Hall of Valour: Current Campaign

I am currently involved with the national marketing campaign to promote the new Hall of Valour at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.  The Hall of Valour holds Australia's national treasure of Victoria Cross medals, the highest award for bravery any Australian serviceman or woman can earn.

97 Australians have won the Victoria Cross and this new space tells their personal stories of courage, bravery and sacrifice in a dignified and moving way.

The Wikileaks Winners ... So Far

Wikileak disclosures of US State Department cables dating back to the mid 1960s have dominated international news in recent weeks. 

As Governments around the world grapple with containing the damage from these revelations, there has been a slow build-up of public support for Wikileaks and its right to publish almost a quarter of a million leaked million cables. 

At this point it is hard to see who will emerge as victors in this battle for Internet control - if indeed anyone will. Certainly the US State Department and America's security officials must feel profoundly angry as Wikileaks continues to drip feed cables onto the Internet. Senior government officials from other countries in regular contact with US diplomats must be anxious as they peek inside their morning newspapers to see if they are featured in the latest disclosures.  

Julian Assange and his cronies are hardly winners at this stage.  Assange sits in a UK jail, awaiting extradition to Sweden and you can bet  intelligence efforts are full pace to hunt down those continuing to run the whistle blowing website.

The biggest winners may turn out to be those in government who were  always opposed to or nervous about the concept of Gov2.0.  The movement advocating greater government transparency through new digital media must surely have been battered in recent weeks.  Critics will now point to the Wikileaks' affair and say I told you so.   And they are likely to be supported by security agencies and nervous politicians anxious to avoid similar embarrassment in future.

The other winners are newspapers and they must be laughing. The leaked cables provide them with a flood of ready made stories and compelling content, and no-one is questioning their right to publish it.  

It seems government plans for social media have just hit the rock wall of national security in the most spectacular fashion and newspapers are back in business.

Six Social Media Trends for 2011

This short Harvard Business Review blogpost on social media trends in the coming year is worth read.

Making the Right First Impression

Two recent events confirmed for me the essentials of making the right first impression.

This week I had poor experiences with an advertising sales rep and a car salesman on first meeting. Both came on abruptly almost aggressively in their desire to do business.

They forgot consumers do not like to be rushed particularly when buying a new type of product for the first time or an expensive item. In their minds buyers always believe their decision making process takes the shortest route from interest to purchase.

And that route can be blocked when the seller comes on so strongly the buyer becomes uncomfortable. This may be head slapping basic stuff but it is sometimes forgotten.

The takeaway: always make a good first impression on first contact and then work from there.

Social Media Helps Share War Stories

I was recently interviewed on the US podcast The Marketing Edge.

The Marketing Edge is among the Internet's longest running marketing and public relations podcasts. It is hosted by Albert Maruggi, a communicator with 25 years experience in  marketing and PR in America's business, technology, health and public affairs sectors.  Albert is also a frequent speaker and conducts workshop sessions on new media.

We talked about using social media to share stories of the wartime  sacrifices of previous generations.  This comes from work I'm currently involved in with the Australian War Memorial in Australia's capital, Canberra. 

Listen here to the 18 minute interview or download it from ITunes.