Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Split testing wine labels
In most marketing departments you’ll hear the words split testing, and it occurred to me that you never hear these words in wine circles. Why can’t a winery do split testing of wine labels before they launch into the market.
Sure it’s expensive getting a small batch of wine labels made, but even more expensive getting it wrong.
So here’s the idea. Get two or three labels produced, all with different fonts and designs, then put them into 3 wine stores and restaurants, giving them a good discount for doing so. Over the next 6 months rotate their stock and analyse what is and isn’t selling, ask customers and also staff what they think/thought.
This way you’ll have some longevity in design and it may end up saving you a fortune in lost sales.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Google doing what Google does best.
Google has really struggled to develop a social media presence. However, Google has really up'd the anti with social search feature.
Now, not only are websites that have been 'shared on Twitter' by colleagues, acquaintences, and Google connections highlighted on Google search, but now websites visited too.
This new search feature advances 'Google search' towards its own 'recommended' social search engine. Combined with the power of Twitter search, real time search and now recommended search, Google is dominating the search engine landscape, even though Bing has Facebook search integration.
A great example of recommended search by Google.
Friday, May 27, 2011
NZ Election Law and Social Media
With the run up to the New Zealand election, 26th November, there appears to be a section of the 'Election Broadcasting Advertising Law' that will plague all political parties, candidates, and their supporters, that use social media platforms. The law clearly states Here that Television stations, billboards, flyers and radio networks are deemed the only channels of broadcasting significance. Where does this leave the internet?
With platforms such as Youtube, Twitter, and facebook dominating the 2008 US presidential elections, New Zealand seems set to embrace these platforms for the November election. Are These channels already covered by law? If they are, as I suspect they will be, NZ politicians need to clearly understand the do's and don'ts of social media electioneering.
Also are the use of social media platforms going to be included under the 'Electoral Finace Act 2007'? If so, the both of these bills will significantly inhibit the use of Social media for all parties and supporters leading up to the election.
Broadcast election advertising terms
The Broadcasting Act 1989 refers to "election programmes". This definition includes advertisements by electoral agencies and station community service announcements.
This guidance uses the term "broadcast election advertising" to refer to advertising by political parties, candidates or other groups with an election-related message. Broadcast election advertising includes:
- advertisements relating to parties, or candidates, or both.
- 'positive' and 'negative' messages e.g. 'Vote for X' and 'Don't vote for Y' (although candidates may not run negative advertising).
- advertisements of election meetings.
- broadcast visual images, whether or not combined with sounds, that consist predominantly of alphanumeric text (eg, Teletext).
"Broadcasting" covers radio and television, including subscription services but not pay-per-view channels. A "broadcaster " is a person who broadcasts programmes, but does not include a transmission service supplier unless they have some control over what is broadcast. The "broadcaster" will generally be a station or network manager.
Users of this guidance should check the legal definitions and their applications when appropriate.
Electorate candidate advertising must promote the electorate vote only, although the party name and policies may be mentioned. Electorate candidates cannot run negative advertising. All advertising must be paid for (although an advertising schedule may contain bonus airtime contingent on a spend level), broadcast between writ day and midnight on the day before election day, be authorised in writing and contain a promoter statement. The cost must be included in the candidate's return of election expenses, even where that cost is not paid by the candidate. Unless paid for from a party allocation, electorate candidates may not share broadcast election advertisements with other candidates (unlike non-broadcast advertising).
Registered political party election advertising
Registered party advertising may advocate for or against a party. When it advocates for an electorate candidate then authorisation and expense apportionment requirements may apply. All advertising must be: paid for from an allocation made by the Electoral Commission, broadcast between writ day and midnight on the day before election day, be authorised in writing and contain a promoter statement. The cost of placement paid for out of an allocation of money from the Commission is not included in the party's return of election expenses. If a party places advertising from its own funds, then this expenditure must be included, despite it being an offence to spend party funds in this way.
Other election-related advertisers covered
Individuals or organisations who are not parties or candidates (including third parties) may broadcast an advertisement which relates to an election, such as advocating for or against a policy, but it must not name or directly advocate for or against a party or candidate. Such advertisements must contain a promoter statement, Electoral Act 1993 s204F and s.221A. A promoter statement including the promoter's name and full street address of where the promoter usually lives or any other place where he or she can usually be contacted between 9am and 5pm on any working day to ensure that the rules around promoter statements are met.
Non-partisan, community service, station announcements (eg, free listings of candidate meetings, encouragement to enrol or vote) may be broadcast and must contain an authorisation statement giving the true name and street address of the home or work of the person authorising it.
Official advertisements placed on behalf of the electoral agencies are not restricted but must identify the agency that authorised it.
Third party campaigns
The Act made it illegal for anyone to spend more than NZ$12,000 criticising or supporting a political party or taking a position on any political matter, or more than NZ$1,000 criticising or supporting an individual member of parliament, without first registering with a state agency, the Electoral Commission.
The Bill as introduced required that unregistered third parties file statutory declarations before publishing election advertisements.
The Bill originally limited the spending of registered third parties on political advertising to $60,000, but this was later increased to $120,000 by the Select Committee.
The regulation of third parties also extends to their finances. The Act requires that third parties disclose all donations they receive over $5000. Anonymous donations that third parties receive over this level must be given to the State.
Regulated period
The Act extends the "regulated period" for election campaigning from the previous 90-day period to the period starting on January 1 of election year - from three months to around ten, depending on the timing of the election. During this period electoral advertising by candidates, political parties and third parties must follow election rules, and spending limits apply
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Twitter - Live Chat with Labour Leader Phil Goff
A great start and use of social media by the Labour Party. There are two fundamental problems with this strategy. The timing, 3.30pm, is far too early and generally in company time for viewers. Time lines for such events are key. The key to Mr Goff's election would be to shift the middle ground. The iddle ground tens to be at work at 3.30. This would have been suited toa time slot of 7.30-8, after the kids have gone to bed, people are more relaxed and in front of their computers, have finished work etc.
Secondly the Use of Twitter should have been combined with the use of U-Stream TV for live Q & A with Facebook and Twitter streams for engagement.
Had, and I hope he will use these tools more than once, executed this strategy he would have garnered more engagement and potential support.
On a more positive note, he's one of the first NZ MP's using the platforms available to him, also the amount of the population using these tools remains smal, albeit influential.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
New Zealand political parties and Social Media
New Zealand is in the run up to an election, November 26th, and given the high interest in 'Social Media' (SM) right now, I decided I would test the response of the major parties and their leaders.
I sent a tweet to all of the major political parties at 7pm on 18th May. The Tweet was "How do you view the importance of Social Media in the upcoming election?"
I then looked into what channels each party was using to engage their audience. Although numbers aren't an indicator as to the level of engagement, they are interesting in the terms of commitment to using these channels. I would expect a significant increase in activity across all platforms in the lead up to the general election.
Labour Party
YouTube
Lacking Branding, and also a small number of subscribers, 53. This channel is not being used effectively and needs to be included as part of their overall strategy. 2,594 Channel views, and 25,695 video views.
Labours Facebook page didn't include a wall for posting articles, nor did they engage through this channel.
I always find it fascinating that political parties follow far less than are followed. Any political party should be canvassing through this medium and follow as many potential voters as is possible. The labour Party's follow to following ratio is 1:4, not good at all. The main level of engagement from the Labour Party through Twitter is individual accounts. The main party account is just a feed account.
The Green Party
YouTube
A very user friendly channel. 416 subscribers. Branded very well and really working for the Green party. Obviously they have placed an emphasis on using this platform. 17,000 channel views, and 134,000 video views.
The most active party on Facebook. High level of engagement.
The Green Party's follow:followers ratio is 1:10. This number is obsured, it should be the other way round. The Greens are very active on their main account, but do still treat it as a broadcast medium.
National Party
YouTube
National are the most effective at using YouTube, with over 800 subscribers, but the viewer stats are impressive, with over 500,000 views and 70,000 channel views. The earliest of the main parties to join YouTube.
National follow:followers ratio is 1:5, still a poor result, but better than the Greens. National have Tweeted the most from their main party account, but still the PM continues to use this channel as a broadcast medium rather than engage directly.
ACT Party
YouTube
Minimum use of this platform. 10,063 Channel Views, and 8,401 video views. This means that more people visited the channel page than watched any of the videos. Did not display any subscriber numbers
A very rudimentary Facebook page offering little engagement.
ACT individual MPs are very active, but the main party follow:followers ratio is terrible, with a 1:20 being the worst of all main parties. They do use the main party account, but Heather Roy is the MP using Twitter most effectively.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
How Politivians should be using Social Media for NZ election
Peter Dunne thanks the DomPost for the constructive feedback on his podcasts. Also, talks about the trials of dealing with bald-headed journos, plastic-haired 'media celebs' and simpering staff.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Google's Search Globe
Google has announced the arrival of Search Globe, and although quite limited at present it offers an insight of things to come.
"The Search Globe visualizes searches from one day, and shows the language of the majority of queries in an area in different colors. You’ll see a bright landscape of queries across Europe, and parts of Asia for instance, but unfortunately we see many fewer searches from parts of the world lacking Internet access—and often electricity as well—like Africa. We hope that as the Internet continues to become more accessible over time and people continue to ask questions, we’ll see this globe shine brightly everywhere."
Imagine, for those of us that are visual learners, being able to type in keywords and see across the globe where the highest global searches for that particular word are, and then being able to target those places specifically.
Search Globe could also be integrated into Google Analytics and/or Webmaster tools. The future is exciting.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Who's going to win the one day deals challenge
Recently there has been a proliferation of one day deal websites, and now the big boys have entered the game.
With the announcement of TradeMe entering the arena, that was bad enough for Grab One, but now GroupOn has staked a claim in this market. Surely the playing field is a little too cramped? So I would expect to see some contraction in the market place, and maybe one or two of these players disappearing all together.
If that wasn't bad enough, the monster that is Facebook has entered the game.
How to add the Facebook Send Button
Facebook have just announced the 'Send' button for websites. This button allows content to be sent to personal friends and connections without posting on to your wall and for them to find it.
I'm yet to be convinced that this will create anymore engagement over the share and like buttons, but is certainly more personal.
Here is the code that you need to insert in to your website.
This is how it looks on your site
This is the functionality
Friday, April 22, 2011
The potential influence of using Twitter
Sunday, April 17, 2011
YouTube's share button options
Recently Youtube decided to upgrade its video share options panel. They have now decided that the 'Embed' feature should also be included under the share button.
When you click on the share button you are now faced, on the surface, with a limited number of platforms on which to share. I'm curious as to why they chose Bebo as a top share platform and not Twitter.
It's not until you click on 'show more' that you get to see the other share options.
This would seem that YouTube still values Bebo as a platform with a bright future, and not the dinosaur that we all believed it was.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
What's wrong with Kindle and other e-readers
My voyeuristic nature isn't satisfied with electronic books. I find myself having to look at traditional books. Not to read but to look at what others are reading. We are all voyeurs, even those that hate to admit it.
I want to see what others are reading, what book, magazine, or newspaper. I want to know what tribe they belong to, but I can't with e-books and Kindles.
Now how would my experience change if the Kindle projected the cover of the publication on the back. This would make the experience for other more pleasurable, unless it was playboy or other smut!
Imagine being on public transport and spying what people were reading on their Kindle rather than just look over their shoulder.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Jayson Bryant's Wine Reviews - Forrest Sauvignon Blanc 2010 from Marlborough
Jayson Bryant reviews the Forrest Sauvignon Blanc 2010 from Marlborough New Zealand.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Berry Bros. & Rudd Margaux 2006, chateau Giscours, Bordeaux
Boysenberry, bramble and soft subtle oak with fine tannin. I found this wine to be unusually simple given the price tag.
86 points
4 stars
RRP £18.50
Sent from my iPhone
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Dashwood Chardonnay 2009 Marlborough
Light straw colour with citrus mix on the nose but quite one dimensional.
The palate is broad with a sweet finish.
85 points
4 Stars
RRP $15
