Nathalie Collins from Edith Cowan University sent me an email with some PR guff attached. I normally trash this stuff, but this is actually kinda interesting for our cousins over in Western Australia. ECU is showing the MacHeads doco you may have heard about on Saturday, 30 May at 10.45am. It’s free to watch, but you’ll be asked to do a survey after the screening to aid some research they are doing towards being a nut about a specific product or brand. Read the press release for more info:

Researchers from Edith Cowan University (ECU) and the University of Western Australia (UWA) are hosting a free screening of the movie MacHeads at ECU Mount Lawley on Saturday, 30 May. The requirement? You have to be a Macintosh fan to get in.

UWA Professor Jamie Murphy and ECU’s Regional Marketing Manager Nathalie Collins are screening the Western Australian premiere of MacHeads for Perth Apple Macintosh enthusiasts. The film had its world premiere at the MacWorld Conference in San Francisco in January 2009.

The film is being screened as part of a joint ECU and UWA research project into Brand Communities, Brand Cults and Customer Evangelists. “We hope to survey the audience after the screening and get their views on the phenomenon, which is the subject of the documentary,” said Nathalie.

MacHeads is a film about Apple-obsessed consumers who travel internationally for Apple events and derive some of their identity from the use of the product. The film also looks at Macintosh User Groups, where “MacHeads” gather in a brand-oriented community online and in person. Nathalie has been a member of the WA Macintosh User Group (WAMUG) for almost ten years and was a founding member of the Geraldton Macintosh User Group (GMUG).

She is using MacHeads research as part of her exploration about products which customers obsess, travel and blog about. Professor Jamie Murphy conducts research in online marketing and is the lead professor for the Google Online Marketing Challenge, an annual global competition for over 10,000 higher education students in 60 countries. Although not a Macintosh user, he is the lead academic on the project. “I can maintain some objectivity about the product, as Nathalie is a hard core MacHead and has been for about 20 years.” Nathalie and Jamie have collaborated on research relating to wine, motorcycles and brand communities and their research on customer evangelists has been presented at Australian marketing conferences.

Professor Murphy and Nathalie have permission from the producer of the film for limited public screenings and to use the film in research, teaching and learning.

The event will be held at ECU’s Mount Lawley Campus on Saturday, 30 May at 10.45am. Those interested in attending the screening should contact Nathalie on n.collins@ecu.edu.au for more information. Bookings are essential.