain...

Get it now?

Me Media

2007-07-30T17:58:00.001+09:30

The evolution of the internet to broadband speeds, and 2.0 tools for easier publishing, fast-tracks the connections between people.

Not only can we strengthen/ broaden our networks by harnessing there real scope, we can also connect across networks based not only on who we know and what we like.

We can really strengthen our sense of self by expressing our values and beliefs in a transparent social media environment.

With shared networks and complementery values, concepts previously slow to be picked up can now race to global consciousness.

This little gem on the 'Prosumer' is a case in point