Bubbly flying logos, of course, they're "Flogos"

In the late 1990's, two international special effects inventors, Francisco Guerra and Brian Glover, wondered what would happen if they could make clouds into shapes? Nearly 10 years later, Flogos was born!

This is essentially a bubble-machine on steriods - a soap filled machine generates a cluster of eco-friendly bubbles that float up through a customised stencil, is sliced off and then floats into the sky. Click below to check out a video about how it all works.



This form of eco-friendly outdoor marketing has already been used by the likes of McDonalds, Mercedes Benz and Sheraton. This frothy promotional option joins the ranks of other 'green' advertising options (see previous post on GreenGraffiti), like those now spruked by Curb, the 'natural' media company.

Inspiration for this post: Springwise

Media monitoring

More Aussie journalists & media types on Twitter

Following in Laurel Papworth footsteps, Dave Earley a multimedia journalist in Brisbane, has put together another list of Australian journalists and news media people on Twitter.

This is the the biggest list on this topic we've been able to find to date (with close to 300 names), and reflects the recent explosion of local media jumping on the the Twitter wagon.

Check out his entire list here.



Dave's list is organised by publisher/publication and in most cases includes brief description of the journalists area of interest/expertise. It also includes handfuls of photographers, freelancers and media academics.

Make sure you bookmark his page!

Media monitoring

Free ebook: Blogging your brand (for newbies)

Dan Schawbel of PersonalBrandingblog.com has written and published a nifty little ebook with tips on blogging your brand - starting with the basics for newbies, with more sophisticated tidbits for more advanced users.

You can download the free ebook here: http://danschawbel.com/bloggingyourbrand.pdf

If you've never blogged before, or are just looking to pick up a few tips, take a few minutes to click through book - along with giving insights into operating a blog, the book also explains the importance of technorati.com, why you should have an 'About' page on your blog, commenting advice, search engine optimisation for blogs and integrating your blog with other social media platforms.

Ties in nicely with Dan's new book Me 2.0 - about how important blogging is for your own brand (especially if you're in your 20s). For an interview with Dan about the book check out David Meerman Scott's blog here.

Media monitoring

Do you have the twitter ID for your brand? Get it now!

Have you got the twitter account for your business name or the brands you represent (including your own personal brand?).

According to research by Erik J Heels, of the top 100 global brands, 93% have had their Twitter usernames taken by somebody else (i.e. "Twittersquatted" by a "Squitter"). Take this example of what happened to Goldman Sachs:



(This account has now been suspended by Twitter, I'm guessing to be sorted out with the 'real' Goldman Sachs. *Messy*.)

In company with Goldman Sachs are the likes of Sony, Prada, Porsche and Shell. Hell, even Oprah's bestie had to put up with www.twitter.com/kinggayle because another Gayle King or a 'squitter' had already beaten her to it!

(While we're on the subject, Oprah did a show about Twitter last Friday and sent her first tweet - check her out on Twitter here: www.twitter.com/oprah).

Even if you're not quite sure what to do with Twitter just yet, the land grab for twitter domains is on so best you get amongst the action to stake your name claim now. Sign up here: https://twitter.com/signup

Inspiration for this post: http://erikjheels.com/?p=1298

Media monitoring

Weekly media index: 28 Mar - 3 Apr 2009

Bikie violence: New “terrorist-style” laws have been introduced in NSW following continued violence between rival bikie gangs, with the brother of the man bashed to death at Sydney Airport shot several times outside his home in Sydney’s south west suburbs. Both sides of politics have supported tougher laws, while legal and civil rights commentators claimed the laws could be ineffective or even counterproductive.

G20: The Group of 20 leading economies meeting in London dominated international news for most of the week, with extensive demonstrations in the British capital by anti-capitalist protesters, and a commitment to significantly increased funding for the IMF and a range of other stimulatory measures, with the media and stock markets generally seeing the meeting as a moderate success.

World Cup Qualifier: The Socceroos beat Uzbekistan 2-0 in Sydney last week, bringing Australia to the brink of being the first team to qualify for the football World Cup in South Africa in 2010. The Socceroos only need a single point from their three remaining games to book a place in the tournament.

NSW floods: Less than two months after the devastating floods in Queensland and Northern NSW, large parts of the NSW mid North Coast were once again under water, with torrential rain seeing flood levels rise significantly higher than six weeks ago in and around Coffs Harbour, with damage again thought to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Australian Grand Prix: The Australian Grand Prix saw the brand new Richard Branson-backed Brawn team come in first and second, British driver Jensen Button getting his first win in Australia.

About the index
This list reports Australia's weekly top news stories by volume across thousands of newspaper, magazine, televion, radio and Internet news sources monitored by Media Monitors, including international and domestic, business, sport and enterainment news.

Data and analysis provided to Slice Media by Media Monitors Australia

Media monitoring

Cool spotting: 3 great campaigns

We love our friends at The Coolhunter and their latest newsletter profiled three terrific ad campaigns that we wanted to share with you. Click on the links for more information. Enjoy!

People as fleas:


Body weight while you wait:


Aero bubbles: (click to watch movie)

Media monitoring

Social media jobs emerging: Get paid to tweet!

Came across this interesting job description posted on Twitter, highlighting a new, emerging niche of comms roles in social media. Digital natives get to it!

Social Media Manager /Writer

BCM is one of Queensland's largest and most respected communications consultancies, specialising in developing solutions for mainstream and interactive media.

We're looking for a 'web-mobile-social network' savvy person to join our ever expanding interactive team. Your role would be to assist in developing strategies to harness the power of social media. You are a digital native. This will be demonstrated by the fact (for example) that you have your own regularly updated blog, you tweet frequently and you're not afraid to share your thoughts by regularly commenting on other people's blogs and forums. You get how Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Flickr, Youtube, Twitter, Pageflakes, Delicious, Stumble Upon etc etc etc all work and you know your Tweetdeck from your Tweetie. You are sincerely passionate about interactive media and marketing and not afraid to expose your inner geek.

You will be charged with listening and responding to the virtual chatter about brands and campaigns within all forms of social media. You will need to identify online influencers amongst our clients’ target audience and build relationships with them in order to generate buzz. Importantly, you will also be responsible for reporting on your efforts to our clients.

The opportunity exists for the role to grow into a creatively focussed one where you are responsible for generating big publicity ideas that span the offline and interactive worlds.

You will need:

* a creative flair
* great writing skills (with some specific knowledge of writing for the web)
* experience in marketing, communications or journalism
* stacks of initiative and resourcefulness
* an eye for detail and great research skills
* a healthy respect for deadlines
* to love the idea of being part of a young team passionate about doing great and innovative work.

Currently you may work in advertising, PR, marketing, journalism or as an interactive specialist. If this sounds like you, we'd love to hear from you, so please send your CV to hr@bcm.com.au.

Media monitoring

10 tips for PR on Twitter

Just spotted this terrific article over on the BullDog Reporter about doing PR on Twitter. Read the full article here, or suck up the top 10 hints below.

• Do be authentic. It's what social media is about.

• Don't be a robot. Automated corporate messages are not respected here.

• Do include a transparent bio on your Twitter page.

• Don't forget that a tweet is forever. There is no real taking it back from the twittosphere.

• Do listen to your audience. Know what people are talking about before you tweet.

• Don't bring up politics or religion unless that is part of your brand. You will alienate followers.

• Do follow people in your industry

• Don't rant about other companies or people.

• Do get involved in conversations. No one wants to follow someone who just broadcasts and doesn't interact with others.

•Don't forget the value of being personal. Allowing your voice on Twitter to be authentically human will take you far in gaining trust and respect.

Media monitoring

Life's too short for bad creative

We recently came across these fantastic outdoor ads from a few years back for a German online job site, Jobsintown.de. They featured on the Ads of the World website, and the brilliance of matching the message (Life's too short for the wrong job), imagery and media is easily understood. The campaign is engaging and memorable and we loved it. Hope you do too.







ps. makes you think about how all those blank sides on various vending machines all around the place can become saleable advertising space... now there's an idea...

Media monitoring

The Power of the Avatar

I recently came across this blogpost by editor, Gina LaGuardia on how she used her social media avatar to spread the word about a fundraising cause she was supporting.

Gina changed her avatar from a simple picture of herself, to a mini billboard featuring along with her face, the name of the cause and a call to action.



She says that this one simple action created a ripple through her social media world, and she generated immediate interest in the cause. This tiny piece of online real estate started to show its value.

Recently many Australians on Twitter also changed their avatars to protest the Government's proposed compulsory internet filtering legislation, which raised the profile of the issue across a broad and diverse online audience. The legislation has recently stalled.

And of course during the recent US election, many people Obama-ed their avatars in a show of support for the now President.

The avatar has emerged as key ingredient in creating social media interest, and quite possibly an integral part of the social media marketers toolbox. Keep them fresh, simple and updated - this will go a long way to keeping people engaged with your message. Heck, you might even get bloggers writing about yours!

Media monitoring

Australian journalists on Twitter

Australian social media maven Laurel Papworth has put together a terrific list of nearly 100 Australian journalists on Twitter. The Aussie PR world can send her chocolates and champagne via her blog!

Check out her blog post with the list here:

http://laurelpapworth.com/australian-journalists-on-twitter/

And to make it super easy to choose who you might want to follow on Twitter, she's even given a little description of each person on the list when you mouseover their name - how thoughtful!



If you're in PR and you're not on Twitter - do it now! There's never been a better time than now or easier in than this list. Get to it.

Media monitoring

Kraft US heats bus stops

It seems the people at Kraft have reached out to the hearts, mouths and temperatures of the American public in their latest soup campaign.

According to the New York Times, the campaign, which is estimated to cost Kraft more than $100,000USD, is a collaboration of JCDecaux North America; the Stove Top, MediaVest and Draft FCB. The campaign was executed in select Chicago bus stops over a month and as Springwise explain:

Kraft has already posted ads in 50 bus shelters around Chicago featuring the tagline, "Cold, provided by winter. Warmth, provided by us. It's a good night for Stove Top." Earlier this week the company went a step further and began heating ten of those shelters to give consumers within a little sympvertising in the form of relief from the cold. Next, beginning today and continuing for three weeks, Kraft will also be giving out samples of its Quick Cups at those heated shelters, for a dose of tryvertising as well., and also featured 'tryvertising' by handing out samples of hot soup.

While we haven't uncovered any measurement of the campaign, we would be very surprised if this investment didn't produce a fantastic sales result. The PR alone will have served them well.

Food for thought as the southern hemisphere heads in the chiller part of the year...

Thanks to Springwise.com for the original post and to NYTimes for original story.

Media monitoring

New Zealand's Yellow Treehouse Restaurant

Want to see an inspired marketing idea? Check out New Zealand's Yellow Treehouse project.

The story goes that Yellow was to build a treehouse restaurant, using only suppliers from Yellow NZ.

The terrific website supporting the project features a video diary, a blog by the project manager, interviews with the suppliers, a sliding photo gallery of stages of the build and links to share it out to social media sites. The website has already been awarded Adobe's site of the day.

The restaurant is only open for a month, has a fixed menu and limited bookings. This is truly a unique experience that diners won't forget easily. Hopefully this kind of brand experience translates into more ad sales and increased usage of the directory... if nothing else however, the project has already generated global media coverage for the brand (see Springwise).

Visit the site here: www.yellowtreehouse.co.nz

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

2008 Top 10 most reported Australians

Little surprise that our most reported Australian in 2008 was the Prime Minister with around 960,000 news items mentioning him last year. Next was fallen Liberal leader Brendan Nelson, and then the treasurer Wayne Swan arounding off the top three positions. In fact the only person in the top 10 not in politics was Ricky Pointing, captain of the Australian cricket team.

The figures also show just how powerful radio broadcasting in generating news coverage, outstripping all other news outlets for nearly every person on the list.

If you are interested in the entire list of 2008 Top 50 most reported Australians complete with figures for each media type, email me at kylie at slicemedia dot com and I'll send a copy your way.

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

List of social media consultants

Looking for a social media or PR2.0 consultant? Maybe you are a PR2.0 consultant already and want to increase your exposure?

Well here's the beginnings of a resource for those people looking for help with their social media strategy in 2009.



Social-Media-Consultants.com aims to be a ready reference site providing a geographical and specialty sorted list of Social Media and PR 2.0 Specialists and Consultants worldwide.

The site was started by Lonnie B. Hodge and Des Walsh who have also started a Facebook group called PR 2.0: Master Practical Tools for Digital Success.

If your goal is to get a red hot social media strategy revved up for 2009, this list could be a great place to get some help. Otherwise, if you're already a maverick at social media, get listed!

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

Market Research Online Communities get closer to the consumer

Recently we invited Jenni Beattie from The Digital Edge to give us the low down on MROCs and what they can do for marketers. And it's good stuff we thinks!



Have you heard the acronym MROC? It stands for market research online communities. These are bespoke online communities set up for clients by market research companies to listen and converse with consumers.

While relatively unknown of in Australia, MROC's have been around for a while in the US and UK. Unlike branded online communities that are managed by companies themselves (such as Dell’s Ideastorm), MROCs are managed for the clients with specific objectives in mind. Communities can run anywhere from a few days, to weeks, and even on an ongoing basis.

The Digital Edge, a newly formed digital research division is the first research house in Australia to offer MROCs - leading the way in innovative research practices.

Recent MROCs commissioned by the Digital Edge include areas such luxury travel, FMCG and fitness and health. MRCOS are ideal for subjects that have high ‘talkability’ – the previous examples of our client sectors are an indicator of some sectors that work extremely well in a qualitative environment. Other areas that work well are ones that may in fact need a more discreet anonymous environment rather than face-to-face, for example some personal care/pharmaceutical products.

MROCs have been used for different purposes. Clients objectives are all different but some that we have implemented include: ideas for creative advertising concepts, feedback on new menu items and ideas for new product development.

Participants for MROC communities are typically recruited from The Digital Edge's own custom panel www.youropinion.com.au where they have confidence in the quality of members. Occasionally MROC members have also come from companies internal customer databases – both setups can be accommodated.

Benefits of this form of market research include is its quick turn-around time, ability to build brand advocates (for long term projects) and gain participation from a range of people without the traditional geographic boundaries. Plus consumers can help shape some of the research (more active, less passive) and it provides the ability for clients to dip in/out of the community if they have a retainer style MROC. Prices are also surprisingly affordable for such rich qualitative insights.

Marketing has recently come of age with an increased focus on consumer empowerment and the social media platform that drives it. Today market research is also harnessing new platforms to give the consumer an even greater say while providing clients with even richer consumer insights.

For more information contact The Digital Edge.

Tracking the media, monitoring the message

Google's 10 search marketing steps

If you want to better understand how advertising on Google works, you should check out their website 10 Search Marketing Steps.



Make sure you have your marketing spend figures at hand and dive in. This is an easy to navigate wizard which helps you pull together an online marketing plan, complete with charts of your marketing mix expenditure, campaign results to date, search marketing flow charts and ROI goals.



While this is ultimately a tool to get more people to buy Google Adwords it does a good job getting you organised with objectives and content for advertising online. And the nice little pdf of your completed plan that gets emailed to you at the end of it ain't bad either!

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

Touching business advice

Aquent’s Business of Touch site is a nifty little marketing tool for the recruitment agency which also spills the beans on greeting protocols around the world. Brace yourself for some close talking Spaniards and lovely sounding Kiwis... give it whirl.

Tracking the media, monitoring the message