V Raw

Conversant Media is a growing Australian online media company which publishes the pop culture website and weekly email newsletter, Lost At E Minor, the music discovery weekly email publication, My Secret Playlist, and the Australian sports opinion website, The Roar. We have other websites and initiatives in the pipeline. Conversant Media were recently named in Sydney's top 100 creative catalysts for 2009.

Position: Online Sales & Marketing Assistant

Paid: Paid! $30,000 - $40,000 + super (depending on experience). Full-time based in Newcastle, NSW.

Start: Starts now.

Description: The role will combine sales and marketing functions. You will learn every angle of running a successful online business. This will include assisting with the online sales process, preparing sales proposals, researching new advertising leads, trafficking campaigns, attending meetings, and following up with new contacts.

You will also spend time online marketing and promoting our sites, including growing our website traffic and social media presence.

You will work closely with the directors of the company and our various suppliers and clients.

We only want the best candidates for this role. You should pride yourself in your attention to detail, your ability to preempt issues and to get things done. You should be ambitious and keen to take full ownership of this role.

We are seeking an assertive, motivated and positive person who has a hands-on approach to work. We value integrity, personal ownership, and having fun on the job. We are all passionate about the online space and we are looking for someone with the same passion and energy.

Experience:

Education: Degree or post-graduate qualified in a related field
Credit / Distinction average

Experience
- Passion and experience in the online landscape. If you haven't spent much time online, then this isn't the role for you.
- Up to 2-3 years experience post degree. You might also be a recent graduate.
- Knowledge of online marketing, online advertising and key online trends
- Demonstrated analytical excellence
- Highly motivated creative thinker with the ability to multitask and a focus on getting things done.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
- Attention to detail yet ability to get things done quickly - this is important
- Understanding of HTML and how the web works

Skills

You'll need to comfortable with doing the following..

- Attending sales meetings with MD and assisting in follow-up activity
- Proactively assisting in the sales process
- Building relationships with clients
- Developing sales messages and proposals
- Proposal [RFP] writing with thorough attention to detail
- Researching new advertising leads
- Trafficking ad campaigns and ensuring delivery of ad impressions booked
- Growing our online traffic and newsletter subscriber numbers
- Developing and implementing initiatives through which to grow our social media presence
- Web analytics for our sites, with reporting of this to the team
- Creating online and offline promotions for existing products and for new product launches
- Preparing PR releases and working to ensure media visibility for our publications
- Staying abreast of industry and competitor activities and new online strategies, tools and trends

I have just finished the 3rd week of my month-long placement with XYZ Studios. The first thing I noticed there was how amazing their new studio space is. The crew have recently moved their HQ from St Kilda to a lovely spot in quaint South Melbourne. The studio includes a roof-top pool overlooking the melbourne city skyline - wow.




The second thing I noticed was that the studio team is made up of exceptionally gifted and inspirational designers/artists, animators, directors and producers, oh, and a very vocal studio tiger named Zed Dog.

I've been mostly helping out Steve, an animation director and general all-round talented guy. We've been working hard to create an exciting stop-motion based TCV. I didn't know anything about stop-motion beforehand, so it's been a great opportunity to learn the processes involved, and help with shoots on-location and in the studio.




Having no experience (but a strong interest) in motion-graphics, this was a fantastic opportunity to gain some insight into the commercial animation process and figure out if this is the direction I might like to head in.

Would like to say a huge thanks to V Raw for organising this, and to XYZ for welcoming me into their amazing studio - the whole thing has been a great experience."

We asked for it and we got it. Again again. Several artists from across the country submitted their works to us via email and so we uploaded them into our nifty Art Submission Flickr gallery.

We didn't realise there'd be so many, so here's the first bunch of delightful/psychedelic/thought provoking/rocking artworks.

Keep 'em coming guys, we love it all. There could be some prizes... We've said too much.
Just email us your stuff.

Illustration by Caryn Hough.

Assisting on shoots, stringing words together to form... erm... sentences, mulling over the latest trends, snapping photos of pretty young things, reading blogs, flipping through magazines and listening to good music. These are a few of my favourite things. Amazingly, this is also my job description at 2threads. My days at 2threads are pretty much exactly like my days in unemploydom except that I have a team of inspiring ladyfolk around me to motivate me. Oh, and in terms of getting stuff done, it probably helps that I'm not slumped on the couch in my undies.

I'm quickly nearing the end of my month-long - full time - internship in the 2threads office. How am I feeling? Try totally devastated. When I applied, via a super short online questionnaire, I certainly didn't expect things would be this fun. I mean, would you like to spend one month nine to five being the office monkey and not even getting paid for it? No, probably not. I thought I might get some good experience out of it; discover more about how the industry works and that's it. Surprisingly though, the crew here are amazing, the work is so good I feel weirded out even calling it 'work', and the only one I've had to fetch coffee for has been myself (surprisingly regularly - I've discovered that the combination of early mornings and having to take pics at exhibition openings and launches with loads of free beer don't mix too well).

The office is large, airy and as open planned as one could hope for. In the centre stands Sexy Sally, our resident amputee mannequin. She's a nice lass. They're all nice lasses (not the other amputees - the other employees. Although I'm sure the other amputees are great too). I've been treated as one of the team. Much like a resident puppy dog ("Ohh, I wish we didn't have to give you up," said Jenna yesterday), but with a little more respect and a little less head petting. One thing I've noticed working on the laptop all day how quickly things move in the internet world. For example, when it comes to articles for the 2threads website, things are frickin' speedy. Jenna (the brains behind our articles) outlines content in a spreadsheet, listing the title and key words to be included, and within one or two seconds (no kidding), the stories are snapped up. I don't know how the 2threads writers do it, but they have the keenest eyes I've ever seen in operation. If I want an article, I have to put my name down before I've even had time to read what it's about. Alas, it's not necessarily a terrible thing, because when I have nothing to write about, I set on other tasks, such as promoting content on Facebook, Twitter and other interweb places, reading and contributing to fashion forums and browsing magazines and blogs for more article ideas to have translated into comprehensible concepts by Jenna.

I spent my first couple of weeks marvelling at how amazing the office dynamic was, how tight everyone was, and how good everyone seemed to be at their job. Then I found out that Stephanie had only joined the office a couple of weeks before me (she disclosed to me that she was thankful when I arrived as it meant she was no longer the newbie) and the team not only managed 2threads, but numerous other enterprises too - including Estile and This Way In. Needless to say, I was even more impressed than before. It certainly made me feel humbled to be the chosen one. Overall, the experience was truly fantastic. It's given me a greater idea of precisely what I want to do in the future (write and style for a zine, please) and I'm infinitely more confident in my skills. The merits of interning are innumerable and it's something I truly recommend to all, particularly if you're umming and ahhing about what to do at Uni/TAFE - or whether you should go at all. Studying is now something I can see myself doing, if I felt it would help me achieve my goal; something I now have clearly in sight. Ideally though, I'd rather just jump head first into the glossy paged pool. I cannot thank V Raw and Riley and the girls at Socialista media enough for the experience. And if I could change anything about my experience, it would be to have had the pluck to come up with a nickname for Grace on the very first day of my internship, because living with two Graces and working with one has been bloody confusing.

So this is a picture of me working at Pedestrian. Or bowling, but I still think it counts because it was during my internship and the entire Pedestrian crew were also there (those kids are into their sports, whether it be bowling, ping pong - vicious ping pong - or playing toss with Pookie the resident office puppy).

My internship at Pedestrian did actually entail some work, but I use the term loosely. Yeah you turn up roughly 9-5, you work at a desk and computer, but when you're getting the opportunity to write about things you love and come up with creative ideas it's hardly work in the traditionally begrudging sense of the word.

So what did I do? I wrote some stuff, reviewed some stuff, talked about photography and music and film, did some interviews with creative types, brainstormed ideas for a music video for an Aussie pop princess, and edited a video interview with Sydney band Bridezilla. It was a wide range of tasks which I often felt out of my depth in, but thankfully the guys there are happy to throw you in the deep end and I'm pretty sure I learnt how to swim - or at least I splashed around and swallowed some water until I figured out how to float.

The common thread amongst it all, for me at least, was an intense amount of inspiration. All the guys (and girls... or maybe I should say bros) at Pedestrian are young and absolutely incredible. They're my age or younger but they actually have their shit together with so many skill sets they make me dizzy - not only do they run Pedestrian but they also have so many projects on the side that they'd put a New York hustler to shame.

And if the office competition wasn't enough, the interviews with photographers, designers, musicians, filmmakers, artists and agents will send you over the edge. There was constant contact with people who are just burning to create and seemingly do so 24/7. At first the idea of actually talking to some of these people had me shaking in my boots, until I knocked over my first interview (with the kind Chris Colls) and realised that this was actually the best opportunity I was ever going to have to ask pretty much any question I wanted of my creative idols.

I guess my time at Pedestrian made me realise where I was going wrong - you can't just sit around and hope that someone is going to hand you an awesome opportunity, that could happen, but it probably wont. You have to chase everything and attempt the absurd, and then when you fail you get up and you do it all again. If you keep doing what you love for long enough people will start to take notice, and it's more than possible to make a living out of it, you just have to try a bit harder.

Pedestrian helped me get my shit together, and now I have some really amazing projects brewing away, the difference this time is that I'm going to follow through, and try, and try again until it all comes together.