Client sign-off crucial

This is one of those times that you go "that sucks - bet you wish you had client sign off before you made that decision huh?"

So yesterday I was away sick and an email arrived in my inbox about a survey. All good - I like providing feedback. So while I was eating my lunch today, I decided to do the survey, only to think it was a little strange that the screen I landed on had 'Your Progress 100%'.

For those who can't be bothered clicking to enlarge, it reads:

"Survey recall 

The Seed was commissioned recently by Adshel to run an online survey, assessing the opinions of media agencies and clients.

The survey was intended to be an anonymous survey, but unfortunately, due to an error in execution by The Seed, Adshel's identity was revealed which could compromise the findings.

In discussion with Adshel, we have therefore agreed to recall the survey and will not be proceeding with this research.

Please therefore disregard the message sent yesterday.

For anyone who has already completed the survey, The Seed will honour its commitment to the prize draw and will inform those who were successful in due course."


Stink huh? Shows the importance of ALWAYS getting client sign off on everything - unless AdShel did and then later went, 'hang on... crap'.


This has effectively killed the research for AdShel (as now any survey's about Outdoor will have an immediate association with AdShel, even if they change companies) and The Seed have lost the income from the contract with AdShel.


Hard lesson. Remember: Always get clients to sign everything off in writing. (That way you have proof that they're wrong.)

Haka Flash Mob at Sylvia Park

This has to be the best flash mob I have seen footage of in New Zealand.

Brought to my attention by Paul Lester.

Anyone know if there was a brand/advertiser behind this? I'm assuming that it has something to do with the RWC?

Hey Orcon - Is this similar to a nightmare?

Youch.

For a few days I have seen tweets coming through from @timkelleher in regards to him not having Internet or phone from Orcon. Now, knowing my reliance on the internet, I can imagine how frustrating it is to be without.

So, I don't know the full back story on this, but I imagine it is 'sign up - no internet or phone - get frustrated - take things into my own hands'.

Tim has created a website fifteen which is counting up how many days, hours, mins and seconds he has been waiting for Orcon to connect his phone and internet. It also has a tally of how long he has spent on the phone with technical support (which I image is all cell phone based since he has no landline...)

Then, like all smart Twitter users, he is utilising this medium to try to force a response, he has placed a tweet link on the bottom right corner.

And the tweets just keep coming. 

The above shows 8 tweets in 7 minutes. This must be SO frustrating for the people who run the @Orcon twitter account. Obviously they do not have the power to fix this directly, but do the have the power to elicit a response for poor Tim? You have to admit, he must be pretty pissed off to go out of his way to build this site.

I have had excellent action from the likes of @vodafoneNZ in my own experience, fixing issues and answering questions within minutes.

I think I have said it before, but Twitter continues to put power in the consumers hands. Back in my days of retail, I was often told, "a happy customer will tell, on average, 2 people about their experience, an unhappy customer, 11 people". That little line was enough for me to ensure all customers walked out of the store happy. Twitter has magnified the opportunity to express satisfaction, or lack thereof. 

Tim has 663 followers. 

Ben Gracewood tweeted, he has 4,300+ followers.

Ken Freer 1,500 followers

Ben and Ken are just 2 of what looks like over 100 people who have tweeted about this. The reason I picked out those other 2 is because they're quite vocal in the telco space and is often the reason people follow them.

This whole thing is quickly turning into something of a PR disaster. I don't have the answer on how to fix it, but personally, if I was running the Orcon account, I would put out a tweet acknowledging all of the support for Tim and reassure that they are doing everything possible to rectify this issue. From their current twitter stream, it looks like they are just ignoring it. I don't believe this to be a smart move. 


Twitter has given people a voice. They want to be heard. Ignoring them, will just make them louder.


Good luck Tim, hope you get your Internets quickly.

Creative Commons - explained

FABULOUS piece of work from Mohawk Media for Creative Commons explaining how to use their licencing.

Creative Commons Kiwi from CreativeCommons AotearoaNZ on Vimeo.


I think Creative Commons is awesome and wish NZer's knew and understood what the licencing can mean for them, better.


I guess for many people they don't understand how it really effects them. The way I see CC working for those in the advertising world is that it actually gives advertisers a leg to stand on with sites like You Tube should someone decide to 'remix' an ad. You Tube recognises CC licences and will pull down offending videos which break these licences. (Not sure if any of you have ever tried to get YT to pull down a video before, but it can be a HARD uphill battle and can take weeks). Also, it makes it really clear to users what you are happy for them to do (or not do) with your content. Maybe you want people to remix it?


Anyway - Creative Commons is great and that video makes it really clear how it all works. Check it out and perhaps consider using the licences?


While I'm attributing things, I saw this first on Lance Wiggs blog.

Be Sociable if You're Being Social

I got an email on Friday from Deadly Ponies:

Obviously I am a fan of Deadly Ponies as I have signed up for to receive emails from them. I love a good email that tells me I can win product, so I thought, tell me more...

Click on through to their Facebook Page.

Here is where I have an issue.

What they are asking for, in order to possibly win up to $1,000 worth of product is:

CHANCE TO WIN $1000 WORTH OF DEADLY PONIES!!
Simply post a comment below this picture and then get people to like your post . The person with the most likes wins! Winner receives a voucher to spend on the DP online store to the dollar value of the likes they receive. e.g. Receive 820 likes = receive a $820.00 voucher
Cut-off is 12 noon, 1 August 2011, so get liking.
Voucher Limit $1000.00

Here is where we find my first issue "post a comment below this picture".

As per most well behaved Facebook 'likers', their fans have taken to this well and started commenting. As of writing this post, the top number of 'likes' any one comment has had is 98. Not sure how many of you have purchased Deadly Ponies product before, but $98 doesn't buy much. 

Now, as someone who works with Facebook and products on Facebook a lot, I saw some flaws in the way that they are running this 'competition'. Not one to leave something like this be and honestly wanting to help, I wrote a status update for Deadly Ponies:

It reads:
Hi Deadly Ponies.
While I understand what you're trying to do with your promotion to win $1,000 worth of your fabulous bags, I feel as though your method is flawed. Unfortunately by asking people to comment on your status, you actually won't attract any new facebook likes 'organically' which you could have by having people post their love of your product in their own status. If I comment on your status, only the 2 friends of mine who also 'like' you, will see it. By doing it this way, in my own status, I share this with my 350+ friends, who might also think - gosh, I love Deadly Ponies also.
Just something to think about.
xx


I thought it was pretty nice overall. Nothing too mean. Simply a suggestion.


My own friends have responded quite well to my comment. Deadly Ponies it would seem, have not.


I understand Facebook and when I @ reply a company page as I did in this instance, it posts to their wall. I'm not sure how they have set the page up, my post however, seems noticeably absent. It makes me wonder if they deleted it themselves?


I am all for companies embracing social media and using it to build their following, but the point of social media, is to be sociable. So let your audience be sociable with you!


My second issue, is that the competition itself is actually against Facebook's T&C's. You're not actually allowed to run a competition straight from a status update. You have to do this through a third party app. What concerns me for Deadly Ponies is that they have built quite a nice fan base (I'm assuming) without doing any Facebook advertising. With the introduction of this campaign their 'organic' growth in fans could easily tip FB off that they are running this competition and FB are totally within their rights to shut the page down completely.


I really like Deadly Ponies and love their bags especially, but sometimes you need to ask questions, read conditions and listen to others.   

Pedigree Doggelganger

I'm not entirely sure why I had to first see this on AdFreak, but how amazing is the site for the Pedigree Adoption Drive called Doggelganger?

Created by Colenso BBDO apparently, I have not seen or heard anything about this site/the adoption drive, anything.

Now, I realise that it is totally possible to miss entire campaigns if you are not within the target market, but this really is something that lights my fire. I ADORE dogs. I get very squee and loud when there is a puppy around. I would love nothing more than to adopt a dog, but unfortunetly my current living situation doesn't really mean it is possible. But, if I was in a position to do so - I could adpot my doggelganger!

First you upload a front on photo of yourself:

And then it matches your features to give you your doggelganer:

Mine is a Male Husky called Tiki. Isn't he beautiful? AND he's at Auckland SPCA! So close, just not possible (if I used emoticons, this is where I would put a sad face).

Check out the site, check out your doggelganger and if you have the means, why not adopt one of these gorgeous creatures.

Social Searching

This is lovely.

I went to a presentation at MSN the other day and learnt about all the cool social search things they are rolling out in the States at the moment. One of these things is in conjunction with Facebook and even here in NZ we will soon have Facebook referrals from our friends when we search for things on Bing.

When I heard this, my concern was the amount of education required for the general public to understand that they could benefit from social searching and (basically) friend referrals IF they are logged into Facebook. Trying to explain to your average Joe Blow why their friends profiles turn up on Facebook plug-ins as per below:

For some reason they think it's magic that their faces are staring back at them. Seriously. I have had more than one conversation about this.

Either way, I think it is great and smart and a fantastic thing for Bing to implement. Being the underdog to Google, Bing has to do something to differentiate themselves and this seems like a clever way to do it.

Having so recently seen the Bing example, imagine my surprise when I was on a friends computer the other night, searching for The Chosen One and this pops up:

Social searching on Google! Due to the Microsoft/Facebook exclusive relationship (they're totally going steady), Bing has the advantage because Facebook is a BEAST, but at least Google is trying to make some headway in this area. Obviously Twitter isn't quite as big in New Zealand, but luckily for me, I embrace the Tweets, so I am hoping that this will bode well in my searching going forward.

Really interested in what other people might think about this? If you were searching for 'new cars' and the search returns a result which details that one of your friends like a certain brand, would you be more inclined to investigate further? I think it will be really handy for restaurant recommendations, but further than that, I'm not so sure.