Being an admirer of Lending Central for the service they provide, I was amused by an article that appeared in the last issue of the Australian Broker magazine (AB). Written was a short blurb on page 53, (Insider), about the recently launched Lending Central Awards.

As the saying goes “There’s no such thing as bad publicity” and with Lending Central being a small-time player in the media space, this would be very true. I’d bet Lending Central would be happy for their brand and name to be advertised by their competitors; however, if any of you happened to see the article, you too, would have been surprised by some of the comments made.

The article was centered on the fact that Lending Central is ‘yet another player looking to hand out gongs at the end of the year’, implying that there may be too many awards already in the mortgage industry. Add to this the fact that Lending Central ‘has already revealed that it will be handing out awards in nine different categories’. Well, not sure if this journalist realises that it may be quite difficult to market the awards and receive nominations without first revealing the categories.

The next questionable comment was regarding one awards category; ‘IT provider of the Year’ and that “with tongues firmly in our checks” Lending Central might consider giving the prize to themselves. Don’t know about this either, given the fact that Lending Central is only an independent media portal…..did I mention that Lending Central is also FREE?

Newsworthy stuff isn’t it? But it gets better.

The last swipe takes the cake, whereby the journalist suggests that ‘if ever there was an award for most number of press releases churned out as industry news, it would certainly take home the prize.’

Without having any previous marketing experience, I can see why Lending Central post press releases (they actually call them Media Releases…..but that’s not the point) from company’s whose employees are their core audience. The vast majority of ‘media releases’ they publish actually give real value. How else would industry people like me, get the news so quickly? Perhaps waiting for the next issue of AB??? Industry people can’t wait weeks for news, and then they would have to get through all the advertisements that they pile into the magazine. Not to mention getting through other news worthy sections like “Movers & Shakers” and “Profiles” to find this information.

I wonder if taking ‘cheap-shots’ at company’s that spend money on advertising is the normal practice with AB? I wouldn’t have thought that other, somewhat bigger company’s, would be pleased about that.

However, the most ironic thing is the fact that directly underneath the article is a call for readers to supply any ‘juicy gossip or funny stories that people might have’. Obviously AB sees this type of content more newsworthy for the broking industry.

Maybe Lending Central should add ‘Best Researched Article’ to the Lending Central Awards. I know where my vote would go.

Keep up the great work Lending Central.

The Mystery Writer