Opinion Added

Faker Faker

noreply@blogger.com (iChild) — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 09:14:00 +0000

In the wonderful world of social media in NZ over the last few days, a good old fashioned witch hunt has been-a-brewing.

I'm not going to spend anytime thrashing out the details or linking to the 'stories' rather, I am going to talk about how we got to this position.

It all started last week when 'Status People' faker score percentages started popping up in the twitter feed. I'm not going to lie, I was curious too, so I looked into my account:

According to Status People I have 2% Fake (with 1,024 followers, that is approx 24 followers) 10% inactive (102 followers) and 88% good (819 followers). I kind of looked at the numbers, thought about the number of my 'followers' who I remove/block when they're blatantly spam, and thought, yeah, probably about right. At this point I forgot about it.

After not opening up my tweetdeck for most of the day yesterday, when I did in the afternoon, it was filled with Status People fake number tweets. Fair enough, I was curious too, but I did find it amusing, boasting about the few 'fake' followers they have (or not as the case may be).

So the witch hunt (this is what I have referred to it as) has spawned from someone trawling 'Social Media' people on Twitter and reporting their 'fake' percentages. Can we all just stop for a second and think about why someone might do that? They were looking for a scandal, something to take someone else down. I mean, come on! That's kind of sad.

Moving on... I started to question exactly how accurate this 'fake finder' was. I think it was @tomosborne who mentioned (to someone else) that Twitblock to find and purge spam followers. So that is what I did:

This reported that 18 of my followers were 44% or more likely to be spam. 2 of the handles listed are certainly not spam, 1 is a friend and 1 is for NZ's new Shopping Channel? So, 16 of 1,024 is 1.6%, which matches what the Status People numbers said. Sweet I thought, let's run the numbers again. Now, stupidly I didn't screen shot the time, but, post spam cull, my numbers were exactly the same:

Which says to me, this is a bit of a crock. I culled my 2%, yet it's still there.

If you actually look into the working behind these Faker Scores you would read:

"We take a sample of your follower data. Up to 500 records depending on how 'popular' you are and assess them against a number of simple spam criteria...

For those of you with 10,000 followers or less we believe our tool will provide a very accurate insight into how many inactive and fake followers you have.

If you're very 'popular' the tool will still provide good insight but may better reflect your current follower activity rather than your whole follower base."

The way I read this is, in actual fact, if you have over 500 followers, it is probably not going to be a very accurate reflection of your followers. If you have over 10k even less so. Perhaps we should be questioning the credibility of the tool rather than the people it's used against?

I understand that we only have the tools available to us, but this is certainly not a source I will be quoting. Similar to Klout, I feel as though this is just another tool that will be thrown around as and when it benefits the user.

I ask 2 things of anyone who decides to read this far:

1. Can we PLEASE question the information that is presented to us - in all aspects of our lives and;
2. If you allow any of these 'apps' to access your twitter account, revoke the access once you're done. You will find it located under your settings. I highly recommend revoking anything you don't need.

Interestingly I have tried to run the Faker Scores just now, and now no data returns, even though I gave access again. Strange.

Its New Season Launch Time Again

noreply@blogger.com (iChild) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 07:54:00 +0000

That's right, it's that time again. New Season launch. Time to look at what are the programmers hanging their hats on this year.

As I tend to be quite negative on this blog, I've decided for this entry to change tack, and explain what I'm looking forward to.

First up, TV3.

Even though it was early, the TV3 Launch was great. Paul Henry MC'ed and dare I say it, he was quite charming. I'm sure most people enjoyed the digs at his previous employer and he really held the audience. I really enjoyed how Kelly took us through the entire schedule programme by programme basically, which meant I walked away from the presentation with a really good grasp of what they are going to be airing next year.

Highlights for me (and please note - these are NOT necessarily what I think will rate. They're the programmes that I will be watching)

The New Girl. Yes, it's on FOUR . I hope they promo the hell out of it. It's an adorable series.
American Horror Story. Not sure how NZ will react to this, but it looks incredible and has an amazing cast.
Homeland. Clare Danes doesn't usually do it for me, but this series looks interesting.

And of course their awesome returning series

The Secret Lives of Dancers
The Good Wife
Californication
The Big C

Next was TVNZ.

I found the TVNZ launch a little too much. PUTs are down, rates are up, they're making our clients pay more and more and more for less and less ratings so they spend what must have been quite a substantial amount of money on a very flashy presentation. Let's not start on the fact that they flew up the Wellington and Chch media people and put them up for the night ontop of all of the glitz. Mostly because I am glad they did - was a wonderful chance to catch up with old friends.

Paul Maher spoke well, but I thought it was a real shame that the 'Johns' did pieces to camera rather than speaking live. Lacked that kind of 'real' touch and I felt like they spoke more about the shows than actually showing us the programmes. Following far too many drinks, run-ins with arrogant Shortland St cast members and inappropriate grabbing from actors of other local shows, I walked away not really knowing what TVNZ were putting up next year. Which is a shame.

Following some further investigation, this is what I'm looking forward to:

Keep Calm & Carry On (Jacquie Brown)
Seven Dwarves. Which looks a little like a Dwarf version of Big Fat Gypsy Wedding.
Once Upon a Time. Appeals to the geek in me

Finally, the Prime launch was yesterday.

The Launch itself was wonderful. High Tea at the Langham. What a lovely way to spend an afternoon. As usual Karen and Kathy were a joy to listen to as they took their little digs at the big boys in the market. They also addressed something I was concerned about, how SOHO might affect their deal with HBO - it would seem it will only strengthen their offer, which is great news.

Things to look forward to on Prime (according to me):

Wild Boys - Australian series, looks great
True Blood
QI
Boardwalk Empire (after screening on Soho)
Junior Masterchef

Prime seems to have picked up a number of the British Dramas that I would have expected to see on One a few years ago. I really hope the audience finds Prime's programming as it's really good quality stuff.

So there you go. My thoughts on new programmes this year. I think it's a shame that no one seems to have picked up Wilfred which is pretty genius. But there you go. Find a way around S92a and torrent that sucker.

Seriously Sour Taste

noreply@blogger.com (iChild) — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 06:53:00 +0000

This week was meant to be great. I had so much sleep on the weekend, I was really looking forward to this week.

I made a mistake. I had a meeting with Yellow yesterday. There was no way that this week was going to be good.

I cannot get over the way Yellow are trying to hold their own customers to ransom over their website.

I have a lovely client, with distributors nationwide, who have advertised in the Yellow books for years. Now that yellow have finally started to sort their website out so that it actually works (sort of) they are finding ways to milk their customers for every penny they can. Including my clients.

Now, before I really get into this, let's have a little chat about what Yellow is. Yellow is a directory. It is a whole lot of business listings. That is all. Yellow have something of a monopoly on this game.

So what's got my back up?

Unlike Google which obviously separates organic from paid results, Yellow have set up their system where the user is ONLY delivered paid search results, well, at least for the first few pages. But it doesn't differentiate in a way that is obvious to the consumer. When asked what user feedback there had been about this priority ranking, there was no real answer, just, "I'm sure we have that kind of information somewhere".

Gold, Silver and Bronze listings is where Yellow is at. If you have a free listing, you can end up on the 3rd or 4th page of results depending on the category. Then, there are category sponsorship opportunities. 3 listings which sit above the gold listing. So, advertisers have to pay to have a gold listing and THEN have to fork out more to sponsor the category or they'll be pushed down the results even further.

Next I'm told, that because my client has a 'free' listing (because they spend bucket loads on the books and not online) this means that their DIRECT competitors have the ability to advertise on THEIR listing unless they upgrade their listing.

Are you kidding me? Talk about holding their own customers to ransom.

When I had a gripe on Twitter about this, I had a number of responses also voicing their displeasure with Yellow.

Trying to teach agency people what 'SEO' means
Giving less than 2 days notice to turn material around
Incorrect listings under wrong titles
Updating free listings over the phone and 'up-selling' to include a URL but neglecting to mention that website inclusion comes with a $120 pricetag (in this instance)
Their "insanely over-priced ratecard

Now, I'm yet to see their ratecard, but I am incredibly unimpressed anyway. I know I don't give Yellow a lot of love on here, but in real life my clients do. When I told the rep I wasn't feeling the love, I was told that I could use my clients Yellow 'rewards' - interestingly these hadn't come up earlier - to reduce the cost of the print so that I could shift that budget to online (I can't use my rewards online, only in print). My rep was also very quick to point out that online commission is 20% while the books only 10.5% so it would be better for me.

Are you for reals?

I'm so over this, that I can't even be bothered writing about this anymore. If I could, I would talk about why they are revenue gathering to get out of their $1.05B debt, that perhaps they should just pull back on their awful advertising campaigns instead and that their business is becoming more and more redundant so it doesn't surprise me that they're scrambling for money, but I don't have the energy.

Use your head people. Yellow give search results which are based purely on $. They are not delivering the best result for you or your potential customers. Don't give Yellow money for online, spend it on adwords and improving the SEO on your websites. This makes more sense. When was the last time you heard someone say "why don't you Yellow it?"

EDIT: The wonderful Anthony Gardiner has created a poll about Yellow Directories on Facebook if you feel the need to vote.

Nice Package

noreply@blogger.com (iChild) — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 06:57:00 +0000

It's been a while since I last saw some packaging that I really liked, so nice to come across Vitamin Gum.

This is a promo pack, but the gist is, it is sugarfree gum which also has vitamins A, B3, B5, B6, B12, C, D & E.

How cool is that? Sugarfree gum with vitamins.

Clever tag lines.

Pretty visuals

and bold branding on the actual product

anyway, go and like their facebook and get some gum sent to you.

Go Vitamin Gum - your branding is rad and the gum is tasty too!

Yay Maori TV

noreply@blogger.com (iChild) — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 04:28:00 +0000

Clever advertising is the best kind of advertising.

I find TV Network advertising a little lackluster usually. FOUR's 'The Home of Not Rugby' isn't bad, but generally TVNZ and Mediaworks is very traditional and BORING.

Draft FCB have done some pretty awesome things for various shows on Prime. The bag of Weed on a billboard for WEEDS; The branded brown bottle bags for Boardwalk Empire; the 'stake' street posters (if that is what you can call them) for True Blood; and of course the falling man on the building for Mad Men. However, I haven't seen anything recently and to be honest, considering how badly most of those shows rate, perhaps the 'clever' (read: Award Entry) route should be dropped till the advertising starts working??

At any rate, today I saw some BRILLIANT work for Maori TV. There I am in Countdown Richmond Road and I walk past this:

FARKING awesome. Maori TV have been pulling some nice numbers ratings-wise since the commencement of RWC. I hope they managed to promo the living daylights out of BOY at the same time and that it did well last night for them.

So cute, so clever. I hope these were up in all Countdown's around NZ. All supermarkets even. Perfect.

Naff off Localist

noreply@blogger.com (iChild) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 05:02:00 +0000

I've never been shy about my dislike of Yellow. And Yellow Locals is, in my opinion, a waste of time and money (yet again) which should have been spent on their website.

Anyway, this is not about Yellow, it's about Localist. Yes. NZ Post's own little directory. I have issues with Localist too - their Auckland directories (all 4 or 5 of them) are scheduled to be published TWICE a year and they wouldn't bundle the advertising across all directories; So if you are a regional advertiser rather than a local advertiser, there were no economies of scale for advertising across all 4/5 books. Granted, they may have changed this, but I wouldn't know as the rep hasn't been in since I told him I thought it was a waste of time for my client.

Anyway, that is not what got my back up. Below is what has got me miffed:

Someone asked me to log in and vote for their friend for something and when I saw I could log in with my twitter (or FB or 4square) I thought, "that's pretty rad! Makes life easy. OK, I'll sign in with Twitter!"

Ha! No I freaking won't! Apparently...

This application will be able to:

Read Tweets from your timeline (okay, not so bad)
See who you follow, and follow new people (I'm hoping when they say 'follow new people they mean them and not me?!?)
Update your profile (You're going to be able to do WHAT!?)
Post tweets for you (No. No you crazy MF. You will not be posting tweets for me.)

Before you start with 'Monica, you're such an idiot, it just means that they can post one of those "@iChild likes Localist" type tweets' I get that that is probably the case, but it's not specific. If it said, 'Post tweets for you with your permission' I'd be OK with that, but, especially with all the privacy issues going on with FB at the moment, there is no way I am opening up my communication channels any more than I already have.

You crazy Localist. This has just confirmed to me that I want nothing to with this organisation. Protect your accounts people! Remember than you can remove application permissions. Log in to Twitter, go:

Settings > Applications. You might be surprised what's lurking in there.

Client sign-off crucial

noreply@blogger.com (iChild) — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 05:45:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (iChild) — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 20:30:00 +0000

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?

noreply@blogger.com (iChild) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 01:57:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (iChild) — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 01:50:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (iChild) — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 20:08:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (iChild) — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 20:26:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (iChild) — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 09:39:00 +0000

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.

Coupons! Deals! Discounts! Oh MY!

noreply@blogger.com (iChild) — Tue, 10 May 2011 22:44:00 +0000

Is everyone else as sick as I am with the constant bombardment of Daily Deal sites? With some of these sites you have to supply them with an email address before you can even check out the deals. Not so cool in my books.

Now, I am one for a good deal, but I am over all the spam in my inbox. Seriously done with it.

But Monica (I hear you ask) How will you know when you can get cheap OPI nailpolish - one of your favourite things in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD?

Ah ha my friend! I have found a way.

Readers... Meet Chelsey.

I found out about Chelsey today. She's a pretty classy site which is aimed pretty much bang on my demographic. Must admit, I was always a little jealous that the boys have Get Frank and we get nothing. Well, no more.

I'm getting off topic. Sorry.

Chelsey has aggregated all of the coupon/deal/t'shirt and even booze offers on one page:

Sweetbix right? I'm setting this page as one of my open on startup tabs right next to Gmail, FB, grabaseat and Reader.

This is especially good as there is no need to supply your email address just to check out the deal.

Brilliance. Thanks Chelsey.

Oh, guys. Haven't forgotten about you. Get Frank also do a deal aggregator.

BNZ - Find Your Start

noreply@blogger.com (iChild) — Mon, 09 May 2011 10:10:00 +0000

What a delightful treat to stumble upon Friday evening.

There in Aotea Square was a tasty projection for BNZ and a short story competition thingee (Literacy Awards) that they are running called findyourstart.co.nz.

Unfortunately it wasn't a perfect evening for such a fantastic ambient piece, but I still thought it was rad.

Projected on the wall was this:

and if you continued to watch, you got the start of a short story already written for you (also, there were people coasting around the square handing out cards and story starters on them).

The BEST part of all of this? The story starters which were projected onto the wall were being written off the cuff by a couple of creatives in a van:

Who, from what I can tell, were writing from about 6.30pm to 11pm. That's a lot of off-the-cuff writing.

In case you all missed it and want to check it out, I even took a video. You're going to have to excuse my laugh half way though. It seems as though the guys in the van were drawing inspiration from people who were walking past, which was awesome when it was the people obviously coming out of an evening at the Civic, but when they were talking about the crew I was with... even more hilarious.

So nice work BNZ. What a wonderful promotion (people don't know how to use their words anymore, it's great to be encouraging it) and fabulously executed. I love interesting and different ambient ideas. Totally my favourites.

The Awesome Reaction Opportunities of Online Advertising

noreply@blogger.com (iChild) — Mon, 02 May 2011 09:47:00 +0000

Jeepers, what a news day! Hows about that Obama unscheduled announcement at 3-something this afternoon? That was a ripper.

News started coming through Twitter about 2.30 this afternoon about the unscheduled announcement from Obama and then very quickly the rumour mill went into overdrive in that it was to announce that Osama Bin Laden had been killed and the US had the body.

This kind of news of course spreads like wildfire on the internet. The announcement was to be streamed live on The White House website, which of course was delayed for almost an hour. During which time, everyone was hungry for information, which meant publishers had to turn information around SUPER QUICK.

As @tweetdaniel pointed out, TV3 didn't manage to get it quite right:

I would recommend clicking on the link above so you can check it out in full, but basically, it reads:

"We are currently experiencing extremely high traffic due to the announcement that Barack Obama is dead. Please bear with us we will be back up soon."

Whoops.

Not sure that was right.

Now, if you've read my blog before, you will probably know that I don't have a lot of nice things to say about TVNZ. I still don't, because when I tried to watch a live stream on tvnz.co.nz this afternoon it wanted me to report the error in loading, which I tried to do a number of times. Le sigh.

However, they did manage to do something right today (shock horror I know).

There I was, reading Mashable.com on what was to be announced and what do I see, but a One News banner run through the Google Content Network:

I do not tell a lie, this was up within half an hour of me first reading about the rumour that Obama was going to announce the death of Bin Laden. Now, it's not the prettiest of banners, but it's bang on. All the information you need. Up to date. Relevant.

I think it is awesome and just shows how online is the best medium for this kind of immediate response. Press also gives the opportunity for quick reaction turnaround, but for that, we're talking the next day, not within the hour. This is just too good. Brilliant work.

This doesn't change anything though TVNZ. This is clever, but all is not forgiven...

Make Easter Awesome

noreply@blogger.com (iChild) — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 22:08:00 +0000

Buy only Palm Oil Free Chocolate

This handy guide courtesy of Auckland Zoo.

Why do I care about this? I've written quite a lot about Cadbury and what they have been up to, but nothing got me more that their Glass and a Half of CRAP ad. Thankfully they have changed their ways, but if you're going to gorge on chocolate this Easter, I hope it doesn't come at the expense of the Rain forests.

Happy Easter!

AirNZ - you disgust me

noreply@blogger.com (iChild) — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 22:40:00 +0000

As in actually disgusts me.

I understand it's April Fool's Day and you guys are all about trying to be clever and forward thinking and someone has told you that the Rico thing was a good idea, but whoever told you that this was a good idea is a fucking moron.

Grab a Seat had a special promo on 'today':

You select male or female, enter you age and then enter your weight, giving you your cost for a seat. As you increase the weight, the person expands filling up more and more of the 3 person seat. Hit Calculate and you end up here:

Brilliant. This one is not as bad as I entered Male and 89kgs, but when I put in my weight it basically told me that I was a lard arse. Awesome. Thanks very much. I actually prefer the term 'cuddly' to lard arse. There is some positive brand association right there.

I actually think that The Real Steve Grey sums the whole thing up best, but you can read that over at his blog here rather than me retelling his story.

I was offended. I thought it was an awful, unfunny promotion and so, as I do, I tweeted about it:

Do you think I go any response from AirNZ. Of course not. Way to use twitter as a broadcast medium Air NZ instead of having a conversation with your customers. You're kinda missing the point.

In the afternoon they sent out this tweet:

I can only assume I am not the only one that was not impressed. In fact, the response from my followers who replied to me made it obvious that I was not the only one.

Between this and the Rico bullshit that they have been putting out the damage that they have done to this brand in my eyes currently is irreparable. I will be avoiding AirNZ at all costs.

Oh, what also doesn't help the cause, is when either an AirNZ or agency person starts responding to such complaints on Twitter. Only to me/@tone & one other person, but this doesn't help the situation. In fact, you're making it worse. Honestly, what were you thinking?

Dumb Whore?

noreply@blogger.com (iChild) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 19:10:00 +0000

Seriously, some people really have too much time.

The upheld complaint about the below ad has even made it's way to AdFreak.

When this ad first came out, I applauded it. I think it is a stunning ad for Hallensteins and I was thrilled to see such a mainstream brand use a band as non-mainstream as Sleigh Bells. Freaking fantastic. AdFreak seem to have missed the point of using a Sleigh Bells song and coincidentally also missed the fact that most 'hipsters' don't own TVs anyway. Well, not that they would admit to...

Apparently the complaint was about the lyrics in the song which are: "Deaf chords, dead ends, sling set can't meet their demands, dumb whores, best friends." Now, Infinity Guitars (which is the name of this song) is actually one of my favourite songs on Treats, I have listened to it numerous times and I have never heard the words Dumb Whores specifically. It amazes me that someone listening to the song for the first time, as a snippet, could pick that up. How long did they spend tracking down the song and the lyrics before they got hot under the collar and wrote to the ASA?

The reason this lead to a complaint is that the ad ran in The Princess Diaries 2 (which, incidentally rated 5 TARPs against a Male 18-39 audience - I'm assuming Hallensteins audience here) instead of Motorway Patrol which is usually scheduled in this timeslot.

So, the issue here (as far as I can see) is not that the ad is inappropriate, the issue is that whomever is responsible for TV for this client is paying no attention whatsoever to their clients schedules. TV Buyers should know by now that TVNZ are a pain in the arse and change their programming 2 weeks out. If you're not paying attention to your downloads, then yes, this is likely to happen. The second that the programme title change came through this spot should have been moved.

The other issue here is that the ad would have been classified as G so there wouldn't have been any warning bells for the network when the spot was detailed in a G rated programme. Now, is CAB getting raked over the coals for this? Of course not. The ad isn't actually offensive. Get off you high PC horse, this ad kicks arse.

Advertising or not Advertising?

noreply@blogger.com (iChild) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 07:23:00 +0000

So I came across this video today: (I would recommend watching the whole thing - bit of a twist in there.)

There are a number of things that I find curious about this video.

First and foremost - IS THIS SOME KIND OF ADVERTISING?

Why do I think this? Well, it was only uploaded on the 17th of February and it has had over 110k views? Also, I get the impression that this was shot in NZ... pretty impressive numbers for something from NZ. Social circles for boosting views can only stretch so far here.

I feel like there is something else behind it. I realise that working in advertising has made me quite cynical and question pretty much everything I see, but come on... what do you guys think?

Trying to find more info on this, I am officially loving You Tube's stats which show where the traffic is coming from:

These numbers all seem to be due to loading the video on Reddit. I don't know much about Reddit. Can anyone load something up and hope for the best?

Could it be that this is just one of those videos which has a little something which makes people want to pass it on?

It's doing my head in. If this is advertising, what could it be advertising? Castlepoint? Castlepoint is delicious, it sells itself. Viral for a new band? They have relatively decent voices. Is there a record label behind this?

Anyone else got an opinion on this? Or know a secret squirrel backstory?

Any or all information gratefully appreciated.

Fruity Sex

noreply@blogger.com (iChild) — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 19:48:00 +0000

Following on from yesterday's post about the Valentine's paste ups, I came across this:

This morning.

Now, let me ask you. Would you You Tube search Fruity Sex? That is kinda what got me, no way would I You Tube Fruity Sex - nor would I Google it.

I would however, Facebook it.

Which gives you a really nice, safe way to check out the relevant YT clip, as it is in a "safe" environment.
For your interest, here is the video:

In a nice safe environment.

Now, I would LOVE to think that this is actually a campaign for Bonita, but something tells me it is actually an AdSchool kinda deal... yeah? Don't think Bonita would use the word Fuck in a campaign. Or would they?

What do you gets think? I love it. Think it is brilliant. Also love the fact that someone on the Facebook page has pointed out that when you like their page it states likes Fruity Sex.

AWESOME.

Anyone know who is behind this? I'll buy them a beer. Or a banana smoothie.

I wish this was a real campaign

noreply@blogger.com (iChild) — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 08:59:00 +0000

So, in previous years I have not been a big fan of Valentine's Day. This year it was pretty awesome, but I do realise it is still pretty average for a lot of people.

Walking down Queen St today I saw these taped to various walls:

Certainly got my attention. I was really, super hoping that it might be an advertising campaign of some description, although don't ask me who I thought it might be for.

Checking it out on Facebook it really seems like nothing much. Plus, whoever it is has 'liked' the Edge Morning Crew. Epic fail before they started.

Can someone please execute a campaign, similar to this, for a real client please? Cos that would be really ace. You might need to put some money behind it (more than posters) but it'd be worth it...

Mini - you guys love throwing your money away... what do you think?

Why you shouldn't do things in-house

noreply@blogger.com (iChild) — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 22:53:00 +0000

Now, I am a big fan of Mediaworks. The people I deal with, what they're trying to do with FOUR, but they NEED to put creative back into an agency. Stop doing it in house. Please.

There was the small rip off issue of a Playstation ad which saw Dai Henwood go underground on Twitter for a while until it blew over and now this:

Don't get me wrong, because I actually think that this is really nice and I think that John Campbell is awesome HOWEVER...

What the feck were they thinking using a taxi which was a Holden when Mazda is sponsoring the show? What are you doing? If I was Mazda (and/or .99 who look after them) I would seriously unimpressed.

Quick - someone photoshop the Holden logo out of that shot.

Agencies are more attuned to these sorts of things. We're quick risk diverse as a general rule. I'm not saying it wouldn't have happened if it was done by an agency, but at least Mediaworks would be able to blame them.

Hat tip to Dan News for the visual.

Sorry

noreply@blogger.com (iChild) — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 19:30:00 +0000

If you picked that last post up through RSS.

Blogger-droid fail. Wrong blog.

I'll be back with more (hopefully) interesting advertising. In the meantime, enjoy these little gems from Jordan's Museli.

Favourite TV ads of 2010

noreply@blogger.com (iChild) — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 08:37:00 +0000

What a year.

Ikea Herding Cats

Skittles - plant

Instant Kiwi

Chrome speed

Logitech Revue with Google TV

Sussex Road Safety

Agadir

No good reason. For some reason they have stuck with me, I've enjoyed them or they have made me think past my safe little circle.

I hope you have all had a year of amazing ads - to the point where I hope they negate the bad ones.

See you all again in 2011.

Mon xx