Tag Archives: creative

Energy, enthusiasm and entrepreneurship … new pioneers 2018

31 Dec

I can’t help it. I admire entrepreneurs and pioneers in small business. People with energy and enthusiasm who take an idea and make it work. I call them the new pioneers. More often than not the ideas don’t always work.

Pioneers can face resistance and moments of failure. And it hurts. But we don’t learn from success.

New pioneer #1 THE LUCKY BEE AT FRANKIES ROOFTOP. 

Matt Bennett and Rupert Noffs from The Lucky Bee at Frankie’s Rooftop. Who would have thought that a New York restaurant would land in Woy Woy on the central coast of NSW. Always scenically magnificent but not always classy (no offence!) – this dynamic duo has turned a pub into a destination for foodies. The boys have so much energy and  enthusiasm … you could bottle it. There’s an idea!!!

New pioneer #2 BREW HA HA 

Denis & Mirjana Dordevic from Brew Ha Ha Coffee Roasters in Lilyfield, Sydney also rank as pioneers and entrepreneurs with flare and enthusiasm + great coffee and food. I’ve watched this business grow with the energy and love the owners and staff put into it. They regularly change their offerings to keep things fresh. 

New pioneer #3 JACK RABBIT SLIMS

Andrea and his team from Jack Rabbit Slims Barbershop in Kings Cross have energy in spades. I remember when Andrea started out in a little concrete box next door to the Piccolo Bar. Just one chair and a toolbox but Andrea can cut hair. He’s not your ‘grab the clippers and mow the lawn type’ barber. He understand the nuances of hair and the directions it can take. I know because I have a lot of it and it grows fast in weird directions. Andrea takes a lot of care and it shows. It’s sometimes hard to get a booking.

New pioneer #4 GREENWICH MANAGEMENT COLLEGE

I’m biased here. I do some teaching and instructional design for Greenwich and I have to say that in my experience in this field and with numerous colleges and RTO’s, this place stands out in a crowded space. The management and staff have built the machine but the students have brought the energy. They come from all parts of the world … from Mongolia to Brazil, Italy to Macedonia, Colombia to Azerbaijan, the US and Ireland. Often they work multiple jobs as well as study but they are amazing. The college services are fine tuned and the management skilled listeners and entrepreneurs.

Here’s to all the new pioneers of 2018. Doing things differently with enthusiasm and love.

It shows.

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The new pioneers: Brew Ha Ha

29 Nov

Brew ha ha case

I love small businesses that work hard to differentiate themselves from the competition. I call them the New Pioneers. They work their businesses like the old world drovers who rode quarter horses and steered them like cars to round up and drive the flock. They don’t rest on their laurels and plan and produce new products to offer something fresh and wonderful to their customers and they use marketing and social media so well to be liked, viewed, commented on and followed = all good for SEO.

Screen Shot 2018-11-29 at 9.57.44 am

Brew Ha Ha Coffee Roasters in inner city Sydney could be just another cafe, but it’s not. They keep producing not just the best coffee from premium roasters and skilled baristas – they also offer great and creative food in a ‘foodie’ society … and they get recognised (see above).

Screen Shot 2018-11-29 at 9.58.17 am

Vibrant businesses like Brew Ha Ha obviously love what they do because they do it well or vice versa. Screen Shot 2018-11-29 at 10.10.08 am

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Welcome to the emojincey ward

1 Mar

emojincey ward

The digital sphere can be complicated for marketers and business operators, trying to keep up with all the new features social media is offering as well as apps and other whizz bang offerings.

I use the term whizz bang because when you really look at a lot of these innovations, they offer the excitement of the new. And we have been trained to upgrade from old to new even when the new features aren’t that special.

In the olden days marketing was relatively simple.

  • Create the message
  • Match it to your target market
  • Choose the best media option
  • Run the ad or the campaign.

Now targeting requires sorting through many variables to do with lifestyle and behaviours.

Ads or posts are run and testing is conducted using the analytics.

Often we are advised to run separate campaigns to ‘test’ the efficacy and effectiveness.

We are told to be strangely unique to cut through and to tell stories not to just sell.

TV channels have been replaced by internet influencers who command vast audiences.

It’s so un marketing in the traditional sense where a product or service was promoted to a market.

OK … that’s simplistic.

And there’s likes and follows. Shorthand ticks of approval from our ‘community.”

Other shorthands include the emoji.

now featuring an array of cute visages with stand out emotions. And gifs.

Like it or not, we are in the age of shorthand … short attentions span.

Ultra convenience services such as UBER Eats and Netflix stop people socialising.

But people are people and will no doubt get bored with social which is why they have to keep changing and updating and adding features.

Great advertising is still about the creative. Cut through only occurs when people stop and take notice.

So let’s open the emojincey ward where people are people and emotions aren’t a quick flick, insert and like.

emoji image:  

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I love this

7 Mar

comminications mistake

I shouldn’t but I do love this.

Looks like they need a communications coordinator real bad!

I’ve changed the name of the recruiter to protect the guilty.

Attention to detail … and when in serious doubt use spellchecker.

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Communication sandwich

6 Jan

Crowds

I’m on a break and spending time with the people I care about. This means that I don’t have to get up when the alarm goes (who called it an alarm?) This means that I have some extra time to attend to things. Some of the things I attend to are digitalised. Well, to do with the internet and technology which is moving a lot faster than I can type or breathe probably.

I’m involved in communications which is a broad field if you really think about it.

Communications can be encyclopaedic or minuscule like gestures.

In business it’s about branding, positioning and ultimately selling.

I’m taking some time now to check out the digital world and it’s BIG. Bigger than ever before.

Everyone’s in there having a go.

Check out Linkedin > the business connections portal. Everyone’s up there posting and commenting and liking. This’ll be there.

Then there’s Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, Twitter, instagram, youtube, vimeo ….

It’s hard to get a solo as my mum used to say.

I’m wondering if I should get a sandwich board and stand in the city somewhere.

The giant chicken suit might work too.

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Video

Interview with Tom Wolfe

9 Jan

This is an interview that Time magazine conducted with famed writer and novelist Tom Wolfe. The original chronicler of the ‘New Journalism,’ pioneered by Truman Capote (In Cold Blood) and others.

Tom Wolfe doesn’t use a computer. He writes by hand.

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I love it. Take it out! Part 1

21 Sep

ImageI got my first job in advertising by showing up at an agency with a two page short story I had written about bikies. I still remember one memorable phrase I concocted. It went something like ‘their jeans were so dirty, they could only be removed with a blow torch.’

The amazing thing was not only did I get in and meet with the Creative Director, but he gave me a job on the very lowest branch of the agency tree: the despatch department, run by a fiery red-faced ex army guy they called Sarge. I wanted to write. To create. I was on cloud 9 or maybe even 10.

For the first few days, the CD would acknowledge me. Smile. Ask how I was doing. That stopped soon after. But it was a great place to work. Big clients, global agency. A bunch of creatives around, artists, writers, producers, editors, designers. I loved it.

Then they promoted me to media accounts. Yike! That wasn’t my bag, so they put me into media planning, under a benevolent media genius who will remain nameless, but let’s call him Daniel Boyce. One day he called me into his office and asked me ‘so how are you liking it here?’ I was momentarily blinded by his striped shirt and the harbour view behind him, and blurted out without thinking ‘I don’t like it.’ Daniel fixed me with a steely glare, just as the phone rang. ‘Daniel Boyce.’ He said into the mouthpiece in a cultured accent, glancing at me with what I perceived as contempt. “I’m going to get fired.’ I thought, but no. Daniel put down the phone and asked me why I wasn’t happy in media planning. I told him that I wanted to write. To be a copywriter. To be a creative. The phone rang again. Same rigmarole. Then, ‘Thanks for being honest. Everybody lies to me around here.’

The next day I was relocated to the TV/Broadcast unit where ads were recorded and edited, pilots were made and new business pitches run.

We had two theatres and a big meeting room. I was able to watch actors, writers, engineers create, edit and senior executives pitch for new business. Something different everyday.

It may have been airlines and soft drinks but it was wondrous to me …

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