data – whatleydude

1000heads: First Direct come first, but what about the others?

Recently our Data Systems Manager here at 1000heads, one Mr Andrew Stretton, was extolling the virtues of First Direct. Their first forays into social media have been widely covered by the trade press and – as such – FD have followed up with some facts and figures.

However, it’s these facts and figures that are raising questions with our manager of data systems.

Andrew, the floor is yours

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First Direct captured my attention this week with an innovative ad campaign on London Underground, using the findings of an online market research study as its centrepiece.

“77% of what’s said about us online is positive”

It’s exciting to see companies shouting about their word of mouth. The sample WOM on the advert is also interesting â€“ could we soon see realtime social media feeds on billboards just as Skittles attempted on their website?

On the other hand, the wording of the ad and the methodology used raises a few questions.

First Direct claim that 77% of what’s said about them â€œonlineâ€ is positive, based upon a sample of opinions posted in a controlled environment on a brand presence. It would be interesting to know what the results would be if all banks gave their users the same opportunity and what the exact effects of the incentives involved were.

As Data Systems Manager here at 1000heads I’m tasked with bringing our clients a representative sample of spontaneous conversation from the widest variety of online sources possible.Â Benchmarked, contextual data from realtime, unprompted conversation could provide more interesting top line stats for an advert, giving people a birdseye view of what they themselves are saying online. For example:

â€œIn online conversation, Brand X is strongly endorsed 20% more often than any other major UK bankâ€

This is of course is not to say that surveys have no place, it’s just that there is so much more insight out there to play with.

How do you think these different measures of opinion can be reconciled?Â Do let us know what you think in the comments, or if you would like to know more about our WOMTrak and WOMActive products please drop us a line.

giffgaff gives the goss (on pricing)

giffgaff, the people-powered network to whom we gave (what we thought was) a fair preview of, has released a teensy bit of news about their pricing. Well, that’s not strictly true, but we’ll come back to that part shortly….

giffgaff loves you

The ‘news’, coming in the form of a blog post from marketing chief, Kylie (no – not that one), explains that based on the feedback they’ve received so far, they’re now not really sure what kind of tariffs to launch with. While this may seem odd and somewhat indecisive on the part of the not-yet-launched MVNO, giffgaff have opened the question out to the blog readers:

“…we need your help. How do you think we should charge? Per minute / per text? Or bundles? Or something else?”

This is pretty much unheard of in the carrier space and we can only applaud giffgaff for sticking to their ‘people-powered’ principles.

While this isn’t actually news about the pricing (it’s more along the lines of ‘um.. we don’t know yet’) what the post does go on to say is that data on giffgaff will be totally and utterly free*.

Yes, that’s right… FREE*.

But not the kind of free* that you’re used to, not the kind of free* that comes along with a ‘fair use policy’, no, no. This is free* until we build the billing system!

“When we launch, data will be free. Honestly, thatâ€™s because we wonâ€™t have had time to build the bit of our backend system to charge for it, and yet we donâ€™t want to launch without data â€“ so we thought weâ€™d just let you have it.

All we ask is that you donâ€™t take the mickey, and that you do give something back by topping up, making calls, answering some questions, doing some marketing etc.”

That’s not too bad is it? Free data for the period of time it takes us to build the billing system. That’s certainly honest guys. Good work.

So the news from giffgaff:

We (still) don’t know our tariffs and data will be free until we know how to charge for it.

Honesty is the best policy but – with respect – this is still looking vague guys. Admittedly we haven’t come to visit yet, (we really are hideously busy day job wise), but it is on our to do list.

PS. Give us something a little more convincing and we might be convinced 😉

Hat tip to contributor Ricky Chotai for spotting this one.

A Dongle Discovery

I write this to you from somewhere in the Caribbean while I complete the fifth and final Lucozade Challenge. Yesterday, Ben wrote about one of his new favourite pieces of kit – the Mi-Fi.

The Mi-Fi, for those of you who missed Mr Smith’s write up, is a nifty little gadget that creates an instant wi-fi hotspot wherever you are. Unlocked out of the box, all you need is a data SIM and you’re away… However, the device/service that Ben is currently reviewing is the 3 service and it would seem that this particular device is locked to their network.

Crapsticks.

As I’ve mentioned before though, I don’t think that these super-connected wonders are for everyone. I personally always carry around a data dongle for my MacBook Pro and when that doesn’t work, I have the rather fantastic, Joikuspot.

Coming back to the dongle part of my story, I spent most of last weekend playing around with all the various pieces of mobile tech (as well as their respective SIM cards) that I thought I might take away with me for my next trip.

Crashing through the cupboards full of old 3310s and old school Nokia chargers I happened upon an old o2 dongle that I used to have to use in a previous life. The end was missing and it still had it’s old (and now defunct) o2 SIM inside it and yet, I had a sneaky feeling that it might still work.

So at this point, you could be thinking:

“Awesome, all I have to now is go out and get a cheap o2 data bundle and hurrah! We’re away!”

Not so fast.

Turns out that that isn’t necessary. It turns out that an o2 SIM isn’t needed at ALL in fact. You see, when Lucozade asked me what essential piece(s) of kit that I needed for the Energy Challenges, along with my N86, I requested a super-reliable Vodafone data SIM. Something that could keep me online and in touch, wherever I was in the world.

I popped said SIM into said dongle, placed the dongle into the side of my mac and voila! It worked immediately! I thought I might have to install some kind of Vodafone specific software or at least have to add in the necessary information, but nope. The Sierra Wireless Watcher that was already onboard the mac found the SIM, downloaded the settings and within seconds I was up, running and online.

Awesomeness.

I’d wondered for sometime now if the networks went so far as to lock their own dongles, I can’t speak for any others but I can tell you now that the o2 one works fine.

Give it a go, would love to know how you get on..