It’s a new year, which of course can only mean one thing — a new you.

If you’re like me, the new year can be a great time to seek new sources of creative inspiration.

After returning from leave, I’ve noticed an influx of people within my network asking for suggestions on where to find valuable sources of content.

If you’re a Digital Marketer, I wanted to take the time to share some great sources of inspiration to help you drive your digital career and personal brand throughout 2019.

Whether you’re currently working in the digital landscape, or even if you’re looking to transition into the industry, these creators can be a great source of inspiration.

As an avid user of platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter, I always love connecting with creators and learning more about their work.

In doing this, I’ve compiled a list of the top five creators that I actively engage with. These people of influence are who I believe to be fantastic sources you should follow in 2019.

Jane Manchun Wong

If you’re a regular reader of TechCrunch, you’re more than likely familiar with Jane Wong.

Jane’s renowned for reverse-engineering the source code of applications in order to uncover new product features. These are unearthed long before they’re released to the general public.

Jane Manchun Wong on Twitter

Instagram is testing commenting posts as Direct Message

If you’re a Digital Marketer like myself, this can be quite helpful to determine strategies in advance that align with future product updates.

Jane’s distribution platform of choice is Twitter, where she continuously publishes valuable content about exciting new features and data privacy implications.

Brodie Clarke

As an SEO Specialist based in Australia, Brodie is a must follow for anyone in the SEM landscape.

As a regular contributor to publishers like Search Engine Land, SEMrush and Search Engine Roundtable, Brodie remains on the bleeding edge of the SEO industry.

His frequent content will often see him uncovering the latest search engine updates, sharing valuable insights or how-to’s, or even analysing SEO strategies of renowned brands.

I admire Brodie’s ability to develop his own personal brand within the digital landscape.

You can catch his content across Twitter, LinkedIn, or even his personal blog.

Daniel Bourke

I’d met Daniel at the beginning of 2018 whilst working at a previous role.

At the time, Dan was a non-technical creator passionate about entering the field of data science and machine learning.

Throughout his self-taught endeavours, Dan’s continuously documented his personal progress.

Not only is Dan enthusiastic about learning, but he’s also passionate about sharing his new-found knowledge across a myriad of platforms.

Dan’s content is authentic, original and valuable.

If you’re interested in entering the field of data science, Dan’s created an endless amount of resources to help you understand basic concepts, develop real-world skills, and land your first job within the industry.

As a Digital Marketer, I appreciate Dan’s ability to build such an engaged community from his personal brand.

Dan’s approach to networking is influenced by depth, not width — allowing him to add the most value possible to a niche audience.

If you’re a Digital Marketer like myself, you’ll find Dan’s various forms of content to be a great example of how to grow your own community.

You can follow Dan’s journey across every platform by hunting his @mrdbourke handle.

Matt Navara

As the previous Social Media Manager of The Next Web, Matt’s renowned for consistently remaining on the cusp of the latest social media news.

Similar to Jane, Matt’s a reliable source for new product features across all social platforms.

𝗠𝗮𝘁𝘁 𝗡𝗮𝘃𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗮 on Twitter

YouTube is testing new, blue recommendation bubbles under videos https://t.co/F292hSJZQJ

Matt also regularly shares examples of engaging social media content from brands, useful tools to streamline social tasks, and tips and tricks for anyone working in a social role.

I’d recommend following Matt on Twitter to consistently engage with his content. You can also join his Facebook group to engage with a community of active Digital Marketers, all looking to share their valuable experiences.

Manu (Swish) Goswami:

I was introduced to Manu (aka Swish) throughout the early stages of my career and have been an avid follower ever since.

Swish is a domain expert at all things personal branding and content creation. His own content is easy-to-consume and continually empowers you with easy methods to scale your own personal brand.

Throughout his early career, Swish has had the opportunity to write as a LinkedIn youth editor, deliver presentations at countless world-class events, and more recently, become a co-founder of Trufan — a data-driven influencer marketing platform driving deeper engagement between brands and their users.

Swish’s ability to not only build a community of his own, but also take the time to engage with every member at scale is extremely laudable.

If you’re a brand or individual sourcing inspiration to develop your own community, then you need to go no further.

This is just a sample of some incredible creators who continually add value to the digital landscape.

Although I’ve only covered just five great sources, there’s plenty of other fantastic creators who I couldn’t speak more highly of!

I’d love to know who your favourite creators are though. Shoot me DM on LinkedIn and let me know who you engage with to draw inspiration.

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About me:

I’m a twenty-three year old Digital Marketing & Conversions Specialist based in Brisbane, Australia. With a passion for all things digital and tech, I aim to connect and learn from as many like-minded digital enthusiasts as possible. If you have a passion for emerging technologies and digital practices, I’d love to connect and hear your story.

Originally published at lachlankirkwoodblog.wordpress.com on January 16, 2019.

2018 has proven to be another unforgettable year. As I now approach the third year of my career, I’ve had the opportunity to learn so much — not only as a Digital Marketer, but also as an individual.

It was just 52 short weeks ago that I’d sat down and reflected on everything I’d learnt from the previous year. Following this tradition, I’ve compiled a list of my favourite projects I’ve brought to life throughout the year, and have also summarised the key learnings I’ve taken away.

Highlights

Hosting Brisbane’s First Digital Marketing Hackathon

After pondering on the concept for quite some time, I decided that 2018 was the year to bring this unique event to life.

Working in the tech industry, I’d always been in envy of Developers who would often participate in weekend-long hackathons. These events are a fantastic way to form communities, build valuable relationships, and develop real-world skills.

After crafting together a digital marketing case study, I’d allocated teams a full day to develop a digital strategy of their own, which they then had to pitch to a panel of judges.

The event was a huge success! I was absolutely rapt to see the impact it had on my industry peers. You can catch the full overview of the event here, or check out the summary video below.

Developing My First Venture

What started as a casual conversation with a colleague after work, soon lead to spark an exciting product concept of my own.

As a Digital Marketer, I’m constantly on the hunt to discover platforms where I can not only showcase my work, but also engage with like-minded industry peers.

Working in the digital industry, I was always familiar with community-driven platforms such as Bēhance for Designers, or even Product Hunt for Developers.

When I identified a need for Digital Marketers to have a similar alternative, I got straight to work creating my own venture, ClickThrough.

Only a few weeks after inception, I took the bold move and applied to participate in the Advanced Queensland Young Starters Competition. Throughout the competition, I was fortunate enough to make it through to the final round, where I was required to present a live pitch to an audience at River City Labs.

The Young Starters initiative was an invaluable experience. Throughout the duration of 3 months, I’d learnt so much from other experienced founders who know had scaled ventures of their own.

I can remember walking away from the weekend-long bootcamp knowing that this is what I wanted to pursue throughout my career.

Presenting At My First Event

As I continually aim to add value to students within my network, I was given the opportunity to present on several panels — sharing my experiences with the next generation of Digital Marketers.

At both the generationYOU One Day Event, and the Launch Your Marketing Career Brisbane meetup, I covered how exactly students can best prepare themselves for the digital industry.

Becoming A QUT Mentor

This year I took the time to become a QUT mentor, which saw we partner with two eager digital marketing students. Throughout the involvement, I was able to share my industry experiences and also provide advice when necessary.

Scaling My Personal Blog

This year I was proud to continue writing my personal blog. Throughout 2018, I’ve covered quite a diverse range of topics, including:

So What Am I Taking Away From 2018?

Personal Branding

Still my top priority, building my personal brand is something that I’ve continued to pursue throughout the year. By regularly attending meetups, publishing content on my blog, and actively engaging with the industry peers, I’ve continued to reinforce my position within the industry.

As I move into 2019, I have no intentions to slow down the development of my personal brand. I look forward to creating more informative content and collaborating with other like-minded folk.

If you’re a Digital Marketer or an early-stage professional, I still can’t stress how important it is to begin developing your own personal brand.

The Importance Of Value

Throughout the year, there’s been one key theme that’s influenced my everyday life — adding value to others. The notion of giving before taking has been something I’ve pursued across all facets of my life.

Value can come in so many different forms and is unique to every individual. It’s important to understand what value means to the people you engaged with — whether it be your employer, a client, or an industry connection.

Forming Relationships

Following on from value, I’ve also learnt the importance of people and relationships. As I’d always prioritised my own personal brand, I was guilty of sometimes overlooking the valuable experiences that relationships had to offer.

It’s so important to continually surround yourself with like-minded people and learn from their experiences. In the past, I’d had this luxury, but often took it for granted.

If you’re looking to enter the workforce or even switch between roles throughout the new year, I can’t stress how important it is to find an organisation that meets your cultural needs.

Culture isn’t just about open-plan offices or a work/life balance. Culture is about finding an organisation where you can learn from others and continue to thrive in.

Career Path

Approaching my third year as a Digital Marketer, I have a clear understanding of the direction in which I wish to pursue my career.

In 2019, I see myself shifting into a more product focussed position as I continue to build ClickThrough and Light Walls. I look forward to working on projects that will have a greater long-term impact on my career.

What year it’s been! 12 months ago I couldn’t have guessed how the year would pan out. I look forward to pursuing my passion for all things tech and digital marketing throughout 2019.

Originally published at lachlankirkwoodblog.wordpress.com on December 18, 2018.

Brisbane Digital Spotlight is a blog series that aims to shine light on the exceptional talent within the city’s digital community. With each post, I uncover a devoted individual within my network who I’ve recognised to be deeply engaged in the digital industry. Whether it be a Digital Marketer, a Developer, a Co-founder, a Project Manager, or even a Recruiter — my goal is to highlight the work these remarkable individuals do; day in, day out.

In this instalment of the Brisbane Digital Spotlight, I caught up with everyone’s favourite young founder, Scott Millar. From the age of 15, Scott’s passion for entrepreneurship emulated when he founded BOP Industries.

As the Event Consultant at this year’s Young Starters Competition, Scott played a major role in helping shape the next generation of entrepreneurial talent within Queensland. As an attendant myself, I had the opportunity to cross paths with Scott and learn more about his passion for entrepreneurship.

Keep reading as I uncover more about Scott’s exciting venture, his background in the digital industry, and his predictions for the future startup landscape in Brisbane.

Tell us a little about your background, how did you land in the digital space?

Funnily enough, I was never really a massive fan of technology back in school. I was a good student that aimed to get high grades but I unfortunately had some rather old-fashioned teachers that put me right off technology as soon as I started high school.

For me, I got involved in the digital space through my business, BOP Industries. Whilst we started by selling keyrings at local markets, I was always fascinated by the work of Richard Branson and Elon Musk and quickly realised that if I wanted to get involved in the exciting stuff, I had to go to technology.

I initially found myself creating holograms (yes, like Star Wars) through the guidance of a YouTube tutorial. From that point, I was hooked! I’ve always been a bit of a nerd. When I turned my focus to the digital space, I made it my mission to learn as much as I possibly could.

From there, I found how creative technology could be (a concept that I was totally unaware of in school) and decided to make it my mission to spread this with as many people as possible — inspiring a generation of Digital Creators.

Give us a deeper dive into the exciting work of BOP Industries?

Absolutely! So, at BOP we are on a mission to inspire a generation of Digital Creators. We do this through two main areas of our business.

Our first arm is through our ‘Holograms by BOP’. Holograms by BOP are a series of hologram displays that we have created for the advertising and events market. These units range from the size of the phone and tablet, up to our life-size 2m tall units and can be used to project a range of content from people to products, animations and more.

In addition to this, we are also very active in the education space, running programs with students across the country to teach them about creative tech, entrepreneurship and storytelling. With these workshops, we aim to show students how their learnings apply to the real world, and how they can start making a difference whilst still in school.

What have been some of your biggest highlights as a founder?

Great question! My personal favourites have been the places I have been able to visit and the amazing people I get to meet. As an 18-year-old, I have the pleasure of travelling around Australia and into Asia to work with some really amazing people on some super exciting projects. Some of my highlights include partying with the ex-PM of Estonia in Thailand, speaking with UN representatives in Sydney, and meeting with influencers in China!

What are the toughest challenges about being a young founder?

I think the toughest thing about being a young founder is that you’re learning everything for the first time. For me, I’ve already decided my first biography is going to be called ‘Baptism By Fire’. It almost always feels like you’ve been thrown in the deep end and you’re kicking to keep up.

But don’t let that deter you! The challenge may be difficult, but the day-to-day experiences accelerate your learning process.

Do you have any advice for anyone looking to pursue their own venture?

My advice would be to just start. Start simple and choose something that you can relate too.

I think all too often we see young people under the impression that starting a business requires them to raise $500,000 for an invention to change the world. Whilst it might seem sexy and appealing to do that straight off the bat, in reality, it would be far more effective to start simple and grow from there.

Choose something quick and easy, such as e-commerce and get some runs on the board quickly. Instead of burning through $500,000 with a mistake, keep the risks low and gradually increase as you start to get comfortable.

What’s the most valuable lesson you’ve learnt so far in your career?

For me, the most valuable lesson I’ve learnt has been from my grandpa. He used to always say that ‘you’ve got to sell yourself before you can sell your product’. It’s simple, but it essentially says that if you’re a good person and you can build a solid relationship with your clients, you will be far more effective in business.

What do you think the Brisbane digital space will look like in five years time?

I think Brisbane is a really exciting space at the moment as we’re growing rapidly and seeing some super cool ideas being developed. In five years time, I think we will see a lot more homegrown investors coming through — people that have built their startup in Brisbane, exited for a few million and are now investing back into local companies.

I also really hope that we can keep the sense of community we have at the moment. One of my favourite things about Brisbane is the ‘give first’ mentality that everyone has. We’re always happy to help out and lend a hand and it is really lovely!

What are some of your favourite things to do around sunny Brisbane when you’re not at work?

Wait, you mean not working is an option… haha, just kidding! I love to explore the bars and restaurants around Brisbane and find the cute little hidden establishments. As well as that, I can often be found at the beach or anywhere with good food and music… and fairy lights!

__________________________________________________________

About me:

I’m a twenty-three year old Digital Marketing & Conversions Specialist based in Brisbane, Australia. With a passion for all things digital and tech, I aim to connect and learn from as many like-minded digital enthusiasts as possible. If you have a passion for emerging technologies and digital practices, I’d love to connect and hear your story.

Originally published at lachlankirkwoodblog.wordpress.com on December 11, 2018.

As I continue to develop ClickThrough, I’m always enticed to see the engaging ad experiences that brands create. ClickThrough is set to be a community-based platform that allows Digital Marketers to showcase the beautiful campaigns they bring to life.

Currently existing as a Facebook group, ClickThrough encourages Digital Marketers to share screenshots of the unique marketing experiences they engaged with or create.

As the group approaches 200 total members, I wanted to take the time to reflect on the most engaging ad experiences collectively shared amongst the community. If you’re a Digital Marketer, these ads can be a fantastic source of inspiration for your future campaigns.

Without access to the creator ad accounts, I unfortunately can’t present any performance data from these ads. I would however, like to uncover why these ad experiences are so engaging, and how you can implement similar features into your own campaigns.

Hootsuite Facebook Offer

If you’re a Digital Marketer, you’re more than likely familiar with Hootsuite. The platform is renowned for developing tools that streamline social media management. It’s no surprise then, that the ad experiences Hootsuite develops are best-of-class.

I was recently targeted with this particular video ad, which at first glance stood out from the rest of my news feed. The video asset was optimised for a portrait format, allowing it to span across more of the in-feed real estate. As brands continue to use video assets in a horizontal format, they’re truly missing out on the opportunity to drive additional engagement at no extra cost.

Beyond the engaging creative, the ad also utilises a native offer as the CTA. This again is a feature that most brands don’t take advantage of. Not only does the offer add immediate value to users, but it also creates a great sense of social proof by displaying how many users have previously claimed the incentive.

As the ad was delivered under what I assume is a retargeting audience, it does a fantastic job of creating a sense of urgency through its clear message and offer CTA.

Web Profits Chatbot Experience

Also a digital marketing service provider, Web Profits have delivered yet another engaging B2B experience providing so much genuine value for end-users.

As Facebook and Messenger ad integrations come into fruition, it’s often rare to discover an ad experience that works seamlessly across the two platforms.

From my experience as a user, it’s common to see brands develop ads with a Messenger CTA that simply leads into an open-ended conversation. Web Profits however, have developed a unique ad experience that functions on a tailored workflow to deliver real value.

Before I dive deeper into the functionality of the Messenger experience, I’d love to cover some other key features of the Facebook ad itself.

To begin with, I personally found the ad creative engaging. The artwork is bold and the image copy clearly summarised the ad text. This made the CTA transparent from the beginning.

I also love the use of the emoji at the beginning of the headline field. It almost creates the illusion that the Messenger checklist is a native feature within Facebook itself. It’s also notable that each word throughout the headline began with a capital letter. I personally find this tidier and easy to read.

So did I click-through? Oh I most certainly did!

The chatbot workflow was a seamless experience that provided me with genuine value.

This ad was a fantastic way to engage top-of-funnel users, whilst also storing the newly acquired user data within a Messenger CRM for later targeting.

LinkedIn Content Carousel

As LinkedIn continues to develop its self-serving ad platform, it’s exciting to see new ad formats emerge to help drive user engagement. If you’re using LinkedIn as a paid medium within your digital strategy, you’ll know that the platform has recently added some exciting new formats, including; video ads, ads with CTA buttons, and carousel ads.

It’s no surprise that LinkedIn themselves are paving the way for brands as they showcase how these exciting new ad features can be utilised.

I was recently targeted with this carousel ad from LinkedIn that was structured in a unique format I hadn’t yet experienced. The ad was promoting an eBook download — which in most cases would simply leverage a single image ad with a photo of the eBook itself.

This carousel however, used each card to reveal a sample of the valuable content within the eBook. The ad also used the last card to create an effective CTA, similar to a Facebook carousel.

As LinkedIn continues to develop the capabilities of its ad platform, I’d love to see them follow Facebook by adding CTA buttons under each carousel card.

Breaking The Feed

This video ad experience was shared in the ClickThrough Facebook group by active member, Ashleigh Theaker. The ad from Travel Radar completely revolutionises the way in which users perceive and engage with an ad format.

The framework of the ad is a video that recreates an artificial news feed, leading the users to believe they’re still engaging with organic content. As the ad promotes travel services, the synthetic posts within the feed are status updates relating to travel experiences. By leveraging a portrait video format, it allowed the brand to harness more news feed real estate to create a consistent experience.

As the user continues to scroll through this news feed, a giraffe emerges from the side of the screen and takes over the experience. The video then breaks the feed by opening a portal with the ads CTA.

The end result is an ad experience that is not only unique, but truly immersive for end-users.

Native Story Features

As the growth of Instagram Stories continues to scale, users are becoming more immune to the interstitial ad format. In a bid to drive user engagement, brands are continually having to develop more creative ad experiences.

I was recently targeted with an ad by SlideShow, which was one of the most engaging paid story experiences I’d yet encountered.

The ads video creative was engaging — its fast-paced editing was optimised for the shorter story format. Throughout the video, the ad also featured a hybrid version of the slide-bar story sticker. By integrating this sticker into the content, it made the ad experience feel more organic and engaging. The swipe up CTA was also clear throughout the guided animation in the video.

These are only just a few examples of the enticing ad experiences I’ve recently come across. With digital platforms becoming more transparent about the paid experiences brands create, it’s now easier than ever to discover unique campaigns.

As a user yourself, have you recently found any branded ad experiences engaging? If so, I’d love to know! I’d encourage any passionate Digital Marketers to join the community and share a screenshot or screen recording within the ClickThrough Facebook group.

Originally published at lachlankirkwoodblog.wordpress.com on December 4, 2018.

Brisbane Digital Spotlight is a blog series that aims to shine light on the exceptional talent within the city’s digital community. With each post, I uncover a devoted individual within my network who I’ve recognised to be deeply engaged in the digital industry. Whether it be a Digital Marketer, a Developer, a Co-founder, a Project Manager, or even a Recruiter — my goal is to highlight the work these remarkable individuals do; day in, day out.

In this instalment of the Brisbane Digital Spotlight, I caught up with the digital marketing extraordinaire, Julia Mackerras. Julia’s not only the Digital Engagement Coordinator at QUT, but is also an all-round digital strategist, and a true believer in a good side hustle.

I was introduced to Julia through a mutual connection on LinkedIn and was immediately fascinated by her passion and experiences in the digital landscape. When she’s not adventuring throughout Europe, you’ll find Julia out at her favourite Brisbane cafe’s, or even strolling along the iconic river.

Keep reading on as I uncover more about Julia’s background in the digital space, some of her favourite digital experiences, and her digital marketing predictions for 2019.

Tell us a little about your background, how did you land in the digital space?

I decided I wanted to explore advertising/marketing as a career when I was applying for university, fresh out of high school. I found the idea of doing something a little bit creative, without being a full-blown creative, appealing.

In my undergraduate, I studied a Bachelor of Arts (Media Studies, Psychology) / Bachelor of Business Communications (Advertising) at UQ, and I did a couple of internships along the way, where the focus of my efforts was digital.

When I graduated in 2010, iPhone sales were really taking off, social media was gaining significant traction (According to TechCrunch, Facebook had 500 million users globally!), and most businesses did not have websites optimised for mobile or EDM’s that were mobile- friendly. I still remember Adam Penberthy, from Fresh Advertising, giving a guest lecture and showing a video on the social media revolution!

So, I fell into digital, rather than consciously choosing to pursue it; it was the shiny new thing and I was an eager graduate with an iPhone, iPad and a Facebook account!

Once I’d had a taste, I decided to upskill and enrolled in a Master of Business (Marketing) at QUT part-time, whilst working in industry full-time. I graduated in 2014.

What does your exciting role at QUT entail?

I am the Digital Engagement Coordinator for QUT Business School. When I started here in 2015, the Business School did not have an official presence on social media. They had identified this as an opportunity, with the need for a dedicated resource (me!).

Our target audience is primarily current students, alumni and industry, with prospective students a secondary audience, as they are largely catered for through the corporate QUT channels. I shaped the social media strategy and developed a content strategy to support our social media presence. I managed the development of two platforms — our Student Experiences blog to capture student UGC, and Insights, our thought-leadership hub for research outcomes, commentary on topical issues, profiles of high-achieving alumni etc.

Day to day, I manage our social media presence, deliver strategic digital campaigns for clients, and provide training and support for staff throughout QUT Business School.

Are there any emerging trends that are effective for driving deeper user engagement?

Not necessarily emerging, but I believe we are seeing the refinement of a few different trends and channels that are driving deeper engagement, such as:

• ArtificIal intelligence and machine learning driving personalisation and automation –making messages more relevant.
• Augmented reality and virtual reality becoming more affordable and accessible (check out this case study from Lightweave, who worked with Exceed Sports and Entertainment to develop ‘District’, an urban exploration race).
• Instagram stories regularly releasing new features, allowing brands to share a different side of their personality.

What are some other notable brands you’ve seen who able to effectively engage their users?

You can’t talk about brand engagement in 2018 and not mention Nike’s Kaepernick campaign! This campaign, although divisive, generated a lot of engagement from Nike fans who supported the campaign. Although they may have lost some fans, those that remain are highly engaged.

A personal favourite for me is Lululemon. They pride themselves on focusing on human relationships — both online and in-store. They use social channels such as Instagram to build a community and drive engagement through stories, rather than simply driving sales through photos of latest products. They also engage their customers effectively in-store, with free yoga classes and a first-name basis approach at the fitting rooms.

What’s your favourite thing about working in digital?

It is so dynamic — and it draws on both creative and analytical thinking! There are always developments, updates, new platforms, new trends, new fads, new algorithms. You have to be curious and experimental because it is not a case of one tactic working for all. It requires creativity, to ensure content is interesting, engaging and relevant, but with a logical and data-driven mindset to understand analytics and draw meaningful insights — and most importantly, a strategic mindset to ensure you tie it all into your broader objectives!

What are your predictions for the digital marketing landscape in 2019?

Two things are top of mind: the evolution of content marketing and the growth of chatbots and digital assistant.

The 2017 Gartner Hype Cycle placed content marketing in the trough of disillusionment. Arguably, content marketing is not dead, but in an increasingly crowded market, it does need to evolve — and I think we will start to see that more in 2019.

I believe we will see significant uptake of chatbots in customer service interactions, along with marketing automation and increasing personalisation. With the impressive advancements of Google Assistant in 2018, I suspect we will start to see the implications this will have for marketing in 2019, such as increased voice searches and screenless interactions.

Finally, what are some of your favourite things to do around sunny Brisbane when not at work?

I love yoga and Pilates — Zama is a fantastic studio that I frequent! I also enjoy:

__________________________________________________________

About me:

I’m a twenty-three year old Digital Marketing & Conversions Specialist based in Brisbane, Australia. With a passion for all things digital and tech, I aim to connect and learn from as many like-minded digital enthusiasts as possible. If you have a passion for emerging technologies and digital practices, I’d love to connect and hear your story.

Originally published at lachlankirkwoodblog.wordpress.com on November 20, 2018.

Brisbane Digital Spotlight is a blog series that aims to shine light on the exceptional talent within the city’s digital community. With each post, I uncover a devoted individual within my network who I’ve recognised to be deeply engaged in the digital industry. Whether it be a Digital Marketer, a Developer, a Co-founder, a Project Manager, or even a Recruiter — my goal is to highlight the work these remarkable individuals do; day in, day out.

In this instalment of the Brisbane Digital Spotlight, I caught up with the recently married Ashton Tuckerman (AKA Ashton Rigg). Ashton is the Brand Marketing Manager at YouFoodz, the Brisbane-based food startup streamlining end-to-end meal services for its users.

Ashton is someone that I’ve constantly crossed paths through almost every platform but the real world. I’m stoked to have the opportunity to uncover more about Ashton’s background in the digital space, and share her insights into driving digital growth, influencer marketing, and digital strategies for 2019.

First of all, congrats on the recent wedding! How difficult has it been changing your name across every platform or database?

Thank you! Look, it’s been a process. I have a spreadsheet I’ve been ticking off with each name change — just a few of the biggies left, like the passport.

Tell us a little about your background, how did you land in the digital space?

I studied Journalism and majored in Integrated Marketing Communications, which I chose it because it sounded impressive (only half kidding; I liked the mix of subjects, which included Advertising & PR).

Two weeks before graduation, I started at Flight Centre as a copywriter. I ended up spending close to five years as a ‘Flightie’, writing SEO copy, then print editorial, managing the content team, working in a content partnerships role, and finally moving into a bit of a ‘startup’ project (still at Flight Centre).

Even though the project (and our team) was eventually wound up, it was the best move I could have made. I started dabbling in email marketing, mapping customer journeys, running our paid social and SEM… I basically went from being a specialist to a generalist, which helped me gain an understanding of full-funnel marketing and how all the pieces work together.

I was planning to go all-in as a freelancer when I left Flight Centre, but a friend at Youfoodz (our brilliant Head of CX, Caitie Dodds) told me they were looking for a content manager. I was already a customer and a huge fan of the YF brand, so it was a hard yes from me!

Tell us more about Youfoodz and the exciting work they do.

It’s always exciting times at Youfoodz! In The Agency (our in-house team of Creative, Marketing & Digital), we’ve gone from about 11 staff when I started early last year, to more than 50 team members.

Even though we’re in this huge growth period, we’re still maintaining incredible focus on our customer and their experience with the brand.

We’re working on scaling our ability to meet our customer’s wants and needs, whether it’s adding new brekky options to the menu or bringing on new retailers (what up, Aldi?)

This year, our Marketing goal is to provide measurable value to our customers. That word ‘value’ is coming through a lot of what we’re doing right now.

We see ourselves as more than just ready-made meals; we aim to be the Future of Food.

What does your role at Youfoodz entail?

‘Brand Marketing Manager’ is a bit of a fluid title for me. You could call me an Online Marketing Manager or Content & Social Media Manager and I’ll still answer.

My main responsibilities are lining up our online promotions calendar to hit sales targets (with guidance from our AMAZING data analyst); driving content and social strategy; and writing all the words — everything from big campaign taglines to weekly social ads, alongside our Content Specialist, Anna. Phew!

What can often be some of the challenges of marketing in a startup?

I do a little bit of everything, which I love — though it can be a challenge when your focus is split. A personal challenge for me is knowing what I need to be involved in, and what I should step away from (it’s hard because I get so excited about the work and I want to be a part of everything that’s happening!)

Everyone at YF will tell you our biggest challenge is time. Nothing is ever off the table; we have the opportunity to do absolutely anything, which is amazing but also means deciding what we do first.

We also have an incredibly high standard when it comes to what we put out into the market. Our Creative Team are honestly one of the best in Australia. The talent we have in-house is truly extraordinary.

I know you’re quite passionate about working with influencers. Do you have any tips for brands looking to begin their experience with influencer marketing?

If you’re new to the influencer landscape, the first thing you need to do is really look at who you’re trying to talk to, and choose your influencers wisely based on your ideal target market.

You want to work with influencers who align with your brand values; if they can bring authenticity to the content they create to help promote your brand, you’ve struck gold.

We have the benefit of working with Scrunch, who can offer us incredible insights about an influencer’s audience breakdown and engagement stats, but if you don’t have access to in-depth data, just focus on engagement.

It’s more than ‘likes’ — it’s the conversations people are having about your, the click-throughs, the shares, the repeat activity.

It might be too soon to call, but do you have any predictions for the digital marketing landscape in 2019?

There are a few global trends yet to have a real impact in Australia, like voice search, but 2019 might be the year! They say half of all searches will be made by voice in 2020.

I think traditional TV advertisers will slowly start to move to the likes of catch-up TV, and video content of all forms (short-form lean-in, long-form lean-back) will just keep exploding.

Other things to watch: AR (not just on Snapchat), chatbots, and podcasts.

What are some of your favourite things to do around sunny Brisbane when not at work?

I’m a serial restaurant hopper; I love to try somewhere new every weekend (I used to review for the Good Food Guide so I’ve been lucky enough to try the best spots all around the South East).

My long-time faves are The Smug Fig for brunch and 1889 Enoteca for something special, and my current ‘to-trys’ are Donna Chang and Honto.

My husband is a former sports journo and his passion has rubbed off on me (like my love of food on him!), so we usually catch a few Brisbane Roar games (my team), head down south to watch Sydney FC (his team), and never miss the Brisbane International. Tennis, anyone?

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About me:

I’m a twenty-three year old Digital Marketing & Conversions Specialist based in Brisbane, Australia. With a passion for all things digital and tech, I aim to connect and learn from as many like-minded digital enthusiasts as possible. If you have a passion for emerging technologies and digital practices, I’d love to connect and hear your story.

Originally published at lachlankirkwoodblog.wordpress.com on October 22, 2018.

Brisbane Digital Spotlight is a blog series that aims to shine light on the exceptional talent within the city’s digital community. With each post, I uncover a devoted individual within my network who I’ve recognised to be deeply engaged in the digital industry. Whether it be a Digital Marketer, a Developer, a Co-founder, a Project Manager, or even a Recruiter — my goal is to highlight the work these remarkable individuals do; day in, day out.

Q. What do you get when a Machine Learning Engineer and a content creator join forces?

A. Daniel Bourke!

I met Dan at the beginning of the year whilst working at Max Kelsen. At the time, Dan was a passionate creator who had developed his own online masters degree. He’d documented the whole process, sharing his journey and newfound knowledge across countless platforms.

Dan’s passion for learning has led to his recent role as a Machine Learning Engineer at Max Kelsen. Within his role, he’s responsible for processing human genome data to predict diagnostic outcomes of immunotherapy treatments.

From a digital marketing standpoint, I’m constantly blown away by Dans ability to not only create content, but build a deeply engaged audience of his own.

In this feature, we delve into Dan’s journey within the digital space, some exciting projects he’s working on now, and cover some tips on how to land your first role.

Tell us a little about your background. How did you land in the digital space?

I grew up with the internet. From age 10–17 I played Runescape 8–12 hours per day and was easily the best at my school, but had kept it a secret because I was afraid people would think I was a nerd. I kept claiming the account was my cousins.

I made YouTube videos of me playing Runescape. They’re still on YouTube under the username ‘Lrd Rangerz’. Some even have 100K+ views.

In year 11 and 12, I ran a Call of Duty clan called haVoc — we were the number 1 clan in all of Australia for capture the flag on cybergamer.com.au.

I’d be the one in communications with other clans to host matches and organise practice for our team. This gave me my first real experience with what could be accomplished by gathering people through the internet.

Then I went to uni and quit most of the games I played.

At uni, I failed the first two years of pre-med. I had to meet with the Dean of Science and explain why I should stay at uni.

During this time (2011), I got interested in health and fitness. I started going to the gym and treated it how I did gaming. I was obsessed, except now the gains weren’t pixels, they were muscle cells. All of this started from watching videos of people online. Especially Zyzz, Marc Lobliner, and Kris Gethin. At this point, I started to see how much value someone could get from learning online.

I switched from pre-med to food and nutrition science in 2013. It was way easier because I was interested in it outside of uni too.

My friend Dave and I started a YouTube channel in 2014 called ‘From your bros’. We filmed one video and posted it, then gave up. It’s still on YouTube somewhere.

Then I got a job at Apple. I loved tech, it was a dream. Now I could work with it all day. But after a couple of years, I decided to leave and try to build some of the technology I was servicing.

I convinced a colleague, my brother, and a friend, to start a venture called ‘AnyGym’. We wanted to workout together, but couldn’t due to not being members of the same gym. It was always a pain in the ass trying to get together because of sign up forms and processes — so we decided we’d fix it with technology.

I quit Apple in February 2016 and we started building. The site was live. We had gyms listed on there. We entered them manually, postcode by postcode throughout Brisbane.

But after interviewing some gyms, the excitement started to dip. We found most of their revenue comes from people who don’t show up. Our business model went completely against this. We wanted to allow more access for end-users.

Eventually it all fizzled out, plus I wasn’t as excited by web development as when I first began. We decided to kill the startup.

While building AnyGym.com, I found a bunch of resources on AI/ML. This stuff really set me on fire.

I was starting to run out of money I’d saved from working at Apple. I used what was left to buy a course on Deep Learning. I’d never done Python before, but I figured I could pick it up. Three weeks out from the course, I started learning Python. Two weeks out from the course, I emailed Udacity support asking how to get a refund.

I didn’t end up getting a refund. But after completing the Deep Learning Nanodegree, I was a bit lost. I needed some structure. I didn’t want to go back to uni either. Being in control of my learning journey was hard, but far more exciting. So I built my own AI Masters Degree — and I’m still doing it, actually, it will never really end.

All the while I was learning online, I figured, it may be hard for me to get a role somewhere without official credentials, because the world still loves certificates.

I knew I had to differentiate myself. But I didn’t know how.

When I started learning Python, I was in the middle of doing a podcast a day for 100 days. I began doing episodes on programming and different technologies I was excited about.

70 episodes in, I figured, why not start recording the audio with a camera as well. And my new YouTube channel was born. The first 30 videos are me sitting in my car doing a podcast. Boring and crap. But my recent ones are a bit better.

Making things and sharing them online turned into a disease. I caught the creative bug. My mindset switched from consuming to creating. I still consume some things but I feel sick if I don’t create.

Now it’s all about having fun. Work isn’t work anymore. It’s play. Because whatever challenge I’m taking on, I know it’ll be a great story to share in the future.

The only regret I have is not starting sooner. Or continuing my creative journey from those gaming videos I made 10-years ago. I’ve learned my lesson now.

I’m still just getting started.

What does your role at Max Kelsen entail?

My title is a Machine Learning Engineer, but for the most part, it has involved preparing data to be used within machine learning algorithms. There’s plenty of data out there, but most of it needs to be twisted and turned in order to make it useful.

For the first few weeks, we worked on a reinforcement learning competition from OpenAI. The goal was to build an algorithm capable of learning to play Sonic the Hedgehog. It was the first time I’d tried anything like it.

We didn’t end up finishing the algorithm in time for the competition deadline. I did however, have a great time writing an article about what we tried. At this stage, my writing is still stronger than my coding.

I’m most excited about our upcoming project with genomiQa, BGI (genome sequencing) and QIMR (Brisbane medical research foundation). Our goal is to find a better diagnostic tool for predicting the successfulness of immunotherapy treatments. To do this, we’ll be using whole human genomes. It’s an omnidimensional challenge. From a technical standpoint, how do you manage files at 300gb a piece? (whole genome = 300gb per person) And from a health standpoint, even if you do find a solution, how do you get it into the hands of patients?

It’s the intersection of technology and health which interests me the most.

What’s been the most challenging aspect of getting into data science/machine learning?

Having too much to learn.

There’s so much available and it’s all so fascinating. It’s hard to pick something and stick with it. There’s constantly some new technology or a new paper that will drop and you’ll want to try it out.

I have to keep reminding myself to stick with first principles — what’s going to last the longest?

Developers and data scientists aren’t traditionally renowned for producing personal content. I’d love to know why this is such a big focus throughout your endeavours.

I made the switched from consuming to creating. Again, there were too many things I enjoyed watching, listening, and reading, so I decided to add a few more of my own.

Plus, it’s a great balance.

There’s no word for learning to create and creating to learn in English (that I’m aware of), but that’s why I do it.

My learning fuels my creative works and my creative works fuel my learning. It’s a circle.

And if I can have some fun doing it, and perhaps share a little joy with others on the way, why not?

What are your favourite channels for distributing content at the moment?

All of them.

I think they’re all great, but it depends on what you want to get out there.

I’m a big fan of audio, but there still isn’t a go-to podcasting platform outside of the native podcast apps. Anchor is there but I think it has some ways to go.

For video, YouTube is still king.

Written word is Quora, Medium, or a personal blog. I love a beautifully decorated blog. Ghost have just updated their platform, I’m thinking of switching to there.

I probably share the most content through Instagram stories. I post 15–20 times a day there sometimes. The rawness and swiftness of a story is what makes it attractive to me. I’m very off the cuff.

LinkedIn is slowly becoming a beast too, but they’ve got some ways to go around making their platform a bit smoother. There’s a few things I’d change — like making it easier to view the things someone has created when viewing their profile.

But again, it comes down to what you’re wanting to make and where your audience finds the most value. As I’m still trying to figure this out, I’m creating content everywhere.

Twitter is a great time too. I think it’s the only ‘true’ social media. You can get straight to anyone on the platform. They might not reply, but you can at least see their stuff and interact with it.

What advice do you have anyone trying to land an entry-level role in data science, or even across the digital industry for that matter?

Get some great skills. And be able to communicate them.

Skills are the obvious one. Everyone knows this, but people forget you need to be able to showcase these skills. Have a blog, have a nice LinkedIn presence, have a great GitHub. Have something where people can find you.

Build relationships in the field by attending meetups and using LinkedIn. You’ll likely land a role through a contact or if someone knows you and thinks about you during their next hiring round.

Stand out. A resume is boring to me. LinkedIn is my resume now.

Make a website called http://www.whycompanyXshouldhireYOURNAME.com and send it to everyone you know who works there. Be sure the site is polished and showcases your skills.

I’ve never hired anyone formally but these are things I’d be checking. After all, if you’re going to work with someone, you want them to have substance.

What are some exciting goals you’re currently working towards?

I’m writing an article for my 25th birthday called ’25 things I’m going to do before I’m 26.’

Number 1 is run a midnight marathon. Start at 12 am and then run 42km, probably straight to a cafe for breakfast. That would be a fun story.

I’d like to take up dancing sometime soon. I’ve been meaning to for a while.

I’ve started drawing recently too. My writing needed some pictures to go along with it, so I’d like to be a little better at drawing.

And my brother and I are working on a food recognition app. Ideally, people would be able to point their phones at food and get a nutrition breakdown.

What are your favourite things to do in sunny Brisbane when you’re not at work?

I love Brisbane. Sitting in the sun is fun.

I live near the water, so I’m always walking along it. My brothers and I will often go for bike rides with our dogs.

Otherwise, I’ll likely be in front of a computer screen (still) making something or moving my body around somewhere.

And I enjoy cooking. I love making food for others. Most weekends I’ll cook a meal for the family or whoever is around.

Where can we find out more about you?

My website is probably the best place to start, www.mrdbourke.com.

There’s a bunch of fun stuff there with links to my other internet adventures.

I got lucky and secured the handle @mrdbourke everywhere you can imagine (except Quora, I’m not sure what their naming system is) so you’ll find me there.

Or better yet, send me an email, I’ll reply. Promise. daniel@mrdbourke.com

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About me:

I’m a twenty-three year old Digital Marketing & Conversions Specialist based in Brisbane, Australia. With a passion for all things digital and tech, I aim to connect and learn from as many like-minded digital enthusiasts as possible. If you have a passion for emerging technologies and digital practices, I’d love to connect and hear your story.

Originally published at lachlankirkwoodblog.wordpress.com on September 25, 2018.

In the light of R U OK day, it’s important to share your thoughts and feelings with those around you. In this instance, I wanted to take the time to delve into a personal story of my own. The story about my battle with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), and how it continually conflicts with my career.

It started when I was just eight years old. I remember walking out of the toilet to wash my hands. At the time, my mum was walking past the bathroom, only to drop a harmless remark about how I should be washing my hands with soap. I thought she made a valid point, but from here, things really spiralled out of control.

I started washing my hands with soap, regularly. Sometimes when I hadn’t even gone to the toilet. My desire to ridden germs intensified by the day. Soon before I knew it, I was petrified of the concept of germs. From the age of 8–12, my life was an ongoing battle to stay clear of anything I deemed to posses germs.

My OCD would trigger whenever I’d come into contact with something I’d thought to be ‘germy’. Sometimes I wouldn’t even need to physically touch an object, but would still consider myself affected by the germs it carried. When I felt exposed, I had no choice but to run to the closest tap and cleans myself.

At its worse, I’d often wash my hands until they’d crack and bleed. I also couldn’t come in contact with members of my family as I thought they carried germs. When I did, well, it’d often result in an immediate shower to fight any unwanted germs.

As I was young, I was never quite able to explain why I behaved like this. The most effective way I described my OCD to others, was as a voice inside my head that had no reason. The voice would make the most ludicrous demands, in which I had no control over.

Fortunately enough, I was able to see the help of a psychiatrist, in which after years of therapy, relieved me of my condition.

After being relieved of my condition for six years, it was when I turned 18 that my next obsession began. This time around, the focus wasn’t on germs, but was instead about my body. One day I was reading a generic 101 fun facts book, when I stumbled across an interesting observation.

“If you think about your muscles, it will help them grow”.

One thing I should openly admit, is that I’ve had one consistent goal throughout my life — to always remain in good shape. Growing up I’ve always been active. Whether it be through swimming, athletics, playing football, or in more recent times, riding my BMX bike, I’ve always been active. One of my biggest fears is letting life get the best of me and finally ‘letting myself go’.

Now bearing this is mind, you could begin to understand why this bold statement would intrigue me.

At the time of reading it, I had again put no thought into this statement… but like my first experience, things escalated quickly. I soon found myself not only thinking about my muscles regularly, but tensing and touching them to remind myself that they were still there.

I knew that this started becoming a problem when my actions were embarrassing to explain to those around me. To this day, I know my habits are obscure, but the voice of OCD inside my head continues to tell me it’s necessary.

But unlike my first round of germ-related OCD, I was actually happy to reason with this voice, as it agreed with my goal of remaining fit and healthy.

After graduating school, I started studying and began working a part-time job. With these new responsibilities, I began worrying that they’d get the best of me and take away from my health and fitness. There’d be countless times throughout the day where I’d have to drop whatever I was doing, only to perform my routine OCD checks on my muscles.

But what really began to trigger my OCD, was food. If I was to think about food, or even hear a mention of food, the voice inside my head would convince me that I was gaining calories. This would of course result in me performing a compulsive check to ensure I hadn’t lost my muscles.

Throughout university, I was fortunate enough to work in a retail sales role. This meant that I was constantly on my feet, which I knew was good exercise. But one day, I had read another article. This time, the article explained the benefits of burning calories by standing at work all day. From here on out, I refused to sit in general.

I also started making small changes to my eating habits to ensure I stayed in shape. I stopped eating lunch to avoid a subset of daily calories. Whenever I did eat, I also had to be standing. This is where my bad relationship with food started. Absolutely ridiculous, I know.

As time passed, I graduated uni and entered the full-time workforce. Now this, is when things really started getting out of control

My first impression of the full-time workforce was two things:

1. You have to sit at a desk for eight hours straight,
2. And adults seem to have two main interests — food and drinking

At this point, my OCD reached a new peak. Now whenever I’d worry about my health, I wouldn’t just touch my muscles, but I’d ruthlessly strike at them to ensure they were strong. This would include scratching, punching, and even throwing objects into myself.

Now again, I know just as much as you how ridiculous this sounds, but my OCD gave me no alternative.

In the workplace, my colleagues would often talk about food, which is of course completely normal. But frequently hearing about food made me only resent it more.

I’d started eating less and riding my bike more — often 6 times a week to ensure I was resilient to becoming unhealthy. I was terrified of settling into a full-time job and letting life get the best of me.

But when I turned twenty-one, I started to really enjoy my work. Now while you’d assume that someone enjoying their work is great, in my case, it was the beginning of the ultimate catch twenty-two…

You see, because I enjoyed my work, I started investing more time in my career. This in turn, would then worsen my OCD. I turned to riding my bike, but whenever I’d ride my bike too much, I was worried that I wasn’t taking my career seriously enough.

I’d then force myself to work harder, which of course, would completely backfire and set off what I call, ‘an OCD attack’.

An attack is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a moment where I lose complete control over my thoughts and actions. It’s a tipping point where I can no longer handle the pressure I’ve put on myself.

There’s a fine line in which I can walk between either working too much, or what I’d consider to be having too much fun. This green zone looks similar to a car temperature gauge. Anything out of this safe area, only results in me tipping.

Attacks started to become frequent when I’d prioritise work over my life, in particular, exercising. This would normally occur whenever I’d attend networking events or other work functions.

So why am I sharing all of this? Well, a couple of weeks ago it all became too much. Everything had caught up with me and I’d pushed myself too far. After remaining on the fine line of the green zone for a few months, I tipped.

Except this time, I remember coming home from work one afternoon and having this feeling of utter melancholy. I’d been so hard on myself to the point where I had broken.

I was in a bad state, but I knew that I needed to talk to someone. I picked up the phone and spoke to my mum.

Although physically picking up the phone was an easy thing to do, it made a difference in a big way.

Being able to openly share my thoughts and feelings was exactly what I’d needed. I didn’t expect my mum to solve anything, but I knew that she could listen.

My mum has a wise saying — a problem shared, is a problem halved.

I knew that by the time I’d gotten off the phone, my problem would be sliced right down the middle — and it was.

In the light of R U OK Day, I wanted to highlight how important it is to reach out to someone when you’re in need. I may not be completely okay, but I know at what point to make others aware of it.

It’s tough being a young person in the digital space. Things evolve at such a rapid pace, and it’s harder than ever to remain relevant or of value. In general, a lot of passionate workers put unnecessary pressure on themselves to perform, yet no one actually expects it from them.

If you’re not feeling okay, I urge you to talk to someone. There’s absolutely no shame in letting someone know that you’re not okay.

At the end of every piece of content I publish, I always include a CTA to reach out and connect with me. In this case, I’d genuinely love to hear how you’re feeling. If you made it this far into this post, take the time to let me know if you’re okay.

If you’d like professional advice, I’d urge you to reach out to any of the incredible free resources available here.

You may not know it, but there’s more than likely to be someone within your network who struggles with a mental battle of their own. Make the effort today to reach out to others and show them your support.

Just remember, a problem shared is a problem halved.

Originally published at lachlankirkwoodblog.wordpress.com on September 12, 2018.

As I reside in Brisbane, I recently had the pleasure of attending the 2018 Royal Queensland Show with my family. This was my third time attending the Ekka, and it was by far my most memorable experience to date. The attractions were amusing, the atmosphere was vibrant, and the entertainment was world-class.

But despite the positive experience I had at the Ekka, there was a large part of me that knew I could improve the overall experience as an end-user… with the use of technology, of course.

After reading Lauren Holliday’s blog post about recreating a content marketing strategy for Slack, I was inspired to re-formulate an existing brand’s digital strategy of my own. With a background as a digital marketer working in the tech industry, I wanted to create a strategy for the Ekka that would harness technology to not only sell more show tickets, but also enhance the overall experience for end-users (myself included).

As a national exhibition, the Ekka continues to rely on more traditional channels to promote the event. Now being a millennial, I of course, can’t remember the last time I turned on a tv or a radio. This year, I hadn’t actually engaged in any pre-event content related to the Ekka.

Now before I dive into my own digital strategy, I did want to take the time to recognise some of the laudable digital experiences created by the Ekka’s team:

SnapChat Filter
It was great to see the Ekka embracing SnapChat as a platform to engage with younger users.

Live Video
This year, the Ekka did a brilliant job of harnessing the power of live video across Facebook. Several times a day, the account was creating live content to showcase daily events, shows or interviews.

Mobile Application
The mobile app was not only intuitive to operate, but offered genuine value to end-users. The app featured plenty of informative Ekka content, the ability to create an event plan, and also an integrated 3D map that seamlessly linked to points of interest. On top of this, it was also great to see the app utilising AR to further enhance exhibits — but I’ll cover more on that later in this post.

Facebook Events
For each main show throughout the Ekka, the digital team had created a matching Facebook event to encourage engagement and ultimately sell more tickets. Registered users were able to share the events within their Facebook network, where other interested users could then purchase tickets through the event page itself.

Instagram Story Highlights
Instagram was by far the Ekka’s dominant platform for distributing content this year. Their frequent in-feed posts were not only engaging, but their use of Instagram stories was also commendable. I was particularly impressed with the story highlights created to recap each day’s activities.

Before I move onto my own digital strategy, I’d like to first note that as I don’t work for the Ekka, I don’t have direct access to any internal data or existing strategies. Throughout this post, I’ve formulated my strategy with access to publicly available tools and content.

Content Marketing
Diving into my strategy, I’d first like to focus on the content that the Ekka was publishing leading up to the event. This year, the Ekka made great use of YouTube as a platform to publish video content. This included interviews with farmers, behind the scenes footage, and promo videos. This video content was also cross-posted throughout their social channels.

When analysing the content published from the official Ekka social accounts, I also noticed that a large proportion of the content was simply shared news stories promoting the event.

Although this of course is a strategic way to repurpose content, the Ekka has such great potential to create their own native content that would drive longer, more meaningful engagement.

If you were to visit the Ekka website, you’d notice that majority of the featured content includes some basic details about each attraction and exhibit. As it stands, there’s currently no blog for publishing on-going content.

My strategy would create a blog where the Ekka could share its rich story, and educate users about the exciting experiences that the event has on offer. This would ultimately help drive pre-event ticket sales online. Some engaging pieces of pre-event content could include:

Top 5 Posts
These posts would include a summary of the top five attractions, foods, experiences, or events to see at the Ekka. Most of this content already exists, but is siloed throughout the website. Each mention of the event could be linked to the attraction on the website, or even deep-linked into the Ekka app. This would enable users to then add these experiences to their in-app Ekka planner.

People Of The Ekka
Similar to the existing YouTube content, this blog series could interview the farmers, performers, and volunteers responsible for bringing the Ekka to life. This longer-form content would help share the inspiring stories that resonate with users on an emotional level. The posts would also conclude with a CTA encouraging users to come and meet the featured worker at this year’s event.

Ekka History
Talk about the history behind the Ekka and some of the renowned traditions. For example, a post could cover how the infamous strawberry sundae was brought to life. This form of content would educate users about the rich history that the Ekka carries.

Ekka Stars
The Ekka has a myriad of existing partnerships with renowned influencers. These include radio hosts, actors, sports players, and celebrities. By taking the time to interview these individuals, the Ekka could create a series of posts that share what each influencer is looking forward to at this year’s show, as well as their favourite Ekka memories. When shared within the influencers network, this content would drive high-engagement.

By creating their own organic content, it would allow the Ekka to control the way in which they engage and educate their audience. This strategy wouldn’t rely on other publishers to create the main source of content. It would also be beneficial to drive users to the Ekka website in order to create a retargeting audience for paid ads… which of course, leads me to my next point.

Paid Strategy
As a performance-based digital marketer, I’m passionate about leveraging paid platforms to help drive real conversions. As the Ekka already maintains a strong organic search ranking, I’d like to focus on developing an engaging social strategy. Being a family-oriented event, I believe there’s immense potential to engage target users through enticing social ad creatives.

Now again, without working for the Ekka, I’m unable to entirely understand their exact digital strategy. With the help of Facebook’s new ads and info tab for pages, I can however, garner a general idea behind their paid social strategy.

Before I dig into my own strategy, I’d again like to review the current work from the Ekka’s digital team.

Good:

• Engaging ad creative — images & video.
• Purchase-event CTA.
• Engaging use of emoji’s throughout ad copy.

Room For Improvement:

• Unused ad fields (newsfeed description & display link). With blank text fields, these ads can seem uninformative.
• Ads focus on only a handful of the available attractions.
• Currently not leveraging engaging ad formats like canvas ads.
• Some of the ad headlines are quite blunt.
• Some ad copy encourages users to purchase tickets ‘at the gate’, not online.

My Solution

I’d like to create more enticing ad experiences that not only educate users about all of the main attractions, but also prompt users to purchase their tickets online, not ‘at the gate’.

My paid strategy would begin by creating several Facebook canvas and carousel ads. Each of these ads would focus on showcasing a particular element or attraction at this year’s show. As an example; a dedicated carousel ad would showcase some of the exciting Ekka foods, whereas another would feature the animals on display. Each of the attraction features would of course link to the relevant content on the Ekka website. At this stage, these ads would target a top-of-funnel audience to drive initial engagement.

Carousel Ad

Canvas Ad

Now as the Ekka hosts an average yearly attendance of 300,000–400,000 people, I would assume that they’d have a historical database of at least one million unique users. This valuable database could be leveraged to create an initial custom audience for targeting.

These initial engagement ads would also help form the second stage of my paid social strategy…

When creating audiences in Ads Manager, it’s possible to generate custom audiences based on users who have engaged with unique canvas and carousel ads.

By doing this, I would develop a variety of custom audiences based on the users who have engaged with each unique attraction. This would allow me to identify which users are interested in attending the Ekka for the food, the animals, or other entertainment.

From here, I would then create more specific video or single-image ads, using a personalised message and a stronger CTA. As these ads would be targeted towards users who have shown interest in these attractions, I could also assume that they’d see a higher conversion rate.

At this stage, I would also create lookalike audiences based on each niche — helping identify users who haven’t previously attended the Ekka, but could be interested in particular attractions on offer. As a helpful tip, within these ad sets, I’d also recommend excluding users who have already converted, as well as the database of historical attendees. This will help avoid any ad wastage or overlap.

Following a similar approach to the lookalike audiences, it’d also be possible to develop a variety of custom retargeting audiences. These would be based on the specific pages a user visits on the Ekka website. This retargeting audience would also be shown the more targeted ad variations.

Unfortunately, without access to any of the Ekka’s existing Facebook data, I’m unable to provide accurate forecasts into the performance of my ads. However I could make the assumption that from all of the audiences I’d target, I could expect at least one million unique users to be shown an ad (remembering that actual audience reach will be lower than an ad sets overall size).

Now if I was to use the data provided by WordStream within their yearly Facebook performance report, I can establish that the average conversion rate across all industries is 9.21%. This means that under the assumption that my ads would reach one million users, I could expect 92,100 of those users to convert. This is equivalent to roughly a quarter of the total Ekka attendance.

Taking this data one step further, I can identify that the average price of a single adult ticket is $35. At this price, this would mean I’d expect a total ad revenue of $3,223,500.

As I mentioned, this performance forecast was developed on some personal assumptions, however, I do feel as though this end result is an achievable outcome.

User-Generated Content
Whilst covering ways to drive value from social channels, I’d also like to briefly touch base on user-generated content. With over 400,000 people attending this year’s Ekka, there was certainly no shortage of content being produced by attendees.

Although the official Ekka accounts did republish user-generated content from time-to-time, the account could have done more to partner with local influencers to create consistently engaging content.

Using Scrunch’s influencer marketing platform, I was able to classify a range of micro-influencers who are not only based in Brisbane, but publish content that is relevant to the Ekka. One of Scrunch’s unique features is its ability to analyse and benchmark influencer engagement rates across specific platforms. By leveraging this data, the Ekka could ensure they partner with influencers who maintain a high-engagement rate (over 6.67%) across Instagram.

Additionally, by using a pro-tier version of Scrunch’s platform, an influencers audience location data would also become available. This would allow us to interpret where exactly an influencers audience resides. By leveraging this data, we could collaborate with those influencers whose followers are predominantly based in Brisbane.

As Instagram stories continually become more popular, the Ekka could have also made better use of the story repost feature, encouraging more users to publish more Ekka-related content.

The above suggestions cover the ways in which the Ekka could enhance its pre-event digital strategy. Now, I’d like to delve into how the event could leverage emerging technologies to drive positive user experiences throughout the show itself.

Artificial Intelligence
One of the most unpleasant experiences throughout the Ekka, is of course the large crowds of people, all trying to weave their way through the RNA Showgrounds. If you’ve been to the Ekka, you’ll understand how populated sections of the venue can get when certain shows begin. To ease congested areas, I’d recommend leveraging AI to help navigate crowds. But how would this work?

Upon purchasing their tickets, the parents of the family could have consensually registered some entry-level data about their family. This could include each family members gender, age, and any main attractions they’d like to see. Provided that someone from the family has downloaded the Ekka mobile app, they could be sent a push notification to not only alert them of the high-traffic area, but also offer them a personalised alternative within the same time period. Using a collaborative-filtering model, the notification could alert the family that there’s a monster truck show on at 5:45pm instead, as this is an attraction that would appeal to the two younger boys.

Another use-case for AI could be to identify the number of online tickets sold for certain days, accompanied by all of the user demographic data submitted upon purchase. By understanding what masses of people will be attending each day, it could send notifications to an internal Ekka application for attraction owners. This would allow them to gain valuable insights into how busy they’ll be throughout the day. Using this data, the exhibitors could then prepare more resources in advance, or even alter the duration of rides accordingly.

Streamlined Transaction Process
Another painful experience I’m sure we’ve all been a victim to, is getting your hands on one of the thousands of showbags on offer. Showbag Alley is renowned for being as chaotic as the Shibuya Crossing.

The Ekka mobile app does a fantastic job of enabling users to search and view the contents of all the available showbags. This alleviates the time spent deciding which showbag users would like to purchase at the marque.

Although useful, there’s still immense potential for the app to streamline the entire process of end-to-end showbag purchases. When I personally went to purchase a showbag, both of the eftpos machines at the particular marque weren’t functional due to an intermittent network signal.

If the Ekka had integrated a payments service within the app, it would allow users to link a credit card or PayPal account to complete purchases. Users could not only purchase showbags in advance, but also schedule a time to collect their goods — allowing them to skip the large queues upon collection.

The same could also be applicable across various attractions; whether it be ordering food or drinks in advance, or even pre-purchasing tickets for rides.

Augmented Reality
As I previously mentioned, I thoroughly enjoyed the 2018 Ekka app, which was developed by Brisbane’s own Lightweave. My favourite feature within the app, was of course the integration of AR used to enhance the real-world Ekka exhibits.

Lightweave had done a laudable job to help drive a deeper level of engagement between attendees and Ekka displays.

However, as a user myself, I could identify one more avenue in which AR could enhance the overall Ekka experience.

When navigating between attractions, I found the apps 3D map to be helpful. It allowed users to deploy a compass-like navigation index, pointing them in the right direction. As useful as this feature was, it was susceptible to real-world restrictions, including physical objects, or crowds blocking a labelled path.

Although not necessary, this navigation feature could utilise augmented reality to create a more enticing experience for end-users. Similar to the soon-to-be-released Google Maps navigation, AR arrows could seamlessly direct users in real-time.

This navigation tool could also feature additional Ekka content. Special AR characters could emerge from attractions, or users could be encouraged to find and collect AR markers, almost like a treasure hunt. All of these concepts could help drive engagement and keep families entertained between attractions.

My digital strategy covers just a few of the potential ways in which emerging technology could not only help drive ticket sales, but enhance the overall end-user experience for Ekka attendees. Other areas of opportunity could include the use of Twitter Moments, Google My Business posts, and even AR Facebook ads — but I’ll save those for another post.

My experience at this year’s Ekka was surely one to remember. I can only hope that as the year’s progress, the integration of emerging technology continues to make my experience even more memorable.

If you’re working on an exciting digital strategy leveraging similar technologies, I’d love to hear about it! Shoot me an email or connect with me on LinkedIn.

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About me:

I’m a twenty-three year old Digital Marketing & Conversions Specialist based in Brisbane, Australia. With a passion for all things digital and tech, I aim to connect and learn from as many like-minded digital enthusiasts as possible. If you have a passion for emerging technologies and digital practices, I’d love to connect and hear your story.

Originally published at lachlankirkwoodblog.wordpress.com on August 27, 2018.