Nifty Google docs holiday message

Four Googlers worked together simultaneously on a single Google Docs spreadsheet. Each cell in the 100 row x 186 col spreadsheet was filled using 18 different colours. The entire process was captured in time-lapse.

Ideas for your Out of Office automated message

1. I am currently out at a job interview and will reply to you if I fail to get the position. Be prepared for my mood.
2. You are receiving this automatic notification because I am out of the office. If I was in, chances are you wouldn’t have received anything at all.
3. Sorry to have missed you but I am at the doctors having my brain removed so that I may be promoted to management.
4. I will be unable to delete all the unread, worthless emails you send me until I return from vacation on 5/18. Please be patient and your mail will be deleted in the order it was received.
5. Thank you for your email. Your credit card has been charged $5.99 for the first ten words and $1.99 for each additional word in your message.
6. The e-mail server is unable to verify your server connection and is unable to deliver this message. Please restart your computer and try sending again. (The beauty of this one is that when you return, you can see how many in-duh-viduals did this over and over).
7. Thank you for your message, which has been added to a queuing system. You are currently in 352nd place and can expect to receive a reply in approximately 19 weeks.
8. Please reply to this e-mail so I will know that you got this message.
9. I am on holiday. Your e-mail has been deleted.
10. Hi. I’m thinking about what you’ve just sent me. Please wait by your PC for my response.
11. Hi! I’m busy negotiating the salary for my new job. Don’t bother to leave me any messages.
12. I’ve run away to join a different circus.
13. I will be out of the office for the next 2 weeks for medical reasons. When I return, please refer to me as ‘Loretta’ instead of ‘Anthony’.

I've gone with two because... well... it's the truth. :-p

Thanks to Noah Kagan for the list.

Laggard! Facebook groups to join...

Following on from my iPhone apps recs post, I decided to quickly whip up a Facebook group one. So here are some groups that I have joined (note: pages are a different story):

• ad:tech brain
• AIMIA
• Australasian Advertising and Media
• Australasian Digital Media
• Australian mobile industry group
• Best Ads
• Fans of MarketingProfs
• Gen Y Marketing Podcast
• Mobile Monday Melbourne
• Marketing magazine
• New Media Jobs
• PRIA
• Twitter Melbourne

Got one that's not on the list? Let me know and I'll check it out.

Who should take centre stage? Heritage vs. new.

Tim Burrowes, former group editor of B&T magazine, has recently entered the blogosphere with a new project called mUmBRELLA and despite the title the offering has nothing to do with Mums or umbrellas... rather 'everything under Australia's marketing and media umbrealla'.

Anyway to cut a long story short I was very perplexed by the following post, and admittedly it is an 'opinion' piece, titled the media vs. Laurel Papworth. I've included some excerpts below to paint the picture:

"It’s that snide use of the phrase “heritage media”. You have to hear it come out of her mouth to feel the full contempt she appears to have for things non-digital.

"Her usual argument is that the established media, whether print or broadcast, is stuck in its ways, ignorant of the new and doomed, doomed, doomed…

"And there is a certain type of digerati who really winds me up. So obsessed are they with the new, that they refuse to accept the possibility that anything that went before has any value. Don’t Twitter? Then you’re a muppet. What do you mean you haven’t been on People Browsr yet? It’s been available in beta for nearly a fortnight - what are you thinking?"

+ So whilst I do agree with a lot of the sentiment, which... I guess is like what I was trying to channel in my post here, I do believe that there is a way to approach things, especially when 'knocking' someone in their own turf if you like, and so personally.

Without involving myself too much (apolitical stance please), I guess I am in the fortunate position of actively working and playing in both 'heritage' and new media so can cling firmly on the top of the fence and appreciate both - separately and in unison, for what they're worth.

Anyway I am eager to hear how Laurel responds - if she does... and to see the official launch of mUmBRELLA next year.

Moggies top ten out

Craig Wilson aka The Media Hunter has released a post containing the list of the top ten nominees for the marketing and media post of the year. Congratulations must go to the following bloggers:

• Jonathan Crossfield - Linkbait at any Cost?
• Daniel Oyston - Deeeer, It’s Red Bull You Idiot!
• Matt Granfield - How to get the world’s attention without being remarkable… which was also released on Marketing mag here, then published in the print magazine as we were following The Marketer's suggestion of placing 'under every marketers nose and making them read it.' :-P
• Charis Palmer - Why bankers are wary of social media
• Gavin Heaton - Where the hell is the sponsor?
• Nic Hodges - Why aren’t we creating great digital work?
• Julian Cole - Top 50 Australian Marketing Pioneer Blogs
• Julian Cole - NAB Spamming: A story of a maverick blog personality
• Bret Treasure - On Passion and Influence
• Katie Chatfield - Take the frickin’ red pill

So now the hard part for me is to judge them. They have all been critical in building this great community as we know it so it's going to be tought rating each one! Results will be published next Monday.

Thesis... so much to write about

In '09 I will be writing my masters' thesis on a marketing topic that I have yet to determine. It involves a literature review, primary and/or secondary research and then the report. The report itself will be between 15,000 - 20,000 words.

At the moment I am thinking along the broad topic lines of something to do with brand management and digital (incl. new media). I guess I could look at online branding (such as looking at recent results released through the IAB).

I'm also tossing up between doing a coursework module in 'Services Marketing' (a bit repetitive on my existing theory) or lashing out a little into something under the advertising or PR umbrella.

Would love to hear people's opinions...

Warning warning content saturation approaching

Seth posted this fantastic post regarding the future of content on the net and how it is nearing its saturation point. I thought I would share (have included the post below) and I must say I tend to agree.

I'm all for the long tail and niches but after a while the environment will feel like it is very cluttered. For instance how many Australian marketing and advertising blogs do we need? How many can we actually sustain? How many do we actually consume? If there aren't enough readers out there ever, it seems like an awful waste of time and energy, and almost a revisit to the early years of the blogosphere à la an extension of the personal diary. By you, for you if you like. And what is really the ROI on that?

Despite my pet hates with the platform, I think Twitter has really found an interesting space in the greater web. If we as individuals are almost full as Seth says, people have to be a lot more proactive about getting their content out there and to the consumers who matter (the return of direct marketing?). If Twitter itself had a filtering mechanism (and yes I'm sure there are third party programs that do) it would really take user-generated content and suggestions/recommendations to the next level to truly find its semantic calling.

+ Warning: The internet is almost full
"Due to the extraordinary explosion in video, blogs, news feeds and social network postings, the internet is dangerously close to running out of room.

Nothing can grow forever, and exponential growth is always short lived. We're running out of disk space, so if you have something left to say, better hurry. Once it's full, it's full.

Of course, the decentralized nature of the net means that it will never be physically full. As long as we can keep making hard drives, we won't run out of space to store those inane videos of your Aunt Sally. What is full is our attention.

Ten years ago, you had a shot of at least being aware of everything that mattered. Five years ago, you had to be really selective about what you took in, but at least it was possible to know what you didn't know. Today, it's impossible. Today, you can't even read every article on a thin slice of a thin topic.

You can't keep up with the status of your friends on the social networks. No way. You can't read every important blog... you can't even read all the blogs that tell you what the important blogs are saying.

Used to be, you could finish reading your email, hit "check email" and nothing new would show up. Now, of course, the new mail is probably a longer list than the mail you just finished processing.

The internet isn't full, but we are."

Quantum of Bonds: Pierce vs. Craig

Engage thy enemy

Another word for my (overused/annoying) marketing word of the week - engagement.

I was doing the blog browsing rounds recently and thought it quite amazing how many members of the Digerati are labelling themselves as experts in engagement. I mean... how can someone or something become an expert in engagement? Engagement involves both the party doing the engaging and the party being engaged, therefore to be an expert is somewhat undefinable as engagement is such an individual notion. It's like people who think themselves fluent in online conversation... how can they? Why can they? Your appreciation of conversational elements will be different from mine and vice versa. Anyway I then thought that collective engagement via social media could actually be ironic and that engagement must be something that is user led between two parties; something organic...

To finish, I would like to make mention that the word engagement can also mean something that involves a hostile encounter - something which I don't think is too far off at the rate and method that some companies are trying to dabble in social media.