Mediaboss Marketing

By Jonathan Fowlie

VICTORIA — The B.C. Liberal government planned to use Olympic nostalgia and free iPads to persuade a reluctant public to support the harmonized sales tax.

“The 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games gave British Columbia a foundation to build a stronger province and create new opportunities for workers and families,” said a 10-page pamphlet the government had planned to mail to each home in 2010, not long after the Games had finished.

The controversial tax was scrapped after B.C. residents voted it down in August.

Obtained by the Vancouver Sun after a 19-month battle under the Freedom of Information Act, draft copies of the pamphlet contain a large image of the Olympic flame on the cover and bear the title “Spirit of 2010: Building on B.C.’s Olympic Advantage.”

The government never sent out the pamphlet, shredding all copies not long after having spent $780,000 to have them designed and printed.

On its second page, the pamphlet features a list of the “10 reasons why B.C. is The Best Place on Earth,” including answers like: “we give hope to the world;” “we’re cool;” and “we like big stuff.”

One part of the pamphlet contained a contest giving people a chance to win one of three Apple iPads, valued, it said, at about $750 each.

At the end of the document, the government used three pages to push the merits of the HST, saying the then controversial tax is “good for B.C.”

“Academic research and evidence from other jurisdictions have shown that under an HST tax structure wages go up, prices go down and more jobs are created,” it said.

“You won’t pay a penny more on many of the products and services you use every day,” it added, providing a list of items such as basic groceries, books and children’s diapers.

On Thursday, Finance Minister Kevin Falcon — who was not minister responsible at the time — said the pamphlet was quashed because it would have been mailed out at the same time as a court challenge on the anti-HST petition, and government did not think the approach was going to be helpful.

“The idea was a desire to talk about the success of the Olympics and the HST and I think that, frankly, British Columbians wouldn’t have been very receptive to it,” said Falcon.

“My understanding is it was killed by the premier’s office of the day and I don’t know much more,” he continued. (Gordon Campbell was premier at the time)

New Democratic Party leader Adrian Dix called the pamphlets a laughable waste of taxpayer money.

“It’s kind of, ‘Can you believe how out of touch they are?’ kind of funny,” Dix said Friday after being briefed on the contents of the pamphlet.

“This sounds like a Liberal Party that knew they had misled people and were hoping, I guess, a spoonful of publicly paid sugar would help the medicine go down.”

Dix added the government continues to spend money in a similar fashion, with recent documents showing that as of last month the government had spent $866,697 on advertising for its Jobs Plan.

“They’re still doing it. The premier is doing branding ads for her jobs plan right now at $800,000 and really, when you look at what she’s doing now, they don’t learn anything,” he said.

In 2010, then-finance minister Colin Hansen said his government had wanted to send a version of the HST pamphlet that April, hoping it could land on doorsteps before the HST first took effect on July 1 of that year.

Elections BC rejected the first version of the pamphlet because an anti-HST petition was circulating at the time. It ruled at the time that distributing the pamphlet while canvassers were collecting signatures was a violation of the province’s Recall and Initiative Act.

Hansen said government later redrafted the pamphlet into a more general mailer — the one released this week — only to shred the copies it had printed.

The Vancouver Sun first requested the pamphlet under the Freedom of Information Act on June 24, 2010.

The government refused the request in August of that year, citing a section of the act that allows government to block disclosure of records that “would reveal advice or recommendations developed by or for a public body or a minister.”

The Vancouver Sun referred the matter to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner, which attempted unsuccessfully to resolve the dispute in mediation.

The province finally released the documents to the Vancouver Sun right before an inquiry to be held by the privacy commissioner’s office.

“Although it is believed (section) 13 applies to the records at issue, the head (of Government Communications and Public Engagement) has reconsidered and is exercising her discretion to disclose them,” said a letter that accompanied the documents.

On Friday, Dix criticized the entire process, saying government has no right to block documents that were created for the sole purpose of mass public distribution.

“It shows an absolute contempt for FOI laws to make the argument they’ve been making as to why they didn’t release this,” he said.

“This was a publicly paid document, it was intended for public release and for the public to have.”

Asked about the process, Falcon said it “bothers” him that government sought to block release of the document.

He added that upon hearing the pamphlet was being blocked he recommended it be released.

“My direction to staff was really clear: just release the damn thing,” he said.

Postmedia News

View original post here:
B.C. Liberals planned to promote HST by giving away iPads

22-01-2012 16:50 Inspired by "Shit Girls Say" and the many "shit (insert group) say" that have come before, we are proud to present "Shit Expats Say!" For those of you who have ever known someone that moved abroad for reasons other than work, military service or some other sensible reason, this video is for you. Special thanks to Primary Creative Consultant, Ellis Lanaux, for his insight into the production process. Dedicated to Matt B. for the generous gift of his camera before we set off on our own not so sensible journey.

The rest is here:
Shit Expats Say - Video

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 9:25 AM on 30th January 2012

Expats are most likely to miss the beautiful British countryside, according to a survey.

Nearly half of those questioned – 46 per cent – said they longed for rolling hills and ancient woodlands, with those living in the United Arab Emirates missing it the most.

Second was the British sense of humour, with 42 per cent of the 1,034 questioned listing it among the things they missed.

Green and pleasant: Expats are miss the British countryside more than anything else

Pubs, at 41 per cent, were third with those living in Australia longing for them the most. The least missed aspects of UK life were politics and the weather.

Despite these pangs for home, expats are generally positive about their new life overseas - with more than two thirds (68 per cent) saying they are happier abroad.

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Nicholas Boys Smith of Lloyds TSB International, which commissioned the survey, said: 'Often you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone so it speaks glowingly of our countryside that expats around the world miss it so much.

'Many expats have an element of the adventurer about them, but they still long for certain aspects of British life that some people here might take for granted.

'An overwhelming majority are happy with their life overseas, but the British countryside, as well as our sense of humour and the great British pub, are all things that they miss abroad.'

The online survey questioned Britons based in the 10 most popular expat destinations and was conducted by Freshminds.

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See original here:
Expats pining for the green green hills of home

WETHERSFIELD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Broker John Zubretsky, Jr., a high-profile Hartford area broker for 35 years, has announced his company’s affiliation with Weichert Real Estate Affiliates, Inc. (WREA). Co-owned by Ann Zubretsky, WEICHERT, REALTORS® - The Zubretsky Group has 85 agents at 449 Silas Deane Highway, Suite 2A, Wethersfield. John Zubretsky III is vice president of operations.

“Weichert really has its act together,” Zubretsky said, citing the organization’s commitment to brokers, agents and profitability. A longtime member of the franchise arena, he is aware of the synergy and benefits that are possible. “Weichert is run by Realtors,” he said. “Others are run by Wall Street.” From founder Jim Weichert to WREA President Martin J. Rueter and his management staff, the team is made up of people who are rooted in real estate.

“We are impressed with the way this company has earned its place in the market with leadership and a client-centric, family philosophy that is in sync with our own,” said Rueter. In 2011, the Wethersfield firm, as a Century 21 office, was identified as no. 1 in units sold of all Century 21 affiliates throughout Central New England. Its Executive Asset Group was ranked the no. 1 team in Connecticut and no. 5 nationally.

The realty was formed by Zubretsky and his father, John Zubretsky, Sr. When John Sr. passed away in 1999, they merged with eight franchised brokerages to form a top 10 nationwide system under the Access America name. “The offices split in March, and we went our separate ways,” Zubretsky said. “Our agents have been with us for a long time and are looking forward to being part of the Weichert family. The timing is good. It’s the right fit.”

WREA announced its first affiliate in January 2002 in Florida and has expanded to some 300 markets in 36 states. The parent company, Weichert, Realtors®, is one of the nation’s largest privately owned providers of real estate and home ownership services. One-stop shopping offers mortgage and insurance services, an award-winning Internet lead-generation platform and a multinational relocation company. Weichert is known for support to brokers and agents, providing in-person local training and online education, marketing and an agent recruitment system.

WEICHERT, REALTORS® - The Zubretsky Group can be reached at 860-263-2121.

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Established Hartford Area Agency is Now WEICHERT, REALTORS® - The Zubretsky Group

dotCoop co-founders Shaun Fensom (left) and Malcolm Corbett

The launch of the .coop top level Internet domain ten years ago created an opportunity for the worldwide co-operative movement to step straight into the 21st century.

A chance to show that it was better adapted than capitalism to deal with the disruptive power of the Internet and digital technology. Sadly the movement was slow to respond and much of the original vision for .coop was written off as utopian — or has simply been forgotten. The opportunity is still there however to build on this asset.

During the DotCom boom in the early part of this century there was a frenzy of new names being created, particularly with the .com ending. ICANN decided it wanted to experiment by adding new top-level domains to free up space and give more scope for the creation of useful and meaningful names. So it invited proposals.

Malcolm Corbett who was working with me at Poptel proposed that we apply for two: .union and .coop. Poptel was itself a co-operative and provided Internet services to a number of British and international labour organisations. For the .union proposal, Poptel teamed up with the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and for .coop it joined with the National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA) of the USA, which had the same idea. The International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) agreed to support the proposal.

But, it wasn’t cheap; ICANN demanded a non-refundable application fee of $50,000 per name. That didn’t prevent over 40 applications for over 100 names from all over the world, including some from corporate giants like Nokia.

As it happened, the ICANN board approved just seven, including .coop. Of the others, really only two have had any success - .biz and .info. Some, like .aero (reserved for the aeronautical industry) have very little visibility outside their niche. ICANN rejected .union, and also our parallel request to allow ‘.co-op’ as an ‘alias’ name so that uk.coop and uk.co-op would take you to the same place.

I shall never forget my excitement when the ICANN board made its announcement. For many of us, it seemed to be an enormous opportunity for the cooperative movement. Here was a way for co-operatives to mark themselves out from other businesses on the net, to create a badge of trust in contrast with the wild-west feel of .com.

Co-operatives would have privileged access to the names they wanted, reserved for their use. We would build sophisticated directories so that customers and other co-operatives could find a co-operative supplier of a product or service, confident that they are dealing with a bona-fide member-owned organisation.

I proposed that we should prove the point dramatically by creating a worldwide Internet services co-operative to run .coop and provide on-line services that would help co-ops work together and trade. A co-operative owned and financed by its co-operative users all over the world.

Unfortunately, much of that vision was never to be. The cost of creating the domain – in legal fees negotiating the contract with ICANN and the technical cost of building the system to run it – was enormous. The price for a .coop domain on launch day, 30 January 2002, was consequently relatively high – and remains so to this day.

The number of .coop registrations was much lower than our forecasts, partly because of the price, but also because many co-operatives simply weren’t convinced.

Most of the million or so co-operatives across the world were much too small or poor to have a website, and those that did have one didn’t necessarily think it was a good idea to change its name. It is only in recent years that our own retail consumer movement has made co-operative identity the central plank of its brand, with the Co-operative Group in the UK adopting http://www.co-operative.coop as its preferred name for the main website.

There was no appetite among the partners in 2002 for launching a new global co-operative to take ownership of the domain operations and raise further investment. The ambitions for .coop to become the well-ordered and regulated ‘namespace’ in contrast to the chaos of .com were forgotten as the NCBA and Poptel struggled to make .coop cover its running costs.

Poptel — which had bet the farm on .coop — never recovered and ultimately was taken over by one of the investors who had stumped up the development costs. Many of us left as a result. Later Bob Burlton of Oxford Swindon and Gloucester cooperative (now Midcounties Co-operative) negotiated a deal with the new private owner of Poptel and brought the technical operations of .coop safely back into cooperative ownership.

Now, ten years later, it’s worth asking where we are and what has been achieved. The name and the registry operation are stable and in safe hands. It’s been recognised and adopted by some of the biggest names in the movement worldwide.

Thousands of smaller coops have enthusiastically embraced the name and wear it with pride. Forward thinking coops like Co-operative Press, operator of this website, has fulfilled some of the original vision with innovations like s.coop and thenews.coop – using names that would be impossible to obtain with almost any other ending.

There are around 7,000 names registered in all (compared with tens of thousands of new .com names registered every day) but .coop is one of the most successful of the new top level domains approved since 2000, and easily the most successful of the specialist restricted names. Not many readers will ever have seen a museum website ending with .museum or a travel website ending with .travel but many readers will know of several .coop websites.

The recent decision by ICANN to open the process so that anyone can apply for a top level domain (for a substantial fee) has led to speculation that we will see the arrival of .tesco and similar corporate names. This means that .coop will lose some of its privileged status but may ironically lead to a much wider acceptance that domains don’t have to end .com or .co.uk.

There is in any case a much bigger prize still available to the movement if it recognises the potential of the net to promote and develop the cooperative business model, using tools like .coop. The net is built on co-operative agreements between networks and mutually owned Internet exchanges. Co-operative forms of organisation flourish across the net. From Wikipedia to ‘crowd sourcing’ the net makes easy the process of building on the small efforts and contributions of many. Many of the best ideas on the net could benefit from the movement’s experience and wisdom in how best to govern such ventures, ensuring that they stay true to their founding principles. The net helps trading partners find each other and can simplify transactions between them — eBay is an obvious example. The extraordinary success of the alibaba.com trading platform for small businesses gives a glimpse of the potential to accelerate global trade between co-operatives.

A true global co-operative to facilitate the sixth principle of ‘co-operation between co-operatives’ and to show the capitalist world that coops do it better is within our reach. We should grasp it.

Link:
dotCoop: Story of the founders who had a utopian dream for co-operatives online