╠ Iphone. Explosion or Trickle? ╣

As most of you connected types would know Apple launched the iphone 3gs late last night and everything has basically exploded with discussion.

An interesting thing I would like to point out is that Apple blurted everything out all at once. No bit by bit, in one night everything got posted.

This raises the curious question about why didn't they save some, let it out as more of a trickle to build anticipation. What I perceive to be the reason for this is the haste in which they are trying to work. No matter what some may say the iPhone 3g will probably still be the main contender and as such will face cannibalism issues.

So they've saved everything until now to give you ten days total until release to contemplate the information and make sure it is prominent in your mind at launch

╠It may not be a cookie, but it still says eat me! ╣

Those of you who have passed through QV recently may have noticed three little traffic light covered balls plastered everywhere. What they signify is a new health kick that QV and the city of Melbourne are participating in.

The way it works is that the green light is obviously the healthy option, yellow is a little bit naughty and red shouldn't be consumed unless you wish to face the same demise as Elvis. Also via a stamp card eating 5 healthy products gets you entry into a prize draw.


What I like about this campaign is that it actually encourages good habits, is actually filling a void by providing an easy identification system and also seems relatively inexpensive. I hope these lovable little balls hang around past the promo period as I see them as a great competitive advantage.

╠ The Internet is Pyramid Selling ╣

Over my many years scouring the internet I've had countless varieties of sites. One element that has seemed to play in each is a pyramid style structure. This blog is one such device.

There's always the person who brought you here who you look up at and think 'Someday that could be me!'. However that is rarely the case as success isn't usually easily imitated with the same response.

When it comes down to it going 'viral' is exactly the same as the aim in any pyramid scheme. You can simply sell them your products(subscribe/view) or join your effort(referrals, references). Similarly it also boils down to your original real life networks to adopt and propel you forward, hoping to find chains of people with sharing interests.

It's weird to think as huge an entity as the internet shares such a risky conotation.

╠ Who can you trust when designing campaigns? ╣

One of my class assignments was to design an advertising campaign. With my appreciation of Dick Smith up and it in its rebranding, it seemed the obvious choice.

My groups campaign idea was two tiered, there would be ads(<-Example) in newspapers, billboards and TV(To suit demographic) which would link to reviews which would be in newspapers, on the radio and obviously online for the more tech savvy.

The entire focus is around the Techxpert, getting the 'Techxperts' to show their knowledge, and by providing that knowledge to consumers, gaining their loyalty.

To contrast this the current campaign by Dick Smith revolves around 'Who do you trust when buying Technology?' which has featured on trams and TV. Unfortunately they haven't appeared on the internet, perhaps hinting they may be a bit wallpaperish.

So thoughts on my first campaign?

╠ Twitter is Broken ╣

Whilst most marketers would believe Twitter has had it's time on top, ranking with the likes of facebook and myspace. I beg to differ

My first thought for Twitter was that it's really gimicky. First twitter in unique location here, unique individual twittering there. That's most of the news around it.

I think Twitter in it's current state has run out of steam, however it's not actually the gimickyness that has caused it in my opinion. Thanks to programs like Twollow the entire follower/following dynamic is blown, accounts can auto-follow you that will never actually read what you post. To prove my point I've made an account to follow anyone who talks about Gruen :P

Because of this I think Twitter needs to change its dynamic before it gets more flooded with Twollows than Twits.

PS: Interesting note, as I was writing this Twitter was actually not working, fail whale and all.

╠ The world IS mine ╣

For a career management plan, one of the requirements was to draw a picture of how you would like to see your career future.

Pictured on the left is my entry. I must admit I was surprised that at least 50% of the class simply stole pictures from google images. Those left simply drew a metaphor, doors, gardens growing/sprouting etc.

In a class with the majority doing marketing/management as a major and the students could not even attempt to be innovative.

It is days like these that I am so glad I discovered blogging. Without it I could easily had been as scared of open ended activities like this.

╠ Ditch the Suit ╣

During the weekend just passed I met up with my family and since it's now my final year, conversation moved to my career. Also being close to my birthday the prospect of buying me a really good suit arose. I declined, however this was because when it comes to a suit I would want to pick it myself, because I don't want just a generic suit.

Now they used this as me trying to put forward an excuse for me just wanting to be cheap because I would never spend a lot on a suit myself. Now they were rather certain about this so I had to take a new viewpoint and sort of make the challenge to get a good job without resorting to buying a fancy suit. Which is actually a little bit of a shame because I am quite fond of one day looking spiffy in a suit.

Those of you who read Marketing mag may remember Zac Martin's post about ditching the resume. The resume is simply a way of trying to make yourself look fancier than you are, and suits are the same. In fact they work just like branded goods, you buy them for the social value. Basically you spend $500 on a suit to say that you spent $500 on a suit. Yet somehow this makes you better for a job than someone else.

Zac manages to use the fact that he ditched his resume and replaced it with a blog to spark conversation. However suit's are not so easily replaced, there's not exactly an alternative attire that isn't considered directly inferior to a suit in an interview situation.

That being said I'm going to give it a go. See if I can be a little different and see how far I can get without a suit. Odds are I'm fighting a helpless cause however it will be an interesting challenge to trial none the less.

Amusingly the actual final part of the challenge was to write a book about it if succesful and use the proceeds to buy a suit. But who needs to write a book when you have a blog. So I'll be keeping you up to speed here. As for the proceeds buying a suit...well I may just be waiting a while for that :P