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Editor’s note: A couple of weeks back Lachy Wharton’s article Hidden Pizza Restaurant reveals not-so-hidden flaws in Yellow Pages’ digital strategy set off a tide of comment here on Anthill and through various social media channels. Much of this sentiment, like the article itself, was critical of Yellow Pages’ campaign. At the time, the marketers at Yellow Pages were staying tight-lipped. However, now that the campaign has concluded, Stephen Ronchi has accepted our invitation to present the Hidden Pizza campaign from Yellow Pages’ perspective.
Hiding pizzas and proving value
By Stephen Ronchi
With the doors closed and the pizza oven cool, Yellow Pages is pleased to take up Anthill’s offer to join the discussion and provide some insight into what the Hidden Pizza Restaurant was all about for us, the public and for small businesses.
Starting from the top, the primary reason for the Hidden Pizza Restaurant initiative was to highlight the value of Yellow Pages to small businesses. The secondary reason was to get people talking about our brand and to engage them in the use of our products. We did this by setting the challenge for people to find the contact details of the restaurant by looking it up the way they would any other business, in order to get a free pizza and visit our hidden location. The only place we published the contact details was in the Yellow Pages.
In the two weeks of operation, the restaurant received just over 8,000 calls. Each time someone called, we asked them where they found the number. The results showed more than 70% of callers found the number in Yellow Pages. Here’s a breakdown of the results:
- 6079 calls found the number in Yellow Pages
- 2167 calls found the number in other ways (word of mouth, email, blogs, etc.)
With this type of exercise, we knew there would be a number of ways people would find our contact details. But what the results show is that for businesses (and consumers) Yellow Pages is a very effective way to reach customers. It is not the only way, but it is a very effective way, particularly for small businesses who may be time-poor and don’t always have the necessary expertise in marketing and advertising, web and content development, search engine optimisation, search engine marketing, etc.
One of the key learnings for us has been how little awareness there is about Yellow Pages content being available on search engines. A couple of years ago, Yellow Pages made the decision to open up its online content so that it could be crawled and indexed by search engines. This means that Yellow Pages business listings are available to be found in the organic search results of all the major search engines.
While the restaurant was open, the Yellow Pages listing for Hidden Pizza Restaurant was among the top organic search results on Google for the keyword search “hidden pizza”. Add to that the high brand awareness of Yellow Pages and its recognised role providing business information and you can see how these organic search listings become very valuable.
The results reinforce this. Of the 539 calls to the restaurant that said they used Google (it’s likely there were more), 255 said Google took them to Yellow Pages and 284 said Google took them to another site.
To credibly demonstrate the value of Yellow Pages, we had to operate the Hidden Pizza Restaurant under certain limitations. This meant disguising our involvement and not interfering with the search challenge we created. Of paramount importance was being able to maintain the integrity of the exercise and have legitimate results we could use at the end of it.
This meant taking a limited approach to using social media. For example, the Hidden Pizza Restaurant page on Facebook was very basic and didn’t take advantage of all the interactive capabilities on offer. We recognised an open Facebook page could make it possible for fans to reveal the phone number and location of the restaurant.
So rather than us create a presence that might influence the search process, we decided to leave that to others in places like Foursquare. After all, the exercise was about putting our brand and products to the test so it was important for us to keep our distance and see what happened.
We were confident our combination of a mystery location, the challenge to find our contact details, high-quality free pizza, an interesting restaurant space and interior design would prove successful in creating demand and generating interest from a social media perspective.
The next phase of marketing activity for the Hidden Pizza Restaurant is an important part of the concept. All the way through the build and the operation of the restaurant, we took photos, shot footage and interviewed patrons in order to feature them in our above-the-line ad campaign which will tell the story of the Hidden Pizza Restaurant and the results it generated. This approach has enabled us to leverage the investment in the restaurant phase for the benefit of our traditional media campaign, which begins in mid-May.
For Yellow Pages, strategic investment in product innovation has been critical for us as we have evolved from a print-only product in the mid-1990s to a multi-channel search network available in print, online, mobile (including iPhone and Android devices), over the phone, on search engines, on digital mapping sites and on satellite navigation devices today. Our strategy is about making Yellow Pages content available to more people in more places and, in turn, delivering better returns for our advertisers. Product development, particularly into new digital channels, is a key part of that.
We also view greater integration with social media as a key part of our future success. It is new territory for Yellow Pages and the Hidden Pizza Restaurant campaign represents our first steps. As firm believers that you need to walk before you can run, we’re pleased with the results we’ve been able to generate to date and look forward to learning and developing our capabilities so that we can play a greater role in the social web in the near future.
Stephen Ronchi is Strategic Communications Manager at Sensis, which owns Yellow Pages Australia.
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View Comments
Mark
May 6th, 2010 at 2:44 pm
The funniest part of Yellow Pages using those stats is that when me and my workmates rang the lady on the phone effectively bullied us into saying yellow pages.
her: how did you find us?
Me: my mate told me about it
her: yeah but how did you get our number
Me: my mate gave it to me
her: but if your mate hadn't given it to you
Me: well i saw something on Twitter about it too
her: ok, but if you didn't look there
me: yellow pages?
her: ok thanks
Obviously people are going to say they found it on Yellow Pages because that's the answer that gets you a free pizza!
[Reply]
Mark
May 6th, 2010 at 2:44 pm
The funniest part of Yellow Pages using those stats is that when me and my workmates rang the lady on the phone effectively bullied us into saying yellow pages.
her: how did you find us?
Me: my mate told me about it
her: yeah but how did you get our number
Me: my mate gave it to me
her: but if your mate hadn't given it to you
Me: well i saw something on Twitter about it too
her: ok, but if you didn't look there
me: yellow pages?
her: ok thanks
Obviously people are going to say they found it on Yellow Pages because that's the answer that gets you a free pizza!
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Elena
May 6th, 2010 at 2:46 pm
Ha! she did the same to me! I found it on Twitter but that wasn't the right answer. I told my friends 'just say Yellow Pages' when you ring.
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Elena
May 6th, 2010 at 2:46 pm
Ha! she did the same to me! I found it on Twitter but that wasn't the right answer. I told my friends 'just say Yellow Pages' when you ring.
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Adrian
May 6th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
Following this story for the past few weeks, and now reading the response from Sensis above, and the comments here now, all I can say is that it reinforces Lacky's comment in his original article that Sensis really are the dinosaur.. learning to only walk now is 10 years too late. I guess they 'have' to start somewhere, but 'restricting' the available channels first then sitting back to monitor the result, well, Yellow Pages: …Fail.
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Peter Bui
May 6th, 2010 at 3:06 pm
I wonder how much it would cost for all that advertising via yellow page? Was there a budget set? I personally still can't justify the cost of a Yellow campaign compared to other online strategies.
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Mello Yello
May 6th, 2010 at 3:07 pm
In fairness they have used social media to leverage yellow pages and incorporate it into a strategy so points for that.
However…
If you say you can get the number on yellow pages that is no different to saying you can get it at X and you just go there as directed. It doesn't mean people naturally thought of the yellow pages to get it. That is different to someone independantly thinking oh I need a pizza I'll go look in the yellow pages… or was that the goal? to remind us you can do that after we look in the yellow pages for the first time this year?
Not dead yet and putting up a fight. it can be done, just look at apple pre ipod! It takes a quantam leap though not just fancy marketing and use. Wonder if they will do it???!?
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Paul Ryan
May 6th, 2010 at 3:09 pm
Reminds me of this classic Yes Minister clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gMcZic1d4U
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dominig
May 6th, 2010 at 3:21 pm
I wonder why they don't release stats to show where the users came from to the yellowpages listing, e.g. % of traffic from Google VS % of traffic from the Yellowpages search.
The whole campaign has been set up in a way to show Yellowpages in favorable light.
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paulgroth
May 6th, 2010 at 4:39 pm
I agree with PB, Yellow Pages says they're a great thing for small business, well how can you justify the massive cost to advertise with them as a small business? Especially when you can get listed on other directories for free, although I don't support the idea of those directories either.
When you're searching for a business these days, you expect to know a little about what they are all about and if that business can solve your problem right? So you want to find their website first…
The problem with all these directories (Yellow Pages included) is that once you use your first choice to search for a business' website (which for most people is Google), you might get a link to yellow pages listings page, then another link to get to that businesses yellow pages page, and then another link to go to the website (if that business has paid extra to get their URL listed with yellow pages). That's at least 3 clicks AFTER your search just to MAYBE get to the business' website.
Now think about when people are searching for a business and how much choice they have with yellow pages, they're only showing results from paid advertisements unless you go to the end of the search to see the few free listings. Google on the other hand doesn't restrict people from their search because they can't afford thousands of dollars a year, they have organic results without restriction that have a good match to your search term.
I've been on the Yellow Pages website two times in the last 5 years or so, and both times were for research purposes, I think they need to do a major overhaul on the relationship between them and their potential advertisers, and again for them and their potential users. Try looking at it from more of a psychological point of view, asking why would someone choose to START their search on yellow pages? Why would someone choose Yellow Pages over Google?
Yellow Pages might be too caught up in their own gig, they need some outsiders to come in and identify the real issues, and find real solutions to get the brand back to a decent standard, create new ways of attracting visitors – and do all of this without bias.
Don't just eventually follow what other businesses do and say yep, ok we've done that! Make your own innovations, pave your own way, be entrepreneurial!
Yellow Pages, give me a call, we have a world class marketing team that you can use that could mastermind you a new way. To save you a search on Google
the website is http://www.shelbyblue.com/ and my No. 0425 623 119.
Paul Groth
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Dunc
May 6th, 2010 at 4:45 pm
I've been following this campaign pretty closely myself and while observing the problems in this strategy I just wonder to myself if consumers will at least respect them for not brain washing them with their brand messages….
I tend to think similarly to Mello Yello > they are definitely a long way behind the pace on a social media level but can they use the warm and fuzzy feeling people may get when they heard Yellow Pages was behind the campaign to start turning their brand around?
There is so much talk about how important it is to add value in the social media landscape, would it not make sense to suggest that brands adding consumer value to the marketing landscape are going to have a lot more success building their credibility?
I'm not sure if I know the answer but interested to hear your thoughts. If Yellow Pages do start to play a greater role in the social web as Stephen says, will our diners at the restaurant start to follow them on twitter for hope of more free food?
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joelunch
May 6th, 2010 at 5:21 pm
If my phone number was only in the yellow pages online and I was giving away piles of free goods I suppose some people would find my number that way. But if I had a website that was findable on the internet, people would have gone there first without a doubt. (Also I would rather people transact business on my website and not bother me with calls in the first place.)
You are showing that as a last resort when you are giving people enough freebies they will find your details if you hide them. Even now if I google the resturant name I find the phone number on the second google link (new media blog)- yellow pages isn't there at all.
I can only see that yellow pages works for dated businesses without their details online (or no website) as an absolute last resort. Such businesses would find it hard to compete with a business that had a flashy website with their pizza menu and all listed online anyway.
I gave up using yellow pages online years ago when it would keep shoving in paid listings from interstate when I wanted a local business. Then it would limit how much info it gave me for a business depending on how much they had forked out – another hindrance for me. And don't get me started on the wasteful phone books that keep turning up…
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joelunch
May 6th, 2010 at 5:23 pm
And dominig they didn't even achieve much favourable light if any at all… It just reminded me how dead they still are…
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joelunch
May 7th, 2010 at 9:30 am
Yellow pages have spent millions telling us how if you miss their yealry cut off then you don't get listed. So why would we think that a business that has just popped up and won't be there for long will be in the yellow pages. Even google used to be slow to list such busnisesses but is much better these days. Social media is the place then to get such info.
Don't get me started on those useless poluting phone books that keep arriving. Not happy Jan.
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LachyW
May 7th, 2010 at 9:50 am
I wonder what Steve Jobs would say to Sensis/Yellow Pages?
http://anthillonline.com/steve-jobs-advises-nik...
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Stephen Ronchi
May 7th, 2010 at 11:51 am
I'm sorry (and surprised) that was your experience. The instruction to our call takers was to record where the caller found the number. And the answer had no link to the pizza – we gave more than 2000 pizzas to people who didn't find the number in the Yellow Pages!
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icecreamguru
May 7th, 2010 at 11:54 am
they could have proven it in the long term – let someone operate the pizza joint for a year just with Yellow Pages listing, perhaps add some social media ads – but at normal pizza prizes – if they were profitable at the end it would be justified.
Maybe 2c worth to YP's favour – it depends who you are – ask any plumber, electrician, other trades person – those are not the types you look for using Internet because your tap is leaking, there is water everyehwere, etc, you're not going to go to the computer and tweet that out – you're going to grab that book right away… and that's where their recent TV campaign worked well. But trying to get everyone else online at high cost is not going to work without linking up with more viable ways to promote – like social media, especially in high competition areas like pizza.
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Stephen Ronchi
May 7th, 2010 at 12:00 pm
Thanks Joelunch. Thanks for your thoughts – a couple of points:
Now that we're closed, the Hidden Pizza Restaurant listing in Yellow Pages has been taken down.
Re the freebies, I'd argue it was less about the pizza (>$10 in value) and more about the experience on offer that was the attraction. Like any business, you need a compelling offer.
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LachyW
May 7th, 2010 at 12:11 pm
Icecreamguru, I think you'll find there is lots of innovation happening in directories for these services too.
Definitely agree that these guys are the YP's bread and butter and where they have enduring value. But through this campaign, I've come across some really remarkable alternative listing services for these industries/job types. The most interesting ones are working to turn these jobs into a buyers market, where you list the job you want done and they get in touch with you.
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LachyW
May 7th, 2010 at 12:11 pm
Icecreamguru, I think you'll find there is lots of innovation happening in directories for these services too.
Definitely agree that these guys are the YP's bread and butter and where they have enduring value. But through this campaign, I've come across some really remarkable alternative listing services for these industries/job types. The most interesting ones are working to turn these jobs into a buyers market, where you list the job you want done and they get in touch with you.
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Stephen Ronchi
May 7th, 2010 at 12:12 pm
Hey Paul – hanks for your comments. A couple of points to clarify:
Cost of Yellow Pages is based on factors that deliver value such as traffic/usage, contact and conversion rates etc. Makes me question why others are free?
Organic results on search engines can be determined by a lot of things, including how much SEO work (or investment!) a business puts in.
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Stephen Ronchi
May 7th, 2010 at 12:12 pm
Hey Paul – hanks for your comments. A couple of points to clarify:
Cost of Yellow Pages is based on factors that deliver value such as traffic/usage, contact and conversion rates etc. Makes me question why others are free?
Organic results on search engines can be determined by a lot of things, including how much SEO work (or investment!) a business puts in.
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Stephen Ronchi
May 7th, 2010 at 12:17 pm
Hi dominig – we find it's less about where our advertisers Yellow Pages listing is found, and more about the fact that it is found. This is why we make Yellow Pages content available in many places and formats eg print, online, mobile, search, sat nav etc
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Stephen Ronchi
May 7th, 2010 at 12:17 pm
Hi dominig – we find it's less about where our advertisers Yellow Pages listing is found, and more about the fact that it is found. This is why we make Yellow Pages content available in many places and formats eg print, online, mobile, search, sat nav etc
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Mello yello
May 7th, 2010 at 12:29 pm
Hi Paul,
What a shameless plug! I like it
You are spot on here though. I reckon they should do it 5 times. yep, get 5 independants in and let them rip with the analysis and brainstorming. Get them all to build a plan. Don't interfere, promt or rig it just be open to some new ideas.
3 problems with that:
1. A seriously messy amount of data and ideas (maybe conflicting?) to rummage through.
2. High cost.
3. IF they have a hierarchy and multiple decision makers it will be difficult to get some action. Especially if it is radical action.
However, they are dead without it so lump as much money and time as possible into this analysis and take the time to go through all the ideas. They need a quantum leap, something earth shattering or it is all over….. in a very slow slow death.
At the moment yeah it is easy to grab the book when the plumbing bursts rather than turn on the computer and wait a few mins but with new tech this will eventually be just as fast. eg An iPhone in the pocket is closer than the drawer of your desk. Once the tech hits critical mass it is all over.
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paulgroth
May 7th, 2010 at 12:40 pm
Yes, Yellow Pages would need a major change, and that does bring many other issues to deal with, but if you don't try….!
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paulgroth
May 7th, 2010 at 12:40 pm
Yes, Yellow Pages would need a major change, and that does bring many other issues to deal with, but if you don't try….!
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Matthew White
May 7th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
I thought working with YP in the UK was frustrating, it turns out they are just as bad in Australia. Expensive, rubbish account management, pushy, poor invoicing procedures. Gave up using them as well, prefer to invest money elsewhere.
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Casey Stevens
May 9th, 2010 at 12:37 pm
Over the past ten years in my dealings with the yellow book and their sales staff, at no time has the cost of an ad been based on anything other than the size, and whether one wants colour.
And lookout if you want to use an ad you've designed yourself! They don't like that at all.
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Adrian
May 10th, 2010 at 10:57 am
I too have been 'pushed' by sensis salespeople to list with the white & yellow pages over the past decade… but as a small business, I can't justify the expenditure to be 'listed' in the Yellow dinosaur, for a great number of reasons. Cost Efficiency & Cost Effectiveness namely. Add in clumsiness between print & web divisions, cut-off dates, varying rates for each 'upgrade item' for each and every metro & regional area around the country, restrictive options for web-only presence, for a result that just looks like lost noise alongside competitors or unrelated industries both in print and screen, and all the while my inner self is questioning what customer would actually look for a business like mine in the book anyway?
You've said cost of yellow pages is based on factors that deliver value. How is it that I can obtain measureable ROI for 3kpa with Google Adwords across the entire Asia-Pacific region, with vastly more direct and informative data and communicated messages flowing between my business and my market, than I would ever likely achieve for 11k+ for a single metro region in Australia alone?
On more than one occasion a YP salespersons response to this has been 'but you'll be in yellow' – I hang up. A weeks worth of wasted fax ink and lost staff-nurturing opportunity and billing time, all I can praise myself for is not being a sucker to line the bloated YP pockets. I watch your TVCs and chuckle at the stereotypical 'tradies' and the like, surely they're smiling because they don't know any better? Oh wait, they're paid actors.
(off-topic – yahoo/ninemsn online sponsored search is a complete waste of money IMHO – higher cost per hit, less hits, showings etc, arguable itemised data & results)
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allanalujon
May 11th, 2010 at 4:54 pm
I, too, got pressured into saying i found the number on yellow pages, but that's not where i found the number. anyway the woman who answered the phone was so pushy we decided to not even turn up. glad we didn't. nothing more insulting that being used by an ancient dinosaur brand to try to make themselves seem cool and relevant – they aren't. long live google. yellow pages belongs in the museum of ancient ideas.
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Billy B
May 16th, 2010 at 10:37 pm
A slow death indeed. I see Yellow Pages going down the same obsolete path as the Trading Post classifieds paper.
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Andrew C
May 17th, 2010 at 5:06 pm
Stephen i respect your loyalty to your job – i completely understand that what ever you do you must 'live by it'. But even you, a modern day 'communication strategist' would recognise that the business model of Yellow Pages is simply to exploit the vulnerability of small businesses (with a message – you need us or else) is heading south. If you actually think in 10- years from now – the buyers of small busienss products will be searching via a 'book' or an outdated 'user -unfriendly' model of yellow online you would have to be kidding yourself. A gimmick such as a free pizza is nothing more than a 'ploy' to capture some young minds onto the NOW 'non relevant' brand. Tell me otherwise please… It needs an ovrehaul – it's simple; do us all a favour and recognise that by doing a BIG deal with Facebook…… it's now or never.
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Creative Development
May 18th, 2010 at 2:20 pm
For Yellow Pages, it is marketing dollars poorly spent. The program mostly proved that Yellow Pages don't understand social and online media, and that there are better ways to find a business than through their website. It also did more for Clemenger than Sensis.
Just as an example, there would have been around 13550 searches on Google during that period for “Pizza in Melbourne”, and even with the power of Clemenger and Sensis, Yellow Pages managed to capture just 5600.
As I have said before, (http://www.creativedevelopment.com.au/marketing...) wouldn't it have been better if Yellow Pages did this, but drove the traffic to existing advertisers through the Yellow Pages? If I owned a Pizza Restaurant in Melbourne and advertised through Yellow Pages, I would be mighty upset they just set up a competitor.
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the wordmistress
May 20th, 2010 at 11:21 am
I too have followed this campaign, and have to admit, I'm very anti-Yellow Pages as an advertising device. One of the reasons is that whenever I do try to search for anything on YP online, the page takes SO LONG to load and while I'm trying to type in my search request, it keeps loading and either undoing what I type, or providing lame suggestions. Why would I need suggestions if I'm going to YP to specifically request it searches for what I need? The usability of the YP site is dreadful and every time I go to use it, I wonder why I bothered. More fool me for continuing to try.
Stephen, I admire you for being brave enough to face the critics and put forward YP's case, but as allanalujon articulated, the whole Hidden Pizza debacle really only served to use people in a pro-YP exercise. Frankly, the people who I would bet are the most loyal users of YP, particularly the print books, are the very people who wouldn't be reached by the Hidden Pizza campaign. The elderley, the tech-ignorant and those who don't own a computer. As if they're going to be tempted into free pizza for which they have to jump through a succession of hoops.
When I first saw the hint: “Find it how you would normally find a business”, my knee-jerk reaction was to Google it. And I think that goes for the majority of people who would have been tantalised by the challenge. I believe that really dropped kudos in Google's lap and drove home their relevance even more.
Seriously, I agree with those who've said YP is a dinosaur and that it's potentially too late to lift its game. And admitting that YP were late to arrive in the social media field didn't do any favours either.
Time to employ some social media whiz kids to pull some strings at Yellow Pages.
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Stephen Ronchi
May 26th, 2010 at 12:03 pm
Thanks for the admiration (I think?). I don't see it as being brave, just open and happy to discuss the ins and outs of what we did. A few quick things:
- I've fed your experience with YP online back to our site team. It's valuable feedback thanks.
- you might be surprised to know Yellow Pages captures a wide cross section of users as we can be accessed in print, online, mobile etc.
- you're spot on re Google: lots start there but Google does not provide the content, it points you in the right direction and we're working hard to put YP listings among the search results.
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Bravo Charlie TV
May 26th, 2010 at 5:34 pm
This made me chuckle – releasing a mass roll of ceiling camera footage and asking folks to wade in and tag their friends.. it's a far cry from http://www.serenadingunicorn.com/
Hidden Pizza Restaurant says on FB: Has anyone checked out the video footage at http://hiddenpizza.com.au/? Make sure you go to the “Inside the Restaurant” section and check the restaurant footage. You can tag yourself and your friends.
32 minutes ago · Comment · Like
An##### no
22 minutes ago
Ca##### forget it
22 minutes ago
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BrendonWalker
May 31st, 2010 at 6:26 pm
Biggest beef I have with Yellow Pages is:
1. Your content is static for a whole year
2. The paper phone books are never used by many and go straight in the bin
You could start doing some good in this world by delivering books ONLY to those who don't exclusively ask NOT to be delivered to. Kind of like a “do not call” register. The “don't waste paper” register.
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Benjamin H. W. Sheedy
May 31st, 2010 at 9:35 pm
I set up a simple website:
hiddenpizza.com
That simply gave the number and address.
I was a week late to the game (launching April 16th), but I can tell you with very little thought to SEO, google was quick to pick it up. It went number one for “hidden pizza Melbourne” and top 10 for “hidden pizza”.
Had the hidden pizza corporate site (hiddenpizza.com.au) shown the phone number (like any other business would)… I'm not sure many people would have needed to go to yellow pages.
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Will
June 1st, 2010 at 11:40 am
Fair dinkum free give-aways will always bring in the punters.
Reminds me of a petrol station in Brisbane when Sunday trading was illegal, and bowsers were operated after hours by the 20c “coin operated pump”.
No need to guess at the length of the queue when the “amount” dial jammed and the bowser dispensed free petrol.
No mobiles, no Facebook, no email, just the corner phone booth and then the “word of mouth” spread.
So, give me a break. Is this marketing? What does it prove?
At least if you had a dedicated phone line and email for a real business, with real trading conditions, then you could talk about REAL numbers, based on real business principles i.e. making a living from a business.
But then…… what would that show???
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Seb
June 2nd, 2010 at 3:41 pm
Nice work Ben, I love how you've capitalised on their marketing! How many conversions did you get from that site as a result? (and not people wanting a free pizza)
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Stephen Ronchi
June 3rd, 2010 at 2:54 pm
Brendan – yes print is static for a whole year but Yellow Pages online, mobile and voice content can all be udpated.
Also here's a link to info on the carbon neutral certification of our Yellow Pages® and White Pages® print and online directories – http://about.sensis.com.au/sustainability/envir...
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Stephen Ronchi
June 3rd, 2010 at 2:59 pm
Hi Will – the dedicated phone line is a great idea and one that we've been using for a few years now. Provides great transparency for customers re their ROI – they can see what they're paying for.
[Reply]
BrendonWalker
June 3rd, 2010 at 3:41 pm
Thanks Stephen.
Interesting read on the cardon neutral certification, but for mine, it all comes across as intellectual wankerism. Allow me to explain.
By Sensis' own admission, the directories account for 175,000 tonnes of emissions per year. But, nowhere in that page mentions that “we are actively reducing the number of printed products we make by making sensible, rational decisions”. Instead, Sensis is attempting to rationalise the gorging of paper by things like 4 cylinder diesel cars and video conferencing. Whoop-de-doo!
“To achieve carbon neutrality, from February 2010, we will offset the carbon generated during the lifecycle of our Yellow Pages® and White Pages® print and online directories using a range of Greenhouse Friendly™ accredited offsets. Details of the offsets will be posted on this site when purchased…”
So nothing has actually been done yet. It's all a big theory that Sensis will get around to one day.
Honestly, Sensis probably wouldn't NEED a carbon offset if they didn't print so many damn books! Start acting like a publisher. Be smart about it. They only print runs to reflect sales figures (and a bit more just incase they have a boom run). Any more is a waste of time, resource and profit.
I think Sensis has this arse about. I thank you for directing me to the “opt out” delivery number, but if you think about it, how many people will actually know about the existance of this option who DON'T want the book? Bugger-all is my guess, though I'd really love to see some stats from Sensis on how many people are actually aware of this option and choose to stop their delivery.
The option should be an “Opt In”! You want the books…you have to register. Simple as that. If you don't register…you don't get books.
But, I think if we're realistic about this, the REAL reason the option is for “opt out” as opposed to “opt in” is because it's not such an impressive sales pitch to clients when you can only say “we have a subscriber base of 10,000 who receive phone books” as opposed to “we have a national distribution of 14,000,000 books”. Numbers (even false numbers) make your clients buy ads. I bet your sales pitch doesn't say “we have a distribution of 14,000,000 books but 13,000,000 go straight in the recycling”?
(I'm making these numbers up by the way…just incase you didn't notice)
I think Sensis needs to change their strategy. Only print what you KNOW is going to get used because it's WANTED. Printing for eveyone with the blind faith that they actually need it is irresponsible at best.
I've read the replies and responses here and to be honest Stephen, you're doing a great job at holding the company line and maintaining a presence of good will. That requires patience…a lot of it. But to me, it just looks like canned responses approved by the corporate executive. A cut and paste of tactical replies to push the green barrow and use the moment to trumpet a bit too.
How about a bit more transparency? Why not publish your print run numbers. Why not publish survey results if the question was asked…”do you still use the books?”. Why not tell us how many people (% of population) have opted out since the option was introduced. Why not come to the realisation that the paper directories are dinosaurs that are on the way out, and change strategies to heavily focus on the fact that your online market is extremely rich in opportunity.
Well…that just about does it for me. Long rant, but I look forward to a reply.
[Reply]
Benjmain H. W. Sheedy
June 4th, 2010 at 12:12 am
I didn't heavily force traffic to my site during the campaign, I wanted to see the natural..ish response of people and Google to pick up the site so I only made a subtle reference.
I have reloaded the original site to show how basic it was…
http://hiddenpizza.com/hpwp/
Essentially it's just a “White Page”.
Have posted some more details on the new page:
http://hiddenpizza.com
To the hidden pizza site, during the period April 16-26 it received over 1,000 hits. Basically, Google is good at what it does.
[Reply]
Benjamin H. W. Sheedy
June 4th, 2010 at 12:20 am
(hits, being unique hits, not page visits)
[Reply]
D Smith
June 8th, 2010 at 10:28 pm
Brendan, as an employee of Yellow Pages (sales) we get the opportunity to be involved in delivery of our directories in the area in which we service..that is, we load up the vans or utes for the day and walk the area delivering to every home and business…as 'delivery people'. I can honestly say that on the occasions I have been involved, NOT ONE person turned me away, NOT ONE person said that didn't want one, and a large portion of these business people actually wanted more than ONE copy !! Remember, they were unaware that we were staff members, and were generally happy to receive THEIR book. In fact, the majority of these SME's opened up the book to see THEIR new ad even before we had left the premises……
A huge success with a much-needed product I would say. Don't want yours ?? That's fine. But you're in the minority sport.
[Reply]
BrendonWalker
June 8th, 2010 at 10:35 pm
“In fact, the majority of these SME's opened up the book to see THEIR new ad even before we had left the premises……”
1. Seems pretty clear why they wanted the book.
2. I don't play sport…or minority sports…sport
3. For a sales guy, your attention to detail (Stephen's too) is lacking. I'll leave you to figure out why
4. More than one copy…cheaper than a small step ladder? Or no internet connection?
5. If I was ever home when deliveries take place, I could be your first knock back
[Reply]
gigurdjieff
July 16th, 2010 at 7:43 pm
Yellow Pages took a difficult decision by moving its business online, but at the same time, the only solution that would keep the company from breaking apart. It's much easier today for a restaurant owner to get it listed in a Local business directory than it was 10 years ago, when the Yellow Pages was one of the few reliable alternatives. That's why I think the Hidden Pizza campaign was helpful.
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