Globe Duo goes direct comparative advertising

I found this write-up on the new Globe Duo website -- an unapologetic comparison between Globe Duo and other similar products it supposedly competes with. But is it accurate? Is it a fair assessment? And, does it go against Adboard's Code which has rules against comparative advertising?

For now, I will suspend my judgement. I'm loving my Smart line. And, hey, they have a Smart Unlimited option which I still have to decide wherther it's worth it for me.

I'd like to hear your thoughts though. Comment on. :)

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HOW IS DUO DIFFERENT?

Globe measures against the competition

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Consumers are constantly barraged by offers from telecom companies. They promise unlimited calling, unlimited texting, mobile-landline connectivity, and a slew of other services at the lowest rates possible. But which of these offers actually deliver?

There are currently four other telecom companies in the market that offer similar services¿PLDT Landlines Plus, Bayan Wireless Landlines, Sun Cellular’s Double Unlimited Plan, and Smartalk. Globe recently came out with Duo¿a 2-in-1 landline and mobile service. Sceptical consumers might ask, is Duo simply Globe’s version of unlimited calling? How is it different?

Duo utilizes a different technology. Globe teamed up with Acision, the world’s leading messaging company, to design a service that allows you to call any landline and any duo-ready mobile phone. Duo allows you to have a mobile and a landline in one phone. In comparison, Sun Cellular’s 24/7 call and text unlimited, and Smart Communication’s Smarttalk, are just price cuts. They offer unlimited mobile-to mobile calls but only to subscribers within the same network. If your contacts are not Smart or Sun users, then you can’t make the most of their offer.

PLDT Landlines Plus offers a similar mobile to landline connectivity. It allows you to make unlimited landline calls and texts for a fixed monthly rate. But once you exceed your plan’s free allocation, you are charged by the minute. With Duo, you don’t have to keep track of the minutes you consume because it is unlimited. Telecom companies present competitive prices to give consumers more value for their money. Bayan Wireless Landline costs P499 per month, PLDT Landline Plus is P600 per month, and SunTel Wireless Landline costs P499 per month. Globe DUO Postpaid Plan has the most affordable rate at only P399 per month. Early subscribers note that Duo also allows them to save significantly on their monthly phone bills.

With PLDT and Bayan’s offers you need an additional handset for the service. You might have to pay an additional P1000 for a PLDT Landlines Plus handset. Sun Cellular’s Double Unlimited Plan provides you a dual SIM phone. But the problem with dual SIM phones is that whenever SIM1 is active in calls, SIM2 cannot receive calls or even SMS. So if you're talking to someone using your regular Sun Postpaid line, you cannot accept incoming calls on your SunTel wireless landline. Duo doesn’t require any additional handsets. With Duo you just have one SIM with your duo landline number and mobile number stored in it. You are easily accessible.

To apply to Bayan, you have to submit some requirements. With Duo, you can just subscribe through text. Application is simple and hassle-free.

Consumers need to sift through the marketing ploys to find the service that really works for them. When it comes to affordability, practicality, and uniqueness of the product, it seems that Duo has the edge.

Marketer Mistakes on Dealing with Bloggers (From AdAge Digital)

This is very insightful for marketers who want to tap the blogsphere for their brands. Watch the video here. (I couldn't embed the video so you'll have to view it on a separate window.)

In an About Digital report, AdAge interviews Elisa Camahort Page, COO and co-founder of BlogHer.com. Blogher.com is an online community and content hub that runs an ad-supported network of more than 2,500 female blogger, and has become the de facto standard bearer for women bloggers in the US.

The video focuses on mommy bloggers but the tips are easy to extend to any kind of blogger initiative or online PR effort. Some of them include:

1. Set clear goals

2. Allocate resources: both staff & financial resources

3. Know the blogger

4. Develop a relationship

5. Set up brand ego alerts: be aware when a blogger mentions your brand or product

6. No spam campaigns: don't ask bloggers to spam for you

7. Be transparent: don't fool the reader

8. Maintain content integrity standards

9. Learn to engage: don't make the brand the conversation; make the brand part of the conversation the community is interested in

It's worth the effort to watch the video. Please do watch it.

Top 5 reasons why luxury brands should rethink online advertising (From Microsoft Advertising)

Research Report|08.06.09

Online advertising is under-utilized in luxury brands’ marketing strategies despite its vital role to play in ensuring competitiveness in the current economic downturn. Microsoft Advertising’s latest Lovers of Luxury research demonstrates a strong appetite amongst luxury consumers for greater engagement with brands in the digital space. Here are the top 5 reasons why the internet is the perfect platform for luxury brands to communicate and engage with the luxury consumers.

1. Luxury consumers across Asia represent a younger breed of luxury consumers who are more internet savvy. They use the internet for a multitude of activities each month, with very high usage levels of Microsoft channels.
Opportunity: Create targeted communications to luxury consumers.

2. More than two-thirds of luxury consumers are actively seeking information online about luxury goods.
Opportunity: Develop and facilitate relationship with luxury consumers through online means, such as exclusive online offers and club memberships.

3. The internet is being used to inspire and instigate luxury purchases, previously the heartland of traditional media.
Opportunity: Utilize the internet to effectively target luxury consumers online during this purchase phase.

4.The internet is a critical source of information during the pre-purchase decision-making stage.
Opportunity: Use effective online communications to influence purchases.

5. Luxury consumers have a positive attitude towards luxury advertising online.
Opportunity: Position high quality luxury advertising in a context which fits the brand image.

Farm Town: Top 15 Tips from confessions of an addict

If you've noticed that I haven't been blogging properly for the past three weeks, it's because I've succumbed to a new addiction: Farm Town on Facebook. It was one of the games by Playfish that I mentioned in a past blog about social gaming, and now I'm officially addicted to it. So much so, that I've decided to write down the most important things I've learned about navigating this game as a list of top tips.

For those already playing the game and consider themselves experts, see how many from the list below you already know and are already doing. You might find a new thing or two. For those who are clueless about the game, read on. You might find it interesting enough to start playing.

So, here we go:

1. Add neighbors and visit them regularly: As early as possible in the game, collect your neighbors, especially those already on the top levels. Neighbors need to be your real Facebook friends so if you don't have friends on Facebook, it's tough getting neighbors on Farm Town. You need to visit your neighbors around twice a day and do the odd jobs for them (watering, pulling weeds, raking). This gets you some initial coins and ongoing experience points: +6 exp for each completed task. Don't overdo it because at a certain point the exp goes down to 1.

2. Plant raspberries & grapes to level up quickly: When you have the time to spare, plant these to take advantage of the short growing cycles so you can plow, plant & harvest several times in a day. It doesn't give you as much return in coins, but it's a fast way to earn experience points to level up. A word of warning: as quickly as the crops grow, they will also quickly go to waste so mind your garden!

3. Mind your options: Make sure you familiarize yourself with the wrench icon at the upper right corner of your game screen. There are several options there that are very very useful:

Remove space between fields: this allows you to plow plots closer together to maximize space

Show trees: turn this off when harvesting plots, especially on poorly planned farms

Show flowers: same with trees, flowers can be a bother when harvesting so turn this off when you need to

Freeze animals: the animals in the game are useless and just slow it down so turn this off especially in farms that resemble Noah's Ark.

Follow avatar while walking: Turn this off because you'll be able to pan the landscape better

4. Plow & harvest from the top: If you start at the top of each crop area and work your way in rows, your avatar doesn't walk too much and you'll be able to do you job faster and more efficiently.

5. Buy a small house early on to level up: As soon as you already have the coins and the level to buy a small house, buy it! The experience points you get will bring you automatically up one level.

6. Buy more land as soon as you can: Expanding your farm land as early as you can gives you more space for plots to plant. It's your best investment to earn more coins and experience points. The Realtor Office is meant for that.

7. Peppers and cabbages give you the most coins fast: During days when you can't be glued to Farm Town all-day (i.e. workdays), plant cabbages for daily growing cycles, and peppers for 2-day cycles. Especially during higher levels, don't be tempted to plant pineapples, blueberries & pumpkins. They yield higher in terms of coins per crop, but take longer to grow so you waste days and chances to gain experience points. If you're going on a weeklong trip and you can't be online, by all means plant 4-day crops. But if you're online everyday, you're better off with peppers & cabbages.

8. Always hire for help: Aside from not doing the work yourself, hiring for help always means more coins or saving coins. You get 25% more coins for harvested crops, and 25-50% discount on plowing depending on whether you hire a stranger or a neighbor. Note that you need at least 10 neighbors to start hiring for plowing. When you hire to plow, you still get the experience points so don't worry about leveling up. Plus you can use your work requirements to leverage some sort of a work trade at the marketplace.

9. Hang out at the Marketplace: The marketplace in Farm Town is just that: a noisy place for trade. You see all of these people begging for work and it can get annoying. But it's also where people go to get their farm jobs done. Don't add to the noise. Just find a good spot to park your avatar (I usually go near the tent or on top of the wheelbarrow with barrels), where no one is covering you. If someone offers work, politely raise your hand. It helps to both mention the hiring person's name and walk nearer to him. But if you're on park mode, you'd be surprised to see how many time you can get hired just by hanging out there.

10. Use your gifts wisely: Your neighbors can give you gifts daily so make sure you use them wisely. Plant your trees immediately because they're a steady source of coins even if you forget about them. Planting the flowers you get will help your neighbors, and make your farm look much nicer. Unless you find the animals irrresisibly cute, just sell them. They're really just bothersome. It won't hurt to regularly give gifts also because it encourages your neighbors to return the favor. Some people are also knows for requesting specific gifts they want to get.

11. Mind where you plant trees, flowers & fences: Trees, flowers and fences all make your farm look good, but they are a hassle for growing crops. When you plant trees and flowers, make sure they do not cover any plot so that it won't hamper plowing, planting or harvesting. Fences (including hedges) are the worst because there is no way to hide these from view. They make harvesting and plowing a big chore.

12. Don't be scared of the bulldozer: As your farm grows, you will definitely need to plan and re-plan your space, either to make it look nice or to make it more efficient. Plants & structures you can easily move, but plots you can't without clearing them. Use the bulldozer for this, and do not be afraid. The worst that could happen is that you delete something of value which usually isn't much to begin with. Making your farm look nicer or more space efficient will earn you either praise or more coins anyway in the near future.

13. When desperate for coins, water flowers: A little known fact on Farm Town is that if you water your neighbors' flowers when they are almost halfway dry you earn coins. You'd be surprised how much you can get with a flower-filled neighbors' garden (i.e. Gwyn's). If you water your own flowers you pay coins, so get your neighbors to water each others' flowers for a win-win situation.

14. Plant flowers in rows and squares: It's easier to water flowers within a 6x6 square area which is the span of the area watered by the watering can in one click. But don't worry, in Farm Town you don't pay for wasted water.

15. Use Facebook chat to find your neighbors: When you are raring to get your harvest done, it's much easier to find your FarmTown neighbors using Facebook's chat function rather than looking for who's online on Farm Town (I think this part of the game is still buggy). And your neighbors who are online will usually be happy to go to FarmTown for a good harvest.

I hope you become an expert farmer with these tips above. Or at the very least, get curious about Farm Town and start playing. Happy farming!

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BONUS:

Here are some extra tricks for expert farmers, a.k.a. Farm Town addicts, like me:

1. Sometimes you can plow plots under buildings and other structures, my friend told me but up to last night I couldn't figure out how to do it. But just this morning, I suddenly was able to plow extra plots where I knew my houses and my trees were standing but I had them hidden from view. I guess it's a bug but it's cool to have as many plots to plant within your limited land area.

2. Make your name attractive when in the Marketplace to get more jobs. I've heard that some of my friends change their avatar names to those of popular personalities when trying to get jobs at the marketplace. It gets people's attentions without having to add to the noise of beggars.

3. Cure those problematic plots that look like they've been left behind unplowed by hired plowers, or that don't seem to want to be planted or plowed. These are bugs in the game. Use your bulldozer to clear them. Sometimes a harvested field will reveal a plotted field suddenly. And if it just clears up and becomes grass, just plow over it again.

4. When choosing jobs, go with plowing jobs over harvesting raspberries & trees. Raspberries only give you a few coins which you can earn thru other ways. Trees are a chore to harvest especially when the farm owner doesn't put ample space between them. At least with plow jobs, you get experience points aside from the small token of coins.

If you have more tips & tricks to share, please write them down here in the comments section. I'd love to hear from you.

Visual Pond in ASEUM -- Philippines' 1st int'l new media art festival (July 21-25)

Visual Pond will once again come out of hiding for ASEUM, the first international new media art festival in the Philippines. This 5-day experience will be a gathering of minds and bodies that will share, explore, create and destroy ideas on media, art, music, and technology.

We hope to see you there! Its all free so bring as many curious souls as you'd like.

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ASEUM: The 1st International New Media Art Festival in the Philippines

On July 21-25, 2009, SABAW Media Art Kitchen (Philippines) in cooperation with KIBLA MMC (Slovenia) and the Asia-Europe Foundation brings together the largest delegation of new media artists for ASEUM - the first international new media art festival in the Philippines – that kicks off 6:00PM at Gweilos, Makati for everyone to experience what new media art is.

Leading new and inter media art practitioners, researchers, curators and producers from all over the globe such as Peter Tomaz Dobrila [si], Jerneja Rebernak [si/sg], Emma Oto[jp/gb], Aether9 [global], Tad Ermitano [ph], Malek Lopez [ph], Angelo Vermeulen [be], Diego Maranan [ph], Brian O’ Reilly [us], Rick Bahague [ph], Lirio Salvador [ph], Visual Pond[ph], Tim O' Dwyer [au], Darren Moore [au], Vanini Belarmino [de/ph], and Noel de Brakinghe [ph] will hold lectures, workshops and discussions among the most versed of Filipino students in new media art to encourage them to pursue degrees in such field.

Topics such as Open Source Advocacy, Technology and Cultural Practices, Open Structures and Remote Real time Storytelling, Intersections of Art, Ecology, Gaming and Advocacy, Data Visualization: Making meaning in an Info-rich World, Computer music and video in a live setting, Media and the Creation Process, Sound Mapping: Circuit Bending, Pure Data:Practical Programming for Sound Art, Video Art and Experimental Moving Image, Electroacoustic improvisation, Mono- Multi- and Inter-Media, The Value of Exchange in Creative Interdisciplinary and Cross-Border Collaborations, and Why Numbers Make Sounds: Basic Introduction to Patching and Audio Synthesis using Max/Msp will be covered.

A Transformative Sound Experience
Change the way you perceive sound with five nights of rapid electrofringe experimentation on sound and moving image with VJing, intermedia performances, cutting-edge experimental music and related visual arts at ASEUM’s Ear2Eye Program.

Catch performances by Iron Egg, Rubber Inc, Caliph8 , Gangan Ensemble, Inconnu ictu, Tengal, Aether9, Elemento, Ugong, Blend:er, Minister Zero, DJ Drumlander, Sgt. Vez, Edsel Abesamis, Tad Ermitano, Mannet Villariba, Drip, Eggboy, Autoceremony, Etniktronika, Angelo Suarez, Costantino Zicarelli, Nyangbinghi, and Terraformer at Gweilos, Green Papaya,Penguin Café and Mogwai Cinematheque.


ASEUM is a project by SABAW Media Art Kitchen (Philippines) in cooperation with Multimedia Center KIBLA (Slovenia) and is supported by the Asia-Europe Foundation as a follow-up project of the Asia-Europe Art Camp New Media series. For more information on festival fees, schedule, and guests email sabawmediahub@gmail.com or call/SMS+639166188191 and visit the ASEUM website at http://aseum.tk.


MORE INFO ON: http://aseum09.tk/

From AdAge Digital: Facebook Launches Fan Box, Its First Official Widget

Facebook Launches Fan Box, Its First Official Widget

Here's What it Means for Marketers

Posted by Ian Schafer on 07.09.09 @ 10:39 AM

Ian Schafer

Yesterday Facebook launched the Fan Box, yet another way to extend what you're doing on Facebook to elsewhere on the web.

Think of the Fan Box as a widget (four simple lines of code) that Facebook-page administrators can implement on other sites to enhance connectivity to their Facebook pages. In a nutshell:

• Brands can use the Fan Box to recruit new fans in a more engaging way than just posting a link to "visit the brand on Facebook."
• Any content a brand wants to feature in the Fan Box can be customized by the Facebook-page administrator.
• While only the page administrator can generate the code and customize the content, anyone can grab the code to embed the Fan Box on another site.

One potential nice side effect of this is that the more places the Fan Box is displayed, the more potentially positive effect it could have on the Facebook fan page's search ranking -- in other words, more pages will be linking to it (which helps add relevancy to search-engine results).

The Fan Box is available right now, if you're a Facebook-page administrator. Right below your page's profile picture is a button that launches the Fan Box-creation wizard.

Ironically, just a day after Slide announced it is going full-bore into the branded-app business, Facebook launched a widget. This is yet another example of the "everything is connected to everything else" (or at least Facebook) mentality changing the way we communicate with people and the ways they communicate each other.

The recommendation here: Experiment with the Fan Box and see how/if it impacts your page performance. Why not? It's free.

~ ~ ~
Ian Schafer is CEO of Deep Focus. Follow his musings at Ianschafer.com or Twitter.

Dancing Babies: Evian's cool video ad

Maybe it's just because babies are always cute and fun to watch. The technology used is not new, although the production values of this clip makes it almost believable. And this is not the first time we've seen dancing babies.

But somehow the big idea, executed well and stemming from a solid strategy, connects with its audience. I don't know how long ago this was done, but I still find it relevant. Reminds me of how unexpectedly (or as expected), the Bulilit ad for Camella Homes also spread like wildfire.

Great strategy & insight. Good execution. Cute and entertaining. The formula for a good ad. Always.

From iMedia: Email campaigns that failed

Email campaigns that failed

By Dylan Boyd

July 06, 2009

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ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS:

• Sending to an unsubscribed address is the ultimate fail
• Confusing or tricking recipients will almost always lead to an unsubscribe
• Pimping out your email list causes more harm than good

Next In Focus

The ultimate email fail

The more experience you gain as an email marketer, the more you come to understand the true purpose of an email.

It isn't simply to blast something to subscribers without relevancy or reason. It isn't to make a quick, dishonest buck off them. It isn't to pull off a massive bait-and-switch. It isn't even to release the hounds on the competition. It's about nurturing, building trust and relationships, and ultimately increasing and solidifying the reputation of your brand.

Every email sent must have a purpose and needs to personally relate to the subscriber. If the email lacks personalization or has no purpose, you're taking a risk that may cause subscribers to not only opt-out of your emails, but also mentally and emotionally opt-out from any future engagement with your brand. When this happens, the recipient immediately becomes emotionally unsubscribed. We in the industry identify it with a very technical term: email marketing fail.

Everyone fails at some point. A recent study by Return Path discovered that up to 20 percent of top brand marketers continue to send emails to addresses on their lists that have unsubscribed -- more than 10 days after a confirmed unsubscribe request.

Sending to an unsubscribed address is definitely Fail No. 1. This is a violation of CAN-SPAM, and results in complaints and possible legal trouble. You may find your email reputation soon relegated to that of a spammer. This is a slippery slope. When a brand has degraded itself past the point of no return with so many email marketing fails, it has basically strung itself out on spam. At that point, batch-and-blast spamming may be the only way to get in front of enough people to make a few sales. To avoid this, it's important to find the silver lining in a fail. Learning from mistakes will actually strengthen your skills and refine your habits as an email marketer.

Not learning from mistakes and getting strung out on spam is just one negative result of an email marketing fail. When campaigns are poorly executed, or give in to the temptation of slash-and-burn email marketing revenue, they forfeit any likelihood of meaningful, long-term customer engagement, not to mention powerful word-of-mouth or even viral campaign exposure. This is what separates poor email campaigns (fails) from excellent ones (wins).

I removed the email examples in the article. If you want to see them, click here.

Let me again say that everyone makes mistakes, and making mistakes is how we improve. As shown in eROI's recent study on email analytics, thinking outside the box, testing different methods, then making decisions based on those analytics will lead to optimized email campaigns. That said, it's important to base your initial approach on best practices.

For some good email marketing ideas and examples, check out eROI CEO Ryan Buchanan's article on "11 email design best practices." Following these tips will ensure balance in your email marketing force.

Dylan Boyd is VP of sales and strategy at eROI.

On Twitter? Follow Boyd at @dtboyd. Follow iMedia Connection at@iMediaTweet.

From Lee Odden: How Direct is Social Media Marketing?

How Direct is Social Media Marketing?

20 Comments | Posted by Lee Odden on Jun 23rd, 2009 in Online Marketing, Social Media

I had nice back and forth with Brian Clark of copyblogger on Twitter last week about direct marketing and social media. Ultimately it was more an issue of perspective and semantics but there were some great points about the intersection of direct marketing on the social web. I’ve been an advocate for several years as have others in the social media consulting space, that the social web is not a place for direct marketing. In the past I’ve even posted a fairly good comparison of thedifference between direct marketing and social media marketing.

Brian’s position via our Twitter discussion was that social media is exactly that, marketing directly to consumers - a great point. My perspective is that social media is no place for direct marketing messages.

Companies that rush into a social network with sales offers is a classic example of an inappropriate use of direct marketing tactics on the social web. People don’t join social networks to be confronted with marketing messages, they join to be social with a likeminded community.

One successful method for brands to engage social communities from a marketing perspective is to make an effort to listen, participate and leverage email as a transition opportunity. Email works very well in conjunction with social media for direct marketing purposes.

The marriage of social media relationship building and building up an email list is more congruent to direct marketing than most people think. I think what can make direct marketing work best on the social web is to exercise “give to get” in terms of providing value first. Generate attention and interest through interaction, participation and education. Blogs, social networks and other social apps that allow a community to interact with the brand are good examples. As the brand provides value and trust, interested community members can move from casual social connections to joining an email list with added benefits. The key is transparency about what providing an email address means, in terms of receiving commercial messages and offers.

What do you think?

• Can direct marketing be social?
• Can direct marketing messages succeed on the social web?
• What’s the difference between marketing directly and direct marketing?

John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing may be doing a podcast of Brian and I next week on this topic and I’ll be sure to Tweet a link to it if he does.

For those direct marketers reading this post, you might be interested in the DMA’s new Social Media Council - special interest group on LinkedIn to help educate direct marketers on social media best practices, share insights with others in the community.

Related Posts You May Enjoy Reading:

• Direct Marketing vs Social Media Marketing
• Hands On Social Media Smarts for Direct Marketers
• How Does Social Media Affect Search Marketing?
• Best and Worst Practices Social Media Marketing
• Social Media Marketing Tops Digital Marketing Tactics for 2009

Multiply is starting to look more like Facebook

Since Multiply released it's new version, I've seen a lot of good improvements in it's interface and functionality. What I've always liked about Multiply is the permanence of your posts, much like a blog with social network functionality, unlike Facebook that it could be difficult to retrieve old posts once it goes down your stream.

Here's how my Multiply inbox looks like now: still the familiar content as before, but with this left sidebar where a lot of functionality is at your fingertips. The newest changes include the Post Content box with quick access for posting photos, videos, blog entries and notes. Notes function much in the same way as Facebook status updates except that you'll have to click on them to get to the comments.

Will these changes attract more Multiply users who are most likely already on Facebook? I doubt. But I think it will make current Multiply users come back and be more active again in Multiply.