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Here's an interesting story from today's Crikey. NAB decided it would be clever to promote a new SMS service by spamming blogs and somehow don't see there is any reason to be polite and ask the bloggers - in fact their advertising spokesperson,Ms Glennie-Holmes, said "“Blogs are a public forum”. NAB felt this meant commercial interests could feel free to contribute unsolicited and irrelevant commercial material as comments, placing the onus on blog moderators to reject or delete unwanted comments. "We identified five or six blogs where we felt we’d give it a try,” explained Ms Glennie-Holmes. “We chose blogs where we thought the moderators would review and decide whether or not to carry our message…it was up to the blogger to decide whether they would leave the comment there or delete it.” The fact that the message posted to the blogs was “very openly promotional” and not deceptive also justified the bank’s conduct, Ms Glennie-Holmes said.

A readable extract from Crikey can be found here with the full story on the Crikey site for paid subscribers (like myself)

I can't believe an organsiation that already has a low reputation amongst the community would fail to consider what sort of negative consequences this would lead to before proceeding. Bad form IMHO

How bloody dare they.

How bloody dare they.

Bloody morons.

No, I'm sorry ... I shouldn't insult morons like that.

I truly cant believe no one thought this through.

Glen,

Bank ... thought .... choose one.

Im so glad they turned down my merchant account application and I ended up with a decent bank!

Very happy to never do business with them again

Jonathan

Some people in marketing have NFI. (Perhaps that should read 'ALL' people in marketing)

But hey its working isnt it???

Any publicity is good publicity. Think of how many people are talking of NAB on line now!

MATT

Glen wrote:I truly cant believe no one thought this through.

Think There would be less than one brain cell in all of the banks put together.

The NAB are moronic - I closed my account with them 8 years ago with 17¢ left in the account (interest added when I closed) and to this day they send me statements. FECKING IDIOTS

I feel bad to be with them.

Which bank is better than them, seriously... don't tell me none and they're all bastards either.

jdear wrote:Im so glad they turned down my merchant account application and I ended up with a decent bank!

Decent bank - oxymoron??

Time for some bank bashing, is it?

I wonder if this consternation is due to the fact that it is a bank, and not any other form of organisation. It is simply a form of marketing that will either fail or succeed (one would place their wager on the former). Blogs are [generally] not invitation only, as far as I am aware, and therefore anyone can post a comment (withing rules). Rules stating that no commercial posting results in the post and poster being banned or deleted.

The fact that this bank has either been caught out or has made their strategy known is not really that different to any other unsolicited, commercial posting. Is it not similar to me going onto a whole bunch of financial based blogs (and they do exist) trying to sell my wares? It may be frowned up, it may be acted upon by the moderator, etc, but it is simply a form of marketing.

I just don't see why the arms in which we are up - do you expect every form of marketing to be purely "ethical" and "moral" (however defined)? I,for example, am in the process of writing a couple of white papers regarding a number of target markets and seeking to have these papers printed in their periodicals, with the intent of "brand marketing" my firm as having a special ability regarding dealing with these markets. Is this unethical or just a form of marketing that may or may not work.

If spam didn't work, why do we keep getting it? Why are there still Nigerian letter scams?

Of course the NAB thought it through. The mere fact that they went ahead is a fair indication of their total lack of integrity. Their behaviour does not surprise me one iota.

Reschsmooth wrote:...

The fact that this bank has either been caught out or has made their strategy known is not really that different to any other unsolicited, commercial posting. Is it not similar to me going onto a whole bunch of financial based blogs (and they do exist) trying to sell my wares? It may be frowned up, it may be acted upon by the moderator, etc, but it is simply a form of marketing.

I just don't see why the arms in which we are up - do you expect every form of marketing to be purely "ethical" and "moral" (however defined)? I,for example, am in the process of writing a couple of white papers regarding a number of target markets and seeking to have these papers printed in their periodicals, with the intent of "brand marketing" my firm as having a special ability regarding dealing with these markets. Is this unethical or just a form of marketing that may or may not work.

If spam didn't work, why do we keep getting it? Why are there still Nigerian letter scams?

I agree 100%...if companies promoting dubious drugs, online casinos, penis enlargements and longer sex use this type of marketing then why not NAB.

Interesting range of opinions here. I view this as clearly intruding by the bank and also off topic. We get many mobile phone or pharmaceutical spam posts which are deleted by the mods. They are deleted because this is a private forum devoted to photography and in reality I doubt many members come here to choose online pharmaceuticals. I would consider a blog similarly.

you raise an interesting point patrick, but in my opinion it is going to lower the view of the bank of many potential customers, and likely to turn a lot of people away rather than gain their business.

Nab is my bank and has been for my whole life, i guess only for the reason that i couldn't be bothered going throug all the work to change. But recently i've started to be turned away from them, and now that i've started a business i probably should look at all the banks to work out where to start a business account.

I tend to agree with Patrick here.

Perhaps the concern with NAB's actions in this instance is more a reflection of the generally
unfavourable view which many people hold of Banks. A view which - in my view - is probably
justified and unjustified in almost equal parts.

As far as I can tell from the report, NAB included an item in half a dozen AFL related blogs
promoting a ticket giveaway at a product launch in Fed Square. Personally, I can't see that
this is such an outrage. It might irritate the blog readers, in which case it will have been
counter productive (bad judgment), or it might get deleted by the mods (as it would here).
or it might attract some positive interest (free tickets).

In any event, the whole episode seems like a storm in a (Liptons) teacup to me. Having said
that, I do understand that it may be the thin edge of the wedge, and I could well come to
regret this view.


Addendum - by the way, I am no apologist for Banks. At all.

Patrick

You raise some valid points, but I'd be just as indignant if any other large corporation did the same thing. To me it's the blog equivalent of spam.

stubbsy wrote: To me it's the blog equivalent of spam.

I don't disagree and I wouldn't be happy with this behaviour if I was running a blog. I also place this kind of marketing in the same vein as the street spruikers for Greenpeace, Cancer Council, etc. Nothing more than an annoyance.

Surprisingly after seeing this post, I got a spam call from NAB the next day. An Indian sounding lady wants me to buy their credit card protection plan...

Reschsmooth wrote:

stubbsy wrote: To me it's the blog equivalent of spam.

I don't disagree and I wouldn't be happy with this behaviour if I was running a blog. I also place this kind of marketing in the same vein as the street spruikers for Greenpeace, Cancer Council, etc. Nothing more than an annoyance.

Actually, I find those street spruikers very annoying. They only want to get a debit authority for monthly donations, but
more importantly, the spruiker recieves a substantial proportion of your donation. I believe it can be in excess of 50%.

This is never disclosed but should be. It is a disgrace.

Reschsmooth wrote:

stubbsy wrote: To me it's the blog equivalent of spam.

I don't disagree and I wouldn't be happy with this behaviour if I was running a blog. I also place this kind of marketing in the same vein as the street spruikers for Greenpeace, Cancer Council, etc. Nothing more than an annoyance.

They're much more than a mere annoyance to me.

My phone number, my address, my email addresses ... they exist so that people who have a need to contact me - not a desire, but a need - can do so. Anything else is unwelcome.

Further, when they're using my resources, at my cost - such as fax spam, email spam, or posting their crap onto a website that I run - then they're well and truly overstepping the mark. It's bad enough that they want to try to sell me something (do they think I'm that stupid that I don't know what I want or need, or when I want or need it?) but then they go and disrespect me in such an obscene manner as to expect me to pay for them to do so?

Let them all rot in hell!!!

FWIW, I've placed, several months ago, some terms in the FAQ that tells people that if they choose to spam this site, then I'm going to invoice them for their trouble. While in many cases that would be problematic, in the case of the NAB, freely admitting to their misdeeds in this matter, I think they might find themselves up for the costs.

In case you've not been able to glean this, I abhor all forms of spam and telemarketing, and I think that the government is being disingenuous in saying that unwanted spam and telemarketing is illegal ... unless it comes from them.

What a load of absolute bloody garbage!

gstark wrote:*cut*

FWIW, I've placed, several months ago, some terms in the FAQ that tells people that if they choose to spam this site, then I'm going to invoice them for their trouble. While in many cases that would be problematic, in the case of the NAB, freely admitting to their misdeeds in this matter, I think they might find themselves up for the costs.

*cut*

what sort of costs are you talking about?

_robbo_ wrote:what sort of costs are you talking about?

Please read the FAQ: the costs of their advertising here.

This is a private site, and I resent this sort of crap. I loathe spam, almost as much as I detest politicians, and I refse to permt this sort of shit to exist here: if they want to come here and break the clearly stated rules, they can pay the penalty.

i think the NAB has pretty much tipped me over the edge....

I received payment from a customer in New Zealand, and she deposited $29 AUD, and the bank decided it would charge me $18 for all the trouble they had to go through for the transaction... left me with $11. Seriously WTF is that?

Interesting video about the BLOG SPAM, Talk about SPIN

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHwgI4e0VH4