Nova outfoxes competitor with spam

If you got a hold of your competitor’s email database what would you do?.

Last week FOX FM accidentally sent out the email addresses of the people on its database and competitor Nova got its hands on the email.

Shortly afterwards the people on the Fox database got an email telling them about Nova.

Included in the email was a comparative list of how many songs were played each hour on Fox and Nova with the message: “Compare that to Fox FM, who are too busy playing big blocks of commercials to fit anywhere near that many songs in.”

Fox has criticised Nova for the email on privacy grounds and company lawyers are in discussions. Australia is still struggling with how best to implement legislation on spam, but at this stage has no laws making spam illegal.

Fox GM Elysa Craddock sent an apology email to listeners for the original blunder and later another one criticising Nova, saying: “It seems that Nova has now seized the opportunity to knowingly and willingly invade your privacy with the use of spam.”

The text of the emails that came to radioinfo’s inbox tell the story best.

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FIRST EMAIL:


From – Fox

Dateline – Thursday, 1 May 2003 4:18 AM

Subject: Fox FM’s First Love Reunion


Contained all the email addresses (oops!)


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SECOND EMAIL:


From – Fox

Dateline – Thursday, 1 May 2003 7:46 PM

Subject: Fox Apology

Dear valued FOX FM listener,

We are very sorry to advise you that an unfortunate internal error has
resulted in an email has being sent to at least some of our subscribers
which details other subscribers’ email addresses.

In the first instance, we sincerely apologise for the mistake and for any
inconvenience or concern that it may have caused. As soon as we realised
what was happening – and it was genuinely the result of human error – we
acted immediately to stop more emails being sent and so to reduce the number
of recipients.

Further, we have also initiated new systems to ensure no recurrence.

As you can well understand, we are embarrassed by what has happened, not
least because we realise that your Right to Privacy is a serious issue.

We will understand if you would prefer to be removed from our database. You
may do so simply by clicking …..

If you would like to speak with someone, please do not hesitate to contact
Elysa Craddock or Scott McLaughlin …..

Once again, our sincere apologies for any inconvenience that this may have
caused you.

With sincere regards,

Elysa Craddock, GENERAL MANAGER

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THIRD EMAIL:


From – Nova

Dateline – Friday, 2 May 2003 12:54 PM

Subject: Nova 100

If you haven’t listened to Nova 100 for a while we wanted to invite you to
try us out and we’d love your feedback on how we’re doing! Here’s some of
the stuff happening on Nova 100.

Dave Hughes Kate Langbroek (from the Panel) and Dave O’Neil are on every
weekday morning from 6am -9am.

Ongoing debates at the moment include Hughseys decision to invite his
girlfriend Holly to move in with him live on the air (she said no!) and
Kates baby update (thank goodness she’s over the morning sickness!)…

Nova 100 plays as many Melbourne bands as we can and we’re lovin’ the great
new music around here’s some of the cool new stuff on Nova 100 this week:

Evanescence are a great new band from Arkansas this is their debut song
called ‘Bring me to life’ you’ll only hear it on Nova 100!

Christina Aguilera just gets better …

Nova 100’s playing heaps of cool new music and
of course all the big hits you love!

Let’s be honest. Who enjoys sitting through big long commercial breaks with
about 10 ads in a row? Here’s the Nova 100 guarantee. Never more than 2 ads
in a row. Ever. And that means way more music. After 9am whilst you’re
working Nova 100 plays 15 songs every single hour. Compare that to Fox FM
who are too busy playing big blocks of commercials to fit anywhere near that
many songs in.

But don’t take our word for it here’s the number of songs on Nova 100 and
Fox on thursday this week while you were at work;

Nova Songs Fox Songs
9am 15 9am 11
10am 14 10am 8
11am 15 11am 10
12noon 15 12noon 13
etc

From 9 to 6pm yesterday Nova played 131 songs Fox played 103 proof that less
ads means more music on Nova 100…

If you haven’t listened to Nova 100 for a while we’d appreciate your giving
us a shot and we’d love some feedback on whether you reckon we suck or we’re
doing alright; [email protected]

Thanks for reading have a terrific weekend!

Nova 100 team. (100.3 FM)

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FOURTH EMAIL:


From – Fox

Dateline – Tuesday, 6 May 2003 7:54 PM

Subject: Nova Spam

Dear valued FOX FM listener,

We are very sorry to advise that it has come to our attention that radio
station Nova 100 has been sending SPAM to some of you. We have received a
significant number of reports that recipients of Nova’s email have never
subscribed to a Nova database and that the newsletter specifically mentions
FOX FM as a competitor.

As previously mentioned FOX FM’s error was completely unintentional and we
used our best endeavours to rectify the situation immediately and to
minimise the number of listeners involved. It seems that Nova has now seized
the opportunity to knowingly and willingly invade your privacy with the use
of SPAM. You are, in accordance with the national Privacy Principles,
entitled to seek that Nova remove your details from their database
immediately. We are also doing everything within our power to prevent
further SPAM mail from Nova reaching you.

If you would like to address this matter further, please do not hesitate to
contact Elysa Craddock, General Manager …

We would like to take this opportunity to again apologise for any
inconvenience that this error on our part may have caused you.

With sincere regards,

Elysa Craddock
GENERAL MANAGER