Congratulations to HOSTPLUS for capturing two new trophies at this year’s AFSA awards ceremony held in Melbourne on Friday.

HOSTPLUS was awarded Excellence in Communication for their TFN Campaign and also a finalist with the One Super Pledge Campaign in the same category.

Both integrated campaigns were created and executed by trademarkDM and clickDM.

But, the award we and HOSTPLUS are most pleased about is the AFSA Super Innovator of the Year for The Pledge campaign.

It came as a super surprise since we had not entered this category but were given the title at the judges’ discretion.

Descartes would be well pleased about the enlightenment that’s struck clickDM in recent weeks.

That’s because – after almost 30 years – Apple’s famous 1984 Superbowl spot has finally delivered on its promise.

But then, the creep started long ago.

First it was the iPod and iTunes.

Then it was the digital technical director needing a Mac Mini.

Then an iMac to work on…in Windows, naturally.

(Now all of clickDM work on Macs.)

And most recently, it was the iPhone.

But now they’ve had several weeks to paw their iPad, the once pro-PC geeks are committed Apple advocates.

They’ve already used it as a presentation tool to give a truer indication of how our digital concepts will look onscreen.

As our digital planning director says, ‘It takes “interactive” presentations to the next step.’

Needless to say, we’re underway developing of our first iPad application that will help one of our clients revolutionise the way they interact with their consumers in person and over the web.

To see how much the iPad is already changing consumer communications check out the MenuPad at Global Mundo Tapas.

The iPad hasn’t quite hit our shores yet but clickDM has already worked out how our clients could benefit from Apple’s latest revolutionary product.

In fact, Head of Digital, Ian Ross and Web Designer, Jesse Steinfort spent some time today at the Adobe CS5 Roadshow. And came back brimming with geeky enthusiasm over InDesign’s ability to publish straight to mobile devices like the iPad and Kindle.

No we don’t know what that means either. But we do know that they’re now armed with trial versions of the new software and are hard at work building iPad apps. So when the iPad does arrive in Australia, they’ll be ready for it.

If you’d like to know how our iPad apps can help your business, give Ian a call.

Imposing order on THE DM GROUP office is no task for the fainthearted.

But our new Office Manager, Georgia Rudin, reckons she’s rarely lost an argument, so we think she may well be up to the challenge.

Georgia comes to us with extensive experience in advertising and PR agencies, including some time in account service. She’s worked with brands like Lee Jeans, Nike and Mercedes Australia Fashion Week. A highlight of all this fashion work, she says, was being at a shoot in LA for Davenport Boxers with Herb Ritts.

If only we’d known about that, perhaps Georgia could have provided some expert assistance with Dave Findlay’s Speedo moment the other day? Maybe there are some jobs you just don’t ask a person to do in their first week.

Speaking of political incorrectness and Ian Ross.

Did we happen to mention last Friday night’s AIMIA Awards?

Well…

While it was an enjoyable night, no advertising event would be complete without a little vice.

So after the show the clickDM team indulged in some hookahs.

In this case, exotic Turkish ones.

And while they had a strangely minty fragrance about them, they were needless to say smoking hot.

CLICK FOR EVIDENCE.

THE DM GROUP quarterly catch-up is a time for all of us to get together, talk about the work we’ve done and have more than a few drinks.

Now you’d assume a quarterly catch-up happens quarterly but it’s actually been 12 months since our previous catch-up.

That meant some of our more enthusiastic colleagues had 12 months of pent-up PowerPoint slides to get out of their system.

So to keep things moving, we had a strict five-minute time limit with the option to buy an extra minute with a shot.

While there are plenty in THE DM GROUP who love a chin wag, none more so than digital planning director, Craig Hockley.

Craig decided to buy two extra minutes before he even started speaking and ended up having to down a third shot by the end of his presentation.

See, we said he’d fit in.

Monday night saw two of THE DM GROUP’s clients win at the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees Awards for Excellence 2009.

UniSuper collected the Gold Communication Award for its Decisions 101 online tutorial.

In fact, it’s the third industry award the trademarkDM-clickDM developed tutorial has won this year.

Also collecting on the night was HOSTPLUS.

It picked up the Silver Communications Award for its Tax File Number campaign, again developed by trademarkDM and clickDM.

So it really was a super night.

For our clients.

And us.

Do you know the monitor you’re looking at right now produces up to 40 black balloons of greenhouse gases?

Not a day. An hour.

That’s why the first tip in our CSR team’s energy saving campaign is to activate the energy saving preferences on our computers.

Just don’t confuse sleep mode with screen saving.

As our CSR team points out, a screen saver uses twice as much energy as when you’re working on your computer.

So while it might save your monitor, it won’t save our planet

Only one thing willzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz………………

Last year, we started working with YMCA Victoria.

Our multi-channel direct marketing campaign for their health and wellness centre membership drive was the most successful ever.

This year, trademarkDM and clickDM again have the privilege of working with the iconic YMCA brand.

In fact, our 2009 membership campaign is now live.

It features the Y’s new Family Membership, a product developed in response to member requests which can save families – of all kinds – a handy 20%.

Look out for it in your local letterbox, inbox or newspaper. Even better, why not ask about Family Membership at your local Y.

Your body and budget will thank you for it.

And so will we and the Y.