UQ Market Day

Yesterday was my first day back at work after a glorious 3 week holiday in Bali. After 3 weeks of work free, stress free joy I was dreading that first day back at work. Luckily I was eased back into the work life and I didn't even have to step into the office. Mary picked me up at the ungodly hour of 07.30am and off we went to the University of Queensland's Market Day. We were allowed to take one of our vans to display so we chose to show off one of our new El Grands. This was received well and the students loved it! Many were intrigued to see the inside as they had seen our vans driving around Australia.

We were giving away a 7 day roadtrip and so students flocked to our stall to be in with a chance to win. They were all very enthusiastic about the thought of heading off on a roadtrip in a Wicked van and were very pleased that we offer students a 7% discount.

However neither the El Grand nor the prospect of 7 days of freedom on the open road were the big draw to our stall, students and staff members alike hounded us for a 'Caution! Driver may be Nude' stickers. We couldn't cut them quick enough. People love our Wicked stickers. I can't wait to see them on the back of peoples cars, it will be interesting to see if any of the drivers are naked :)

It was a great day, we met lots of interesting people and generated a lot of interest in Wicked. All in a all, it was a successful day out!

Long time no post.

It's been a while since my last post and I've been busy learning the ins and outs of Wicked.

I spent a couple of months in the care department helping out upset customers. Here at Wicked we hate to see our customers upset so in the unfortunate event someone has a breakdown we do all we can to help them see the adventure in the situation and send them on their merry way.

We always try to keep our customers happy and so when ever we get complaints we thank them for their feedback and set about improving ourselves so that the next customer can benefit from it. And for being helpfully critical we send our customers a voucher and a promise that we will make it up to them. And that we do! Especially now that we have our new Elgrands. These sexy 5 seaters are painted by Aboriginal artists and are pimped out with lots of hidden gems these really are the vehicle you want to be in for your roadtrip.

I took one home to show my roommates, who are French and very hard to please, and they loved it. They couldn't wait to set off on a roadtrip in one. Unfortunately it was raining so the furthest we went was down the road to the supermarket, but that sure was a comfy ride :)

As a PR student this has been a good year to be at Wicked, we are constantly improving and we don't let a bit of bad press get us down. We actually try to turn it around, we can't be that bad, someone wrote a song about us. I have had a great chance to see a company go through a minor crisis and come out fighting. I think it is because we have had a lot of support from people who know that we are a decent company who unfortunatley have incurred the wrath of Queensland government. It has been said that the Wicked way is a double edged sword, it brings attention to us so people know who we are and like our laid back feel, but it also makes us a target for people who don't like some of our more cheeky van designs.

But hey, we're Wicked! If we get knocked down we will just come back bigger and better, like our new Elgrands :)

Bouncing into the record books

This week I went along with Sister Sam and Anny Chih to attempt to break a world record. For what you ask? Jumping on a mini trampoline. 300 of us turned up to bounce our way into the Guiness Book of World Records. We broke the record for being the largest amont of people simultaeneously jumping on mini trampolines for 5 consecutive minutes. We smashed the previous record of 250 people which was held by the UK. The event was held by Pure Health Clubs and was to raise money for asthma. It was so much fun, and one hell of a work out. 5 minutes on the trampoline is equivilent to a 20 minute run. I know which one I would rather do. Me and Sam bought our trampolines so we can do it from home, we also plan on starting classes.

We were told before we started that we were not allowed to step of the trampoline for anything, even if we were having a heart attack, yikes! The instructors were doing lots of fancy moves but I was so scared I would fall off I just bounced up and down and did the occasional twist. I didn't want to be the one to ruin it for everyone. I could just imagine the angry mob of jumpers chasing me down Queen Street Mall.

Me and Sam couldn't believe our luck when we were told we could represent Wicked and take part. We have the coolest job ever!

James Moffett

A few weeks ago we painted up a van for comedian James Moffett and in return he did a gig for Wicked staff and agents at Birdee Num Nums before setting off on tour. So along with my fellow evangelists Sister Sam, Brother Mark and Brother Paul and some other wickadees we headed out for a night of laughs. James was pretty entertaining and locked onto a table to tease, dragging one poor girl up on stage. Always a laugh. As Wicked evangelists we circulated the room giving out brochures and lanyars then the rest of the night was ours. Birdee Num Nums was cool and they even got into the ekka spirit by giving away free candy floss, or as you aussies call it, fairy floss. I must have had at least 3 helpings so I was on a sugar high. All in all a good night, comedy and free candy floss, you cant beat it.

River Fire

Over the last few weeks everyone has been getting pretty hyped up over Brisbane festival and of course the River fire. So curious to see what the big deal was I went for a wander down to Southbank on Saturday. It was mental. Channel 7 and triple M radio were broadcasting live hyping up the crowd for the big air show and fire work display. Southbank was covered with people holding their spot for the big show. They had their camping chairs and picnic blankets and a stock of food and alcohol with them so that they didn't have to leave their spot for anything (except for going to the loo of course). I had already decided that I was going to watch the fireworks from Eagle Street Pier so that I could have a good view of the Story Bridge. I was just at Southbank to soak up the atmosphere.
It was an extremely hot day so walking around in Jeans was not a good idea. So I headed home to chill before heading to my vantage point at Eagle pier. I set off to the pier about an hour before the show so that I could get a good spot. This was probably unnessesary but was all part of the experience. So I perched my self on a wall. It got pretty cold so I regretted not bringing a jacket. After an hour of people watching, the f-11 fighter plane flew by to signal the start of the fireworks. They were pretty amazing. They were set off all across the bridge, which looked really cool. Fireworks were coming from all directions as they were being set off at many different locations around the city, I think the ones from the bridge were the best though. They went on for about half an hour, I was torn between just enjoying them and trying to get really cool pics, I went for the latter. After 30 minutes the f-11 flew by again to signal the end. You could see the bright flame from its jet for ages as it went higher and higher. It was pretty incredible. One of the best fire work displays I've seen. It gave the firework display at Sydney New Year a run for its money thats for sure.

On a positive note

I spent the day with our 'we care' department, this consists of one person. We were sifting through the feedback forms that we ask all of our customers to fill out when they return a van. I was expecting there to be a lot of negative feedback, just because we don't often get to hear the good stuff, as they say people are more likely to talk about a bad experience than they are a good one. So as you can imagine I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of good feedback that we get. In fact about 90% of the feedback is good. People are having great roadtrips in Wicked Vans and they really connect with their van, one customer commented that their van became a member of the family and they were sad to have to give it up. This is what Wicked is all about, sure we could give you a nice van with a great paint job that just has Wicked on the side like most other rental companies, but wheres the fun in that. We like to make your roadtrip special and driving around with a unique design does that. It is a conversation starter and people really get attached to their vans. And if you see it driving down the street one day or parked up on the side of the road you know that that is the van that you called home for a short while. So who cares if not every one likes us, you cant please everyone. We love our customers and understand that it is them that make Wicked, if the walls of the vans could talk I'm sure we'd hear some amazing stories. So I am going yo ask for one thing, if you've had a wicked roadtrip, tell people, let them have some fun too.

One month at Wicked

I have been at Wicked for one month and I have to say its a strange old life. Days have been spent doing research, dealing with complaints from people with no sense of humour who take offence from 2 gingerbread men having sex, now come on how is that not funny, planning a tour to Ayers Rock and coming up with dirty words to spray paint on to undies for wet undies competitions held at bars around Australia. That was a bizzare task. I sat with Mr Wicked as we had a serious conversation about what we should put on these undies and debating what was too much. We decided on Blow Me, Touch Me, F*** Me and Spank Me. I then had to go down to the sign place to get some stencils made up, so I went with my head held high and explained that they were for Wicked Campers, the kind lady understood and got a kick out the fact that they sent a girl to get these made up. I then proceeded to spray paint 40 pairs of undies. Just waiting to hear how they performed on the night. It's true what they say when you start work for Wicked, no two days are the same.