The reason Im not a millionaire is because when people say things like ‘how about we make a website where people can upload and share video on the internet’, my first thought is ‘no one would possibly ever use that!’

It ruins YouTube for me. Every time I go there (or hear the word ‘Farmville’), I remember that I have no understanding of people and what’s important to them.

The internet moves so quickly, but we adapt quickly. You actually have to sit and focus on how life used to be a year/2 years/a decade ago to realise just how differently we behave and socialise and buy stuff now.

People are starting to ask me more and more about running social media campaigns. Everyone wants a Facebook Page but few people know how to avoid trying to stuff new media full of old marketing techniques and even IF they manage to get people ‘liking’ them, the impact of all that time and effort on their bottom line is minimal at best.

The good news is that IF you are likable, interesting and offer something of value, you can get a lot of eyes on your brand/product/service for small change, the bad news is there is a fine line between try hard and popular beyond your wildest dreams.

For those of us who find the whole thing fascinating, it’s really cool to watch marketers becoming more clever with how they use social media to attract customers, and watching customers using and enjoying the power they have gained to ensure companies are answerable to them.

Apparently I love writing about insurance, I definitely love insurance, and I love comparing insurance plans.

When my contents insurance came up for renewal recently and I looked at my State bill and thought “geez, even with all my no claims bonuses, loyal customer bonuses, multi policy benefits etc etc, it still looks like a tonne of money!”.

So the ring around started. I really only rang two other places (AMI and AA). What shocked me however, what that straight off the bat, for the SAME plan (or better), without a long history or any extra benefits, both places were significantly CHEAPER than State.

When I moved my car insurance across too, the savings ramped up even more – in the end I settled on AA and insuring everything PLUS adding an AA membership to the bill, it still came to less than my old plan.

And because I’m me, I rang State to give them a chance to beg me to stay with them and to offer me extra discounts to match these new players… and what did I get….?

“Nope, sorry, we’re just more expensive.”

Sort of funny, but a little bit sad, because I think State runs in the family, we’re big, enduring fans. I have only ever had good experiences with them, and I trust them… and now I’m no longer a customer.

Lets hope it doesn’t come back to bite me in the bum when I drop my iPhone in a toilet and AA wont cover it…

Does anyone else in technology notice that the LEAST educated people on the subject are the MOST likely to think they know everything?

Which is all fine and good. I don’t really mind explaining to someone that I don’t have their FTP details because we don’t host their website, or that the URL bar in their browser is different from their Yahoo search bar, and that is why their ‘website doesn’t work’. I don’t even mind calling Telecom on behalf of a client who is convinced our email accounts are down because they didn’t understand the different SMTP details they needed to switch between internet suppliers… or being termed the ‘IT people’ for ALL IT related matters (including email, Word issues, Outlook issues and any other generic PC and laptop issues people run into).

I actually don’t mind any of that. It reminds me that we are the technical elite and our audiences struggle with this stuff far more than we think.

But what I HATE is that a lot of people who ring us about stuff that is no relation to what we do and that I actually cannot help them on, get STROPPY.

We are very nice. We go out of our way to Google their particular ‘my computer isn’t working’, ‘my email is ‘stuck” etc issue and offer any support we can for free, on the basis that I get they don’t get the difference and a couple of minutes of our time can make someone elses day a million times easier.

So it REALLY ANNOYS me when there is an issue that is so entirely unrelated to us that my only answer can be ‘I’m really sorry, you will have to call you actual IT people/internet provider/website host’ to be met with…

Not a ‘thanks’,

Not even an ‘oh sorry!’

But a very suspicious and often angry reply.

I know what I don’t know. And when I don’t know it, I assume the fault is at my end and anyone who even attempts to help me is doing me a favour. I don’t understand why people think it’s ok to get angry with someone who has taken time out of their day out of the goodness of their hearts to HELP them.

GRRRR.

St Andrews

Price: $4.19
Want to learn more about St Andrews, the Home of Golf and one of Europe’s finest small towns? This app will help you enjoy the key sights in this historic and beautiful place.

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Invisible Paris

Price: $2.59
Paris is the most visited city in the world, but how many people ever get to the real heart of the place?

These tours won’t take you to the traditional tourist areas but will show you a different side of the city, an invisible side where ordinary people live and work, but which nevertheless is filled with fascinating places and incredible stories.

The walks feature full descriptions of points of interest as well as a map and a selection of original photos. Each walk is based around a particular theme, and generally in a limited geographical area.

Buy it fromt he Apple Store

Power Kiwi is hitting Facebook and we are so keen to make friends, we are willing to BUY your love.

So… Our first 200 ‘likes’ on Facebook go into the draw to get a $100 top up on their Powershop account.

So simple, and this is just the beginning! We have big plans to make small differences to your cost of living, so if $100 isn’t enough of a temptation to like me, I promise, there will be plentry more incentives coming your way via our Flower Power Facebook page in the near future.

If you still haven’t taken the leap away from your crusty old power company and joined all the cool kids at Powershop, now’s your chance!

We’ve made it even more tempting, by putting the first $50.00 in your account when you sign up through the Flower Power Daisy promo.

And to sweeten the deal even more, the Power Kiwi AGM yesterday resulted in some cool plans to reward our loyal customers… We’re intend on being everything your current power company is not.

And remember, signing up to Powershop will probably be the easiest thing you do this week. Just enter a few details from an old power statement in their online form, and they do the rest.

So go on! Join the revolution!

I had yet another frazzled conversation the other day with someone at their wits end with a bad supplier, they said they were tempted to just throw the suppliers name out for the sharks.

I have never tested my theory, but my belief is that naming and shaming the sort of idiots that let you down badly in the first place, leaves you open to a public mud slinging match and all the stigma that comes with it. Anyone unethical enough to let you down that badly in the first place surely can’t have any moral opposition to lying and cheating their way through a jury of the public…

As with any bad relationship, I tend far more towards backing off, keeping my dignity and assuming that one day karma will catch up with the offender.

But when you are owed money, or a completed project or follow through on a commitment and you have tried EVERYTHING. It is tempting to name and shame. Especially when others are loudly singing the praises of the offender, while you are suffering the effects of their actions (or non action).

…Then I thought about it again and wonder if maybe I need to staunch it up and my quietness is not so much due to conserving my dignity as because I’m a total scardey cat when it comes to fighting.

Hmm.

I was watching Breakfast yesterday morning and they had a segment on Tui taking on the Church over their ‘Yeah Right’ Billboard campaign.

The Tui ‘Yeah Right’ billboards have been around for Donkeys years, and often stir up controversy… Which fits right into the Tui Beer brand ‘personality’ of being plain spoken, slightly mischievous laddish types.

They’ve done a good job of pretending to be just ordinary blokes partaking in a bit of guerilla marketing, of being unafraid of breaking the rules and stirring up trouble. For example, a 2 minute google search turned up this one, which mocks a hugely controversial murder trial here, where the guy on trial claimed to be doing a paper round while his dad shot up the entire family:

They’ve done a brilliant job of making us believe we’re all a part of it and people now go out of their way to wear ‘yeah right’ tshirts and make their own banners and suggest official banners etc.

And a church somewhere in the country has been posting their own ‘yeah right’ banners outside their church for something like 8 years. I think the only change from Tui’s signs is that they’ve swapped their branding for the word ‘spirit’, and their blatant copying cannot be passed off as anything else.

Well, Tui discovered these billboards and came down like a tonne of bricks, and suddenly their happy-go-lucky image is thinly stretched over threats of legal action and demands to remove the signs for infringement of copyright.

I reckon that was an EXTREMELY bad call. I’m sure it will blow over and no one will notice, but the image of a couple of blokes sitting round a box of Tuis cracking jokes has very much been replaced with one of a bunch of corporate suits strategically planning a campaign and caring deeply about boring things like ‘bottom line’, ‘copy rights’ and all sorts of things that they outwardly MOCK on the billboards.

The guy from the church sort of figured this and despite being not-particularly well spoken, did seem to make the Tui guy squirm when he called them up on not having a sense of humor.

I wonder what they thought they’d gain over kicking up a fuss? Seems like they had a lot to lose.

The gang at PowerKiwi have long since been aware that the average New Zealander can’t get ENOUGH of analysing their power bill.

Actually, we know that you can, and you do, within about 2 seconds of seeing it in the letter box.

However, we also all know that if you don’t PAY the bill, you’ll be disconnected, and I for one, cannot handle icy cold showers all winter, or not being able to cook my new FAVORITE vegetable EGGPLANT, or being able to switch on the old electric blanket, etc etc.

So, while the rest of us were sitting around contemplating how to make your lives easier, Rowan made his first (?) iPhone app.

It’s pretty simple, and like most great inventions, solves one problem well. The Flower Power iPhone app allows you to plugin your current meter balances, then click through to be told how much power you need to buy, which you can then buy from your default Powershop provider.

The great news is that outside of stopping you from having to remember a series of numbers while you head back to your computer, or writing your balance on your hand, only to wash it off… it’s FREE, it’s super easy and it takes the pain away from paying your power bill.

So go on, download it, use it, and send us any feedback :)

In the five years I have been running this business, never once has a customer not paid.

Every now and then, we run into issues, but every time, we have managed to come to an agreement that works.

We are a design company. I accept that sometimes the designs we do don’t fit with our customers immediately. That is why I stress to them from day one to be blatant with their feedback and give the guarantee that we will rework our designs until they are 100% happy.

Currently I have two customers who are refusing to pay me.

I know it is because they either have no money or the money they do have, they’d rather keep for themselves.

These two customers went the entire way trough the design process, they signed off on the designs, they used words like ‘happy’, ‘this looks good’, ‘yes lets proceed’. I keep a good record of these conversations for exactly this reason.

Because several weeks after they were meant to pay, they still haven’t.

The initial excuses were over the arrangement. So I reproduced the proposals and quotes they signed off on. These contained the full fixed quote and our payment details. No fine print.

Now, and this is what kills me. They are both claiming that they were ‘unhappy with the work’. This is the first I have heard of it, and comes several weeks after the project was completed on the basis that they told me the EXACT opposite.

Neither of these companies is based in New Zealand, both owe me several thousand dollars and I suspect neither was ever planning to pay it.

What can I do? I have tried talking to them, I have shown them everything they wanted. Now I am stuck in a position whereby they can attempt to ruin my reputation, while also walking away with hours and hours worth of work that I produced for them (There is only so much in design that you can NOT deliver before payment).