The Global Takeover – Airbnb

If you haven’t heard of Airbnb, the bad news is that you’ve probably been living in a cave for the last couple of years. The good news is that now, thanks to this company, you may actually find someone who is interested in renting your cave.


Over the last couple of years, we have seen a massive shift in the way that the hotel industry does business. From the birth of review sites like Trip

Extending your reach through employees

I’m fascinated by the idea of ‘Employee Activism,’ and it has been a talking point in the business media in recent times.  I read about an interesting study by the PR and Marketing Communications agency Weber Shandwick. They surveyed 2,300 employees over 15 global markets, finding that 1 in 5 workers are ‘employee activists’; people who will publicly defend and advocate for their employer. They

Armani models wanted

The
topic of branding has been weaved throughout the entire fabric of the Masters of Marketing program. In the Innovative
Marketing Strategies unit, we learnt that experiential marketing is a key
factor to brand building as it encourages deeper and more frequent thinking. As
markets continue to become more complex and competitive, many brands are turning
to experiential strategies in order to

New year, new trends

No, I’m not talking about what will be
gracing the window fronts of fashion retailers. With a new year come new
resolutions, new habits, and new attitudes. As a marketer, anticipating these
new trends can be critical. For example, while all things digital has been
growing for a while now, the Internet is aflutter forecasting a trend in 2014
that will see people put down their devices. 

Ready to vote?

It seems pretty interesting getting through an election race without actually having to be involved as a voter. As we are both are non-Australian, we have an unbiased look at the current election campaigns and how they have shaped our thoughts. To be honest, neither Kevin Rudd nor Tony Abbott seem like very inspiring speakers, yet there are a number of questions in regards to political and

Virgin Mobile’s Content Marketing is LOL on Buzzfeed

It’s no secret that the webpage you just stumbled upon, littered with funny cats and embarrassing photos, is a really a sponsored advertisement. If you don’t notice the back slash hidden in the URL (in this case /virginmobilelive) you’ll probably notice that instead of some staff writer, trawling the Internet for pictures of dogs eating birthday cake, it’s the avatar belonging to a leading

What if your firm closed its doors on customer service?

What do you usually expect to receive while ordering something online? Hopefully exactly what you ordered, even though there is always a risk of getting something completely different. It could be the wrong colour or the apparel doesn’t fit you well. When such annoying things happen, you hope the company will want to help you resolve your issue.

In our Internal Marketing class, and in a way

Why we become a brand liker on Facebook?

I have just become a Red Bull Facebook fan. Honestly I don’t know what compelled me to sign up. Yes, I do like all extreme sport images they post. But being a Master of Marketing student, I query about if there is something more than simply being a Facebook fan of particular brand, or whether or not it actually affects my purchasing habits of Red Bull?



Why do consumers sign up for brand pages

Is social media really a worthy marketing tool?

No one would deny that social media is the major marketing buzzword nowadays. And it’s definitely going to generate buzz for a while. Nearly all companies are already on the way to become even more digital and “social”. It seems so exciting we can achieve cost effective direct collaboration and communication with a customer that was never achievable before.



But the question is whether social

News digest: with Elena

It’s great news that the first semester is behind us. Honestly, it wasn’t easy. And it’s not just my personal feelings as international student, being pretty unfamiliar with a new study environment from the very beginning. Communicating with other classmates, it seems we all have made sacrifices to ensure good study results.




After taking a long breath…hooray! I am on the surface again. So

“Half the size, twice the happiness” Coke taking sharing seriously.

Recently, my group conducted a presentation and research assignment around The Coca Cola Company’s co-creation efforts in our Internal Marketing class, with Professor Pennie Frow. We found that, while with good co-creation intentions, a global company like Coke ultimately still held a lot of control when it comes to co-creation, as they simply have too much to lose if anything goes wrong. In

The Long Hard Road of Social Media

There has been plenty of hype surrounding the potential of social media as a low-cost, high-impact promotional tool for business.



Much of the social media hype has been fuelled by the various success stories, in particular the YouTube sensations that have generated millions of views from relatively low-cost production videos. A few of the classic examples in recent years include Blendtec, Old

Taco Bell’s Internet Personality

I LOVE Taco Bell. I love them so much; I would take any opportunity to talk with people about how amazing Taco Bell is. All of their marketing efforts have worked on me, and I am a proud advocate for their brand. Which is a bit strange, considering I’ve never even eaten there.



Why all the passion?



Because Taco Bell’s Internet personality is someone I’d like to be best friends with. Sure,

Centenarian Oreo stays Young through Social Media Campaign

Not every brand survives 5-10 years of existence, and even fewer can brag about being a centenarian. So what’s the secret behind Oreo’s over 100 years of success? Good Marketing of course.



Recently Oreo, the delicious crunchy dark chocolate cookie whose two biscuits sandwich a disk of contrasting white ‘melt-in-the-mouth’ sweet crème, has focused on building a strong and creative social

The Harlem Shake, Gangam Style, The Man Your Man could smell like, Evolution of Dance… What made these videos go viral?

When chatting over the phone with my parents last week we got on to the topic of viral videos, and in particular the latest viral video, The Harlem Shake. My parents were quite concerned that I was watching viral videos because they honestly thought that doing so might leave me with a virus on my computer.



The following 30 minutes of our conversation was spent explaining to my parents (

Oreo, Audi and Tide clear winners at the Superbowl

Superbowl XLVII has come and gone with the Ravens as the victors. There are however a few other notable winners this year that went home with thousands of tweets, a trophy of sorts for Advertising and Marketing departments, earned by dominating on-line social media creativeness and speed.



With a half hour blackout during the football game resulting in extra unforeseen advertising opportunities

Klout: Online Social Influence

Klout, a company that measures web analytics to determine a user’s influence across social networks, is one of those polarizing topics. Its harshest critics have mocked it with a parody site called ‘Klouchebag’, while others see it as a sign of the rising power of influence data.

From Facebook ‘likes’ and ‘tweets’, we all generate loads of data that can be harnessed by anyone interested in

Obama’s winning 2012 election strategy

[image courtesy: https://www.facebook.com/barackobama]

It’s not every day that you get to watch an American presidential election unfold. Over the past few months I’ve been following the 2012 presidential election. I would be lying to you if I told you that I wasn’t interested in knowing the outcome of the election (let’s just say that I would be a rich woman if I was a betting woman) but