Online Insights on FIVEaa Sunday February 5 2012
This month on Online Insights we explore mind control tricks from the underbelly of marketing, tease out some of Adelaide’s interesting bloggers, get a grip on British English and poke some fun at the lack lustre food photos shared in Social Media.
5 Creepy Forms of Mind Control You’re Exposed to Daily
Cars have facial expressions
As many of you know, I am a marketer. And there are many different understandings of marketing.
Some people think of marketing as those hyped-up people in car parks trying to hustle sales of ‘car wash in a can’ or similar. Others think marketing is having a job in a large firm where all you do is design posters and arrange launch events.
But I work in that part of marketing called strategy development. This is where I believe the hard yards of marketing are exercised. Thought goes into the product or service being marketed, the ‘market’ or ‘markets’ being marketed, and all that will be involved in bringing the two together. Sometimes this results in tweaking, redesigning or cancelling a product or service. At other times it results in shifting the focus of the story and message surrounding the product or service so that it can resonate with a different audience.
However, I digress. Tonight’s link is to a comedic article about some of the ‘tricks’ researched by marketing boffins for extracting an extra degree of influence from customers.
Clean Up Australia from the inside: Advance Australia Dry
Advance Australia Dry (until March)
Happy Australia Day!
Today I will be drinking a toast to Australia with its rich and complex history at the cricket test match at Adelaide Oval. And then I will stop.
Stop drinking that is.
As of January 27, I am embarking on a dry zone until the end of February.
I have dubbed this endeavour: Advance Australia Dry.
I’m doing it to mark Australia Day and give my health a boost at the same time.
Will you join me?
Here’s the back story.
Continue reading
Online Insights on FIVEaa Sunday January 1 2012
Welcome to 2012 and the first edition of Online Insights for another year. This month we take a different approach to resolutions involving food, give ourselves some tricks for spelling better, correct some of the common myths we all believe and finish with a way to play book publisher.
What’s more, most of tonight’s links may prove helpful on this sweltering, 41 degree day.
Food list challenge
Frogs' legs anybody?
Could this be your New Year’s Resolution for 2012?
The food list challenge is a list of 100 foods and the authors believe your score determines how much of a ‘foodie’ you are. Turns out I am Mr Average with 47 out of the 100.
The list includes:
- Aligator
- Biscuits and gravy
- Frogs’ Legs
- Goulash
- Pistachio Ice Cream
- Rabbit Stew
Online Insights on FIVEaa Sunday December 4 2011
With xmas about 20 sleeps away a couple of sites this month will focus on that event on how to navigate work parties and how single people can treat themselves to festive feasts, we’ll discover some quick house cleaning tips (always useful this time of year) and we finish with some thrilling rides.
Andersons Law Blog Christmas wisdom
Between now and Christmas Day, many people will be letting their hair down at various work functions – those held at their place of work, their partner’s, their clients, customers or suppliers.
And as much as it is a time for fun and letting hair down, there is always a risk of letting too much down, so to speak.
The first website tonight is actually from the blog run by Andersons Solicitors here in Adelaide and it is called - The work Christmas party, fun or frightening?
This is one of the simplest and most helpful pieces I have seen on the risks of office or workplace parties.
This quote sums it all up: More than ever, it is important to remember that work functions are just that, work functions and as work functions the employer is responsible for what happens to employees (and other attendees) at work.
Online Insights on FIVEaa Sunday November 6 2011
This month we get real about food, about money, about music and about publishing a book.
What does a healthy person eat?
Leandra Walker's Roast Beetroot Salad
There are many theories and diets around the best food for us. There are also many examples of healthcare professionals who abuse their bodies worse than their patients do.
But a young, Darwin-based chiropractor who does live a holistically healthy life has just started a public project to help her clients (and the rest of us) see how easy it is to eat a diet consisting mainly of whole foods.
Dr Leandra Walker is co-founder of The Chiropractic Place and every day during November 2011 she is photographing and logging everything she eats.
She says it is because her clients always say they want to eat better but have no idea how to incorporate OR sustain the changes.
Her mission is to at least wean as many of us as possible OFF white bread sandwiches for lunch! Continue reading
The value of friendship: 83 minutes that might have saved my life
Friends add colour: Previous night with mates 1249 days ago
I have long been an 80-hour-a-week kinda guy. I have been lucky enough to love my work with all my heart whether it was radio, journalism or, now, marketing.
If you analysed my ‘weekends’ for the last 15 years, I think you would struggle to find more than 15 days of purely social time.
This has never really bothered me because I take my work seriously and personally and feel deeply connected to my clients.
I have had bouts of guilt about family time and taken some measures to increase time with them (just replace it with time drawn from later in the evening for work).
But on Saturday I took 83 minutes out of my week to spend time with two dear old friends with whom I had not stopped to be with for almost two years.
I think what I realised today is something important for me and for you, if you are similarly blessed/cursed with a deep love for your work and a drive to achieve. It took me by surprise!
Continue reading
A memo to the ANZ bank
It must be hard running a banking organisation but at least my client base, small business owners, can learn from this.
Imagine running the ANZ. You are at the helm of a large, money-making empire in a country with only a handful of competitors to share spoils between but you know you have to ‘be seen’ to be caring and responsive.
The trouble is, if you were really caring and responsive, some of the multi-billion dollar profits might need to be spent on one’s customers or on creating a team of thinking people who actually want to make banking a pleasant and efficient experience for customers.
At the moment, the ANZ is plastering slogans everywhere about how it has people to help you with any manner of question or financial problem ‘anytime, anywhere’.
Well, I have found one place where that DOES NOT apply – their ‘convenient’ online banking service.
Continue reading
Every Generation needs every generation
Later today I am performing the role of MC for an Every Generation event held by Adelaide City Council. The event will focus around the screening of Babies, a documentary about the first year of life of four babies on four different continents. As part of my plan to expand the breadth of material archived via my blog, this post is sharing my introductory notes – likely to be changed upon delivery.
Amid the warning NOT to go overtime (I need to leave time for Adelaide Lord Mayor Stephen Yarwood), the organisers did suggest I make some comments about how the mix of generations in the city leads to a rich diversity of experience. Here are the notes and the preview video clip for the movie.
Continue reading
Online Insights on FIVEaa Sunday October 2 2011
This month we explore what is meant by Australian Women’s Weekly when it claims that Frugality is the new Black, experience the fun side of HTML5 (who would have guessed), and a small video of magic and high tech blended into one. Enjoy.
Frugality is the New Black
Deception - tonight's theme from magic to our consumer society
My wife told me the Australian Women’s Weekly has claimed that Frugality is the New Black and a quick Google search reveals that various media outlets have been claiming this since about 2008 when a book with that title was released to ‘cash in’ on the Global Financial Crisis.
Of course, there is nothing like a tight patch to teach us how to be less wasteful and more resourceful but it is probably best to practice some of these skills and approaches to life BEFORE a crisis FORCES you to adopt them.
To that end, I discovered a series of posts on this topic by Kim Sbarcea, a Kiwi who writes under the topic of ThinkingShift. What I like about her posts is that she does not come across PREACHY and in fact often acknowledges her failings and struggles along the journey to a more sustainable lifestyle. In her post about feeding the plastic pig (a piggy bank), she confessed that she goes through cycles of being very good for months on end and then indulges in a splurge although not with big designer brand names – she has kicked that habit.
Online Insights on FIVEaa Sunday September 4 2011
This month we look at the importance of sleep for weight loss, of how to get our minds straight, take a global glimpse at Fathers Day and finish off with a handy way to use Lego.
Sleep adds weight AND makes you fatter
Lack of sleep bad for weight loss (Picture: iNform Health)
After reading this article, I have worked harder and harder at getting more sleep each night.
You can read the article for the technical terminology but in short, research from Stanford University has found that when we sleep less than five hours each night our hormones go crazy and end up making us not only feel hungry but feel less full.
As the writer summarises well, ‘so poor sleep essentially sets us up to feel hungry, crave food and have less satisfaction after eating. It’s not a wonder that people who sleep less have a higher BMI.’
However, the real shock came when researchers got healthy men and women to sleep just four hours in one night. They became dramatically insulin resistant the next day.
What does this mean? When you are insulin resistant it means your body cannot regulate blood sugar levels and that four hour night of sleep dropped insulin resistance to a level that was the equivalent of carrying 10kg of extra body fat. It just makes is harder all round.
The research also found that six nights of extreme lack of sleep can fast track you to Type Two Diabetes.
So, what can you do if you have trouble sleeping? Continue reading
Listen to Steve
- stevedavis: @nicthenolan @kevcorduroy You two gents are both dear to me: play nicely please ;-) February 6, 2012
- stevedavis: “@malchia: @Prakky @stevedavis @twillyon Subdermal implant opens the door for you?” I just time my homecomings after others have arrived :-) February 6, 2012
- stevedavis: “@Prakky: @stevedavis @Twillyon You mean you leave the doors unlocked?” Yes, but I only tell friends and the Twitterverse #secretissafe February 6, 2012
- stevedavis: Some red lights mean 'go' http://t.co/47B2QgCm February 6, 2012
- stevedavis: @Prakky @twillyon I knew I changed my house to keyless entry too soon :-/ February 6, 2012