11Feb / 2013

A Huge Success!!

Organisers thrilled at Breaka’s success
Travis Meyn | February 11th, 2013

Spectators enjoy the Breaka Burleigh Pro action at the weekend. Pic: Scott Fletcher

A little bit of beach and a whole lot of work!

So here we are again, our third year working on the Breaka Burleigh Pro! We love this event and thrive on the diverse communication and media channels that have expressed interest in all facets of the surfing pro culture.

They love the human-interest stories, the sports results, and the controversy that can sometimes pop up; and of course this year we have the Women’s ASP 6 star event to work with.

I must say the work involved with getting every angle out to the media has been phenomenal. So many stories and so many characters to work with this year. This can make a nice change to the usual battle for interview opportunities due to athlete schedules and availability. We had Occhy on board again this year along with Sally Fitzgibbons and other world tour surfers from all over the globe.

Our wildcard competition this year has also generated strong media interest with Kelly Norris and Laura Poncini both making great ambassadors for the event.

The memery team has worked tirelessly with media nationally and has enjoyed the challenge that comes with gaining extensive exposure for the event and most importantly for our client – Breaka!

Ensuring prevalent brand placement can always be a little tricky however with a little ambassador training and diligence on content it can be achieved and i am certainly happy to note that the team here has done just that.

I will report on the communication results of this event shortly so stay tuned and if you happen to be on the Gold Coast this week or heading out of Brisbane for a weekend away I would certainly recommend spending some time at the Breaka Burleigh Pro.

Whilst your there check out this years new addition – The Breaka Artist Wall; hosting many of the coasts top Graffiti artists. We love it and look forward to auctioning them on the Breaka Flavoured Milk facebook page to raise funds for the grant program set up to help underprivileged children have access to surf schools. A great cause and a great way to get involved.

See you there!
point to prove gc bulletin_2.02

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22May / 2012

Insights from our Intern – Krystal

During my time as an intern, Memery has opened my eyes to the competitive world of public relations. It has given me the inspiration to continue my career within PR, enlightened and enriched my personal opinion of the industry and reassured myself that an agency can actually be an exciting and enjoyable place.

Why I chose Memery:

With my mind set on finding an PR agency that best reflected my own personality, interests and desire to advance in the PR industry, my direction was clear:

I wanted to work for an agency that would challenge me daily
I wanted to work with a team that would support me
I wanted to work for an agency that dealt with clients that appealed to me

Referred by a friend, I found myself eagerly typing ‘Memery’ into my Google search engine. Straight away their website aesthetics caught my attention and from this moment on, I knew that Memery was the perfect agency to kick-start my professional career.

Memery is all about giving their interns the full industry experience. I was never asked to make coffee or take out the rubbish; instead, I was immersed into the world of public relations from day one. Each week I was given the opportunity to learn something new and challenge my skills.

Throughout this experience my confidence, knowledge and skills improved extensively.

My advice to future interns:

From an intern on the inside, I’ve pulled together some tips for aspiring public relations practitioners:

1. Do your research

Know the type of PR company you want to work for before applying – whether it be a small agency or a corporate in-house department

2. Be honest with your team leader

Talk to them about your interests, your skills, previous experience and what you hope to achieve by the end of your internship

3. Don’t be afraid to ask for help

This will get you the respect you deserve and more challenging tasks to work on!

4. Be confident in sharing your opinion

You are part of a team after all

5. Absorb as much as possible

If you are forgetful like myself, bring a notepad and write down EVERYTHING – you can use this as a touch-point in the future.

So if you are sitting on the fence wondering what the industry holds for you… my advice in the words of Nike – ‘Just Do It’! An internship that is.

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04Apr / 2012

Do PR Stunts Get Your Attention?

PR stunts were once limited to brands willing to risk their reputation when slightly overstepping the boundaries and for this reason they easily grabbed our attention. After a while we all clicked onto these so called “gimmicks” and began to love their humorous tactics.

Now most brands are willing to be a bit cheekier when it comes to getting our attention and in the process begin to build their brand personality. This makes it fun for us in the industry of ‘GETTING ATTENTION’ because we get to be creative!

We have put together some of our favourite PR stunts that got us talking:

1. Neon male strips for Contrex Mineral Water

Hot pink exercise bikes line a crowded area, sitting patiently awaiting the curious. In Nestles attempt to promote their Contrex Mineral Water to the women of France, they did the unthinkable and stuck a neon-lit male stripper to a large building in a crowded location. With Contrex Mineral Water strategically placed next to each bike, what better way is there to grab the attention of passing females than to invite to them to undress the brightly lit toned male.

2. Katie Price Tweets Snickers

If you think outdoor promotion is the best way to promote a brand, think again. In a recent stunt facilitated by Katie Price (aka Jordan), Twitter proved to be a stunt domain in hiding. International brand, Snickers, asked Price to post intelligent comments on her largely followed Twitter account for their latest campaign. After creating mass confusion people started to suggest her account had been hacked, Price revealed what had come over her, “You’re not you when you’re hungry”.

3. Barbie Tram stops Melbourne

So its Barbie’s 80^th Anniversary, how do I know this? Two words, Barbie Tram. Mattel has just proved that even though their Barbie’s are heading to retirement, their brand strategies are not. Call it a facelift or just plain good PR, but Barbie has managed to burst through the competitive toy world and stop fellow Melbournians in their tracks, when the number 96 Barbie closet tram was unveiled in March.

4. Ikea ‘sleepers’ on public transport

Sleeping on public transport has long been considered plain embarrassing and awkward (if you break out in snores). To shock the system, Ikea bounced back with a unique creative strategy. In a bid to win back support and get their ever expanding brand name on the lips of every Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne commuter, Ikea took their sleepyheads to the heart of each city – public transport.

5. Huge Angry Birds stunt at Seattle’s Space Needle

When the Angry Birds Apple App sprung into the spotlight not long ago, it quickly turned into a smart-phone users’ ultimate leisure addiction. Fast forward a year and it was inevitable that the hype would soon die down. In a bid to regain strength in the market and promote the new and improved version, Angry Birds Space, Angry Birds positioned a very large 35-foot Angry Bird on Seattle’s 605-foot tall Space Needle.

Yes these tactics created hype, yes they created interest, and yes they proved to be an effective PR tactic – which is why we loved them!

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19Mar / 2012

Facebook Timeline Changes

The Facebook Timeline takeover is getting closer and here in the office we have been busy preparing our client pages for the change. It was only two weeks ago when Facebook announced some significant design changes to become mandatory on the 30^th March, 2012. The unique features being introduced will force brands to have engaging and sharable content ranging from the likes of photography to info-graphics, which is sure to make things more interesting for users.

These changes to Facebook’s functionality will impact brands and their Facebook strategy, but if done right will become an even more powerful branding tool.

Here is a summary of the five major changes:

1. Cover Photo

The cover photo will be introduced and will sit at the top of the page. This will become the first “branding” touch point, allowing you to create a descriptive visual of your brand. Coca-Cola has created a great example of how to give your Timeline page personality in a branded context.

2. Pin posts

“Pinning” a post will allow it to stay at the top of the Timeline for 7 days at a time and precede any other content. It is an ideal way to curate your brands Timeline content and encourage a posts “stickiness”.

3. Milestone

A milestone is a major brand event significant to your brands growth. You can use this feature to prompt conversations with your fans about a product launch, store opening or in the case of Dove below, use a milestone to craft the story of the brand.

4. Star Post

“Starring” a post will allow you to highlight an important post on the timeline in a very big way. The post will expand to a widescreen view and will always be visible on the Timeline at this size. Starbucks has used this feature (below) to create an eye-catching post which generated 15, 815 likes and 671 comments. I think they would be happy with that!

5. Direct Messages

Users can now send brands private, direct messages, providing an enhanced customer support channel. Brands cannot approach users, they can only respond if a user starts the conversation.

These Timeline changes are going to shake things up initially, but brands that start to share engaging content will definitely reap the benefits and remain at the forefront of consumer attention.

Tell us what you think about the new Facebook Timeline changes…

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07Feb / 2012

Our obsession can now be classified as “work”

Pinterest has long been our office obsession. It is our go to place for personal inspiration and most days I hear someone saying “Oh that’s cute!” only to turn around and see them gushing at Pinterest.

If you’ve been under a rock, Pinterest is a virtual pin board that allows you to share all the beautiful things you find on the web, but it’s fast evolving from a way of sharing inspirational and motivational images to a key social media strategy for brands.

Pinterest has had rapid growth over the past few months becoming a Top 5 referrer for retailers, as well as becoming one of the Top 10 most trafficked social network sites. Unique visitors to the site has increased by an estimated 429% from September to December 2011.

Pinterest has even been used by reporters to share newsworthy pics, such as Canada’s CTV news’ coverage of Occupy Wall Street.

There are two ways brands are using Pinterest:

1. The brand pins an image that has no direct branding, instead styling the image to reflect their brand/product. Brands can then provide a link to their website for pinners to click through and browse/purchase products.

2. Of late pins like this have started to show up on our feeds. Need I say anymore.

We have had several office discussions about the path that Pinterest may go down when brands start to take over with blatant branding to gain awareness. The consensus: It will ruin Pinterest!

The problem with the latter Pantene “pin” is that it takes the experience away from being about the style of the image and forces it to be about a product. The experience of browsing un-intrusive images is what people go to Pinterest for, once the boards become filled with branding I personally will never return.

We hope this isn’t where Pinterest is headed – what would our next addiction be?!

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18Jan / 2012

New Year, New Resolution

It is our second week back at work and getting out of bed in the morning still seems hideously unfair as we settle back into work mode… saying goodbye to our pleasant holiday sleep ins and setting alarms for 6:30am! So as we slowly get back into the groove we have decided to share our “New Year’s Resolutions” to really kick start the year.

This week we will each share our New Year’s Resolutions which will hopefully force us to stick to them.

SAM

Personal

Well, what can I say! New Years Eve is not my favourite night of the year so I guess resolutions to go with it have never been high on my agenda either. I’m a bit of day by day girl so planning personal plights can be a little tricky. However, for the sake of this banter I will nominate making more of an effort in my daily beauty regime as my resolution. I can get a little lazy with makeup routines and spending time on my hair do, so for the best part of this year I will take a little more time and effort. Lets face it, probably more for the sake of those who have to look at me all day than myself! Right girls?!

Work

As a business owner the resolution here is obvious. Drive new business! Perhaps it is time to take a more proactive stance and I already have been working on developing a new division for memery. Stay tuned for that news! As a truly national company I am also resolved to the fact that we will have an office in Sydney and fingers crossed Melbourne by December 2012. So there you have it, diversification and growth! Cheers to that.

BEC

Personal

After spending my Christmas holidays staying on one of Australia’s iconic fashion strips Chapel St, I became acutely aware that I wasn’t overly adventurous in the colour department. Of my wardrobe that is. It’s not that I don’t have options; I always just reach for the black! Easy when it makes up 97% of your pieces with the other 3% shared between navy, grey and the sporadic dash of colour.

So NYRes#1 was set– colour my world!

The other day I went to my cupboard and picked out a bright yellow dress. By the time I got to work I felt like a giant lemon and I wanted to shoot myself. Ok that may be a little melodramatic… lets just say that branching out from black has not been a positive experience for me. Perhaps I should have started with neutrals then I wouldn’t feel the urge to revert back to Kelly Cutrone Black already!

Work

NY Res#2 – tweet more!

Although I have had my Twitter account since 2009, until recently I have merely been a twatcher [tweet watcher] so I’ve decided I shall now tweet @ least once a day! Want to be my 27^th follower? You’d better be quick! haha @bec_jerdan

SALLY

Personal

I was given my first digital SLR camera for Christmas – spoilt, I know! So, my New Years resolution 2012 is to learn to use my shiny new Canon!

I am anticipating that by the end of the year I will be taking fabulous Annie Leibovitz style snaps! Now, if I could only remember the difference between ISO and Aperture…

Work

2012 marks a very exciting milestone in my life. This year, I will graduate from The University of Queensland with a Bachelor of Communication, majoring in Public Relations (assuming all goes to plan).

I would be lying if I said that I have loved every minute of the last three years, and I can GUARANTEE that more than once this year I will feel like pulling my hair out/banging my head on a brick wall/dropping out to run away and join the circus. I have a sneaking suspicion, however, that it will all be worth it in the end.

AMBRE

Personal

Initially I refused to have a New Year’s Resolution for 2012 as I often have trouble coming up with something exciting that I will actually stick to. But after spending a week of my holidays in Sydney and absolutely loving every minute of exploring the city I feel a little bad for my lack of effort in exploring Brisbane. So my personal New Year’s Resolution is to do something new each week, whether it is eating at a new restaurant or going to the Moonlight Cinemas (this week’s activity).

Work

As I am still learning so much every day I come to work, my work resolution is to soak up as much information as I can (and retain it) and become a PR genius like all the girls in this office.

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07Dec / 2011

Donate your phones this Christmas to help children and animals!

Three of Queensland’s favorite charities have joined forces with Mobile 4 Charity and Westpac bank to raise money through the recycling of mobile phones.

Westpac Calamvale will host the launch of the consortium’s mobile phone fundraising appeal at their branch on Wednesday December 7^th 2011 at 10am.

Westpac General Manager Jason Garner will officially launch the program at 10am with a formal announcement. Also in attendance will be representatives from the RSPCA, PCYC, Bravehearts and mobile4charity.

The launch will see the consortium come together and officially kickstart the program with the backing of Westpac QLD. The TVC will be released and appeal targets and environmental impacts will highlighted

Bravehearts, PCYC and the RSPCA are proud to announce their consortium with Mobile 4 Charity that will raise much-needed funds from the collection of mobile phones from all Queensland Westpac bank branches.

With hundreds of charities competing for the same community and corporate support the alliance will not only help the children and animals they assist but also the environment and will strengthen their fund raising capabilities.

Westpac are helping to facilitate the consortium’s fundraising efforts by hosting a ‘mobile4charity’ mobile phone collection bin at every Queensland Westpac branch.

The general public, Westpac customers and staff can drop their pre loved and unwanted mobile phones in the collection bins at any local Westpac branch in Queensland.

Mobile4charity, an internationally recognized mobile phone recycling program, then collects the phones for recycling with the consortium raising funds for every phone collected.

“We are delighted to have formed this partnership with both the PCYC & RSPCA and to be a part of a program that not only enables our organisations to raise funds, but also makes a difference environmentally,” said Peter Duffy, Bravehearts ‘Commercial Manager.

Charities have felt the brunt of the tough year endured by Queenslanders so finding alternatives to asking the public to constantly reach in their pockets is vital to fundraising efforts. With Christmas just around the corner the public are generally more open to giving to charities but asking for dollar donations is still tough.

“Christmas is a peak time of year for new phones purchases. All we ask is that when consumers purchase their new phone, they think about how they recycle the old one. Placing the phone in the bin poses an environmental hazard and most phones can be re conditioned and sent to developing nations where affordability is minimal. By dropping your old handsets into the deposit bins at Westpac you’ll be disposing of your phone properly and helping to raise funds for these three iconic Queensland charities that do so much for the wellbeing of our children and animals.” Explained Mobile4charity director Cam Hanns.

“This program is a convenient option for businesses and individuals to support our charity’s without having to outlay additional revenue. They simply donate their unused phones in a convenient and secure program.” added PCYC Sergeant Gary Penny, General Manager Fundraising & Marketing.

The goal is to collect 50,000 mobile phones and Christmas is the perfect opportunity to discard unused mobile phones whilst assisting three very worthy causes.

About the members of the consortium:

Bravehearts, Australia’s leading child protection advocacy group and the nation’s only charity specifically dedicated to combating child sexual assault in Australia.

PCYC, Queensland Police-Citizens Youth Clubs who facilitate and encourage participation in sporting, recreation, cultural and welfare programs.

RSPCA Queensland, a non-government, community-based charity dedicated to protecting the welfare of all animals.

Mobile 4 Charity is an Australian owned and operated mobile phone recycler that collects unused mobile phones from businesses and the Government. The phones are then sold at a vastly reduced price overseas with the money going to charity. According to a recent study by Nokia, only 3% of mobile phone users recycle their old phones. If each of the three billion people owning mobiles brought back just one unused device we could save 240,000 tonnes of raw materials and reduce greenhouse gases to the same extent as taking 4 million cars off the road. The program is simple in concept, with counter top collection bins delivered to workplaces, retail outlets or agreed venues. These are then collected with no cost or financial outlay to the business.

For further information or to obtain a collection box please contact any one of the following:

Peter Duffy (Bravehearts) on 5552 3000, pduffy@bravehearts.org.au

Gary Penny (PCYC) 3909 9558 gary.penny@pcyc.org.au

Diane Baartz (RSPCA) 3426 9916 dbaartz@rspcaqld.org.au

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21Oct / 2011

Creatively branded shopping bags

I saw this post on the Lost at E Minor newsletter this morning and it instantly captured my attention as it is something I have always thought about. I guess that thought process goes something like this:

Shopper enters shop by choice and instantly volunteers to engage with your brand
Shopper makes purchase and continues to walk the shopping center or street with their purchase in your subtly branded, typically bland, run of the mill shopping bag. Never the less it’s still the shopping bag that you have already invested some form of $ in and will likely be thrown away once the purchaser get home.
LIGHT BULB MOMENT OF OPPORTUNITY IDENTIFICATION ANYONE?.. These shoppers are your walking brand billboards, actually they are more than that they are your walking brand advocates. Why not invest the money you already spend on your bags, maybe put some extra into the design and production and get the most exposure possible out of these walking brand advocates!

In saying this if everyone went down this path it would no longer be as valuable as it would be just another level of clutter. Anyway something to think about if it suits your brand essence and position (and of course budgets).. If not have a look at these pretty cool examples anyway!

See the rest at Lost at E Minor here

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The memery BLOG

A Huge Success!!

A little bit of beach and a whole lot of work!

Insights from our Intern – Krystal

Do PR Stunts Get Your Attention?

Our obsession can now be classified as “work”

New Year, New Resolution

Donate your phones this Christmas to help children and animals!

Creatively branded shopping bags

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