The April edition of the Marketing Mag explores the changing face of the promotional product industry in Australia. In a feature article by Sam McConnell titled “A lasting reminder” a number of agencies (including us) were asked to provide an industry perspective on the state of affairs. Read more »

Have you ever walked past someone on the street and asked in true Aussie fashion “hows it goin?” without really wanting to find out how its really going. Its like a form of saying a quick “hi” and communicating purely to show that we can. This is probably my first impression of the new buzz around the blogosphere - Twitter. Read more »

Another fairy died today because someone or some entity decided that being brilliant was not absolutely essential - they didn’t say ‘no’ to being average. There is little context in this post to anyone outside our walls, but I’m sure the teams here can find relevance. Read more »

Have you ever come across something so good, you could bottle it? Well, it looks like The American Lung Association of Chicago have. They have released their latest fragance ‘Purity’ with the help of OfficeMax in an effective Not-for-profit awareness and promotional product program. Read more »

We were at the Innovate 07 expo put together by outdoor specialists JCDecaux last week. The expo showcased some of the current formats and trends in billboard and outdoor advertising. There were some interesting concepts incorporating the use of MMS and bluetooth technology that adds an element of interactivity to the static billboard. Read more »

I love a clever promotion and I really love sushi! If this was a real promotion by the Disney people, hats off to them and the agency who did it. Somehow I don’t think the target audience would have been too impressed but perhaps the parents would have found it amusing enough to take their children to see it. Read more »

Back in January we told you about Trend Blend 2007+, a collaborative piece of work by the guys at What’s Next (nowandnext.com) and Future Exploration network. It was a good piece of work and now Richard from What’s Next has given us a new map - The 1900-2050 Time Line! Read more »

I’ve been a fan of Google Earth since it was introduced, I don’t know the precise reason, but theres a lot to be said for flying in and out of cities around the world like a superhero. It makes you feel all conquering (even if they’re merely satelite images). The business model for Google Earth however leaves me curious. Is it a tool for Google to dissemate information to the masses? Or is it perhaps just another ‘information capture’ application to help Google better match and deliver contextual advertising. Read more »

I’m a compulsive scribbler and note taker, I like lists and sometimes I get so consumed with an idea that other things (still important) seem to fade into oblivion. Well you could imagine my delight when I came across IMified via Solution Watch Imified is a new service that enables users to access services like Basecamp, Google Calendar, and Wordpress from their instant messaging client. With this application, I can manage to-do lists, save notes, create reminders, and even publish a post to Wordpress for Carpark. I’m quite thrilled with it but not everyone shares my excitement around the office. Read more »

I’ve come across some figures mined from a Marketing Sherpa report in the US on how Promotional Products are out-performing TV and online mediums. Whether these figures ring true outside the US has yet to be proven (at least by us) but some interesting numbers nonetheless. Read more »