By Trevor Long; With over 20 years experience in the Media, I’m all for full disclosure.  I’ve worked in or been associated with Talk-Radio for all of that time and have seen the good the bad and the ugly of commercial disclosure.  For that reason, I’m keen to publish details of commercial arrangements I have to ensure my readers and listeners have the best chance of transparency around what I do.

These policies and approaches apply not only to me but to all those who write for EFTM off their own bat while holding down full-time jobs.  Being Self-Employed, the transparency around this is important to me.  As the owner of EFTM, I feel the commercial activities here at EFTM reflect on me, and likewise, the commercial activities of me Trevor Long reflect upon all the media outlets I report for, speak to, appear on and write for.

How do we make money?

None of your business frankly.  But for some clarity, we have a limited amount of advertising space here at EFTM.  We have long time sponsors in those places, and don’t accept a lot of short term or ad hoc advertising.

Those companies do not receive favourable editorial, they do however received editorial priority – that is, if we have five potential stories, and time to write three, our advertisers will be the first ones we write.

Additionally, Trevor makes public appearances at events and functions as a Keynote Speaker or MC.

Editorial Policy

My editorial policy is very simple.  No one, no company, no amount of money can dictate my opinion or the topics I choose to talk about and write about.

Editorial Planning

In some outlets and appearances, I have direct editorial control, for others I have none.  Topics and Items written about here at EFTM and on my podcasts are entirely my decision.  Topics I discuss on the radio across Australia each week are put together by me and pitched to the radio stations involved.  Each station will determine which if any they use as topics for the week, adding their own where they choose.  Television appearances are either the result of outreach from the program, or an idea pitched by me to the program but the decision about what we cover and what the segments that happen are the choice of the Production team.

Editorial Influence

We have never, and will never accept payment in return for a guarantee of publicity via any media channel.  Any post here at EFTM that is written externally will be labelled a Sponsored Post, while any advertorial content will be clearly labelled as such.

It should be noted that in many cases companies who take the time to meet me, work with me on their product announcements and overall have a more direct one to one approach to dealing with me will almost always have more success in actually having me understand their product or service which is in most cases the hardest part of getting to know a product – a difficult thing to do from just an email! Without question this can result in more articles and topics of discussion about a product, knowing something well can do that!

Sponsored Posts, Sponsored Tweets

To clarify – If a company wishes to post content on EFTM for a fee, we will consider it.  If we think it’s something that fits with our content approach we’ll take the money.  The posts will be authored by “Sponsored Post”, if it’s what we refer to as Supported Editorial – that is, it’s an article we’d love to write any time, but time just isn’t on our side, we’ll prioritise that content production and include reference at the end of the article..

On Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, if we specifically accept money in return for posting the message, it will contain the hashtag #Spon (or #sp if we really can’t squeeze it in).  But frankly, that’s not our game – so don’t expect to see it much.  But yes, we can, will and enjoy promoting content we’ve worked on – sponsored content included, so we will at times link to sponsored content on our social media channels.

Funnily enough, we’re all pretty passionate about cars, technology and all things EFTM.  So please don’t confuse passion with “paid to”.  We’ll tweet what we want, when we want, about whomever we want – and you’ll know if we were paid to do so from the hashtag.

Our Travels

Being so far away from some of the biggest events in the world, in both Technology, Motoring and other areas – from time to time we are invited to attend events or product launches overseas, or travel to see things overseas as what is known as a “Media Famil” (Intended as a trip to Familiarise reporters with a product or company).  We intend to publish here on this page a regularly updated list of our travels, including the purpose of the trip, and who funded the travel.

  • 2015

    • (not an exhaustive list – off memory)
  • March
    • Trevor travelled to Barcelona to attend Mobile World Congress as a Guest of Ford
  • May
    • Trevor travelled to Shanghai to attend CES Asia as a guest of Ford
    • Trevor travelled to Beijing to attend Lenovo World as a guest of Lenovo
  • June
    • Chris travelled to San Francisco to attend the “Go Further” event as a guest of Ford
  •  September
    • Trevor travelled to Berlin to attend IFA as a guest of Sony
    • Trevor travelled to San Francisco to attend an Apple Event as a guest of Apple
  •  November
    • Geoff travelled to Japan as a guest of Nissan Australia to see the NISMO Festival and factory tours

  • 2016

  • January
    • Trevor Long, Adam Phillips, Geoff Quattromani and Rob Locke travelled to Las Vegas USA to attend CES 2016.  EFTM’s expenses for this trip were funded by sponsorship support from  Intel, Hisense, Sony, Samsung, LG and Alcatel One Touch
    • Trevor: Melbourne to attend the Nissan Motorsport launch at Phillip Island as a guest of Nissan
    • Trevor: Auckland, New Zealand as a Guest of Vodafone for the launch of their “No Extra Cost roaming plans”
  • February
    • Trevor: Barcelona and Amsterdam as a guest of Huawei to attend Mobile World Congress and see city and stadium WiFi solutions in Amsterdam.
    • Geoff: Adelaide as a Guest of Lexus to drive the new GS-F
  • March
    • Trevor & Geoff: Melbourne, as guests of EPSON for the Melbourne Formula One Grand Prix
    • Trevor: Melbourne, as a guest of Hisense at the Melbourne Formula One Grand Prix
  • April
    • Trevor: New York, as a guest of Acer for their Next at Acer 2016 product showcase
    • Trevor: Melbourne, as a guest of Oppo for the R9 launch
    • Trevor: Bali, as a guest of Huawei for the P9 product testing
  • June
    • Trevor: San Francisco as a guest of Apple attending WWDC16
  • July
    • Trevor: Brisbane, as a guest of Ford attending the launch of the Focus RS
    • Trevor: Byron Bay, as a guest of Jaguar attending the launch of the F-Pace
  • August
    • Trevor: Berlin, as a guest of Sony, for IFA 2016
    • Trevor: San Francisco, as a guest of Apple, for Apple’s September Event
    • Trevor Long & Rob Locke: Detroit, as a guest of Ford Australia, for Further with Ford conference

  • 2017

  • January
    • CES 2017: Trevor Long, Geoff Quattromani, Chris Bowen, Rob Locke, Peter Alexiadis, Nic Healey & Doug MacDougall representing EFTM in Las Vegas.  Coverage Supported by Intel, Samsung, Sony, Hisense, Nissan, Vodafone
    • Trevor: Melbourne, Guest of Suzuki – Launch of Suzuki Ignis
  • February
    • Trevor: Bathurst & Canberra, Guest of Audi – Launch of the Audi S4
    • Trevor: Bathurst, Guest of Nissan Australia – Launch of the Nissan GT-R Nismo
    • Geoff: Boston, USA; As a guest of Sonos
    • Trevor Long & Rob Locke; Attending Mobile World Congress in Barcelona with coverage support from Huawei, Oppo & Vodafone Australia
  • March
    • Chris: Tasmania, for the launch of the Audi A5 as a guest of Audi
    • Geoff & Trevor: Melbourne Formula One Grand Prix, as guests of Epson
    • Geoff & Trevor: Melbourne Formula One Grand Prix, as a guest of Hisense
    • Trevor: New York for Samsung Unpacked as a guest of Samsung
    • Chris: Victoria, For the launch of the MG GS
    • Chris: Tasmania, For the launch of the Audi A5 Coupe
  • April
    • Trevor: Melbourne, for River4Ward Sony Fundraising Event, as a guest of Sony
    • Trevor: Melbourne, for the launch of Virgin Australia Wifi, as a guest of Virgin Australia
    • Chris: Victoria, For the launch of the Infiniti Q60 Red Sport
    • Chris: Victoria, For the launch of the Nissan Xtrail
  • May
    • Trevor: Salt Lake City, for the launch of the Ford GT, as a guest of Ford Australia
    • Trevor: Taiwan, for a product launch and Factory Tour, as a guest of HTC
    • Chris: Victoria, For the launch of the Audi A5 Sportback
  • June
    • Trevor: London, for the ICC Champions Trophy Cricket & Product Demonstrations, as a guest of Intel
    • Trevor: San Jose, for WWDC17, as a guest of Apple
    • Trevor: Byron Bay, with Holden for the launch of the Astra Sedan
    • Geoff: Shanghai, for CES Asia, as a guest of CES
  • July
    • Trevor: Korean, to visit OLED factory as a guest of LG
    • Trevor: Las Vegas, for JBL product launch and demonstrations, as a guest of JBL
  • August
    • Trevor: Shenzen & Beijing: As a guest of Huawei visiting production & research facilities
    • Trevor: New York: as a guest of Samsung for Unpacked event
    • Trevor: Berlin, for IFA 2017, with sponsorship and support from Sony, Samsung & Vodafone
    • Chris: Brisbane for the launch of the Nismo 370Z with Nissan Australia
  • September
    • Trevor: San Jose & Cupertino, for the Apple Event as a guest of Apple
    • Chris: Frankfurt, for the Frankfurt Motor Show as a guest of BMW Australia
    • Chris: Adelaide for the launch of the Audi A5 Cabriolet with Audi Australia
  • October :
    • Chris: Adelaide, for the launch of the Volvo XC60 as a guest of Volvo Cars Australia
  • November:
    • Trevor: Melbourne for the launch RMIT’s App development with Swift courses, as a guest of Apple Australia

  • 2018

  • January
    • CES 2018: Trevor Long, Chris Bowen, Geoff Quattromani, Rob Michael, Rob Locke, Adam Phillips & Doug MacDougall representing EFTM in Las Vegas.  Coverage Supported by Samsung, Hisense, Sony, Intel, Huawei, Nissan, Vodafone, JBL, LG & Dell
    • Trevor: San Francisco & Cupertino for meetings & briefings with Apple, as a guest of Apple Australia
  • February
    • Trevor: Rome for Samsung’s Regional Forum, as a guest of Samsung Australia
    • Chris: Bangkok for the launch of the Ford Ranger Raptor as a guest of Ford Australia.
    • MWC 2018: Trevor Long & Rob Locke representing EFTM in Barcelona for Mobile World Congress.  Coverage supported by Vodafone, Samsung.
    • Chris: Holden Commodore Launch in New Zealand as a guest of Holden.
  • March
    • Trevor: New York for Samsung’s 2018 TV First Look, as a guest of Samsung Australia
    • Chris: Albury for the launch of the i30 N as a guest of Hyundai
    • Geoff: Melbourne for the Formula One Grand Prix as a guest of Kaspersky
    • Trevor: Chicago for the Apple Event as a guest of Apple Australia
  • April
    • Chris: HiLux National Media Launch taking place in the Flinders Ranges as a guest of Toyota
  • May
    • Chris: Port Macquarie for the RS4 Avant Launch as a guest of Audi Australia
    • Chris: Adelaide for Volvo XC40 Media Drive Event as a guest of Volvo Australia
  • June
    • Trevor: San Jose for Apple WWDC 2018, as a guest of Apple Australia
    • Geoff: San Francisco for Sonos launch, as a guest of Sonos Australia
    • Chris: Adelaide for the launch of the 2018 Ford Mustang, as a guest of Ford Australia
  • July
    • Chris: Brisbane for the launch of the new Mini as a guest of BMW Australia
  • August
    • Trevor: To New York for Samsung Unpacked, as a guest of Samsung Australia
    • Chris: To Noosa for the launch of the 2018 Toyota Corolla as a guest of Toyota
    • Chris, Trevor & Rob: Berlin for IFA 2018, for EFTM with support from Samsung, Lenovo, Huawei, Sony and Ecovacs
  • September
    • Chris, Trevor & Rob: Stockholm for the EQC launch as guests of Mercedes Benz Australia
    • Trevor: San Jose & Cupertino, as a guest of Apple Australia for iPhone XS product launch
  • October
    • Trevor: New York, as a guest of Apple Australia for new iPad Pro and MacBook Air announcements
  • November
    • Trevor: Korea, as a guest of Samsung Australia

  • 2019

  • January
    • Trevor, Chris, John, Rob & Adam: CES Las Vegas, EFTM’s coverage of CES 2019 supported by Samsung, Hisense, Sony, Intel, Ecovacs, Jabra, Nissan, Vodafone, LG & Dell
  • February
    • Trevor: San Francisco for Galaxy S10 launch as a guest of Samsung Australia
    • Trevor, Rob & Chris: Barcelona, for Mobile World Congress, EFTM’s coverage of MWC 2019 supported by Huawei, Oppo, Vodafone
  • March
    • Trevor: San Francisco for Apple’s Show Time event as a guest of Apple Australia
  • June
    • Trevor: San Jose for Apple’s WWDC as a guest of Apple Australia
    • Trevor: Washington DC for Uber Elevate 2019 as a guest of Uber Australia
  • August
    • Trevor: Brisbane, Melbourne & Sydney, Testing 5G smartphones on the Telstra Network.  Flights and Accommodation paid by Oppo
    • Trevor: New York City for UNPACKED as a guest of Samsung Australia
  • September:
    • Trevor, Rob, Chris: IFA in Berlin – EFTM’s coverage supported by Vodafone, Huawei.
    • Trevor and Rob travelled to San Jose as a guest of Apple for the launch of the iPhone
  • October
    • Trevor: Attended the Bathurst 1000 as a guest of Vodafone
    • Trevor: Travelled to Japan as a guest of Mazda for the Tokyo Motor Show
  • November
    • Trevor: Travelled to South Korea for briefings as a guest of Samsung Australia
    • Trevor: Travelled to Melbourne as a guest of Mercedes Benz for the launch of the EQC

  • 2020

  • January
    • Trevor, John, Rob, Jolly & Adam: CES Las Vegas, EFTM’s coverage of CES 2019 supported by Samsung, Hisense, Sony, Intel, Swann, Intel, Vodafone, LG & Dell
  • February
    • Trevor: San Francisco with Samsung Australia for the launch of the Galaxy S20 and Z Flip
  • Then all hell broke loose and we stayed home:)

  • 2021

  • January
    • CES 2021 GROUNDED Edition – at home in Sydney, is supported by Hisense and Samsung, and Powered by Telstra 5G.
  • March
    • Trevor: Travelled to Melbourne as a Guest of Porsche Australia
  • April
    • Trevor: Travelled to Melbourne as a Guest of Nissan Australia
  • May
    • Trevor: Travelled to Brisbane as a guest of Fox Sports Australia

  • 2022

  • January
    • CES 2022, Trevor and Rob travelled to Las Vegas for CES with the support of Samsung, LG, Intel, Vodafone and Hisense
  • March
    • Trevor & Rob: Travelled to Barcelona for Mobile World Congress with the support of Oppo
  • April
    • Trevor: Travelled to Melbourne for the Formula One Grand Prix as a Guest of JigSpace, Oracle and Fox Sports
  • June
    • Trevor & Rob: Travelled to San Francisco for Apple WWDC as a guest of Apple Australia
    • Trevor & Rob: Travelled to Las Vegas as a Guest of Amazon Web Services for Amazon re:MARS
  • August
    • Trevor & Rob: Travelled to New York as a guest of Samsung Australia for Samsung Unpacked
  • August
    • Trevor: Travelled to Berlin for IFA 2022 with some support from Samsung Australia
  • September
    • Trevor & Rob: Travelled to Cupertino, California for Apple Event as guests of Apple Australia

2023

  • January
    • CES 2023, Trevor and Rob, Adam and John travelled to Las Vegas for CES with the support of Samsung, LG, BMW, Boost and Hisense
    • Trevor & Rob travelled to San Francisco as guests of Samsung Australia
  • March
    • Trevor & Rob: Travelled to Barcelona for Mobile World Congress with the support of Oppo
    • Trevor attended the Supercars in Newcastle as a guest of Thrifty
  • April
    • Trevor: Travelled to Canberra as a guest of Cupra for the launch of the Cupra Born
  • May
    • Trevor & Rob: Travelled to Seattle as guests of Amazon
  • June
    • Trevor & Rob: Travelled to San Francisco for Apple WWDC as a guest of Apple Australia
  • July
    • Trevor & Rob: Travelled to Korea as a guest of Samsung Australia for Samsung Unpacked
  • August
    • Trevor & Rob: Travelled to Berlin for IFA 2022 with some support from Samsung Australia
  • September
    • Trevor & Rob: Travelled to Cupertino, California for Apple Event as guests of Apple Australia