No Free Meal Here
I've been watching some of the video streams produced by Duke University as a result of their recent podcast symposium. There are some very interesting presentations available from a collection of high profile podcasting players.
I am a bit perturbed by the marketing approach of the folks from Eat Feed. Eat Feed's Anne Bramley presents as part of the Triangle Podcasters Forum. They currently have a promotion that involves giving away short bread in exchange for signing up for their newsletter. Not everyone gets shortbread but some folks will "win" free shortbread. In exchange you give up personal information that Eat Feed will then "give" to marketers. At least that's what Ms. Bramley states in the symposium. On the subscription page they're a bit more subtle about what they do with your information.
In keeping with the enlightened philosophy that guides everything at Eat Feed, we will never give or sell your contact information to anyone else. We hate getting things we don't need or want that clutter up our inboxes and distract us from the good food we love, and we assume you're the same. Instead, we gather demographic information to create shows that feed your interests and to assist us in choosing sponsors who are clever enough to grow food and create cookware that is exactly the kind you love.
In the symposium, Ms. Bramley clearly states that Eat Feed will be offering the data to marketers. She says "give" but why would they just give the data away when it's plainly obvious that this is part of their business model. To me this is a classic bait and switch. People are encouraged to give up demographic information, including age, gender, income,and their full home addresses full name, city and state with the promise that the "contact information" won't be given away. I feel this leads people to believe that their personal information won't be provided to third party marketers. It's a deceptive business practice and I'm sad to see it being used in conjunction with podcasting.
I also notice that their is no place to opt out of the contest. In order to get the newsletter you must enroll in this contest and provide detailed demographic information. That's bad news and I recommend that you avoid this promotion.
Don't take my word for it though, listen to Ms. Bramley's statement here.
I am a bit perturbed by the marketing approach of the folks from Eat Feed. Eat Feed's Anne Bramley presents as part of the Triangle Podcasters Forum. They currently have a promotion that involves giving away short bread in exchange for signing up for their newsletter. Not everyone gets shortbread but some folks will "win" free shortbread. In exchange you give up personal information that Eat Feed will then "give" to marketers. At least that's what Ms. Bramley states in the symposium. On the subscription page they're a bit more subtle about what they do with your information.
In keeping with the enlightened philosophy that guides everything at Eat Feed, we will never give or sell your contact information to anyone else. We hate getting things we don't need or want that clutter up our inboxes and distract us from the good food we love, and we assume you're the same. Instead, we gather demographic information to create shows that feed your interests and to assist us in choosing sponsors who are clever enough to grow food and create cookware that is exactly the kind you love.
In the symposium, Ms. Bramley clearly states that Eat Feed will be offering the data to marketers. She says "give" but why would they just give the data away when it's plainly obvious that this is part of their business model. To me this is a classic bait and switch. People are encouraged to give up demographic information, including age, gender, income,
I also notice that their is no place to opt out of the contest. In order to get the newsletter you must enroll in this contest and provide detailed demographic information. That's bad news and I recommend that you avoid this promotion.
Don't take my word for it though, listen to Ms. Bramley's statement here.
Recommend Podcast NYC To Your Friends
posted by PodcastNYC.net at 6:39 PM
4 Comments:
I was so upset to see my comments completely misinterpreted on your website, and I hope you'll consider a correction since you have posted grossly misleading information. Someone less polite might even say lies.
Eat Feed will never give away any personal information so that some other entity -- be it corporate or personal -- can bother them, track them, monitor them or anything else they might dream up. That would be completely out of keeping with the philosophy behind everything we do. (In spite of what you say, we absolutely do not ask for home addresses and that's because we don't care. The only contact we request is email and that's so we can let you know if you win shortbread and so that we can send you our newsletter updates.) We just wanted to gather general data as we'd like to be able to tell potential sponsors the AVERAGE age of our listeners, the AVERAGE household income, the AVERAGE educational level, etc. And personally we were just curious ourselves about all that and wanted to also know how international our audience might be so that we had a sense of what kinds of topics to cover in future shows. Nothing sinister. No individual info will ever be released.
Please check the facts next time before jumping to outrageous conclusions, scaring the podcast audience unnecessarily, and circulating libel.
Ms. Bramley,
I'm sorry that you're upset but I call em as I see em. Consider the following statement.
"And when you sign up for the newsletter you have to give your demographics, you have to give your gender and your age and your household income and thus we collect those things and use those to contact companies in the future, who, so we can give them that data..."
Do you deny making that statement?
Your website indicates that you collect the data for internal use only, but in your statement at the symposium you clearly indicate that collecting the data is part of a larger marketing strategy and you did say that you would "give" the information to third parties. Is the audio incorrect?
Consider this quote from your website: "Instead, we gather demographic information to create shows that feed your interests and to assist us in choosing sponsors who are clever enough to grow food and create cookware that is exactly the kind you love."
Sounds good, but in the symposium you stated that you would use that data as a basis to contact companies and give it to them.
Make no mistake, I wish you folks the best in your venture. But I see a disconnect from the words on your page and what you said at the symposium.
If you tell me that you mis-spoke in the symposium and that you won't give demographic data to other companies than I'll buy that.
I would have no problem with the approach if you A. Explicitly stated on the newsletter page that you plan to give demographic information to third parties and B. Allowed people to opt out of the contest but still get the newsletter by providing a name and an email address.
I still have to say that as the record stands now I don't like the indications of the intentions that I got from your speech, especially since they don't match the verbiage on the website.
I exercised my freedom of speech in writing about this based on facts and I would think that a person of your academic standing would appreciate that right.
Rob Safuto
I believe most of this turns on the ambiguity of the word "data" and the different ways that might be interpreted by you or by me. In the end, the only important interpretations are those that we intend and our listeners believe. Our listeners know us and trust us, and we would never compromise their trust. We work hard to make their lives better and more enjoyable, not less, which is why we receive praise as both a high-quality podcast and an ethical one. Maybe that makes us such a beguiling target for detractors, though.
Our listeners know that when they send a comment or contribution, before we post anything, they first receive an email verifying the amount of identifying info they will allow us to give on our site. That's the level of precaution we take to protect our listeners.
Regardless of interpretation, our statement about us asking for "their full home addresses" is false no matter how you look at it. I hope you will alter that in your original post. Freedom of speech might extend to differences of interpretation but not to lies.
Ms. Bramley,
You are correct that your site does not ask for full home address, which would include street address. Just first name, last name, city and state. That was an unintentional mistake on my part. And last name is not required but it is a field that you ask for.
Unfortunately, that's not the least of the issue here. The information that you ask for could easily be used by a third party to determine a person's exact identity. Any local phone directory allows most people to be located by last name and town. That's not the main issue here either though.
Here's the main point. The messages that you sent in the symposium are quite different than the messages that are presented on the web page. The words on your web page indicate that Eat Feed will be using the data to pick sponsors and products. But in your comments at the symposium you said you would be giving the data to third parties when you stated that you would "give them that data and target, as people were saying earlier, kind of, exactly who they might want to reach."
So instead of using the data to pick sponsors, it sounds like you're actually using the data to pick listeners with the help of those sponsors. That's fine with me but your web page and your speech indicate two different intentions for use of the data. Your messages are not consistent and that bothers me.
So what's the real deal here? Do you gather demographic data to benefit listeners? Or do you gather demographic data to benefit third party sponsors? Whatever the answer, the consumer has a right to full and accurate disclosure.
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