Advertising is an industry were you never stop learning.

That’s why we encourage everyone at THE DM GROUP to be students of advertising no matter how much their experience.

And the last few months we’ve been hitting the books.

Hard.

But our efforts have now been rewarded with our appointment as direct marketing agency for Swinburne University of Technology.

We’re not only pleased, we’re proud.

That’s because many of Melbourne’s advertising professionals can trace their beginnings back to Swinburne.

In fact, Andy, Ros and Craig have all studied there at sometime in their careers.

So as you can see, it not only pays to be a student of advertising but of Swinburne too.

Jan’s not the only one of us who’s unhappy. In fact, according to a story in The Age today:

‘[Australians] are among the unhappiest customers in the world, convinced businesses do not care about us and finding ourselves increasingly disappointed by the level of customer service we receive, or rather, don’t receive.’

Just over two years ago we waved goodbye to Tess after a few months as our part-time receptionist.

Now say, hello.

Again.

(It shouldn’t be a surprise given her parting words were that working at THE DM GROUP had been her best job ever. But then, it was also her first job ever.)

For those who haven’t heard her voice on the phone, Tess has returned as our full-time office manager.

But of course, of all Tess’ duties, the most important is to ensure Friday morning tea is ready at 10.30am sharp.

She knows not to stand in the way of a hungry creative and a bacon and egg sanga smothered in HP.

It’s a testing role sometimes.

But Tess is twice the woman for the job.

Although I never met him, I’m sure that Alexander Bell would be amazed at the world that he had a hand in bringing to life with his work on the ‘acoustic telegraph’ over 130 years ago. Having said that, mobile marketing is so much more than just using a telephone you can walk around with, and the telephone you can now walk around with does far more than transmit your voice. This has enormous potential for marketers wanting to create engaging tools, content and experiences for their target market.

Augmented Reality (AR), allows users to literally see the world the way your brand wants them to see it, through their mobile device. For example, Sony Pictures are embracing this withe their new Spiderman AR App, among many others that are popping up on the App store.

Geolocation, is a tool that helps your customers identify where they are in relation to your offers, outlets or other customers, and gives marketers the opportunity to deliver instant, relevant and location aware content. It’s more than just Foursquare now, it can be embedded in almost any App you want.

Biofeedback, now your mobile device can tell you if you’re sleeping solidly, exercising enough or even take your pulse, all through some incredibly intelligent uses of your devices inbuilt technology. Add to that a third party sensor, such as Nike’s Fuelband - and it’s taken one step further. You’ll know exactly how far you’ll have to run to burn off the pizza your phone had delivered to you 15 minutes earlier.

Mobile Wallets, It’s all well and good that your mobile device can help you find your favourite service, access an instant offer based on the outlet you’re in, and allow you to uncover hidden secrets around you – but now, the only plastic you’ll need to reach for when it’s time to pay the bill is your phone. With MasterCard, PayPal, Google and soon rumoured to be Apple all providing you secure methods to pay almost anybody for almost anything – even the ANZ has had a go. It seems as though the morning pocket-patting ritual of “Wallet, phone, keys” will soon be replaced by “phone” – meaning you’ll be able to sleep in an extra 15 seconds – (and using your Sleep app, you can be sure it’ll be REM sleep too).

It’s a massive change that has been taking place for a little while now, and we’ve been keeping our fingers on the pulse. THE DM GROUP have had their fingers on the pulse of this for some time now, so go old school and use your phone to give us a call.