I have removed a post from this site dated 18 December after receiving a letter from solicitors representing 2HD/NEWFM. The post referred to the response of several advertisers to the dismissal of Luke Grant from radio station 2HD.

I received information from reliable sources regarding the content of this post, however the station strongly disputes the allegations. If further information comes to light about advertiser reaction to Luke Grant’s departure I will reconsider, but for now I believe the best thing is to remove the post.

Stop Interrupting

The last 80 years of advertising has been about interruption. Interruption of the music or conversation you listen to on the radio. Interruption of the program you watch on the television. Interruption of your view when traveling. And with the advent of pop-up ads online, interruption of the material you are viewing or reading online.

Occasionally advertising has engaged us, but that is the exception rather than the rule. Overwhelmingly advertisers try to interrupt us to gain our attention. Notice the screaming voice-overs, eye-popping graphics and loud music that leap out of your TV every ad break? That’s just more advertisers fighting for your attention.

Up until recently interruption has been reasonably effective too. There wasn’t a lot of media choice so we just endured the interruption and purchased enough of the products being advertised to justify the advertising expense. Interruption was the price of mass media.

Not any more.

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Media Release from Prime

PRIME is pleased to announce the launch date for its eagerly anticipated free-to-air digital channel 7TWO on PRIME, a broad entertainment channel set to bolster PRIME’s leadership in the regional television market.

7TWO on PRIME is more of what audiences love about PRIME.  More drama, more lifestyle, more reality, more comedy, more movies, more first class entertainment, free for everyone.

The new channel will launch on Wednesday 23 December at 9.00am on digital Channel 62.

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Over at Marketing Magazine they’ve just published my post Marketers need to turn to ‘inbound’. Its about making sure your marketing is keeping up with today’s media consumption and marketing trends. Let me know what you think.

2HD breakfast announcer Luke Grant has been fired from the Bill Caralis radio station this week. Grant is the second big name to disappear from the 2HD line-up in the last two weeks following the departure of Steve Price from the networked Morning program.

The bizarre reason for Luke Grant’s dismissal was allegedly because he “didn’t play enough advertisements during his show”.

2HD has been run without a program director for the last year since the departure of Kev Kellaway. Normally a program director would oversee the format, content and amount of advertisements run on the station, but it seems that the announcers have been left to their own devices with very limited resources in 2009.

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from IT News

Senator Stephen Conroy is fast becoming an international name – with the world’s technology and political community astounded as much by his plans for an internet filter as the build of the $43 billion national broadband network.

London’s Telegraph led with the headline “Australia plans Chinese-style internet filtering“, reminding its UK readers that the leaked ACMA blacklist had included the “innocent websites of a dentist’s practice in Queensland, a tuck-shop consultant and a kennel operator.”

In the United States, Fox News ran with the headline: “Joining China and Iran, Australia to filter internet.”

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The Internet, Twitter especially, exploded with indignation today when the Australian government announced it will proceed with controversial plans to censor the Internet.

The Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, said today he would introduce legislation just before next year’s elections to force ISPs to block a blacklist of “refused classification” (RC) websites for all Australian internet users.

While the Australian government may be proposing an Internet filter with the best intentions of protecting the youth of our nation against “immoral content”, most experts agree that this is easier said than done and could do more harm than good.

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The evolutionary nature of the internet means that its increasingly important for organisations to have a website that is keeping pace with change. A neglected website is one that will be left behind by the most powerful marketing force in the world. Amazingly, only a small percentage of organisations are really taking advantage of their web presence.

Web NLYZR, a free website rating service owned by my company, has been appraising the marketing effectiveness of websites for most of 2009. In this time we have ranked thousands of Australian websites, looking at their Search Engine Optimisation, Keyword Search Results, Competitors, Social Media integration and Traffic Conversion strategies.

Web NLYZR provides us with a fascinating insight into the state of Australian web design industry and the sites being produced for Australian organisations.

Here are the latest statistics that have emerged from websites tested over the last 6 months:

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The commercial free-to-air television stations have been all claiming various triumphs since the end of the 2009 ratings year, but who were the real winners this year? According to David Dale it was Pay TV and The ABC.

Pay television: Between 2001 and 2009 the population of Australia grew by 10 per cent. Between 2001 and 2009, the average number of people watching prime time TV on Channel Nine dropped 17 per cent, on Channel Seven dropped 10 per cent, on and on Channel Ten dropped 2 per cent. In the same period, Pay TV’s audience rose 95 per cent. The free networks’ addition this year of digital spinoffs specialising in flops and repeats has done nothing to slow the rise of Pay.

The ABC: Between 2001 and 2009, its prime time TV audience has grown by 9 per cent, its metropolitan radio beats most of the commercial talk stations, and its website has expanded to offer serious competition to the newspaper chains.

Every Friday morning since March 2009 an intrepid crew of social media types have gathered at local cafes to chat and meet in real life (IRL). As social networks such as Twitter have grown, so have the number of people who have been dropping in for a coffee and a chat. This has recently included Anthony Scully of 1233ABC radio who interviewed several of us at a recent coffee morning.

You can listen to the interviews with  @billfredtom @hyperbrendan @jentally @mediahunter @ofdphoto @the_git here on the ABC website

Meanwhile, Newcastle Coffee mornings are being held each Friday from 745am to 9am at Sprocket Cafe, cnr Hunter & Watt Sts Newcastle (except over Xmas break). Follow the #newcastlecoffee hashtag on Twitter to keep up to date.