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? 

Cigarettes puffed out?

Well the Government recently announced a 25% federal government tax increase on cigarettes. The Government is hoping that more people will quit and also are moving to ban logos and branding from all cigarette packs. Quite a big impact on anyone working in that industry from a marketing perspective.

iPad – the gloves are off!

The iPad is finally going to be launched here in Australia at the end of the month. I am so excited as being an Apple convert with my iPhone, iMac and iPod – I can’t wait to get another toy!

The Telco’s have now started a major battle here for a slice of the action with Australian provider Optus being the first one to reveal its packages. I will probably go for the Wi-Fi only iPad rather than the 3G and Wi-Fi as mobile providers here are so expensive compared to the UK. I miss 02and the great deals they offered, none of that here. Broadband is expensive too compared to the UK and you don’t get as much for your money – whereas when I lived in London it was offers that gave you ‘unlimited’ here it is a very specific amount like 2GB which makes me panic that I will go over my allowance, and it isn’t cheap either.

I’m enjoying my new job working for a digital agency as an Account Manager that also is a marketing consultant – it’s a really varied and diverse job and I am learning loads of cool new things that I had previously ignored such as AB testing using Google Web Optimizer. In fact if you work in that area I’d thoroughly recommend a book just passed my way called A/B always be testing – the complete guide to Google Website Optimizer by Einsburg, Quarto-vonTovadar and Davis (2008).

I’m also helping CIM Australia increase its communication here in Brisbane. We’re starting small with a newsletter and will build from there.

Anyway, bye for now

 Zoe

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.

Here in Australia the internet is now the most consumed media according to a 2009 Nielson’s annual Internet and Technology survey, with the average Australian spending 16.1 hours per week using the internet. This is compared to 12 hours a week of TV, 8.8 hours of radio, 2.8 hours of reading newspapers and 2 hours reading magazines.

That’s huge.

Many Australian businesses are now recognising the importance of having an online presence and are shifting their budgets accordingly. It has taken a bit longer than the UK as I have found moving to Brisbane for example that many marketers favour the more traditional methods of marketing.

Read the full article about in bound and out bound marketing if interested-

I remember when banners were a taboo word in the UK as they supposedly didn’t bring in much revenue and were a waste of time but over here it’s social media frenzy. I am working for a radio broadcaster and publishing company at the moment and we are frantically putting our social media policy and strategy together to ensure we have all of our business units covered. It doesn’t have to be major though – look at Coca Cola’s policy .

Bye for now.

I read that the UK economy has reported it is officially out of a recession which is good news. Australia as I said in my last post seems to be getting better too so things can only get better right? I recently read as well that Westfield, the shopping centre giants have plans to build more shopping centres here in Australia after their full year operating earnings increased by 6.2% – see the article – so that is very encouraging. More shops – hoorah!

The social media buzz
I am still in the process of writing my company’s social media policy and strategy. I thought it would be a piece of cake but actually it’s more like a bone to chew on. The social media market is continuing to grow over here and now Google is in on the game as well it can only get bigger and better – one hopes! I’m not too fussed with Google Buzz yet and with the Wall Street Journal reporting that it isn’t exactly ‘buzzing along’ it has been a bit of a disastrous new product launch in marketing terms.

I’m reading a book at the moment by Tamar Weinberg called The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web and I’ve also been researching more about auto responses on Twitter. Our company wants to be able to pick up when tweeters are saying certain words i.e. #dilemma and then be able to have a piece of software automatically send an email to anyone fitting that criteria telling them about our product – as of yet Tweetbeep seems to be the only application that has anywhere near that power. If you know better please contact me!

Anyway I had best be off but before I go if you haven’t read it, have a gander at this – the funniest article I read recently was about toy company Mattel announcing it is developing a product called Puppy Tweets enabling your dog to send twitters of a sort! See to read it for yourself. I think personally it is social media gone mad and a pretty good PR stunt. It certainly got my attention!

Bye for now! Zoe.

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.

Resolving and retraining

So how many of you have made new year resolutions?

I tried but when my list went over an A4 page I realised I had a few issues and should maybe quit while I was ahead!

I did make a few decisions for 2010 though, one being that I have decided to add to my skills portfolio and start a graphics design certificate in February at Shillington College for a year.

I have noticed more and more over here in Brisbane that employers want integrated marketers to have an even wider spectrum of skills including Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and Indesign. They are good packages to know anyway.

Shillington also has a college in London so you might be interested too – see www.shillington.com.au for more information.

I start a new job on Monday which promises to be interesting , working for a not for profit publishing and radio organisation. So with the course and the job it feels like this year is on track to be a good one.

Positive economy

From an economic point of view here in Queensland everyone that I spoke to at the end of 2009 was optimistic for 2010 and said that things would be better , so let’s hope they are right.

Things are looking promising, with the Brisbane Times reporting on New Years Eve that visitor numbers to Australia are set to rise in the new year.  Australia wide figures from the Tourism Transport Forum show an expected increase of 4.3% in international visitors in 2010 and a rise of 2.3% in domestic visitor nights.  So if people are starting to travel again that can only be positive can’t it? See the full article here .

Bye for now