The Which? cover letter had 5 color blocks on the right with all the contact details I need, plus my details and Membership Number. All very handy & practical. So I called the Which? Helpline and met their automated phone system. I fully expected the usual hellish experience. The first thing that struck me was the calm, level male voice giving me 5 options. They were clear and unhurried. Reassuring. I chose option 2 to cancel my subscription. A brief moment of music and “Richard” came on the line: “Hello, how can I help? Do you want to cancel your subscription?” He confirmed my name and address, gave me a cancel ref code and thanked me for telling him why I didn’t want the subscription. All done.

I came off the phone thinking this is the smoothest automated phone system I’ve encountered in a long while. Everything worked. There was no rush. No barrage of options. No wrong clicks – no dead ends, wrong department, try again. It just worked. I’m sure the folks at Which? know they have a great system. I would encourage any businesses that use automated phone help and directory systems to dial up the Which? Helpline on +44 1922 822 800 and listen to how they do it. Which? has proved their goal is quality. They focus on creating satisfaction for their customers. Even the ones who are signing off. That’s class!

Which? integrates website, print and phone with customer satisfaction as priority.

A new study by 2 University of California research groups carefully mapped out the registration, hosting and monetization of several spam and scam efforts. What they found wasn’t anything new. We all know that there are countries you can register and host in that turn a blind eye. But what was new was realizing that the whole chain rests on the spammers getting paid for whatever they’re pushing. And that was like a lightbulb? Would it be possible to pressure the banks NOT to clear these questionable transactions?

It is an appealing idea. No doubt fraught with legislative and regulatory issues, cross-border diplomacy and a whole lot more. However, it is “common practice” for the clearing banks to vet and approve individuals and businesses. So why not extend this to vet the spammers food chain?

To read the report “Click Trajectories: End-to-End Analysis of the Spam Value Chain” – a free PDF download -  click here.

Here’s the Abstract from the research report:

Spam-based advertising is a business. While it has engendered both widespread antipathy and a multi-billion dollar anti-spam industry, it continues to exist because it fuels a profitable enterprise. We lack, however, a solid understanding of this enterprise’s full structure, and thus most anti-spam interventions focus on only one facet of the overall spam value chain (e.g., spam filtering, URL blacklisting, site takedown). In this paper we present a holistic analysis that quantifies the full set of resources employed to monetize spam email— including naming, hosting, payment and fulfillment—using extensive measurements of three months of diverse spam data, broad crawling of naming and hosting infrastructures, and over 100 purchases from spam-advertised sites. We relate these resources to the organizations who administer them and then use this data to characterize the relative prospects for defensive interventions at each link in the spam value chain. In particular, we provide the first strong evidence of payment bottlenecks in the spam value chain; 95% of spam-advertised pharmaceutical, replica and software products are monetized using merchant services from just a handful of banks.

I teamed up with Eoin Kennedy of Slattery Communications for this brief but comprehensive overview article – just published in Chambers Ireland’s InBusiness magazine. Click here to read the full 4-page article online. You’ll find Eoin’s blog here and Chambers website here. Enjoy!

SOCIAL MEDIA IS NOW THE MAINSTREAM. No longer the territory of nerds and techies. Globally it has come of age. However, the idea that social media marketing can be achieved by tinkering for a few hours online is entirely false. While it is easy for individuals to engage, making social media work for business requires knowledge, skill and insight. Social media is the public space and for companies wanting to leverage this new market, real expertise is needed. It requires clear aims and clever thinking to get good results.

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Flickr and Pix.ie are all social media portals. Facebook is by far the largest with over 500 million daily users worldwide, including 1.5 to 1.9 million in Ireland. Social media is where we find the majority of people hanging out these days, where users share news, photos and gossip with friends and colleagues. It has spread all over the globe and is ever present.

In the social media world it is the public who rule the airwaves. It hasn’t taken long for businesses to realise that’s a lot of people and a vast potential market. In the past couple of years we have seen huge growth in social media campaigns, from some of the largest global brands to some of the very clever smaller companies too.

The term ‘going viral’ belongs to social media and is the Holy Grail when ‘talking up’ your brand, product or project. It can spread instantly around the globe. But how do you ensure that your message stays on track and doesn’t backfire? This has already led to a new service offering called reputation management and is changing how the public and media relationship works.

To read how you can make Social Work for your business – click here to read the full 4-page article online. InBusiness is published quarterly by Chambers Ireland – click here for website. To view the InBusiness magazine archives – click here.

Six attempts to choose dates came up with “The Special Package isn’t available for those dates. Change dates?” Without any way at all to GET AT or SEE these darn Special Package rates!

Cassa Hotel New York City (SPAM)

So, here’s this VERY UPSCALE New York Hotel, with rates in excess of $400 a night, sending out SPAM and screwing up the booking process so even the method doesn’t work. It is very surprising to me. We all like to think the Americans have the internet down pat, don’t we? Not always the case, or Cassa in this case.

1. I don’t understand why such an expensive, upscale hotel would resort to spamming. Is this the quality of their enterprise? It doesn’t fit at all.
2. NOT getting all of the parts in place to ensure it works, just adds incompetence and annoyance to the “new brand” – the Cassa Hotel New York. I shall remember them, and be sure not to book in!

Woofers by Sander Mulder

For a quick view of some of the best creative ideas in media, you’ll enjoy Creativity’s On Design, part of a suite of blogs celebrating interactive, cross-media and installation design. Go ahead and enjoy poking around – and be aware that not far into exploring you’ll be hit with a well-crafted lightbox pop-up ‘inviting’ you to subscribe for $99. You can ignore and you’ll still get plenty of eye-food for free and some refreshing ideas too.

I fail to understand why Creativity’s main page, which offers the latest campaigns from ad agencies, requires a $99 subscription to view. Seems to be a self-defeating approach. But do check out their “Integrated Production White Paper“, which dis-integrates some of the most productive agencies to see how their departments and their talent execute all manner of new ideas. A bit of a mouthful, but worth the PDF download. Who said getting at new ideas was easy!

Neo Ogilvy - The Falling Man as concept?

This morning’s New Thinking, Gerry McGovern’s e-newsletter, was titled “The reason why ad agency websites are truly awful” pointing out their lack of grasp of web fundamentals – that people like to “do” things and “interact” with websites. Most of us in the web industry are aware of the pitfalls of using Flash as the frontpage or whole site too. Doesn’t seem like Neo Ogilvy got that message.

So I wasn’t greatly surprised to find NeoOgilvy.ie is a Flash site. Visually well done. Big typeface messaging. Who We Are, What We Do. Just what you’d expect from anyone selling their talents. But there is absolutely nothing NEW or NEO about it. Instead Ogilvy rolls out the usual pitch – we do it all. This is 2010. What were they doing for the last decade?

Under “What’s Different?” it says: “Our fluid understanding of digital territories underpins our approach to the development and delivery of successful consumer engagement strategies…” That sounds fine. But there isn’t any sign that Ogilvy actually grasp what “interactivity” is about. The website is an advertisement, a one-way broadcast. This doesn’t add up to a “fluid understanding of digital…”

Ogilvy needed to “show & tell” with NeoOgilvy – big time. Alas, there’s nothing new here. Except perhaps the frontpage image of a falling man. Is this image meant to impress their clients? Who exactly is falling? Client or agency? In our current climate it is an unnerving image & reminds of those who jumped off skyscrapers in New York as the Stock Market crashed.

I interviewed Eoin Kennedy of Slattery Communications (online PR and social media networking), Maurice McGee of FreshConsulting (SEO), and Peter Cullen of Interleado (SEO and web metrics) and asked them to explain their expertise in a way that the average non-technical or non-expert person could understand. The result is a very useful guide.

See GET CONNECTED pages 52-56

Creating a website and optimising it so that your company, products and services can be quickly and easily found is becoming a standard business procedure. You don’t have to be a big brand to benefit from these same methodologies.

The arrival of Social Media has added to the places where you can promote business and brand online. When done properly, your presence in the Social Media world – Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter etc – can lead to increased visibility with your clients and higher rankings in the search engines. Social Media is also where you get to interact with your clients. It is a perfect venue for clever and smart promotion campaigns.

Your business can benefit from understanding each, and best of all – all three together. Online marketing is no longer a maybe, it is a given. In the coming decade businesses who fail to take it up will find their markets overrun by those who have picked up the challenge and the opportunity.

READ the online edition here or on Chambers Ireland’s website here.

Feedback and ideas are welcome in email here.

The only problem with this view is that it is entirely false. Oh, it’s true that the advertising agencies are pushing youth – but that’s been going on since the 60′s, across all media. And under 30′s definitely have more disposable income. But the real Dollar Power, Euro Power too, is with those OLDER than 30. Last year an episode of the American TV series “Boston Legal” had great craic, supporting a septagenarian to sue “the networks” for “fair representation” at least equal to their Dollar Power. They claimed over 40% was in the hands of the “oldies”.

We’re likely to see a shift on the web in the next few years. Certainly, it is now important to understand your target age group. So why are so few companies selling the over 30s? What about the Dollar Power in Ireland of the over 50s? It would be interesting to see some research.

“Getting Your Business Online” – I’m editing a new series in Chambers Ireland’s InBusiness Magazine. You can read it online – CLICK HERE – and will find it on pages 58-61. Any feedback very welcome. If you would like to contribute or be interviewed for future issues – email me here.

In 2010 we will be covering many of the basic and mid-level problems business people face when trying to get their businesses working and profitable on the web. We will avoid tech-speak and talk plainly, giving best advice and directions.

The aim of the series is to empower business people to take proper control of the content, marketing and success of their business websites – without needing to become a “techie”. The focus is on doing business online.