14 December 2010

I’ve come to hate my DVD collection.

It was once something I was proud of; a collection of great movies that had grown considerably over the years. In fact movies were the only form of content I was willing to pay for, unlike the music and television shows I downloaded for free.

But I’ve realised it’s become an expensive waste of physical space, for many reasons.

Not only is the DVD case poorly designed and unnecessarily large, it’s quickly being replaced by Blu-Ray. And were I to update my collection to Blu-Ray, I’m certain even that would become obsolete within a few years. And while your standard definition DVD’s (which by the way I think are fine quality wise) seem to be on the way out, retailers have no problems stinging you $40+ for a new release.

And if I were to try and sell my collection today, I reckon I’d be lucky to get $5 for each one.

Unfortunately I can’t see myself paying for digital downloads, which means over time I’m going to steal the content to replace my current collection. I figure if I’ve paid for it once, I don’t need to again, right?

Now I only need to work out a way to download special features. And find someone willing to pay more than a gold coin for my collection.

Anyone else have the same frustration? How many people have as stack of CDs collecting dust?

Posted by Zac Martin

29 November 2010

Stephen King wrote the novel Misery that later became a movie of the same name. Although I’ve not read it, Wikipedia tells me it’s a story about a women who rescues an author after he crashes his car in the snow. She recognises him as her favourite author of a series she’s obsessed with. Locked in by the snow, she takes him to her home and nurses him for months. However she discovers a manuscript of his latest novel and doesn’t like it. Her series is ruined and it eventually leads her to cut off his foot, holds him captive and forces him to rewrite the ending.

I think social media, particularly community managers, are increasingly going to have the same problem.

Social media is great for building a community around your brand, or bringing together an already established one. What you can then do with this group of evangelists is limited only by your creativity.

But by bringing together this group of hardcore fans, you also bring in the fans that are a little too hardcore; the fans whose obsession with your brand becomes harmful. They don’t quite fit the mold of your perfect target market, where their social awkwardness is not limited on platforms of such an impersonal nature. Their constant activity becomes spam and a slight wrongdoing in their eyes creates an unwarranted response. These obsessed lovers become haters.

I have a friend who does promo work, usually giving away free samples. I found it amusing when she told me she was only allowed to approach consumers who were in the target market, but never to turn down anyone when they approached her, no matter who they were. Many of those who approached her would not reflect positively on the brand. But she dealt with them by keeping them happy, allowing them to move on.

But with social media these people don’t have to leave. These crazies can continue to interact with the normals and when you create a branded community, they think they’re being encouraged to do so.

And dealing with these people can be difficult. Particularly if you like your feet.

Posted by Zac Martin

10 November 2010

Yesterday I stepped out of my last exam thus completing a Bachelor of Business (Management/Marketing) from Monash University. Well technically I still have a piece of assessment due in March but let’s not talk about that. Looking back, in a concluding sort of manner, here’s the six lessons I take away from my time as an undergraduate.
1) Play the game
University is about playing the game. Once you learn how to work the system, achieving good grades is easy. I worked it out towards the end of my second year, and my grades were consistently better from there on out. It’s not about saying the right thing but giving the teachers what the want to hear.

Students aren’t encouraged to apply themselves, they’re told what to write, do “research” (read: plagarise off a journal article) and any form of creative execution goes unrewarded. Instead you play the game to get the grades.

2) It’s important where you sit
For some reason universities are far too keen on group work. Which I don’t have a problem with because that’s the way it should be done in the grown up world. However if you’re caught in a shit group, it’s too bad. Upon raising concerns with teachers about said group you’ll be told that it’s too bad, in the real world you don’t get to choose who you work with. Except in the real world people who are shit don’t get employed. And if they don’t do anything they lose their job.

In some cases I single handedly carried useless groups to HDs (arrogant but true). The best way to overcome this is to make sure you attend in Week 1 and sit next to “good” people and try and get into a group with them.

3) Be loud
Being the loud arrogant kid in class isn’t all bad. Opinionated students never receive anything but full marks for class participation and presentations. Even if what you’re saying is rubbish the fact that you’re saying it gets you points. Especially when you sit in a class full of people unable to speak up in front of others.

4) Rote learning is for winners
Studying the night before an exam trying to think of stupid acronyms to help you remember a list of six items that you forget on the way out of the exam got me through my degree. Likewise for when a tutor tells you that you can’t do an assignment the night before it’s due. Challenge accepted and you prove them wrong when you smash it.

5) Drink beer with your lecturers
Well, the cool ones anyway. It makes a massive difference when you can rock up to Week 1 and the tutor or lecturer already knows you because you’ve met them through other staff members. Can’t state enough how helpful this is, especially beyond academic performance.

6) Uni teaches you to learn
Most importantly; I will finish on the the biggest point. Uni helped me realise my career interest. I wouldn’t say it taught me a lot about it, perhaps a few basics, but it did teach me to get off my ass if I wanted to follow it and go out on my own to learn it.

In many ways, it taught me that university couldn’t teach me what I needed to know. It got me interested in marketing and ultimately advertising, which made me realise I needed to learn on my own by reading books not on the text list, start a blog, meet people in the industry, do internships and ultimately score a gig.

I suppose that’s a rather negative take on the past four years of my life, one that will no doubt change as I look back on it in the future. There are certainly a few teachers who do good things and I would like to thank them.

And I suppose because of that last point alone the ridiculous HECS debt and the piece of paper I receive when I graduate will be worth it.

Posted by Zac Martin

06 November 2010

Research is flawed. Incentivising it creates a defective outcome.

But as I sat in a focus group the other day I couldn’t help but wonder if someone had ever deliberately partaken in their competitors’ research just to screw with the results.

That would make a great blog post.

Posted by Zac Martin

20 October 2010

Old timer Julian Cole wrote a cracker of a post, Six Tips to Nailing an Internship. I was fortunate enough to do two internships with Naked Communications and George Patterson Y&R, and would def recommend his list for any students looking for some experience.

But what about the other side of the coin? Based on my own expiration and many of my friends’, here’s six things I’ve learnt on how to run a kick ass internship…

1) Make them feel like one of the boys
Give them their own desk, stationary, computer, email address, rubbish bin, phone; you name it. Nothing says “temporary” like coming into work and having to wait for a chair.

2) Don’t start the first day at 9am
Especially if it’s a Monday. No one is ever prepared for an intern to come in first thing in the morning. On the first day give them the morning off and do an induction that afternoon. Make day two the big day they can get started.

3) Give them more than enough work
Perhaps the biggest complaint among my friends who have done internships, there’s never enough work. Which kinda surprises me given how busy everyone is always complaining they are. There’s often no expectation on an intern’s capability, so make sure you’ve got something lined up when they come back from a two hour task half an hour later. This is generally why an intern will leave at 5.30pm.

4) Give them feedback on everything
Pretty self explanatory. On every task they do.

5) One long meaningful project is best
Rather than giving them a number of tasks each day that don’t really mean anything, try to work out a project that will last the period of the internship. It allows them to think a bit deeper, keeps them occupied and they walk away feeling like they’ve actually achieved something.

6) Sit them next to someone rad
Don’t sit them next to other interns. Put them next to someone who they can annoy all day with questions and who will show them which places to avoid food poisoning from at lunchtime. I sat next to Praveen during my last internship and learnt a heap just from him. Makes a massive difference.

I think sometimes organisations think they’re doing interns a favour by taking them on. Which is completely true, just make sure the intern is getting the most out of it. I certainly appreciated it and they will too.

What does your organisation do to make their internships kick ass?

Posted by Zac Martin

17 October 2010

Today my blog celebrates its third birthday. Over the past 365 days I have…
+ Posted 70 times.
+ Had 16,765 visits.
+ Had 29,224 pageviews.
+ Received 441 comments.
+ Peaked at 657 RSS Subscriptions.
+ And 35 email ones.
+ Completed an internship at George Patterson Y&R.
+ Started my career as the Social Media Manager at George Patterson Y&R.
+ Ran a $100,000 campaign.
+ Appeared a few times on the Gen Y Marketing Podcast (not really an achievement, just giving them some love)
+ Completed my third year at university.
+ Celebrated my twenty first birthday.
And just in case you’re interested, here are my statistics from last year’s birthday.

I certainly didn’t give this blog enough attention over the past year. I kicked off my career while uni and work commitments have certainly taken priority, although in many ways getting a job was one of the reasons I started this blog so all is well. Who knows what will happen to this space over the next twelve months. Either way, I hope you continue to read and comment. Thank you.

Posted by Zac Martin

05 October 2010

Perhaps naively, a few years ago I promised I would never run AdSense on this blog.

Well I haven’t quite broken that promise, but perhaps I’ve come close.

I was recently approached by someone to include a link to their website in an old post of mine. The link was fairly relevant to the post and I bet you couldn’t find it if you tried.

They said they would give me $100 to do it. So I accepted.

Am I a sellout or what?

Posted by Zac Martin

22 September 2010

Google changed everything. Suddenly, everything became about search. You could find anything with Google.

But this is changing. It is no longer about search. That takes time. Time to decide what you’re looking for. Time to find the right key words. Time to filter the results.

Instead, it’s now about discovery. Where the content finds you.

Where is this most prevalent? Your Facebook News Feed and your Twitter stream. And with the recent implementation of Facebook’s Open Graph, content will come better recommended to us, with more relevance, drastically reducing the need for us to search.

Eventually, everyone will have their own personalised Digg where the content is almost perfectly relevant, recommended from the people you want on the topics you want.

Posted by Zac Martin

31 August 2010

A year ago I wrote about how research is generally flawed. I think this latest attempt to curb pirating is a good example of an outcome based on such research…

 

 

One third of Australians are accidental pirates. Wait, what!?

Upon questioning that incredible stat, I was pointed to this research from which the campaign is based.

This research would indicate 53% of Australians are pirates but roughly 60% of those do not consider themselves pirates (34% of all Australians in total). Fair enough.

But to say this 34% of people accidental pirates is a big stretch. They’re not accidentally breaking the law without realising it, they just don’t think they’re pirates. That’s a big difference, and not a conclusion I’d jump to to base a campaign around.

My second issue is how I image this research was conducted…

QUESTION ONE
Have you ever downloaded a song illegally, burnt a DVD from the video store etc.?

YES or NO

QUESTION TWO
Do you consider yourself a pirate?

YES or NO

Let’s assume I tick Yes to the first box. Now here’s just a few things that run through my head for the second question…

1) How do you define “pirate”?
2) No, I only watch movies I download, not sell them onto people.
3) Yes, but everyone’s a pirate these days, only losers watch shows on television.
4) No, pirating is naughty and I’m not a bad person.
5) Okay I know I’m a bad person, but I don’t want to admit that to this survey.
6) No, it’s not my fault, it’s the industry’s fault, right?
7) SHIT, THE FEDS MIGHT BE WATCHING THIS, OF COURSE NOT!
8) I bet if I tick No I can collect my money for doing this survey sooner anyway.

And then I’m just simply meant to tick a Yes or a No box?

People know what they’re doing is wrong. And your survey, and your campaign, isn’t enough to convince me the concept of accidental piracy is anything but ridiculous and a waste of money.

Go back to guilting me. I’ve stopped downloading Australian content because of it. Although that may be because Australia doesn’t produce much worth downloading.

Also, what’s with the dude playing different characters? So don’t get that.

End rant.

Posted by Zac Martin

24 August 2010

Good old Carlton Draught have a new ad…

And a bloke by the name of Simon Canning from The Australian rips it a new one here, somewhat justifiably so. He says that slow motion isn’t an idea. Fair call. Although some would argue that the parody is the idea. I dunno.

Sometimes I think we think too much about it all. For the right brand and the right audience, sometimes all you need is a piece of content that people like to align with a brand. Your average bloke is going to like this ad for an average beer.

Consumers are idiots. Keep it simple. Sometimes, it’s what they want.

Posted by Zac Martin