The campaign was originally designed to be a community torism pride campaign that aimed to influence locals to focus on promoting what makes Wollongong such a great tourism destination to their family and friends. It was also born from an idea to get the Tourism Wollongong staff blogging internally about what they love about the Gong.  But for anyone that knows Greg Binskin – if he’s sniffs half a good idea in something small like this  – it doesn’t stay small for very long.

With unpreecendented (but not unexpected) local community and business support, the campaign really took off and through the use of a well timed television, print and outdoor advertising campaign combined with a multi channel social media campaign, we love the gong has easily broken the mould for destination marketing in Australia.

The highlights of the campaign from our perspective were (and continue to be):

• Active industry engagement – this wasn’t a “buy a 1/6 page ad in our print publication and send us your material” project. This campaign included social media training for operators, wide industry consultation, the local council was onboard from the start and the product was a ‘fun’ proposition that business owners could easily understand and get behind.
• Active media involvement – the conversation with local media outlets resulted not in big ad spends, but created smart alignment and use of resources that resulted in true partnerships – not just free ad spots or endorsed advertising spots that got onsold to everyone else.  This campaign had a small but well leveraged budget that delivered results well above what only big dollars can normally buy.
• Active and well supported multi channel social media engagement – this campaign didn’t just set up a facebook page – it started with a strategy that focussed on the message and the audience and the best tools that could reach them with the available internal time and resources.  Youtube, Twitter, Flickr, facebook, Google maps and a wordpress blog combined to deleiver the message in the way that the audience wanted to consume it.
• Actively engaged audience – 3 words sum up this for me “PEOPLE TALKED BACK”.  This wasn’t fake one way broadcast media designed to look like social media.  this campaign got people talking, engaging, owning the message and wherever they could and when they needed to, Tourism Wollongong engaged with the audience and talked back.  True social media at work.  Sure it took time and effort, but so does every form of good marketing.

Threesides are proud to have have worked with Tourism Wollongong in the developing the website, providing social media training to local industry operators, campaign social media strategy, and ongoing tips and tools to make this campaign a success.

We also engaged the website development guru’s at Osky Interactive to help us build and deliver the technical aspects of the campaign with a smart looking and functioning wordpress site and social media integration.

[Quick shout out to Wisdom Advertising and Design in Wollongong who delivered the campaign logo too - check out the specs on their website - who continue to deliver consistently good looking campaign creative to Tourism Wollongong]

Great ideas combined with motivated people and engaged partners is what we know has made this campaign a success and raised the bar that little bit higher for tourism destination promotion in NSW and Australia.

So one question left – do you love the Gong now?! We do (and now we love the award winning Gong just a little bit more…….  

1. Open your ears before you open your mouth
2. Social Media can be measured  - but measuring isn’t sexy right
3. Privacy still matters – but nothing has really changed
4. Keep being creative in how you use social media
5. Who is your target market:  are they digital immigrants or digital natives?
6. You can spend money in social media – Free is just the beginning
7. Real Time requires Real Time
8. You still need a plan and goals
9. Don’t follow fads
10. The best social media policy: START

To see the full presentation view it on Slideshare or better yet just view it below!

Did you attend the presentation?  Appreciate your feedback below.

What isn’t there to love about the place:

• ‘peak hour’ lasts for 25mins (20 mins without road works) – you’d be lucky to get to the corner shop in Sydney in that time.
• We get real seasons at the time of year they are meant to happen – unlike Melbourne that you wake up in winter, go to work in summer, lunchtime has fined up to a nice spring day and by 2.00pm you have the winter blues back again.
• We are located 2 hrs from the Snowy Mountains and 1.5 hours from the NSW South Coast – a 14 hour drive to the snow from Brisbane.

…and at this point everyone from interstate is going to start telling me that we don’t get massive concerts, we don’t have a grand prix, beaches or 1400 cafes down pokey little laneways.  I’m cool with that, that’s why I go on enough holidays to Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and everywhere else in Australia because I love my whole country. We also have great clients across this region that gets us out the door and travelling all the time (NSW National Parks and Wildlife, Illawarra Fly Tree Top Walk, Tourism Wollongong to pick a few).

But what I love most about Canberra is that we are the centre of attention for people that want to “love Canberra in Disguise” - also known as Canberra Bashing or Canberra knockers.  You get it in the media all the time “Today Canberra sent 1,000 more troops to Iraq” – “Canberra has set up a new immigration detention centre” – “Canberra plans new taxes on the poor”.

I AM CANBERRA as much as any politician and I didn’t decide any of those things.  Politicians from Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney decided those.   They are Australians, we are all Australians (time for a song??).  Canberra is a place where you can get a great cross section of what it means to be Australian – it’s where I love to live regardless of what politicians say or do all day up on the hill – Canberra is full of much more goodness than that.

The point of this blog post you ask?  A pro-Canberra rant? A stop Canberra bashing rant? A shameless plug for six of our clients? No – the whole point of this post was to give you a great lead into a really funny video (aired on ABC’s Hungry Beast TV show) that one of our friends at the Australian Instititue of Sport sent me through (We worked on their Tourism Award win with them).

This made me laugh – it’s got all the good bits of Canberra in it and does a great job of taking the piss at the same time – Truly Australian Humour.

Enjoy – Todd.

See the slideshare.net presentation below for the low down.

Did you attend the event?  Leave your feedback below in our comments and let us know how you use online marketing in your business in Canberra.

Canberra businesses are being encouraged to enter the inaugural Canberra Business Blitz as part of the ACT Government’s Business in Focus Month this September.

Canberra Business Blitz is an initiative designed to take local businesses to the next level with the expert marketing assistance of Link Digital, Schmooze Network and Threesides Marketing over a four week period.

“Canberra Business Blitz is the competitive Backyard Blitz of the business sector,” said director of Threesides Marketing, Todd Wright.

“Canberra Business Blitz was developed to assist businesses with their biggest marketing challenges.”

“Every business in Canberra regardless of their size or industry sector has marketing challenges, and too often they don’t know where to start. The Blitz gives three businesses the chance for some much needed marketing assistance. Their experience will be shared online to help other businesses improve.”

“During the month, the finalists will get invaluable access to experts in marketing, sales, PR, networking, design and digital communication.”

Local businesses have the opportunity to win more than $15,000 worth of professional services just by entering the competition with their key marketing or communications challenge.

Three finalists will be selected from the entries and will be ‘blitzed’ for a month.

Over the four weeks, Link, Schmooze and Threesides will blog the progress through the canberrabusinessblitz.com.au website. Public vote through the website at the end of the month will decide the final winner who will go on to receive an extra $10,000 worth of professional services.

Based on the success of this year’s competition, Canberra Business Blitz hopes to become a permanent part of the Canberra’s Business in Focus month’s calendar.

For more information on how to enter see the website canberrabusinessblitz.com.au.

For more information on Business in Focus month go to: business.act.gov.au

The man hailed  as “Obama’s secret political weapon”, Ben Self, Program Director and Founding Partner of Blue State Digital, will be visiting Australia to divulge various secrets surrounding the most successful online campaign in history.

Ben  is coming to Australia as a special guest of the Internet Industry Association (IIA). He will be the keynote speaker at the IIA’s annual dinner on Thursday 12 February. He will then conduct a series of exclusive lunches and cocktail events where guests will be able to take part in a lively discussion about Obama’s campaign and unlocking the power of the internet for your business.

Follow the link below to the Couch Creative website for more info on exclusive events which will take place in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra. The Threesides team plans to be tuning in at the Canberra event so let us know if you’ll be there and we can meet up.

Visit http://www.couchcreative.com.au/kingmaker09/ for more information. Some more info on Ben below (from the event website):

About Ben Self and BSD

Ben founded BSD in 2004 with three other individuals responsible for Howard Dean’s use of the Internet during his presidential campaign. The company now has offices in New York, London, Boston, Washington DC, and San Francisco, creating digital strategy and technology for political candidates, non-profits and companies. BSD powers the online presence of the largest and most prominent Democratic candidates and progressive organisations, including the presidential campaign of Barack Obama.

During his career, Ben has garnered extensive experience in digital technologies, statistical data analysis, data warehousing, database architecture and administration, system design, and system development. He has both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science’s from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Facebook used in ACT supreme court case - image from news.com.au

Should you be using facebook in your business, for your social life or for your criminal life?  Well maybe that question has just been answered thanks to a ruling in the ACT supreme court which has determined that a default judgement can be served to a defendant via face book.

Those uber web 2.0 guys down at Meyer Vandenberg Lawyers got the ruling which of course now sets the precedent across Australia for similar actions to occur.

Okay – so what does this mean to the everyday law abiding citizen like me or you? Not much really – but here’s our Top 5 thoughts about using facebook in courts:

1.  If a judge pokes you with a default judgement – canyou reject his poke and that means you get off?

2. If you get a friend request from ‘I love the law’ at the supreme court of Australia, think hard before you press accept

3. Latest facebook app to be screaming up the charts – “How many of your friends have been busted DUI (or) How many convited fellons are in your entourage!”

4. If you post something on your Wall and some uses it to poke someone else in the workplace – is that workplace harrasment and is it admissiable in court?

5. Current Status – You  have 3 friend requests, 1 event invitation and 4 summons to appear.

Good work Meyer Vandenberg – finding a use for facebook in every workplace – even the court!  Just excuse me while I go and check that my profile is set to private!…

Here’s the media release below in all its glory and a link through to news.com.au that has also covered the story.  Come on Kaleigh – give us the scoop next time!

Australian Court Notifies Defendant by Facebook

It seems that Facebook has no boundaries… Sharing photos, updating your status and playing poker are things of the past- The latest movement in the fast paced world of social networking is that you can now be served legally binding documents.

Last week in what appears to be the first in Australia and potentially the world, Master Harper of the ACT Supreme Court has ordered that a default judgement could be served to someone via their Facebook page.

The innovative channel of communicating with the defendant was suggested by two young Canberra Lawyers from Meyer Vandenberg Lawyers, Mark McCormack and Jason Oliver.

“We couldn’t find the defendants personally after many attempts so we thought we would try and find them on Facebook. We did a public search based on the email address we had and the defendants’ Facebook page appeared.”

“The Facebook profiles showed the defendants’ dates of birth, email addresses and friend lists – and the co-defendants were friends with one another. This information was enough to satisfy the Court that Facebook was a sufficient method of communicating with the defendants.”

A default judgement is given to someone if they do not appear in court. It then becomes the responsibility of the plaintiff to personally deliver or mail the document. This can often be a difficult task if the defendant is not easily located.

Courts have previously allowed default judgements to be delivered by email and text message but it is a first for Facebook.

Archie Tsirimokos, Managing Partner of Meyer Vandenberg says it was only a matter of time before Facebook became a method of communicating with defendants.

“Facebook has become an extension of people’s identity. These young lawyers are to be commended for their innovation.”

Media Contact

Kaliegh Blake

Manager – Business Development

Tel: (02) 62794405 0403068913

Email: Kaliegh.blake@meyervandenberg.com.au