Trends

1. Plenty for the Commerce Commission in the holiday homes market

   Published on Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

   Last week the Commerce Commission issued a “warning” to the bookshop chain, Borders, over a misleading voucher scheme which the retailer promoted before Christmas.

   This promotion offered $20 in vouchers for every $75 spent at Borders until Christmas.  In the small print, however, it was specified that the customer could redeem one $10 voucher in January and the second $10 voucher in February. The Commission received complaints from consumers saying they felt mislead, and the Commission agreed.

   After another Christmas holiday experience, perhaps the Commission could turn its attention to the rental market for holiday homes.

   Do you expect a road in front of your Northland cottage, when the promotional site declares “absolute beach front”, and it is clear that all the photos studiously avoid showing the road?  Do you expect the advertised “Sky TV” in your Napier pad to be restricted to the sports channels only? 

   And then, there is the $460-a-night Waikehe property… Do you expect access to this non drive-on property, which you’ve been told is a “short 25 metre walk” to the beach, to in fact be 151 metres from the very closest carpark on the street?!  And do you expect this same premier rental to require cleaning, and for the charcoal barbecue to have only one fixed wheel and no charcoal?  If you are interested in this property, we suggest you contact Waiheke Unlimited which promotes itself as the only personalised specialists in self-catered holiday accommodation on Waiheke.

   Yes, there is plenty that could occupy the Commerce Commission in this sector, which is crying out for an independent evaluation and assessment vehicle in order to protect our reputation as a tourism destination. When it comes to holiday home rentals, there is too frequently a gap between the blurb and the reality. And of course, prices of these homes well exceed the value of the Borders voucher.

   

2. New Media gets a dose of ethics from the FTC

   Published on Monday, October 12th, 2009

   It’s fair to say that traditional media has envied the huge freedoms Internet publishers enjoy. On the Internet, any man and his dog can be publishers, editors, ad sales people – at the same time, without the “Chinese Walls” traditional media like newspapers and television are required to have, to avoid accusations of bias and advertorialising.

   Without mentioning anyone in particular, there are influential bloggers and webmasters who have felt that the rules of ethics that bind traditional media do not apply to them. With their enormous reach and clout, they have tremendous power to influence if they decide to endorse products or services, and have at time run foul of the law courts too.

   The trouble is, without transparency, such endorsements could potentially mislead readers.

   There have been some moves to voluntarily introduce for instance a Blogger’s Code of Conduct, but the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has had enough and sharpened its tone against the New Endorsers. New roles have been issued and they state quite clearly that if you have material connections with anyone whose products or services you endorse, it must be disclosed.

   Bloggers paid in any form, and this includes receiving free products or services in exchange for reviews, are said to be endorsers by the FTC. From now on, they must disclose their relationships with vendors right up front. Likewise, a firm that pays bloggers or seeks to influence editorial content by supplying material or services for free must say so up front or face legal liability.

   The FTC rules tighten up what can be said in advertising and promotions featuring consumers relating experiences, stating these have to be typical of what results consumers can generally expect.

   Likewise, research cited has to disclose any sponsorship and celebrities endorsing products and services outside traditional ads (in social media campaigns for instance) have to disclose relationships with advertisers and marketers.

   While New Zealand is yet to introduce similar, stringent rules, it should be noted that the Commerce Commission works close with the FTC. New Zealand bloggers for instance who have US audiences could face investigation by the FTC if they do not follow the new rules.

   For public relations practitioners, it’s important to note that FTC could haul not just “endorsers” but also advertisers – for example, agencies initiating social media campaigns – in front of the courts for false or unsubstantiated claims, or for simply not disclosing the connections between the parties.

   Also, saying “results may vary” is no longer a safe harbour qualification for testimonials that endorse products and services. Celebrities or personalities who take part in campaigns must disclose their relationships with advertisers.

   The rules are new and untested, but ethics behind them are clear and simple and will make life easier for all involved. Full disclosure and increased transparency strengthen relationships and trust with audiences with that in mind the FTC’s new rules are most welcome. 

   

3. Corporate communications fact number one – perception is reality

   Published on Friday, August 28th, 2009

   You can’t change reality with facts even if your facts are more pertinent than the other persons.  To their own detriment too many people have ignored public opinion on the basis that it’s just plain wrong thinking, and all that’s required is to state the facts. I am not talking about the smacking law – that ship has sailed and can be visited in another blog another day.  
    
   I am talking about consumers relationships and experiences with products and brands, and how changes imposed on the consumer by companies need to be thought through carefully.  Now you’re with me – Cadbury of course took a wee while to realise this, but they did eventually acknowledge the error of their ways and reverted to their original recipe.  But only when they recognised the power of public opinion. 

   Never mind the results of any blind taste testing or solid reasons of corporate social responsibility, people genuinely believed the new palm oil-containing product tasted inferior to the original recipe.

   But now that the heat is off, I wonder if people are complaining about the taste of the very same chocolate still available in supermarkets at a discount as we wait for the new original stock to arrive. And now the campaign is over I dare anyone to swap the packaging at home and see if anyone notices the difference.

   Recently I have been eating a whole lot more chocolate than usual.  Our household’s normal adult intake of zero has rapidly increased because my children’s school (which I won’t name for fear of the critics coming down on us) has been selling Cadbury product by the box-load in one of its annual fundraising drives. 

   Not one person I have spoken to has rejected the product on the basis that it contains palm oil.  In fact, we are all complaining that the neighbourhood is overrun with chocolate and there are competing stalls on the road in the weekend as enterprising kids try to convince me that their chocolate is nicer than the box my son brought home.

   Of course, ours is nicer because it is his chocolate – and are there no calories in school fundraising chocolate either? Okay I am joking, except in this respect: we can all find ways to justify our actions, and those perceptions are real.  At their own peril communicators will forget that perception is reality.

    

   

4. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket

   Published on Monday, August 10th, 2009

   Social networking sites Twitter and Facebook have been hacked, and much to the consternation of millions of users it’s not the first time the online giants have had their security tested and found wanting.

   Facebook now has over 250 million users and Twitter is snapping at its heels in terms of numbers of registered users. Both social media platforms have become pivotal channels for many organisations to reach out to staff or customers for work, play and the sharing of information.

   Twitter is shrugging off this most recent official hacking, but the breach occurred in the most basic of ways. A hacker guessed an employees password to a personal email account and then simply stole confidential company information and crashed the service.

   According to the Weekend Herald motives for denial-of-service attacks range from political to rabble-rousing to extortion, with criminal groups increasingly threatening to hobble popular websites that do not pay demanded fees, security experts told Reuters.

   These attacks raise some salient points for companies, marketers and communicators.

   First off, never neglect basic web hygiene by maintaining strong passwords that use a combination of letters and numbers, and keep security up-to-date.

   Second, as cloud computing (the fast growing trend of storing data online ) becomes the norm and social networking sites are entrenched as an integral part of business to business communication, then a back-up to these occasionally unstable and vulnerable platforms needs to be part of the plan.

   And last, aside from ensuring that contacts are saved and stored, don’t abandon real time, personal relationships and keep your brand alive and visible in the real world. 

   The lesson from this recent hacking incident is don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

   

5. An orchestrated litany of fables

   Published on Tuesday, July 21st, 2009

   The teenager who sold raunchy photos of his mum on TradeMe after discovering them in the family garage caused something of a kafuffle this week.

   After his TradeMe inspired notoriety, Michael Chal appeared on Close Up last Wednesday to give an account of his TradeMe experience.

   Soon after this appearance, Close Up learned that despite Chal’s assurances to the contrary, it had been duped.  The programme’s producer, Mike Valintine, seemed more than a tad miffed about the deception, and was reported as saying Chal “lied through and through”.  This behaviour was described as “despicable”, and the Chal was called a “fool”.

   After this outburst, and the headlines labelling Chal an “internet liar”, it was surprising to see him, together with his co-conspirator, again on Close Up last night.  Here we learned that Chal had not lied, he’d merely presented a fable.  Just like 20-year-old French Rugby centre Mathieu Bastareaud!

   Chal and his mate proudly told us that they’d had job offers arising from their fables. So, the end does justify the means after all, and liars do prosper.  Social media is setting new standards, but let’s be careful where this takes us, as Michael Chal’s story was nothing but an orchestrated litany of fables.

   

6. Because we’re worth it

   Published on Friday, July 10th, 2009

   It’s with some dismay that we read that women in this country earn on average 12 per cent less that their male counterparts. And now, over three decades since legislation designed to remedy the un-equal pay, the unit set up to address the problem has been scrapped.

   This country has built a reputation for fairness. New Zealand led the world in giving women the vote, enshrining the 40 -hour working week and protecting the community’s safety with ACC. So why has the push for pay parity fallen off the menu?

   We hear it is because we have no successful role models to aspire to. This claim wears a bit thin when we’ve had near 30 years of the ‘girls can do anything message’, a woman Prime Minister, Governor General and Chief Justice to boot.

   Mai Chen is actively addressing the ‘no role models’ claim by heading the New Zealand Global Women group. This fine collection of power women is in serious catch up mode if they want to inspire a fresh crop of lady-leaders because the situation is actually getting worse.

   In 2004 New Zealand was ranked 4th in female representation in business management, now we have dropped to 10th place.  Fran O’Sullivan in the NZ Herald points out that just 54 out of 624 director positions on NZX companies are held by women.

   Invisible glass ceilings have been blamed for keeping women down, sticky floors too, and that women bully each other, or are too cooperative and empathetic to truly succeed. We hear that men are genetically privileged so especially tall ones get the top jobs, that they are bred to lead. Women who take time out of their careers to have children can blame biology for losing their place in the promotion queue.

   Surely the communication message is quite simple: an equal day’s work deserves an equal days pay no matter how you put your trousers on in the morning. Alternatively as one leading business woman suggested more than a decade ago, if women’s pay can’t go up, perhaps men’s pay should come down!

   

7. Brand, a treasure worth protecting

   Published on Thursday, July 9th, 2009

   Although many of us think that imitation is the height of flattery and common usage the measure of fame and acceptance, one manufacturer has made it clear that its sub-brands are not to be trifled with; and have a cache that demands respect and protection.

   We’ll call the story of Glad Snap Lock bags Part 1 of this brand story.  At the weekend we learned that the manufacturer of Glad Snap Lock bags was warning people against the appropriation of their “Snap Lock” trademark or sub-brand.

   Of course, the Glad brand is ubiquitous in the nation’s kitchens, with cling films, freezer storage bags, rubbish bags, sandwich bags and a multitude of handy containers whose lids are so frequently orphaned.

   The reality is that Glad has been and is an extraordinary innovator, and innovation costs money. On simple, low-cost household items that return on investment is a long-run process, so its advertisements are warning that flattery will not be tolerated.  While some may think its approach a tad heavy, it is reinforcement that Glad takes seriously its brand and will fight to protect it.  That is something we as consumers should respect.

   Part 2 of our brand story, won’t be so familiar to most.  Two weeks ago Google held a ball – that’s right, trip the light fantastic and all that. Thinking it would get into the spirit of things, Vodafone arranged for two body-painted models “baring” the Google brand to titivate fellow ball-goers.

   Google was not amused. Displaying their brand on near naked women was out of line with its brand’s values.

   The lesson? If you are flirting with someone else’s brand, always be sure that you know and respect its values.

   And speaking of respect,  TVNZ’s American correspondent Tim Wilson got the message from fans of late Michael Jackson while he was doing the piece-to-camera on the prince of pop’s untimely demise.  Security men had to hold back fans as they shuffled forward menacingly when Wilson was less than respectful of Jackson.  One cockney was heard to say to her friend: It’s alright, Linda, there are respecters and dis-respecters and we’re the respecters!

   

8. Bored senseless by recession

   Published on Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

   The recession is the elephant in every room and a tired and grey elephant it is at that.

   Here in New Zealand we started our slide, to feel the effects of economic decline well before the likes of Lehmann Brothers and the spectacular collapse of the subprime mortgage sector in the US became front page news.

   Our recession began with a whimper some 18 months ago. Quietly many businesses re-organised, changed structure and readied themselves for the economic winter ahead before the Northern hemisphere noticed.

   New Zealand had come off a long period of sustained growth.  We all enjoyed record high employment where a shortage of skilled workers was one of the biggest hurdles to business development.

   While the world went credit-crazy the deep conservatism shown by much of the banking sector here (on a comparative basis with the US and Britain) has saved many a Kiwis’ bacon.

   We are often criticised for our love affair with bricks, mortar and land but the housing market has showed surprisingly resilience, not plummeted anywhere near to the levels in the UK and US.

   Now we are into the dull-phase of the recession, the hard yards where gloomy global messages are being recycled over and over again. Tried dodging the talk of the downturn at a dinner party? Businesses going to the wall-stories pile up like a body count.

   But where is the perspective? World news is not our news. Many key elements of our economy are in robust health and unemployment rates are still relatively low. Today’s business confidence survey points to sparks of optimism returning as a net 5.5% of firms expect business conditions to improve in the next year.

   As a nation we struggle with self-belief, and this applies here. What we really need to do is ‘knock the bastard off’ and we can do that with confidence, grit and self belief.

   Spread the word.

   

9. Food Inc only a point of view

   Published on Monday, June 22nd, 2009

   The movie Food Inc will be screened soon in New Zealand. It’s likely to excite a few, exasperate others, and cause many more to think about the future of our food, where it comes from and what the future holds,  especially the growing number among us who have little or no idea about where our food comes from.

   This movie will remind us how important it is to consider the origins of what it is we put in our mouths and feed to our children. As such Food Inc should be regarded as part of a wider debate on food production.

   From what we’ve seen and read, the movie is based on a brace of conspiracy theories relating to food production ownership and food quality.  The past is portrayed as good and present as a pastoral fantasy.  As always, the truth will be somewhere in the middle.

   The film makes the point that today’s food industry bears little resemblance to that of 50 years ago.  That’s probably not a bad thing when we compare the meat freezing companies of New Zealand 50 years ago with those of today. I know the environment I prefer, so there’s no nostalgia there.

   There are conspiracies, and some are potentially damaging to New Zealand, such as the romance spun by the food miles lobby.  Food miles are a thinly veiled trade barrier, the major victim of which are the poorer emerging nations.  Food miles are also in the philosophical mix of farmers markets which in most instances are too “rich” for the average punter. The Otara market is more realistic.

   The thing to remember with Food Inc is that much of it is about another country, and won’t apply here – after all we can still get meat with bones (as I’m sure you still can in the US).

   Parts of the New Zealand food industry have suffered before from imported shows about food.  Jamie Oliver did a huge disservice to our chicken nuggets when he banged on in his school dinners programme about their very different composition in the UK.  Here nuggets took a hit that was not justified.

   For those inclined to see Food Inc, remember it is a point of view, not the only view.

   www.safefoodinc.org

   Food Inc Official Trailer

   

10. Hide our awards-light under a bushel? Not bloody likely!

    Published on Friday, May 22nd, 2009

    Winning is nice. There’s no getting round that fact that to come out on top feels damn good, even if as New Zealanders we’re not very good at saying so. What’s better still is winning for the work that you enjoy doing everyday and it’s a double bonus when somebody notices.

    That somebody who noticed was our peers and they noticed on Wednesday night at the 35th Annual PRINZ Awards. The team here at Network took out three prizes. Firstly, we were highly commended for the pro-bono work for the New Zealand Blood Service Celebrates World Blood Donor Day.

    Our second prize was for our campaign for Aspartame – facts and fiction in the special events/project category. We shared this with Sioux Campbell of Chameleon Public Relations Ltd for their Whales, dolphins and swimmers – oh my!

    Our fact and fiction campaign went on to receive the Supreme Award with judges pointing out that this campaign stood out above the rest in the competition for the way it dealt with a highly contentious issue with clearly defined objectives and impressive, measurable results.

    It was hard work to take on an anti-aspartame campaign driven by New Zealand lobby groups. Increasingly New Zealanders were falling for the myth that the commonly used sweetener may be bad for health. Our client, Coca Cola Oceania was seeing an increase in sales of “regular” soft drinks, coupled with decreased sales of diet soft drinks. We worked collaboratively with nutrition and health key opinion leaders, to develop and implement a rigorous scientifically based information programme which helped to restore confidence in aspartame.

    So, yes winning feels wonderful.