╠ I'm a big boy now ╣

This little poster may not seem like much, being only an a3 surrounded on all sides by A2's but it's still a big step for me. These posters were hung by Plakkit, a group in Melbourne who does poster distribution in key areas. Therefore it makes it my first paid advertising distribution...thingy.

Of course there's been a lot of putting things up for free and for favours but this is my first experience paying to advertise and I think it is a key step in a marketing career.

Is it equitable for the cause? Who knows? That's for market research to discern after the event. However this is the method I chose with a limited budget in order to advertise our event. What matters though is that I personally I feel like a million dollars to see something like this come off. Even though I paid for it, it's a very similar feeling to seeing someone reference you on a blog.

So if any of you see yourselves around Melbourne Central be sure to keep an eye out ^^ Anyone wanting to find out more about the event being advertised, it's an anime convention named Manifest.

╠ Because it all counts ╣

In my catching up on TV I came across a set of coles ads advertising that 'it all counts' and detailing the ways in which you save money with them. There is one of these I would like to draw your attention to and it goes like this.

You shouldn't be taxed for being a woman, so Coles is paying the GST on all feminine hygiene products for you.

I'm not sure about all of you female types out there but is 11% off a tampon a real winner for you? Is it a deciding factor in where you shop? Do you feel particularly cared for? As far as I have heard feminine hygiene isn't something you really talk about too much so a big conglomerate saying they care isn't something I see as really convincing.

Now also the other problem is as a male I feel completely ignored by this campaign. Granted us males don't really need anything like this on a monthly basis. However the point is that sales work by being sustained by full price purchases. So as a male our purchases are funding something with which we receive no value unless we are particularly whipped by our significant others.

So I just have to question this particular idea, alienating half of the population for a relatively ineffective minor price cut. What are your thoughts?

╠ Brand Loyalty at its best ╣

Apologies for the reduced posting as of late however I got a little tied down because I had a formal to attend as well as a birthday to organize, amongst all of my normal activities.

Just wanted to take a quick moment to show this cake though. This was a cake that was designed for me without me knowing. It's covered in Nintendo's core mascots which could be considered promotion however I didn't care about that aspect. I loved it, as did everyone else at the party.

How many of you can name brands that you could place their material all over your birthday cake without a single person at your party raising an eyebrow? In fact how many brands could even pull something like that at an office party?

╠ Currency is so analogue ╣

So today I faced the horrible endeavor of leaving the house without my handy credit card. I'd grown so used to the convenient that it was an eye opener.

Now as a commerce student my dealing with money is pretty organized, so the loss of the core of my structure threw me off.

The two problems I faced today were first of all being short changed. The second was that I ran out of money because like all other scared people of the world I don't like the idea of carrying excessive amounts of cash. All of which solved by cards. The other thing I however I perhaps wish I could have facedis that cash causes an issue with is as an untraceable transaction, most commonly used to evade centrelink. Unfortunately Woolworths is one of those follow the rule type organizations.

Cash clearly seems to be the inferior product, however due to those hard bent on sticking to the old ways it continues on and will continue on into the far future.

You can tell people to upgrade their TV, their radio, their whatever else you've improved by adding a clock to it. However the more popular the original item, the longer it will take to be phased out. So by that measure does cash currency have a future date of discontinuity? WHat do you all think?

╠ Achievements ╣

One of the additions to video games in the current generation is the inclusion of achievements and trophies. These are awarded for finishing particular tasks. For PS3 the trophies you achieve are ranked by difficulty, from bronze to gold and then a bonus platinum trophy for if you collect every other trophy in the game.

The reason why I find this so good is that it increases the playability of a game but also ensures that you've completed everything that a game has to offer, rather than just the story. It also tells you when enough is enough and it's time to move on.

I believe it's important to give yourself something similar in life. Every company you work for should have it's own goals, from simple bronze ones to the overruling 'platinum' goal. On top of this you should also have your own goals, including those individualized for jobs. Most of the time you have a specific goal in mind when applying for a job and it's good to keep that in mind else you may find yourself dwindling longer than you would perhaps like in an area that may not further your overall goals.

It's also good to keep your individual goals separate because unless you really, really love work, then you should have other interests. Even those that don't further your career are worth including, be it to one day do that Star Wars Marathon or play through every one of the ironically named 'Final Fantasy' games released. If you don't set yourself the challenge you may just keep pushing these side goals off and do you really want to live the kind of life where you didn't take the time to do these life defining achievements that make life worth living.

It's up to you whether you achieve the goals, and you always have the option to reassess the ones that you lose interest with. What's important is keeping your goals in mind so that you don't let yourself stray from what you truly want.

╠ Sponsored Mobility at its best ╣

Now as most of you may know in this semester just gone I took a subject I loathed called Career Management. A course that if you were to follow the lecturer you would misconstrue as a class about how to analyze careers after you've had them...conveniently enough with examples from her career. Useful I know. Now through this all there was one sole lesson of value. Obvious without the class but I want to give it some credit. The term I'm referring to is sponsored mobility.

Sponsorship in a career sense is where someone, usually further along their career path than you helps you along or takes you under their wing. It's meant to be a must do and something that it doesn't matter who it is because everyone has something to teach.

Now not wanting to shoot myself in the foot I remained open to this concept. However after experiencing it I believe there are some areas where it may appear less than useful. Recently I went on a trip to Brisbane with my father to experience the entrepreneurial lifestyle. I've listed below the activities and what I've learned.

Super Happy Fun Trip To Brisbane

• Trip to Airport in Taxi - Entrepreneurs don't pay bills, fines etc. They believe in the par 10 (sp?) principle. So not paying what you owe 'the man' is good...
• Airplane Trip to Brisbane - Entrepreneurs prefer to talk to any female that sits down to them and reveal their secret business plans to them rather than talk to their own son
• Taxi Ride from airport - Taxi drivers in Brisbane are as bad as Melbourne and asks interstate tourists where x street is
• Meeting 1 - We are vultures, ravenous, ravenous vultures, benefiting from the corpses of failed entities
• Meeting 2 - Basic usage of a computer to make presentations is still super impressive for some things. Pixelated images FTW
• Lunch - Father left to go to a meeting alone. I suspect fornication. Discovered I fail at social interaction...doubly so for people not of my age
• Meeting 3 - Entrepreneurs never disclose everything. People will line up left right and center for a good sounding idea
• Bar - The best bars are the ones that allow you to stare at 'eye candy'. Also Asahi apparently means Heinekin
• Hotel - Apparently booking a two bedroom room each is the way entrepreneurs do it.
• Dinner - Restaurants are also rated based on their proximity to eye-candy. iPhone app Urban spoon has room for improvements. Apparently Asahi decided it no longer wanted to be heinekin and turned back into Asahi beer.
• Casino - While wife takes care of child alone, entrepreneurs will play. Including initialization of flirting, drink buying and number getting
• Hotel - True entrepreneurs fly off to other states whilst leaving their family to find their own way to their flight much later.
• Airplane ride - People should have to pay more to bring a baby along with them...and they should have to have their own special booth or something
• Ride Home - Apparently Toorak means South Yarra station

Overall, what it seems I can learn from my father is that marriage means nothing and noone is more important than yourself and your interests. not sure about all of your views on this but I think a certain note should be added to chosing a sponsor...choose them wisely.

╠ Vodafone Mess with your head! ╣

Those of you who read and enjoyed my previous adventures in procuring an iPhone may be happy to hear that the story did not end there. The last story was apparently so riveting that it made it all the way to mumbrella. I believe I owe thanks to the Tim fellow who collects the content. Now you may notice that it is a Virgin ad that I have placed above and there is quite good reasoning for this, reasoning that may make the Mumbrella line 'Michael Lanyon explains why Clemenger BBDO’s helped sell him an iPhone' a little bit less than true.

So the way the story goes is that I went down to the Vodafone stores with intent of getting one of those fancy 32gb 3gs' and when I got there this all started going quite smoothly until one road block. Some how my age had been put into the system incorrectly. Normally no biggie but seems with vodafone it is. Now I have a pretty good number as you can see on the right, so I was kind of interested in keeping it. The only way it was possible was to purchase a sim from another carrier, port the number and come back.

Now remember I also had an exam this day so time wasn't on my side but I humoured them anyway. I went down to Dick Smith, bought a virgin Sim, started porting the number and went back to find that Virgin wasn't actually a group that this problem would be fixed by. Now by this point I'd basically given up but I opted to run a credit check to ensure I was actually ok for this considering $74 a month is a bit for a uni student, but that went fine. So it really was just this clerical error at the start that stopped me. I do consider myself a bit brand loyal, and I do like vodafone ads, especially the fold it one as referenced by Mumbrella and also the current one inclusive of voice twittering. However when they can't simply convert a prepaid sim of theirs to a plan sim then well that starts to wear thin. The final option was to call them up and wait for all the people inquiring about the new iPhone.

Which I did start doing however by this point the damage was done. By sending me out of their store to a Dick Smith they had sent me straight past a Virgin store which had a much more appealing deal available for the old 16gb. I inquired about it and the process there ran smooth from start to finish. So as much as I hate to admit it...I'm on Virgin now.

So that's how I go from aiming to be with a group whose ads I love, to a group whose sexist ads I hate with a fiery passion. Goes to show that no matter how good your ads are in the end it does come down to the individual service or product and Vodafone's lack of simplicity in correction of errors cost them revenue of $2,000 from me.

Now lets see if this story can make the news too :P