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.

More soon.

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.

So it’s a mixed bag at the moment as whilst the economy is doing well and the Australian dollar is really high against the US dollar, things are not 100% settled just yet.

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

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 (19^th 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? 

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.