+ Universities Don't Eat Apples

I was sitting in a tutorial today keying an assessment date into my iPhone calendar. The tutor walked up and told me I shouldn't be text messaging in class and to focus on the task. I explained to him that I was doing nothing different from the student next to me writing the date into her paper diary.

He smiled and asked what question I was up to.

Yet another example of the University demonstrating just how far behind they are.










The fact I was actually on Facebook because the tutorial was terribly boring is irrelevant.

+ Sneezing And Blowing Your Nose Aren't The Same Thing

Just because your video has a few million page views doesn't mean it's gone viral. It just means a few million people have seen it.

Not that this is necessarily a bad thing. Of course it depends on your objectives. So when Avril Lavigne's Girlfriend video (not available to Australians) passed Evolution of Dance for the All Time Most Viewed video on YouTube earlier this year, it's hard to argue her video had the same viral qualities because she cheated.

When a campaign runs a microsite with a video on the front page, you can earn millions of pageviews. This doesn't mean the content has been spread, especially not virally.

Therefore you can't measure if a video has gone viral just on hits. Instead look at how many people are talking about it and ultimately their influence on those listening.

+ ABC's Chosen Adventure

I just watched ABC's Lawrence Leung's Choose Your Own Adventure. Seriously funny shit. My perfect genre of comedy. Instant favourite.

Side note before I start, how fucking awesome are the ABC? Not only are they producing the best television content in Australia but they're doing a killer job in the transition from old to new media. Podcasting, online content, iView. Awesome. They continue to lead the way, in fact my second ever post 18 months ago said something similar.

Anywho, in the show, Lawrence was looking at some techniques for picking up girls. One guy suggested the use of phonetic ambiguity, which is when you say something that can be interpreted as something else but more subtly.

The example they used was the term "below me", which can sound like "blow me". So when you say to a girl about something being below you, she's apparently meant to drop to her knees.

I'm struggling to see this actually work but more interestingly has it been done in marketing before?

Or can you think of your own to use in a TVC or radio spot?

+ Graduate Like A Rock Star #3

Here it is, an article on digital networking.

+ Two Hands

When I think of those "classic" marketing campaigns and examples, the majority of them are from when I was running around as a little tacker or even younger.

But here's something a bit more recent. Hungry Jacks and their two handed Whopper salute. I read about it a couple of times in this week's marketing magazine readings (Marketing, AdNews and B&T) and realised how deeply that symbol is now embedded in consumers' minds. Even more incredibly, it only took a few months.

Now it would be cool to see a UGC element, maybe a Flickr competition with people doing the salute. And I'd give it an official name to concrete it in everyone's mind. And a quick look on YouTube shows heaps of people trying to order in stores using the salute... utilise that.

+ Copper Message

On the 2nd of March, Victoria Police sent out a mass SMS to everyone in the state saying the follow...

"Extreme weather in Vic expected Mon night & Tues. High wind & fire risk. Listen to Local ABC Radio for emergency updates. Do not reply to this msg."

What a fantastic use of technology. A great move by the Victorian Police, an organisation I would expect to be more bureaucratic than my university. But I have a problem.

Thankfully, legally the message is not considered spam, which was my first worry. But I am worried about the weather that actually occurred on the 3rd. Besides some slightly higher winds, it was like any other day.

Now while I'm all for being safe than sorry, what has this message done to the credibility of the next? Will people take the next message as seriously? It's like the Government saying two drinks is a binge, bringing down the level of "binging", giving it less of an impact.

I also have to question why wasn't a message like this sent out a week earlier on Black Saturday?

+ iChange For iPhone

I always assumed my Melway (directory of Melbourne's streets that sits under every car seat in Victoria) would be replaced by a GPS system. Turns out it was my iPhone.

I've now had my iPhone for three months and I can't believe how much it has changed my daily behaviour.

It's changed my life and made me a better person.

Maybe I should look at getting a Mac.

+ The Answers

In what seems like months ago, I raised a few questions on how Gen Y and iGen's consumed content. As one old bull kindly pointed out, it's easy to ask questions and not answer them.

So how do you as a marketer, media producer or content creator get through to me? Simple. Using one of these new media business models, based on the concept of free or with microtransactions.

Things like Dr Horrible and Clark and Michael are great examples.

We, as Gen Y's and iGen's, are not going to pay more than what content is worth. And we've been brought up thinking that this content, especially digital content, is free or valued at only a few dollars. Most advertisers, content creators and media producers fail to see how this can be monetised, but the examples above show it's possible.

That's how you get through to someone like me and still walk our profitable.

+ Maybe He's Born With It

My blogging has been a little sporadic of late. And it's probably going to get worse before it gets better.

I tend not to discuss too much personal stuff here hence why you're still waiting on your 7 Things, Nathan. But I suppose once in a while it doesn't hurt.

While I've been busy writing articles for Marketing Mag, promoting the student union on campus, hitting the books at Uni, hitting the beer at Uni and loving my internship at Naked, the biggest time consumer (and most fun) has been working on L'Oreal's Brandstorm.

Last Thursday, me and two mates presented to L'Oreal Maybelline in what was a Pre Case Study looking at Maybelline's first fragrance. We just received word that we've been selected for nationals in two months, up against five other teams. In that time we'll be working with McCann Erickson on a promotional strategy as well as a packaging agency developing the launch of Maybelline's first perfume.

If we some how manage to blow their socks off, we head on to Paris. Excitement much?

Anywho, any girls wanting to participate in some qualitative market research let me know. That is all. I love you. Each and every one of you. Not you Stan.

+ Published Author

Although I hate traditional media, I sure was happy when I had my first article published. Here's my article from the highly credible student magazine at the Monash Caulfield campus, Esperanto.

+ Ya'll Ready For This?

Here it comes. The tipping point of Twitter.

In the past week, two independent friends have told me they are signing up to Twitter. Both of them aren't tech or social media geeks. However, they are both extremely popular, very influential and both have a large following on Facebook.

This was before Rove spoke about it on Sunday night.

Twitter is about to go mainstream. Although when it does, I think you'll find its design flaw will cripple the social network.

+ The Internet Slums

A month back, JC wrote a post that inspired some digging. The topic was the Footscray of the Internet as I described it... 4chan /b/.

The thing is, I've been around, not heavily involved, with a subset of the 4chan community for a number of years, long before social networking was even big. Over the years I've been subjected to many memes, most of which I probably didn't even realise at the time were memes. I've seen the birth of some of these Internet phenomenons and possibly taken part in developing them into mainstream memes. It wasn't until Julian's post that I started thinking about the importance of this community on Internet culture, even more so about a possible marketing application.

Julian said there was too much to cover in one post, and I agree. So here I'm simply going to suggest you check out the two biggest slums on the Internet...

+ 4chan /b/
+ Something Awful

Both communities are incredibly strong, even if they are based entirely around the anonymous. After spending a fair bit of time in these slums over the past month, I can easily say they are the best and worst places on the Internet. They are social in a disgusting yet brilliant manner. And they are responsible for 90% of the memes on the Internet and have had an impact on culture many couldn't comprehend.

So as marketers, how can we use these communities?