November 2008

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Email to Wayne Swan

November 30, 2008 in Online by Anthony | No comments

Like a lot of other people in Australia, I am not happy with the ALP’s Clean Feed Policy. I have recently sent an email to my local member, who I actually voted for in the latest election, outlining my objections. I plan on following this up too, to make sure that my views are noticed. I encourage everyone with an interest in this to get in touch with their representative and make their own thoughts known too. At the end of the day, these people work for us, and they have been put in office to govern for everyone, and not for the interests of a single group. Especially in matters of personal choice, freedom and morality.

Dear Mr Swan,

There has been a lot said in regards to the clean feed, and the reasons that I oppose this have been stated better by others, but I would like to draw your attention to a few that stand out for me. The issues can be neatly divided into two categories, technical and ethical.

The technology being trialed is flawed:
- It will not succeed in its stated aims, while imposing an unacceptable price in performance loss, monetary cost, and over-filtering.
- There are already ISPs that have built their business models on providing a clean feed to those that want them, rendering a Government-imposed clean feed redundant.

The project is also highly unethical:
- The internet is built on interaction; in essence this policy is aimed at censoring conversation.
- The definition offered for what constitutes ‘illegal’ content is very vague; in a country where there is no formal protection of freedom of speech this is very sinister.
- Discussion on censoring information relating to certain lifestyles (eg, anorexia), no matter how unacceptable they may be, is not acceptable in any free democracy where there is open discourse on ideas.

There are a number of other issues with this policy, but they are discussed more fully here: http://www.nocleanfeed.com/

While I voted for you and the Labor Party last time, I feel strongly enough about this issue that my vote will be directed elsewhere in future.

Regards

Anthony Contoleon

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Email’s post mail-out effect

November 19, 2008 in Advertising, Online by Anthony | No comments

For most of the commercial internet’s life, email has figured prominently as a major moneymaker for a lot of operators, both site owners and affiliates. Its use has continued despite the obstacles and bad reputation has been because it does make money.  Most of the time.

In a recent campaign using a third party list I observed something interesting. The mail-out was moderately successful in its first two days, generating a fair few hits and sales. What was novel was that the promotional code continued to be used over the course of the next two weeks, following a consistent sales and traffic curve over the course of the week. The traffic over this period took a sharp drop and roughly equalled the sales figures for volume. Over the post campaign period, almost everyone that visited the page, bought the product.

The creatives used in this campaign were all focused. They consistently communicated a single offer that was relevant to the list used, and from the creative to the single landing page and the cart, limited onsite leaks. While sales were limited to a small percentage of the people mailed, the value per customer was high.

The initial result, and the ongoing traffic and sales confirms that this campaign did deliver something of value to the customer. Like other good campaigns, this one was a success because it offered a targeted promotion that provides real value to the right customer.

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Brisbane Football without diehard fans?

November 11, 2008 in Social by Anthony | No comments

Football (soccer to some) in Brisbane is reaching a tipping point this season as crowd figures drop, the city’s national league team fails to produce results at home and both newcomers to the game and long time fans lose interest in the team. With another local team entering the competition next season just an hour down the road the club needs to deal with these issues or lose even more supporters in the next season.

From the start the A-League and the clubs involved have targeted the family market at the expense of existing football fans. Most of the targeted demographic did not already follow a foreign team, or have any interest in the now defunct NSL. As many of us had suspected, and as has been demonstrated in the crowd figures, this market does not stick around when there is a losing streak. The league and some of the teams have failed to align themselves with the hopes and desires of the football public.

Briefly some of the main issues I have seen in Brisbane with the Queensland Roar have been:

  • Support of a fan group that has polarised the community and slowly imploded.
  • Neglecting to connect with existing football fans and players in Brisbane.
  • Lack of effective promotion efforts both above and below the line.
  • Released PR that represented the club’s attitude to its fan base in a negative way.
  • Mismanaged stadium security due to a ‘family friendly’ ethos.
  • Misalignment with expectations of what a football club should be.

The Queensland Roar in particular and the A-League in general have failed to capitalise on the opportunity that they had in an environment without competition. The Queensland Roar have failed to build a solid base of fans who will come to every game, regardless of ‘entertainment budget’, and are now in a position where something has to change.

The biggest issue facing the Queensland Roar is that it has not been a part of the community long enough to build a performance resistant supporter base. To deal with this the club needs to provide another reason or rationale for supporters to follow them regardless of the results.

The message that the Roar has been able to communicate is not one that a lot of fans are interested in. I suspect that the club, based on its behaviour, has forgotten that it has no natural right to its audience’s attention. To go all Seth Godin, no-one has to care about a brand. Ultimately it will be about what the brand has to offer the customer.

I think the Roar has acted as if this is not true.

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New post, new blog

November 2, 2008 in Online by Anthony | No comments

Welcome to the Contoleon.com blog. I am based and Brisbane and currently working for Greyhound Australia as their Online Marketing Coordinator. In this blog I plan to talk about ideas, current issues, including internet censorship as proposed by the current Australian government, and the online space in general.

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