However, it does look like nandos and Cell C are teaming up!? A good mate of mine Nic Haralambous just received a package from “them”! Very cool idea.

Update: They aren’t working together at all! Nando’s is one-upping Cell C by sending off free cellphones with a direct line to Nando’s CEO, Kagiso! Call 0860 438 227 to hear what Nando’s CEO has to say!

Starting this week, Exclusive Books are offering the latest books, games, movies and music from as little as R10. These Firesales only run for once a week for hours only. I really think its an excellent initiative not only for Exclusive Books, but for all those people that are on the fence about purchasing goods online in SA. This will definitely push them over the edge to actually try purchasing online!

I’ve heard from Exclus1ves that they will be offering the latest books, dvd’s and games such as Eat Pray Love, Twilight and The Kite Runner. So none of that old stock they trying to get rid of!

The only way to get word of the firesale is if you follow them on Twitter @Exclusivescoza or become a fan of their Facebook page. Remember, the firesale only lasts for 2 hours, so when you see it starting, get buying first before telling your friends!

Launched only a week or so ago, the 2 Property Ninja videos have already amassed over 200 views together. Definitely some quality comedy and action all rolled into one. Below is episode 2 – one hot lady on the beach as well as some tea drinking going on. What will these ninjas get up to next?

So join the Property Ninja Facebook fan page or follow them on twitter here. From what I’ve heard, (translated from Japanese of course) when they reach 100 fans on Facebook, they will release the 3rd installment of their ninja adventures. So what you waiting for?

Cape Realty is a client of World Wide Creative, who I do work for. So yeah, this is a disclaimer. :)

Hi,

I have a small company and was approached by Webmail’s Sales Director (Gregg van Notten) who sold me on a Direct Mail package. 100,000 of my target market (who have ‘signed’ up for such things – NOT!!) and I would have a 30-40% response rate. I stressed that I wouldn’t spam anybody and he assured me that there was no spamming. I was told to gear up for a massive response and ordered over R200k worth of product to gear up for this overwhelming campaign.

I couldn’t get the Sales Director to respond to my calls and finally go thoroughly hostile when one of the ‘Campaign Managers’ finally contacted me. I told them I wasn’t paying the remaining fee as their service was pathetic and their demographics amateur and irrelevant. They threatened to take me to court.

They then sent out the first 50,000 emails. Well 2203 opened the mails and I got a whopping 69 responses. This is when I went truly ballistic. I told them that if somebody “signs” up for emails they generally open them and that if 4.6% open them then it’s because they’re being spammed. I also targeted LSM 8+ and not be utterly ignorant, I’m fairly sure a lovely lady in a very (VERY!!!) rural town in the bundu of the Transkei cannot qualify. I then had a conversation with the Campaign Manager who was getting seriously aggravated with me and I told her to escalate my problem to somebody senior. She said she would and emailed this assurance to me. Well that was Tuesday last week.

I have now sent a truly snotty email informing them that I have contacted the Direct Marketing Association and will report them to the DTI. They’ll pick up this gem tomorrow.

This campaign has cost me a small fortune and the response has been pathetic beyond words. Their website states that they guarantee results and I’m going to hold them to this.

At Interface we aim to push the boundaries of conventional online and now mobile business and one of the first marketing companies in S.A. by offering our advertisers GUARANTEES. We have tailored some great cost effective packages that will bring guaranteed traffic to our advertisers websites. We are able to make these guarantees due to the relationship we have established with the likes of Google, Yahoo and MSN as well as Webmail ” South Africa’s leading FREE email service”.

Secondly, they state in their privacy statement that they do not sell their clients details and that they will communicate with the advertiser. This is false. All the people who responded to my mail have had their details displayed for my spamming pleasure. Email and phone number. They have lied to their clients and this has to be a breach of contract.
Junk Mail

We know that junk mail is invasive and annoying. We strive to protect you from Spam in the following ways:

• We will never sell your address
• We will constantly monitor and protect your inbox from unwanted mail.
• Should advertisers wish to communicate directly, we will do so on their behalf once we are certain that your interest profile matches the deal and that it offers true value.

To protect yourself, we suggest that you give out your address with care, particularly to other websites

This company is unethical and borders on fraudulent and I refuse to leave it. I want my money back and I want some sort of investigation.

Hello? We are able to make these guarantees due to the relationship we have established with the likes of Google, Yahoo and MSN. This sentence right here is a huge red flag – total and utter rubbish.

Check out the stats from the first half of the campaign (50 000 emails) – I love how their “rate” percentage is based on the clicks sent from the amount of emails that were opened, instead of quoting the “rate” as a percentage of the total amount of emails sent. If they quoted it properly you would have an open rate of 5.1% and an actual click through rate of 0.8%. Pure spammy goodness.

In these times, with small businesses really struggling, they will fall for scams like this that “guarantee” results and I’m hoping that some of you that are reading this, stay far, far away from Webmail, Interface I.T. and all their associated companies.

Check out Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong website as an example of it.

Boom.

Here are the mistakes Cambrient made

Firstly, you fail to offer a reply email address. noreply-businessday@cambrient.com. Surely if you have the right to email me, I should have the opportunity to reply? Setting up a noreply email address smells of spam.

Secondly, the most important part of any newsletter is the subject. “Business Day”. That heading tells me nothing about the contents of the email. It does not garner any attention whatsoever and you are actually lucky I opened it as you are now getting some valuable feedback from me. :)

Moving on to the opening line – Dear Valued Client. I have never subscribed to any newsletter from BusinessDay neither have I ever visited their website, so I can only guess Cambrient bought or are using some of their personal mailing lists. In that case, I subscribe to their Digital Edge podcast newsletter, which has my name in it. Use it! My name is not Valued Client, it’s Jason.

One other thing I noticed is there is no web version of the newsletter. Luckily it came out fine in Entourage on my Mac, but I’m sure it won’t look to good in all 2700 other email clients across the world.

And lastly, the cardinal sin of any newsletter campaign, not including an unsubscribe link. Seriously? You add me to a newsletter database, send me this poorly constructed email and then do not give me the opportunity to never receive an email from you again!

Some advice to Cambrient

Guys, you produce a brilliant podcast on a weekly basis and you bill yourself as a digital agency SPECIALISING in e-marketing, which includes email marketing. You shouldn’t commit so many mistakes in 1 email marketing campaign! My words of advice? Read Quirk’s e-marketing book from cover to cover. I promise not to tell anyone and you really will make your future clients look like rockstars online. For now, BusinessDay are looking like a huge fail.

So, the big announcement was that Apple have released the iPhone 2.0. It now has 3G and GPS, it’s thinner with a black plastic back, solid metal buttons, same gorgeous display, camera, flush headphone jack, and dramatically improved audio. There will also be a white version!

It is also a lot more affordable. When it first launched, the 8GB iPhone cost $599 (R4700). It now will retail worldwide for $199 (R1500). So I’m guessing when it launches in South Africa on the 20th of July, you’ll be able to pick one up on some of the more affordable Vodacom contract packages!

Read more about the iPhone over at Gizmodo.

So, a spur of the moment thing – a purple cow moment – I bought the book.

And I am so glad I did. I haven’t yet finished the book, and am totally inspired by it. Here is a quick excerpt from the book that explains what a purple cow is:

While driving through France a few years ago, my family and I were enchanted by the hundreds of storybook cows grazing in lovely pastures right next to the road. For dozens of kilometres, we all gazed out the window, marvelling at the beauty. Then, within a few minutes, we started ignoring the cows. The new cows were just like the old cows, and what was once amazing was now common. Worse than common: It was boring.

Cows, after you’ve seen them for a while, are boring. They may be perfect cows, attractive cows, cows with great personalities, cows lit by a beautiful light, but they are still boring.

A Purple Cow, though. Now, that would be interesting. (For a while.)

The essence of the Purple Cow is that it must be remarkable. This book is about the why, the what, and the how of remarkable.

One thing that I really love about this book are some of Seth’s one liners. One of my favourites is “The opposite of remarkable is very good.”. New media is exactly what Seth is talking about in this book. No longer are ordinary television, print and radio advertising cutting it. Shouting no longer works, as there is so much noise around, that you and your product, no matter how much money you throw into the marketing pot, is going to get you heard.

Two companies I love are shining examples of Purple Cows. Carsonified and 37signals. They do remarkable. It also goes to show that you don’t need to be a massive conglomerate to do remarkable. In fact, the smaller you are, the better chance you have of being remarkable!

Anyway, he can build you a house too if you ask nicely, and when one of their friends wanted a quote from my dad for a house that they want built on the farm, he presented her with this:

All builders present you with a nice Excel sheet with all the costs that never seem to end. But my Dad is way too clever for that. Just imagine a builder spent the time to build you a really cool model of your house, with fake grass included! How awesome is that?

So that’s why I say, my Dad is a builder AND a marketer come creative director!

This just shows you how one website – Facebook – has opened up so many opportunities for people. This magazine is not affiliated with Facebook, so all it is, is someones idea that people would love to read a magazine all about Facebook and how to get the most out of it.

Take Social Media (the company) for example. They create applications primarily for Facebook, and to date have raised about $4 million in venture capital. 18 months ago, they didn’t exist. Just another opportunity that someone grabbed.

I have heard a few people wanting to leave SA, because of better opportunities overseas. Say what? I can only understand if you leave because of crime, but every other reason is completely null and void in my mind. Because we live in a developing 3rd world country means the opportunities to start a business and be successful is so much greater than in a 1st World country! There are tons of SA corporates and small businesses that know nothing about social media and marketing, not to mention how to engage the youth and build a brand presence around one of the most important population age groups. Facebook magazine anyone?

I’m going off on a tangent, but my statement still stands. Take this magazine as a perfect example of how you don’t have to have the killer idea ala Facebook to make it huge. You just have know what is happening around you, and take your idea and go for it!