Surprisingly, the writers' strike in Hollywood has not made the media here in Australia. However its easy enough to follow over at United Hollywood, basically members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) have currently stopped production of big shows such as The Office, Lost, >Desperate Housewives, Scrubs, Heroes and Grey's Anatomy.The easiest way to explain it is by watching this four minute piece of footage...

Today is the 7th of November, or rather 7/11. 7-Eleven has capitalised on this with National 7-Eleven Day. Simply go into your local store and say "Happy 7-Eleven Day" to receive your free slurpee.I think this is a really creative campaign that should work well for them, particularly if they run something like this every year. Its targeted well to their market and I believe there should be a good turn out.There's also good use of their Facebook Event which seems to have gained a lot of popularity with over 40,000 people expressing interest. Unfortunately, it seems they've almost hidden away their promotional videos on the official website, with none of these posted on YouTube.I know I'll be heading down for my free slurpee, will you?...

Vary Your Vernacular is a small intermittent series designed to increase one's vocabulary relating to all things Web 2.0.prosumern. pro·sum·erA portmanteau of the words producer and consumer, playing particular importance with the increase of consumer generated content through new means such as blogging, podcasting and social networking.Social Network Fatigue Syndrome (SNFS)n. so·cial net·work fa·tigue syn·dromeMental exhaustion and stress caused by creating and maintaining an excessive number of accounts on social networking communities.to jump on the brandwagonv. to jump on the brand·wag·onTo follow a trend based on another brand's performance in a specific area....

In case you missed it, the title is a late night attempt at an acronym for the Australian Record Industry Association Awards (or ARIAS as they are known). The question of "Are Retailers Intentionally Advertising Subliminally?" should be raised after the airing of the 2007 Awards on the 28th of October. Take a look at this footage as seen on Network Ten...

...then you're probably going to be subject to similar campaigns. Or at least its likely if you drink Heineken and drive a Holden. Julian Cole linked me to an interesting little blog Talent Imitates, Genius Steals written by Faris Yakob. After looking through it just last night and then watching an episode of House, I noticed a rather familiar commercial. The "original" was for Heineken beer, and much like many of the beer commercials it was a pretty kickin' advert...     And the "stolen" is for Holden's new ute, which is also a pretty sweet advert...     Does anyone else spot the similar theme there? Don't get me wrong, I think they're both great ads, particularly Holden's use of Aussie rock band Jet (and their single Rip It Up), but it raises the question as to what level can two campaigns be similar? Where is the line between stealing someone else's creative idea and imitating another? Take a look at You Thought We Wouldn't Notice? and see for yourself. Is it really genius to steal? ...

Mozilla Firefox have released their latest marketing campaign; Operation: Firefox. The concept (like their strategy) is simple, develop a plan for where you would stick a giant one metre logo on display for the world. The top fifty plans are actually sent out the stickers and required to put them up as stated in their submission. In the end there will be fifty stickers on display somewhere around the world promoting Firefox, "infiltrating society one sticker at a time". For those of you, Firefox is a web browser that is quickly gaining popularity over Internet Explorer and other popular browsers. What I love about this concept is that it screams "Firefox" at me. The contest is creative, original and a little bit devious which are things I strongly associate with Mozilla. This should receive a fair bit of attention, not just from the stickers going up but from blogs like this one that I think will really carry it through. In fact, its the way in which this contest really plays to the brand loyalty of Firefox users, which I think people often overlook, that I love. When I say "brand loyalty" many people might think of big companies like Apple or Google, but Firefox users I believe are among the most passionate consumers of a brand. It is so strong, where as a Firefox user myself, I hate IE and I can't think of any other brand that has created such a negative relationship with its competitors. Every one I know who uses Firefox doesn't have a bad thing to say but what's more interesting is that they themselves promote it to their family and friends, acting as a credible opinion leader and testimonial to the brand. I know I have personally converted a few people. However the campaign falls down in a few areas. Firstly, the prizes which certainly could be made a little more attractive to potential entrants. Not overly important, but still I'd expect to see more from in a project that will hopefully be quite big. And secondly, the fact that you can only enter this if you're in countries with a Mozilla office, which is not my own and many others. The pros certainly outweigh the cons, but some things worth noticing. Another clever promotional strategy from the people over at Mozilla. Where would you stick your sticker? ...

The Chaser are an Australian group of six who focus on political satire. Starting with a mock newspaper at University, this comedic team have become well known for The Chaser's War On Everything which first aired in 2006 on Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). I've been a big fan for a long time, well before they became mainstream. However their popularity has increased exponentially over the past few months with two controversial stunts that have sent their ratings skyrocketing. The first was a stunt breaching the security of the APEC Summit...

Welcome to Pigs Don't Fly, a new blog written by yours truly, Zac Martin. I am an undergraduate student at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. I'm studying a Bachelor of Business (Management) / Bachelor of Business (Marketing) and its because of this that I've decided to start my own blog. The blog will focus on the most part on marketing, particularly keying in on innovative marketing campaigns across Australia. Inspired by numerous blogs and podcasts, I'll soon make a link to these when this blog is customized correctly. I also have a logo and other images in the works, which will be uploaded when possible. At this stage the blog will be infrequent depending on my time and content available. ...