Thursday, 29 October 2009

Aussie advertising icon dies

Today, the last edition of the Trading Post hits Australian newsstands.

The bible of classified advertising since 1966, it’s given everyday Aussies a taste of the advertising world for over 40 years.

Its iconic cultural status was confirmed with a starring
tell-’im-he’s-dreamin role in The Castle.

From now on, the Sensis owned title will only be available online.

And while it’s the way of the advertising world, it’s not quite the same as newsprint.

As one commentator observes:

Many people don’t want to read page after page of classified advertising on a web browser. It’s much easier to read in a newspaper and they also enjoy scanning the ads.

RIP.

Tuesday, 27 October 2009

The Curious Case of Andy Harrison

Today is Andy Harrison’s birthday.

Like every year, trademarkDM’s head of art ordered the bloke’s birthday package – party pies and sausage rolls.

We threw in our traditional, grating rendition of Happy Birthday too.

Nothing unusual there.

But here’s the curious thing about our Andy – the older he gets he the more he looks like a cheeky school boy.

Perhaps that’s why he likes to refer to himself as the Johnny Depp of advertising.

But perhaps Brad Pitt is more appropriate.

Monday, 26 October 2009

Photo finish at the Cox Plate

One of the big benefits of being Melbourne-based is that we get to enjoy the Spring Racing Carnival every year.

As with previous years, THE DM GROUP and clients kicked off the racing season at Saturday’s Cox Plate.

Our track-side, starting-post marquee guaranteed a great view of the action both on and off the course.

But not luck at the bookies.

Unless you were on the same table as THE DM GROUP managing director John Kilgour of course.

A known equine expert, John’s table came a photo-finish second in the group bet.

Well, they do call it ‘The Race Where Legends Are Made’ after all.

Friday, 23 October 2009

A year already?

We hate goodbyes…so we’re hoping it’s just au revoir. Jonathan Powell, Marketing Officer extraordinaire at HOSTPLUS, has finished his 12 month contract and is moving on.

During that time, we’ve had a blast working with Jonathan on innovative HOSTPLUS projects like Ka-ching! Ka-ching!, the financial literacy program featuring Scott Pape. Luckily, the financial services industry won’t be losing Jonathan as he is heading on to another marketing role at Health Super.

Good luck and best wishes from everyone at THE DM GROUP, Jonathan – we know you’ll be a success.

Thursday, 22 October 2009

Fashion…in our blood?

trademarkDM account director Andy Bannister got something of a surprise when he and head of client service Brandon Clark registered at HAA 2009 in Adelaide. Andy’s conference satchel was labelled ‘Andrea Bannister’, and the rest of us back at the office stoutly denied having influenced the organisers, so Andy could only conclude that it’s true about Adelaide people being a bit different.

Nothing daunted, he sported his new manbag to great effect as he and Brandon accompanied our clients GSK around the meeting.

HAA is the annual meeting of the Haematology Society of Australia and New Zealand and the Australasian Society of Thrombosis and Haemostasis, so we think it was just the place for our two favourite clots to keep a finger on the pulse of latest research. Even better, they didn’t wind up spending the night in a (non-blood) cell.