As my Pembroke friends are out celebrating year two of the P’OSCARS aka Pembroke Oscars, I’ve decided to venture back into one of my favourite places- Irish Media Watch. I received a frantic text from Ciara last night to tell me the blog had gone “down under” (lol sorry I couldn’t resist that one) or at least she couldn’t figure out what was wrong. “It seems to be reverting back to the old blog for some reason” and so I thought the only way to find out what’s wrong is to test it out – hence my first blog post from the land of Oz. 
I am now only considered a guest blogger to Irish Media Watch having taking the plunge to warmer climates and this position was only granted to me on one condition, I MUST post a monthly blog on what’s happening in the news down under. I’ve been here 10 weeks and this is my first !!
On my first week here I found myself waking up in the morning time dying to get my hands on a newspaper or at least logging onto The Herald Sun and The Age to get my daily media consumption (CAN YOU BELIEVE IT MICK) I was actually interested in reading the headlines which was a surprise to me too. Was I was still in serious work mode or had the wonderful world of PR altered my personal interests?
I even found myself wanting to watch the news instead of the endless streams of US sitcoms that they broadcast here. Since I arrived there have been some very newsworthy items worth mentioning, starting from the Qantas airline industrial dispute which lead to them grounding their flights to President Barack Obama and the Queen of England’s flying visit. My first month was exciting to say the least. The Aussies experienced a shake up in Government and are coming under immense pressure with increasing number of asylum seekers attempting to enter the country. Not forgetting radio broadcaster, Kyle Sandilands’ on-air attack on a female journalist which saw at least 15 major brands pledge not to advertise on any of his programs in 2012 including Coles, Bunnings, Vodafone, McDonald’s, Ford and Blackmores.
I even remember picking up MX (their free-sheet over here) and reading about the latest Ryanair stunt with Michael O’Leary’s announcing an in-flight porn app.
It looks like my time at Pembroke has changed me for the better, I now can’ t go a lunch time without reading the Business section of The Age, I’m hooked!! From insights into the latest marketing campaigns (very impressed with Coca Cola’s Share A Coke advertising campaign and Victoria Beers cooler fridge marketing campaign) to features on the latest company’s market share prices plummeting (which looks to be Billabong hitting the headlines theses days)
But one thing that surprised me most when I first arrived were the amount of infomercials that are broadcasted during the breakfast shows on Channel 7,9 and 10. They are ridiculously scripted it’s actually frustrating to watch. They remind me of TV3’s earlier years with the teleshopping programmes only ten times worse. “So Steve tell us a bit about this professional quality, ultra lightweight vacuum with superior suction power” “Well Carla. . this is the MUST HAVE Vacuum cleaner this summer…Look how good it cleans up this mess” It has Cillit Bang script writers written all over it!!
More importantly since arriving in Melbourne I have discovered THE WALL which I believe originated here in Australia and has grown legs in Britain and now the US. Essentially the Wall deploys a similar concept to a wordcloud widget on a blog – the larger topics or stories are bigger and newer topics are flagged with a small red flame. The aim starting out was to build up a loyal audience and subscriber base and worry about commercial prospects later. The Wall can easily be replicated for any geographical market so I’m wondering has Ireland adopted one yet??
That’s it from me folks for 2011 but wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. :-)
All the best,
Sarah
21/12/11
