Last night, following a story that had appeared in the Herald, Pepsi posted this note on the Facebook page: “Good debate guys! We understand Running with the Bulls isn’t for everyone. And we respect that many of you are bromitted to animal welfare. So here are some suggestions if ya want to make a stand against this (approx) 700 year-old festival: (a). Select one of the other fantastic (no bull) Bromitment experiences on offer. (b). Choose ‘Running with the Bulls’ and if you win… take your protest to Pamplona. (c). If you and ya mates win the ‘Running with Bulls’ prize but would rather donate the money to an animal welfare cause, we Pepsi Max, bromit to do that. Thanks for being passionate. And best of luck with whatever bromitment ya make.”

161 comments later, many of them claiming the company was shooting itself in the foot by endorsing a cruel pursuit like bull fighting, others saying it shouldn’t listen to the complaining wowsers, Aisha Daji Punga, Pepsi’s commercial director at Frucor New Zealand released this statement today.

At Frucor, we set ourselves the highest possible standards. We take social responsibility seriously. We’ve been running a promotion in New Zealand for Pepsi entitled “Bromitment” targeted at Kiwi guys. We were offering a chance to win an epic adventure, with one prize option being running with the bulls in Pamplona.

We now recognise that a proportion of our target market is offended by this type of activity, which they perceive as cruel to animals. For this we wholeheartedly apologise. Frucor and Pepsi in no way support animal cruelty.

We apologise unreservedly for our misjudgement. As a result we have pulled the option to run with the bulls completely from the competition.

We became increasingly aware of the issue via feedback from customers and via social media over the last few days. Our initial response yesterday evening via social media did not include withdrawing from the competition. We now recognise that withdrawing is the right thing to do.

No doubt the ghosts of social media firestorms past like Qantas and Cadbury were ringing. But, once again, it shows that the consumers are runnin’ tings. And if you get into social media, you’ve got to be prepared to take the good with the bad.

As a replacement prize, we suggest a trip to India, where the winners will be forced to revere the sacred rubbish-eating cows for days on end. And, in the spirit of tenuous connections, here’s a funny gaffe made recently by the Herald on Sunday.

Saatchi & Saatchi was recently given a new chunk of Coca-Cola Amatil’s business, including L&P, on the strength of its work for Pump, which it won in July off Sydney agency Smart. At the time of the announcement, Kylie Gallagher, marketing manager, of Coca-Cola Amatil Brands, said the pitch re-affirmed the level of creativity in New Zealand was world class and she felt the Saatchi team had cracked a genius idea.

And that idea, it seems, is a blue tracksuit wearing self-help guru who dispenses pearls of water-based wisdom in an attempt to get Kiwis to ‘Make Like Water’ and follow the true path to ‘enwaterment’.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Just like its recent 2012 Hilux work, the campaign launched on Facebook with the seven principles of water (such as ‘water finds a way around a problem’, ‘water is patient’ and ‘water is never still’). And it’s backed up by a series of TV ads made by Plaza, ambient and outdoor.

Credits:

Executive Creative Director – Antonio Navas

Creative Group Head – Anne Boothroyd

Creative Group Head Copywriter – Slade Gill

Creative Group Head Art Director – Brad Collett

Group Account Director – Simon Wedde

Senior Account Manager – Brodie Reid

Agency Producer – Natasha Gill

Digital Designer – Alex Waskiewicz

Digital Developer – Matt Skinner

Production Company – Plaza Films

Director – Paul Middleditch

Producer – Peter Masterton

Coca Cola Amatil, Marketing Manager – Kylie Gallagher

Coca Cola Amatil, Senior Brand Manager – Angela Broad

European and North American retailers such as Walmart and Tesco are investing heavily in these emerging channels and, while Reach Media’s chief cheese Greg Radford says we’re well behind the curve, local retail organisations like Farmers, which released an interactive catalogue a few weeks back, are starting to follow suit.

“An increasing number of New Zealanders are turning to mobile and social channels for product information, recommendations and advice on where to purchase, as well as for transactions,” says David Nation, general manager of sales and marketing for Reachmedia, Lasoo New Zealand’s parent company (one criticism of the Farmers catalogue was that there was no way to buy from it, and strangely, there’s no e-commerce functionality or links to the retailers’ websites through the Facebook catalogues either, despite being available on the catalogues featuring lasoo.co.nz website).

In addition to the new Facebook and mobile platforms, Lasoo.co.nz has recently added a daily deals department that collates a host of available offers from the likes of Groupy, GrabOne and Cudo and also moved its content to HTML 5 to enable cross platform social and mobile applications.

“The Lasoo development aims to support consumer discovery on multimedia devices while maintaining a low involvement mantra for retail partners,” he says.

Not surprisingly, Nation thinks retailers should be allocating a higher percentage of their budgets to emerging channels, with a strong focus on mobile.

“Retailers are not able to keep up with their customers changing preferences, and are missing opportunities to connect with consumers on the go. We believe we have developed a simplified cost-effective solution to fulfil this need.”

McDonald’s Flick Rugby, a digital take on the classic table top game coin rugby, has amassed a massive 53,118 minutes of game play and added more than 6,000 new Facebook fans to McDonald’s NZ Facebook page.  We’re loving it.

The Flick Rugby Game is part of McDonald’s “Just because…” campaign and sets the game amongst iconic Kiwi menu items. The aim is to get a coin across the table in three flicks or less, navigating hazards including Kiwiburgers, beetroot, Frozen L&P spills, Kiwi Pavs and Kiwi Brekkie McMuffins, integrating the tasty treats into the game play.

If players rack up enough points they can qualify to win one of hundreds of McDonald’s product vouchers, including the iconic Kiwiburger and new products like the Kiwi Brekkie McMuffin and Frozen L&P.

Nivin Sewpershad, Digital Strategist McDonald’s Restaurants (NZ) Ltd, explains the rationale behind the game.

“We’re connecting with a huge number of customers through our Facebook page, and wanted to create a digital extension to the campaign. Most New Zealanders will remember playing coin rugby and this is our modern take on the game.”

The Flick Rugby strategy and execution was developed by Spitfire, one of the leading digital creative agencies in New Zealand, after McDonald’s sought a way to engage current Facebook fans, attract new fans, and deliver a rugby concept that aligned with their “Just because…“ Kiwi menu campaign. Colin Proebstel, CEO of Spitfire, is not surprised by the success of the campaign and thinks McDonald’s is on to a winner.

“Games like Flick Rugby are an ideal way to engage fans with topical campaigns that not only drive awareness and brand loyalty but also drive foot traffic in store with intelligent integration of product and prizes. Flick rugby is proving to be as popular as the iconic Kiwi menu items featured in the game, it’s doing a great job of both raising awareness of the products and encouraging trial.”

The Flick Rugby game sits on McDonald’s New Zealand Facebook page, and will run until mid November. The McDonald’s Facebook page now has over 154,000 fans.

The Steinlager cans are white because “Steinlager has stood alongside the boys since the days of legends such as Kirk, Shelford and Whetton. As new legends have been made, Steinlager remains on the sideline, cheering them on, no matter the outcome.” The collars on the jerseys are white, “which pays tribute to the legacy of the All Black legend”. Mastercard has taken it a step further and lurched back to the salty grassroots with a campaign featuring Brian Lochore mumbling over the top of Kirk footage from 1987. Good grief.

Who are the new legends? Let’s allow them to shine. Why are we afraid to treat our professional athletes as the superstar global brands that they have the potential to be?

Heritage and mythology are a very important part of brand but you run a real risk of losing relevance to youth markets, especially female youth markets, if you ignore the badass-ness of X Games or the bling of NBA stars. We have the haka, the black shirts and the silver fern.

We need to preserve these elements but also keep the story relevant to highschool kids that have grown up with “Brand Beckham”, “Air Jordan” and streaming YouTube footage of Tony Hawk.

The raw ingredients are there to tell stories that are aspirational to youth. The success of the All Blacks Facebook page shows that people want to engage and are interested in connecting with the national team. The stars of the show are good looking, fit, and well paid. Yet when you travel overseas, the only All Black most people can name is still Jonah Lomu.

More back flips in the endzone. More highlighter orange boots, thank you Adidas. Fire up the shaved eyebrows and start creating some new stories that don’t involve Buck Shelford’s testicles. We need to see some new stars on the world stage and support them into successful careers with their own Playstation games, shoe lines and celebrity book tours.

The world has changed since 1987 and we don’t want to get stuck in a past that forces our players to go overseas to earn the money they deserve.

Using the exclusive invite-only style of marketing that was the halmark of Gmail’s launch has seen the social media geeks (like me) feeling more special than we should about using it during the “test phase” and it has helped ensure we all trumpet on about how cool the network is and how everyone should be on there. Indeed, the system has been broken two or three times since launch due to oversubscription causing problems for their servers, which has meant even people with invites could not access the system unless they were quick. This bodes well for the future of the network.

A social network is only as good as its members, however. The analogy of being the first and only person to own a fax machine rings true. One of my first posts stated that I would only move completely over from Facebook if at least 50 percent of my ex-girlfriends, or my crush also moved over to Google +. In short, everyone will need a reason to move over, but the reason will be the same for everyone; the people they want to engage with. The fact the uptake of the network has surpassed even Google’s expectations perhaps points equally to Google’s burnt fingers over their previous attempts (Buzz was a fizzer, Wave washed out) as well as the enthusiasm people have for a genuine competitor to Facebook.

So, what is it like? A person I follow on Twitter described it as “Facebook without its clothes on”, and from a layout point of view it does look very similar, albeit a stripped out version. You can stalk my public profile here to see for yourself, or go sign up here (if the sign up is working).

The two main advantages from my point of view (wearing my consumer hat now) is that it is very easy to control what content is displayed to who, via the ‘Circles’. I have six circles set up at the moment: friends, followers, workmates, colleagues, family and ex-girlfriends. Every time I post any content (text, photos etc) I have to choose which circles can view it. There are also options to post content to everyone on the web (public, like Twitter), or “extended circles” (friends of friends). This makes it incredibly easy to make sure my ex-girlfriends only ever see my highlights reel, while my workmates only ever see me sober. Although Facebook does have the option to split your friends into groups with different security settings, it is a bit of a pain in the butt to do this and generally only the social media geeks get it sorted.

Another cool feature of Google + is “Hangouts”. This is video chat for multiple people. It can also be used as a means of broadcasting events like conferences, concerts, your stupid dog singing along to Bernard Fanning, whatever—all with the added interactivity of being able to talk back and get involved. The coolness of this feature has already been countered by the addition of Skype video calling to the Facebook chat function, but the quick roll out of this shows how seriously Facebook is taking the Google + threat.

Although I have an iPhone, I have been told that the way Google + can be used with an Android powered phone is fantastic, particularly in regards to photo uploading. I can’t wait to see how an iPhone app will work.

Currently Google + is only set up for regular consumers (not business), but they have worked with several companies (Ford, Mashable etc) to build a few test company profiles which will be rolled out in the next two weeks, and they have received several thousand applications from companies to be included in further testing. However, in an earlier release Google recommended companies hold off until full support is offered in the “next few months”. It will be interesting to see how these company pages can integrate the suite of other Google services, including AdWords, Adsense, maps, YouTube etc. But the scope from a marketing point of view is huge. When you consider the vast information available to marketers currently using Google, the mouth waters at what this platform will allow (marketer’s hat on now).

So, is it a Facebook killer? I hope so, as I am someone who values being able to control who sees what information about me. However, it will require a quick uptake from the cool kids to see a major shift from what is currently the largest social networking site in the world.

But the future looks promising. This blog post speculates that as of July 10, there were already over six million users on Google +. This kind of growth (if accurate) in just over a week is fantastic, but it will need to be sustained before we can start calling Google + a Facebook killer. Until then, I will keep my fingers crossed, keep posting about issues and try my hardest to break it during the test period. Good luck Google.

• Have you tried Google +? Would you move from Facebook?

UPDATE: If you want to move your contacts across to Google+, Anthony Gardiner shows you how.

For 24 hours on July 8, Vodafone will invite all New Zealanders to share what is happening in their world by sending in tweets, TXTs, PXTs, audio, video or Facebook status updates. The results will “form the script of New Zealand’s first social media snapshot” and provide an insight into what Kiwis are willing to share with their friends, fans and followers. All the content that’s submitted will be packaged into a short film, which will be released at an online premiere at midday on July 15 on the Vodafone New Zealand Facebook page (let’s hope it’s enlisted the services of a good editor).

Click here to view the embedded video.

“New Zealanders are unique in the way that we use social media. In part due to our geographic isolation, to events such as the Canterbury earthquake, and our population size, we develop close knit groups, and often use it with a broad dash of healthy irony and humour,” says social media commentator Rachel Goodchild. “To my knowledge no one has ever tried to take such an indepth snapshot of Kiwis’ social media habits and I am fascinated about what we may discover. I am sure it will reflect the diversity of our social media users, and uncover a few surprises.”

Vodafone will host an application on the Vodafone New Zealand Facebook page, which will allow anyone to share content. Tweets can be submitted for inclusion via the hash tag #shareeverything. Content can also be sent from any Vodafone mobile via TXTs and PXTs to 256.

“The increasing penetration of smartphones in New Zealand, coupled with the rise in social media has seen people sharing more than ever,” says Vodafone’s general manager of consumer marketing Kursten Shalfoon. “The big and little things are now all updated on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. We want this film to represent all New Zealanders and we’re excited to see what people throughout the country will share this Friday.”

As an added incentive content submitters will be in to win Vodafone airtime credit and 10 Samsung Galaxy S II phones.

There seems to be a proliferation of the little thumbs up competitions rolling through New Zealand at the moment and excited marketing managers are finally ‘doing’ social media. Or so their agency tells them. The promotional mechanic is not new. It’s the modern version of putting your business card in a bowl for a $50 bar tab draw and, as customers, we all know how this goes down. The company will then add your details to their database and send you offers via email or text, continuously, to the point where you can’t take their noisy crap anymore and you unsubscribe. Or, in Facebook’s case, hit the ‘hide’ button.

If companies continue to treat Facebook as a loyalty database they will end up with the same problems that direct marketers have fought with since the old LV Martin catalogue days.

Getting the balance right between engagement and spam requires people driving the accounts to understand their community and have a sense for what they will tolerate (in commercial messaging) versus making them find your company unbearably annoying.

You need to keep an eye on the stats running in the background of your Facebook fan pages and keep an eye on your exit and hide rates; not just your engagement rates (likes and comments). All standard issue loyalty marketing stuff that you need to report on as you would with a Farmer’s Beauty Club or a Flybuys card database. Watch your campaign flight planning and make sure you aren’t fatiguing the community with stuff that is exciting for you e.g. ‘check out our new TV ad!’, but that is of no interest to your punters.

In the tips for new players category, read the Facebook competition terms of service and stick to them. Big brother is watching you and they will kindly send you a warning email that you should kindly comply with or your fanpage will be disabled. ‘Comment to enter’, ‘upload to enter’ and ‘like to enter’ have to be setup a certain way to meet Facebook legal requirements and it pays to educate yourself on what’s in and what’s out.

Wandering Lonely As An iCloud

The legendary crimefighter The Shadow (created for radio in the 1930s and subsequently brought to life in print and at the movies) had “the power to cloud men’s minds so they cannot see him”. The current recipient of that mysterious power is a legend in his own right: Steve Jobs, whose Apple product pronouncements similarly cloud the critical judgement of those caught in his orbit.

Latest offering from Mr Jobs: iCloud. No, not a device for doing what comes naturally for this technological showman, but rather a service to house customers’ data remotely, so that it’s available across all iOS devices (iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch) as well as those Macs running the newest Lion operating system.

Jobs pitched the service as a means of keeping multiple devices in sync and up-to-date—music, photos, apps, document and other data is stored remotely and available to all your devices—but what iCloud really offers is a customer loyalty ecosystem, keeping the faithful locked in. If all your content is stored in the iCloud, it’ll be that much more inconvenient for you to switch arbitrarily to another operating system such as Google’s Android.

The iCloud represents an interesting development in the hypercompetitive computer industry, one that takes us back kicking and screaming to the days when heavy metal IBM mainframes ruled the world and only interconnected easily with other IBM devices. Back then, in the sixties and seventies, IBM’s competitors could make little progress against the entrenched and highly successful computing giant. Small wonder that the industry leaders were collectively described as “IBM and the Seven Dwarves”.

It seems incomprehensible now, but early email systems didn’t even talk to each other unless they were running the same programme or operating system. Interoperability? Common standards? Hippie dreams!

A monopoly position is a wonderful thing to have, if you’re the incumbent, so we shouldn’t be too surprised that the leading technology companies of our time (Microsoft, Google, Apple, Facebook) are all trying to return to the days of gated communities and closed user groups.

It’s an outcome that should definitely be discouraged. Look how long it took us to knock down the Berlin Wall.

GroupThink

We’re officially impressed. Despite being last to the party, Groupon New Zealand has leapt tall buildings with a single bound and slipped past its keenest competitors in the group buying sector (and in particular the longest-established local site, GrabOne) to seize third place in the online “Shopping & Classified” category at least for last week (week ending 4 June).

That’s as ranked by numbers of visits for the week, according to the the Hitwise Online Competitive Intelligence service, which bases its daily insights on the online usage and search behaviour of 460,000 NZ Internet users.

Here’s the Top Ten in the “Shopping & Classified” category, led as usual by Trade Me (with longtime daily deal site One Day a clear number two):

1 Trade Me 37.10%

2 One Day 4.24%

3 Grouponnz 2.16%

4 GrabOne 2.15%

5 eBay 1.86%

6 Amazon.com 1.60%

7 NZsale.co.nz 1.28%

8 Mighty Ape 0.98%

9 TreatMe 0.88%

10 TaoBao 0.77%

Lest any ecommerce operator get too complacement about its position on the list, we should note that there are storm clouds on the horizon, with two major players looming large.

First, we note the arrival in New Zealand of Facebook Check-In Deals, one of two deal-based offerings from the social giant (the other, simply named Facebook Deals just to confuse us, is currently being tested in the U.S. but will no doubt roll out around the world in due course). Both these offerings take advantage of the social aspects of Facebook to spread the word instantly when users purchase deals. Consumers need do nothing (except not opt out) and their latest indulgences will be shared with their friends. [We're preparing a special Guide to Facebook Deals for marketers and merchants -- email us editor@marketingweek.co.nz if you're interested, that'll encourage us to get the guide completed more quickly].

Secondly, Google has begun the global rollout of its Google Offers product, already operational in Portland, Oregon, only 99.99 percent of the rest of the world to go. The beta version of this product is very me-too, not much to differentiate it for the other group buying sites. But Google’s been known to learn rather quickly, so we’d expect some significant enhancements by the time it hits our shores.

Good Behaviour

We’ve previously dispensed advice on what marketers should consider before committing themselves to one of these group deals. Now we’d like to encourage local operators to consider and sign up to a Code of Conduct not unlike that recently drafted for the industry in Australia by leading players Cudo and Spreets.

The draft Code of Conduct is as follows:

Our commitment to members is to:

1. Always offer you great deals – genuine discounts on quality products and services from first class merchants

2. Never engage in misleading advertising, such as advertising specific discounts or products that don’t actually exist (known as ‘Bait and Switch’)

3. Make our deal descriptions and terms & conditions clear using plain English so you know what to expect in return for your voucher. Where exclusions exist, they will be equally clear using plain English and will never be intentionally misleading

4. Make our website terms and conditions clear and in plain English so you know what to expect from your experience with our sites

5. Respect your privacy at all times and abide by the Privacy Policy you agreed to when you joined the site

6. Respect your email account at all times, taking measures to protect it from hacking or other fraudulent use

7. Work with our merchants to make sure you can easily redeem your voucher and that you are treated as good as or even better than a typical full paying customer

8. Provide responsive and helpful customer support and service – seeking to fully understand and resolve your issues

9. If you’re not fully satisfied with your experience, we’ll seek to understand why, address the issues and, if your issue cannot be resolved, provide you with a full refund or credit

10. Do what we say we’re going to do, every time

Our commitment to merchants is to:

1. Work with you and your team to make your group buying promotion as successful as possible
2. Help you package and price the right deal for your business
3. Help you prepare for the increase in customers
4. Help you manage the increase in demand including capping your offer as necessary
5. Help you maximise your up-sell opportunity to enhance the experience of new customers at your business
6. Help you get customers coming back
7. Provide you with clear payment terms
8. Provide fast, effective, personal customer service through a dedicated account management model
9. Do what we say we’re going to do, every time

Not bad for a first draft (although the merchant promises are a tad too promotional for our tastes). Still, heading in the right direction.

Seen In Passing

Google has launched +1, its answer to Facebook’s “Like” button. The thinking is that +1 will facilitate social sharing. Perhaps it might, but we unlike the name.

Across the ditch, media buying agencies and TV networks are close to reaching agreement on automated trading programmes that will make it easier to buy TV advertising. Traditional methods are having a hard time coping with the spot volumes (multiplied by the launch of new digital channels over there). Implementation is still a couple of years out, but watch this space.

A majority of Facebook users in the UK now visit the social network using both mobile phones and computers, the company has revealed. And Facebook is also responsible for 50 percent of the time consumers spend surfing the web via cellphones. New Zealand telcos, time to unshackle those mobile pricing plans and get with the programme ….

The Damage Advertising Can Do

This little tale demonstrates how advertising can shape an image – and sometimes send the wrong messages to consumers.

In Oregon, the Tourism Commission set out some years ago to “brand” the state to create an awareness that Oregon means a special quality of life where nature and the built environment co-exist; where “fresh” and “clean” permeate the food products and natural environment; where culture is alive and their heritage is showcased.

The Tourism Commission created campaigns designed to communicate this broad message, and invited other government agencies and the private sector to join in under the “Brand Oregon” umbrella. They created a slogan, “Oregon. Things Look Different Here” to express a special sense of place.

While the Tourism Commission created award-winning, “stand-out” ads that focused on Oregon’s quality of life, they really didn’t have a handle on how well their brand marketing efforts were working. Research was always a component of the planned tourism programme, but budget limitations resulted in only very general focus groups (both with travel professionals and consumers), visitor profile, and ad conversion data. This is a typically short-sighted situation with any advertising campaign: let’s rely on gut instinct to see if this works, because we spent all the research budget already.

Eventually the Tourism Commission made a commitment to analyse their marketing efforts, and contracted a three-tiered research programme:

• An overnight visitor profile
• An advertising effectiveness study
• And an image study

A key component of this research was to compare Oregon’s image and product to U.S. regional and national norms.

While the Commission determined that their tourism advertising was indeed effective, generating 402,000 new trips at a cost of $1.22 per trip, they also found that Oregon’s image is not as strong as Washington, British Columbia and California. They learned that Oregon doesn’t stack up to their West Coast neighbours in terms of excitement, unique opportunities, and being entertaining. When they looked critically at their ads and messages, they indeed found that they all reinforced a pristine, beautiful environment, but one that offered little in terms of things to do.

Interestingly, they also discovered that people who had been to Oregon rated their experiences extremely highly, and that Oregon’s actual tourism product is rated much higher than its image for those who have visited. In other words, Oregon’s advertising-created image doesn’t live up to the product.

As far as dilemmas go, perhaps this was a good one, as it required a communication solution, not a major infrastructure shift. Armed with this new data, the Tourism Commission has moved to build Oregon’s image in categories such as excitement, having cultural amenities and being a real adventure.

The first thing they did was to change their ad campaign to focus on “capturing the moment” and showing people having fun. Yes, Oregon is beautiful, and yes, the ads are still cutting edge, but they now communicate that there are things to do in Oregon.

Additionally, the Tourism Commission began building partnerships with cultural organisations and destinations in order to launch a cultural tourism campaign, with public relations and other marketing elements. Oregon has high-end resorts, world-class golf, fantastic regional cuisine, award-winning wines, 62 districts on the National Register of Historic Places, nearly 500 museums and art galleries, nine native tribes, and four National Historic Trails. All of these cultural amenities are backdropped by the incredible scenery and geographic diversity. The new challenge was to package Oregon’s culture with this beauty.

The investment in research has demonstrated the importance of crafting a message that communicates what life in Oregon really is, not solely natural beauty. A useful lesson.

• Michael Carney is available for consultation and contract assignments in relation to Consumer Research, Trend Analysis, Strategic Planning, Social Media, eMarketing, eCommerce, Writing and Media. He runs a social media marketing ecourse and he’s also offering a new course, the Facebook Kickstart programme. Contact editor@marketingweek.co.nz.

Facebook’s Australasian big cheese Paul Borrud says the appeal of the site for users lies in its relevance and, in essence, its success as an advertising medium can be put down to a simple, but powerful concept: word of mouth. Friends trust friends, particularly in these cynical times, and, with the average of 130 friends, there’s obviously a big multiplier effect (at the launch of Google’s social coupon effort +1 recently, chief executive Eric Schmidt admitted his biggest failure in the role was missing out on “the friend thing”). Now, however, Borrud says “it’s about taking the customer out of the web and into the store”.

What he always tells advertisers is that they need to think of Facebook the way the users think of it.

“They’re sharing hiking trails, restaurants, or good deals. You want to be that person who hooks up your friends…If brands and agencies can create unique, compelling deals, that will determine how successful this will be,” he says.

The ability to Check-In automates that status update process, he says, and, if someone accepts a deal, it shows up in the newsfeed. For anyone who’s had to put up with the incessant Foursquare Check-Ins on your Twitter feed that say things like ‘Bruce is now the mayor of the Onehunga Tavern’, this could be seen as an annoyance. But Borrud points out that Facebook prides itself on creating non-invasive advertising and users are always able to change their settings and block the deals from coming through.

For the Beta launch, McDonald’s and Hyundai are the two local brands getting involved. McDonald’s is offering an individual deal, where customers can choose between free fries or a sundae, while Hyundai is offering a charity deal, with $10 donated to the Spirit of Adventure every time someone checks in at a dealership (Rugby World Cup 2011 is also involved and allows you to Check-In, but isn’t offering any deals).

Businesses need to have a Facebook Place or Page to offer deals (there are four kinds: individual, loyalty, friend and charity) but it’s free to get involved. Borrud says the cost comes from the value of the offer and the advertising each company might decide to do on top of that to promote the deal.

Facebook has already launched Check-In Deals (different to the Groupon-style Facebook Deals) in the US and the UK and he says they’ve been very popular so far, both with users and advertisers. In the US, Gap gave away 10000 pairs of jeans to the first people to check-in at various stores around the country and gave a 20 percent discount to the ones who missed out. And through Facebook Connect, it’s also aiming to expand Check-In into other e-commerce sites and up the personalisation, just as it has done with the CNN Facebook feed that shows what articles friends have read and recommended.

Of course, none of this could have happened without the swift evolution and uptake of mobile technology. As smartphones get better, as tablets fly off the shelves and as data gets cheaper, the internet is everywhere. Borrud says there are 250 million Facebook mobile users around the world and they’re twice as active on the site compared to ‘traditional’ users.

As we’ve all seen, daily deal sites are popping up like mushrooms in New Zealand and around the world and, interestingly, big international players like Groupon and Living Social, which arrived late to the New Zealand party, don’t actually seem to have made much of an impact. These sites all offer relatively similar things. But the big difference with the Facebook Check-In deals is that it has the scale to make it work and, because of the ability to incorporate geo-location, the deals become just that little bit more relevant and timely.

There’s no doubt consumers like getting good deals. Always have, always will. But, as this innovation shows, there are just new and more efficient ways of delivering them.

For a full run down of the new innovation, download the pdf. Facebook Check-in Deals Beta (USA)