Our good friends at carsales.com.au & Lookout Mobile have teamed up to bring sports fans the ultimate AFL and NRL iPhone applications for free in 2010.

Last year both apps were available @$3.99 and were the two most downloaded sporting apps in Australia. Aussie Rules live was also the 3rd most downloaded paid app in 09!

All the popular features of 2009 have returned like goal score updates and live text commentary, through to your team’s ladder position and fixture, with the inclusion of in-app integration of footytips.com.au and detailed player stats for the last 10 years.

The carsales.com.au sponsorship is the first of its kind in Australia, in which an iPhone application is available free, in return for sponsorship – “we are huge supporters of both sporting codes and innovative technology solutions and this was a way for us to show support to both mediums”, said Shane Pettiona, Chief Operating Officer of carsales.com.au.

The 2010 Aussie Rules Live & Rugby League Live apps are now available for download so hit the Apple iTunes App store today.

Enjoy & GO PIES!

Up until now it’s been hard to determine what impact Kyle Sandilands controversial comments and the temporary cancellation of The Kyle & Jackie O Show was having on audiences. Yesterday Nielsen ratings from June 28 to September 5 were released and show an audience slump. Overall listening dropped nearly 20%. This is the biggest ratings decline of any music station in the current survey which covers the infamous lie detector stunt on the 29^th of July however does not take into account Kyle’s most recent comments made on September 8 about Magda Szubanski losing weight in a concentration camp. The bottom line here is that if their audience had increased then undoubtedly advertisers would be asked to pay more to be on the show. However approximately 18% of listening has disappeared so it should follow that advertisers can now pay less for spots in their show. Anyone else agree that we should be paying at least 18% less for a show that has lost 18% of its listening audience, keeping in mind that this doesn’t begin to take into account the most recent Magda Szubanski stunt?

A year ago, I hadn’t heard of Nuffnang and yet next month I am very honored to be on the judging panel of the inaugural Nuffnang Asia Pacific Blog Awards.

All thanks for our partnership with Nuffnang must go to David Lee, my fellow Director in Nuffnang Australia. Dave approached Ming and Tim, Nuffnang’s co-founders, about our potential involvement, about 11 months ago and since November 2008 we have been building Nuffnang’s blog advertising community in Australia. Today we have over 1,000 bloggers who have signed up to our network with ads seen by 90,000 people daily.

However our numbers are dwarfed by the collective might of Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines who have over 100,000 blogs with ads seen by 3 million people daily.

The awards have created a frenzy with over 400 bloggers, plus partners, being flown to Singapore for a grand Gala Dinner and accommodation at Nuffnang’s expense. The sponsors are Pringles and The Singapore Tourism Board.

There are 12 blog awards in total Best Blog Shop, Best Food Blog, Best Fashion Blog, Best Parenting Blog, Best Travel Blog, Best Geek Blog, Best Celebrity Blog, Best Entertainment Blog, Best Original Blog Design, Most Influential Blog, Best Hidden Gem and the top award of Region’s Best Blog.

Nominations have closed so now it’s down to the serious job of judging.

As the need for sound social business strategy becomes more apparant in Australia its fascinating to observe how brands are trying to engage with bloggers. Australia is at a relatively early stage of development in terms of engaging the blogosphere and it’s good to be at the forefront of the understanding process. The key consideration in social media is to originate and sustain a healthy dialogue with the view of building a long term relationship.

The challenge for many brands is to recognise this and not to approach the blogosphere with the intent of ‘taking’ or ‘using.’ The opportunity is to give and share, as with any healthy relationship.

The inaugural blog awards is part of Nuffnang’s commitment to our blogger community and i can’t wait until i visit Singapore for the first time in October to witness first hand the raw energy of our Nuffies.

Australian fashion label Saba has turned to Scott Schuman (better known as fashion blogger The Sartorialist) to help promote their new denim collection.  The New York based fashion commentator holds massive sway in fashion circles, with up to 3 million site visitors per month.

Saba sought 17 trend-setters to feature in the upcoming campaign, who The Sartorialist would shoot in the laneways and natural street settings of Melbourne.  Following an invitiation via his blog, over 500 people turned up to a pre-launch party at Cutler & Co restaurant for their chance to appear in the shoot, alongside recognised identities like gallery owner Murray White, AFL footballer Brad Miller and the first editor of Vogue Australia Sheila Scotter.

The campaign really demonstrates the alignment of bought/owned/earned media elements, and an innovative approach to campaign planning.  The bought media campaign (fashion magazines, newspapers and websites) will work with Saba’s owned assets (instore displays, David Jones concessions, Saba’s own website, launch events), and a pop-up gallery in Melbourne’s Duckboard Place which will exhibit the campaign images between 27 July-August 10.

The earned media will include a special blog Saba has set up for the campaign (which goes live on 27 July),  and possibly other social media tools.  Behind the scenes footage from the photoshoot has already landed on Saba’s YouTube channel.

The Sartorialist’s overall popularity and Saba’s decision to execute this campaign demonstrates the rise of social media and the establishment of bloggers as sizeable, credible channels for businesses in their brand strategy.  Hopefully more brands get on board and add depth and interactivity to launch campaigns.

It seems Kyle and Jackie O from Sydney’s 2DayFM have caused quite a stir in the Twittersphere.  AdNews reported yesterday they have been accused of buying a virtual rent-a-crowd, gaining 30,000 Twitter followers in under 18 hours, and artificially inflating their importance on the social network.  Looking at their current friend list, their 5 most recent followers have no profile picture, no followers and have never posted a tweet, which seems to add some credibility to the story.  Tech blogs have been recently reporting that 100,000 Twitter followers can be bought for as little as $3,500 from companies that specialise in building ‘artificial popularity’.

kyleandjackieo ’s response this morning to the article was:

Memo2SydConfidential.2day u ran an article suggesting we”bought”our followers.We said it wasnt true,u ran it anyway!Get ur facts str8 4 once

Whether the story is 100% accurate or not, the question must be asked: what is the true value of a ‘friend’ or ‘follower’?  Is it better to have 500 brand activists, lovers and enthusiasts?  Or 500,000 people who have a vague affinity with your brand but take no action, purchase none of your products, or attend none of your events?

The most important role of social media is adding value to the consumer; amplifying the ‘bought’ media messages and leveraging the ‘owned’ assets of the brand with more ways for more people to interact with your brand.  Regardless of how many unique browsers it drives to your website, comments or brand mentions it generates, or product units it sells, if the brand’s social media strategy is designed to add consumer value and align the energy and output of the organisation, then it has every chance of succeeding.

On the contrary, ‘buying’ followers or pushing people to visit your site/blog/Twitter (but then giving nothing) is like a man throwing money off a rooftop in a bid to buy friends – if there is no ongoing ‘value’ in being their friend or follower after the initial lure, why would I continue to associate with them?

European mobile phone network T-Mobile have continued their trend of ‘flash mob’ marketing, with 13,500 people joining in a karaoke singalong at Trafalgar Square, London.  On the 30th April, BBC radio DJ Vernon Kay hosted the event, which was pre-promoted via SMS messaging and a YouTube teaser video.

The event featured 24 cameras, 2,000 microphones handed out to the crowd, professional dancers and singers, and even a guest appearance from pop star Pink.  One hour of popular karaoke hits were filmed, with ‘Hey Jude’ from The Beatles condensed into a primetime two minute ad on ITV 48 hours later, breaking in ‘Britain’s Got Talent’.

It follows the mobile phone company’s ‘Dance’ ad that took place at London’s Liverpool street earlier in the year, which has been viewed on YouTube more than 11m times.

This recent event reinforces T-Mobile’s dedication to community building, through their ‘Life’s For Sharing’ YouTube channel, and the other social networks it uses.  Hundreds of user comments, thousands of YouTube channel subscribers, and millions of video views supplements their bought media presence, and enables them to communicate with their audience beyond a 30 second TV commercial.

Amongst the many celebrities who are currently Twittering, Hugh Jackman is using his profile to try and make a difference.

The Twitter post (pictured above) outlines his charitable approach, with Twitter the forum for each non-profit organisation to pitch to Hugh the reason why they want the AUD$100,000 in 140 characters or less. Hugh currently has c. 96,000 followers, giving the star a significant amount of sway on the social network.

Earlier in the month Hugh was criticised for not writing his own Twitter posts, raising the issue of authenticity, which is absolutely crucial for brands and personalities on the site. His post referred to Sydney Harbor (sic) and the Opera House as the ‘Opera Center’. But in true Hugh form, the Aussie star was upfront and honest, stating that someone else ghost-writes his profile, and that this particular Tweet was lost in translation.

We think this funding would be great for our fantastic men’s health client Movember, Hugh! As the perfect picture of men’s health, we need your voice, and your money!

In an aggressive social media program that goes far beyond what Ford has done in the past, the manufacturer is partly counting on members of the public to introduce its new Fiesta model to 20-somethings across the US.

Ford recently handed 100 Fiestas to 100 web fanatics in the target demographic, selected from over 4,000 applicants. These ‘agents‘ get to use the cars for six months in exchange for completing monthly ‘missions‘ with different themes. They’ll share their experiences through YouTube, Flickr, Facebook and Twitter accounts Ford created for the campaign. Ford have asked the users to be completely honest in their reviews, showing that Ford has unswerving faith in the product.

Ford’s point-of-view about the campaign: “We realized that the message is increasingly out of our control and that we have to roll with it,” Fiesta product manager Sam De La Garza said. “For us it all rests on the quality of this product. We’ve all driven the Fiesta, and we felt so confident about the car that we could start this. We’re going to allow people to tell the story [of the Fiesta] from their lives.”

While it doesn’t replace the millions of dollars of ‘traditional media’ launch expenditure Ford will still spend, it provides an extra layer of interaction with their audience, which is a brave move that must be applauded.   If marketeers for any brand have enough belief in the product/service they are selling, why not engage in conversation with the people who will ultimately be purchasing (or not purchasing) it?

The campaign commences April 21st.

An interesting article from Mashable! popped up earlier in the week which looked at how some brands are using Facebook to engage consumers.

Ben & Jerry’s, Adobe and the Fast & Furious movie release have all used the network in an effective manner recently as part of their overall brand strategy, the results of which are now being promoted on Facebook’s Marketing Solutions . The page is complete with case studies from the above brands, tips and how-tos, and discussion with marketers on how to get the best out of the site.

Adobe engaged design students with a ‘real or fake’ photography campaign using their Photoshop tool, to promote substantial discounts on their software that they were offering this target group. The campaign registered outstanding levels of interaction that eventually translated to sales.

By adding unique content about the new Fast & Furious movie to Vin Diesel’s fan page, the star added an additional 1million fans in a couple of weeks, helping the film register a strong box office result.

Ben & Jerry’s enabled users to share fun and personalised content with their friends about their favourite Ben & Jerry’s flavours, published in their news feed.

Since the rise in popularity of online social media, commentators have been speculating on how sites such as Twitter and Facebook will ‘monetise’ their growth in user base, like Google did with search engine marketing. Many brands have also struggled to come to terms with how they should position their brand on these networks.

With any social media play (and like the examples above), the primary objective must be to add value for the consumer; offering more opportunities for consumers to engage with the brand, where, when, and how they want to. This can only start from having a social media strategy that understands the consumer, the market the brand operates in, and how best they can add value to the consumer on an ongoing basis.

From Techcrunch  – Charlie Rose – Evan Williams on social networking. Twitter co-founder Evan Williams was on Charlie Rose last Friday. In the clip above, he predicts that Twitter will be something “that normal people do” within five years. He compares Twitter to the early days of blogging (another topic he knows something about, having been the founder of what became Blogger)