Back in the day, an online presence was all about being easily seen and found by a wide audience. It’s interesting now to watch moves by many real-world businesses to use the net to communicate with local audiences — people in their own city or even their own neighbourhood.

You may also have noticed that Google searches have local searches showing up more often.

So what does this all mean if you want to communicate via your website with local people?

The first step is to have locality-based information in your page copy, links and titles. …read more>>

Alarm bells should have given Telecom bosses tinnitus ahead of the launch last week of the no-sex, Abstain for the Game campaign.

Let’s recap.

• Backing Black, the Telecom-backed, All Blacks supporters network, launched a campaign whereby fans could pledge support by promising to abstain from sex for the duration for the Rugby World Cup.
• In return they would get a pledge band (rubber ring) to signify their commitment.

 
While justification for World Cup abstinence wasn’t forthcoming, one can only assume participants were supposed to be developing empathy for the All Blacks in a World Cup love lockdown.

However, surely that was based on a false premise. There’s never been any suggestion the national team would be called on to abstain. (And was the unfortunate connection that rubber rings have with farmers docking their sheep ever considered?!) …read more>>

Just a quick post to let people know that we have a client testimonial page on the site now to give more details of the work we do and the results we get. You can find it here: http://www.facttactic.co.nz/testimonials.html

A fun look here at advertisements for old personal computers and laptops: PC ads that will blow your processor.

Here’s a very nifty postal gimmick … great for customising envelopes: the Google Map Envelope.

Simply enter a location in the box and get back an envelope ready to print with a Google map picture of the location you chose. Nice!

A huge sign on a hill shouting out Wellington’s high-standing in the movie industry seems a good idea but the slang word chosen — ‘Wellywood’ — has long been a slightly juvenile, throw-away and ironic term that has somehow crept into the mainstream.

And as a PR opportunity for the capital’s undoubted world-class skills and success in international move-making, the Miramar hill is a great site for incoming tourist flights, but Wellywood is an opportunity wasted.  It may be familiar and humorous to some ‘in the know’ but I’m siding with the growing number of voices calling it tacky.

But at Facttactic we’re not in the business of criticising things without offering positive solutions so it was great to see the guys at online-design outfit Skull and Bones with their interactive Wellywood Sign Generator. Type in your own word or phrase and see what it looks like on the side of the hill!

Do you like to ‘think outside the box’? Well, keep it to yourself! The phrase has just been voted the most annoying office buzz phrase, followed by ‘Let’s touch base’ and ‘Blue sky thinking’.  Here’s the top 10 most annoying phrases.

It’s great to see that list — for a couple of reasons:

Firstly, because that empty phrase has long annoyed me and I was astounded to see that the pinnacle of Wellington’s international cultural scene — the Arts Festival — seems to have used it as the main metaphor in their marketing for this year. Have they no idea?! Or do they mean ‘one out of the box’? Another corporate and empty cliche. Bring back the zing!

The other, more positive reason I like it is because it is a great example of how to get global media attention. The survey comes from a London firm, Opinium; and, if you Google it, it has appeared in more than 70 media outlets around the world.

A snappy idea, a well-crafted media release, the reach of the internet and you have an idea that can quickly go global. The actual content of the release may not have a direct spin-off for the firm, but the wit and relevance behind the whole thing means its name is highlighted globally and positively.

By the way, the annoying jargon came 4th on a list of things that annoy workers the most. Grumpy or moody colleagues, slow computers and office gossip made up the top three.

A good read here about the marketing efforts of the Big Day Out organisers and whether their ‘controlled kaos’ is really giving the finger to mainstream society as inferred, or is just another slick commercial money-making machine in poor disguise; and in today’s marketplace, where ‘authenticity’ is the name of the game, the article is a good dissection of where the BDO’s marketing authenticity really lies.

Have you ever noticed that a large number of Hollywood movie posters have blue and orange as their two main colours? Blue for tranquility and orange for action and energy.

It’s the best combination of colours to lure people into the cinema, they reckon. Think that sounds far fetched, check this page out!

I’ll never be able to look at another movie poster again … but it does shows the power of colour in communication.

You might also be interested to read an article on an NZ Trade and Enterprise website that looks at how businesses can use colours to guide customers to action, especially on websites.

Having worked with Weta Digital over the past year on its Avatar (the latest movie from James Cameron, the Titanic and Terminator director) project, it’s great to see all the movie’s amazing digital art work from Weta’s seriously talented and dedicated crew finally being seen in public before the release mid next month. There are clips all over the internet.

See the official trailer here, and here’s a clip, kind of The Making Of …