Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[gatso]

Coke's advertising makes it taste better though.

how did pepsi ever get away with the pepsi challenge adverts? were they allowed to just pick the 10% of people who said it tasted better and show those while ignoring the others?

[The Camel]

Just out of interest...why is there such a logo arms race anyway?

Surely Stars and Tilt sticking logos from day 2 or 3 onwards onto all sort of players for thousands of dollars each cannot hope to earn them any sort of return?

Even if they stick their badges on 7 or 8 WSOP final tablers the watchers know that the players have just taken the wedge, its hardly a sign of massive player loyalty to their brand.

Is it merely just an alternative to paying for TV ad breaks?

I think I got a slightly better deal than some others, I talked directly with Stars, rather than going through an agent

I was told in 2006 I was Stars biggest raker in the UK.

That was pretty scary to find out.

Anyway, I had alot of chips and had proved my loyalty to the brand, they threw me a bone.

The simple fact that I was/am a huge payer of commision to Betfair made their attitude in dealing with negotiations with me all the more shocking imo.

[Bongo]

Coke's advertising makes it taste better though.

how did pepsi ever get away with the pepsi challenge adverts? were they allowed to just pick the 10% of people who said it tasted better and show those while ignoring the others?

Pepsi tastes better in blind taste tests.

Coke tastes better in non blind taste tests.

Some academics performed tests in brain scanners to find out why... turns out different areas of the brain are activated when you know what you're drinking and make Coke a more pleasurable experience - and that's down to their marketing.

[The Camel]

Coke's advertising makes it taste better though.

how did pepsi ever get away with the pepsi challenge adverts? were they allowed to just pick the 10% of people who said it tasted better and show those while ignoring the others?

Pepsi tastes better in blind taste tests.

Coke tastes better in non blind taste tests.

Some academics performed tests in brain scanners to find out why... turns out different areas of the brain are activated when you know what you're drinking and make Coke a more pleasurable experience - and that's down to their marketing.

I did the challenge at Waterloo station one day years ago.

I was in a really pissy mood and wanted to pick Coke just to annoy them.

I picked Pepsi and made my mood even pissier

[George2Loose]

Coke's advertising makes it taste better though.

how did pepsi ever get away with the pepsi challenge adverts? were they allowed to just pick the 10% of people who said it tasted better and show those while ignoring the others?

Pepsi tastes better in blind taste tests.

Coke tastes better in non blind taste tests.

Some academics performed tests in brain scanners to find out why... turns out different areas of the brain are activated when you know what you're drinking and make Coke a more pleasurable experience - and that's down to their marketing.

BS. Pepsi tastes like shit.

[kinboshi]

I watched a 'Pepsi Challenge' stall once to see if they tried to influence the outcome.  Of course they did!  The Coke was coming from 2 litre bottles that looked like they'd been sitting there for a while, whilst the Pepsi was coming out of a can. 

The best way to do a blind test, is to do it yourself at home.  Get someone to pour a can of each into identical glasses and mark the bases to indicate which is which.  That way you can make sure they have been stored in the same way, at the same temperature, etc.

I prefer Coke, as I find Pepsi tastes sweeter.  Saying that, I'm not really that fussed between the two, although it has to be full-fat and none of that diet nonsense.

[Jon MW]

Coke's advertising makes it taste better though.

how did pepsi ever get away with the pepsi challenge adverts? were they allowed to just pick the 10% of people who said it tasted better and show those while ignoring the others?

Pepsi tastes better in blind taste tests.

Coke tastes better in non blind taste tests.

Some academics performed tests in brain scanners to find out why... turns out different areas of the brain are activated when you know what you're drinking and make Coke a more pleasurable experience - and that's down to their marketing.

BS. Pepsi tastes like shit.

I don't expect the academic tests were that much more statistically relevant than the advertising ones; I suspect what they found was that conclusion was what was true for the very small sample size they tested on. I'd be surprised if they even got close to a statistically relevant sample size.

My school used to do a blind pepsi challenge* every year in Science, that's the kind of progressive teaching methods the government should be looking at now imo



*FWIW coke won every year by a landslide

[Bongo]

This article has a neat summary of it:
http://community.microsoftadvertising.com/Blogs/Advertising/archive/2009/07/15/branding-it-s-all-in-your-head.aspx

The interesting part was this:

Tasting the drinks triggered one part of the brain (yeah, I know you're curious, it was the ventromedial prefrontal cortex - VMPFC - of course). But if people saw the brand before the drink there was another part of the brain stimulated (naturally the dorsolateral aspect of the prefrontal cortex or DLPFC). So tasting some sugar water fires up the VMPFC, seeing a brand engages the DLPFC. Are you with me?

Which is that the brand affected the enjoyment of the product.

[tikay]

The WSOP/Logo Debate, insofar as Sky Poker are concerned.

Great debate, & some of it is quite awkward to explain, but I'll do my best.

It breaks into 3 parts.

The Licence Agreement betwen Sky Poker & Ceasars Entertainmnent, aka Harrahs/WSOP.

The agreement between Sky Poker & the players who qualify.

The legality of promoting overseas gaming from the UK.

Bit busy today, but I'll get it moving with the License Agreement, which is quite interesting in itself.

Big thanks also to Dave Shoelace, who Linked to this debate on a tweet this morning.

[Dingdell]

I watched a 'Pepsi Challenge' stall once to see if they tried to influence the outcome.  Of course they did!  The Coke was coming from 2 litre bottles that looked like they'd been sitting there for a while, whilst the Pepsi was coming out of a can. 

The best way to do a blind test, is to do it yourself at home.  Get someone to pour a can of each into identical glasses and mark the bases to indicate which is which.  That way you can make sure they have been stored in the same way, at the same temperature, etc.

I prefer Coke, as I find Pepsi tastes sweeter.  Saying that, I'm not really that fussed between the two, although it has to be full-fat and none of that diet nonsense.

According to a piece in one of Malcolm Gladwells books the results change in Cokes favour if the person drinks a whole can - with Pepsi being sweeter it did well in sipping tests as people appreciated the sweetness but in larger amounts coke won more taste tests because it wasn't as sweet.

[tikay]

The right of an Online Poker Room to buy blocks of players in direct to the WSOP via wire-transfer, & to use the official "WSOP CHIP" logo,  requires a licence from Ceasars Entertainment, let's call them "CE" for the sake of this debate.

They impose incredibly strict requirements to be satisfied.

Last year, for example, they refused a licence to DTD, on the grounds that they had a B & M Gaming establishment within 75 miles of a UK owned subsidiary of Harrahs. All LCI UK venues are owned by CE, & there cannot therefore be many UK Casinos which are NOT within 75 miles of a CE-owned property. Sky Poker, of course, do not own or operate any B & M gaming rooms in the UK.

When we applied for the license this year, they asked what domains we operated in, & we sent them the list, which they approved. They are....

United Kingdom
Ireland
Bulgaria
Cyprus
Denmark
Finland
Gibraltar
Greece
Poland
Spain
Sweden

That was accepted. They specifically insisted we could NOT have a licence if we operated in Italy, or France. It seems they have agreed "exclusive partner" deals with "Peoples Poker" in Italy, & "Barriere Poker" in France.

So, that's the easy bit. I have no idea how UK-based B & M rooms get round that, & plenty do, but it matters not, I suppose. Sky being Sky, it has to be seen to be squeaky clean.

I don't have a clue (nor care really) how the big Online rooms get round it, though.

So, in theory, we can now offer packages to play the 2011 WSOP. Sort of........(more to follow)

[Simon Galloway]

I don't think the big 2 do get around it do they?  They just ship you the $$ and leave it with you  I believe.

[George2Loose]

I don't think the big 2 do get around it do they?  They just ship you the $$ and leave it with you  I believe.

yup and offer you a shedload of incentives to play instead of taking the $$$

[MANTIS01]

I watched a 'Pepsi Challenge' stall once to see if they tried to influence the outcome.  Of course they did!  The Coke was coming from 2 litre bottles that looked like they'd been sitting there for a while, whilst the Pepsi was coming out of a can. 

The best way to do a blind test, is to do it yourself at home.  Get someone to pour a can of each into identical glasses and mark the bases to indicate which is which.  That way you can make sure they have been stored in the same way, at the same temperature, etc.

I prefer Coke, as I find Pepsi tastes sweeter.  Saying that, I'm not really that fussed between the two, although it has to be full-fat and none of that diet nonsense.

According to a piece in one of Malcolm Gladwells books the results change in Cokes favour if the person drinks a whole can - with Pepsi being sweeter it did well in sipping tests as people appreciated the sweetness but in larger amounts coke won more taste tests because it wasn't as sweet.

Yeah that's spot on babe. Pepsi does better in taste tests because it is sweeter. Coke actually made their drink even sweeter to combat this and perform better but that turned people off when they drank a whole can. So they changed the recipe back and now it's called Coke Classic in the States.

[George2Loose]

I watched a 'Pepsi Challenge' stall once to see if they tried to influence the outcome.  Of course they did!  The Coke was coming from 2 litre bottles that looked like they'd been sitting there for a while, whilst the Pepsi was coming out of a can. 

The best way to do a blind test, is to do it yourself at home.  Get someone to pour a can of each into identical glasses and mark the bases to indicate which is which.  That way you can make sure they have been stored in the same way, at the same temperature, etc.

I prefer Coke, as I find Pepsi tastes sweeter.  Saying that, I'm not really that fussed between the two, although it has to be full-fat and none of that diet nonsense.

That spot on "babe"?

According to a piece in one of Malcolm Gladwells books the results change in Cokes favour if the person drinks a whole can - with Pepsi being sweeter it did well in sipping tests as people appreciated the sweetness but in larger amounts coke won more taste tests because it wasn't as sweet.

Yeah that's spot on babe. Pepsi does better in taste tests because it is sweeter. Coke actually made their drink even sweeter to combat this and perform better but that turned people off when they drank a whole can. So they changed the recipe back and now it's called Coke Classic in the States.