News & Comment from the Australian Digital Industry

Digital Bullet 12 - Smart Homes

The connected home, the smart house, the intelligent house. These are terms we are hearing a lot more lately and there seems to be a lot of interest here in Australia as we get closer to implementation of the NBN. The innovations in this area generally involve some form of smart technology that uses the internet combined with advanced forms of local area networks to give us greater control over things like energy efficiency, comfort, security and appliances. But there are also potential developments in the area of healthcare and social services. Some of the most interesting technologies, like using voice recognition and physical movement to control devices, seem to have an overlap with the latest innovations in media devices, particularly smart televisions. There have been some rather fanciful ideas floated, like the fridge that would order our shopping when it ran low, but what do you think are some of the most interesting developments we might see in the so-called smart house in the next three to five years?

IGN and AskMen continue their growth in Australia and are now building their dedicated sales operation. We’re searching for a Sales Manager, Ad Ops Manager, 2 Account Managers and Sales Support

We’re delighted to be working with the market-leading games and men’s lifestyle media brands as IGN and AskMen transfer control of local business operations to the newly formed Ziff Davis Australia Pty Ltd. The move follows the sale of IGN Entertainment by News Corp earlier this year to the fast-growing digital media business, Ziff Davis, Inc. The newly formed local company will take over commercial representation for both brands from News Australia on 1st July 2013 – a move that may eventually see other Ziff Davis brands launch in the country.
More about the jobs we’re currently searching for here:

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Digital Innovating for good

We all talk about how our ideas can change the world for the better, but one Sydney based firm is really making a difference. Australian digital design and development company Vivant recently launched a global first in London: Jaro.com, a game for good that challenges the world to raise US$1 billion within the year. Players will decide how to split it between charitable causes and one lucky winner.

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The AIMIA Outstanding Contribution Award goes to …

I know we’re weeks late with this but we wanted to congratulate Jennifer Wilson for winning the AIMIA Outstanding Industry Contribution Award - great lady who totally deserves it. For those of you who don’t know Jen, she is currently a Director at The Project Factory, and has a zeal for storytelling across multiple platforms, a passion for all things mobile and device-independent consumer relationships.
Jen is also the author of many papers on digital screen content issues including ‘Getting in the digital frame: A screen producer’s guide to the digital landscape’, ‘The Digital Deadlock: How clearance and copyright issues are keeping Australian content offline’, ‘ Pocket Power: getting your content mobile’ and co-author of ‘The Writer’s Guide to Making a Digital Living’. Jen sits on the Council of the Screen Producers Association of Australia representing the Interactive Media Division.

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Technology at LaVolta is growing

LaVolta isn't known for recruiting in the technical space, however we have been successfully growing our practice in senior technology recruitment since Greg Dwyer joined us as our Digital Director in July 2012. Greg brings over fifteen years of recruitment experience in digital and technology and a large established network of senior experts across web technologies.
We have filled key technical roles such as Technical Director and Head of Technology in both agencies and clients direct and are building out teams beneath these individuals to support the growth of new development divisions. We are interested in partnering with more clients for similar projects. Predominantly our clients are using Microsoft Technologies with enterprise class CMS and have a focus on utilising the latest in front end technologies (strong JavaScript skills are in high demand). Many established properties are undergoing significant development leveraging the best of their legacy systems in conjunction with newer technologies. PHP is still in demand but seeing less use on new projects except for prototyping. Edge and innovation projects are commonly using Ruby on Rails and more clients are open to exploring the use of new technologies in their businesses.

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Digital Bullet 11 - Monetizing Facebook

The IPO of facebook on the Nasdaq last year created quite a bit of controversy, particularly about the company’s relatively high valuation. Investors lost money and the company has been trading at around 60% of its listing price. Facebook been endeavouring to sell as much media inventory as possible to create a strong revenue stream but this is not proving as easy as anticipated. Facebook reportedly has around 850 million users worldwide, and almost 11 million users or around 55% of the population here in Australia. Does the future of facebook lie in selling media? If you were CEO, how would you try to monetise all those users? Are there other viable business models?

Thanks to Feverpitch for all their help on this series.

Digital Bullet 10 - The Future of Publishing

We’ve recently heard a lot about News and Fairfax having to cut back staff, with both of those organisations now firmly focused on trying to find a digital future for themselves. But the debate about which business model will prevail for digital media publishing still goes on – some publishers are having success with pay walls and a subscription model for content. Other publications are sticking with an advertising supported model. In five years time, will newspapers and magazines as we know them survive in print form or will they simply have either died or morphed into a digital-only form? Will the digital format be predominantly ad supported or subscription? What will the market look like?

Thanks to Feverpitch for all their help with this series.

Digital Bullet 9 - The 2nd Screen

An interesting trend that has emerged in the past few years is the role of companion apps on a second screen. People are watching something on TV and using an app, usually on a tablet, to add another dimension to that experience. Seven has Fango, Nine has Jump-in, Ten has signed with Zeebox and the ABC has recently upgraded its iView app. So far, the primary function of these apps is to create greater audience engagement by enabling social media conversations about the show and to let users get more content and information relating to what they are watching. Do you think the second screen will become mainstream television viewing behaviour in Australia? Will the experience mainly remain social and informational as it has to date or will it go in other directions? For example, will e-commerce and the ability to instantly buy things we see on screen become important?

Thanks to Feverpitch for all their help with this series

Digital Bullet 8 - Innovation

What was the most interesting or innovative thing you saw in digital last year? It might be an app, or a web site or a business model. Something you invested in or something you wished you’d invested in!

Thanks to Feverpitch for all their help on this series

Digital Bullet 7 - Big Data

The role of data seems to be becoming increasingly important in the digital sector. We now have so-called ‘chief data officers’ at the major digital media publishers. The marketing departments of major brands have clever young data analytics people focused on the slicing and dicing of customer information to inform and target their ad campaigns. E-commerce businesses ensure that everything we do online is tracked, recorded, analysed, used to sell us something. So much data about our individual online habits and profile is available that new data companies like eyeota have been able to insert themselves into the digital media buying process -- advertisers, media agencies and DSPs are now seeking to buy ad campaigns against particular audiences instead of inventory. What are some of the trends you see in the collection and use of big data? Are their issues or pitfalls we should be aware of?

Thanks to Feverpitch for their help on this series