Advertising/Marketing/PR

A blog about all things career-related.

Is it still cool to celebrate half-birthdays?

With our Media, Marketing & PR division hitting its inaugural bi-annual birthday (we like to celebrate things in double time down this end of town) – we thought it would be good to give our candidates, clients and random blog followers a bit of a rundown on the fish we’ve been frying.

With a focus on media sales and mid-to-senior level agency roles, the team has been busy getting their networking on and headhunting all across town. So far we’ve made numerous placements in radio, mags & outdoor advertising sales, a bucket load at all levels within the currently-growing-out-of-control PR industry, and a sprinkling across advertising and marketing comms agencies too.

So what is this market turmoil people speak of? Well while there may be redundancies here and there across the Australian economic landscape, the market by no means is dry for talented workers. Maybe it’s not as easy as it used to be, but there is plenty to be done and still money to be made – finding and filling roles are all about finding the right fit between a candidate’s wants and skills,

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Advertising/Marketing/PR

A blog about all things career-related.

Retailers in denial

After a lacklustre Christmas, a consortium representing more than 2200 Australian retailers, including David Jones, Myer, Target and Harvey Norman, has decided that the reason they’re losing business to foreign online sellers is – wait for it – the GST.

To which we say WTF?

In our view, the GST is way down the list of disadvantages that our larger retailers face when competing with foreign online stores. (And in any case, surely the 10% tax is usually offset by the hefty cost of international postage?)

If local retailers are serious about competing with online sellers from overseas, we think they should stop focussing on changes to our tax regime – which look unlikely – and start thinking about what they can do better, including:

• Getting online themselves. And doing it well. A lot of people shop online because they can’t or don’t want to leave home – or because they live miles from the shops they need to visit or don’t have time to track down what they need. Price is only part of what drives these shoppers. They want convenience. We really believe that if large Australian retailers offered a

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Advertising/Marketing/PR

A blog about all things career-related.

Working for the brand…

With retail spending down AGAIN (despite a puzzling boost in consumer confidence), smart brands are having to get even savvier to prize the pennies out of our Mimco purses.

Let’s face it, the modern consumer is a bit of a nightmare for retailers: we’re ordering things from overseas to get them cheaper, we’re haggling in stores (no kidding, people in boutiques are acting like they’re in Bali) and we’re mending and making do instead of chucking stuff out. Suddenly people have remembered how to sew, and everything ‘vintage’ is new again.

So, what’s a smart retailer with an ever-diminishing market budget to do? Get their customers to do the work them. Seriously. Consumer-driven PR is the latest PR trend and it makes sense for two key reasons: firstly it relies on smarts not dollars, and secondly it recognises the fact that Gen Y are more interested in being sold to by their peers than ‘the man’.

This sort of marketing works best when it’s simple, there’s something in it for the consumer and there’s no manipulation involved – think Yellow Pages hidden pizza campaign.  We know, bad example as that crusade was

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Advertising/Marketing/PR

A blog about all things career-related.

Our friend Motherbird.

Three young guys, brains for business and a killer design instinct – Motherbird is emerging communication design studio on the path to greatness. And we think they are awesome.

Last week our consultant Pippa heading to Sydney’s big smoke for the Qantas Spirit of Youth Awards. Held at the waterfront Museum of Contemporary Art in the Rocks, it was a star studded evening. Brushing shoulders with everyone from the Zimmerman sisters, Dion Lee and New York based Art Director Deanne Cheuk to Academy Award winning film producer Jan Chapman – it was truly fantastic evening. Plus there was heaps of free booze and food. Couldn’t really go wrong.

But, specifically, we would like to congratulate our good friends over at Motherbird for taking out the SOYA Award in the Visual Communication strategy. Up against some of the best rising talent in the industry, they were chosen by the category mentor, Deanne Cheuk, for being the “most inspiring,” and having work that really “captured her.”

A three-way collaboration between Dan Evans, Chris Murphy and Jack Musset, the studio has built up an impressive client list in their 18

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Advertising/Marketing/PR

A blog about all things career-related.

Why we’re lovin’ LinkedIn

LinkedIn – the dominant social networking site for professionals – is often referred to as “Facebook for grown-ups”. It’s not. There’s nothing fun or goofy about LinkedIn. You can’t play idiotic games on it, you can’t join stupid fan clubs, and you definitely wouldn’t use it to share photos of yourself desperately necking a bottle of Bacardi at your bogan cousin’s 21st. Put it this way: if Facebook is Buenos Aires, LinkedIn is Brussels.

So, given our preference for beach parties over bureaucracy, we were as surprised as anyone by how much we’ve fallen for LinkedIn. And apparently we’re not alone, as it now has over 70 million users worldwide.

Basically, LinkedIn is really good at what it does, which is connecting professionals and helping them manage their careers. It doesn’t look sexy (I’ve heard it described as “myspace designed by Microsoft”) but it is easy to use and much of its functionality is free. Currently, it’s dominated by the more conservative professions, but this is changing. We’re seeing more and more people in fashion, media and sport getting on board.

LinkedIn is also becoming extremely popular with recruiters, who can use it to

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