We caught up with Everguide General Manager, Cinnamon Pollard to find out just who they are, what they do and why you should get involved.
What is Everguide?
Everguide is the ever growing, never sleeping digital guide to entertainment, music, arts and culture that lives online and in your pocket. Whatever you’re into, whether it’s comedy, gallery exhibits, craft markets, or theatre, Everguide has it covered wherever you are. We cover all capital cities – Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Darwin, Hobart, Melbourne, Sydney & Perth.
Who are the groups involved in the project?
Everguide is the brainchild of the Lifelounge Group, which has been around since 1999. Our other properties include Lifelounge.com.au, Popmag.com.au for snow/skate/surf and TheVine.com.au - Australia’s biggest youth news and entertainment website, which is a joint venture with Fairfax. The entire Lifelounge team had something to do with the initial set up of Everguide.
What is your professional background and how did the ideas for Everguide come about?
I’ve been working in digital media for quite a while, and helped create websites for Today FM, Triple M, TheVine, Radar Radio and others. I also worked on Livewire.org.au, a great project which is an online community for sick kids created with the Starlight Children’s Foundation.
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I came across from Fairfax Media to become the head of digital for Lifelounge, where I’ve been working on Everguide and overseeing the rebuild of Lifelounge and Pop magazine.
Everguide came about through talking about doing a digital event guide for a few years, then doing enough research to realise the time was right. Danny Bos (ex Editor/Founder of Mess + Noise) came on board at Lifelounge and really helped get the wheels in motion with the rest of the team.
How does it differ from other online guides?
Everguide is led by iPhone – the app was the first thing we focussed on because we could see it was the place we’re all going to for all our information. So it’s technologically innovative, and specifically targets 18-35 year-olds, which means you won’t find Disney on Ice! Also Everguide’s personalisation tools and quality editorial content makes it stand out. It’s about helping people making decisions on what to do, not just listing events.
Everguide seems to have a lot more personality than its competitors. Was this a conscious move or something that just came naturally?
It was conscious, yeah. We’ve been selective with our contributors – we hired people who embody the personality of Everguide and really understand what it’s about and what it offers. Tim Fisher, Everguide’s editor in chief, has contributed to Lifelounge and Pop for a long time, worked on Triple J’s magazine and ran the biggest surf magazine in the country so we feel like it’s in good hands, and all our contributors are super-knowledgeable about what’s happening in their city.
We give contributors and our editorial team the licence to creatively express themselves, which has helped shape the personality we have.
Also, we’re targeting youth, so we have contributors who can do that relevantly and authentically.
What is your favourite Australian venue?
That’s such a tough question! There are so many great venues in Australia, it depends what sort of night you want. I used to love the Valhalla cinema in Glebe, Sydney, before it closed, but if I had to pick a favourite, I’ll go with Macquarie Centre ice rink. It’s where I kissed my first boyfriend when I was 12 years old!
What is your vision behind the new Everguide smartphone App?
This app was designed to be a guide to your social life which lives in your pocket. It geo-locates you, it knows your personal preferences and it makes recommendations for you wherever you are about things that you would want to do. The more you use it, the more it’ll recognise what you’re into, and the more useful it’ll be.
The idea for the app seems so natural. Why do you think this kind of thing hasn’t been properly executed before?
It’s a really good question. The truth is I’ve tried to implement this sort of idea with a lot of different companies, and a few factors have held it back. Making a what’s-on app and website like Everguide is labour-intensive and costly, plus we’re targeting the youth-market, which is notoriously “discerning”. Those factors right there made a lot of companies nervous. The ones who really need it – radio stations, tv, media companies etc – were worried they wouldn’t be able to launch a new youth brand credibly and relevantly.
For Lifelounge it made perfect sense. With our other properties – Lifelounge, Pop mag, TheVine, adding an event guide seemed like a natural fit. We could tap into a team who knew what our audience wanted, but just as importantly, the technology was ready.
The things that make Everguide so good has only been around a short time. All the previous visions fell short because the technology wasn’t there to deliver geo-location and personalisation. With 30 per cent of our audience having iphones, it made sense … and now with an Android on its way we’re looking to provide an app for everyone.
We heard you threw a killer party to launch the brand at Revolver Upstairs – how did it go?
Better than we could have imagined! Queues down the street, the front room completely packed within half an hour of the doors opening, the Hello Morning and the djs were killing it, and Ken Taylor did a great piece (which is still on the wall in the back room). We’re actually having another party at Revolver soon … we’ll keep you posted.
I’ve got nothing to do this weekend in Melbourne (apart from going to Can’t Say on Friday night) what do you recommend?
You might want to check out Deerhoof on Sunday (more info), and we’re pretty psyched to see Unknown Mortal Orchestra at the Northcote Social Club on Saturday (more info) … but honestly? It’s Top Shop’s opening weekend so we’ll probably join the masses and go check that out at the Jam Factory (more info).
