Shaw VS. Novus' via 6S Marketing's '10 Bucks Too' Campaign UPDATED
First some background, recently Shaw, a telecomms provider in Canada, offered customers of a smaller competitor Novus an amazing deal that is less than 10% of what current customers pay for similar services to 'steal away' customers from Novus. In response Novus turned to agency 6S who thought up "10 Bucks Too" a campaign to push Shaw to offer this amazing deal to other customers outside of the Novus areas of service.
This story has been heating up our little Vancouver corner of Social Media Marketing. 6S Marketing, one of Vancouver's premier Internet Marketing outfits, has set off a storm of conversation and controversy around the use of Social Media Marketing that seems 'organic' or naturally occuring.
With the help of Matt from Novus 6s created this video:
Here is a different YouTube video they created with Matt from Novus:
The internet has responded with a bunch of posts:
- Shaw and Novus square off via social media over $10 promotion -TechVibes July 29th, 2009.
- Novus vs Shaw: The Great Canadian Battle of Social Media -By: Duane Brown August 6th, 2009.
- Novus-Shaw Price War - Shaw Files Defamation Suit Against Novus -Stop the Cap August 24th, 2009.
- Shaw Versus Novus Round 2 -TechVibes August 25th, 2009.
- Shaw sues Novus for defamation -DSL Reports August 25th, 2009.
- Shaw vs. Novus: The Other Side Of The Story -TechVibes August 26th, 2009.
- Website developer ensnared in Novus-Shaw court battle -TechVibes September 15th, 2009.
These comments originally appeared here on the first Techvibes blog entry:
SweetPea said on Thu, August 6, 2009 at 8:40 AM:
The problem with a company like 6S Marketing taking on a client like this is that they no longer become credible. When your staff is told to Tweet, post on FaceBook, messageboards about how terrible something is, you can no longer take thier word as their own personal opinions. I find myself shaking my head when employees and friends chime in with the "me too!". Didn't these people get sweet deals when they signed up with Shaw? They should have!! Every company gives out loss-leading deals to gain new customers. If you missed the boat that's on you, not the company.
...
6S put themselves out on a limb by taking on Novus as a client and running this anti-Shaw campaign. They cleverly masked it as a, "But what about the poor Shaw customers that aren't getting the deal", but in reality, they are doing their own company a major disservice and I'd imagine that the team is thinking that perhaps, this was not the best move in recent history.
6S Marketing owns the 10bucks domain.
6S Marketing employees created the FaceBook and post negatively.
6S Marketing populate messageboards and blogs with biased commentary.
On the other hand, if they were more clear about their relationship, more transparent, if employess said they work @ 6S or are related/friends of 6S instead of feigning shock and awe @ Shaw, then they'd have some sort of credibility. You'd think if they were so emotionally invested in Novus' cause, they'd make sure to put their logo's and links on all the sites...
Kelly Miller said on Thu, August 6, 2009 at 11:07 AM
Thank you for your post. 6S Marketing is an Internet marketing company that provides Social Media Marketing as well as SEO and more. We are not trying to hide our work. Just like a company hires an Ad Agency, companies hire us to provide Internet marketing. In this campaign we are simply trying to educate consumers on the pricing model offered by Shaw. If you feel it is fair for a company to offer extremely low pricing to only Novus customers then you are of course entitled to your opinion. If you feel that this pricing is unfair and predatory then you are entitled to this opinion as well. This is one of the reasons why social media is so great, it allows two way dialogue instead of ad companies just telling you what to think.
Again thank you for your post, and I look forward to future comments and dialogue.
John Blown wrote at 10:31:
Thank you for your post. 6S Marketing is an Internet marketing company that provides Social Media Marketing as well as SEO and more. We are not trying to hide our work. Just like a company hires an Ad Agency, companies hire us to provide Internet marketing. In this campaign we are simply trying to educate consumers on the pricing model offered by Shaw. If you feel it is fair for a company to offer extremely low pricing to only Novus customers then you are of course entitled to your opinion. If you feel that this pricing is unfair and predatory then you are entitled to this opinion as well. This is one of the reasons why social media is so great, it allows two way dialogue instead of ad companies just telling you what to think.
Again thank you for your post, and I look forward to future comments and dialogue.
The two posts are exactly the same as highlighted in this comment:
Novus-Pacific said on Thu, August 6, 2009 6:49 PM:
Kelly Miller? John Blown? Which one are you? If you are going to try and change public opinion, perhaps you may want to make sure your alias' are straight.
This comment has been added. It lays out the dangers in these activities:
Not-so-social-media said on Sun, August 23, 2009 at 8:35 AM:
Methinks that 6s Media's initial foray into "social media" hasn't worked out well for them and instead of building false hype, they are now in retreat mode. The Facebook group has removed Jenn Lowther and Chris Breikss as Admins( so people don't know a marketing company is behind the Group and the derogatory posts), and a post that recently called out the staff at 6S Marketing for being hypocrites(according to their own admission, they are Shaw customers, yet they are getting paid by Novus to stir up trouble) was deleted from the Group.
The post questioned the "integrity" of the staff that was posting, suggesting that if they really believed what they were posting, they'd leave Shaw right away. The post that was removed went on to say that Novus might rethink the strategy of hiring a company made up of mostly Shaw customers, to create false drame[sic] and hype, while saying negative things about Shaw.
While this has been fascinating to watch from the sidelines, I wonder if this was the best move for the local Vancouver internet marketing company. Now when we see or hear 6s Marketing staff posting or commenting, we will assume that the words they speak won't necessarily be their actual opinions, but rather the opinions of those that are paying them. They can't very well tell people they are in favor of a product or service, when they are being paid to say that, or being paid to create drama about the competition.
...
Having a social media company try to sway our thinking by creating false hype against one company or another, or having them attempt to socially engineer the thoughts of the masses by removing comments that go against their own bought-and-paid-for opinions just doesn't cut it in my opinion.
In this case, 6s Marketing has dropped the ball. I'm sure they'll try their best to turn this ship around and spin their involvement into a positive light but the beauty of "social" media is that eventually, ALL sides of the story will be told and all facts will become public.
Guess they forgot about the "social" part of social media.
Social Media as defined by Wikipedia:
"Social media is online content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies. Social media is a shift in how people discover, read and share news, information and content; it supports the human need for social interaction with technology, transforming broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many). It supports the democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers. Social media has become extremely popular because it allows people to connect in the online world to form relationships for personal, political and business use. Businesses also refer to social media as user-generated content(UGC) or consumer-generated media (CGM)." -Wikipedia
I will let these statements tell this Social Media Marketing tale.
Please comment below
Thank you for your post. 6S Marketing is an Internet marketing company that provides Social Media Marketing as well as SEO and more. We are not trying to hide our work. Just like a company hires an Ad Agency, companies hire us to provide Internet marketing. In this campaign we are simply trying to educate consumers on the pricing model offered by Shaw. If you feel it is fair for a company to offer extremely low pricing to only Novus customers then you are of course entitled to your opinion. If you feel that this pricing is unfair and predatory then you are entitled to this opinion as well. This is one of the reasons why social media is so great, it allows two way dialogue instead of ad companies just telling you what to think.
Again thank you for your post, and I look forward to future comments and dialogue.
A little earlier the same day on that aforementioned Facebook discussion this was posted:
John Blown wrote at 10:31:
Thank you for your post. 6S Marketing is an Internet marketing company that provides Social Media Marketing as well as SEO and more. We are not trying to hide our work. Just like a company hires an Ad Agency, companies hire us to provide Internet marketing. In this campaign we are simply trying to educate consumers on the pricing model offered by Shaw. If you feel it is fair for a company to offer extremely low pricing to only Novus customers then you are of course entitled to your opinion. If you feel that this pricing is unfair and predatory then you are entitled to this opinion as well. This is one of the reasons why social media is so great, it allows two way dialogue instead of ad companies just telling you what to think.
Again thank you for your post, and I look forward to future comments and dialogue.
The two posts are exactly the same as highlighted in this comment:
Novus-Pacific said on Thu, August 6, 2009 6:49 PM:
Kelly Miller? John Blown? Which one are you? If you are going to try and change public opinion, perhaps you may want to make sure your alias' are straight.
This comment has been added. It lays out the dangers in these activities:
Not-so-social-media said on Sun, August 23, 2009 at 8:35 AM:
Methinks that 6s Media's initial foray into "social media" hasn't worked out well for them and instead of building false hype, they are now in retreat mode. The Facebook group has removed Jenn Lowther and Chris Breikss as Admins( so people don't know a marketing company is behind the Group and the derogatory posts), and a post that recently called out the staff at 6S Marketing for being hypocrites(according to their own admission, they are Shaw customers, yet they are getting paid by Novus to stir up trouble) was deleted from the Group.
The post questioned the "integrity" of the staff that was posting, suggesting that if they really believed what they were posting, they'd leave Shaw right away. The post that was removed went on to say that Novus might rethink the strategy of hiring a company made up of mostly Shaw customers, to create false drame[sic] and hype, while saying negative things about Shaw.
While this has been fascinating to watch from the sidelines, I wonder if this was the best move for the local Vancouver internet marketing company. Now when we see or hear 6s Marketing staff posting or commenting, we will assume that the words they speak won't necessarily be their actual opinions, but rather the opinions of those that are paying them. They can't very well tell people they are in favor of a product or service, when they are being paid to say that, or being paid to create drama about the competition.
...
Having a social media company try to sway our thinking by creating false hype against one company or another, or having them attempt to socially engineer the thoughts of the masses by removing comments that go against their own bought-and-paid-for opinions just doesn't cut it in my opinion.
In this case, 6s Marketing has dropped the ball. I'm sure they'll try their best to turn this ship around and spin their involvement into a positive light but the beauty of "social" media is that eventually, ALL sides of the story will be told and all facts will become public.
Guess they forgot about the "social" part of social media.
Social Media as defined by Wikipedia:
"Social media is online content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies. Social media is a shift in how people discover, read and share news, information and content; it supports the human need for social interaction with technology, transforming broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many). It supports the democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers. Social media has become extremely popular because it allows people to connect in the online world to form relationships for personal, political and business use. Businesses also refer to social media as user-generated content(UGC) or consumer-generated media (CGM)." -Wikipedia
I will let these statements tell this Social Media Marketing tale.
Please comment below
The Digital Footprint: Kris Krug Educates (3 of 3)
An iPhone Panorama shot of Pennask Lake. -KE
This is part three of a three part interview with thought leader Kris Krug. Have you read Part One and Part Two yet?KE: Is web video the new billboard?
[For great free analytics for your site check out Google Analytics]
In your opinion are Facebook Apps an effective way to engage your audience?
I love connecting other info into my Facebook account using Facebook Connect. Spammy apps, like quizzes, will eventually die off. Smart apps are rad. They can now add cool functionality to Facebook through outside sites and applications. The old way of site transition was difficult and now with various API (application programming interface) I can integrate everything. This is the promise of the internet. Using widgets and linking I can unlock true power by transferring my work, stories and reputation from one medium to another.[Check out Kris' Netvibes page it is a great showcase of some of his 'hats']
You have spoken in the past about the ability to access your all of your personal information online from any internet terminal anywhere on earth, how does that work?
What do you think the iPhone will do to the mobile computing landscape?
What do you think educational institutions should be doing with new media/social media that you don’t see them doing right now?
A lot of the changes we see in the classroom will be around wikis and online collaboration. Students and teachers are moving towards posting homework online. They are using technology to create roundtables and meetings, to share more freely. The essence of this shift is the integration of collaboration. I have really enjoyed the benefits of using twitter at events and conferences by putting a Twitterfall on a background at the front of the room. The discussion is democratized and leads to more diverse feedback.
How do you think higher education institutions could be using new media and social media to improve recruiting practices?
Recruiting is only one area where social media should be used. Collaboration is the most interesting aspect of these tools in education. It changes recruiting from a traditional top down system to an inside out system. It’s about drawing people into the real community/culture that is going on around the institution. There is an opportunity to highlight the content being created from inside institutions. It’s about being a storyteller inside the institution not about marketing and sales. It puts the responsibility on the institution to have programs, research and teachers to draw in students in a real way.
What is your least favourite thing about all of these new tools?
I love all of these tools although I can’t see my screen very well at the beach. So I have to be inside too much. The one thing I miss is being outdoors more because this stuff ties you indoors. Also because it’s always on, sometimes it feels like a moving goal post. There is a feeling that, whether we are present or not, things continue to go on without us. It’s hard to get away from. There is no more end of the work day. These tools bring the world into our lives 24/7.
[Kris' photography was brought to global prominence by a bizarre situation where another user attributed his work as theirs.]
Can you tell us about that incident?
It was back in 2004-5, I had developed an audience online and they had a good sense of the style of my work. Eventually it came to my attention that this young photographer was passing off my work as his. It was obvious that it was my work. I proceeded to blog about it and the blogosphere was angry and pushed back at this guy. The subsequent blog posting was picked up by Digg resulting in over 1700 ‘diggs’. I was then was sent a phony cease and desist order to try and get the post taken down. You see because of the strength of my blog in search engines whenever anyone searched his name this story about how he stole my work and passed it off as his own would come up at the top of the search results.[Three years later the incident is still the top three search results from the thief's name]
Kris talks with Leo Laporte about Creative Commons License
He was trying to pull a fast one on the internet, but it didn’t work. Legal academic journals have used this case study as an example of intellectual property rights and the internet. After I was served this fake cease and desist order he has continued to beg me to take down the blog post, but it remains up to this day. At one point I even told the guy that he should change his name, it’s the best option.
Did you enjoy reading Kris' thoughts? Here is a new post he wrote about the Digital Footprint.
Dick Zokel's golf course Sagebrush overlooks Nicola Lake w/Quilchena Hotel in the bottom right. -KE
Thanks so much for all of your great insights Kris it’s greatly appreciated. I look forward to speaking again in the future. –Kemp Edmonds
This is part three of a three part interview with thought leader Kris Krug. Have you read Part One and Part Two yet?
The Digital Footprint: Internet Philosophy with Kris Krug (2 of 3)
This is part two of a three part interview with thought leader Kris Krug. Have you read Part One yet?KE: You often talk about a ‘digital footprint’, what does it mean to you and where do you see it going?
KK: Every time we interact online we are leaving digital breadcrumbs. These little digital ‘bits’ leave a trail of information about us. We reveal things about ourselves and others make statements about us. This could be what you read, when you favourite a video or post a comment. It’s an amalgamation of what you do online. Even when we think we don’t exist on the net in fact we do.
[Google your name and add your main city of residence to see for yourself]
What do you think of Aggregators? Will that be the digital footprint?
[Get an idea of how FriendFeed represents the digital footprint at Kris' feed or mine]
Do you see any really good Filters out there?
I am currently consulting for 2010 and the David Suzuki foundation, building custom dashboards. I am running searches for “Cultural Olympiad” through PostRank. It tells me who is saying what about this topic anywhere on the internet. I am also using Netvibes and Yahoo Pipes mixing and filtering feeds, Technorati and Google Alerts to track online content in real-time. The really good filters are custom built for their users to enable the most focused result.[Also try Social Mention or Twitter Search for tracking internet chatter about your topic of choice]
Should we be using custom or proprietary filters to gather information?
The easiest to use and cheapest solution is good for the average individual. For companies or individuals needing custom in-depth solutions complete with statistics and analytics a custom solution is the way to go. The current market for these custom solutions is a bit of an arms race and the key is to dial in and refine searches and filters. Techniques like keyword segregation and optimization help enable custom solutions to increase the value for users. To those who understand the power of the media, know what’s possible and want to utilize that power will use custom systems going forward.The internet is an incredibly visual medium, what does this mean for the written word?
I don’t know. Media literacy is very interesting. In the advertising age with TV we saw a movement away from literacy and ads towards visuals and real stories. Young people are continually tuning out traditional advertising. The internet is based on text, HTML=Hyper Text multi-language. It’s all about machines being able to read text and understanding linking and language. We are observing changes in communication. Things may not be better or worse, but they are certainly they are different. The approach to media is changing as media power becomes more decentralized. We are now able to receive many different perspectives, a myriad of voices representing different sides of an issue. Biases are now more explicit compared to the old system where biases were less obvious and people were tuning out advertising a lot less.What would u like to see on the internet/web that is not currently available?
I would like to see more philosophical dialogue and less pure entertainment, more art and culture and less funny cat videos. I would like to see more true art online, more cultural interaction and above all; more collaboration. Canada Code is a great example. We now get to tell our own stories. VANOC’s people are doing a great job working inside an organization [the IOC] which is resistant to the internet as a means to create culture and identity. I would like to see us reaching out to artists and Canadians because we can tell the best stories. You are an artist and creator who wears many hats, how do you keep it all in order?
What about bloggers or creators whose work isn’t really seen by anyone? ;)
In regard to doing stuff that no one sees, if they keep it up people will eventually stumble upon it. Do it for the love of subject matter and it will come; the audience and the money. Learn more about your subject matter and figure out how to use it. I am a firm believer that there are different strokes for different folks. ‘Create your own reality’ with these tools and a community will grow around you if you engage them.
Do you think the sale of the Pirate Bay is a turning point in the proliferation of piracy on the net?
People’s attitudes about piracy are changing. BitTorrent is becoming like TCP/IP to email. In the sense that everyone uses email but few people know its backend is TCP/IP. People will get content anyway using peer to peer sharing. BitTorrent is a way to handle billions of users.
The view from L'Hermitage looking East towards Vancouver Public Library. -KE
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