Australian Social Media Case Studies

has correctly summarized the main points of the video, the reasons why there are so few Australian social media case studies are:

Aside from the usual retail use for social media, other entities are also entering the scene. For example, the Australian Government, the Education Sector, the Cultural groups and even the Military explored new possibilities with social media. Yes, the Australian Navy has a wiki.


Cornetto


With the slogan - No Boring Bits, to launch the new batch of Cornettos with new flavours, Cornetto came up with a full-fledged social media campaign. Complete with a mascot - Terry the Executioner who has a blog, a youtube channel, a MySpace account, as well as a flickr account, Cornetto launched their advertisements in the form of bizzare but obviously somewhat effective videos to launch their campaign.

Their main Australian Cornetto website boasts an interesting interface, with a lot of games and videos involving Terry or the Cornetto cones.



A space shooting game, with a Cornetto Cone as the shuttle and peanuts being planets, or rocks to be shot.

A customizable lava lamp.

And the results were..

MySpace - Australia

MySpace Australia is a very vibrant and dynamic example of the use of Social Media in Australia. This site serves to provide coverage of what are the events coming up, connecting people with each other, allowing people to share photos, videos, messages and to communicate with each other about life in Australia.

There are forums, suggestions, happenings, people being featured regularly to ensure that the site connects people. They even list down the different interests that the people have to make it easier for them to narrow down their search and potentially find new friends who are on the same page as them.

Started by Alex, this site has grown to have 2,374,681 people being connected to it.

Sources: Laurel Papworth

Individuals



Natalie Tyler Tran, the most subscribed Australian Vlogger on YouTube, has also found her own way to utilize the social media tools, in her case YouTube, to create some fun and entertainment. To date she has 237,240 subscribers to her YouTube channel that she started in late 2006. With her own quirky videos about common social dilemmas and daily activities which seem mundane, she has captured the attention of many.

Other Case Studies

Telstra

Telstra, an Australian Telco Company has recently collaborated with the virtual world of second life. They created a group of eleven islands on which hold Australian landmarks such as the Sydney Harbor Bridge, The Opera House and the Outback. They claim that by doing this, they have created Australia’s “First major corporate presence”. As of now, there is little news on how much of a success this move is, however we feel that this is a large leap that with now persuade other companies to follow.

Telstra have been faced with controversy after their launch. A Telstra source has confirmed that they did not get the permission of the Uluru owner before putting it on the website, and now tribal elders have been voiced their opinions about using their sacred sites such as the Uluru for commercial purposes. Normally, taking pictures of the Uluru is banned and can only be surpassed with approval from the landowners. However in Second life while the visitors can’t touch the landmark, they can “virtually fly in the no fly zone and take snap shots.” There has been fear that the native aborigines will react aggressively as stated on http://www.news.com.au

Another concern that has been brought to Telstra’s attention is their fear of digital vandalism. This came about after the attack from unknown vandals that cracked Second Life’s security codes and destroyed the ABC island; their third most popular commercial site, leaving it in complete destruction.

For more information about Telstra and Second Life, please visit The Metaverse Journal.

ABC - Australian Broadcasting Commission

According to Lee Hopkins, ABC has too been increasing their usage of social media. They have been very proactive by introducing blogs, podcasts and downloadable television shows. ABC’s actions have triggered many other commercial broadcasters to also start using social media; mainly through podcast showing highlights from their most popular shows.

For more information on how ABC is using digital media, click on this Sydney Morning Herald article, ABC jumps into digital hyper drive.

Coke Zero Case in Australia

On Laurel Papworth's blog, she highlighted the Coke Zero incident where according to Wikipedia, "In Australia, the [Coke] company created a controversial fake front group to promote the product [Coke Zero], a campaign of outdoor graffiti and online spamming (which promoted a fake blog), was created by Coca-Cola and designed to appeal to its target audience. Once exposed, consumer advocates assailed the campaign as misleading and established the Zero Coke Movement.org to comment on the ethics of Coke's activities".