08 June 2009

I think every blogger says to themselves at some point, “I will not use my blog for personal rants about brands that piss me off or do me wrong”. But, I also think that every blogger breaks this from time to time. That’s what I’m doing today. And so…
Dear Tim Addington,

Hey dude, what’s happening? Staying out of trouble and what not?

What is the word for the opposite of an evangelist? Because that’s what I am when it comes to anything print. But with that said, I don’t mind your magazine. I think you could probably make it a tad cheaper for students like myself, which would definitely increase your subscription numbers because students are always trying to convince themselves they’re doing something important and serious about their career like subscribing to industry magazines… but let’s save that for another blog post.

I have a couple of problems.

My subscription is about to end and you kindly sent me a letter reminding me to update it. I like that. An email would have sufficed but I don’t mind, I understand you were born before 1980. As an existing and loving customer a yearly subscription was going to cost me $175 and $349 for two years. Except I went to the website and the prices are $119 and $229 respectively. That’s a fairly substantial difference, no?

I also have a problem with the daily email you send me. Ignoring the fact you pretty much cover everything I’ve already read on my RSS Feed, Mumbrella and Campaign Brief, you send it in a fucking pdf file. On the rare occasion I actually want to click on an article, I have to download the whole thing. Why aren’t you doing these as individual blog posts?

And my third point is about what you’re doing on social media. Your Twitter account actually makes me want to break my fingers as I slam the screen of my notebook down on top of them. Also, I’ve raised these issues a number of times on Twitter and started many angry conversations, yet you’ve never gotten in touch. Why Tim, why?

I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt this time and I’ve just subscribed for another year. Yes, you’re welcome. But maybe you need to buzz me or shoot me through an email some time so we can chat about some of this stuff?

Based on your Twitter performance I imagine you’re not monitoring blogs either so I’ll send this through to you directly Timmy. You’re more than welcome to use this as a letter to the editor. ;]

Zac Martin

Posted by Zac Martin

05 June 2009

I was enjoying a coffee the other day with a design student mate of mine who introduced me to what I found to be a very fascinating concept; kitsch design.

Kitsch design, he explained, at its most basic is design that is both useless and almost immediately becomes outdated. Perhaps the most common example is those cheap tacky plastic phone holders. They don’t do anything except hold your phone, even though the desk is perfectly capable of that. Further, three months later every mobile phone on the market is too small to sit properly in the holder.

This is kitsch design. Temporary with no real use that just ends up as land fill.

I asked my mate why kitsch design even existed, and interestingly his answer was, “Marketing”. The ability to make $2 million in two weeks from cheap crappy mobile phone holders means that kitsch design will always exist.

But in a society where we place such importance on long term vision and sustainability, I hope you’re not marketing something kitsch. And if you are, then it’s probably worse than marketing ecstasy to children.

Posted by Zac Martin

01 June 2009

I think perhaps one of the reasons I fell head over heals in love with social media is the ability for something small to go big so easily. It happens every day with video content.

This tee is an awesome example.

Somewhere, somehow it went viral. After the first rather ironic review of the tee on Amazon, it was followed by a flood of others. Currently there are 911 of them, most of which are worth checking out.

But what I love most about this story is how often people criticise social media and how it actually leads to sales and profit. This week alone sales of the Three Wolf Moon tee have increased 2,300%. Booya.

Posted by Zac Martin

31 May 2009

If this were a comic from the 60’s that’s what would appear on your screen after The Punch launched itself today.

Rather excitedly, I can announce I’ve been asked to write a fortnightly piece. I’ll be linking my articles here and my first is about the death of the book.

I’ve been told my massive ego should cushion the hurtful comments. Suppose we’ll have to wait and see.

Posted by Zac Martin

30 May 2009

After six months of working on the pitch for L’Oreal Brandstorm, we placed third at the national finals. We nailed our presentation and I’m pretty happy.

It means we don’t make it to Paris, but the good news is I have my life back again and it means this blog might receive a little more attention.

For those interested here is our presentation…

 


Posted by Zac Martin

28 May 2009

The latest piece of mine in the student magazine from Monash Caulfield, Esperanto.

Posted by Zac Martin

27 May 2009

In my last past I spoke of how essentially anonymous people were getting together on Facebook and collaborating. In this case, I was referring to the creation of content around a developing meme.

Now we can take things to the next level, where collaboration is helping to solve crime. The case in point is the Missing Kane Dadson Facebook Group.

Now sitting at over 3,000 members, through the power of collaboration people have been able to work faster than the police investigation in gathering clues. Suggestions and comments posted on the wall have lead to spreading word of mouth and opened up new information that can be used by police.

Last year in a similar situation, members of the group Missing Britt Lapthorn uploaded photos related to the case that other people were able to tag which lead to new leads of questioning. The group still has 18,000 members.

Social media is more than just brands trying to engage with consumers. Or a group of people creating their own lolcats. Social media has more potential than I think anyone realises.

Posted by Zac Martin

23 May 2009

By now I’m sure you’ve seen this video…

 

 

Hilarious. But even better, is the Facebook Group, now consisting of over 15,000 members. Scroll down and take a look at the photos and videos. What I find most interesting, is how similar this group is to that of 4chan.

Starting with a single idea or event, a group of complete random people have gotten together in one area and started producing their own content. Video and photo mashups have turned Clare into a small scaled meme.

I think we’re going to see a lot more of this. Will Facebook become the new 4chan?

Posted by Zac Martin

20 May 2009

A few months back I drove home to see thick black smoke billowing out of my neighbour’s car parked on the street. I quickly jumped out of my car to investigate the burning vehicle. By this stage a small crowd had appeared that was slowly creeping forward to get a better look. After a minute the car actually exploded. No one was hurt but what interested me was the curiosity of the viewers, myself included.

Instead of running away from the fire, people were running towards it. And thus is the nature of audiences.

In a recent conversation between myself and Oscar Nicholson, I realised this is the nature of how I blog.

I cause controversy. I write about not only provocative issues but in a provocative manner too. I stir the pot and I start fires.

But I do this to start conversations. Unfortunately people aren’t attracted to a car that isn’t on fire. A blog post that isn’t controversial gets less readers and far less comments. People rarely comment on something if they simply agree. I do realise the shortfall of this; that once the fire’s out, the people leave. I suppose I hope I’ve got enough good content to keep them around after everything’s been extinguished.

But I’m not going to kid myself, I can’t consistently and regularly produce good, thought provoking content. So from time to time I’ll start a fire. I make no apologies for the burns or damage caused. This is the nature of a Joker.

Posted by Zac Martin