TRACTA :: 4eyes

The people have spoken, and New Zealand’s favourite websites have been announced in the Netguide People’s Choice Web Awards 2010.

Amongst the results, Stuff was awarded the Site of The Year prize, but missed out on Best Media Site, to TVNZ.  TradeMe came top in the Trading Site, Property and Employment categories, and runner-up in the Mobile Site and Site of the Year categories.  And international trends are reinforced by our votes for Google (Favourite Search Engine, Best Homepage), YouTube (Best Entertainment Site) and Facebook (Favourite Social Networking Site).

In other trend-watching news, an American university does an annual survey of incoming freshmen to find out what they are doing, thinking and believing.  This year’s incoming class were born in 1992.  Amongst the insights:

- Fergie is a pop singer, not a princess.

- Czechoslovakia has never existed.

- Clint Eastwood is better known as a sensitive director than as Dirty Harry.

- Rock bands have always played at presidential inaugural parties.

- They’ve never recognized that pointing to their wrists was a request for the time of day.

This is the voice of the new generation, where communication technologies are omnipresent and information (but not knowledge) is available at the click of a button.

In Social Media News, Facebook is starting up location-based services.  This means users can tell Facebook where in the world they are, and Facebook will tell the world.  This will offer more chances to meet your virtual network in real life, and more opportunities for nearby businesses to promote their products/services to you.

Facebook are also launching a live video streaming channel.  They are using it for Facebook information and promotion at this stage, but there’s obviously the opportunity for it to rival TV channels for audiences, if they can gather enough “Live” content.

Still on Facebook, a bit of research has revealed the obvious.  Brands that are most successful on Facebook are those that have multiple pages, each cross-promoting each other; use easy-to-find names for the pages; adopt a conversational tone; update often; post video and other rich-content types; allow fan-initiated interaction; and encourage fan-to-fan conversations.

And finally, in more “so-obvious-but-we-had-to-do-the-research-to-prove-it” news:  A Twitter user is more likely to be a brand advocate or influencer than your average Joe.  They engage with more brands partly for the benefits such as discounts and new product knowledge, and partly so they can be seen by their followers as being in-the-know.  It’s largely a self-fulfilling cycle, and those of us that understand the need of these influencers to have “prior knowledge” can use that to  the advantage of our businesses.

That’s enough heavy stuff for a Monday.  Be careful out there!

Cheers,

It’s Friday the 13th.

That might be scary, but this assortment of news from around the web sure isn’t.

(Unless you’re centophobic.)

Facebook News

A new application for Facebook on mobile allows users to make free phone calls from smartphones to other smartphone users. Try it out here.

You can now access your Facebook pages, friends and conversations, through different software.  The Wowd software client (available here) includes real-time search and a “social dashboard”.

And if you’re worried that some of the stuff you (or others) have put on Facebook might come back to haunt you in the future, it might be time for you to hire an online reputation manager!

Google News

It’s an ongoing battle between Facebook and Google to become masters of the online universe.

Google has recently purchased or invested in two of the most popular apps developers for Facebook: Zynga and Slide.  This gives Google a very strong foothold with Facebook users and their data.  Where to from here?

You don’t hear much bad news from Google, but the much-hyped Google Wave is to be shut down.  The service that was supposed to allow freer sharing of content between users just hasn’t got to the critical mass of users that Google was hoping for.  Or is there something else in the pipeline that’s going to replace it really soon?

That’s not to say Google are sitting still though (as apparent from their multi-million dollar investments).  They have also just released an updated interface for GMail, showing that email is still a core activity for them.  It won’t be long until GMail includes all social media activity too, I reckon.

Twitter News

In previous posts I have highlighted how Facebook has set up policies for dealing with its users who have died, either removing their profiles or keeping them (minus some personal details) as memorial pages.  Twitter are catching up, and now doing the same.  Or if you’re willing to keep on your online reputation manager after your passing, he/she can take care of it for you!

Police News

This may seem an unusual category to include in Four Eyes, but these stories are all about technology and communications in policing…

Boston Police catch flasher via Twitter

NZ Police radio encryption is working

NZ Police using radio programmes to educate Samoan parents about the dangers of youth gangs

A couple of cool websites

To stimulate your creative juices…

The V Isokinetic website.  Very interactive.  Very cool.

A new shoe website.  Again, very interactive.  Quite sexy.  And the shoe has fingers for your toes!

Cheers,

You know what they say about an apple a day?  Well lately it feels like Apple have been releasing new products to keep up with that saying!

Hot on the heels of the launch of the  iPad in New Zealand last week, the press releases have been coming out thick and fast.  First cab off the rank was ACP’s North and South magazine, who are selling each issue on the iPad for the same price as a standard printed copy.  NZ Herald wasn’t far behind with an app release, and TVNZ are nearly ready to release theirs.

Then this week Apple told us the new iPhone 4 would be available in NZ on Friday.  Friday morning came, and there were no iPhones.  There were some unhappy iFans around New Zealand!  The truly committed were finally able to get their hands on the new puppy from midday Friday.

The funny thing is, while incidents like lack of product supply, connectivity issues and software failings could spell the end of any number of products or brands, Apple Inc seems to be Teflon coated. While everyone knows about the aerial issues with the iPhone 4, the first run of stock in NZ (through Vodafone) has all sold out.  New stock will be arriving “in the coming weeks”.  And they will sell out too!

In other Apple news, watch out for the new “Magic Trackpad” which will make using your Macbook as much fun as using an iPad.

And in other internet news, New Zealand reportedly has the 42nd fastest broadband in the world.  That might not sound great, but at least it’s better than Australia (50th).

Finally, are you into Facebook?  Or over it?  An increasing number of young adults are over it, according to new stats from Inside Facebook.  It seems it’s getting too complicated, too commoditised and users are also concerned about privacy issues.  The article fails to mention, though, what I think is one of the biggest reasons users are backing away from Facebook… that our parents are on there now!

Cheers,

Facebook News

~ Microsoft has finally acknowledged the power of social media with the creation of a Social Inbox within Outlook, integrating Facebook and Twitter feeds into the world’s most-used e-mail handling service.

~ Starbucks is now the biggest commercial brand on Facebook, having recently reached 10 million fans.  Check out what other “brands” have that level of loyal fans…

~ And in other not-really-surprising news, it has been revealed that gays and lesbians spend more time socially networking than straight people.  So if you’re targeting the pink dollar, hit those social networks!

National News

TV audiences continue to hit record levels.  Last week’s peak (6-10:30pm) TV audience (in terms of share of population) was the highest we’ve seen in 14 years.  So more of us are watching TV.  But that viewing is spread over more channels than ever as well.  This chart shows the share of viewing each channel received from the key All People 25-54 target audience set.  TVNZ’s main two channels account for just under 48% of all peak viewing, Sky channels account for 24% and TV3 just under 20%.

Local News

Havelock North online marketers Mogul are taking the bull by the horns (and getting some good media coverage) by offering to create Google Places listings for all Havelock North businesses, for free.  The idea being that it will make Havelock North businesses more visible to visitors planning their trips or seeking goods or services when they are here for the Rugby World Cup.  I expect they’ll generate a bit of paying work from this initiative too!

A Warning

Sponsoring or seeding brand stories within blogs is becoming a common addition to the online marketer’s toolbox.  But (this may seem obvious) it pays to understand the environment your brand is trying to infiltrate.  Pepsi found that out recently when they paid for a blog within the popular and highly respected site ScienceBlogs. The blog was called Food Frontiers and was purportedly about food nutrition.  But the backlash from the scientific community using the site was swift, and Pepsi were forced to remove the blog less than a week after launching.  Users felt the blog was clearly promotional and did not fit with the purely scientific content the site offers.

Lessons: Don’t try to be something you’re not, and don’t try to fool people – they are smarter, more cynical and keener to diss your brand than you might expect!

Cheers,

OK, it’s a bit late.  But the wait will be worth it!

NZ News

Reader’s Digest have released their list of NZ’s Most Trusted Brands.  No real surprises, but interesting to see Sony top both the electronics and computers categories (not Apple, Microsoft, Google or HP).

Air NZ did well, ranking as our most trusted travel company. Their clear commitment to offering additional value to their customers – evidenced by Grabaseat, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter presences and ongoing promotions locally and internationally – results in customers feeling they have a closer relationship with Air NZ than they do with most other brands.

Now Air NZ are taking their digital social connection strategy a step further, with the launch of their FourSquare account.  What’s FourSquare?  The news item on Stoppress gives a good synopsis of what it is and what it’s for.  If you think it’s a bit geeky, I’d say you’re right, but remember:

(a) that’s what we thought about Facebook at first; and

(b) the geeks will inherit the earth!

In other news… TradeMe Jobs has reported its highest level of visitors ever for the month of May.  Is that down to the success of their “On The Job” ad campaign, or is it more closely linked with the fact that over half the population may be unhappy in their jobs?

And finally, while speculation has been rife that TVNZ were to further dumb down their news service by reducing staff numbers, they have assuaged our fears. Although it sounds like the journalists will now be spending more time editing and supplying stories than they will researching and collecting news?

International News

Probably unsurprisingly for a lot of you, an American study has shown that more than a third of women aged 18-34 are “addicted” to Facebook.   34% say checking Facebook is the first thing they do in the morning, even before their morning ablutions.

In other online news, an upcoming report on the effectiveness of banner advertising is expected to show that banners complement offline and search activity, despite some pundits predicting “the death of banners”.

YouTube has announced a couple of new initiatives recently, the most groundbreaking being Leanback.  It’s a new interface for YouTube that is designed to be accessed by remote control (rather than mouse and keyboard) and is easier to use at a distance… allowing easier access to YouTube content through an internet-enabled television set.

YouTube are also on the hunt for footage of A Day In The Life from around the world, to be combined into a documentary produced and directed by top Hollywood talent and screened at Sundance.  (Sponsored by LG who’s tagline is Life’s Good).

But despite all the innovation, developments and increasing engagement, the internet is completely over. So says hasbeen music superstar Prince.  And he’s always been so in touch with reality! (as you can see from the album cover, right).  Don’t you hate it when you realise someone you thought was kinda cool is just… well… old?

Cheers,

I’ve managed to find some pretty hot stuff lately. I’m burning up.

Getting ready to beat the world, the              All Blacks Facebook page shows us how it’s done. With videos, promotions, online shop, frequent updates and over 300,00 fans, it’s a great example of brand allegiance on Facebook.  And how about their visiting a whole street in Taranaki? Shouldn’t they have been carrying fenceposts up farm hills or something?

On a personal level, the ads this site for US electronics retailer BestBuy (see Videos) resonate with me.   But they also extend the campaign by having it available to share, along with interactive “tell your friends” and an automated link with mobile providers to identify the user’s current phone type and eligibility for an upgrade.

As we are not in an uber-cool metropolitan location, you won’t have seen this campaign for a programme launch on TV2 in real life. It’s quite cool, but properly targeted? Vampire Diaries is currently rating slightly below the programmes that previously ran in the same timeslot.

Beer ads often portay men as uncaring, and focused only on their mates.  The “teletransporter” (surely there’s a better name? Maybe it’s in the translation) doesn’ t do anything to dispel that perception.  Still, I wonder would it cost to get one installed in the Brazenhead?

Sponsorships take many forms… check out this offer from The Rock radio station to sponsor a female listener’s boob job.  The Love Songs sponsorship is completely different, but if you wanted both I’m sure they’d do a deal.

Cheers

I’ll keep it simple this week…

Online research sources

You probably know about Google Alerts, which trawl the web for mentions of your selected keywords/brand names/people and report on website, news and blogs containing them.  I recently found another tool that does the same thing, but reports on mentions in social media.  Social Mention trawls through over 85 sites, including Facebook and Twitter, for mentions of your selected brand etc, and also gives rankings in the strength, sentiment, passion and reach of those mentions.

And thanks to Mr Walker for pointing this one out: Attitude NZ is a  6-monthly population survey put together by market research company Perceptive.  It includes a plethora of information from demographics, to brand awareness, favourite media options, business decision making and “how do you feel today?”  Registration is free so I recommend a visit any time you ask yourself “what do people really think?”

Media developments

TradeMe have gotten on the one-day sale bandwagon with a new section of their site.  At this stage the products and deals aren’t really exciting, and looking at today’s deals they seem to have only sold about 50% of one product, 10% of another and none of the third product featured.  They have some catching up to do, to gain ground on Off The Back and 1-Day (who TradeMe seem to have copied for page layout and everything!)

If you’ve been watching the Warriors on Sky, you may have seen a new interactive ad for Super Liquor. The Super Liquor Warriors Red Button Competition allows viewers to click the red button and enter their details via their Sky remote, while the game coverage continues uninterrupted in a corner of the screen.  Wish I had a video to show you how it works, but if you’re keen just check out this weekend’s Warriors game!

For fun

Who is the most popular celebrity on Facebook?  On Twitter?  The answers may surprise you!

What do graphic designers do when they are bored?  They play with themselves Photoshop!

Enjoy your weekend.  Farewell Martini.  See you on the other side!

Cheers,

Inspiration below!  Some of the more creative ad executions I’ve seen lately, both on and offline:

McDonalds makes outdoor advertising interactive. Using a big outdoor video screen in Sweden, McDonalds invited passers-by to take a photo of products appearing on the screen, which they could take to the nearby store for FREE FOOD.

A tactic that has been taken up recently by big brands is to create a story.  A big story that dedicated fans can follow.  Like sending someone on a world trip and documenting their travels (with brand association thrown in).  Coke are doing it with something they call Expedition 206, sending three “ambassadors” to every country where Coke is sold (there are 206 of them) to find out what happiness means around the world. And KIN - an American smartphone – is sending one person around the world to meet all of her Facebook friends in real life.  Follow the journey on Facebook.

Meanwhile, in New Zealand, we are seeing the evolution of music videos. Shihad’s new music video has an interactive edge.  Watch it here.

And the evolution of music marketing.  We know people are passionate about their music, so why not draw them in for prolonged engagement in the lead-up to a new release?  That’s what 30 Seconds To Mars have done, with a local online scavenger hunt.  Details here.  It seems complicated, but this sort of communication (it all starts with Twitter) to dedicated followers is becoming more common and isn’t as hard to set up as you might think!

The online job search market in New Zealand is highly competitive.  Seek is trying to generate brand loyalty and ongoing engagement through the creation of online games that tie in with their advertising campaigns.  Meanwhile, TradeMe has started a video series following four job-seekers, tying in advice and tips for others looking for work.  It is being promoted heavily across the TradeMe suite of sites, and you can see it here.

Until next time!

Cheers,

Welcome back!  After an absence enforced by “technical issues”, I’m stoked to be back bringing you the latest internet news, digital developments and advertising awesomeness.

I’ve got a bit of catching up to do, so this post is all about developments.  What’s happening in the online world?

Limewire has lost a court case and been found guilty of facilitating copyright infringement.  What a surprise!  The upshot of this may be the closure of the site.  That would no doubt lead to a new file-sharing site taking prominence until it faces legal action.  And, unless the music (and movie and TV and gaming) industries can work out some technological fix to completely prevent copying and file-sharing, that’s how things will stay.

TVNZ continues to develop its commercial-free channels on Freeview/Sky platforms. On 1 June the Heartland channel launches on Sky only (they’ve run out of Freeview channels to use).  It will be running a mix of old and not-so-old NZ-made dramas, documentary series and nostalgia.  Lots of Gary McCormick and Marcus Lush, by the looks of it.

Taking a more cerebral direction is TVNZ-7, which has recently formed a partnership with the Royal Society of NZ to bring us a series “designed to excite and inform with great stories of science and technology in contemporary New Zealand”.

Meanwhile over at TV3, they are slowly catching up!  This month they launch a new Video on Demand service, promising more content (most of their top programmes) and a better viewing experience.  Here’s hoping the programme selection interface is more engaging than the interface they have now!

In social media news, Air New Zealand has reinforced its dedication to social media with a quirky PR response to a “critical” editorial piece in The Listener magazine.  The piece was released through social media (and, no doubt, emails to media organisations), with a guaranteed distribution to nearly 20,000 “likers” on their Facebook page and over 13,000 Twitter “followers”.

Finally (well… nearly finally… at least finally before the stuff that comes below), I got an email from Metservice.com – NZ’s most popular weather site and 7th most popular site overall – announcing some new things.  Most interesting is the fact they are launching a mobile site (mobile internet is slowly gaining traction).  But also check out the creative they’ve done with EECA, incorporating live weather stats into banner ads.  Unfortunately it’s not live any more, but it shows the potential for incorporating live data into advertising creative.

Have a lovely week and just for fun…

Headline of the week

Bravest client of 2009 (32nd John Caples International Awards)

Most awesomest thing ever (this one is a bit noisy, but fun!)

Cheers,

Social media. Heard of it?  Use it personally?  Professionally???

While recommendations from Social Media sites are still not as well regarded as true word-of-mouth from friends or family, social media channels are an important means of connecting with current and potential customers.  The common rule of “don’t put all of your eggs in one basket” still applies, so social media should not be seen as THE solution to all marketing problems, but should definitely be part of the mix.  And not just for da yoof, as Facebook is experiencing biggest growth amongst the 50+ age group. 

Pepsi are taking this on board, as they commit more to social media conversation and interaction with their customers, rather than just shouting messages.  They have even gone so far as not placing an ad in the Superbowl this year (the first time in 25 years), reasoning they get better return on investment from alternative media.

Here are some tips on effective use of video marketing for small-medium businesses.  Of course it includes social media distribution!  I hope we all know this already, but it doesn’t hurt to reinforce the basics!

So how will you access your favourite social media sites in 2011?  Desktop, laptop, netbook, smartphone, game console, television?  What about a games console/smartphone in one?  There are whispers that Sony is planning to launch a Playstation smartphone sometime in 2010.  Where will it end?  And when can I get my hologram-video-phone-watch like they have in the movies?!

In more local news, TVNZ have made a couple of announcements recently.  Reservoir Hill - TVNZ’s first online-only, interactive programme for teens – has been nominated for a Digital Emmy.  That’s the real deal, so they can be very proud of themselves.  It’s not often NZ-produced TV gets awarded anything!

TVNZ today also announced they will be launching a new channel on Sky.  It will be available as part of the Sky start-up package, and will be called TVNZ Heartland.  Content will be entirely NZ-made, sourced from TVNZ Archives.

My picks for programming: A Dog’s Show, Country Calendar, maybe University Challenge and Krypton Factor?  It will be a challenge to present “old” content that is relevant and not just reminiscing, but they say they are aiming for a 40-64 year old demographic, so perhaps reminiscing is the way to go.  The channel will carry advertising: TVNZ say they are in the process of approaching selected advertisers for exclusive agreements with the channel.  Read TVNZ’s report and see an interview with John Fellet (Sky TV) and Rick Ellis (TVNZ) here.

Ads of the week

Two more outdoor executions that utilise the environment to carry the message.

Painting the town red… and blue and pink and yellow and green…

Clever, but I don’t know about walking through in a white shirt…

Cheerio!