Weekly media index: 26 - 30 January 2009

DOMESTIC
Australia Day - Lots of national and regional reporting on last Monday’s festivities, including the Australia Day speech delivered by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. The oath of citizenship was taken by new Aussies including 70s pop star Leo Sayer, witnessed by the PM in Canberra. Fortunately very little reporting of violence or racial tension.

Economic Outlook - Discussion of a lower inflation rate, speculation about tax and interest rate cuts; the government funds commercial property investment by $4 billion; further support for banks; a second stimulus package firmly on the table; and a long list of lay-offs - recession remains prominent media coverage.

Heat wave - Last week it was bushfires, now Melbourne and Adelaide swelter in an exceptionally long run of plus 40 degree heat. Public transport in Victoria ground to a halt, and electricity supply has been patchy. Children flocked to public pools in the last days of the school holidays to cool off.

Whaling - The government was accused of giving-in to Japan by conservation groups. They complained a deal was supposedly on the table to hand Japan’s whaling fleet access to the North Pacific in exchange for leaving the Southern Ocean. Environment Minister Peter Garrett said the proposal had not been put forward by Australia, which is still opposed to the killing of whales for ‘scientific’ or any other purpose.

Ivan Milat - The convicted serial killer sawed off one of his fingers with a serrated plastic knife in the Supermax security facility at Goulburn prison. He then placed the digit in an envelope addressed to the High Court of Australia. Milat has had a history of ingesting various metal objects including razor blades and chains, and he is currently off his food. The reason for this latest outburst is unclear.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Obama’s first 10 days - The world watched in anticipation as the new President began work, after re-taking the inauguration oath due to a minor glitch with the order of wording on the big day. He ordered Guantanamo Bay to be closed as soon as practicable. He also emphasised the need for America to ditch it’s reliance on foreign oil, announcing massive investment in renewable energy whilst US car makers were asked to focus on making energy efficient vehicles. The House of Representatives passed Obama’s $AUD1.23 trillion economic package.

Gaza - Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza strip last week allowed the international media to witness the destruction left behind by Israel’s armed forces. There was further isolated fighting during the week.

Recession - The IMF predicted a deeper global recession as consumer and business confidence drops to levels not seen since World War 2, and warned worldwide growth would drop to below 0.5% in 2009. The update also pointed to a massive dent to Australia’s export revenue due to diminished growth in China.

Afghanistan - President Obama called Kevin Rudd on Wednesday, the first time the pair has talked since the US elections. They discussed, amongst other things, Australia’s ongoing participation in Afghanistan. There was further coverage of the Victoria Cross awarded to Trooper Mark Donaldson.

BUSINESS NEWS
BHP cuts – There was further coverage of the 3,400 job loses at the Ravensthorpe nickel mine in WA. Investment house Storm Financial finally went under this week, leaving investors out of pocket. Investment partner the Commonwealth Bank and the owners of Storm blamed each other for not managing the huge losses

SPORT
Australian Open - Jelena Dokic flounders in the quarter finals in a spirited match against Russia’s Dinara Sufina. The next few days of play look to be exciting with Nadal and Federer tipped to meet each other in the final.

Cricket – South Africa and Andrew Symonds: South Africa win the one-day series 3-1 with one game to play in Perth. Symonds will probably be hit with a $5750 fine for detrimental comments about Kiwi wicket keeper, Brendon McCullum made on-air.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Sooner or later you have to face up to the only sensible conclusion: Australia is no place to host big international sporting tournaments; except maybe the world kangaroo long-jump
A tongue-in-cheek editorial from the Murdoch-owned Times in London commenting on the blistering conditions as the Australian tennis Open.

Media monitoring

Social media framework: 22 tools

Following up on the list of social media marketing examples posted last year, Mashable has put together a framework of 22 tools, or ways to use social media, with with notable brand examples:

1. Blogs (Johnson & Johnson, Delta Air Lines)
2. Bookmarking/Tagging (Adobe, Kodak)
3. Brand monitoring (Dell, MINI)
4. Content aggregation (Alltop, EMC)
5. Crowdsourcing/Voting (Oracle, Starbucks)
6. Discussion boards and forums (IBM, Mountain Dew)
7. Events and meetups (Molson, Pampers)
8. Mashups (Fidelity Investments, Nike)
9. Microblogging (method, Whole Foods)
10. Online video (Eukanuba, Home Depot)
11. Organization and staffing (Ford, Pepsi)
12. Outreach programs (Nokia, Yum Brands)
13. Photosharing (Rubbermaid, UK Government)
14. Podcasting (Ericsson, McDonalds)
15. Presentation sharing (CapGemini, Daimler AG)
16. Public Relations - social media releases (Avon, Intel)
17. Ratings and reviews (Loblaws, TurboTax)
18. Social networks: applications, fan pages, groups, and personalities (British Airways, Saturn)
19. Sponsorships (Coca-Cola, Whirlpool)
20. Virtual worlds (National Geographic, Toyota)
21. Widgets (Southwest Airlines, Target)
22. Wikis (Second Life, T-Mobile Sidekick)

Take a peek at the original post on Mashable here.

Media monitoring

Transcripts, video clips and audio clips just got cheaper!

Happy new year Slicers!

To get 2009 off to a flying start, we've sliced our broadcast product pricing! Check out our new prices:

Video clip : $90.00 (up to 1 hour)
Audio clip: $50.00 (up to 1 hour)
Transcript: $20.70 (per minute)
Regional Charges: no longer apply! yay!

Remember all products are delivered in digital format, directly into your Slice Media online library.

To order your products, simply hit the 'Order' buttons beneath your broadcast summary, then 'View basket', then submit your payment and you're away.

Too easy. Here's to a great 2009.

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

Subscribe in December and score an iPod!

Hark! The Slice angels sing...

iPods for new subscribers in December!

To have yourself a merry little Christmas in 2008, simply sign up to Slice Media for a small, medium or large media monitoring package in December and Saint Nick will throw an iPod your way.

And being December, we're giving away the (Product) RED iPod video Nano, where a portion of the purchase price goes to fight AIDS in Africa.

So jingle your bells over to www.slicemedia.com.au and get your media monitoring for the new year off to a rockin' great start.

Remember, Slice has no long term contracts and provides comprehensive Australia-wide and NZ press, broadcast and internet coverage for a single low cost fixed fee. Our small package starts from $295 (ex gst) for up to 3 months of monitoring.

That's gotta bring a little joy to the world.

You must have subscribed to Slice by 5pm Wednesday 31st December to qualify.

Packages : Tour : Subscribe

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

Aussies loving social media

At last! Some local research about how Australian's use social media! Thanks to Steven Noble, senior analyst at Forrester.

According to a summary of the findings of the Australian Adult Social Technographics Revealed study:

- Over 75% of online adults in Australia regularly use social technologies in some way;

-Online adults in Australia are more likely to be content creators than their US counterparts;

-Men are slightly more likely to use social technologies than men, though when it comes to joining social networks, the difference is negligible;

-Use of social technologies does tend to drop off with age, but not uniformly. Some social activities — such as creating content or joining social networks — fall away dramatically. However, others are common in all age groups. In particular, 46% of online adults in the Older Boomers and Seniors cohort consume some form of social media, whether it's watching other peoples' videos, reading other peoples' blogs, or looking at other people's photos.

Looks like our passion for new technology and reputation as early adopters has not diminished. And as the study suggests, Australia's small, but developed market is the perfect launchpad for brands engaging in social marketing tactics.

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

Weekly media index: 3 - 7 November 2008

DOMESTIC
Interest rates: In any other week or before the onset of the financial crisis, a 75 point drop in the official interest rate would be expected to easily be the number one story of the week, however the second huge drop in rates in as many months by the Reserve Bank could only manage third, with much of the coverage surrounding the banks refusal to pass on the full amount of the cut, a stance quickly criticised by both the Treasurer and Opposition Leader.

Climate change: Climate Minister Penny Wong is starting to talk tougher on both climate change and water, as the States jockey for preferential treatment on both of those issues, while some conservative and business commentators continue to call for the abandonment of any emissions trading scheme.

Budget review:There was extensive cynicism from both the media and the Opposition over the timing of Wayne Swan’s press conference detailing new budget forecasts, just as results were coming in from the US Election. Treasury now predict the budget surplus will be below $6billion and unemployment is expected to rise above 5%.

Petrol prices: The future of Fuelwatch was looking dire as the Government admitted it was unlikely the legislation would pass the Senate this year, as petrol prices finally came down to $1.30s in metropolitan areas.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS
U.S. Election: In an easy win on top of a record turn-out, Senator Barack Obama became the 44th President-Elect of the United States, and the first African-American to achieve that office. Media coverage in Australia had been slightly subdued in the last two weeks of the campaign, but became wall-to-wall in the 24 hours leading up to the counting of results and coverage of the results themselves.

In other international news: Prime Minister Helen Clark’s Labour Party is trailing well behind the National Party in polls leading up to this weekend’s NZ Election, but was still hoping to be able to cobble together a coalition to remain in power; and the focus quickly turned to Barack Obama’s “preferred war” in Afghanistan, with speculation that Australia would be asked to provide more troops.

BUSINESS NEWS
Financial crisis: Once again it was a week of swings and roundabouts on the Australian and most international share markets, with strong gains early in the week wiped out by renewed pessimism later in the week.

ABC Learning: After months of speculation that ABC Learning was on the brink of collapse, and only weeks after the resignation of founder Eddy Groves from the Board, the company has called in the administrators, with the Government saying it will not take control of ABC Learning’s hundreds of child care centres.

TALKBACK
Talkback interest this week closely followed levels of coverage across the wider media, with the Melbourne Cup and the US Election dominating discussion. The future of ABC Learning’s child care centres was also a hot topic as was the imminent execution of the Bali bombers.

SPORT
Spring Carnival – If anyone needed proof of where Australia’s heart really lies, it was shown by media volumes this week, Bart Cumming’s remarkable 12th Melbourne Cup victory as a trainer, with the unfancied Viewed getting up at 50-1 with Blake Shinn onboard, pipping the election of the first African American as President of the world’s largest economy. Most of the media in the lead up to the race had focused on the horses raiding from the Northern hemisphere, who once again failed to live up to the hype.

Cricket in India - The Australia’s tour of India has come down to a vital final Test this weekend, with Ricky Ponting’s men needing a victory to square the series one-all and retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“He is young, he is beautiful and he is tanned"
Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi manages to blow away most of the post-racial optimism within 24 hours of Obama’s election

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

Weekly media index: 20 - 24 October 2008

DOMESTIC
Stimulus package: Support for the Government’s $10.4bn stimulus package remained strong across most of the media this week, with many commentators saying the speed and size of the response was more important than attempting to fine tune the package for greater equity, while some criticised the package for ignoring the unemployed and low income singles.

Bank deposit guarantee: In a classic case of who said what to whom and where, Federal parliament was dominated early in the week by the dispute over whether the Reserve Bank and Treasury were behind the Government’s unlimited bank deposit guarantee, while the debate eventually moved later in the week to whether the unlimited guarantee had been good or bad for financial markets overall.

Britt Lapthorne: A service for Ms Lapthorne was held in Melbourne during the week, while a possible coronial investigation in Australia and a continuing investigation in Croatia were widely discussed in the media, AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty criticised for refusing to attack the handling of the matter by Croatian authorities.

Climate change: While Greens candidates have done well in the recent WA and ACT elections, there was further evidence released in polls this week that Australians are cooling to the idea of taking tough steps to control the growth of carbon emissions, with the Opposition claiming the Government’s economic modeling for the ETS has been rendered irrelevant by the global financial crisis.

Xavier mucks up: The Melbourne Jesuit private boys’ school got an avalanche of unwanted media this week after its Year 12 mucked up to the degree of one student’s arm being broken and thousands of dollars of alleged damage to a motor vehicle parked outside the school.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS
U.S. Presidential campaign: The task for Republican nominee John McCain seemed to get no easier this week, as the media focused on his running mate’s wardrobe budget and his campaign pulling out of Colorado, Barack Obama’s lead in the polls continued to strengthen heading into the final week of the campaign. Obama has taken two days away from the campaign to visit his sick grandmother in Hawaii.

BUSINESS NEWS
Financial crisis: While some business commentators were predicting the worst volatility for share markets and the crunch on credit may be over, others were warning of further problems ahead, with most global share markets dipping significantly again this week. The US Government announced a summit of the G20 leaders in New York to discuss further coordinated moves to alleviate the crisis, which Kevin Rudd will be attending.

In other business news: Inflation has hit 5% but virtually all commentators believe it will drop sharply from that figure, with the “inflation genie” retreating firmly back into the bottle as commodity prices struggle and spending decreases; and the global oil price has halved since its peaks in the first half of 2008, although prices at the pump have not come back significantly from their July peak.

TALKBACK
Economic matters continued to feature most strongly amongst a wide range of talkback calls this week, with divided opinions on the bank deposit guarantee and the cash rebates, although most felt that some immediate relief for pensioners was long overdue, and there was debate over whether our politicians needed to travel overseas to deal with the crisis.

SPORT
Cricket – In Australia’s biggest Test loss in almost a decade, the Indian team crushed Ricky Ponting’s men in the Second Test at Mohali Stadium by 320 runs. The media focus was on a reported spat between the captain and his strike bowler, Brett Lee, and whether the loss signified the end of our 15 year dominance of world cricket.

In other sporting news: a 50-1 shot from Britain took out the Caulfield Cup as the world’s biggest stable Godolphin finally won a major in Australia; and the Rugby League World Cup kicks off this weekend.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK“

I’m fearful when people are greedy, and greedy when people are fearful"
Warren Buffett again, explaining why he has started heavily investing in stocks

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

Weekly media index: 13 - 17 October 2008

DOMESTIC
$10.4 Billion stimulus package: The Government announced a $10.4billion consumer stimulus package to try an avert the possibility of Australia following most of the developed world into recession, with most of the money going in one-off cash hand-outs to pensioners and those receiving Family Tax Benefit A, with a doubling of the First Home Owners Grant included. The media almost universally applauded the move, as did the Opposition, although there were some rumblings about the efficacy of the FHOG.

Flight investigation: The investigation into the incident involving a Qantas flight from Singapore to Perth last week concluded an auto-pilot error had caused the rapid change in altitude and praised the response of the pilot and co-pilot in bringing the plane safely to land.

National Curriculum: There was extensive debate during the week about the plans for a new national curriculum and the role of history in it, with compulsory history to year ten and wide discussion of where the emphases should be.

Medicare surcharge: Negotiations with Senator Nick Xenophon brought his support for a big change to the level at which the Medicare surcharge kicks in, meaning an effective tax cut for singles earning between $50k and $75k and couples up to $150k.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Britt Lapthorne: A body found off the coast of Dubrovnik was confirmed early in the week as that of Ms Lapthorne, with the subsequent coronial inquiry unable to determine the cause of her death. Ms Lapthorne’s remains are being returned to Australia at the request of her family, who maintained that the Croatian police investigation and coronial inquiry were both inadequate.

U.S. Presidential campaign: Barack Obama continues to stretch his lead in the polls as the financial crisis all but engulfs Republican Senator John McCain’s campaign, with most pundits giving the final debate to Obama on points and starting to call the election itself a possible knockout for the Republicans.

BUSINESS NEWS
Financial crisis: Wild swings continued on share markets throughout the world last week as Governments’ continued to pour billions of dollars into financial systems, with many deciding to take equity stakes in banks as more economies officially slipped into recession. The ASX ended the week further down overall after record upswings and downswings throughout the week in New York all but cancelled each other out.

In other business news: Ford announced further job cuts in Australia as the future of the domestic auto industry continued to be debated; and the Aussie dollar kept sinking against most major currencies.

TALKBACK
Financial news and the interest rate cut were prominent on talkback as well as across the rest of the media, while Britt Lapthorne’s disappearance and the Qantas incident also received interest.

SPORT
Cricket - The First Test petered out to a draw as Australia’s attack failed to bowl out the Indian side on the final day, but the tensions and drama was kept at a high level off the field, with the Indian team criticising the strength of the Australian bowling while Ricky Ponting replied that there had been only one team trying to win.

In other sporting news: The Socceroos thumped Qatar 4-nil in Brisbane on Wednesday night to move one step closer to qualification for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa; the Bathurst 1000 was won again by the Ford duo of Lowndes and Whincup; the Caulfield Cup this weekend is seen as a wide open race as usual; and teams are gathering for the start of the Rugby League World Cup.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“I was born with a positive gene…but my positive gene is taking a bit of a hammering"
Store owner Tonia Turker confirms that business hasn’t been great lately

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

Slice of Life: Neil Thew, Perisher Blue

Neil Thew from Perisher Blue has possibly one of the best PR jobs in the biz - especially considering he's a skier (yes, that is a pic of him below). But when he's not skiing, he's Slicing and spreading the love about Perisher Blue.



PR highlight so far for you at Perisher Blue?
Contributing to the significant increase in audience reach though our marcomms efforts.

How do you qualify and quantify a solid and successful PR campaign?
By keeping track and seeing responses/results/outcomes as strategically planned .

How much do internet sites and influential blogs play a part in your proactive publicity endeavours as compared to traditional media channels say, print?
A big part now, we have our own PB blog which allows us to interact with our guests who often provide us with good feedback. We also provide information to a wide variety of websites sites and send viral advertising messages.

Why Slice over other monitoring services?
It provides all that we require, simply, at a good price.

What's the best thing you like about Slice?
It's format.

How has Slice made a difference to your job and/or organisation?
It saves our staff time in monitoring media ourselves and quickens reaction time if needed.

Rolling waves or powdered peaks?
Love them both. I surf & ski with equal passion.

Facebook or Myspace?
Facebook. Check out Perisher Blue's Facebook page!

Medium rare or well done?
Definitely rare.

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

Slice like a pro: The new 'All Items' page

One of the major improvements we made to Slice in version 2 released a few weeks back, was the functionality of the 'All Items' page. Based on terrific subscriber feedback, the 'All Items' page has been redesigned to enable you to:

Download all your news clips since the last time you logged in or from a selected date range


Download all clips from a selected folder and download all clips of a media type (press, broadcast, internet)


Download your clips either as a single PDF or a zip file of individual clips


Go on, give it a whirl yourself. But remember some of the files generated for downloading can be quite large, so be kind to yourself and have a nice hot cuppa at the ready.

And if there are any other improvements you'd like to see, drop us a line.

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

Slice news: Version 2 is live!

Great news! Straight out of the kitchen this afternoon is Slice version 2, which offers you a smorgasbord of new functionality including internet monitoring, email alerts, 90 day archiving and improved downloading of clips. Here's our latest ingredients:

Internet monitoring
Slice now monitors over 700 Australian and New Zealand online news sites and influential blogs as part of your monitoring package! Simply login into your account, access your tracking folders, add internet monitoring to your scope and see your clips start to roll in.

Email alerts of new news items
Head on over to your tracking folders, click 'edit' for the tracking folder you wish to set an alert for, and then select 'set email preferences'. Choose to have hourly emails of new items, or set a time for a single daily alert. Delicious!

90 day archive
Slice now archives all news items for all subscribers for 90 days. Juicy, no?

Monitor TV or radio
We’ve divided and conquered our broadcasting monitoring options. You now have the choice of which broadcast media you’d like to monitor – just radio, or just TV or the whole shebang!

New Zealand magazines
In addition to NZ newspapers, you can now track news in NZ lifestyle, business, science & technology and trade magazines. Choice bro.

‘All Items’ downloads
We've completely redesigned the 'All Items' page. Head to this page to:
-download all your news clips since the last time you logged in
-select a folder, media type and a date range for the clips you wish to download
-choose to download the clips as a single pdf or a zip file

We hope we've topped up your media monitoring appetite – for a while at least. We're already back in the engine room cooking up our next release!

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

Weekly media index: 22 - 26 September 2008

DOMESTIC
Pensions – The Opposition kept the pressure up on pensions this week, introducing a bill to immediately increase the sole pension which was passed in the Senate with the help of the minor parties, which the Speaker of the House of Reps duly declared unconstitutional, while the Government tried to focus on claims the new Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull was being economically irresponsible.

Medicare levy – The Government is starting to realize the difficulties it faces in getting legislation through the Senate after Family First Senator Steve Fielding joined with the Opposition to block the increase in the Medicare levy exemption from $50,000 to $75,000, claiming it would make private insurance unaffordable for most people.

Shadow ministry – Julie Bishop became the first woman to take the main financial portfolio for a major party in Australian Federal politics, while Andrew Robb was given a “super portfolio” involving infrastructure and carbon trading and Christopher Pyne moved into shadow cabinet. Several press gallery commentators questioned Bishop’s economic credentials and parliamentary presence.

Luxury Car Tax– The Government did get a small victory among a week of losses in the Senate, Senator Fielding agreeing to pass the Luxury Car Tax following concessions to tourist operators and farm businesses.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Rudd in US – The PM was attacked by the Opposition for taking another overseas trip early in his premiership, while the trip itself quickly morphed from a diplomatic effort to try and win support for a seat on the UN Security Council to an urgent briefing on the Wall Street meltdown.

Pakistan bombing – Some international media was reporting fears of imminent civil war in Pakistan as the Islamabad Marriott was hit by a massive roadside bomb while the new President Asif Ali Zardar condemned US raids against the Taliban on Pakistan soil, with reports Pakistan military had fired on US planes in their airspace.

US Presidential race – Republican candidate John McCain took the unprecedented step of suspending his campaign late this week to rush to Washington and focus on a solution to the financial crisis, putting in doubt the first presidential campaign debate, as the polls started to turn south for McCain in the wake of the turmoil.

BUSINESS NEWS
Wall Street Crisis – The gigantic collapses continue with bankruptcy now hitting one of America’s largest regulated banks Washington Mutual, rendering its stock worthless, while Congressional Republicans and Democrats tried to hammer out a deal on the President’s US$700bn rescue package, which has been met with criticism from both sides.

In other business news: ASIC was criticised for instituting a ban on short selling at the beginning of the week, although some commentators believe the ban reduced the volatility of the ASX during the week; and Qantas has started regular flights using the new A380 superjumbo.

TALKBACK
Pensions remain the main topic of the day, with very little support for the Government’s blocking of any immediate increase; while the rest of talkback was dominated by sport this week, the AFL Grand Final, the Brownlow medal and the NRL finals all receiving plenty of comment.

SPORT
The AFL Grand Final is between two Victorian teams for the first time in eight years, and many are tipping a cracker, with Hawthorn still underdogs to the reigning premiers despite some great late season form; the NRL Finals have thrown up a few more unexpected results, with Melbourne sneaking through to play Cronulla, although losing their skipper in the process, and the Warriors dream run continuing; ands the upsets continued with the Brownlow Medal going to the Kangaroos Adam Cooney, short priced favourite Gary Ablett Jr missing out again.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"Major sectors of America’s financial system are at risk of shutting down…the value of your home could plummet…and millions of Americans could lose their jobs"
President George W Bush does his best to talk up the US economy.

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

Loving those lovemarks

We love a good read and Lovemarks has to be up there in terms of branding books.

Beautifully designed and conversational in style, Kevin Roberts from Saatchi & Saatchi claims brands have run out of juice. More and more we have grown to expect great performance from products, services and experiences. And most often, we get it. So what makes some brands continue to be inspirational, while others struggle? The answer Kevin says is "Lovemarks: the future beyond brands".



Here's the lowdown:

"Lovemarks transcend brands. They deliver beyond your expectations of great performance. Like great brands, they sit on top of high levels of respect - but there the similarities end.

Lovemarks reach your heart as well as your mind, creating an intimate, emotional connection that you just can’t live without. Ever.

Take a brand away and people will find a replacement. Take a Lovemark away and people will protest its absence. Lovemarks are a relationship, not a mere transaction. You don’t just buy Lovemarks, you embrace them passionately. That’s why you never want to let go. Put simply, Lovemarks inspire Loyalty Beyond Reason"

Here are the key differences between brands and lovemarks:


To find out more and to download an excerpt from the book, check out www.lovemarks.com.

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

Slice of Life: Elen David

She danced into our lives, 'wow'-ed us with her boolean knowledge, dazzled us with her commitment, focus and determination to be great, and we haven't stopped applauding since. She's our national telephone sales consultant. Presenting the highly adaptable, not to mention highly flexible (literally!), Elen David.

(if you are getting this post by email and can't see the video click here)

Love your work Elevator. Keep on dancing.

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

Weekly media index: 8 - 12 September 2008

DOMESTIC
Premier Rees – The State Election was in WA but the coup was in NSW, with Nathan Rees becoming the new Premier after less than 18 months in parliament after Morris Iemma failed to get support from his own faction for sweeping changes to the ministry. Premier Rees “new broom” pitch was dented in his first week after the resignation of his new Police Minister Matt Brown.

Pensions – The issue of pensions dominated Federal political discussion early in the week, with the PM, Deputy Pm and a string of ministers agreeing they would find it very difficult to impossible to live on the single pension. Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson quickly announced a bill to increase the single pension $30 a week, which the Government rejected as piecemeal and dangerous.

Costello still going – To the deep disappointment of the Canberra Press Gallery and some Liberals but rather less interest from the public, Peter Costello reconfirmed he would be leaving political life and had no interest in becoming Opposition Leader. Metropolitan papers carried extensive details of his soon to be published memoirs late this week.

WA Election – It increasingly seems as though Colin Barnett will be the new Premier of WA after the dust has settled from the cliffhanger election last weekend, although neither major party will in enough seats to govern on its own. The WA Nationals Leader Brendon Grylls has made much of his opportunity to wring concessions out of the major parties who look likely to need his support.

Climate change – Professor Ross Garnaut spent the week defending his emissions trading package from both the left and right, as green groups called the targets deeply inadequate while business groups maintained pressure for Australia to make few or no moves before developing countries had made commitments to cut emissions.

Murray Darling crisis – The Federal and NSW Governments’ announced this week they would be buying a major cotton farm in Northern NSW and the Queensland Government announced it would release a further 11 billion litres into the system. The moves were generally applauded but experts warned it would have little short term effect on the lower Murray.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Caribbean hurricanes – A series of hurricanes continue to batter Caribbean islands as the hurricane season follows the pattern of previous years, with several very high intensity storms causing death and destruction in a range of island nations. Hurricane Ike looked headed for the Texan coast as it sped across the Gulf of Mexico.

Afghanistan – The Australian Government has rejected calls for an increase in the number of Australian troops in Afghanistan, among talk that infantry could take a greater role, saying that it was up to other countries to take on more of the burden.

US Presidential campaign – The US Presidential campaign degenerated into argument over lipstick on pigs this week as the Republican campaign continued to build momentum, although the candidates paused on the 11th of September to pay homage to the victims of the terrorist attacks seven years ago.

BUSINESS NEWS
In business news: There was a strong focus on the continuing financial crisis in the US in business news this week, with the total Federal bail-out of mortgage backers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac receiving extensive coverage, while the continuing woes of Lehman Brothers and several other financial continued to make news.

TALKBACK
Pensions completely dominated talkback this week, as pensioners vented their frustrations with higher living costs and blamed politicians of all hue for the current situation. The NSW coup had plenty of people discussing Morris Iemma and the Labor Party’s merits; with the WA Election also bringing opinions forth on Labor state management; climate change rounding out the top four issues on talkback this week.

SPORT
The AFL Finals coverage was a little more subdued than usual over its first weekend, with no WA team, the last SA hope falling early and a poor crowd in Sydney; The Paralympics has seen the usual strong performance from the Australian team; and Roger Federer and Serena Williams both got back into the winner’s circle at the US Open.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"It's a very good speech ... I've got the notes"
Peter Costello tells about the prime ministerial acceptance speech he never got to give

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

Just what is RSS exactly?

The results of our first blog poll are in, and it turns out that a vast majority (70%) of people either don't use an RSS reader, or don't know what RSS is. So, let's get to it.

RSS stands for 'really simple syndication'. The benefit of RSS is the aggregation of content from multiple web sources in one place. RSS feeds bring updated information straight to your screen via an RSS reader - which works a little like an email account.

You can get free RSS readers from a variety of places, including Google at www.google.com/reader or www.igoogle.com.


Once you have established an account with a reader like Google reader, you can then start adding feeds. When you come across a site that you are interested in, hit the orange RSS button found on the site (sometimes it's also just text, or called an XML feed). Most sites these days will then pop up with a box like this:

Select the reader you're using and then voila! The feed is added to your reader. Now each time you check in with your reader, the latest information from that website will be displayed.


Admittedly, sometimes the process is not that easy, depending on how websites have set up their feeds. But this really great 'plain English' video from Common Craft can help you navigate some of the other ways to setup RSS.

(if you're getting this post via email and can't see the video, click here)

A word of warning... RSS can become addictive... be careful out there!

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

Do you Twitter?

We have a new poll on our blog - we want to know if you twitter... and we don't mean 'do you make squeeky noises when you're nervous'...

Twitter it seems is fast becoming THE social news wire tool, and we want to know if the marketing, PR and comms community are embracing it... I guess you could call us sticky beaks.

Please vote now! Tweet!

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

What news is being searched for right now?

We're always fascinated with new and different ways to view news, so when we were shown new news aggregator Interceder AND we found out it was built on home turf, we did a happy dance.

Interceder is a mash-up, which pulls info from a variety of sources to display what people are searching for right now. Click into one of the topics listed and you're given all the latest news articles and associated images and videos. You can also view searches across Australia, the UK and USA.

We are also particularly interested in the 'average tone' gauge, which is an attempt to give users and idea of the overall sentiment of the news coverage.


While its still early days for this project, it has merit in pulling a variety of content sources together in a format that is easy to access and navigate. We'll be keeping an eye on this one.

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

Mini wins in Beijing

Some would say sports sponsorship is a highly competitive practice in it's own right. And of course if you're not an official sponsor, there's always the opportunity to gatecrash the event and promote yourself to crowdgoers in other clever ways. Check out this creative offering from Mini Cooper in Beijing.

Mini has used full-featured models that a flaunt glass sunroof, leather interior, luxury amenities and even traditional Chinese brass ornamentation. It's a winner.

Credit for this post to The Cool Hunter and TrendHunter magazine.

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

Olympic inspirations

Trendhunter magazine has captured a series of Olympic inspirations and innovations in their latest web gallery.


From Nike's Olympic Collectables, to kinesiology tape, to freedom fighting USB dongles, birds nest inspired chairs , and butter sculptures of media winners its all here!
And talk about being true to your brand AND capitalising on political tensions AND the Olympics, full marks to Benetton for this campaign.

According to Trendhunter:

The ad shows a Tibetan monk and a Chinese soldier praying face to face with the word “Victims” above their heads. The ad is featured in the 74th edition of Benetton’s Colors Magazine and was released the first day of the Olympics in the main Italian daily newspapers and in the French daily “Le Monde”.

The August Benetton Colors magazine features 30 photos of the recent Sichuan earthquake and 30 prayers by Tibetan monks for the earthquake’s Chinese victims.

According to Benetton’s web site the magazine, “Attempts to make a small contribution to dialogue and engagement between Tibetan and Chinese people.”

In order to capitalize on the hype for good, Benetton is currently selling t-shirts with the controversial Tibet/China image in its megastores. Benetton is also a big supporter of the Red Cross in providing help to China’s earthquake survivors.

It's gold all round.

Tracking the media, monitoring the message