Tag Archives: #MadeAtMacleay

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

Creative Thinking, Positive Education, Student Projects, Thought Starters

Digital Design Goes “Hands On” with Positive Education

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Macleay College is the only Australian Higher Education institution running a Positive Education program. As well as teaching our students industry based skills and practical theory, we also address their personal development and mental health through positive psychology.

This holistic approach in learning, is aimed at enriching the student’s wellbeing and emotional intelligence through tailored individual support and encouragement.

It gives the student a better understanding of themselves, their passions, their strengths and their goals. It helps them to better manage their life, relationships and  future careers through a greater understanding and use of empathy, gratitude and other positive emotions.

In a nutshell, the program aims to increase the student’s confidence, sense of wellbeing and happiness.

As part of the program, Macleay College has installed PosEd Kits in many of the classrooms across our Sydney and Melbourne campuses and students in the Digital Design Unit have been putting them to good use in Term One of the Advertising & Digital Media course.

One of our tasks was to take the free VIA Character Strength Test. This is a short ten minute assessment that takes students through a series of questions to determine their top character strengths. Armed with this list, the students are then asked to step away from their iMacs and use their hands to construct or draw visual representations of their favourite strengths.

The PosEd Kits are full of great stuff to get them started like Play Doh, feathers, buttons, coloured fabric, wood and paper. There are also ample large rolls of paper and Sharpies.

To begin with, the students had a lot of questions and curious looks. As they started to move around the room and choose their materials the noise levels increased and they were off and running.  There were lots of comparing notes on each other’s different strengths with most agreeing that the VIA Test had done a good job.

As I moved around the group, there were some initial awkwardness with speaking about their strengths but they were encouraged to start thinking beyond that and  how their personal brand could be visualised into an abstract object or pictorial form.

There was a sense of enjoy in the room so I popped on some music and spent the next hour watching their creations unfold. The next part of the workshop was to take their physical objects and turn them into a digital piece of artwork. The students could take photos, load them up into Illustrator and use this as a template to create a kind of personal logo.

This was the first time I’ve been involved in a workshop like this so there  is some tweaking I’d still like to do but it was one of the most enjoyable sessions I’ve run. It was  one of those days when you get home, put your feet up and smile!

Jason Gemenis is Macleay’s Digital Ninja
lecturing in Digital Design, Advanced
Digital Design and Visualisation across Macleay’s
Dip Advertising & Media, Dip Digital Media,
BA Advertising & Media & BA Digital Media.

AdGrads, Best of 2016

Graduating Class of 2016 ‘Feel the Hype’ at their Final Showcase

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Macleay’s Advertising and Media Diploma graduating class of 2016 came together with friends and family to celebrate 12 months of hard work.

Joined by academic and support staff, alumni and industry professionals, the night was themed, organised and run by the students as part of their final term project.

The students were given a budget and asked to prepare their end of year creative portfolios of video, radio, outdoor, digital  and print campaign works, along with a major piece which took centre stage on the night.

In addition to celebrating the students and their work we were joined by three industry experts who judged the best work presented.

The three exceptional judges: Chantal Abouchar, Grant Flannery and Will Edwards have diverse experience in the fields of Advertising and Media. Working in very different industries and with areas of expertise spanning creative, entrepreneurship and digital, the judges were happy to share their knowledge and advice with our Advertising students.

Congratulations to the 2016 graduates on an hugely enjoyable and successful event. We will be keeping a keen eye on your new careers in advertising and media and we wish you all the best.

Thanks for sharing the hype!

AdGrads

AdNews features Macleay Graduate Daniel Cutrone #MadeatMacleay

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Daniel Cutrone thought he wanted to get into creative, but after graduating from Macleay College he’s found the sweet spot between creativity and science in the media world as head of investment at Match Media.

I always wanted to get into creative. Growing up I was always fascinated by the advertising industry, judging what I deemed to be smart creative messaging. After finishing school I looked into getting an education in marketing and landed a place at Macleay College.

To get my foot in the door I called all the top creative agencies, applied for all the entry-levels roles available, but I wasn’t getting anywhere. One of the students I studied with had landed a media assistant role and it was through those connections that I found myself in my first role at UM. At the time I still wanted a creative role and hoped I could do a sideways step into a creative agency, but after a few months I really started to enjoy media strategy and implementation and my dreams of working in a creative agency became a distant memory.

I’ve been head of investment at Match Media for just over six months and I get to work with a passionate, motivated and ambitious leadership team that keeps its values and vision close to its heart. I love the people, the pace of change, negotiations, the strategies and the implementation of plans within media, but it’s the sweet spot of creativity and science behind media plans that I underestimated. I found myself swept up in a role which gave me ambitious targets to achieve, opportunities to negotiate and trade, creative thinking and sophisticated tools to develop communication plans.

While I was at Macleay College I got a complete picture of the industry, including creative, legal, media, planning, production, so I gained a pretty good understanding of where media sat in the eyes of our clients.

Media and advertising is becoming the lifeblood of many major companies today. It is replacing the front door or bricks and mortar locations and therefore playing a much more active role for businesses. Today media provides more tangible business outcomes than ever before, when the change of a website or an outcome of a negotiation can impact ROI. It’s an exciting time to work in media.

Find out more about Advertising & Media at Macleay

Industry News

Macleay Lecturer and Graduate Shine Bright at ACRA Awards #MadeatMacleay

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The Australian Commercial Radio Awards (ACRA) are Aussie radio’s night of nights and the 2016 awards proved that Macleay’s lecturers and graduates can deliver.

Copy writing and Radio Lecturer Cameron Horn was most surprised to win his 5th ACRA in 5 years, when his campaign for Spot Go Cleaning Products picked up Regional Campaign of the Year.

“I really didn’t expect this,” says Cameron. “I just kept eating as they were announcing it. I actually dropped my cutlery when they announced it. I couldn’t believe it.”

Cameron says, the real surprise was in that about 8 clients had rejected the idea behind the Campaign. “Persistence really does pay off. I’ve had this idea in my mind since about 2010!”

The night wasn’t finished for Cameron though, as later, his campaign that he collaborated with Macleay graduate Katrina Fowler for client Carl’s Junior, won Best Regional Sales Promotion.

“I wrote these, Katrina and I voiced them, then our promotions team worked on them at Southern Cross Austereo. The results were astronomical for the client. They were running 700% above their projected targets after the promotion.”

Katrina was also a finalist in the Best Newcomer to Radio category. “Hey, I was just stoked to be a finalist – that’s top 5 in Australia! Awesome!” Katrina said after the event. This follows up Katrina’s nomination as a finalist last year in the Commercial writing category.

Listen to the Spot Go Campaign:

Creative Thinking, Student Projects, Typo

TypePlay® at Macleay

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Inspired by Jessica Walsh’s AGDA keynote presentation Play by Your Own Rules, and Jessica’s design workshop by the same name, Julieann Brooker ran a TypePlay® workshop for our Creative Process students at Macleay College.

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The client:  Pacific Artisan, a new online shop that sells ethically sourced and produced fair-trade products handmade by women from countries in the Oceania region and indigenous Australia.

The biggest advertising related problem:  How to promote yet another online shop in the Australian market, with a minimal budget. No real promotion has been done yet other than infrequent Facebook and Twitter posts.

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The creative task:  To develop branding and advertising to target socially aware women, aged 35+, and persuade them that the relaunched online shop will provide an easy way to buy unique hip cool products made locally by women living ‘off the beaten track’. To use creativity and design to do good.

Why TypePlay®?  Let’s get serious about play. In Dr. Stuart Brown’s 2008 TED talk, Play is more than just fun, he shares how contemporary innovation and creativity has been impeded by the reduced use of our hands. In fact, it’s currently a condition of employment, in problem-solving roles at NASA and Boeing, to have worked with one’s hands.

Play is boosting creativity and innovation for young and old, across several domains, (Brown, 2009), and studies indicate work and play are complimentary, (Staw & Barsade, 1993). Hence, it’s an ideal practice for developing branding and advertising.

“Play is nature’s greatest tool for creating new neural networks and for reconciling cognitive difficulties.” (Brown, p. 127, 2009).

The students made their own rules and played.  

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Constraints included materials, limited words, and time. They split into groups of 2-4, selected words and brand statements to portray, sketched ideas and tested materials. From a wellbeing perspective, play is an excellent conduit to integrate our lives and ourselves, and especially useful in building trust, a valuable commodity for group work!

The cohort regrouped for a quick critique, then photographed and recorded their work as pics to be used in marketing, the website, and social media.

PA_brookeOne team used the products and some props to create a stop motion piece of an island village.

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“Nothing lights up the brain like play”, Stuart Brown, 2008. 

The rewarding project continued in the Social Media and Digital Design units, and the bountiful creative concepts presented pitched to a panel of judges at Publicis Mojo.

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You can browse the Pacific Artisan story, and purchase their authentic range of off-the beaten-track products here.

AdGrads, Career Advice

Construction Work to Constructing Copy #MadeAtMacleay

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I have fond memories of Ernie Ciaschetti in my Digital Design class back in 2014. He was a talented student and for a time there I thought he’d make a good Art Director but his love of writing won him over and I spoke with him recently about his new role as Copywriter for Saatchi & Saatchi.

Can you describe your new role at Saatchi & Saatchi?
I am a copywriter, so my day to day is either ideating or writing copy for a range of different clients.

What have been some of your career highlights since graduating from Macleay?
Some highlights include hearing a script I’d written on the radio for the first time, winning a pitch with my partner and getting a job at Saatchi and Saatchi.

What are your future career goals?
Win some awards and get a job in New York. We can all dream right?

Why did you decide to study at Macleay and how has it helped you get to where you are now?
To cut a long story short, I was working in construction with my mate Luke, he was studying his Diploma of Advertising at Macleay. He was about one semester in and was really enjoying it. I was over working in construction and Luke recommended I join him at Macleay. So I did. What attracted me to Macleay was the opportunity to learn about all different aspects of the industry from people who have been there and done it. It was their industry insights that not only helped me decide what position best suited me (copywriting), but also prepared me for the crazy world that is advertising.

What are some of your best memories of your time at Macleay?
We went on an excursion to a printing factory- seeing all that machinery in action was something I’ll never forget. Also, working on a TVC for the National Indigenous Culinary Institute, being involved from the initial concept to the final TVC was really rewarding.

Jason Gemenis is a Digital Ninja and teaches Digital Design and Advanced Digital Design for Macleay College’s Diploma of Advertising and Bachelor of Advertising and Media.