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Ode to Mr. Jobs…..his products changed our lives for the better

Just heard about Steve Jobs passing away today. I’m feeling sad and flooded with memories. Mainly memories of how his company’s products have positively affected my life.

1. 1987/1988. California. Whilst in an entrepreneur program at University. Peat Marwick sponsor our team and provide us with an Apple II computer to use for the next few semesters – no more computer lab for us! Woo hooo freedom and creativity for our project.

2. 1988 – 2007. California – Australia.  Due to career decisions switch between Apple and PC’s….. Always happier when I have an Apple computer….but employers dictate the technology. So lots of back and forth.

3. 2007. Sydney. iPhone 2. Need I say more :) …..except for the fact that I kept trying to ‘touch screen’ my work PC – and boy was that frustrating.

3. 2008. Sydney. I start my own consultancy and purchase the company’s first asset – a MacBook Pro. Bye bye corporate enforced PC’s I’ve re-embraced a Mac thanks to E….and I’m not turning back.

4. 2009. E and I form E&L Consultancy, upgrade the Apple Airport, purchase another MacBook and upgrade our iPhones. The functionality, design, tech support and customer service provided by Apple surpass any other technology experiences ever.

5.  2011. Having some dramas with my MacBook Pro….Apple replace it with a brand new one (after a few visits to the Mac hospital) I LOVE APPLE!

6.  2011. Visiting LA pick up a new MacBook Pro for my sweetie. He converts his entire music studio over to the Mac and can’t believe how amazing Ableton on his Mac is. He is so happy and blown away – creativity increases by 200%!

7.  5th/6th October 2011. We lose Steve Jobs today, but we have gained so much thanks to him – our world now has iPhones, iPads, Mac’s, Pixar and soooo much more.

THANK YOU STEVE JOBS – we honour your life, your products and your creativity for due to you we are more creative too!

Australia’s Media Manifesto

I love Media – the industry, the concept, the execution, the fact that it’s often the touchpoint between brands and consumers, the trading of it, the strategy and art of it……it’s been a large part of my career and I’m proud to be a part of it.  However, as an industry it’s sorely in need of some change.

At the Mumbrella360 conference in Sydney this week I participated as a work-stream leader on the Mumbrella360 Manifesto for Change.  The desire for a Manifesto has come about because, as my colleague Chris Stephenson has stated, “Australia’s media planning and buying industry – like others around the world – is witnessing fundamental shifts in the media landscape…We need a shared manifesto. A manifesto for change. One that we all agree on. One that we can signal to everyone who works in our industry. One that we can signal to clients. One that frames the conversations between agencies and media owners. A manifesto that galvanises our industry, defends our margins and energises our people.”

The topics and issues we collectively addressed “live” this week in the Manifesto session are listed below.  What is exciting is we got somewhere!  Now we need your input – if it’s relevant to what you do.

Please check out our draft Manifesto and let us know what you think!

As many of you know my favourite saying is “Change is the only constant”.  Laura

Manifesto topics/issues list:

People – attracting, nurturing and retaining media talent

Remuneration – from transparency to media commissions, getting paid what we’re worth

Tech, Systems and Data – making the most of automation, trading desks and information, as well as debating who owns the data?

Agency and Media Owner relationships – is it time for a new contract? Expectations, behaviours and access in the 21st Century

Agency and Client relationships – education, expectations and getting paid for pitches

Planning in a post-broadcast world – moving the planning paradigm on for an on-demand world?

Social Media – the new gold rush or 21st Century Snake Oil, the future or a temporary distraction? And who should even plan it?

TagMan Brand Pollination

We’ve been working with the fantastic team at TagMan developing a suite of document templates which present a sophisticated and cohesive brand image. TagMan offers a killer new single-tag solution to the problems of online campaign tracking. By acting as a single, universal tag and interface through which tracking tags and pixels can be deployed [...]

iPhones, magazines, waiting rooms and media consumption

I’m sitting in the waiting room at the Doctor’s office and realise that I’m not reading magazines anymore because I’m on my iPhone. Whilst on my iPhone I’m writing notes, answering emails-work related, Googling things I need to find, mapping directions to my next meeting, rechecking my inbox, reading tweets – work related again, BUT…. [...]

LoyaltyDeck brand development

LoyaltyDeck is a new offering in the loyalty management space, created by LoyaltyTech as a software as a service solution. Developed to compete with large, expensive & complex loyalty management tools, LoyaltyDeck provides all the benefits of the established options but at significantly lower cost and with increased usability. The brand was developed to grow [...]