Saturday, January 17, 2009

sand banks and e-banks

Unlike lots of people, I didn't mind the Ubank videos and I hope that with time they get funnier (sharper cutting guys). I'm still miffed that their agency (Loaded Technologies) never got back to me about selling the myfuturebank.org domain name. I was being serious people!!!

Actually, "funny" is tricky and virals generally fail so how about a whole bunch of 1 minuters? And on what topic? Well, the number one financial issue for Australians is getting out of debt. So how about 1 minute videos on people who have done interesting stuff to get out of debt? Not necessarily sold a kidney or gone on the game but something cool. Now that would be worth watching.

The other mega one is "The Best Job in the World". Apart from the stupid "getting your staff to pose as a member of the public" thing, it's a really neat idea. I even thought of sending in a video except I'm fat, balding & not too keen on the beach (yes, I know that leads to all kinds of questions about why I live in Sydney but never mind that for now - fat, bald people have to live somewhere). So for me it would not be the best job in the world.

The press release is a bit weird tho: titled "200,000 prospective applicants in just 24 hours", you have to read down to see that they've had 200 applications rather than 200,000. Apparently "visitor" = "prospective applicant". I shall have to apply that logic to any future dinner guests. "A visitor? Well funny you thought that - coz I thought that you were applying for the 'toilet cleaner' job I had advertised at the back of my medicine cabinet - here's the brush, get cracking..."

Some thoughts:
  • It'll be interesting to see how the losers are treated. These are people who have spent time recording a video for you. What can you do to make them feel good? Give them a little gift? Give them some publicity? Say thank you?
  • Will it drive more visitors to Queensland? And will we get similar campaigns for, say, Tasmania? "Do you ever dream of spending 6 months on a remote farmstead fighting off drunken, inbred hillbillies? Send us a video. Or simply bootleg Straw Dogs".

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