Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Hey.
Hi.
Hi everyone.
Hello, hello, hello.
Hi.
Now, at the back ofyour session, well done.
Thank you.
That was excellent.
Thanks.
Hannah Satham everyone, ambassadorof the art community here of the
Australian Regional Tourism Network.
How long have you been an ambassador?
I think it's been three years, butI feel like I was an unofficial
(00:24):
ambassador for a lot longer.
I am all for the regions.
All for the regions.
All for the regions.
And then we found out, yes, soyou've actually had a long experience
with this particular region throughyour previous pre media motor.
Yes, yes.
So I think I've worked in tourismmarketing for 17 years now.
It's all I know, really.
(00:45):
It's sort of where I got my careerstart in tourism marketing, but
I have always loved the regions.
They're so much more fun tomarket than metro centers.
No offense to our metro centers watching.
Uh, there's just, it's so incredible.
The, the passion, the products,the event, they're so fun and
quirky and yeah, I just love it.
It's so infectious.
It's so infectious.
(01:06):
As, you, just watching you presentnow the art, so we did a whole, you
know, you ran a session and encouragedeveryone, very practical session in
creating and we had our art leaders inthe room actually creating short form
content, some of them their first reel.
Talk to us a little bit about yoursession and some key takeaways that we
(01:29):
can share with everybody that's tuned in.
Well, I guess how the session kind ofcame about is I was, uh, I was actually in
the back of Tanya's car coming back fromthe South Australian Tourism Conference.
And I was like, I just feel likesometimes it's just really great.
We always learn about these great things,but there's never time to practice.
What if we did something that was superhands on and we actually got to do it?
(01:51):
And she was like, yes, yes, yes.
I'm going to take it to the board.
Hold that thought.
So anyway, she suggested and I ended up.
Pitching this session.
And it was so fun.
So it was essentially the premise wasscaling the mountain of vertical video.
We all know vertical video is the future.
We know we should be video first.
That's all well and good.
What if you don't knowhow to make a video?
What if you're too scared?
(02:12):
What if no one sat down toteach you and now you feel like
you're behind the eight ball?
Yeah.
So you do nothing and all that's happeningis you're getting further behind.
So we had a really gentle, soft spacefor everyone to land to create a video.
We did a really simple version, which wastemplates, which only two people took,
and everyone else took the harder option,which was a really cool trend with some.
(02:33):
transitions, they had to edit, theyhad to cut it together, and every
single person in the room got it out.
They worked in teams, it wasreally fun, and at the end we're
trying to get them out of the room.
Everyone still wantedto finish their videos.
Well there was so much commotion, poorHamish thought that the session had ended.
Yeah.
This is like, are they coming out?
There was just, yeah,that was a lot of fun.
Um, and we had some publishedthat we'll share so everyone
(02:55):
can see what the result was.
I loved also, a hitting point for me,and I learned something, which I always
do, like anyone that comes into yoursession, around lo the concept of lo fi.
Content.
'cause I was treated as DIY.
Yeah.
So, uh, it was all about, yeah, low-ficontent, so low fidelity content,
(03:17):
so just content that's shot on yourphone turned around really fast.
It's exactly what you'vebeen doing for years.
And I always admire you.
You know, Desi, you'realways just shooting content,
getting it up in the moment.
Because it's too late, you know, you'rehere capturing content at an event, don't
post it in a week's time, you know, it'sgot to be of the minute, you've got to
catch people and I think even, you know,what you just did then, you're like,
(03:40):
just for everyone watching, you know,you're just now with our chat show, you
know, I just finished the session and,and Desi came up and said, like, come
and do this interview, you get that senseof That person just as they finished
and you're capturing it in the moment.
And that's what lo ficontent is, is about.
And there's certainly stilla place for high fi content.
You know, your professional DSLRshots, you know, there's no one's
(04:01):
replacing TVCs with an iPhone.
But It's the content thatpeople are consuming.
And the thing is, is your phoneis so powerful at the moment.
We, iPhone content is what's playingon channel seven every night,
whether it's a natural disaster,you know, or a, um, yeah, right.
That breaks out a snake in the house.
That's what people are shooting on.
(04:21):
And it's good enough for the TV.
You know, the latest, I'm a, I'ma Kardashian's fan, you know, and
Kourtney and Travis's , weddingwas shot on an iPhone and it's good
enough for Hulu and Disney Plus.
Well, it's good enoughfor your destination.
You know, get out there and shoot it.
And I played quite a few examplesof things that, you know, we
often see things that are socomplicated and then we get scared.
(04:41):
But you know what, some of ourbest performing content maybe
took three minutes to shoot.
It was just quick, caption over the top,super, set to a great track, you know.
Oh, and I love the way you really chunkedit down for everyone because it's like,
oh, everyone tells me it's easy andI don't actually find it that easy.
Yeah.
Just like, let's just havea safe space to explore.
(05:02):
experiment.
And also the case studies you sharedthat even, you know, you have some
larger clients and you're helpingthem shoot because you can tell, yeah,
anything over or highly produced orhi fi content in this medium doesn't
quite cut it sometimes either.
(05:22):
And I think it's, what it also is,is it's too expensive to shoot.
And it is, and it's That's notvideographers gouging, it's just the
cost of gear, the cost of insurance, thecost of doing business is really high.
So people, what they're doing is notshooting any video content and I would
much rather everyone shoots video content,uses their iPhone to capture it, do it and
(05:45):
empower people and do a capacity buildingthing because it's not, it looks easy,
yes, and it is, I'm not saying it's easy.
It needs to be, you know, you need tofeel it's easy because it is, it is hard
when you're learning, but when you breakit down into steps, it's very achievable.
And it's something that I think forregions where budgets, you know,
(06:05):
the regions I work with budgets havebeen slashed events drastically.
It's a really great opportunityto capture things in the moment
and you're on the ground andyou've got the best in regional.
Tourism, we've got thebest possible content ever.
Like look where we arein the current stunning.
I have to share with youthe middle of everywhere.
Young Mike there, he does contentFridays and he'll go and do a
(06:28):
short piece around his region.
I think it's a good, another goodexample of just on, you know, on
their phone as they started, juststart and, and learn as you go.
Now, maybe I'm more.
Yes.
Tell me about your evolution inthe way that you help your clients
(06:49):
today, particularly in this space.
It's very different to probably whenyou started a good eight years ago.
Absolutely, and I think Imean That to me is exciting.
Think of running your own businessand digital marketing is that
it's the only constant is changeand you've got to lean into it.
And I just, I love that personallyis that what we were doing eight
years ago is, was, you know, lots of.
(07:12):
blog posts, lots ofwebsites, lots of EDMs.
And it's really moved, you know, thenit's for social media, then all of a
sudden organic social media, you know,your content seen by 1 percent of
your audience who's investing in that.
So then it moved into pay.
Now we're packaging organic and paid, andnow we're adding in these vertical videos
and, and doing this sort of lo fi content.
Whereas when I started eightyears ago, I would never have
(07:34):
shot something on an iPhone.
videographer, very expensive,sent them out at a producer.
Sarah, it was all very.
You know, yeah.
Mickey Mouse looking beautifultalent, you know, little straw
hat, Instagramable outfit.
It was the style at the time.
Yeah, yeah.
You know, and I think it's though adeflationary social media at the moment
(07:55):
is as a small destination with no budget,you've got the same access to consumers
as really big destinations, and the onlybarrier is the time that you can afford
to get out of the office to shoot it.
And I think that is something, you know,you're either paying in money or time and
this stuff is time consuming, you know, I,it doesn't have to be, you know, you can
(08:15):
shoot much shorter, more timely pieces ofcontent, but it is, there is still a cost
to a business to send someone out to shootit, but I think it's a great opportunity,
particularly for regions and events wherebudgets are leaner than, than ever before.
But I think probably what we'redoing a lot more of now is really.
Connecting a lot of dots for businessesand filling a lot of gaps where maybe
(08:38):
they don't have time or don't have theresources and really linking sort of
with content being the glue to reallybuilding an omnichannel strategy to make
sure that messages are going out on allyour, All your platforms because what I
find with most clients is they just don'thave time to talk on all their channels.
So the channels are sitting there dormantand they're just lost opportunities.
(09:00):
Yeah, that's a really important,, distinction then that if it's also
realizing that for me to do this andit's not even about doing it well or not.
Be consistent.
Yes.
That I've made the decision.
I want to show up.
I want to like, we're doing adisservice by not showing up to
(09:21):
these channels, to our destination.
What it is, is if you don't tellyour story, someone else will.
Yeah.
Someone else will take your customer.
Someone else will eat your lunch andThen you'll get cranky and wonder where
the customers are, you know, so yeah,well, I guess two things will happen.
One is someone will take your customersor someone will tell you a story and
(09:41):
you won't like what they say about you.
I think it's important to, in, on theback of Mark's presentation, and we did
a little interview with him earlier onthe feed, but even from Having systems
and the strategies in place when itcomes to crisis and not being in control
of the narrative that's been told.
(10:01):
How can you deliver contentquickly and feed the media?
Exactly, and wasn't that interesting whenMark said that the first people he got
on the ground was the content creators?
Yeah.
But probably, I think, before that,it would have been his staff, it
was the content creators internally.
Yeah.
And, uh, whenever, you know, we've,we've been doing any sort of comms
(10:26):
pieces around, around crisis,it is, it's vertical content.
VNRs, you know, back when I was, youknow, a proper publicist, we, you know,
would create these VNRs with these bigcameras, video news release, and we'd go
and film this, and like, right, this pressrelease, stick around with me, I'm full
of acronyms, VNRs, you do these VNRs, andthey were enormous, big massive cameras.
(10:52):
What I do now go out with my iPhonefilm something going down But equally
if I'm in charge of the comms strategy,you know, I'll get my spokespeople
I speak to them get get it from allsort of angles get a bit of vision.
You send that off to the newsThat's what they're running.
That's what they're running.
That's what they're running or whatI'm doing for a couple of clients Just
tag them in my reel on Instagram Yeah.
(11:14):
And it's been getting picked up.
Yeah.
I haven't seen a press release in,been, you know, doing tourism marketing
for 17, 18 years and haven't senta press release for 16 of them.
See, even the way that these,like on Instagram, the way
you can collaborate together.
Exactly.
And amplify content that now, evenprobably six months ago, We work,
(11:35):
collaborate on a reel together.
I'd have to send it to you or you send,whoever's the lead in the production.
But now we just collaborate.
We leverage that data.
Exactly.
I never thought of that, butthat's what we'll do later.
Yeah, but it's true.
I mean, I remember getit going on a holiday.
12 years ago, and that was a big thing.
(11:55):
I went and bought a big beastielens and a digital camera for
the memories with the kids.
I nearly knocked my daughter'stooth out because she's so little
and I turned and her gum bled.
And yeah, ever holiday since.
Well, isn't it funny?
Like these are, you know, They've gota, you know, I don't know what megapixel
camera, but you know, it's certainlybetter than the, you know, Sony Coolpix
(12:18):
I was once taking out, you know, it's,yeah, it's a thousand times faster.
And it's the same in business now.
It is.
It's the same in business that, um,yeah, even a crappy phone is good.
And you know what, the best camerais the one you've got on you.
And I think that's, you know,you've got to be, it's actually,
you've got to get out there, you'vegot to get shooting and yeah.
(12:39):
And I think it, I think everyonegot a lot out of it, hopefully.
Everyone got a lot out of it andthe best thing about any type of
workshopping is actually the doing.
The doing.
And, uh, it wasn't only doing,but publishing something
was, it was excellent.
I can't wait to share that with everyone.
So, in terms of, if anybody's watching,regional destination or otherwise, and
(13:03):
to get in touch with you and exploreopportunities of how you can help regions
or businesses that might be inspired.
What would be the best way?
Oh, well, um, you canfind us online at www.
mediamorto.
com.
au.
We're on all the social media channelsas per content marketing agency.
Uh, and you can find me on LinkedIn.
I'm Hannah Statham.
(13:24):
So you can find me easily there.
Very great LinkedIn er.
I'm trying really hard.
it is my favorite organic platform.
Fun fact, did you know that,the engagement rate generally
on LinkedIn sits at about 16%?
Really?
Yeah.
See, there you go.
No, I didn't know that.
Because like your otherchannels might be 1, 1 to 2%.
(13:44):
It's really interesting withLinkedIn because I was really active
when I first started my business.
I see you all the time on there.
Oh look but I paused but really only thelast few years when I saw like all the
people are on there and just yeah I reallylove it too it's become a primary yeah
yeah yeah very good smart collaborationsthese networking opportunities when
(14:06):
you can't be in the room and using evensomething like this yeah it's good and if
anyone so your experience now I want toend your experience At this convention,
you go to a lot of conferences, speaking,presenting, attending around the country.
Tell me, in Hannah's way, whatmakes the Australian Regional
(14:29):
Tourism Convention, different?
I would say this would be the only, ifmy marketing budget got chopped to pieces
and I couldn't do, I could only pick onething, I would choose this conference
every time because it's so friendly.
And now I know this sounds like a reallysoft answer, but I don't love going
to a conference where I know no one.
(14:50):
I mean, who does, but Ireally, it's not for me.
I'd rather walk and be ina room full of strangers.
It's not.
This is the kind of conference thatyou can arrive in with no friends
and you'll leave with 10, 20 peoplethat you could call on at any time.
I think that the, uh, the speakers,the, the way that the program is
(15:13):
designed has really, um, there'sa lot of breadth in it, but each
topic has a lot of depth as well.
And.
A lot of thought and care goes into that.
Whereas I think some conferencesI attend often, there's a lot
of sponsors and there's perhapschasing sponsorship dollars.
So the relevancy is not there.
(15:34):
I think that there are a lotof care goes into the curation,
which makes it a lot easier.
Really interesting and there's a reallygood mix, between sort of plenary
sessions, workshops, practical, andthere's heaps of time for networking.
'cause let's all be honest, you know, I'mhere to grab three takeaways, you know,
that's all my brain can really take away.
I'm.
You know, that's, that's, I'm not, youknow, I'm a deep thinker, but I don't
(15:59):
have much time, you know, to fullyinternalize once I've reached that point.
I'm here for the, the chitchat.
I'm here to make new friends.
I'm here to make new connections.
I'm here to meet new destinations.
And for having me.
You know, I, I spend a lot of money atthese conferences finding new places
to take holidays to be super honest.
No, true, true, true.
You know, I've just, yeah, I justmet some team, , some of the team
(16:20):
from Tourism wa and quite frankly,
That's where we're off to now, so yeah.
I'm a liability.
Yeah.
But this, I really do like thisconference and I like the networking
and the facilitated networking aswell as someone who's quiet and
shy, and I don't necessarily lovethis sort of Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know?
Yeah.
You know, sometimes I think.
(16:41):
Some conferences are clicky and youknow, or there's no opportunity for
chat because all you're doing isbeing stuck inside a room and yeah,
I do really like the format of this.
Yeah, same, same.
Yeah.
And your key takeaway so far, hasthere been any, um, any key ahas?
I really, really love Mark also.
(17:03):
Mark.
Fraser and I think.
Because I've done quite a fewcrisis projects and I actually did
work , on a Jasper project as partof that, that cyclone and situation.
It was so good for him to walkthrough the exact steps, so fresh
as what had gone on up there.
(17:24):
And the way he presented it,you know, what if this happened?
What would you do?
Who would you call?
It Really broke it down, and he was right.
There wasn't anything in hispresentation that probably anyone
didn't already have the answers to.
Crisis communications or dealingwith a crisis is quite formulaic,
no matter where you are.
(17:45):
But when you're faced in it, andyou can't see, you know, your way
clear, all of that becomes incrediblymuddled, and that's where people panic.
And they don't make great decisions aboutTHINGS I just really loved that, that
presentation and he opened with a statthat I popped in my phone, which you act
surprised when you see it on LinkedIn.
Mark, I'll tag you.
(18:06):
was that, It was 75%.
I've got so many notes.
Look at this.
Oh, I've gone crazy.
Yeah, 75 times more likely to have adisaster in this day and age rather
than in like the 80s to the 90s.
And so I think for all destinations orevents, it's not a question of if it's
when and having your crisis plan actuallyready and businesses and businesses.
(18:31):
And I think from what I know of.
Particularly natural events thatI've worked on in the last 12 months.
Your biggest channels thatyou've got to talk to people in
a crisis are your digital ones.
They are your Facebooks.
They are your Instagrams at scale,at least they're the ones you
mobilize first because you've gotthe full control over them and yet.
(18:53):
I work on a lot of social media accountsand they don't have crisis plans
or they don't have a triage system.
And, you know, you can bet your bottomdollar that that crisis, you know,
the flood is going to happen on aweekend at night over Christmas on
a public holiday, you know, at 2 a.
m.
That's when the team, do youeven have a team on call?
You know, most people don't.
So I really, it, thatreally resonated for me.
(19:16):
And I really, um, I really loved theFinchatton mountain biking prozo.
So I went to that cause it was just.
It's the most epic brand and designand yeah, I really, really enjoyed
seeing that and a council reallyinvest heavily in a brand strategy.
It's this local, I missed that one.
Yeah, it's the localmountain biking crowd.
We didn't do that.
It was just really cool because I think,Often businesses or brands or destinations
(19:41):
get a bit scared at the 11th hour tobe bold and brave with their branding.
And it is, it's beautiful.
We didn't do it or anything,but it's just, it's beautiful.
It's really cool.
And it looks the goods and it'sbranded the whole way through
even the names of the tracks.
I think one's calledChukka Siggy, for example.
So like the tone of thebrand, it's memorable.
(20:01):
And I, I just love it when.
A business or a brand is actually boldenough, you know, to me, it makes no
sense to be a wallflower and yet, how manywallflower brands do you find everywhere?
And we were touching on this lastnight, and I guess that leads to even
this whole concept, particularly whenit comes to content, and I love it
with your agency, you're very, You'rekind of niche in a different lane.
(20:24):
Yeah.
Being a content marketing agency thatnow is question of like, oh there's AI
now, do we need help with our marketing?
But what I'm seeing is the opposite,that now we've got vanilla AI.
Copy and content.
I know.
And if you do something thatstands out, it really gets you.
So then you see somethinglike this because that's human
(20:47):
intelligence, like being clever.
And I think the power of a goodbrand, and this is bold for me in
that I don't, I have no interest inever being on a mountain bike, but
the way it was branded was enoughfor me to go, where is this place?
You know, and I think we're getting,I'm now into mountain biking.
(21:10):
Um, like that one time I didthis trip Fraser Island, but
it was called that Orgari now.
And, I came back and I said,Chris, we need a four wheel drive.
And he was like, quick, let'sget down to the showroom.
It was the moment in time heknew we had to capitalize on.
I cannot mention a mountain bike to him.
You got it.
No, we did end up with a four wheel drive.
(21:32):
That was my four wheel driving era.
Yeah, when I was young andfun and didn't have children.
Love it.
When we could go on adventuresevery weekend, not to ballet at 9.
30 on a Saturday.
Yes, um, but look, that's also atestament to your love for this convention
because last year you came with baby.
Oh yes, baby Walter.
(21:53):
Yeah, and nanny and yeah, I was talking.
Yeah, you're like, I'm missing this.
No, I didn't.
We can do this.
Yep, so yeah.
Love it.
Both of my children have been to anART when they were, yeah, too little.
Yeah, I took Penny, yeah, Penny toBallarat and Walter came to Newcastle, so.
Yeah, you had Walter.
Yeah.
Nine months old, so.
(22:14):
Amazing.
You're amazing.
I, I do now just my own curiosity.
You're amazing.
Pivotal moment from your working with TEQ.
What was the moment where yousaid, I really want to give this a
go and go out on my own and help?
Well, I did.
I worked somewhere elsebetween the two jobs.
But for me, I had, I'd started, youknow, Um, assisting, some builders
(22:39):
doing some social media, um, on the side.
So that's how, how my businesswas called Media Mortar.
So I was helping builders and it wasjust sort of at this, I guess, moment
in time when builders were starting torealize that, Oh, you know, websites
are important, branding's important.
Maybe I should be on Instagram.
Well, maybe we shouldn't look soscruffy on site, et cetera, though.
It was.
It's that sort of crossroads and it wasone that I think tourism had been at maybe
(23:03):
five to seven years earlier, everyonehad already hopped onto Facebook and
Instagram and I saw this opportunity tobring a new industry into what we love.
And so I started running socialmedia accounts for builders
and it just took over my life.
My full time job salary prettyquick and it just, yeah.
Wow, so many things I've learned.
Yeah, so it just, yeah.
I had, yeah, sort of, first timeI had six, six or so clients.
(23:26):
It was, yeah, it was a full time joband then in three months I had an
employee and then six months I wasin an office with two employees and
And fast forward eight years later.
Yeah, I know.
Full office.
Full office.
We bought our office and yeah.
Yeah, it's going well.
Like I love it.
But it doesn't, it doesn't feel like workbecause I'm passionate about what I do.
Like, you know.
(23:46):
Yes, yes.
I think everybody in this room and most,you know, seeing everybody that's coming
and joining us live and anyone that'sgoing to return to watch, uh, there is
a lot of passionate humans of tourismthat want to do better, grow better.
And, speaking of, you'realways doing better.
You're always surprising and delightingand, , it's lovely to catch up with you.
(24:10):
And thank you.
We got this done this year.
We did.
We did.
I know.
I know.
You grabbed me with a bike.
No, this is, this is wonderful.
So let's have a, you know,wonderful rest of art.
And lots more to take in.
very much.
day one completion yet.
No, but I feel like I've done my talkso I can kick my heels up tonight.
(24:32):
Yeah, nice.
No, I'm on tomorrow at Ask anAmbassador, so I'm talking if anyone.
So for anyone that may be considering nextyear, talk about that, the ambassadorship.
So there's 10 of us in total, and atthe convention they do this It's a part
of the schedule, I don't know what youcall it, a block of time called ask an
(24:54):
ambassador, where each of the ambassadors,um, each of us have a different specialty
and it's kind of like speed dating.
So last year it was maybe tablesof 10 plus your ambassador
and each of us had a topic.
So I'm last year I did my whole thingwas on tick tock and people come and
ask me questions about tick tock andworking with creators and stuff like that.
(25:15):
Relevant to their business councilevents, wherever they were coming from.
And we would troubleshoot, Iwould provide advice and maybe
as a group we'd troubleshoot.
Uh, so this year I'm doing somestuff around paid social media,
um, and social media strategy andpeople can swing past my table.
And it was really good, particularlylast year, cause we were doing TikTok and
a lot of the, I had a heap of councilsat my table and a lot of the challenges
(25:39):
that If one council was facing it, itwas the same challenge that the next.
So it was really interesting togroup think and share knowledge on
how to get around certain things.
Especially with TikTok, I've heard italong the grapevine, particularly in
the last six months, a lot of councilshave really have banned TikTok.
Have you found that too?
Yeah.
(25:59):
And lots of, can't get it over theline because it's of privacy issues, et
cetera, which like not to be dismissiveof, I very, and yeah, would you admit it?
legitimate, um, you know,concerns, et cetera.
but at the same time, if you'regoing after this Gen Z market and
that's relevant to your destination,there's a real argument for it.
And that certainly doesn't dismiss.
(26:22):
TikTok esque content like youtaught everyone today that can be
used on the mainstream platforms.
Yeah, exactly.
Thank you.
Thank you for joining us.
Yes, thank you to everyone for joining.
Look, there's a few,people are standing there.
Oh, people are there.
Oh, wow.
Oh, this is embarrassing.
(26:43):
Bye bye.
Thank you for joining us.
How on the couch for A good artful chat.
So thank you everyone.
Um, enjoy the rest of the convention.
Thank you.
And more to come.
Thank you Hannah.
Bye bye.
Check her out.