Scott Savage's Blog » Australia

Map My Summer Australia

Scott — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 07:43:02 +0000

The culmination and curation of the Map My Summer project, the “We Were Here” video by Screen Australia, has premiered in Sydney. Way to make me nostalgic while I am overseas. Getting my name in the credits at the end is pretty cool though, I think this is a first for me!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCS5N9ENW9A

Happy Australia Day!

Scott — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 01:00:45 +0000

Happy Australia Day 2011 to all the aussies who read my blog! Ernesto, 3DM and I worked hard to deliver the first YouTube custom logo for Australia ever and a custom video mapping gadget! The basic premise is that Australians can upload videos to YouTube and plot them on a map. This map then visually “fills in” to create essentially remap Australia in terms of summer memories. I am really looking forward to seeing how much momentum we can build off this one and it is great showcase for local creatives.

Custom YouTube logo and youtube.com/MapMySummer gadget

Google also put up a custom doodle for today, which indirectly drives through to the YouTube channel too:

Google doodle for Australia Day 2011

Is it weird that I get a buzz from having input into the creation of these programs that re-craft some of the most recognised brands in the world? Must be my inner marketing geek showing through…

Save your tax dollars – cut your copper now!

Scott — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 07:30:23 +0000

As part of the Heads of Agreement that Telstra has signed with NBNCo, Telstra is being paid $11 billion taxpayer dollars. This amount is effectively the sum value of each and every customer they migrate off copper. As John Stanhope (Telstra CFO) states:

So as the customer is switched off and goes across to (NBNCo) fibre, we get a payment.

Copper lines are already being dropped at a massive 8% pa, but you can help accelerate this drop and save your taxpayer dollars as well as your own line rental costs in the process. Moving to VoIP over fibre, merging multiple lines into VoIP services and migrating to mobile phones will all help you save your hard earned tax dollars.

Admonsters Sydney Members Dinner

Scott — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 01:07:34 +0000

Admonsters held their first event in Australia this week, with a members dinner at the Waterfront restaurant in Sydney. The 3 course meal was very generously provided by aiMatch on a perfect summer’s night right next to the harbour.

The event was attended by around 25 people, which made for an intimate yet comprehensive representation of the major Australian advertising operations teams. Ninemsn, Carsales, REA Group, APN, CBS Interactive, YouTube, Google and number of niche publishers were represented. It was amazing how small the industry is (I had worked with at least 5 others previously) and yet how diverse our backgrounds were. There was some reflection on this topic, in particular what qualifications you need to get into Ad Operations, and therefore what you look for in new hires.

Other issues that went around the table included the continuing friction between digital and traditional media (both internally and in the market), the National Broadband Network and how it will accelerate this structural change and the amount of hand-holding that clients are still requiring.

Overall it was a great night which really helped build relationships across what is a very fragmented online media landscape in Australia. The discussion ended with a hope that there will be a larger Admonsters conference event in the APAC region next year!

Movember 2010

Scott — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 05:18:48 +0000

30 days worth of growth...

This is the second year that I have participated in Movember, a great initiative to raise money for men’s health. Google Australia put together a strong team to compete, so I had no excuse not to join the cause. If you don’t know what Movember is, here is the summary from their website:

Each year Movember is responsible for the sprouting of moustaches on thousands of men’s faces in Australia and around the world, with the sole aim of raising vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and depression in men.

The program started in Australia, but has now spread to 9 more countries around the world. It’s really great to see Australia coming up with programs like Movember and Earth Hour that make a difference to the world.

If you would like to donate to my (poor) efforts to help, then that would be greatly appreciated! You can do so here: http://au.movember.com/mospace/227691/

YouTube Symphony 2011 in Sydney

Scott — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 11:29:37 +0000

YouTube Symphony 2011 has launched, and the Sydney Opera House has been announced as the new final location! The program is revolving around an APAC advertiser and location, so it is an extremely exciting program for the region. Make sure you try the Augmented Reality application in the “Experiment” section.

This excitement is being driven internally by a surprisingly large and distributed number of Australians based all around the world. I was at the launch event at the Opera House on Wednesday morning, and every Google employee who spoke was Australian! It was quite an inspiring moment for an Australian in IT like myself looking to make an impact globally. Working on the project has already been an amazing experience, and things have only just begun.

I guess Symphony is already achieving its goal to be a globally inspiring program.

Live Streaming on YouTube Australia

Scott — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 11:55:18 +0000

Tomorrow from 1-2pm YouTube Australia will be running their first live streaming event for the 2010 ICT ministers debate on the youtube.com/AustraliaVotes channel.

ICT policy is shaping up as one of the big issues of this election, which is great because ICT tends to take a back seat in Australian politics. The main issues are around the $43b National Broadband Network (NBN) project and the proposed Internet Filter. Each party has a different perspective on each of these major issues, which hopefully will make for an interesting debate. Regardless, I am proud to be helping to bring this first to Australia!

Edit: The debate ran successfully on YouTube Live! You can now see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRHbeONYdUc

How can charities get started with YouTube?

Scott — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 12:00:42 +0000

Each year Google runs a GoogleServe week, where we each choose a non-profit project we would like to contribute to. I chose to present to a group of 30+ non-profit organisations here in Sydney on how they can benefit from our recently launched YouTube non-profit program. Despite being only a small contribution it was a very rewarding experience, and I was really impressed with how sophisticated many of the charities are.

I am posting my presentation here so that any other charities who didn’t attend can view it at any time. I am also posting a 1-sheeter handout that I gave to all attendees which summarises the simple steps to getting their non-profit onto YouTube. I hope they help!

TEDxSydney Talks on YouTube

Scott — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 12:39:00 +0000

Today I was the guest author on the Official Google Australia blog! I helped the guys from TEDxSydney upload and present their valuable content on a non-profit brand channel. It is great to see so many talented Australians contributing to the huge public pool of knowledge that TED and its derivatives are generating. These HD quality videos really are the best way of transferring and retaining this knowledge.

Burwood Festival 2009

Scott — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 08:12:13 +0000

My second festival for this Spring weekend was a bit closer to home, the Burwood Festival. It was held on Burwood Road and in Burwood Park. I remembered my camera this time, so here are some photos:

Burwood Festival Tents	Burwood Road closed for Burwood Festival
Burwood Festival model boat show	Mustangs everywhere
...and plenty of Fiats	Stalls and pavillion