Digital Media, Metaverse, Student Articles, Thought Starters

How the Metaverse will impact Digital Media

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A month ago, Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the change of the company’s name to Meta Platforms Inc. Shortly after we could already see the Meta logo when we open our Facebook and Instagram apps.  

The Facebook entry on the metaverse world brought immense attention to something that was already happening. This new world will transform the way we connect in the upcoming years.  

Besides needing our usual gadgets, like smartphones, we will also have to resort to augmented reality glasses and virtual reality headsets. But regardless of any gadgets or technology, we may need to access this world, we will need content creators to create a whole new universe of content.  

The metaverse will be an extension of our physical lives, and it will bring new ways for us to consume content, communicate, shop, play, and interact with brands. It will also change the way we work, facilitating virtual meetings and business presentations.  

There are endless possibilities of what can be done here. For the tourism industry, for example, you’ll be able to travel without leaving your living room. Retail is already strong on the game and fashion brands are selling digital clothes and creating their own virtual universes.  

Gucci has collaborated with Roblox to sell a collection of digital-only accessories. It was called the “Gucci Garden Experience”. A virtual bag they started selling for U$6 reached the price of U$4.115 at some point.  

Nike is another brand that has created its virtual showroom on Roblox, called “Nikeland”. Users that enter “Nikeland” can try on sneakers and other apparel, all surrounded by colourful designs matching the brand’s visual identity.  

Other brands that had their debut on the metaverse are Balenciaga, Clinique, Dyson, and Vans. Obviously, all the other big players will follow, and content creators working in the metaverse will have to be ingeniously inventive in creating a world, campaign, and interaction that resonates with the brand’s DNA, while effectively engaging with the audience.  

Companies from all segments will be creating their worlds on metaverse platforms. This means potential for endless collaborations between platforms and brands, which translates into lots of business and money to be made.  

Video game companies had a head start, and some of them are metaverse pioneers. The Roblox platform is definitely one of the main metaverse players, with currently 42.1 million daily users. Fortnite has raised U$1 billion for their metaverse building plans.  

The prospects for this year bring us an estimate that approximately 85 million users will experience AR or VR at least once in 2021. “Metaverse” word search on Google has already reached 677 thousand results this year. On Twitter, the #metaverse is used more than 500 times per hour. By these numbers, we can already have an idea of what is coming. 

For the time being, metaverse platforms are free to use. This might be the perfect time to get in there and start familiarising yourself, learn about the tools and features of each one. In the near future, instead of writing blog posts, or Instagram reels, our job as creators will be to create whole universes full of details, immersive experiences, digital products, and who knows what else. 

Since the creation of cryptocurrencies, blockchain, and NFT’s, the virtual world is getting stronger and more competitive than our old real one. All these technologies will intertwine, creating endless possibilities for business, payment methods, and profits.  

At this very moment, you can even buy your little piece of virtual land. Earth 2 is currently selling virtual real estate that is going quick and every day more expensive. In about 10 years, all industries will be functioning on metaverse somehow, and now is the time to start thinking about how to achieve that. 

It does not matter if your industry is luxury, games, music, events, tech, or fashion, you will be in the metaverse soon. Avatars that can be 3D versions of yourself, or a completely different version, trying on virtual apparel, going to a concert with friends, playing and travelling. It will be online but it will feel real in your soul and wallet.  

Imagine all the possibilities, and that aligned with the times we are living in. The pandemic is not yet gone, and maybe we will be living in some sort of lockdown for many years to come. This will make the metaverse even more successful, and an ally for us craving connection and fun.  

Microsoft secured their place, and have big plans on the metaverse. They want to integrate AR and VR, using avatars in an office focused environment. Nvidia announced they will be creating avatars using facial tracking, speech recognition, and 3D animation. The project will be called the “Nvidia Omniverse Platform”.  

I believe it’s clear that the metaverse is here to stay, and it is undeniably our future. We must understand how this will impact the digital media industry, and be quick to be a part of this universe. There will be an infinite amount of content to be created, so I hope you get quickly acquainted with this whole new world.  

By Amelia De Oliveira Rodrigues

Events, Success Stories

Macleay Loves a Challenge!

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The Verification Challenge is a competition administered by The Walkley Foundation for Journalism, which manages the Google News Initiative Training Network in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. 

Journalists and journalism students from these areas can enter the competition solo or in a team of up to 5 members. It runs for 12 weeks, started on the 14th of June, and we are just about to enter our last week. 

Every week we receive a puzzle, that usually consists of a picture and a question. The puzzles are made to grow our skills in open-source intelligence (OSINT), fact-checking and verification.

What are the rules? 

We have to use our journalism and investigation skills to solve the puzzles and send the answer back in one week. Only one answer per question can be submitted. 

For a correct answer we receive 5 points, for an incorrect answer we lose 5 points, and if we fail to send an answer, we get 0 points. So, every week we work hard to get our answers right! 

At the end of the challenge, whoever has the most points wins. Hopefully, that will be our team! While I’m writing this we are tied in the first position with 65 points to the A B See team. 

What could you win? 

All they are offering us so far is the fun to be in the competition and upgrade our skills. The Walkley Foundation dropped a hint that there might be a surprise for the winner, let’s wait and see. If we win, I’ll be glad to receive whatever they have for us. 

How did you become involved in the Macleay Melbourne team? 

On the last day of Multiplatform Writing class on Term 2, our teacher Tim Young sold us the idea of entering the competition. I must say he was great at it and convinced me right away. He kept saying it would be fun, and a great thing to add to our resumes, so I couldn’t miss it. 

I am actually studying a Bachelor of Digital Media, but since I have some journalism classes the Melbourne team accepted me with open arms. 

What do you think contributes to the success of your team? 

Definitely teamwork. There are three students in the group, me, Zathia Bazeer, and Jack Murray. Sue Stephenson from the Journalism Program is our mentor and a great help. I’m truly grateful for being part of such an amazing team that never shies away from collaborating. 

What are your favourite parts of this competition? 

I’d say the variety of completely crazy and random things we have to do to solve the puzzles. From searching for planes in the desert of California on Google Earth to getting in touch with people in Ukraine to confirm the launching place of a drone. It’s always a surprise and the puzzles are full of tricks. 

What are your least favourite parts of this competition? 

Honestly, as I’m thinking about this answer, I don’t believe there’s a downside to it. It’s fun, and we work as a team, pulling the threads of each other, searching for clues and answers. Maybe the fact that there are no big prizes, but who knows? We might be surprised! I have my fingers crossed. 

What do you hope to do with your career in the future?

I’d love to make a career in copywriting. My ultimate dream is to do some scriptwriting and work in the movies industry. On a shorter-term plan, get out of lockdown, finally mingle with students and teachers at Macleay College and do some networking. I’ve been working hard on my assessments, studying and learning lots, so I can’t wait to put all this knowledge to practice on my next job. At least now after this challenge, I can rest assured that if everything goes wrong, I can pursue a career as an investigator!

By Amelia De Oliveira Rodrigues

Industry News

Macleay College launches new Diploma of Digital & Social Media Marketing

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A long course title, but Macleay College’s new Diploma of Digital and Social Media Marketing packs a lot of marketing know-how and digital skills into its latest accelerated Diploma that’s designed to meet the emerging needs of the marketing sector.

There is little doubt that digital communications, and in particular Social Media, have revolutionised the marketing landscape and become essential components in any marketing and communications strategy. The American Marketing Association reported in its publication eMarketer that around a third of the world’s population now active social media users, a statistic that is growing by 1,000,000 users per day globally.

There is increasing demand in the job market for graduates who understand the intersection between marketing and digital strategy, have specialised digital production skills in areas such as digital design, written communications and producing assets for social media campaigns – and have the option of taking electives in digital photography, advanced digital design or coding and data analytics.

Macleay College has a strong history of offering industry-focused and future-facing courses in Business, Media and Communications. Their new course in Digital and Social Media Marketing fills the gap between the more traditional university marketing courses that are struggling to keep up with digital trends and the popular industry non-accredited short courses in social media marketing that with often just 2 – 12 weeks of study, do not tackle the deeper principles of marketing and can often not be used for credit for further study. Social & Content Manager at Connecting Plots and Macleay graduate Callam Hanks helped develop the new course and adds:

“At university, in a 3-year degree you have to do a lot of irrelevant courses (and pay for them) and in 3 years a lot can change in the industry. Whereas the industry non-accredited short courses can be too lightweight, so having a weightier marketing course than can accommodate fast change with possible elective options is ideal.”

Designed and delivered by industry professionals such as Zeina Khodr, previously General Manager at JWT’s content agency at Colloquial and now principle at Paper & Spark, Zeina’s current knowledge of industry practice and emerging trends gives Macleay’s newest course currency, depth and relevance.

Macleay’s Diploma of Digital and Social Media Marketing is made up of 8 units of study that can be completed in 2 trimesters, or 8 months of full-time study. As an accredited higher education provider, the course fees can be deferred over the Government’s Fee Help program, and all units of study can be used to apply for credit into Macleay Bachelor of Digital Media or Bachelor of Business – or also at other institutions.

 

With over 30 years of experience, Macleay College has a well-established reputation as a higher education provider. The college currently offers Diploma and Bachelor qualifications in Business, Marketing, Journalism, Advertising and Digital Media. Macleay’s courses have a strong industry focus and aim to be leading edge of the sectors they provide graduates for. Macleay is an agile education provider who teaches the application of knowledge and skills to meet the emerging needs of industry.

For further information contact: Ian Thomson on ithomson@macleay.edu.au

Photo caption: Macleay’s Head of Digital Media, Ian Thomson and Lecturer and principle of Paper and Spark, Zeina Khodr checking the latest trends in digital and social media marketing in preparation for Macleay College’s new course launch. Photo: Ben Strum.

Student Articles

This block is no party

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Being a content writer is fun and challenging, so when I was asked to write a blog piece for a class assignment I thought no problem this is right up my ally. I sat down to write the post and for the first time in a while I was faced with the dreaded writer’s block. Now some will argue that there is no such thing as writer’s block but thats the diagnosis I’ve given to the current problem. Every time I would write I would get a few paragraphs into the idea and realise it just wasn’t working. I was stuck. All I had going through my head was the voice of George from Seinfeld saying ‘I got nothing Jerry, nothing’.

So with the clock ticking down to the due date, and the word count 366 words short of the objective I  remembered some wise wisdom. Writer Charles Bukowski said “writing about a writer’s block is better than not writing at all’. Thanks Chuck, that’s exactly what I’ll do. So strap yourselves in boys and girls because if you’re struggling with writer’s block, here are eight tips to help you break on through to the other side:

  1. Brainstorm – Just start putting pen to paper. Ideas, thoughts, anything that comes to mind without judgement.
  2. Go for a walk or run – By simply moving it can free up your mind for new ideas to develop.
  3. Eliminate distraction – Your phone, people around you or tv can disrupt your creative thinking. Try to remove as many distractions as you can.
  4. Decide on the purpose – Why are you writing? To inform? Entertain? Educate? Or inspire? By deciding on your why it can give you a starting point and sense of direction. Also consider the audience you want to reach.
  5. Change your location – If you’re writing in your room and it’s not working maybe go outside or move to a room with a nice view.
  6. Look online for inspiration or ideas – Check out Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest. Images can spark ideas and creativity. Just don’t spend all day looking.
  7. Timing – Some people write best early in the morning, others at night. Find out which one work best for you and plan your writing for that time frame.
  8. Keep practicing – The more you write the easier it will become. Keep a notebook of ideas, quotes and other inspiration you can use in the future.

So next time you’re suffering from writer’s block, don’t throw your hands in the air admitting defeat and reaching for that bottle of red. Ok maybe the wine will help but just remember these tips and you’ll be on your way to writing glory. Stay patient, keep trying and the ideas will come. You’ll surprise yourself with what you will be able to produce.

Good luck.

If you are still reading this then I commend you as I am just trying to get the word count up to 500 and I am 11 words short of the objective and now I’m down. Thank you.

 

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By Glen Holubkovic
Diploma of Digital Media

Excursions, Student Articles

Digital storytelling at Star Wars Identities

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As an avid Star Wars fan myself, I have been known to dress up in character around the campus once before for a past assessment. So, you could have imagined my excitement when I found out that we were heading to the Star Wars Identities Exhibition at the Power House Museum, on Wednesday the 27th March, as a part of our Story and Narrative Class.

And surely enough, I was not disappointed.

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This excursion honestly couldn’t have been more spot-on to the previous class discussions we had around identifying character archetypes within story structures. And whether you are a Star Wars fan or not, you would have just as easily appreciated the technology and the storytelling that was behind the exhibition, along with the amazing movie props and memorabilia that went with it.

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For those of you who don’t know what Star Wars Identities is about, it is an exhibition that allows users to create and explore the forces that shape our own individual identities through a series of digital interactive stations. It is from this that we as a class answered a series of personality questions that related to our own genetic makeup, occupation, friends and choosing whether or not to cross over to the Dark Side (I mean, hey, it wouldn’t have been a true Star Wars exhibition if it didn’t have this choice at the end.)

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Choosing Identities/Forming character archetypes.

The technology used at the exhibition also aligned well our Bachelor of Digital Media course, as we answered questions through digital wristbands (similar to that of a Fitbit) touching the characters, and individual scenes from the movies, to slowly form our character’s identity. Through each characteristic, there was also a story behind it that was told through a headset and would only be heard once we stood in a particular part of the room.

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It is safe to say that this exhibition could not have been more relevant to our learning. We witnessed first-hand how digital technologies enhanced the storytelling experience that was Star Wars Identities.

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My own identity: A Female Ewok

Star Wars Identities is on show at the Sydney Powerhouse Museum until June 10 2019. http://www.starwarsidentities.com
#StarWarsIDSydney

 

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By Gemma Healey
Bachelor of Digital Media

AdGrads, Events, Featured Work, Student Projects

UNTAMED: 2018 Advertising & Digital Media Student Showcase

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It’s always a thrill celebrating the outstanding marketing and creative work from this year’s Advertising and Digital Media students at Macleay College. Some exciting new careers are off to a great start!

 

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Melbourne Advertising students Tareen Winter, Stephanie Vitacca, Jennifer Van Merkesteijn & Jasmine Tambouras.

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Winner: Major Project (Jahla Lawson-Bryant).

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Ian Thomson (Head of the Advertising and Digital Media Faculty) with graduating Digital Media students Rebecca Wilson, Chelsea Stewart & Jahla Lawson-Bryant.

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Winner: Best Photography Project (Charlotte Leite Hansen).

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Melbourne students Nathan Kleinig (Advertising & Media), Michael Loader (Digital Media) & Andrew Warren (Digital Media).

Nominee Major Project - Michael Loader
Winner: User Experience Project (Michael Loader)

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Liam Thongvilu (Student Services), Patricia Tamayo (Advertising & Media student) & Jason Gemenis (design lecturer).

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Nominee: Major Project (Jason Gemenis)

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Tom Howse with Sydney Advertising alumuni Matthew Fiacchi & Nathan Sarmiento.

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Runner-up: Major Project (Matthew Fiacchi).

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Creative Process lecturer Julieann Brooker with her student Ruby Reidy-Miller.

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Best Digital Media Project: #PozPots

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Melbourne Advertising & Media Student Tareen Winter with Glen Fraser (Advertising & Media Program Leader).

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Advertising & Media alumnus Isaac Spencer and guest.

AdGrads, Featured Work, Student Articles, Thought Starters

Nice UX: The Rubadub App

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Congratulations to Digital Media student Michael Loader for his recent publication on Medium. This piece was written for the ‘Analysing Effective Experience’ Assessment as apart of User Experience at Macleay College, Melbourne.

A quick background

Rubadub Records is a Glasgow-based record store & label that opened its doors in 1992. To music enthusiasts, collectors and DJs, Rubadub is iconic — particularly in the spaces of electronic music.

The store is widely known for its ability to introduce quality & undiscovered techno, house, disco, reggae, hip-hop (and everything in between) to the wider community.

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Credit: Wesley Gibbs

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Resident Adviser — Rubadub: 25 years later feature

 

These days, the store’s output is easily reachable beyond Europe with its online store that sells both records & music equipment such as turntables, modular synths & drum machines.

This means people like me (I am a bit of a fan) who live 16,000 km away, can easily access the goods.

Earlier this year, Rubadub increased their digital presence with the help of the team at Green Hill Digital, by creating the Rubadub App.

 

The purpose

As Green Hill highlight in their case study, there was no point simply recreating the online store in app-form when the mobile-site was already perfectly functional.

The mobile application had to have its own purpose. It needed to be a space where music-heads can discover fresh releases in a organic and random way.

“We tried to recreate the shop experience where you get fed tunes you wouldn’t normally listen to.”

Rubadub’s co-owner Wilba Sandieson mentions over email.

The app is available on IOS & android.

Music for heads and feet

The apps intention is to deliver an experience that mirrors the way one would flick through vinyl, select a pile and then listen to those records in a physical brick & motor store.

While this is a ecommerce app in which one user-journey ends with a purchase , I personally feel the success of the app comes down to the listening, discovering and the overall ‘digging’ experience, rather than the quantity of sales.

So, let’s have a look…

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Initially I (the user) am greeted with two clear options, Sign in or Sign up.

The apps ecommerce system was purposely integrated with the existing site meaning account holders of Rubadub.co.uk already have an account.

Additionally, this means all payments through the app go through the same system as the website. Meaning no further stock work on the backend for the Rubadub team!

Anyway, as a new user, I select Sign up.

I fill four form fills, tap the boxes, enter the information. Done.

Already in, no email confirmation needed ✓

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‘Killer vinyl recommendations tailored and fed directly to you’.

 

Next appears a four slide series that introduces the app and its features.

  • Intro: Logo and clear copy that delivers the purpose of the app.
  • Listen: Recognisable ‘sound icon’ and copy informing me of the ‘swipe’ function as well as the exclusive value I should expect in the app (ie: staff favs).
  • Save: introduces ‘❤’ icon— a bookmark style feature that allows you put aside your favourites. This also feeds the algorithm data about your personal music tastes, allowing it to cater for you more accurately as time goes on.
  • Buy: Informing you of the store function and ability to purchase records for delivery.

A nice trustworthy and contrasting blue button then leads me to get started, LET’S GO.

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Left: Music playing (great album) | Middle: Info pop-up | Right: Track pauses when cover-art is tapped

Interface

For me, the UI works nicely. The minimalistic layout keeps things simple and obvious. It roles with the model of a typical music player so things straight away feel familiar.

Additionally, the small use of colour provides the cover-art with the spotlight. The music playing is the most important factor here so this makes total sense.

The detailed description (INFO) is a nice touch that sits discretely as a pop-up that you can quickly exit back to the track (The 2 minute music previews are never interrupted).

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Left: Saved Items | Middle: Items in shopping cart | Right: Sign Out page

 

The nav-bar sits nicely as the footer making it in thumbs-reach no matter what sized device you own 👍

Any call-to-action buttons relating to purchases are green — this makes the action you are taking very obvious throughout. The ‘listen again’ is a great addition as most people may not remember every saved record by name or visual alone.

If a record is out-of-stock, the user will be notified well before they can purchase, avoiding any frustration.

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Killer recommendations

As for the actual discovering of music, it does well.

Shown in the image above, tapping the white arrows pans through the different tracks in a particular EP (in this case Krikor’s Pacific Alley In Dub).

Swiping left takes you to the next (random) record awaiting, while swiping right simply takes you back to the previous piece of music.

This allows you to effortlessly find new music, save it and then continue discovering all in one, uninterrupted flow.

Overall

The app has done an amazing job at expanding the Rubadub record searching experience beyond the walls of the Scottish shop.

While it clearly cannot replace the feeling of physically flicking through records, talking-music with staff or whatever moment of serendipity real-life throws at you, it certainly delivers as an awesome digital alternative.

I am personally excited to see where they take the application next with more features planned to be added.

I also look forward to what the future brings as other stores and businesses in the vinyl community embrace new technologies.

 

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By Michael Loader
Diploma of Digital Media

Events, Industry News, Marketing Insights, Teachers, Thought Starters

It’s About The Content Experience

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Congratulations to Macleay College lecturer Zeina Khodr for her recent publication in  B&T Magazine. In her opinion piece (below) Zeina recaps her recent visit to the 8th Content Marketing World Conference in Cleveland and discusses why marketers need to think beyond ‘marketing’ their ‘content’.

 

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F#*K content marketing, it’s about the content experience.

This isn’t me making a statement – it was emblazoned on a stand in the expo hall, but it’s a statement that resonates.

In fact, I even Instagrammed it.

For the second year running, I made the long-haul to Cleveland to attend the 8thContent Marketing World 2018.

I’m amongst over 4,000 marketers in attendance and immersed in the content game, and it seems the conference has moved past its own name because I realise pretty quickly it’s no longer just about content marketing.

This content gig is getting harder to do, and harder to do right.

Over the last few days I’ve spent some time kicking the tyres of AI-driven content, sitting in on a hardcore AI masterclass learning how to use R and Python, wading through spreadsheets of social sentiments and navigating IBM Watson.

I know for sure what many of us have long felt creeping up – our creativity, no matter how brilliant, can only get us so far anymore.

We need to marry that with data and insights, and get ourselves sorted in these respects damn quickly if we want to keep up and cut through.

AI is still something that gives people the creeps, and marketers are still navigating ways around this.

Most are not prepared for how big a game changer this is going to be, and understand very little about the impact AI will have on their business as a whole, let alone their marketing.

This year, the newest addition to the conference program focused on tech, platforms and data.

In fact, you would have felt right at home if you were a data-scientist and probably a little out of your depth if you were a straight-up creative.

Conversational Marketing made its debut but is still in its early phases.

We’re rapidly moving from the era of ‘search’ to the era of ‘ask’.

Figuring out how to take your SEO-driven and optimized content and make it relevant for conversational marketing is still a far-off reality for most marketers.

But the rise of voice-assistants and the proliferation of voice, in general, will bring this to a head. Need to unlock an Alexa skill for your brand?

Emerging megatrends had a strong presence in the conference content and expo hall – it was all about AI (yes it’s a big category), Immersive Experience (AR) and digital platforms. Yet the biggest surprise was perhaps the slight reluctance of content creators and marketers to deep dive. Most of the breakout sessions had a smattering of attendees while long lines formed for the intro sessions. The sentiment was that this stuff is hard, complex and most are still wrapping their heads around it, and will likely need to get their digital peeps on board.

My fellow Aussie, Natalie Giddings from The Remarkables presented an excellent session on Influencer Marketing with standing room only. So yeah, marketers are still grappling with some of the fundamentals.

My feelings on this? You can’t expect your creatives (the marketers and content creators) to become experts on this stuff overnight.

They’re right to feel overwhelmed – it is new territory, complex and difficult. But you do have a duty to help them grapple with what the industry is facing and form tighter alignment between digital and creative teams to give them the insights that will help them navigate this new landscape.

If you don’t work to bring them up to speed, you do them a disservice and risk them being left behind as the industry moves on, and you will be unable to provide a service to your clients that is cutting-edge and forward thinking.

With proliferating customer touch-points, what marketers should most care about is consistency across all channels and the content experience their users have at every point along the brand journey.

Whether you’re an insurance company or an FMCG brand, creating and managing content is a team sport and no longer the realm of clever content creators and storytelling.

Having just written the Digital Content Writing course for Macleay College and in the early stages of mapping out a Masterclass for Content Marketers for the Australian Marketing Institute, I’ll be rethinking some of the materials but knowing the fundamentals don’t change.

You absolutely have to focus on the audience and make it meaningful, but you also need to push your ideas forward and explore, with confidence and credibility, the new technologies available to you if you want the delivery of your ideas to remain interesting, relevant and most critically create curiosity.

So yeah, F#*K content marketing.

And remember that the universal truth still remains – whatever bit of ‘content’ you’re ‘marketing’, focus on the content and audience experience and make it meaningful. Audience attention can’t be bought, it’s earned over time.

This is a long game.

 

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By Zeina Khodr
Content Writing Lecturer, Advertising & Media

This article was originally published by B&T Magazine on 12 September, 2018.

AdGrads, Melbourne

THE MELBOURNE AD-VANTAGE

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Melbourne students, launch your creative career with Macleay’s one-year Diploma of Advertising & Media just like these successful graduates have.

Aislin Mcleod came to Macleay College from what she describes as an “impersonal” university. She was excited by the possibility of a class environment where the lecturers knew your name and took the time to discuss teaching and learning with you.

Before Aislin came to Macleay, she had already set up her own successful social media blog, The Beauty Collection – so she was naturally drawn to the digital and social media subjects in the advertising course. Aislin excelled in her studies and gained valuable know-how and experience to continue to see her blog becoming a go-to beauty resource for Australian women.

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Aislin Mcleod (left) during her studies at Macleay with Melbourne coordinator Chris Hewson (centre) and fellow student Gianni Piccolo.

Soraya Darwish was “desperate to get out of the hospitality game” and hoped Macleay’s Advertising and Media course would be the catalyst for that change.

With extensive real-world experience and enthusiasm, Soraya quickly made an impression on her lecturers, but she was unsure which creative discipline to pursue. One of Macleay’s lecturers suggested account management, a career choice requiring great verbal and written communication and a strong customer focus. At first reluctant, Soraya soon realised that an account executive role would not only be a dynamic career choice but one reflective of her vibrant personality.

Within months of graduation from Macleay, Soraya landed her first account executive role with Melbourne’s AJF Partnership.

Tell me more

Macleay’s new Melbourne campus sits right in the heart of the city’s thriving café, entertainment and agency precinct near Flinders Street Station. Macleay offers innovative and specialised courses in business, journalism, digital media and advertising – all tailored to meet the rapidly evolving needs of these industries.

The one-year Diploma of Advertising and Media is exclusive to Macleay and one of only two course providers in Australia offering a Higher Education Diploma award that can articulate successfully into a two-year Bachelor’s degree.

The Diploma qualification runs over three trimesters and entry is via interview, not ATAR. On completion, graduates can launch a career in either advertising or media, or use the Diploma as an entry point for further study. It can also help fast-track those who have previously studied graphic design, creative writing, psychology, marketing or communications directly into jobs in advertising and media agencies.

What will I learn?

Unlike other advertising courses, the Macleay diploma offers a complete overview of the job opportunities in the advertising and media industries. This includes creative, accounts, media, digital, marketing, social media and design.

Students learn the importance of research and strategic thinking alongside the practical creative and digital production know-how needed to launch a successful career. Macleay offers job-relevant, university-level learning that combines theory with hands-on skills as a practical entry point to a career.

Why Macleay?

Class sizes at Macleay are small and personalised (maximum size of 25 students) compared to the big universities such as RMIT and Swinburne – and Macleay students are taught by working  industry professionals rather than university academics.

The recent government QILT survey (Quality Indicators for Learning & Teaching) ranked Macleay’s teaching quality at 90.5%, around 10% above the national average and higher than many Melbourne universities. While traditional universities can struggle to develop and deliver up-to-date, industry-relevant content, Macleay students learn from industry specialists equipped with the current knowledge and skills sought by employers.

Macleay’s internship program complements the industry-focused learning by mentoring students to gain real-world experience with an advertising agency, media company or creative studio. Students also attend a variety of industry events and visit agencies and production companies to build their networks and increase their chance of employment.

If the Diploma of Advertising & Media could be the next step in your creative career, chat with one of our careers advisors by calling 1300 939 888 or emailing study@macleay.edu.au.

 

Chris-Hewson
By Chris Hewson
Melbourne Coordinator & Lecturer

Banner image:
Back row (left to right): Michael Loader, Andrew Warren.
Front row (left to right): Tareen Winter, Jennifer Van Merkesteijn, Jasmine Tambouras, Stephanie Vitacca, Nathan Kleinig.

Creative Thinking, Featured Work, Positive Education, Student Projects

Creating a Positive Disruption: #PozPots

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Disruption can take a lot of shapes and forms. For Macleay College students, it recently involved #PozPots – a student-run event where participants were invited to decorate plant pots with positive imagery and messages. After the paint had dried, students planted a seed, then gifted their creations to a stranger – hoping to brighten their day!

The event was a huge success, with many students (and staff) dropping in throughout the day to join in on the fun. The creators of the project are now hoping to spread the word, and using the hashtag #PozPots help raise awareness around mental health worldwide.

It’s easy to do. Just get some friends together, buy some seeds, paint a pot along the theme of the positive word, then plant the seed and give the plant to someone who could benefit from a kind word (and a colourful pot).

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#PozPots was created by the Relevant Disruption and Engagment class (pictured).  Left to Right: Ian Thomson (lecturer), Brittany Hughes, Rebecca Wilson, Jahla Lawson-Bryant, Chelsea Stewart and Sam-Tsun Ma.

Follow the project online at the PozPots Facebook page.

A Blog by Macleay College Digital Media Students

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