Drawing Attention: Script for Animated Ad!

Just a short note to showcase this awesome new ad for my friends (and by my friends) at the Animation Company.

Sam and the Animation Company are one of my dearest clients, and I was lucky enough to help write the script for this short attention grabber. I was especially proud of the tagline I came up with - keep an ear out for it!

The Animation Company is a Sydney based corporate and business oriented animation studio. They're always creating engaging, informative and attention-grabbing animation in both 2D and 3D.

To find out more about the Animation Company (with website copy by me!), click here.

Automation is IT!

A year has passed since I made the small step into solo working and the giant leap into uncertainty. It was exciting. In some ways, it was also kinda lame.

At my old office job, if an invoice came in, I got up, strode over to the office manager's desk popped it on there. It may as well have gone down the memory hole.

Working solo means (quite literally) working on your own. All those finicky admin tasks that need doing? Those rest squarely on your shoulders.

We live in 2015. We don't have hover-boards yet but we're able to automate our workday experience. I use automation across all my devices (an HTC One M7, Nexus 7 and my PCs) and it makes my working life a hell of a lot easier. Here's my top 3 picks for automation tools.

Pushbullet

I am a total Android fanboy. As soon as I get an Android device, I root it (nothing untoward, I promise) and install custom ROMs for peak performance. Pushbullet is the name of a handy tool forwarding notifications across all your devices. If one device gets an SMS, it's pushed to your PC and tablet. If your tablet has one email set up on it, it's sent to your other devices.  I can even send SMS from my PC through my phone. It frees up my time to keep working without checking my phone or tablet every so often. (Saves battery, too!)

IFTTT

This is one of those apps that'll have you saying "where has this been all my life?" IFTTT stands for "IF This, Then That," which makes use of all the various APIs and automates tasks around them. For instance, you can send all your Twitter mentions to yourself as a daily digest at the end of the day. I use it with clients to send notifications to their email when I've updated their Dropbox. Another trigger sends an SMS to a missed caller asking them if that number is best to reach them. There's thousands of combinations or "recipes" to try, or set up yourself. Once you find yourself saying "I wish THIS happened when X happens" IFTTT figures out a way!

TweetDeck

Ahh yes, the humble (and much maligned) TweetDeck. In its heyday, TweetDeck was the premier "social dashboard" app that handled nearly every major social network: Twitter (of course), Facebook, LinkedIn and even FourSquare. Sadly, Twitter bought out TweetDeck and stripped it of all its cross-platform charm. That's not to say it's still useful. I use TweetDeck to schedule tweets, making life easier when I'm on the run. Buffer does an OK job, but I'm a stickler for tradtion. It just takes the hassle out of scanning all my twitter timelines. Better yet, I can access it from anywhere. Sometimes simplicity (albeit forced) is a good thing!

What are your favourite automation apps?

Think About It: are you adding content or transforming your business?

Below is a modified version of the Hysteria Magazine industry mailout.

In 2011, I finished my Masters’ thesis, Rock Sells Out: Australian rock journalism—cultural creation,industry influence and electronic evolution. The last part of my thesis dealt with the inevitable—print was in decline and new ways of delivering content and experiences was on the rise. This is before anyone thought of the concepts of 'distributed content' and how to engage Hysteria’s core demographic.

Even back in the doldrums of the early 2000s, the research was clear: people aren’t paying for content if they don’t have to. The onus was on us to innovate. The old models of engagement are over.

Journalists and content creators aren’t simply word monkeys any more: they have to be content producers AND search engine optimisers. There’s no going back to filing copy and putting your feet up after. This new age affords us many benefits. Streamlining a content experience on one device means better and greater opportunities for all.

Analytics. Hysteria Magazine is a completely digital experience. How do you know you’re making a return on investment placing an ad in print? You can guess. In reality, you don’t. By going digital, you tap into analytics. Analytics are cold, hard and accurate facts staring in the face of blind faith. For example:

We gather this information precisely and in real time. The CAB audit might show you how many titles are in circulation, not how many eyeballs are on pages. Do you know for sure your ad made a sale? Online content is an opportunity to refine one of your business' investments.

Engagement. Using our proprietary app and social channels,  you can unique experience tailored around specific media. Do you think about your business as having one function plus content, or does your content transform your business entirely?

Distributed content. Hysteria isn’t a mag, a website, an Instagram, a Twitter, a Facebook. It’s everything. One channel doesn’t drive traffic to the other—it’s the complete package. If you have content that doesn’t fit the traditional 'website as print substitute' model, we get creative. We maximise reach using our social and proprietary channels. All of it is Hysteria.

Copywriting and content isn't simply "marketing" or having a "presence." If you have a website and social media, it transforms your business. You may not be a "content provider" or "news site," by trade. It's undeniable content forms part of your identity and how you communicate that identity to the world.  Content shouldn't be an afterthought. It should feel as important as what product you sell or what service you deliver. What people see is your business. That's how you should do business!