Marketing Online - Issue 6

JUNE 2016 ISSUE SIX

TAKING PICTURES OF THE PUBLIC – LEGAL OR ILLEGAL?

Social anthropology – digging deeper into personas How well does your website sell?

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here’s no question that the marketing landscape is changing fast. We’re already talking Augmented Reality, App-based SEO and Vertical Videos, but how much is this really practical, applicable and relevant? You can bet that if we’re struggling to stay up with the play, your customers are even more so and if it isn’t important to them yet, is it really important right now?

For all the whizz bang technology we should remember that people are fundamentally the same, our brains have not changed much. We

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EDIT ORIAL

are still driven by the same emotions, wants and desires – we have always been fundamentally social creatures.

I think that before we get caught up in the technology, remember they are only tools and not an end in themselves. The end is to connect with our customers and provide them with the value that they want and appreciate. It really is as simple as all that.

Colin

10. CONTENT MARKETING Social Anthropology The untapped path to deeper insights from your target market 12. WEBSITE CONVERSION The Top Six Attributes of a Poor Performing Salesperson and Why Your Website May be Guilty of Them All 16. GOOGLE SEARCH Google My Business Do you know how to test your website is working correctly?

ABOUT / Short and sharp, Marketing Online is a free eMagazine delivering thought provoking and enlightening articles, and industry news and information to forward-thinking marketing people.

EDITOR / Colin Kennedy ART DIRECTOR / Jodi Olsson

CONTENTS

4. LAW Taking Someone’s Photo: Are You Doing Something You Shouldn’t?

CONTENT ENQUIRIES / Phone Colin on 027 2456060 or email colin@espiremedia.com ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES / Phone Jennifer on 03 443 6316 or email jenniferl@espiremedia.com WEBSITE / www.marketingonline.co.nz

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TAKING SOMEONE’S PHOTO: Are you taking something you shouldn’t?

BY Tracey Walker

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WHAT ARE THE RISKS OF COMMERCIAL USE OF PHOTOGRAPHIC OR FILM IMAGES OF INDIVIDUALS TAKEN IN PUBLIC SPACES WHERE THE IMAGES HAVE BEEN CAPTURED WITHOUT CONSENT? Footage of ‘crowd shots’ has long been used by advertisers for commercial purposes. In many shots, individuals in the crowd are indistinguishable, or identifiable only to very few people. The crowd scene might be fleetingly used in a one-off campaign with little consequence. But, what about the use of footage or images where individuals are clearly identifiable, perhaps even the focal point of the shot, such as zoomed in footage of the crowd taken at a sports event? Do those individuals have any right to object to the unapproved commercial use of their image?

NO EXPRESS IMAGE RIGHT IN NEW ZEALAND The starting point is that there is no express ‘right to image’ protection in New Zealand.

In essence, this means that you do not own your appearance. There are no statutes generally prohibiting photographing someone in public without their consent unless it falls within the definition of an “intimate visual recording” – the ‘upskirt’ or ‘down shirt’ scenario.

In today’s ‘cult of celebrity’ landscape, however, commercial use of celebrity images without permission will land an advertiser in hot water. The typical argument is that it implies endorsement or sponsorship. Many, if not most, people would assume that the celebrity has permitted use of their image and is being compensated for it.

If the use is, in fact, unapproved, then consumer protection provisions of the Fair Trading Act 1986 which prohibit misleading or deceptive conduct come into play. In addition, depending on the image used, there may be trademark infringement, for example of registered trade marks on the playing uniform of a sporting celebrity.

Back to the scenario of the non-celebrity image use, there is unlikely to be any copyright infringement (assuming the images are captured first-hand, rather than reproduced). The only copyright work is the photograph or film itself and the owner of copyright will be the photographer, or the brand advertiser or advertising agency which commissioned the photograph, depending on the contractual position.

The copyright owner will not be the individual whose image has been ‘taken’. If the photograph or video is itself taken from the replay screen at the venue, there may be a copyrighted work which has been taken but it will still not be the videoed or photographed individual who owns the copyright.

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PRIVACY: IS THERE A REASONABLE EXPECTATION OF PRIVACY IN A PUBLIC SPACE? An aggrieved individual who objects to the commercial use of his or her image is left with a potential privacy complaint or with a defamation claim, depending on the nature and type of use (e.g. modification of the image, association with a controversial brand or juxtaposition of other material).

A privacy complaint might take one of two forms. First, a claim that the photography and use amounts to an interference with the individual’s privacy.

This, however, requires not only a reasonable expectation of privacy but publication that is highly offensive to a reasonable person.

Being photographed in a public place does not rule out a reasonable expectation of privacy but it presents a significant hurdle.

In practice, this is heavily context dependent; New Zealand courts require a fairly exceptional case to satisfy that hurdle.

Attending a public event such as a sports event means entrants are not likely to have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the stands. Some venues or events include ticketing terms or notices, such as a term that by entering the stadium patrons consent to being photographed or filmed.

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This is an attempt to get a contractual release from all those entering. Whether it is a valid contract will depend on whether the term has been properly incorporated into the ticket purchase contract and whether the purchaser has had sufficient notice of the term. Even if not contractually binding however, such a notice will likely influence the ‘reasonable expectation’ test.

On the other hand, if caught in an embarrassing incident which lasts all of a split second, why should an individual not have a right to protest the commercial use of a recording of the incident – particularly when it may be disseminated far more widely than would normally be expected, and might otherwise have been a candid moment unobserved by many people (if any).

Vulnerable people and children face an easier task to show both a reasonable expectation of privacy and that publication is highly offensive to a reasonable person.

In one recent English case, ex-Style Council muso Paul Weller succeeded in a privacy claim against media who photographed his children on a family outing. This was despite the fact that the outing was in California where public space considerations usually make the taking of such photographs perfectly legitimate. Interestingly, the facts and context were similar to the New Zealand case of Hosking vs Runting where the Court went the opposite way, in part because it was not influenced by European law as the Weller case was.

DOES THE PRIVACY ACT APPLY? The second way in which privacy may be engaged in our scenario is through the Privacy Act 1993. This legislation principally deals with the collection, storage, use and correction of personal information by ‘agencies’.

Personal information is defined broadly as any information about an identifiable individual. Agency is also defined broadly. It essentially captures everyone, corporate or individual, including for instance a paparazzo, although specifically excluding a news medium in relation to its news activities.

On the few occasions on which the Privacy Commissioner has dealt with a complaint about the use of a photograph taken in a public space, collection was assumed rather than critically examined. However, the Act specifically says that receipt of unsolicited information is not a ‘collection’.

The Court of Appeal said in one case, albeit in a different context, that recording unsolicited information cannot amount to a collection in terms of the Privacy Act. It is, therefore, arguable that observing someone and recording that observation does not amount to a collection as it too is unsolicited.

The Act prohibits ‘collection’ of personal information from anyone other than the individual without that individual’s consent.

But it also requires that any collection of personal information from the individual meets certain disclosure and consent requirements and that collection is not carried out by unfair means.

The difficult question, however, is whether taking someone’s photograph in a public space amounts to a collection of personal information at all. After all, a photograph is merely a record of what we observe. If it is not a collection, then the disclosure and consent requirements of the Act do not need to be met.

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There is the potential for a defamation claim in the case of humiliating use of the footage. If the photograph or film image is juxtaposed with other material in such a way that an individual is ridiculed PRIVACY IN ANOTHER FORUM? Privacy is a highly developed concept in rulings of the Broadcasting Standards Authority (and by extension, the Online Media Standards Authority) but advertising is excluded from the remit of both bodies.

A complaint about advertising is instead typically dealt with by the Advertising Standards Complaints Board, for instance under the Code for People in Advertising.

A breach of the Code will occur if the use of the image portrays the individual(s) in a manner which is reasonably likely to cause serious or widespread hostility, contempt, abuse or ridicule.

DEFAMATION – POTENTIALLY BUT DEPENDENT ON THE USE Finally, there is the potential for a defamation claim in the case of humiliating use of the footage. If the photograph or film image is juxtaposed with other material in such a way that an individual is ridiculed or their reputation adversely impacted, there may well be legal recourse. Of course, it would be an expensive route to vindication.

SHOULD YOU OR SHOULDN’T YOU? From the advertiser’s perspective, the uncertain or inadequate legal protection afforded individuals should not be seen as a green (or even amber) light. First, any international campaign may strike the problem that just because there is little protection in New Zealand, does not mean the same state of affairs exists in other countries.

Secondly, there are reputational issues to manage. Without background talent checks, there is always a risk that use of someone’s image unwittingly associates your brand with someone with a chequered history. Third, if the individual wants to take on the advertiser for failing to compensate them or get their consent, there are plenty of opportunities to whip up social media agitation. © Tracey Walker. This article is intended to provide general information only and is not intended to be relied on as legal advice legal advice.▼

Tracey Walker was for many years a litigation partner of national law firm Simpson Grierson, specialising in media law

and intellectual property enforcement. Now consultant to the firm, Tracey still regularly appears in Court and advises media, publishers and brands. Tracey has a particular interest in corporate reputation management and is author of Reputation Matters – A Practical Legal Guide to Managing Reputation Risk published by CCH in 2012.

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Check out our blog for content marketing advice, tips and ideas, plus a free copy of our content marketing guide The Content Creation Cookbook!

CONTENTMARKETING

SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY The untapped path to deeper insights from your target market

BY Colin Kennedy

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n developing advanced target market profiles or personas for content marketing, the objective is more qualitative than quantitative because engagement is a matter of personal connection rather than one of connecting with a demographic.

At this personal level, the aim is to reach, engage and ultimately influence a percentage of the target market whose decision making processes are driven not just by market forces – such as affordability and the economy – but also by a wide range of emotional and cultural factors, as well as social influences within a company, family or a group of friends.

One method to accomplish this understanding is to commission a study by a social anthropologist, who can observe and interview customers about how their lives intersect with your product or service.

Professor of anthropology and sociology, author, and psychologist, Charles Winick points out that of the sciences which deal with man and society, only economics, psychology, and sociology have been widely used in marketing.

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“Marketers have been relatively slow in using anthropological insights and approaches even though anthropology is also concerned with man and society.”

An anthropologist may provide us with insights that are less dominated by prices and market information, and more about the culture in which the buying and selling of your services and products occur.

The old model of marketing is dominated by ‘customer needs’ and over-reliance on demographics and statistics. There’s nothing wrong with this, but our objective as content marketers is to engage people at an emotional level with stories that are relevant to them.

As storytellers, our primary interest is the behaviour and feelings (personal thoughts, attitudes, judgements) of our audience. Heart wins over the head every time, and the best stories strike an emotional chord.

A social anthropologist, equipped with a notebook and camera, will be able to capture valuable insights through observation and interviews; insights about the subconscious drivers of behaviours - hidden thoughts and motivations that can be revealed in a one-on-one intimate interview situation or through observation.

Things people might not ordinarily want to say in public suddenly get said.

Professor Winick cites the example of how a social anthropologist was able to influence overall design for children. Through observation, the anthropologist noted that the shoulder straps often fall off the shoulders when children played. As a result, he recommended that the shirts beneath the overall have loops for the straps to pass through, or the use of a synthetic fastener e.g. Velcro(r), to keep it in place.

An anthropologist’s study may be considered similar to a focus group survey, but is light years ahead because it doesn’t have the vulnerabilities that come with a focus group study, such as loyalty, feelings of ‘team’ or desire to please the people hosting the focus group.

The anthropologist’s interviews should provide qualitative, unadulterated, personal insights from the social and psychological perspective of anthropology.

Marketers forget that human behaviour and decision-making aren’t motivated by consumption needs alone. There are deeper motivations, like religious, social, cultural and educational factors that influence decisions too — every single one of these is important and relevant to the content marketer. ▼

Colin Kennedy is Head of Content and Group Editor at Espire Media.

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THE TOP SIX ATTRIBUTES OF A POOR PERFORMING SALESPERSON AND WHY YOUR WEBSITE MAY BE GUILTY OF THEM ALL

BY Chris Price

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“If you are struggling to rank naturally within Google, then it could be time to whip out your wallet and invest in some paid advertising to get the wheels turning.”

et’s think of your website as a salesperson. Let’s also assume they are not a high performing soul delivering you a mass of leads and sales every month, but the opposite – someone struggling to make a dent in their monthly quota.

But there is hope. Just like salespeople, websites can be turned around. The first step is to pinpoint the exact areas of struggle then quickly coach the person, or fix the website, to direct things back on track.

I have first-hand experience in this turnaround process with both people and websites: Fourteen years running Ark Advance and, before that, five years managing a sales team for an outsource mail processing company.

I can assure you, the attributes of troubled salespeople and troubled websites are very similar. Here are the top six that come to mind.

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NOT SEEING ENOUGH PEOPLE

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SEEING THE WRONG PEOPLE These were the sales people everyone in Some salespeople making enough visits, but the office liked, mainly because they spent with the wrong people. For instance, they so much time in our office instead of in the chew up hours presenting to people without offices of our prospects presenting great the authority to make the purchase. In website solutions. Just like your salespeople, your marketing, this is similar to buying Google website needs visits to make it work. Now we may not require thousands per week, but there Advertising clicks on keywords that your target audience will probably never use. For needs to be enough to make it work. And if instance clicks on the search phrase “business you are struggling to rank naturally within Google, then it could be time to whip out your profit” for a business coaching service when most prospects arrive behind the keywords wallet and invest in some paid advertising to ‘business coach’ or ‘business mentor’. get the wheels turning.

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FAILING TO GET THE MESSAGE ACROSS These salespeople make it into the right office to pitch the right product to the right person – and still it turns to custard. There are a few things that can go off the rails here.

In direct sales, the first place I’d look would be the questions the salesperson is asking. But websites struggle to ask questions, so all you have is your content. Perhaps it’s the format that is failing. Perhaps it’s all a mass of text when your prospects will respond better with a mix of text, video and audio. Maybe you’ve got content written for all your prospects instead of content in different sections, each talking to the needs of specific audiences?

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FAILING TO ASK FOR THE SALE And then you have the person who is great until the end when – BAM! – they don’t ask for the sale. This is similar to a website which hides its ‘Contact Us’ page or fails to offer any juicy conversion choices that allow prospects to ‘raise their hand’.

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NOT FOLLOWING UP ON THOSE WHO ARE ‘THINKING ABOUT IT’ Nearly there – we now have those who present well, ask for the sale and get the common response ‘let me think about it – come back to me later’. And guess what – they don’t. Nobody is followed up, and prospects go cold, sales go begging. In website marketing, this is about failing to deploy all the clever electronic reminder tactics available to you. Email marketing and Google’s remarketing product are great examples of tactics that neatly fit this need. Which leads me to the final hurdle.

“Websites struggle to ask questions, so all you have is your content. Perhaps it’s the format that is failing. Perhaps it’s all a mass of text when your prospects will respond better with a mix of text, video and audio.”

“There you go – six attributes that will ensure marketing failure. Do the opposite, and you will be well on the way to turning your struggling website into something that sells for you 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

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NOT SELLING TO THOSE WHO HAVE BOUGHT BEFORE Our salespeople began with a territory with customers to manage. The smart ones – wanting the easy way in life – begin by selling more services to existing clients. The strugglers avoid those customers like the plague and instead go out to make a name for themselves quickly with new work from new clients. Very rarely did it turn out well.

Think of this like avoiding your sizable email marketing list of current and ex-customers, to instead embark on some Google Advertising.

There you go – six attributes that will ensure marketing failure. Do the opposite, and you will be well on the way to turning your struggling website into something that sells for you 24 hours a day, seven days a week. All without the hassles that come with managing their human equivalent.▼

WWW.ARKADVANCE.COM Chris Price owns Ark Advance, a web optimisation business that specialises in online marketing, and offers customised support services for a wide range of service based companies who want to grow their effectiveness online. Ark Advance also offer a free monthly email newsletter focused on helping business owners grow their services online – sign up for free at www.arkadvance.com

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GOOGLESEARCH

GOOGLE MY BUSINESS Do you know how to test your website is working correctly?

BY Rebecca Caroe

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here are only five things that you want a business website to do.

1. Get found natural search 2. Answer questions 3. Bring in enquiries 4. Get prospects to reveal their identity 5. Showcase expertise

What this means is that an effective website should be shortcutting the amount of time it takes to get a new customer.

THREE TESTS TO DO NOW So how can you tell if your current website is performing? Here are three tests you can run which are free and will take you around five minutes to do.

HUBSPOT GRADER Hubspot has a website grader tool which can easily appraise your current website using publicly available information. It is not perfect but it gives you a score out of 100 and then explains where your website could be improved. Remember this is a marketing tool designed to sell the Hubspot service.

WOORANK This is a Chrome Browser extension which does a similar job to Hubspot and can be used to double check your website in a similar manner. I find it very useful.

If you have Google Analytics installed on your website and you are logged into the service, you can open up your website and, using the Page Analytics chrome extension, appraise accurately the percentage of people who have clicked on each hyperlink.

I like to start with the homepage and to see which links are performing well.

GOOGLE PAGE ANALYTICS

Google Analytics told me that many homepage sliders are not working well for our clients, and led me to recommend discontinuing using them. Go check yours out.

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GOOGLEADWORDS

IF THE INFORMATION IS INCORRECT IT IS URGENT THAT YOU CORRECT IT I was searching for a Real Estate agent recently and got given the wrong office phone number from my search. You can imagine how annoying that must be!

CHANGE HOW YOUR BUSINESS DISPLAYS IN SEARCH You can edit the display listings on Google search by registering your website in Google My Business here . You must get verified before you can do the edits but it is very simple.

NOW LET US HAVE A LOOK AT HOW YOUR WEBSITE DISPLAYS IN A NATURAL SEARCH ON GOOGLE Firstly, Google looks at four aspects of your site: 1. Words; 2. Pictures; 3. Video; and 4. Maps.

Of course having all of these is the best way to be – but if you only have one, you should plan to add others.

Search for your business by name in your local Google. You should see a listing on the left-hand side of the page and a map and logo listing on the right-hand side which includes a Google Streetview, if you have an address listed. Right is an example of one of them

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In the tool, you can link your Google Analytics account, maps, YouTube account, reviews and G+. This means that Google has an accurate, integrated record of everything your business adds. You can see how important this is as Google dominates search in New Zealand.

TIPS FOR EDITING YOUR BUSINESS DESCRIPTION The first three lines are the most important part, and so you must put both a short description of your organisation, one line about your services or products, and how to contact you. This last should be a hyperlink so you can send visitors to the correct page on your website.

GETTING SEARCH TO GIVE YOU INSIGHTS Google Analytics is your friend because once you have an Analytics account, you also get a Search Console account. This was formerly called Google Webmaster Tools.

By associating the two accounts you can then help your analytics to display additional useful information. It’s very important to have a sitemap because then you can display insights inside your analytics account for your marketing team.

You should consider which of these six pages is the most important and the order in which you want to display them. You can “demote” a page so that Google displays an alternative. For example, you should have your contact us page on the listing but you may choose not to have a list of clients.

Setting the page priority levels is done using your sitemap this determines the hierarchy of pages. However, you may have several pages at the same level on the ‘family tree’.

You can switch these around inside Google Search Console based on your needs as I explained above.

In the old days, Google allowed you to see what search terms were being used that brought visitors to your website. They stopped doing this because it cut into their advertising revenue. Now you can see search phrases and the number of times your website has been displayed for each phrase. It is less SO HOW DID YOUR BUSINESS specific than before, but it still gives you a WEBSITE PERFORM IN YOUR TESTS? good general idea. In our e-book how to Get These simple tools will give you the means to My Website Working For Me we explain how demonstrate to budget holders the importance to edit the six pages that Google displays of prioritising your website improvements and underneath your business name. how it displays in Search. ▼

WWW.CREATIVEAGENCYSECRETS.COM Rebecca Caroe is the CEO of Creative Agency Secrets experts in getting websites working hard for your business.

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