Why you should be cautious of viral...

We are all sick of hearing about the love-struck girl who posted a YouTube video in an attempt to find a bloke she'd met at a Sydney café that has been proved to be a less-than-inspiring viral marketing campaign. 'Heidi Clarke' was an actress hired for the campaign by Surry Hills-based marketing group Naked Communications ...

Seven change-the-rules tips to kick-start your 2009 online efforts

Yes, rules are made for a reason but they’re also there to be broken. If your customer help representative can’t help a customer because of a 'rule', then this rule needs to be challenged. In today's shifting online world some rules are outdated. Add technology advances and audience sophistication and you realise ...

Why I don't buy Buyology

Book review details: Martin Lindstrom Buyology: How Everything We Believe About Why We Buy Is Wrong Random House 2008 Sydney-based author Martin Lindstrom's Buyology might have made a brief appearance on the New York Times bestseller list in November but by my standards and those professional marketers, strategists ...

What Obama teaches brands about emotional intelligence

ABT CEO Antony Gowthorp says 'Brand Obama' shows how emotional intelligence can help organisations handle tough economic times. When Barack Obama's election campaign encountered potentially image-denting, bad news threats – in the shape of outbursts from Obama's former religious mentor the Rev. Jeremiah Wright – ...

What will agencies do when everyone can bypass advertising?

The dawning of the digital age has created much hand-wringing among traditional media providers and the advertisers who feed them. A plethora of new options has seen rapid erosion of the once mighty traditional media power base. The press is under grave threat as consumers can quickly and freely access specialist ...

Why is Google Analytics a free service?

Generally in business, things that are 'free' have some alternate revenue stream or strategy driving them. On the internet, people have become accustomed to using 'free' products and services where the revenue stream is driven by advertising on the site and most do not think twice about taking them onboard. In ...

Not everything is black and white

In this post I respond to a (very good) question that I was asked about researcher bias and subjectivity, specifically what to do about it. Interesting topic this one! Researcher bias and subjectivity in qualitative research It’s true, without doubt, that personal biases and subjectivity shape the way researchers ...

Social not-working, surely not?

'Social networking is a just a phase' - the headline jumped out at me, the shock, the horror, surely not? I had just read this quickly on a newswire while my computer was supposed to be absolutely turned off/dead over Christmas and New Year. It got me thinking, is it a phase? Social networking is a long-known art, ...

Blogs for Breakfast: mirror, mirror... 31 lists of predictions for 2009

The year is almost out and that means bloggers dust off their crystal balls and pretend like they know what's going to happen over the next year, when most of us couldn't tell you what next week holds. Still, think of it all as a law of averages - somewhere in amongst these 31 lists have got to be some accurate ...

Vodcast: Geoffrey Bowll discusses psychographics

In his latest vodcast, Ana Bosnjak interviews Geoffrey McDonald Bowll, MD of Starship and author of the monthly column Guerrilla Guide in Marketing magazine, about psychographics and why people wear many hats. Check it out below now! And stay tuned for his second post coming up in the new year on retail marketing ...

Copy Corner: Writing an ad

When you are writing an advertisement, the first impression – the first thing the reader sees or reads – can mean the difference between success and failure. If the first impression is boring or irrelevant, the ad will not attract your prospect. If it offers news or helpful information, or promises a reward for reading ...

Your best and worst of Aussie advertising '08

It's that time of the year when a (not so) young man's thoughts turn to the things that really teed him off in the year just-a-passin'. UK broadsheet The Guardian just formalised its review list of the year's worst TV ads here. (Gillette takes bottom prize) - prompting me to wonder about the smells and swells of ...

Santa banter with Arty Sipkus, marketing director for Santa Claus

He’s known the world over for his kindness and generosity, but marketing Santa is hard work according to his embattled marketing director, Arty Sipkus. When he’s not defending Santa’s integrity from UK tabloids, he’s dreaming up new ways to bring the old jolly fat man into the 21st century. It must be a pretty busy ...

10 Marketing Predictions for 2009

Matt Granfield shares his top 10 predictions for the year ahead: 1. Marketing budgets will be slashed by 35% 2. Marketing expectations will be raised by 35% 3. Facebook will not be sold, Twitter will not be monetised and MySpace will grow at precisely the same rate as the American economy 4. A major Australian ...

The real Spiderman: part two of our interview with David Thorne

In part one of our interview with David Thorne, we found out the workings of his now famous spider email, following its viral explosion. In the final part of the interview, Thorne reveals more of the strange existence he lives in brand land and why it is such an important world – despite some of the people that work ...

Blogs for Breakfast: does social media scale, what's a CMO to do and mobile vintage

Lazy people of the world unite - Blogs for Breakfast is finding the thought-provoking, controversial, informative, hilarious or downright insane marketing blogging and delivering it to you in handy spoonfuls every week. This week, three questions to jump start your brains: Social media is great and all that, but ...

The real Spiderman: part one of our interview with David Thorne

How do you get your campaign to go viral? Strategic planning? Purely by accident or good luck? David Thorne found out when he posted his exchange with a creditor over an unpaid bill. It all started when he offered to pay it with a spider… Who are you and why should people give a damn? The interest has been in the ...

Qualitative samples: unashamedly skewed

This post is about getting the sample right in qualitative research. It’s an important issue because if you don’t get the sample right, then even the most brilliant research techniques in the world won’t get you anywhere. Sample. Funny word if you stare at it long enough. Which I have. This is my fifth attempt at ...

Questionable identities: how adaptive instability can help brands during recession

Anticipating and mitigating the dramatic impact of organisational inertia on transformational brand programs can help companies better cope with a constantly shifting economic environment. Just ask the US car makers. It’s a key finding from a recent study by Harvard Business School’s Mary Tripsas on the interplay ...

A penny for your thoughts

As we brace ourselves for a slowing economy, and marketing budgets are squeezed, it’s well worth asking; is qualitative research something you can do yourself? What can be done with a tight budget? DIY qualitative research In one sense, qualitative research is not only something you can do yourself, it’s something ...

Guru bloggers

Our team of dedicated bloggers will be posting regularly about anything and everything that makes them smile, drives them mad, or generally gets them going.

Ant Hampel

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Ant Hampel is the founder of live brand experience organisation think creative events with offices in Melbourne and Singapore. Ant has 17 years experience in the live events industry both locally and internationally.

Andrew Wilson

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When he's not shouting from the soapbox perched atop his high horse, Andrew Wilson is a copywriter and creative with boutique Sydney agency The Other Dimension.

David Iwanow

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David Iwanow is the Director of The Lost Agency, a web analytics focused SEO agency that is helping business get found online, you can follow him on twitter @thelostagency.

Geoffrey Bowll

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Geoffrey (pictured with junior art director) is MD of The Starship, a Melbourne-based ad agency. Besides running mainstream campaigns since 1991, he has conducted hundreds of marketing and advertising research projects for major corporates.

Katie Harris

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Katie Harris is director of qualitative research at Zebra Research. B. Soc Sci (psych) UNSW, MBA AGSM, QPMR (and all that).

You can find out more about Zebra Research, and all things qualitative, by visiting the ZebraBites blog, the Zebra Research website and/or by following her on Twitter.

Kevin Mackin

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Kevin Mackin, FAIM AMAMI CPM, is passionate about disruptive technologies having pioneered advanced CRM systems in the 80s, headed an internet development team in Silicon Valley in the 90s and kicked off Asia Pacific's online meeting market from 2000. By background, a product marketer - Kevin is currently General Manager Aus/NZ for leading web analytics firm Coremetrics (which just happens to be a technology which is disrupting some traditional marketing norms by bringing accountable measurement to the space).

Stephen Byrne

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Stephen is an international brand strategist, writer and commentator. He is founder and director of strategic brand consultancy DIFFUSION, and has taught, published and presented extensively in the UK and Australia on brand and digital strategy, marketing and communication. You can contact him by email, through his blog, on Twitter or by LinkedIn.

Fi Bendall

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Fi is a leading interactive and digital specialist, and managing director of Bendalls Group. She has over 20 years experience in the digital sector. As well as developing key ISP strategies for the BBC, she has worked on an international gaming industry portal, ATE Online, and on digital strategies for Australian clients such as Microsoft, News Interactive, Tourism Tasmania, RaboPlus and MTV.

Trevor Young

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Trevor Young is the PR Warrior, a battle-hardened public relations and marketing communications consultant, blogger, speaker and trainer. Trevor is principal partner of strategy and communication advisory firm parkyoung.

Jonathan Sinton

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Jonathan is the executive director, digital and strategy for TNS and is an experienced multi-country researcher. He's worked in the US and the UK but now calls Australia home. On his blog, Jonathan discusses key research findings, drilling down and using data to tease out the trends in Australia that marketers need to know about.

Matt Granfield

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Matt spends his time consulting as marketing director at e-CBD for a diverse clientele ranging from NGOs to rock bands, and is Social Media Marketing Director at dp dialogue. When he isn't busy referring to himself in the third person, Matt maintains his own blog, Zakazukha Zoo.

Mary Henderson

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Mary Henderson is GeekIT Group's CEO. Before founding GeekIT, Mary worked in senior business development, marketing and sales roles at companies including Tech Pacific and Belkin. Mary is an active participant in industry associations. In 2006, she became the Victorian President of the Australian Multimedia Industry Association (AMIA), Australia's most prestigious digital media representative body. In 2007, Mary was also invited to join the board of the Victorian Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA). You can follow her on Twitter here.

Jules Brooke

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Jules Brooke is the founder of PR agency Handle Communications. You can contact her on 0409 494 490.

Sean Greaney

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As online editor of Marketingmag.com.au and feature writer for Marketing magazine, Sean Greaney spends most of his day sweating, cursing and drinking coffee. If you'd like to contribute editorially, (should carrier pigeon and smoke signals fail) contact him on sean.greaney@niche.com.au, @SeanGreaney or LinkedIn.

Jenni Beattie

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Jenni Beattie is the director of Digital Democracy a research-led social media consultancy. With over 20 years experience across advertising, media, PR, market research and innovation, Jenni uses a wholistic approach to getting the most from social media tools.

Mark Cameron

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Mark Cameron is CEO and senior partner at Working Three. He has been in the field of digital strategy for over a decade. His company, Working Three, is involved in all areas of digital and social media strategy, design and development. You can reach him on Twitter, email or his personal website.

Pau Herrera

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Pau Herrera is founder and CEO of Grupo BPMO. He also chairs the executive committee of the Barcelona Centro de Diseno, is vice president of Asociacion Espanola de Directivos and won the Asociacion Independiente de Jovenes Empresarios best young businessperson in 2005, aged 38.

Simon McEvoy

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Simon McEvoy is Tangent One Australia’s managing director and e-commerce specialist. He has project managed and marketed large transactional platforms for some of the best known multi-channel retailers in both Australia and the UK, and by his own admission has a borderline obsession with web analytics.

Brett Waters

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Brett Waters is RightNow vice president Asia Pacific - South, based in Sydney. He has 18 years experience in the industry and originally joined RightNow from Oracle Corporation where he held several positions.

Chris Fiteni

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Chris is the director of Strategy at Nucleus Digital Strategy. He has 15 years digital marketing experience and has worked with brands such RMIT, YMCA, Mazda and Australia Post.

Anthony Baker

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Anthony is the managing director at Nucleus Digital Strategy. He has 13 years business leadership and digital marketing experience with brands such as Amcor, Target, Coles & Telstra.

Sam Saltis

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Sam Saltis is the founder and managing director of bwired, a leading website solutions provider based in Australia.

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