Media-Insert Communications

Can Western Economies Learn From Central And Eastern Europe?

Graham Jarvis looks to Poland and the Czech Republic for lessons on how the West might better have avoided the present financial and economic crisis.

Read more.

The Impact of the G20 - April 2009

"The London Summit, it was hoped, would provide the groundwork for a coherent global strategy to deal with the current financial crisis. Amidst reports of the scale of IMF investment we ask whether this was the day the world came together; or did they?" Read more on Worldfinance.com.

Ethical TV and mobile marketing build customer relationships

Customer relationships are dependent on the creation of trust. How much confidence do people now have the television phone-in competitions, for example? The GMTV scandal appears to be the biggest to date. Questions were raised about whether there has also been a loss of trust in the breakfast show’s brand.

The BBC’s Saturday Kitchen has also been implicated, following the revelation that its ‘live phone-in’, where viewers phone in to send a celebrity guest to Food Heaven or Food Hell is not actually as live as people think it is. The programme is often recorded before it is broadcast. The problem here is that viewers actually believe that it is truly live, and phone in accordingly to deliver their verdict. So if the show isn’t actually live, they shouldn’t be charged as they can’t influence it. Still, it is important to mention that as a result of such scandals broadcasters’ apologies are being made in abundance. Better practices are still needed.

When customers spend their money in such a way, whether as a result of a phone-in or text-in competition, they should feel safe and secure, with a fair chance of winning a competition. Some sources say it’s the fault of junior production staff, raising questions about where the buck actually stops in so far as who should be responsible. Should producers put any form of subterfuge up-front? Would they mind the deception, and if not should they do it?

The scandals were mentioned at an Interactive Marketing seminar given by the Institute of Direct Marketing on 26th April 2007. While talking about the mobile marketing sector, Nic Howell, deputy and features editor at New Media Age “Who does what, and where does the responsibility lie?” These words should echo in the ears of the TV companies and those behind the technological infrastructure of the phone-ins.

Earlier this week, Nigel Evans speaking on Jeremy Vine’s show on BBC Radio 2 about the breakfast show’s debacle said, "If it is true then it is appalling. Up to £10m could have been swindled from viewers. It is clearly fraudulent...I hope that there will be a fine and huge compensation..."

Writer and broadcaster, Matthew Parris said on the show that he's “…not surprised that things like this go on...it can't be justified”. He thinks its criminal too, and he blames it on a “...culture of mendacity in television.” The programme makers, the broadcasters and their producers should be operating ethically with a high degree of transparency and care for their customers, the viewers. They have a duty to deliver value and content in an accountable fashion.

The investigation into the scandal by the BBC’s Panorama documentary cited the thoughts of an expert who also considers such unethical practices as selecting a winner even before the draw has taken place, while people are still phoning in and being charged for each call, as being tantamount to fraud. So can anyone have confidence in them ever again?

The industry watchdogs, ICSTIC and OFCOM, are currently investigating what really went on and Deloitte Touche has been commissioned to compile a report to make recommendations, and to find out what has gone so wrong.

It doesn’t really matter whether the medium they are using is a telephone, an SMS or MMS from a mobile device or some other means of interaction and payment. Customers, such as viewers can be, should be aware of exactly what is happening. If a show isn’t live and they can’t win something or influence the outcome of a programme, then they shouldn’t be charged for a premium rate call to a phone-in number.

Going mobile: ethics are pervasive

Ethics are a pervasive part of society; they are important to all types of relationship, and in commercial terms it comes with either financial gain or cost. Mobile marketing campaigns aren’t exempt from them, which is often employed as part of television shows, the other types of media outlets, advertising agencies, and companies generally. It’s just as important to gain a customer’s trust when using a mobile phone as platform for advertising, competitions, distributing coupons, as it is to ensure that a television competition works on a transparent, fair, moral and ethical basis. Again there should be no subterfuge, but there should be an eye on good customer relationship management – and that doesn’t just extend to practices involving the collation of customer data, including information about customer preferences.

Avoid spamming customers

What mobile marketing campaigns must not do, other than fail to deliver on the promise of a promotion or competition prize, is to spam people. The same applies to email, which has seen a dramatic increase in the levels of unsolicited mailings over the last few years. Lee Bowden, a director of Piri Ltd, explains:

“When a consumer or customer has interacted with the campaign, they have declared an interest in that particular product or service. Within the printed media, it is easy to run a disclaimer for competitions and voting applications making the customer aware that may receive a further relevant marketing message. As a call to action in any for of advertising campaign, the customer texts to opt-in for further information. Media companies should be able to select when or at what frequency they start to profile their data.”

Paul Berney, Managing Director of Response Mobile, and a co-founder of the Direct Marketing Association’s Mobile Council says:  “Because we feel that the mobile is part of our own ‘personal message space’ we are less likely to accept unsolicited messages sent to us. Marketers need to bear this in mind, because the temptation for some has been to treat mobile like direct mail where you can rent a list and send mass texts. Whilst most of us accept with a shrug of the shoulders that half of our Hotmail or Yahoo inbox is spam, we would be livid if we got just one spam text everyday.”

The key words are:

• Permission (get customers to opt-in, and to encourage advocacy);
• Timing (either allow the customer to decide when – at what time - he or she wants to receive a message, or analyse when a larger call-to-action rate is likely);
• Relevance (of the content whether a text message, a coupon or advertising);
• Customer service and support (a means for customers to ask questions and even via other channels);
• And fulfillment (of a promise or order).

Like with the TV scandals, getting any of these wrong can lead to your brand being damaged and you could lose customers as result of distrust being created. Abuse and a failure to understand how to use the channel in an ethical manner, according to the law and the best practice guidelines of the DMA, the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), and other related professional bodies for example, will only turn people off. Customers therefore need to be pulled towards mobile marketing campaigns by using other types of media in an integrated fashion, rather than have to face things being pushed at them. They should also be permitted to opt-out. Note, too, that abuse includes sending mobile users, customers if you like, text messages that promise the Earth, but deliver nothing but a larger mobile phone bill (e.g. premium rate SMS messages).

It’s not just ethical to get it right

In the US, mobile marketing is going to be almost worth a predicted $10 billion says a report by the Shosteck Group. The latest figures from the MMA also state that 3.2 billion text messages were sent during March 2006. Details of its annual attitude and usage study, which involved 1,800 people, and which related to mobile marketing effectiveness, were published in February 2007. It found that up to 40% of young people, more than any other group, were more likely than any other group to show interest and use the technology. Around 69% said that they used text messaging, and 44% SMS messages on a daily basis. Participation rates in mobile marketing campaigns went up too, from 8% in 2005 to 29% in 2006.

So with mobile being one of the most ubiquitous types of media (according to New Media Age there are around 60 million mobile handsets in the UK), with a growing interest in mobile TV and the mobile internet the MMA says (there were some 1.3 billion page impressions made during December 2005), if you get it right, you have potentially one of the most persuasive direct communication channels that one could have. Most of us, after all, have a mobile phone or device either near us or on our person most of the time. It is a direct and immediate and personal channel. So the personalisation of targeted marketing messages (including advertising), offers, competitions, content and promotions are absolutely vital.
 
It’s also becoming increasingly important to offer multimedia content, and as bandwidths grow there’s more of an opportunity for creating an interactive experience. The addition of humour can encourage advocacy too. In fact an article by Wisemarketer.com says that there are ‘Five elements of successful mobile marketing campaigns’, according to mobile marketing agency, Soapbox Mobile: integration (with other media); have a clear call to action; test it over and over again; measure the response rates; and build the marketing list. I would also add to this that marketers and service providers (including broadcasters) should always act in an ethical manner to ensure that they build trust in their brands, generate viral marketing activities, and continue to build up their relationships with their customers. It’s that simple!

By Graham Jarvis,
Editor and Media Services Consultant

What is PIRI?

PIRI is an affordable, easy to use web based application that allows you to offer a wide range of reliable mobile messaging solutions to your clients, customers or users. Send out broadcast SMS messages advertising new products, run competitions and opinion polls, gather marketing information, all of this and a lot more can be achieved with PIRI.

To see what PIRI can do for you click here. 

Prevent scandals with marketing dashboard integrity

The recent TV scandals over premium line phone-in callers being overcharged even hit some well established and trusted programmes like the BBC’s Blue Peter, Channel 4’s Richard and Judy and competitions like the ITV’s the X-Factor. Was this down to human error, or was it caused by limitations in the technology that they were using for their shows? What is clear is that this scenario could have been prevented.

So how could the scandals have been prevented? “By acting with integrity; this is the simple answer, which is not always easy when the votes or entries are streaming in their thousands and driving revenue”, says Lee Bowden – a Director of mobile marketing campaign management software service provider, Piri Limited.

He adds: “When we built PIRI, ensuring there was a safety net to avoid such consumer issues was vital if we were to convince major media owners that empowerment in this field was not just cost effective but easy to implement.”

Scandals can do two things, provide an increased amount of publicity, albeit not of the kind that one would necessarily want, cause damage to people’s perceptions and trust in the brand. There are times though when the reverse can be true, but broadcasters and programme-makers still have a duty to act in an ethical manner, particularly if they want consumers to participate in their shows and competitions. In essence they should do everything within their power to avoid any unintentional overcharging of consumers.

“While the damage has been extensive”, he says, “It is not unrepairable. When consumers realise they have a true deadline or cut-off time and start realising this when they get sent I am sorry but the competition has closed, they will learn and be satisfied the campaign is being run legitimately. The media owner will still have collected a valuable number for future marketing anyway, even if it is for reminding them to get their next entry in on time!”

Bowden believes that a mobile marketing dashboard is the answer, in order to ensure that this situation never occurs again, “The person responsible for setting up the competition or voting campaign enters a start date and time but also the close time. Any sender of a message received after the close time is simply sent a message that states the competition is closed and they would not be charged. If an incorrect time is entered or edited, there is a log of exactly who is responsible and who made the change.”

Questions also arose over the role of the industry’s regulators, Icstis. Bowden believes that they are too reactive and not proactive enough, which therefore limits their ability to ever have control in “a fast moving and time critical environment.” They should, nevertheless, insist that media owners – the broadcasting companies – are responsible for such premium rate mobile and telephone campaigns, and they can do so by using a dashboard. A dashboard would prevent any charging violations, in which customers are overcharged or charged when a competition or phone-in line has officially closed. Blame should not be “passed around like around like a hot potato”, says Lee Bowden.

A dashboard can empower media owners, such as broadcasters and programme-makers. “The interface gives them a live feed response from the network, shows their profitability and actual live responses and pictures from its audience. Everything they need is at their fingertips and they are not reliant upon others for information and legislation”, he comments before adding that training on Piri’s own system only requires 30 minutes on average.

This responsibility needs to be allocated to your production team. He thinks that, “Audience interaction has been a huge success from a consumer point of view and is here to stay. They need the revenue stream more than ever as advertising revenues continue to switch to online and more targeted campaigns. If they are to protect this precious resource and maintain the confidence of their audience, they must take responsibility for it and not to a service provider who's sole interest is maximum votes/entries to ensure their percentage equates to as much as possible.”

“Future Publishing were very keen to point this out in our initial discussions with them and to date we have not had a single complaint from a competition entry or vote. That's in over 20 months and over a million entries. Scott Longstaff could back this up!”

The scandals at the end of the day were perhaps more down to human error than the capabilities of the technology that was in place at the time, but a technological fault could also have been the cause. Did the programme-makers actually set up a proper cut-off time and processes to prevent consumers from being overcharged? What is clear though is that the responsibility for acting in an ethical matter is more down to them, and that’s even though the regulators also have a duty of care towards the viewing-public. It is also apparent that such phone-in scandals can be prevented by using technology in the right way at the right time.

By Graham Jarvis MA

17th April 2007

Further reading on the impact of the scandals:

1. http://www.allmediascotland.com/articles/1097/02042007/another_day_another_tv_phone-in_scandal
2. http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/article/solution%20hopes%20for%20tv%20phone-in%20scandal_1024374
3. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6463901.stm
4. http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=298442007
5. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2007/03/22/do2203.xml

What is PIRI?

PIRI is an affordable, easy to use web based application that allows you to offer a wide range of reliable mobile messaging solutions to your clients, customers or users. Send out broadcast SMS messages advertising new products, run competitions and opinion polls, gather marketing information, all of this and a lot more can be achieved with PIRI.

To see what PIRI can do for you click here.

The Internet: The key to Your New Home

In the past the main channels for those looking to buy a new home focused on advertisements in newspapers and a visit to the local estate agent. The key to your new home has since moved online; at least 89% of homebuyers now turn to the Internet as a primary source of information when looking for a new home. Berkeley Homes, one of the top 12 contractors and house-builders in the UK, says that more and more homebuyers are turning to the Internet than ever before to help find their new home. The company also feels that online marketing and e-business is no longer something to take for granted. It is imperative to the company’s continued growth and success.

The Berkeley Group use GOSS iCM software to deliver fully content managed sites to support their thriving presence in high quality housing development. The flexibility of the iCM platform has enabled the Berkeley Group to create additional sites quickly and easily. Using the Internet to communicate with potential customers has been an extremely successful strategy for the Berkeley Group who recently revitalised the berkeleyhomes.co.uk website. The Berkeley Group’ range of companies is embracing the Internet as a key medium for selling property through initiating interest and meeting customer needs. 

The company’s sites use Flash technology to provide users with a rich interactive experience. The formation of microsites has enabled the Group to provide high quality imagery of their new developments alongside detailed information. Home-buying can be extremely stressful and people have little time on their hands and a very good idea of the kind of property they want in terms of location, specification and price. The Group’s microsites deliver quality information to potential homebuyers who are able to see exactly what is available, using a medium that enables 24/7 access.

The Benefits of Online Home-Seeking

Berkeley Homes believes that consumers can benefit from the following when using the Internet to find a new home:

• New developments within a specific geographic region can be located;
• The availability of plots can be checked and viewed;
• Homes that meet a buyer’s criteria can be short listed;
• Purchasers can take a virtual tour;
• Floor plans, specifications, fitting options can all be viewed;
• Detailed photographs or artistic impressions of properties can be viewed;
• Comparisons can be made between houses that meet their criteria;
• Show homes can be viewed online along with sales office opening times and contact details;
• Local information can be accessed e.g. schools, transport links.

The company says that the increased number of sales and transactions through its electronic channels supports these findings. These channels include Berkeley Homes’ corporate websites, microsites, property portals and other online marketing services. These are not just successful but they are also cost effective, flexible and measurable. It has also seen an increase in the requests for brochures, registrations, viewing requests and email enquiries since it began working with GOSS.

The Berkeley Group in partnership with GOSS has developed “Comprehensive websites that are packed with features and functions, easy to use and navigate and with an attractive design”, says Lisa San. The sites, which include a simple registration process, are considered a pleasurable experience for the company’s customers. They are in effect designed to attract interest in the houses and plots available, and retain customers, while enabling sales offices to track potential prospects and get in touch with them to either arrange appointments or answer a customer’s queries.

The customer also has 24/7 access to information about what is available in the property market, and this includes a global reach. Electronic channels are also seen as being more cost-efficient, with a shorter lead-time, enabling more effective targeting, and with the potential for a higher conversion rate to sales. They can also send out personalised messages to each potential customer to provide a welcoming and customer-specific experience.

GOSS Wins the Key, But Why?

The Berkeley Group feels that the GOSS iCM software is very easy to manage in terms of the content and data that is distributed across its sites. The solution attracted them to GOSS, over and above other providers in the market, because content can be easily kept apart from the design function of websites. This has made it possible to maintain high levels of consistency.

It cites other benefits including the ability of the system to automate approval processes, the re-usability of templates and code libraries. It says that it has also been possible to develop a number of microsites with different designs, but with everything still controlled and managed centrally. Further key benefits of working with GOSS include:

• Good customer service and account management;
• Excellent design, development and Flash skills.
• The provision of excellent technical support, knowledge and advice when necessary;
• The iCM product is flexible enough to enable The Berkeley Group to do a lot of the development without having to continually go back to GOSS for help;
• Continuous enhancements to the iCM system.

Plan Ahead to Feel at Home

Microsites form an important part of Berkeley Group’s e-marketing strategy, particularly so with regards to the promotion of its flagship development projects. These sites are used to provide more in-depth and targeted information about specific projects than the corporate website can provide. This includes the use of various types of ‘imageries’ or graphics to enhance the look, feel, and attractiveness of the available plots and developments. This also has the complementary aim of answering a customer’s enquiries at the first point of contact.

“We have found that microsites have been very successful in driving prospects to our show homes and marketing suites allowing our sales negotiators to convert them into sales or sustain an ongoing communication with them to cultivate the sales cycle”, comments Lisa San.

GOSS iCM has allowed the group to push its design and web development skills to their limits too. All of its microsites use a similar type of structure and common functionality. This allows the developers to create the code once and then replicate it a number of times with ease, so a site can be deployed in a matter of minutes and the templates built in a few days rather than a few weeks.

The solution is flexible enough to help with the planning of the design, data hierarchies, and business processes. Any changes to an existing structure can be easily reflected in a new one with respect to the navigation menus and the site maps. Berkeley Homes have also effectively employed the approval processes contained with the solution to ensure that the content within the site is ‘correct and valid’.

The Berkeley Homes sites have been identified as being up to date, informative and interactive, with the Royal Arsenal microsite winning the prestigious Daily Mail Property Developer Website in 2005. The Group plan to continue developing sites to provide home seekers with an online interface that is attractive and easy to use.

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About GOSS Interactive

GOSS provides hosted services and intelligent and enterprise-wide content management solutions. GOSS solutions are based on a sound understanding of your requirements and the technology we use to meet your customers’ needs.

To contact GOSS for further information please call +44(0) 1752 517 350 or email Sharron.Robbie@gossinteractive.com  or visit: http://www.gossinteractive.com/BerkeleyHomes