There’s nothing like Australia. Fine enough line to base your overseas ad campaign on but then DDB produce this TV that seems like an 80’s relic. The whole campaign idea was nice as was the places used throughout, based on user recommendations. But that song. That singing. This is not the Oz I love & gave up my home for. And I loved the 80’s XXXX ads!
To continue this slight rant. I was working at Mindshare Melbourne when the Baz Luhrmann ads came out. Cheesy but, being from overseas, I thought they’d work well enough for the target market. The Oz guys and girls hated them, almost as much as the ‘Where the bloody hell are you‘ Lara Bingle adverts, which is fair enough but not the main point. It’s the non-Aussies we’re trying to appeal to.
This new ‘sing-a-long’ Australia is just grating and shows wonderful images in a bit of a bogan and childlike manner. Oz is beautiful with so many wonderful people, places and wildlife. But let’s also show the great food & nightlife. Not just a shot of pony pub where ‘everyone is yer mate’. What about how brilliant it is to watch the AFL on Saturday night at the MCG or the NRL in Sydney & Queensland for instance? Where’s the Melbourne lane ways? I know there’s to much stuff that could be mentioned to fit into one ad but I’m just trying to say a few examples of how what makes Oz for me. An actual show at the Opera House. Roof terrace drinks and food but without the chessy sing-a-long. Bit more style please next time. And cut out the dodgy sing song stuff.
New Media Age back home in the UK is a pretty much ‘must read’ publication for the week as it does a good job of keeping it’s readers up to date on the business orientated news within our digital media industry. So I was happy to find an industry magazine of equal quality over here in sunny Melbourne whilst stumbling around the city, avoiding the moment I would have to start flat hunting in earnest!
The publication in question is ‘Digital Media‘, tagged as ‘Australia’s journal of the New Media revolution’. It is similar in content to the NMA but does have less of a focus on industry news and more on quality articles. This is a great mag for me in order to find out more about what’s happening over here and how people in the industry think. There’s a great bunch of articles in this fortnights magazine, including pieces on the Australian companies breaking break overseas markets, an article on some new social media websites that I had not come across as yet, and some useful tips on optimising your campaigns for social media.
Being able to skim through the mag online is great, although I’d use the arrow buttons to turn the page as turning the page via your mouse in the top corner is a tad infuriating. A nice old school use of Flash there (DNA used to have a website like that a long time ago) but it’s too fiddly and not user friendly. The arrow keys do the job.
And I’ve had a nice email exchange with the editor so all the more reason to write this post. We don’t want to see good industry publications close due to lack of readership, as happened with ‘Create Online’ back at home.
I will shortly be leaving for the sunny shores of Melbourne and a very exciting position with one of the most respected media agencies in the world, Mindshare. As Creative Services Director I will be helping them to grow digital design and development side of the business and I am looking forward to the opportunity to see the similarities and differences between UK and Australian based media.
After all, we live in a global world and the online industry crosses country borders and has changed peoples work habits. But that doesn’t mean that what works over here will also do so on the other side of the world. Especially as the reach is not just limited to Australia and New Zealand, but far into Asia as well. I hope then to find some time to use this blog to bring you some of my observations and also highlight the best that I find going on over there. And hopefully lots of things of interest about actually living in such a wonderful city as Melbourne.
Of course, being on the other side of the world does not affect how one sees the good developments, design and innovations that I like to bring you and so that side of this blog will certainly continue.
On a personal note, whilst being a tad sad to be leaving my new home place of Brighton and its great people and atmosphere, I am swapping it for the similar, if larger, charms of Melbourne and I am very happy about this. I have lived in Melbourne before so I am looking forward to being back amongst the great culture, restaurants and bars and of course the cricket and AFL.
Have fun for now then and I’ll be writing more when I get there in a couple of weeks time.
Digital innovation in augmented reality, websites. mobile apps. including the iPhone, online advertising and any other campaign ideas and creative that floats our boat!
