News from the upside!
Welcome to The Upside, your destination for uplifting stories and positive news from around the country. In a world often filled with challenging headlines, we aim to bring a refreshing perspective by celebrating the inspiring moments, acts of kindness, and achievements that showcase the best of New Zealand. From heartwarming community efforts to breakthrough innovations,The Upside is dedicated to spreading optimism and highlighting the bright side of life. Let’s shine a light on the good happening all around us!
In reviews – 29th August ’23
Looking back over the past week and to the weeks ahead - to rate the noteworthy, the cringeworthy, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the truly amazing. Rugby World Cup 2023 and it's wide open Next weekend the Rugby World Cup kicks off in France with the first game...
In reviews – 22nd August ’23
Looking back over the past weeks and to the weeks ahead – to rate the noteworthy, the cringeworthy, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the truly amazing. NBR deep sixing opinion columns The New Zealand Herald reported last week that the NBR (National Business Review)...
In reviews – 12th August ’23
Looking back over the past weeks and to the weeks ahead – to rate the noteworthy, the cringeworthy, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the truly amazing. Tradies Each week I sift through the online news looking for inspiring stories to lift the gloom. Truth be told,...
In reviews 5th August ’23
Looking back over the past weeks and to the weeks ahead – to rate the noteworthy, the cringeworthy, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the truly amazing. Not all heroes wear capes Seems we all need a reminder about social etiquette and respect every now and again and...
In reviews 28 July ’23
Looking back over the past weeks and to the weeks ahead – to rate the noteworthy, the cringeworthy, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the truly amazing. In reviews 28 July '23 The health benefits of coffee Don't tell anybody but one of my last thoughts at night is how...
In reviews 21 July ’23
Looking back over the past weeks and to the weeks ahead – to rate the noteworthy, the cringeworthy, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the truly amazing. In reviews 21 July '23 NZ Police in Auckland We may grumble about the police occasionally but huge kudos to the...
In reviews 13 July ’23
Looking back over the past weeks and to the weeks ahead – to rate the noteworthy, the cringeworthy, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the truly amazing. Joe Bennett hailing the plumbing trade Joe Bennett has a way with words and is one of the more learned and lucid...
In reviews 6 July ’23
Looking back over the past week and to the weeks ahead - to rate the noteworthy, the cringeworthy, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the truly amazing. The FIFA Women's World Cup Kicking off at Eden Park, Auckland on the 20th of this month, the tournament promises to...
Key questions for every business owner
NoCowboys has been in business long enough to know what works and what doesn't when it comes to marketing. We pioneered online reviews from the days when online feedback was in its infancy. Since then we have helped tens of thousands of New Zealand businesses grow and...
Negative reviews are part of an honest assessment of a business
Because I am in the online review business, I read as much as I can about reviews, how consumers read and use reviews, and how much reviews help businesses online. Personally, I find the whole thing fascinating and so many times when I'm reading about consumer...
You don’t need to bang your head against a wall
Apparently it was Einstein who coined this phrase - although that's up for debate - either way it's prescient when I think about business owners spending their marketing budgets and getting little in return. “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and...
Paperless travel leaves some of us behind
For the past few weeks I've been travelling in Europe, accompanying my father, on what may well be his last trip. He's a few weeks shy of 80 and the advancing years have slowed him down, without diminishing the joy he experiences from new adventures and encountering...
We want to be heard!
So why leave a review? Recently I was re-reading an article from a few years ago focused on the reasons consumers leave reviews and one part of it perfectly expressed an element that is isn't given the attention that it deserves - that we leave feedback because we...
Creating a powerful symbol for a new Christchurch
Symbols are powerful things and can transcend their intended purpose to create new meanings. Buildings are a pertinent example of this. One building, more than any other over the past eight years has generated huge debate and discussion. Christ Church Cathedral in...
The reputation economy
I was reading an article recently that discussed the exchange between raters and businesses and cited a paper by a marketing academic, who referred to it as 'the reputation economy,' and while that term has been around for a few years now, it got me thinking about the...
“Consumers don’t want to be guinea pigs”
Presentation is everything and more and more, online consumers are looking for particular things when they search for products and services online. If they don't see what they are looking for, then they are moving on to another business and product. For businesses...
Time for a change but not right now
When the Super 12 competition was being created, I was a student in Dunedin. I was raised in Christchurch and was a huge fan of Canterbury. After a few years at Otago, I developed split loyalties - between the team I had grown up with and a new one representing my new...
The best little country on Earth
Last week I was in Paris, waiting with thousands of other Eurostar commuters for more hours than usual to queue for trains back to London. French customs officials were striking to show what travel would look like in a post-Brexit world, and I had a lot of time to...
Hatred will never trump tolerance and love
I'm currently in London and woke up on Friday morning to the unbelievable news that there had been a shooting at two mosques in Christchurch - a city I have lived in for 28 years of my life. Like most Kiwis - at home and around the world - I have followed the news of...
Zip codes and sea monkeys
When I was a kid I used to love poring over the advertisements for toys, magic tricks, and gimmicks in the back pages of comics. There were two items that myself, and my friends coveted the most - sea monkeys and the 1000 piece US Revolutionary War set. One thing...
Brand loyalty only goes so far
Since I was a kid I have loved airplanes and flying. Not that I can fly myself - just that I have enjoyed the experience of jetting between countries inside of some of the greatest engineering feats human beings have achieved. My father worked for Air New Zealand for...
Pointing fingers at other other generations is never a good idea
Inter generational verbal warfare has always struck me as a particularly dumb idea and this week an Astralian CEO of a multinational company created a huge amount of damage by deciding to stick the boot in to millennials. Muffin Break general manager, Natalie Brennan...
Lime Scooters need to earn public trust
Every newly introduced product is going to have the odd teething problem, and Lime Scooters have proven to be no exception. Since they were released on New Zealand’s streets and pavements last year, Lime Scooters have come in for a healthy dose of media attention...
“Build it and they will come”
There's been a lot of talk recently about Eden Park. The future of the stadium is in serious doubt and requires substantial financial investment and support. Auckland ratepayers are being asked to take on $40 million in existing debt and $64 million maintenance costs...
When your imagination is a deluded fool
I celebrated one of those milestone birthdays recently where, if I were playing cricket, I would slightly raise my bat to the crowd and then take guard hoping to amass another half tonne. One of the gifts I received was a ticket to see Marlon Williams at Villa Maria...
Football gets it right – and dreadfully wrong
Sport tends to mirror the best, and the worst of real life and that is possibly its greatest attraction. Sure there's the drama, the comebacks, the domination, the fierce contests between rivals - but I think sports is at its greatest and most dire, when it reflects...
Consistent marketing wards off invisibility
For a business to survive and thrive it needs to be seen – that may sound overly simplistic but it’s true. Being seen is the key to attracting customers, accruing revenue and sustaining growth. To be seen, a business has to market its brand, goods, and services and it...
Plucking out a name and hoping for the best
In the past few weeks I have had to book some accomodation and travel for an upcoming overseas holiday. All of it has been done online. I haven’t exchanged one word with another human being, except for a quick online chat with the good people at Eurostar to ask what I...
Our day of sporting infamy
In 1981, New Zealand sports teams were involved in two events that have significantly shaped our sporting and cultural legacy. The first was the Springbok Tour - where the South African rugby team’s visit to our shores deeply divided the nation - resulting in...
You can’t put an Elastoplast on a gaping wound
I’ve never considered using Viagogo to purchase tickets to concerts or gigs, and after following up on an online story recently, I doubt I ever would. Usually I would got to a site like Ticketmaster - their prices are transparent, selecting seats is easy to do, and...
Forewarned is forearmed
The rise and ubiquity of online reviews has also created a burgeoning industry in fake reviews. These reviews may achieve short term results but are worth less than nothing. Inflating or manipulating an online reputation is not only a huge example of bad faith, it is...
Sundazed and confused
For roughly a month between the middle of December and the end of January, New Zealand enters into, what is commonly known as, the silly season. It’s summer, the sun is blazing and the beach is calling. Kiwis take their annual holidays - to relax, socialise, spend...
There’s nothing wrong with a healthy dose of suspicion
Not too many years ago it was common for people to knock on your door. Encyclopedia salespeople, the Avon ladies, charities, odd jobbers, the religious – they would all come and hope to sell something or other. It is the purest example of cold calling. You didn’t ask...
Being taken for a ride
The first car I bought was a total lemon. I was young, eager, and stubbornly oblivious to the great advice I had been given, before forking over my hard earned cash to a gentleman who sold second hand cars through the classified section of the Christchurch Press....
Walls and bridges
It was one of the most iconic moments of the last century - Germans who had been divided by political differences for decades, dismantling a wall that had been constructed to keep them apart. In a move that signalled the demise of the Cold War, the Berlin Wall coming...
Video killed the radio star, part 2
I talk to thousands of business owners and consumers each year. While they are all obviously different - in age, gender, racial and ethic background and life experience - the one thing they have in common is that they are trying to connect - with customers and with...
And the Oscar goes to . . .
Every year at about this time, newspapers and magazines compile lists of all the things we should have seen or read about, or known about in the past 12 months. At the "dead time" between Christmas and New Year, the media revels in presenting swathes of articles on...
Should old acquaintance be forgot
For many of us, New Year's Eve is the time to throw off all of the ills of the passing year and spend time with good friends and family and party like you mean it – all the while heralding the new year to come. The tradition of New Years is millennia old – in the...
And so this is Christmas . . .
And so this is Christmas. Without lurching any further into the John Lennon and Yoko Ono song, I’ll just take the opening few words. And so this is Christmas. For many it’s the best time of the year, for some it is simply the worst. No other day in the year generates...
Consumers want recent reviews and they are looking for them more than ever
Each year BrightLocal releases its much respected Local Consumer Review Survey. Since 2010 it has become an important tool for analysing consumer behaviour and online reviews. The 2018 survey, released this week, indicates some interesting shifts in consumer...
You only sing when you’re winning
It really is the strangest thing when the most successful team in world sport comes under so much attack, after a few less than stellar performances. It’s stranger still when that team is the All Blacks and those leading the charge to put the boot in are so called All...
Checking the online vitality of your business
One of the most surprising thing to me when talking to business owners is the large percentage that do not do the simplest thing to analyse the strength of their business online - regularly Googling their business name. Searching your own business name regularly is...
Getting help when resolution is impossible
Human beings are incredibly complex animals, and no matter how ‘evolved’ we are, there are some things that we struggle with. Since the dawn of time we have fought each other, over large and small matters. Conflict is possibly the most challenging aspect of human life...
Picking a restaurant because of a negative review
Earlier this year I was in Christchurch and was looking for a diner to eat breakfast at. Christchurch has a number of great breakfast diners and I wanted to find one I hadn’t been to before. So, I Googled it and there were a few options – all not too far away and all...
Marketing a reputation in boom times and bust
Marketing is a vital element to every business’ success and viability. Like other essentials, it needs to be nurtured and more importantly – it requires a commitment – to ensure that a business’ name, brand, and services are continually present where they are most...
Are our phones making us a better species?
It’s strange that we still call them mobile phones. Using them as a device to make actual ‘phone calls’ is the very smallest part of their function and use. In reality they are extensions, connections to nearly any sort of information at any time – only hindered by...
Creating space around the home
Now that Daylight Savings is here and we have an extra hour of evening light up our sleeves, it’s a great time to think about making sure that our homes are ready for all of the glories of long, balmy summer days. Think about pruning what you don’t need Just like with...
We can’t afford to mess with the truth
No matter which country you live in some things stay the same – the professions that top off the lists of most distrusted professions. Across the board it is politicians and journalists that take top spots (or bottom spots) in polls regarding trust and reputation....