http://www.melon.com.au/index.php/melon_blog/ en dain@melon.com.au Copyright 2009 2009-06-19T07:23:00+10:00 http://www.melon.com.au/melon_blog/article/flash_video_promotion_for_decideware/ http://www.melon.com.au/melon_blog/article/flash_video_promotion_for_decideware/#When:06:23:00Z Conference animation played behind booth to promote Decideware. Melon spent five weeks from concept to design and build to produce this fantastic video for Decideware. 2009-06-19T06:23:00+10:00 http://www.melon.com.au/melon_blog/article/if_b2b_marketing_emails_could_talk/ http://www.melon.com.au/melon_blog/article/if_b2b_marketing_emails_could_talk/#When:06:14:00Z A skit on classic mistakes made by B2B email newsletters: failure to deliver value, use of no-reply addresses, poor targeting, failed personalisation, etc… Enjoy. 2009-06-19T06:14:00+10:00 http://www.melon.com.au/melon_blog/article/spam_act_and_you_5_things_to_increase_your_deliverability/ http://www.melon.com.au/melon_blog/article/spam_act_and_you_5_things_to_increase_your_deliverability/#When:01:32:00Z The best way to check if your message is going to be caught by a junk mail filter is to test, test, test. There are many different types of email browsers and ISP settings behind them. If you have access to an email browser checker like litmus then use that, otherwise set up a ‘test database’ of email addresses going to Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook and Thunderbird. Both Hotmail and Gmail have very good spam checkers and a problem with either of these should indicate a problem across the board with your message. If the email gets caught by your ISP there are a few things you can try… The first is to try sending the message as a plain text version only.  This will alert you to something in the HTML if it doesn’t get caught. The second is to ensure that you have all necessary CAN SPAM elements within your email (view online, unsubscribe, sender details, etc). The third is to make sure there are no honey-pot addresses in your list. These are addresses intentionally set up to catch spammers. If your email lands in one - it affects your deliverability. Basically give your list a once over and remove any suspect addresses. Fourthly make sure that your sender details are appropriate - that your email and subject will be what people are expecting. Finally it is a good idea to always over-communicate that you will be emailing your clients.  Put it on the website, let them know what address it will be coming from and ask that they white-list it. Suggest users to check their junk folder - if you have indicated you will email them and it doesn’t arrive then you want to have a prompt there to ensure it doesn’t get lost. You want your clients to become familiar with your email. Unfortunately there is no cure-all for ensuring deliverability (otherwise we would be flooded with emails for cheap medications) but these steps will all help towards building your open rate. Email Marketing Articles and Tips 2009-05-25T01:32:00+10:00 http://www.melon.com.au/melon_blog/article/ubiquity/ http://www.melon.com.au/melon_blog/article/ubiquity/#When:04:16:00Z Anyone could be forgiven for thinking that the world that we know it is coming to an end… but not for the reasons apparent. Yes, the economy is geting worse, planes are dropping out of the sky, mother nature is sending whatever she can throw at us and human nature is leaving a lot to be desired. But my anticipation (or trepidation) stems from a change coming on the technological side of things, a change that will affect how we function as a society, a change that has been building for some time. This change is ‘ubiquity’. It is everywhere. It is the turning point from where we view technology as a tool and instead view it as an integrated, invisible part of our lives. It’s where we wonder how we ever survived without it in the first place. Ubiquity is - in essence - being everywhere at once. A balanced harmonious correlation of many different aspects. The first of which is communication. There is an advertisement which recently aired called ”whalesong”, which - initiated by Optus - has a small orchestra set on a raft in the ocean, using their instruments to encourage a nearby whale to communicate with them. Whilst the ad itself is spectacular, it was the tagline which was the key inspiration for this rant; “When you have communication, anything is possible”. So simple, so true. If you were to take a look at our current means of communication from a decade-old viewpoint, you would consider today’s methods as overkill. Not counting the phone, you have: Twitter, Yammer, Messenger (IRC), Skype, VOIP, SMS, MMS, Streaming, Blogging, Email… All ways to communicate. 10 years ago the only three of these which existed was IRC, SMS and email.  20 years ago it was pick up a phone or actually start a conversation with somebody.  Face-to-face. You see then that Communication = Information. This ease of communication allows for what is basically a hive-sharing of information to exist - and that can only be a good thing. This month when the power was cut to the majority of the Sydney CBD, communication didn’t stop - it increased. Those of us with mobile internet access flooded twitter with messages - sharing information with each other to reveal who was affected and to what extent. The twittersphere knew more than Energy Australia for the first half hour. This communication is becoming so instantaneous and so ingrained into our lives that it will become a kind of digital telepathy - a sharing of thoughts and information. When US Airway’s Flight 1549 ditched in the Hudson river one of the first photos taken was not from a news photographer - but from a bystander with a camera phone. And whilst the photographer could have held on to that photo to profit from it by selling to a paper or magazine, it was instead uploaded to twitpic - shared for everyone to see - for free. The photographer’s motive wasn’t selfish. In fact, it was probably instinctive to get the word out as quickly as possible. It is an indication things to come. --- The second aspect is content. Digital is fast - and very quickly becoming our preferred medium of choice for our day-to-day content. Information is delivered to our browser, our phones and our televisions. Anything unknown can be discovered within minutes… or less. The new Amazon Kindle, designed as a digital ebook reader, is being touted as the Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy (or at least the Earth) due to it’s wireless connectivity and ability to look up wikitravel and wikipedia from whever you are. So I could wake up and find myself in a backwater town in the mid-western states and without too much trouble work out exactly how much trouble I was in. (Finding out HOW I got there in the first place is another story). Now the great part about this is that the majority of this information is crowd-sourced - that is: information is gathered from those who have knowledge on the subject, verified and then made available for the rest of us. I can ask a quick question on twitter and have an answer almost immediately - and if that answer is misinformation it would be very quickly corrected. I can search on Wikipedia for practically anything with the knowledge that what I’m reading is true and correct due to the wiki’s verification process. I can search for a particular object on getprice and get a list of the cheapist stockists of that item in Australia. Heck, I can even listen to the radio on my phone, hit a button when a song I like comes on to get the title and artist, and then hit another button to purchase that song and download it straight to my phone. Right there. --- This leads to the third aspect - availability. Today we are breeding a new generation. I like to call them “gen-now” because that’s when they want everything. Now. And they want it now because they can get it now (pocket-money or pay-check excepted). When was the last time you bought a boxed CD? Personally for me I can’t remember. Customers are increasingly choosing to download digital versions of their purchases rather than aquiring a physical version. Everything from software to music to video. Technically you don’t even have to go to the supermarket anymore. There is a lot of opportunity out there for those with a broadband connection. And whilst change can be good - it can also be hard and it can also leave people behind. --- So whilst I maintain that a change is coming - it is important to remember that it’s been coming for some time now and may take some time yet. But little by little - and you won’t even notice it - we will find ourselves in an instant, informed and involved society. It will be interesting to see how our future generations assimilate this information, it will be interesting to see how ubiquitous, or “Everywhere” our lives become. This is an exciting time to be alive. Assuming the planet doesn’t destroy us first, of course. Thoughts and Ponderings 2009-05-22T04:16:00+10:00 http://www.melon.com.au/melon_blog/article/apple_to_buy_twitter/ http://www.melon.com.au/melon_blog/article/apple_to_buy_twitter/#When:22:40:00Z I read an interesting intro this morning from ITWire: “Twitter is the hottest Internet social networking property right now. Apple has a ton of spare cash. So are the rumours true, can Apple really be about to buy Twitter for US $700 million?” I barely got past the heading.  This is ridiculous, right?  What would Apple have to gain from purchasing Twitter?  They just don’t fit together. Somehow I didn’t think there was any credence to this rumour… but then I started to think about what exactly Apple could do with the 140 character social phenomenon. At first glance the thought of Apple buying Twitter seems preposterous.  For starters, Apple is renowned for doing its own thing - and would be more likely to develop their own micro-blogging tool. Secondly, Apple has stated that whilst it is sitting on HUGE reserves of cash - that’s what they like to do - conservatively investing to increase its profits and shares. Thirdly, Apple has a very particular business and branding model - of which the remarkably messy Twitter falls far short of. And finally, Twitter is well known for not having made a cent of profit since launching.  Why would you purchase a business without any plans on how to monetise it? So what would Apple gain from this acquisition? Let’s put aside the increasingly expanding user-base (currently at 25 million users and growing weekly), the explosion of the social awareness of micro-blogging and the simple method of staying in touch, sharing links and advertising your thoughts. Knowing Apple they will find a way to tie this in with their products and, more importantly, their software… See where I’m going with this? Apple has long lauded the amazing simplicity and power of their iLife suite.  Now imagine twitter integrated into this. - Upload the latest photos from your camera to iPhoto and then single click to share your favourites with your followers. - Lay down a cool tune in Garage Band and get feedback instantly from friends. - Your favourite song comes on in iTunes and you just have to let everybody know - click the tweet button to send the song details to twitter, along with a link back to the iTunes store so others can purchase it. I can see the ad-line now… “It’s your iLife… connected”. As crazy as it initially seems, Apple buying Twitter may turn out to be a very nice prospect. What are your thoughts? Thoughts and Ponderings 2009-05-06T22:40:00+10:00 http://www.melon.com.au/melon_blog/article/australian_anthill_article_innovation_during_perspiration/ http://www.melon.com.au/melon_blog/article/australian_anthill_article_innovation_during_perspiration/#When:02:17:00Z My most recent article in Australian Anthill Magazine has been published. You can read the article direct on the Anthill website or view the PDF from the printed version. Kevin Melon Media News 2009-04-20T02:17:00+10:00 http://www.melon.com.au/melon_blog/article/pixels_vs_vectors/ http://www.melon.com.au/melon_blog/article/pixels_vs_vectors/#When:03:03:00Z Pixels VS. Vectors   If you’ve ever had to try to explain the difference between pixels and vectors or if you’ve never been able to understand the difference yourself, this edition of MacMerc.TV is for you. 2009-02-13T03:03:00+10:00 http://www.melon.com.au/melon_blog/article/not_hating_the_hired_digital_help_8_questions_you_should_ask/ http://www.melon.com.au/melon_blog/article/not_hating_the_hired_digital_help_8_questions_you_should_ask/#When:02:20:00Z Melon Media started out as a specialist email marketing agency but has evolved into full service digital agency. As we assist an increasing number of organisations with their websites and general online marketing one consistent surprising theme has emerged: the ongoing poor experience clients have with their suppliers assisting them with their websites. “My freelancer disappeared to India for 3 months and we have no way of contacting him - can you assist with these urgent updates?” “We have been unhappy with the service our web development company has provided to us, but they want to charge us an exorbitant amount of money to provide our data to us in a form that we can use in another content management system.” “My web development company are smart people but getting them to do anything the way that I want it is such a struggle.” The above are a sample of real life comments from clients that have asked us for assistance after struggling with other suppliers.   I thought it would be useful to put together some questions that you should ask your prospective web development/web design company/freelancer. What is your company’s approach with respect to servicing customers?   +If the prospective supplier can only talk about design or development issues and have no awareness of account management or customer service, consider this a warning sign.   The web industry has many many smart and talented people but only a small subset of them genuinely understand how to service a customer.   What type of continuity guarantee can you provide us?   +There are some excellent freelancers in the industry- but ensure they have alternative plans in place should they get ill, go on holiday and so on.   Additional tip: should you engage a freelancer ensure that you keep copies of all logins, passwords, registration details etc. The number of new customers that come to us unable to provide details to access their systems is frightening.   What are your/your agency’s strengths/weaknesses?   +The digital space has evolved into a very broad and very deep environment. There are VERY few companies that are leaders in all aspects of online marketing.   If they say they are experts at everything, be suspicious. Some of the more common areas of online marketing include: online strategy, creative concept, web design, front-end web development, back-end web development (open source, proprietary, Microsoft, etc), Flash design, Flash development, search engine optimisation, search engine marketing, social media, email marketing, online brand development, online viral marketing, online videos, streaming media, online audio... to list but a few.   It is important to understand the strengths and limitation of your web design/web development resources.   During the development lifecycle of a project how do you maintain ongoing communication?   +Again, an outfit familiar with servicing a client effectively will be able to offer a complete answer to this question with ease and offer a variety of ways that they stay in touch with you.   How do you scope out and quote/charge for projects?   +Personally I think that suppliers should have a good enough understanding of their own capabilities and make it their business to understand the project thoroughly thereby making it straight forward to provide a fixed cost quote.   A per hour charge creates price risk for the customer yet advantages the supplier if they take longer than they should. A professional web development agency should be able to provide a fixed cost and assist the client in understanding what the boundaries of the project are - providing additional options should the project need to move beyond the initial scope.   With respect to the content management system (CMS) that you use, is it an open source system or a proprietary system? Are we easily able to switch to another supplier if required?   +Open source systems provide the client with maximum flexibility to switch between suppliers. Clients need to tread very carefully with proprietary CMS systems as they can potentially lock the client into a working relationship that can make it difficult to seamlessly transition to another supplier.   How does search engine optimisation (SEO) factor in your web projects?   +Search engine optimisation is vitally important with respect to websites. Any capable web development/design agency or freelancer should at the very least have an understanding and awareness of the basics.   What suggestions can you make to improve our web site?   +The answer to this question will help separate the more “literal” type agencies/freelancers - those that can action a list of instructions - from those with a more “strategic” bent that can assist you with constructive input.   The online industry moves so rapidly that it is vital that every organisation has an internal or external resource that can provide ongoing input into the digital strategy.   I have witnessed companies that are leaders in their fields waste a huge amount of time and financial resources by partnering with an inappropriate digital agency or freelancer.   The internet has emerged as a significant platform with respect to sales, marketing, workflow and communications. The choice of supplier can either assist in compounding the success of your organisation in a significant way, or bog you down in dealing with frustrations.   Hopefully the above questions can assist you to find the right partner for your needs.   Kevin Garber - General Manager 2009-02-13T02:20:00+10:00 http://www.melon.com.au/melon_blog/article/optus_cops_110_000_fine_for_spam/ http://www.melon.com.au/melon_blog/article/optus_cops_110_000_fine_for_spam/#When:01:00:00Z In January 2009 Optus - one of Australia’s largest telecommunication companies - was fined $110,000 for sending 20,000 electronic messages to its customers in contravention of the Spam Act 2003. This fine is the second biggest penalty imposed for a single breach of Australia’s anti-spam laws. OptusZoo Entertainment Services sent SMS messages to its customer’s mobile phones and used the sender identification “966”. Optus assumed recipients would make the connection between “966” on a mobile phone keypad, and the word "ZOO" which can also be spelt out using the three numbers. However the Australian Communications and Media Authority disagreed and the fine was imposed. Marketing is obviously a key factor to creating a brand and increasing customer awareness of a business or product. However it is important that business don’t break any laws when using the details of their customers or potential customers to market their business or product. Customer details such as name, address and contact details should be handled carefully to avoid prosecution under the Spam Act 2003. What is the Spam Act 2003 See more information about the Act in the document a practical guide for business about the Spam Act 2003 Act here (PDF). The Spam Act 2003 prohibits 'unsolicited commercial electronic messages' originating in Australia and sent to any destination, and originating overseas that are sent to an address accessed in Australia. Electronic messages include emails, instant messaging, SMS and other mobile phone messaging. Businesses must ensure that they do not use customer details to send electronic messages without: 1. consent of the customer, 2. which clearly identifies the sender of the message 3. and which includes an 'unsubscribe' facility. Failure to comply with the Spam Act 2003 can result in a penalty of up to $220,000 for a single day's contravention and a penalty of up to $1.1 million if there is a repeat contravention. Previous Fines In October 2006 The Federal Court in Perth awarded a pecuniary penalty of $4.5 million against Clarity1 Pty Ltd and $1 million against its managing director Wayne Mansfield for contravention of the Spam Act 2003 – Wayne Mansfield can be followed on twitter here (if you care to follow the thoughts of a convicted Australian spammer!). Optus’s recent $110,000 fine is a fresh reminder to Businesses that the Australian Communications and Media Authority consider the Spam Act 2003 to be an important piece of legislation and it is not to be ignored. Avoid Breaching the Spam Act 2003 Obtain Consent Businesses should ensure they have consent of the customer when engaging in direct marketing to a customer such as email and SMS advertising. Importantly the legislation does say that consent can be express or implied. Therefore it means that you can imply that the person has consented to receive your email in certain situations, for example, if you already have a business relationship with the receiver, or that they have already subscribed to your email newsletter. Clearly identifying the sender of the message Business should make sure that accurate and clear information about who the sender is sent along with the message, as well as how they can be contacted. If a Business uses a third party to send commercial electronic messages on their behalf, then this third party must include accurate information about the Business. Information about the third party is not required. Include an 'unsubscribe' facility. All messages must contain a functional unsubscribe facility, allowing people to opt-out from receiving future messages. Such a request must be honored. Address Harvesting Lastly the legislation bans the use of address-harvesting software and harvested-address lists, for the purpose of sending spam. Businesses should ensure that the use of such software and lists are for purposes other than for sending unsolicited commercial electronic messages. However lists generated manually (for example by reviewing websites) are not prohibited. Note that Businesses may use a purchased or rented list of contacts, but they need to be careful to ensure that the requirements of the Spam Act 2003 have been met (i.e. consent has been obtained). This is risky and therefore best to avoid altogether. Questions? The Australian Communications and Media Authority is the Government authority responsible for SPAM and related issues in Australia. They have a dedicated hotline for SPAM related questions: Enquiries: 1300 855 180 Email: antispamenquiries@acma.gov.au General Online Marketing Articles and Tips 2009-02-05T01:00:00+10:00 http://www.melon.com.au/melon_blog/article/forbescoms_four_email_marketing_blunders_in_one_campaign/ http://www.melon.com.au/melon_blog/article/forbescoms_four_email_marketing_blunders_in_one_campaign/#When:22:43:01Z HTML emails are a notoriously inconsistent technology and without proper quality control can be prone to errors. Every html email campaign is made up of several intricate elements where even a one character mistake can result in a significant error such as a broken link. An email arrived in our inbox on Thursday 11 December 2008 which provided us with a good case study as to how easy it is to make a multitude of errors in an email campaign - even if you are a very large established company like Forbes Publishing. Forbes distributed an email campaign that advertised a competition whereby entrants could win a skiing holiday and a diamond pendant. This was a decent prize considering there was no purchase necessary to enter and all one had to do was register to be entered into the draw - a simple process in theory. The email however contained several errors that made it difficult to work out what the campaign was about and how to get to the destination competition entry page.  Error 1 - Email Unreadable in Outlook 2007 The designer(s) created an email that utilised beautiful rich imagery, clean crisp colors and contained a clear message - we think they wanted the email to appear like the image below: However users of Microsoft Outlook 2007 didn't see the above - they instead saw the following: Users of Microsoft Outlook 2007 who received the email were unable to see the background image which resulted in the email appearing as an odd collection of illegible words on a white background. The text also didn't render in the correct size. Microsoft Outlook 2007 makes use of the Microsoft Word rendering engine to display HTML emails - this rendering engine has limited support for HTML and CSS. Furthermore the Word rendering engine doesn't support background images and does not support animated GIFS. In general Outlook 2007 fails to adequately render a whole variety of other important html/CSS elements. Error 2 - All Image Email & No Online Version This email campaign relies entirely on the background to deliver the content of the email. An all image email is poor practice as it does not take into account the large amount of people who elect to block images on incoming HTML-formatted messages in their inbox. Having images disabled on one's personal preferences or due to default settings makes this email appear as one large broken image. Many email programs default to images off and some don't even display the alternate text There is also a lack of a ‘view in browser' button/link. This online link would enable recipients to view the flawless image in a browser regardless of any html rendering problems. Error 3 - Broken Click-Through Link Assuming users were not using Outlook 2007 or had their images switched off they may have actually seen the offer and wanted to enter. However on click through they would have arrived at an error page. How did they get this wrong? The campaign essentially only has one link! An error like this is inexcusable and makes the company appear lightweight and amateur. Error 4 - Content Inconsistencies Despite the broken link in the email the Melon Team was able to work out the ‘proposed' click-through page. At first glance all seems ok however on closer inspection the following was found: Click-through entry page Html email How many differences can you spot? Consistency here obviously is a problem. Click-through page: "getaway" Html email: "get-away" Click through page and html differing upper case and apostrophe use. Where to from here? At the bottom of the email a note states: You are receiving this email because you registered at Forbes.com LLC. and signed up to receive third party emails  To manage your preferences or change your delivery address, please click here I suspect this email was put together by a third party that legitimately accessed the Forbes.com list. However the email's "from field" was "Forbes.com" and the reply to address was forbes@forbes.net. From the users' perspective this email and all its errors related to Forbes. Forbes may have been sloppy with with respect to reviewing third party emails thoroughly - and their brand has paid the price. This case study demonstrates how easy it is to ruin even a simple html email campaign. Errors resulting from lack of thoroughness *will* get noticed, impact the desired outcome of the campaign and negatively impact the brand. HTML emails are now a well established marketing and communications medium and there really is little excuse for anyone, let alone a large publishing company to get it so wrong. 2009-01-05T22:43:01+10:00