It’s been an interesting couple of months here in Australia.
Talk about a PR nightmare – Qantas had a lot of bad worldwide press with their staff striking and then the issue escalated when CEO Alan Joyce grounded the Qantas Fleet until the matter was resolved affecting tens of thousands of passengers world wide. Australia Prime Minister Julia Gillard was forced to step in and then matters came to a quick resolution. I don’t know how it was publicised in the UK but it was a round the clock commentary here and Julia Gillard was criticised for not stepping in soon enough.
One could argue that Alan Joyce’s decision was a brilliant one PR wise as no PR is bad PR right? Although he had just given himself a nice 71% pay rise which further rubbed salt into the wound. Not great timing.
We’re seeing the aftermath of the strikes now with Qantas sweetening customers up with frequent flyer offers and complimentary gifts, and today Alan Joyce has been plugging Qantas’ new investment – the Boeing 787 which one could say is interesting timing.
We’ve also had the Carbon Tax passed here in Australia recently which if you don’t know what it is basically means that companies that generate pollution will pay per tonne of carbon they release into the atmosphere. The cost will increase up until 2015 when there will be a move towards a trading scheme that will let the market set the cost.
Many people have been for and against the tax so it will be interesting to see how it goes.
More recent news, Queensland is celebrating having just been awarded the right to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast. This will be excellent PR for the Gold Coast as it often gets a lot of bad press, although the Acting Queensland Premier Andrew Fraser has been a bit of a killjoy over the announcement today suggesting that the financial gain for the Gold Coast was completely unquantifiable.
Finally, Canberra has been at a standstill recently as US President Barack Obama was there Canberra on a whistle-stop tour. So it’s all go here down under at the moment.
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Things in Australia are up and down at the moment.
On the good side the marketing and design industry seems to be improving job wise, and there are more and more jobs being advertised. As well as my 9-5 job I have picked up some freelance work which is all helping and giving me a good range of experience.
On the down side, you may be aware that Borders and Angus & Robertson have gone into liquidation (as well as the US) which is a blow for the industry here. In saying that though, the one thing I noticed when I first arrived into Australia was the cost of books.
I can actually order books from England and get them a lot cheaper (like $10-$15+) even with postage than paying the Australian book shop price – so it doesn’t come as too much of a surprise to me that Aussies don’t want to pay the high street book shop prices anymore.
Bookdepository.co.uk has a very strong presence here and they don’t charge for postage to Australia so I’ve been telling anyone and everyone to use them. Amazon.co.uk recently pushed themselves onto the scene too offering free postage on purchases over $50 – so interesting times for the book market, but I am hoping definitely for the better so I can buy my books at a fair and reasonable price.
Speaking of books, I just finished a great book that as a marketer you might be interested in, by Paul Arden called It’s not how good you are but how good you want to be. Sounds like a self help book but it’s a small book full of interesting work soundbites from a marketing and advertising point of view.
Anyway bye for now.
Zoe
Hi again from Brisbane
Since I last wrote the Southern Hemisphere has been rocked by a number of natural disasters.
In fact last time I wrote Brisbane was about to encounter the floods which had a devastating effect on some areas. Many of my friends lost their homes after they were submerged, and they are in the process of trying to rebuild.
We then had fires in Victoria, a cyclone, and then our neighbours New Zealand suffered an earthquake.
Things are recovering and Queensland Tourism authorities have actively been marketing with TV ads to encourage visitors back to the area. Australia has also been trying to help Japan after it was devastated by the Tsunami and earthquake that hit. So it has been quite a start to the year.
Unemployment still remains under 5% here but we were dealt a blow recently with two large car manufacturers announcing redundancies.
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January 13, 2011
by zoemichelle
in Careers
Hello from down under
I hope you all had a festive Christmas and New Year, I just got back from skiing in Japan which was amazing.
I’d like to say that things have been good here in Australia since I last wrote but as I write Queensland is being ravaged by severe floods. According to the latest news reports ten people have been killed and at least 80 are still missing. These floods are the worst since devastating floods that swept through Queensland in 1974.
The rain and floods started a week or so ago devastating Northern Queensland city – Rockhampton and more recently they moved onto Toowoomba and its surrounding regions, which ironically has suffered for many years with droughts.
Yesterday Queensland Premier Anna Bligh made many emotional speeches talking about the devastation and the toughness and spirit of Queenslanders, and Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard confirmed she would give whatever resources necessary to Anna Bligh in order to help our state.
Brisbane is next on the list. Thankfully the area in Brisbane that I live does not seem to be on the flood list, we have just had heavy rain. But for those that are, their areas have been evacuated and for those that have nowhere to go, centres have been set up in order to keep them safe. The Brisbane CBD has closed as it is heavily flooded and the banks of the river is due to peak today which could have devastating consequences.
24/7
It’s amazing in terms of the way that we now use the internet and social media that now literally we can get a blow by blow account of what is going on in real time. People are tweeting under hash tags #bnefloods and photos are constantly being uploaded of new flood areas and warnings.
Facebook groups have been set up and the Council websites are the central point for information about the floods and people trying to find out about missing people.
The next two days are critical for Brisbane and by Friday the worst of the flooding will be over.
I hope that next time I write I will have better news for you. For the Aussies out there or anyone that wants to help you can do so by going to http://www.qld.gov.au/floods/donate.html
Bye for now
Zoe
I can’t believe it is nearly Christmas. The silly season crept up on me and santa is everywhere, even for pets (Santa Paws!)
We’ve been watching the scenes from the UK here with great interest. The snow scenes are incredible and it looks like it’s pretty cold over there. Over here we have had the worst spring/summer in a long time apparently. It has rained and rained which is good for Australia as they have struggled with droughts in the past, but when it rains here in Brisbane it really rains if you know what I mean and the thunder storms are seriously scary – we had five days in a row with storms and rain and huge floods.
So other than that it’s been pretty busy. I finished a role in the city and managed to get a new job that starts in January and I also qualified as a graphic designer . I did a year long course part time as marketing jobs here seem to require you to know Adobe Creative Suite as well as your core marketing skills, so I figured an extra skill would help, and it did. The job market seems to be picking up which is good news for unemployed marketers and it has been a hard year so hopefully next year will be much more productive.
I’m still helping CIM Australia out which is interesting as the number of members is increasing now that CIM courses are happening so I think 2011 will be an interesting time for CIM here in Australia.
Anyway I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Year, and best wishes for 2011.
Bye for now.
Zoe
G’day from Australia
It’s starting to warm up here in Australia with the weather finally starting to improve. We’re in the mid twenties at the moment so I can finally get rid of my coat!
Have actually been a bit homesick lately, missing London and the buzz of it. I figured Australia would be an easy place to settle in but it hasn’t been as easy as I thought. Most of the expats I have spoken to say it took them 3-5 years so I guess I have a way to go yet…
Lots going on here at the moment. Since I last wrote the election fever has ended and Julia Gillard remains our Prime Minister. She seems to have got off to a reasonable start, but only time will tell.
This week saw the event of the year here in Australia – the Melbourne Cup – similar to Ascot and they even get a days holiday in Melbourne for it. See the Melbourne Cup site for more information about it. The number of people I saw here in Brisbane in hats was incredible and apparently Melbourne Cup day is less productive than the Christmas period.
Also the month of November sees another marketing event for a real worthy cause – Movember. The event which involves men growing a moustache throughout November to raise money for Prostate cancer and depression was first born in 2004 and started in Australia and New Zealand. It is now run in a few other countries including the UK – but the event is a nation-wide event in Australia. See the UK Movember site for more information and here are the guys I work with and their page - their photos that they did are amusing!
I’m still working with the Australian CIM Chair to help collate and send out a regular newsletter. The CIM offerings in Australia are not as comprehensive as in the UK so I think there are plans to improve sooner rather than later. We’re getting ready to send out our second updated newsletter now, so all good and all relatively new.
Bye for now.
Zoe
August 19, 2010
by zoemichelle
in Careers
Hi there! Haven’t been in touch for a while, how are things?
Life is busy here in Australia! It’s all go at the moment as at the time of writing (19th August), the federal election takes place on Saturday.
The main race is between the Labour party and the Liberals. It has been an interesting time for Labour who ousted its leader and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd not long ago, and replaced him with Australia’s first ever female Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
The Liberals have a new leader too, Tony Abbott who is a very animated and somewhat of a character so it the lead up and the campaigns have been more about the personalities and their clashing and being unwilling to debate unless on their terms than it has about the overall election. The campaigns have become somewhat of a farce with Labour and the Liberals using their speeches to take a slug at one another.
So interesting times ahead as well as big issues on a national broadband network, a mining tax and paid parental leave on the agenda.
From a marketing perspective it has been interesting to see how the parties have been using marketing and social media as part of their campaigns. Neilson did some research and released its analysis of social media discussions around Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott. Read the article here if you want to know more.
So what else has been going on here…. Well the economy has been reported as being strong but the last week or so has seen a huge outlet chain the ‘DFO’ fighting against liquidation and a number of smaller high street businesses potentially on the verge of going under so we are not out of the woods yet.
I’ve been working with the CIM Australia Chair to try and get some momentum going with members here in Australia and we sent out an updated newsletter and a survey which I am just collating the results for as well as planning our next newsletter.
Not much to report at the moment but next time I write the election will be over and it will be interesting to see how the new Labour era or new Government is doing….
Bye for now
Hi there!
Haven’t been in touch for a while as life has been crazy. I have started a new job and my parents were over here for three weeks and they then got stuck in Singapore because of the Icelandic volcano – life has been pretty interesting.
I got invited to a pot luck party the other week. I don’t know about you but I had no idea what that was – but one of my Aussie colleagues explained to me it basically means you go to your cupboard or fridge and bring something from there – bring a plate with a difference I guess. I ended up making cheesecake as I figured people wouldn’t really want alfalfa sprouts and carrots for dinner!
So what’s going on here?
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March 6, 2010
by zoemichelle
in Twitter
Hello from Brisbane.
I guess you have all seen the newly launched iPad now. Whilst it has got a kicking from the geeks, the marketing for it and build up has been great and the pricing is reasonable so I think there will be a storm when they are released for sale over here. I am trying to convince my husband to let me get one!!
Social Media – good use of time?
I have been thinking about social media a lot this week so thought I would base my blog on it this week. I recently sat down and worked out all the different social media platforms I am involved in whether it is for research, writing or just for fun. It’s a fair bit – well I think so!
How much is too much?
I am sure some of you are involved in more, but I am registered on: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Then as well as that I obviously write this blog, I have another one that I write on my website as well as my millions of Google alerts, and it all adds up to quite a lot of time which (my husband would disagree) is worth it!
I am obsessed with Tweet Deck and each time my desktop tweets I get very excited and want to see what the latest news is with Apple or what’s going on in the world.
Is that a bad thing?
A friend of mine in Birmingham, UK recently campaigned on facebook to see if people could spend a whole 24 hours without using Facebook or Twitter. I crashed and burned unfortunately.
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February 19, 2010
by zoemichelle
in Careers
Hi again,
I recently celebrated being in Australia for one year! Time has gone so fast. The Australian Immigration agency didn’t forget as I got a nice big wad of paper from them to complete within the next couple of months – then after that I will be on my way to becoming a fully fledged Aussie!
It hasn’t been an easy ride
Looking back over the last 12 months, making the move from London to Brisbane it hasn’t been as easy as we thought it would be. We arrived when the economy had taken a dive and finding jobs wasn’t that easy. We thought we would make friends easily and it took a while. I thought the marketing industry would be the same as in the UK and it wasn’t so I have had to play catch up in the last 12 months!
Read more…
January 13, 2010
by zoemichelle
in Careers
Hi, I hope you all had a happy Christmas and New Year! I heard it has been very cold which seems weird to me sat here in a summer dress – sorry!
Glad to inform you I now have air conditioning and no hole in my ceiling. So I am very grateful for that since it was reported by the Bureau of Meteorology today that Australia had the second warmest year on record in 2009. Read more…
